Pastor Joby Martin Preaches the GOSPEL to Inmates

Anybody a rebel, I got good news. You can't outrun the grace of Jesus. The gospel is for you too. And I got good news. If you fall into every one category, then the gospel is for you. So whether you're a rebel or you're religious, the good news is that we all get in the same way. We all get in by the finished work of Christ. If you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do, we're going to be in Romans chapter 3. If we have never met, my name is Joby Martin. I'm pastor of the Church of 1122 in Jacksonville, Florida. If you could tune in on the Bando app, we'd love for you to do that. If you're interested, just have the Bible taught in a way that regular people like me and you can understand it. Love for you to tune in. And God's been really good to me. But I'm here to tell you, I'm just a nobody willing to tell anybody about there's somebody that wants to save everybody. Amen. So what I want to do my best to do today, how many of you were here yesterday? A bunch of you were? OK, man, Pastor Matt Chandler is one of my favorite creatures on the planet. And he talked about what it means to be redeemed. What I want to do is to show you in the scriptures

how that happens. Because if you're new to this whole Jesus thing, there's a lot of words that get thrown around, a lot of Bible words. They're very important, like righteousness, redemption, or propitiation, justification, and these kind of things. I want to show you in the scriptures how God saves us. Like when Jesus died on the cross, what happened? It's not enough to just know that for God so loved you that he sent his only begotten son, and when Jesus died on the cross, whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Now, you don't have to be able to explain it all, but it's helpful to understand what Christ did at the cross. Romans chapter 3, according to Martin Luther, he says it's the most important paragraph in all of the Bible. He says all of the Bible hinges on this one paragraph. And so the first two chapters of the book of Romans, the apostle Paul is essentially saying to the church at Rome, hey, I'm Paul, and I want to explain to you the gospel. And he says the gospel is both for the religious and the irreligious. Anybody grow up in church, you need the gospel because good people don't go to heaven. Forgiving people do. Anybody a rebel, well, I got good news. You can't outrun the grace of Jesus. The gospel is for you, too. And so the first two chapters,

he just walks through what the gospel is. In chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, this is like his thesis statement for all of the book of Romans. He says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And I got good news. If you fall into every one category, then the gospel is for you. And he's going to spend a whole lot of time saying, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, whether you're a religious person or an irreligious person, we all come to Christ through this good news of the gospel. In verse 17, he says, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. Here's what this means. When Paul talks about righteousness in Romans, he uses it all throughout the book of Romans. He's not talking about right activity. He's not saying, if I do good, I can stand before a good God. He's talking about a right standing before God. And he says, for in the gospel, this right standing of God is revealed not by how good you are, but revealed from faith for faith. So whether you're a rebel or you're religious, the good news is that we all get in the same way. We all get in by the finished work of Christ. So we'll pick it up in verse 9. Romans chapter 3, verse 9.

Paul begins to explain this. Now, as I read it, if you think, well, this is a little tough to understand, I've got good news. When Peter writes his epistle, he says he has a hard time understanding Paul. So I'm going to try to put this thing on the bottom shelf so that normal people like me can understand it. He says this. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. Here's what he's saying. He's not talking about just Jewish people versus Gentile people. He's saying, OK, are religious people, do they have a head start on people that didn't grow up in Christ? church? Absolutely not. You see, I grew up in the South. You can probably tell by the way I talk. So before I got saved, I thought I was a Christian because I was Southern. And I believed in God like I believe in Santa Claus, the Second Amendment, and SEC football, you know what I mean? I thought it was just kind of all one thing. And the reality is that going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore and put your hand in the oven makes you a biscuit. That's not how it works. It is not from the outside in, it's from the inside out. The gospel lets us know that God did not come to save and make bad people good. He came to make spiritually dead people alive. So he says, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks are under sin. That every single one of us are crooked and depraved, wretched, black hearted sinners. Now you young guys in here, you're probably like, hey, wait a minute, pastor. But my kindergarten teacher told me that I was a snowflake and I was a rainbow and I was a Skittle. Look here, Skittle, your kindergarten teacher lied to you. Every single one of us by nature and nurture are crooked and depraved, wretched, black hearted sinners. Anybody got a kid?

