The Sinless Savior | Christology

Grab your Bibles if you would and let's go to Luke chapter 1. We are continuing a series called Christology where we are just studying the nature and identity of Jesus. We wanna have a foundation that's strong and we believe that Jesus is our foundation, amen? It's important that we understand the need for this foundation. I was at a football game this weekend and we were in a stadium, a high school stadium by the way, that seats 12,000 people. $50 million football, high school football stadium in Prosper and the crazy part is that's not the most expensive facilities in the Dallas area. Allen, Texas has a facilities that seats 18,000 people and had a price tag of $60 million. And I bring that up just, some of you may have heard the story. They finished the field back in 2011, 12, something like that. The stadium, 18,000 seats, $60 million and 18 months after opening it, they had to shut the stadium down because there was a faulty foundation. Crack in the cement. Imagine paying $60 million for a stadium and then it shut down. It says the year that it was shut down, they lost $700,000 of revenue, not to mention all of the cost that was involved in legal fees

of making sure that the engineers and the contract guys were taking care of the need there. But imagine that, a faulty foundation, $60 million can hold 18,000 people and yet can't even host a football game because of the foundation. They knew they had to shut it down because they said it would be unsafe to fill this place full of people and then the bottom collapse. And I share that story just to remind you of the importance of the right foundation. And here's what we gotta recognize. The identity and nature of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith. And we have a strong foundation, but we need to recognize just how strong it is. And so what we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna look at an aspect of the nature and identity of Jesus that I believe is one of the great pillars of the foundation of our faith, and that is the virgin birth of Christ, the virgin birth of Jesus. Oftentimes, we don't talk about this, or those of us even who believe it, we don't understand why it's so essential and so important to the foundation of Christianity. And think about this. Our faith is a supernatural faith.

Would you agree with that? I mean, think about the bookends of the earthly life of Jesus. We have a virgin birth, and we have a resurrection from the grave. So the bookends of the earthly life of Jesus is rooted in a miraculous supernatural event, both at his birth and in his death and resurrection, and it is the hinge of our faith. If we don't have a resurrection, there is no Christian faith. If there is no virgin birth, there is no Christian faith. Most of us, though, would say amen to the resurrection, and we could probably give a reason why. But most of us about the virgin birth would say, yes, I agree with it, because the Bible says it. We don't understand how important it is to our faith. That's what we're gonna look at this morning. So Luke chapter one, we're gonna start reading in verse 26. If you're there, say the Bible is true. Verse 26, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her, and he said,

"'Greetings, O favored one. "'The Lord is with you.'" Now look it down in verse 31. "'And behold, you will conceive in your womb, "'and you will bear a son, "'and you shall call his name Jesus, "'and he will be great, "'and he will be called the Son of the Most High, "'and the Lord God will give to him "'the throne of his father David, "'and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, "'and of his kingdom there will be no end.' And Mary said to the angel, "'How will this be, since I am a virgin?'' Now, it's the third time in this Luke's account of the announcement of Jesus's arrival, or his conception, that Luke has emphasized the nature of the conception, the nature of the birth, being that Mary is a virgin, and yet she is with child. So what's being highlighted here is the supernatural, miraculous event that's occurring in her womb, the conception of the Savior. He goes on to say this. He says, "'How will this be, since I am a virgin?' Verse 35, "'And the angel answered her, "'The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

"'and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, "'and therefore the child to be born "'will be called Holy, the Son of God.'" Now, here's what we find here. We find that this is a miraculous conception, and what's being introduced to us is the nature of Jesus, the nature of Jesus. Let me give you one statement that summarizes. is I believe what we're learning here, and then we're gonna come back and unpack those, this statement with two truths that helps us understand the statement. So what is being communicated here? Write this down if you're taking notes. Here's what Luke wants us to see, is that Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin, which reveals him as fully God, fully man, and completely sinless. Is that Jesus is miraculously born of a virgin, which reveals him as fully God, and fully man, and completely sinless. This is important here, that what we're celebrating during this holiday season is the miraculous conception and virgin birth of our Savior. This is a foundation for our faith. And so as we think about this, there's a lot of skeptics who will question

whether or not this is even possible, but remember, we're talking about an act of God. If you believe that there is a creator, you have to believe that that creator can do anything that he wants, amen? And so this is what we're gonna look at this morning. So Jesus was born miraculously, born of a virgin, which reveals him as fully God, and fully man, and completely sinless. So let me give you two truths that we're gonna use to unpack this statement, two truths about the virgin birth and its necessity that helps us understand this statement. Here's number one, write this down. We wanna see, first of all, that the virgin birth is necessary for Jesus to be fully God and fully man, that the virgin birth is necessary for both of these to be true. If he's fully God and fully man, this necessitates a miraculous conception. Let me show you what I mean. Look what happens in verse number 34. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I'm a virgin? So she's asking the right question. She's recognizing that, naturally speaking, what you're telling me is not possible. So how is this gonna take place if I've never been with a man,