Did you have to teach your child to sin? Did you have to teach them to lie? Did you have to? No, no, no. It's in there, right? I mean, every single one of us are born like the seagulls in Nemo, just crying mine, mine, mine, mine. Why? Because we are at the center of our own universe and we are under sin. It's like, if you opened up your spiritual passport, you've only got one of two options. You either in sin or you were in Christ. And it is our nature. That's just, that's how we come out of the womb. Every single one of us, we inherited that sin nature from Adam. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they didn't merely choose the wrong fruit. They chose the wrong king. And then we inherited this. This is what, this is what Paul is telling us for we have already charged that all, every single one of us are under sin. Verse 10. Then he says, as it is written, then what Paul is going to do is he's going to quote Psalm 141, one to three, Psalm 145 through nine, Psalm 140 verse three, Psalm 10 verse seven. He's going to hop over to Isaiah 59, seven and eight. And then he's going to go back to Psalm 36. And what he's doing here is he's giving the diagnosis. Is that because he's mean? It's because he loves us enough. Can you imagine if you broke your arm and you went to the orthopedic doctor and he began to reach for your arm, which arm is he going to reach for? He's going to reach for the broken one. And if you were saying, Whoa, Dr. Evan hurts work on this good arm. He would not be a good doctor. Because what a good position does is he puts his hand on that place that causes pain so that he can fix it. So listen, man, I ain't mad at you. I love you. That's the only reason I'm here. It's because I want you to hear what Christ can do for you because he did the same thing for me. And so here is the diagnosis. He says, none is righteous. No, not one that every single one of us reject God. Now, the crazy thing is some of us reject God by rebellions that forget you, God, I do what I want with who I want, when I want, just like Adam and Eve, when they eat of the forbidden fruit, they say, I don't care what you said, I'm going to do what I want. That's mostly what we think about when we think about rejecting God. The crazy thing is some people were in check, not with religion. That's what Adam and Eve did when they sin, they didn't run to him. They ran from him. And by the works of their own hands, they tried to make a covering for their sin and shame. That's called religion. Some people say, forget you, God, I don't need you. I don't need to repent. I got this. Listen, brothers, the three most dangerous words a grown man can say is I got this because the beginning of the gospel is you ain't got this. None is righteous. You're like, not even me? No, not one. And then he keeps going and keeps going. No one understands.

No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That is you and me. Every single one of us are sinners before God. They say, not me, I'm pretty good. Compared to who? I'm sure compared to your cellmate, you're an angel. But compared to the whole almighty, holy, righteous God, every single one of us has fallen short. I mean, think about this for a second. We know the Ten Commandments. Many of you know the Ten Commandments. Did you know there's 613 laws of the Old Covenant? And we break them all, man. I mean, we can run through the Ten Commandments. There's only one God. You ever treat you like you're the most important thing in the world? The second one is cut out the idol. Did you ever treat something temporary like it's eternal? The third one is don't use the Lord's name in vain. Ever done that? The fourth one is remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Anybody? The fifth one is honor your father and mother. You ever been a teenager? Sinner? The sixth one is thou shalt not murder.

Now, usually I'm in a different crowd. So some of you are like, well, okay, I did that one too. In my crowd that I normally speak to, that's when the church people use them. I ain't never killed anybody. Jesus comes along and says, you have heard that it was said thou shalt not murder, but if you've ever been angry against your brother, you've committed murder. Anybody ever been angry with their brother? The seventh one is thou shalt not commit adultery. Somebody might be like, well, you know what? I've never cheated on my wife. But Jesus comes along and says, if you've ever lusted after a woman. Anybody? How you doing so far? We're 0 for seven. Done. The next one says thou shalt not steal. You ever take something that don't belong to you? The next one says thou shalt not lie. You ever lie? Some people say like, no, man, I don't lie. No, the problem is not that you lie. The problem is that you were a liar. Have you been online lately and ever clicked something that says I have read the terms and conditions and click the box? Liar, you don't read this stuff.

The 10th one is thou shalt not covet. If you've ever looked at somebody else's stuff and you thought it belonged to you, that it's actually an affront against the almighty God. You're like, God, you didn't get this right. See, we have a tendency to compare ourselves to others instead of the holy, just God. How about this? Forgive the law of God for a second. We can't keep our own commandments. You ever made a promise to God that you were never gonna do that thing? What if the only thing that you ever did or what if the only thing God held you accountable to were the promises that you made? See, nobody lies to us more than us. Nobody lets us down more than us. Nobody breaks the laws that we create for ourselves more than us. That is the spiritual condition of every single one of us. Paul goes on to say in verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says and the law, what he's talking about is he's talking about the scriptures. And here's the problem. Too many of us use the scriptures like binoculars. You know what I mean? We look at everybody else, and we're like, oh, look at those sinners. But what we need to use it as is a map.

Like, oh, I see one. That's me. We use it as a map and a mirror. It's a map to show us how to rightly live with a righteous God, but it's also a mirror to show us every place that we are wrong. And the reason that God gave us the law of God is because he is a holy and just God. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. Do you know how you know that you've broken the law? Because there's a law. Like when you pull out on the road, there's a speed limit. It doesn't just say drive safe. Because what would that mean? Some of you lunatics go 125 miles an hour. And some people always in front of me in the fast lane go 25 miles an hour. So the way that you know you've broken the speed limit is there is a law. If you've ever been pulled over for speeding and the cop pulls up and he goes, do you know how fast you're going? Like, no, no, the real question is, do you know how fast I was going? And the way that you know that you've broken the law

is because there has been one established. And then verse 20 says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sights. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. That the point of the law of God is not to save you. The point of the law of God is that you and I would realize that we need a savior. That's the point. The gospel is not God is good, you're bad. Try harder, see you next week. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus begins his teaching ministry with the sermon on the mountain. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit. That means blessed are you when you realize that you're spiritually bankrupt, that you can't do this on your own. Blessed, congratulations when you get to the place where you realize I need somebody to do for me what I cannot do for myself. Jesus says, congratulations. The kingdom of heaven is. at hand. Do you know what you need to be saved? Need. And when your need exceeds your ego, you will bend your knee to Jesus. Amen. And so he says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified. Here's what this means, man. That in the gospel, the verdict comes before the performance. Like good people don't go to heaven. Do you realize that? Because if good people go to heaven, how good? If good people go to heaven, don't you think God owes us a grading scale? Like, what is it? You got to do 51% good to make it in? Well, when I was in school, if you made a 51 on your math test, you failed.

And if good people go to heaven, then don't you think God owes you a progress report? Like, just think about it. I mean, I'm looking around some of you old heads. Some of you might not have enough time left in the semester to make up for previous work. You understand what I'm saying? I mean, I remember being in high school, going into chemistry on that last exam, thinking, oh, crap, I need a 208 on this thing to pass. Well, what am I going to do? For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The knowledge of sin is just the x-ray. My son, JP, played football in high school, played pre-secondary. We're playing this game against our rival. They toss it to their running back who's playing in the SEC now. JP runs the alley, blows him up. We end up winning the game. But when he came out, his shoulder was like this. Like, oh, no. So I take him to the orthopedic. They do an MRI of his shoulder. And he's got some torn stuff in his shoulder. Now, do you think that that was the diagnosis? Do you think the cure was just keep doing more MRIs? Because does the MRI have any ability to fix the shoulder? No. All it can do is tell you there's a problem. The law does not have the ability to fix you. It only has the ability to tell you that something's broken. This is what Paul says. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So, so far, this is what Paul has let us know. Every single one of us are sinners. The God's demand is the perfect righteous law. And none of us can do it. And even if we did it from this day forward, what are we going to do to make up for the sins of our past? It looks like we are hopeless. And then in verse 21, Paul says, but for you 90s kids, I like big butts and I cannot lie. Big butts like this that begin to change everything. Amen. Because apart from Christ, we are hopeless. But Paul says this, if you've got any hair left, this ought to blow your hair back. Ready? But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to. Listen, man, if you knew the scriptures, you'd be turning car wheels right now. It's not about how good we are, but now the right standing before God, the way that you and I can be made right before God. You see, every religion agrees on this, that God is there and we are here and every other religion, the big famous ones and the little crazy ones. They all say that our job is to do something. A lot of our shockers, basic Mecca, obey the five pillars, whatever it is that we have to do something to get from here to there. But the good news of the gospel is unique. It's different. It's like, no, no, no. God came here to do for me