and that is what's required for there to be reproduction? Notice what the angel says. He says the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So what the angel says is is that the Holy Spirit is going to place this child inside of you. He is going to be the source that brings about this conception. So the idea is is that this is not just miraculous, but it's divine, that God himself is gonna cause this conception. And notice what he says is the outcome. Notice this. He says, therefore, this is huge, the child to be born will be called the Son of God. Now, what Luke is highlighting here is both the humanity of Jesus and the deity of Jesus, the humanity of Jesus and the deity of Jesus. Both are being communicated here. See, what do you mean? The humanity of Jesus. Therefore, the child to be born. In other words, Jesus is gonna be born of a woman just like every other human. This is the idea. So what Luke is emphasizing here is the humanity, that Jesus will be born from his mother's womb just like you and just like me. So there's the humanity of Jesus being highlighted. But because this conception is gonna be miraculously done

in the life of a virgin by the Holy Spirit, this child who will be born, this boy, this human that will be born will be called wholly the Son of God. Why? It's because he was divinely conceived by the Holy Spirit. So Luke is highlighting for us in this announcement of the miraculous conception of the virgin birth that there is gonna be a child born who will be fully human, born just like you and me, but because his conception was divine and miraculous, he will be called the Son of God, which last week we learned the phrase Son of God is a reference to the deity, the divine nature of Jesus. So what we have is the God-man entering into the world. Fully God, fully man. So I wanna make something clear here. Jesus, and we talked about this last week, Jesus did not begin in Mary's womb or in the manger in Bethlehem. Jesus has existed for all eternity. He is, last week here was the truth, eternal God, creator of all, made flesh. This is the incarnation. And I had some conversations with some leaders and the number of people last week who left, like I had no idea that Jesus actually existed before he became a child. Like this is new information to me. So we've gotta understand the eternal nature of Jesus

and now he is adding, watch this, to his divinity, humanity. So make sure you understand, Jesus does not cease to be God by becoming a man. He simply adds humanity. to his deity. He adds that to the fact that he's already and always has been God. And so now what you have 100% God, 100% man embodied in one person. This is the nature and the essence of Jesus. You say, why is this so critical? For a couple of reasons. The humanity of Jesus, now we talked about the deity of Jesus last week. If you weren't here, go back and listen to that message. But the humanity of Jesus is critical for us. Him being born of a woman, becoming a man for a couple. So first is this. Think about what that means in your relationship with Jesus. The fact that Jesus lived in this broken world. Think about that. God became an infant. God became a man. God chose, even though he eternally existed outside the confines of time and space and outside the brokenness of creation, he chose to enter into this brokenness. Now just let this blow your mind. The God who is sovereign over everything

chose to be dependent upon a mother for his nourishment. The same God that knows everything, all knowledge belongs to him, now has to learn how to walk. The same God who spoke by his word, creation, universes came to be because he spoke, is now having to learn how to speak. The God that is the provider of creation is now dependent upon creation for his life. I mean, think about this. God became an infant. God became a baby. Like, I don't think we marvel at the miracle and what that means for us. Think about this. God became a cooing, crying, bed-wetting, nursing baby. This is what is happening in this moment. This is called the incarnation, the God of the universe becoming a man. You know what that means? He entered into our brokenness so all of the pain and the suffering and the struggles and the loneliness and the hardship and the challenges and the temptation that we feel, listen to this, Jesus has experienced. He knows what it's like to have your feelings hurt by friends. He knows what it's like to feel abandoned

by people you love. He knows what it's like for there to be moments where you're like, God, are you even here? He knows what it's like to be tempted with sin. This is why the writer of Hebrews talking about Jesus as our great high priest, say, what do you mean high priest? The high priest is the mediator between us and the Father. And the Bible says that Jesus is our great high priest. And because he became a man, this is what Hebrews says about Jesus as the great high priest. He says this in Hebrews 4, 15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect was tempted as we are, yet without sin. It says that he can sympathize with our weakness. You know what that means? When you go to Jesus in prayer, and I don't mean the fake prayer that a lot of us pray. I'm talking about authentic prayer where we let our guard down and we get honest about what we're feeling and what we're going through and our doubts and our fears and our loneliness and our anxiety. See, a lot of times we don't pray like we should because we think God wants to hear something

other than what we really feel. Like God can't handle or can't relate to the fact that we feel abandoned or lonely or like he's forgotten us or we feel unloved or we're hurt or we're wounded or we got questions and we don't have answers to. You know what God wants? Listen, we can come to him now and we can unload what's really happening in our heart. You know why? We have a high priest who lived the life that we live. Every time you come to him in brokenness, you know what Jesus says? He doesn't say, I don't know why you feel that way. He doesn't say, I don't know why you feel that way. You must not trust me. Here's what Jesus says. I know, I've been there. I know I've walked the same path. I've experienced pain and hardship. He can sympathize with you. You don't have to pretend. You know why? Because there's never a moment where we go before Jesus, bringing a struggle where Jesus can't say, I understand, because he does. because of the incarnation, because he's completely and fully God and he's fully man.