when I could not do on my own to take me from here to there. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, but that doesn't mean we throw away that Old Testament. No, no, no, no. For all of the law and prophets bear witness to. Listen, man, God is for you. It's just not all about you. And everything in that Old Testament is Christ revealed. Everything is pointing to the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. I mean, when Moses takes the people out of Israel, that's actually a foreshadowing. Like when they shed the blood of the lamb and they put it on the door post of the house so that the angel of death would pass over whoever had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house. It was just a foreshadowing that Jesus would be the lamb that was slain and that whoever would put their faith in him, that the angel of death would pass over us. It's what the entire sacrificial system was about. I'm sure you all read Leviticus 16 this morning in your quiet time, where it establishes the sacrificial system that on the day of atonement, that the high priest would consecrate himself. He would take a goat and he would shed the blood of this goat and he would take it into the Holy of Holies. He's where the presence of God was and he would sprinkle the blood of the lamb over the Ark of the Covenant that held broken Promises the broken commandments of God all of that was pointing to not another lamb What was pointing to Jesus the Lamb of God that would come to take away the sin of the entire world the major? prophets talked about it like Isaiah 900 years before Jesus shows up on the scene to be crucified Isaiah would say things like he was pierced for our transgressions He was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds weird The minor prophets talked about it Malachi the last prophet in our Old Testament the way he ends the whole thing is He says in one day Elijah is going to show up on the scene He's going to turn the hearts of children to their fathers and fathers to their children and then the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings Then if you turn the page in your Bible, there's a blank page there. It's 400 years of silence And everybody's looking for the son of righteousness who will come with healing in his wings Then if you skip over to the book of Luke Luke says there was a man born in John the baptizer Jesus's cousin and he says he was born in the spirit of Elijah This Malachi said there's gonna be Elijah and then the Lord Elijah then the Lord and here comes John the baptizer

Born in the spirit of Elijah and he turns the hearts of children to their fathers and fathers to their children And he's standing out there in the Jordan River one day Baptizing people with a very short message. Yeah, Elijah was weird, dude, man grew up in the woods probably bald beard with awesome saying repent Prepare yourself for the Lord Then one day his cousin Jesus In his culture nobody even knew who he was And John the baptizer makes this announcement behold, please pay attention the Lamb of God Who's come to take away the sin of the entire world? You gotta you gotta understand how that Jewish audience woman would have heard that you mean not another Lamb of God That's gonna cover over the sin of the Jewish people until next year. He's going no. No, no, here he is The one that has been promised and prophesied to do for us what we cannot do for ourself And so this righteousness had been manifested apart from the law, although the whole Bible has been talking about this Then he goes on in verse 22. He says the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe This is the whole Bible in one sense The righteousness of God how in the world do we get a right standing before God? Well, it's through faith in Jesus Christ for all who would believe Yeah, but what if you're really bad cool believe what if you think you're really good me believe But because it's not our activity that determines our position before God. It's what Christ did in this word believe It's really dangerous in Texas There's a bunch of you're like, well, I believe I Believe that God sent his son Jesus, but there's a big difference between believing in and believing that no To believe it the Greek word here is pastewa It means like to trust to believe in to commit your whole life in So when I was a little kid, I grew up in a little country town and called Dillon, South Carolina All right in that girl country All right good. So you don't know what I'm talking about

We had a we had a we had a community pool in the city And so we would go there and we didn't do swimming lessons I'm Jeanette. We didn't have swimming lessons only rich preppy kids at swimming lessons We were just thrown in the pool in the strong survive. That's why my generation is tough You don't say who wears a helmet on a bicycle, you know what I mean? So what might I did not know how to swim and My daddy would get in the deep end of the pool and he would tell me you don't get on the diving board and you Jump out here to me So I last a little six-year-old five-year-old I go walking out to the edge of the diving board and There's my dad in the water and he's going come on, buddy. Jump Now in that moment, I believe that that's my dad He had like this Magnum PI haircut with a mustache. He had a Marlboro like hanging out of his lip While he's swimming didn't even have to use his hands man. Come on, buddy And I recognize I rode there with him, I know that's my dad but in that moment I have not put my faith in my dad. I still have my faith in me because I'm standing on the diving board And so what it means to believe in Because I know if I take a step off this board If he doesn't catch me, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna drown because I don't know how to spit but I believe Then he that's my dad and I believe he's gonna keep his promise Even the demons believe But they never trusted Christ with their existence There may be some of you here right now and you believe that there's a God you believe that Jesus came and died and rose Again, cool, but you've never put your faith in him for your salvation For the right standing the righteousness of God through faith belief trust in Jesus Christ for all the believe I got some really good news, man all means all No matter who you are what you've done first 23 He says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

That means we're all the same. I love this because I like the both on a lot. This is actually an archery turn Falling short means to miss the mark So God's standard is perfection Imagine if you were in an archery contest and you missed the bullseye on number one and it required three bullseyes To move on to the next round. Guess what? You don't get to move on and if you're like, yeah But I can make a hundred in a row It doesn't matter because we have already missed the mark and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God verse 24 and are Justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let me explain What it means to be justified It means that for anybody that would believe that would trust That when Jesus Christ pushed up on his nail-pierced feet and said it is finished that somehow that counted for me The the word that he said Originally was to tell us stop. I wrote it on my arm to tell us stop It literally means paid in full And when you believe that he pays your full sin debt my full sin debt and to be justified It's a legal term. It means even though we're guilty Jesus has paid the penalty. Therefore we get the sentence of innocence a Great way to remember is from God's perspective through the blood of Christ when we believe in Jesus It's just as if I've never said in my entire life Second Corinthians 521 will say it this way and God made him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God The regardless of what your record is the moment you put your faith in Jesus when God sees you he sees the record of his son That's what happens He says and we are justified by his grace Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don't deserve And there's more grace in Jesus than sin in you Some of you like yeah, but you don't know what I've done. I probably do

But I would lovingly say who the heck do you think you are? Then you don't know what Christ did for you on the cross Because his arms are farther reaching than you could ever run No matter what and we receive this as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus this word redemption Here's what this means You ever use a coupon? When you were when you we even call it redeem a coupon. It's a picture of the gospel So like I've said on my couch in my house, I go check the mailbox and boom. I got a coupon I didn't sign up for it. They just gave me this coupon and I pull this thing out and it says free ham That's why I go to the grocery store I go to the back I give me a ham and I walk up to the 10 items from last time You ever do this and then what do you do? You begin to count the items of the people in front of you to make sure everybody alive And then when it's my turn to get up there a little person up there goes that'll be $28 I think Maybe for you regular people, but I got a coupon. It's don't says free ham And then what happens man, I give her the coupon she gives me the ham I Redeemed the coupon and I get this free gift. Now. What did it cost me? nothing But what did it cost the manufacturer? They paid for it cost a pig's life. That'll preach but there is this exchange. There is no free gift Like if I let you borrow my truck that ain't ever happened But just pretend I let you borrow my truck and you wrecked my truck and you brought it back to me and said I'm sorry And I said, but you know what? Don't worry about it. I forgive you. Did that fix my truck? No, I have to go pay for my truck to be fixed Even though you receive the free gift of grace of forgiveness. That is what Christ offers to us You say okay That sounds like a good deal. Oh, it's the best deal you've ever heard of he goes on He says whom God put forward as a propitiation By his blood to be received by faith I'm gonna teach you words say propitiation

One more time propitiation Spanish speaking guys, you can say it too Propitiation. Learn this word, propitiation. It means a payment that satisfies. I do. A payment that satisfies. Here's what this means. When Jesus Christ goes to the cross, you and I have earned a debt, a sin debt, that we cannot pay. The overall commandment of God is be perfect as I am perfect. Am I perfect? Me neither. So how in the world do I stand before an almighty and holy and just God? Well, he sent his son Jesus as the payment that satisfies the law of God, the justice of God, the righteousness of God. Sometimes people will ask me, like, OK, why doesn't God just forgive everybody? I mean, I forgive people all the time. I'm like, yeah, you forgive because you are not a holy and just God. And because God is holy and because God is just, all sin must be paid for. For God to overlook sin would make him an unjust judge. And God cannot act outside of his character and his integrity and his nature. Think about this. Who's the person you love the most?

Anybody got kids? Well, imagine somebody did to your child whatever the worst thing you can imagine is. And then imagine they get caught rand handing. They confess. And you take that man before the judge and the judge says, you know what? Nobody's perfect. Don't worry about it. Every single one of us would say, you are an unjust judge and you were unfit to sit behind that vase. Get out of here. So because God is just, all sin must be paid for. And so he sends his son Jesus Christ to make the payment that satisfies the law of God, the justice of God, the holiness of God. Now, let me tell you why this is a big deal for you and me. Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. The moment you put your faith in Jesus, the payment that satisfies, this will change your life if you believe this. This means now that God cannot be dissatisfied in you because the payment has been paid. Because being dissatisfied in somebody, we're surprised by their behavior. We had an expectation and then we didn't experience that. God has never been surprised by you, bro. It's not like he sat up in heaven this morning and said, what in the name of me is he doing now?

No, no, no, no, no. He knew every sin every single one of us have committed. And Jesus fully knew us, fully loved us, and paid the price in full at the cross. We're stealing into the gospel of Jesus. I didn't even know it. I didn't even know it. And so at the cross, I mean, half of you got crosses on your neck or crosses tattooed on your body. The cross itself is a picture of the love of God and the justice of God intersecting in the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That God was pleased to pour out his judgment on sin. You think about the vertical cross, the vertical beam of the cross, that God was pleased to crush his own son to pay for our sin there. And yet the horizontal crosses, Jesus' arms were wide open because of the Father's great love for us, that he would lavish his love upon us, that we would be called children of God. This is what he's talking about. And then he closes this way. It's kind of complicated. He says this, talking about what Christ did for us at the cross. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. And it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that we might

be the just and the justified. Let me explain. Because of God's justice, all sin must be paid for because God is a just God. But because of God's mercy, he delayed the payment. Anybody ever sin? Then how come we ain't dead? Because the Bible says the wages of sin is death. It's because he delayed that payment so that you and I could be here together to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then the best part of all, because of his grace, he made the payment on our behalf, that Christ is the just and the justified. And it says, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier to the one who has faith in Jesus. Have you ever put your faith in Jesus to be the propitiation for your sin, the payment that you cannot make over? I'm going to explain it this way. And I use this illustration simply to illustrate, I'm not trying to entertain you. I just wanna give you a real life illustration of what this looks like. So, my wife and I are big Georgia Bulldog fans, okay? Go Dawgs. Woo! That's all right, my Bible's written in red and black, so that's fine, all right?

Go Dawgs. And so we wanted to get an English Bulldog like logo, but we couldn't afford it, because they're real proud of them. So we got boxers, because they kind of look like an English Bull, but they're about a third of the price. And so we go out and we get this dog named Samson, and he's awesome, man. He's like super jack, big old jaw, drool, and he was perfect, man, he was so good. He was obedient, I'd take him to work with me, everything was great. And then, eventually, we thought, well, you know what, it's not good for Samson to be alone, so we had to get him a little mate. So we got him a female dog named Sadie, and then once she entered the picture, it all went to hell. That's what happened, okay? Very Genesis 3, that's a different story. So, and we loved our Dawgs. We were like crazy Dawg people. We let them sleep in our bed, and we'd give them toys for Christmas, and we loved them, man, they were awesome. And then some really sweet people from our church were like, hey man, you're kind of into Dawgs too much, and we were like, no, they're like our kids, and they're like, well, when you have kids,

they're just gonna be Dawgs, not us. Then we had kids, and we moved them out to the backyard, because that became an aggravation. But when we moved into the backyard, we lived on a very busy street, so we put a fence, we fenced in our backyard, and the reason that we fenced in the backyard is not because we hate our Dawgs, it's because we love our Dawgs. Because we're their master, and we love them, and if we just let them run, they'd run out on the busy road and get run over, so the fence, they thought it was punishment, but it was actually provision and protection. And so one day, we'd have this girl come over and watch our kids and watch the Dawgs and stuff, and I was at work, and one day she called me, she said, like, Pastor Joby, I haven't seen the Dawgs for several hours. And I'm like, oh man, so I gotta leave work, I gotta come home. I walk out in the backyard, and sure enough, the gate had just been left open just a little bit. And I know exactly what happened. I know Sadie, the female, she found that little open gate, she had noticed it open, and she said, come on, Samson, it's time. And Samson was like, no, Sadie, no, Sadie. The master has given us this fence for provision and protection.

And she's like, you do you, boo, but I'm gone. And like every dude I know, he went chasing tail and went right after her out to the neighborhood. And they went running out, and I'm telling you, here's the thing, here's the thing. Freedom always feels like fun at first. But when you get out from under the master, it can only lead to bondage or death. And I bet they went out, man, and I bet they peed on whatever they wanted to pee on. And they pooped everywhere, and they're like, ain't even nobody gonna pick it up. And we got some geese that hang out, and I bet they gave it a run. And I'm telling you, I bet one of them painted their face blue like Braveheart and said, freedom! Yeah! And they're running and running and doing whatever they do. Well, I get home, but they're not there, and so I got to do what every dog owner that's ever lost their dog does in a neighborhood. My dogs love to get out, but you know what they love more? They love cheese. So I get in my truck, I roll out the windows, and I got me a little Kraft Seagull hanging out the window. Going, Sadie, Sam said I got some cheese. And then I bump into my neighbors, and they say the dumbest thing. They're like, did you lose your dog? Nah, Grandma and Grandpa got out,

but they love to gum down some cheese. Of course I lost my dog, you idiot. This is why the Bible says love your neighbors, because they're idiots. So now I got the whole neighborhood looking for my dogs. And so I pull out of the neighborhood, and there's this little person that sits up at the front desk there, and she says about two hours ago, I saw two brown dogs leave the neighborhood and take a left and go towards that busy highway. And what with them, when I catch these dogs, I'm gonna kill them to a whole none. I mean, I'm gonna have to lie to my kids, tell them they went to a happy place. I don't know what I'm gonna tell them. And so as I go out to the highway to look for them, my wife calls me. She's like, I found them. I said, great, where are they? She said, they're on the internet. What? How'd they get? They started like a GoFundMe page. What are they doing? How are they on the internet? Well, turns out somebody found my dogs, and they called the animal control, and they put them in the pound downtown. And then what the pound will do is they'll take pictures

of the dogs and put them on the internet for people like me so we can find the dogs and come get them. So I gotta go downtown. I never go to downtown Jacksonville except to go to the Jags games, okay? So I finally drive down there, it's this huge building, and I walk in the door, and there's this little, it's not a little girl, she's a grown woman, but it's this little girl at the desk. And she treats me like I am evil incarnate. She's Superman, because they don't have tags, and they're not up to date with their shots, and Samson the boy dog wasn't fixed. Because I was just trying to hold out for my boy, you know what I'm saying? And so, she's ticked. And I was like, I think you got my dogs, I saw them on the internet. She's like, all right, well, we gotta go identify them. So we walk around the desk and we walk down this lane and there's all these cages with all these little different dogs in it right and as we walk down the aisle the the dogs are just jumping up and down like pick me pick me we get to the very last cage and there's Sadie and Sansa and Sadie the girl she doesn't even realize anything went wrong she's just shaking she's like where have you been we've been looking for you all day you know she's punk seems to do man he looked at me one time he walked around sat down he's like my bad dog okay so I say to the lady okay these are my dogs what do I do and she says it'll be two hundred and ninety dollars per dog to get them out I thought crap I mean that's almost 600 bucks man I didn't know that dogs accrued value and I didn't pay that much for them to begin with what am I gonna do now here's the thing

man my dogs had accrued a debt that they can't pay I mean what if I looked at the dogs and I said all right boys and girls let me tell you I'm gonna get you out of this but you owe me $600 I mean you better raise a greyhound or deliver a paper or save Timmy for my whale I don't know how you're gonna do this but you need to pay me back and even if the dogs made a promise we promised from this day forward we'll do everything right you know we'll bring you your slippers we'll teach the kids math we'll do every will be the perfect dogs from this day forward that still does nothing to pay for the debt that they have incurred so they take me back to the desk and I go okay I just need to ask you a question so what happens if I don't have 600 bucks to pay for these two dogs what happens do you kill it she's like nah what we do is we'll bathe them we'll clip the toenails and put this little lojack system in them so we can find them if they ever get lost again we'll fix the mail and then we'll adopt them out and I said well how might I have 600 bucks and and she looked at me like I was the worst person about it and so I stepped back from the desk trying to figure out what to do and I look over my left shoulder and above the door there's this huge poster he said adopt a dog today for $30 I said all right I can't do it I'm gonna I'm gonna relinquish ownership of my dogs she's like are you serious I'm kind of serious so she hands me this paper and I sign a bunch of stuff and then she notarizes for the state floor and then I take the papers I think about three steps this way come back though I'd like to adopt two dogs please like a male and a female something that are brown we've already picked out names Sadie and Samson if you got those two and she says well you can't adopt your own dogs I say that's funny I don't have dogs in fact I've got a notarized piece of paper here for the state of Florida that I don't own dogs and you own dogs and so she scoops up her stuff mad at me she goes in this little office I can see him talking it's kind of like that office and it's like the director of Southern Aries and then he comes back and he slams this thing down because I have found a loophole in the system and I fill out an application and give them $60 and legally adopt Sadie and Samson

back into the Martin family and it is legal to find them that's Romans chapter 3 that's the gospel Paul uses all of these big words but that's what he's talking about then every single one of us have rejected God and what we thought was freedom felt like fun at first but it always leads to death of our soul in a bondage to ourselves and Jesus came to rescue and redeem and it wasn't a loophole and he didn't he didn't get a discount that he came and paid the full price to purchase you and not just save you from hell but to adopt you into his own family for anyone who would believe in Christ trust in Christ but their faith in Christ that's what I want for this and I know life ain't going the way some of you dreamed it would go but my personal testimony is that God can take the biggest messes of our life for us to hear the gospel message of Jesus I don't share this a lot with a lot of people because it's not super honoring with my parents and Bible says honor your father and mother but when I heard the gospel for the first time it's because I'd just gotten arrested. My parents were splitting up and the dude that my mom was with, not my dad, I knocked him out and took his car and they arrested me for assault and battery and grand theft auto. My seventh. And by the grace of God, my football coach, when he was an All-American back in high school, the guy that was the current judge, looks like a watermelon, and he went to it and said, if you'll give it to me, I'll take it to camp. So instead of doing the jumpsuit thing on the side of the road, I'll work it to death at camp. So I show up to this Bible camp thinking I might be a Christian because I'm Southern, or there's no chance for me because I've been in so much trouble. And on that night, the counselors at the camp reenacting the crucifixion of Christ. Pilate looked at the crowd and said, what shall I do with this man named Jesus? That's the most important question you'll ever deal with in your entire life. Your answer to that question determines your eternal destiny. And then they reenacted Jesus being whipped and flogged. They reenacted him being nailed to the cross and he pushed up on his nail pierced feet and said, it is finished. And then that coach stood up in front of us and he quoted a version of John 3, 16. He said, for God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son and whosoever would believe many of you, you would not perish, but have everlasting life.

And he said, if you want to do this, I want you to pray this prayer with me. Listen, here's the thing, man. It was a Baptist camp, so you can't do anything in the back. They make you do everything up front. And I tried everything I could to stay in my seat. And we sang just as I am about 100 times. And my pride kept me buckled down to my seat. And then coach Lee got up and said, I think there's one more, one more in this crowd that's ready to put their faith in Jesus. And I was that one. And that night, not by anything that I had done, I hadn't done anything good yet, but simply because I believed I received the right to be adopted into the family of God. And there is no difference between me and him. That same invitation, listen, I came all the way from Florida to tell you this one thing. He wants you. No matter when he went to the cross, he knew what he was paying for. He wants you. And if anyone would believe, trust that with Jesus died on the cross, somehow accounting for me, then he has paid the full payment of your sin. And he wants to wash you clean and not just wash you clean, but adopt you as his very own son in the kingdom of God. And no matter what it took for you to hear that one day, when we get to heaven, you'll look back and you'll think worth it. So would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And the only reason I asked you to do that, man, this is, I just don't want you to be distracted by what's happening to your left and happening to your right. And if you are ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. I'm not just a bad person that needs to do better, but I ain't got this. My list of sins is long and I need somebody to do for me what I cannot do. And today you were ready to believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation. Then the Bible makes a promise. It's the only prayer in the Bible that I could find that God answers 100% of the time. It said Romans chapter 10, verse 13, it says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. So if you are ready for the very first time to not trust in yourself, to not trust in your goodness, to not be labeled by the things that you have done. But if you are ready to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ from the very first time, then I want you to call on the name of the Lord. The way I want you to do this, I just want you to lift your hand right where you are as high as you can. And you tell him in your own words, Lord Jesus save me. And 100% of the time, God answers that prayer. Our good and gracious heavenly father, God, we love you and we praise you. God, we thank you that you did not leave us in the jail cell of our own sin, but you came on a rescue mission to redeem us, to buy us back as your very own. God, I thank you and I praise you for these men right now. If it took them being

here to hear from you, God, it is worth it. And you were at work at all things for the good of those that love you and are called according to your purpose Lord, I pray that every single man that knows you in this room would know that you are not dissatisfied in them Just like your word over your son at his baptism behold my son in whom I am well Please if we are in Christ that he is in us and when you look at us your word over us before we do anything Is behold my son in whom I am well, please and God I pray I pray that these men would know this is not the finish line This is the starting line and the God you would empower these men with the Holy Spirit that they would walk in an authority That they've never known before God they would walk in a freedom God They would walk in the manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ This failure is not final our worst day does not define us Jesus only you get to tell us who we are and you say we were forgiven. We are set free. We are righteous we are sons in the family of the Almighty God and God we pray this in the only name that matters when we pray we pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said Amen, man. Thank you. We stand in fear