Here's the other reason, I think it's probably even more important, is that unless God becomes a man, God cannot pay the price for sin. He has to become a man in order for him to pay the price for sin. You say, what do you mean? Well, the Bible says that the wages of our sin, and we're gonna see in a minute, we're all guilty of sin. I'm not gonna get there, we'll get there in a moment. Like the wages of sin is death. All of us are sinners. And because of that, we've earned death. So we have to, there's consequences that we must pay in order for our sins to be dealt with. The problem is, is that this death is an eternal death because we're not perfect and we're sinful and there's no way that we could be a sacrifice that would be sufficient. So watch this, our penalty for our sin requires eternity because of our sinful condition. But physically and spiritually, we die as a byproduct. So how does an eternally perfect God pay the price for the sins of humanity? Well, he does so by becoming man. You see, here's what the writer of Hebrews says about forgiveness. Listen to this, in Hebrews 9, verse 22, he says, indeed, under the law,

almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. What does that mean? Sin demands death. Blood is the only atonement. And so we either spend eternity in death with our sins never being full, the penalty of our sin never being fully satisfied or another stands in our place. And that is why God clothed himself in humanity and became a man, why? Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Jesus cannot shed his blood unless he becomes a man. And this is the beauty of the gospel that is often overlooked. And this is, again, what separates Christianity from all these other religious systems. Religious systems say, here's the rules, you follow them, you may get in. But ultimately, the religions tell you, look, you've got to walk in obedience, you've gotta do these things, and if you do these things, there's a good chance you might have your sins forgiven, God might accept you, there's no real security of knowing if you've done enough or not. But here's what the gospel says, check this out.

God demands something of humanity that we cannot meet. The demand is this, it's righteousness, it's perfection. And we're gonna see in a minute, we're born into sin, so none of us reach that standard of perfection. So God demands this of us. The problem is, we don't meet the demand, so we're sinners. But because we don't meet the demands, God also says, there are consequences for your sin. The wages of your sin is death. And so therefore, because you didn't meet the demands, this is the consequence for every single one of us. Now, the beauty of the gospel is this, is that God does not change his standard to let us in, but rather, he becomes a man to fulfill the standard for us. So Jesus Christ, eternal God, becomes a man, so that he might fulfill the demands that God required of all of us, that none of us could fulfill, so that in his fulfilling the demands, he would then be the perfect sacrifice that could step in and say, the consequences that you deserve, I'm gonna receive so that you don't have to. So this is what should blow our minds away. The God of the universe that created us, that we have defied with our sins, says, I have these demands you cannot meet, and there are consequences you cannot fulfill.

So therefore, I will meet the demands and I will receive the consequences so that you could have my righteousness. That is the beauty of the gospel. This demands the virgin birth, that eternal God become a man so that he could be the one who stands in our place, receiving what we rightfully deserve. And without becoming a man, without the incarnation, he can't be the sacrifice. Here's number two. Number two is equally important. In fact, it goes with number one. Here's the second case of why the virgin birth is a necessity. The virgin birth is necessary for Jesus to be fully man, so we've discovered he's fully man, but this is important for him to also be completely sinless. Fully man and completely sinless. completely sinless, and it necessitates the virgin birth. Say, what do you mean? I want you to look back in the story in Luke, Luke chapter one, verse 35, he says this, and the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and listen to this, therefore, the child to be born will be called, what's the word?

Okay, wait, more than four of you can say it. Holy, thank you very much. And this child will be called holy, so he is gonna be considered holy. Say, what does holy mean? Holy means set apart, altogether different. Holiness, or being holy, is a reference to moral perfection, moral purity. None of us have holiness in and of ourself. We're not morally perfect, we're not morally pure, but here's what the angel tells Mary, hey, this child that you're gonna have, he is gonna be called holy. In other words, he is gonna be morally perfect, morally pure in every way. He is gonna, this is a way for the angel to say, he's gonna be sinless. Something that could not be said about us. Now, notice what the angel does here. He attributes him being called holy. How can he be called holy, or morally perfect? It's because his conception will be divine. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore, the child to be born will be called holy. In other words, because he is born of a virgin, and divinely conceived by the Holy Spirit, watch this, Jesus is not gonna possess something that all of us in this room possesses. The Bible calls it a sin nature.

Now, let me teach you a little bit about this. This is something that I don't think we quite understand in church today, but it's so important to understanding the fullness of our salvation. In the theology world, there's a doctrine called the doctrine of original sin, and it comes from the Scriptures. And here's what the doctrine of original sin is. The doctrine of original sin means that every single one of us are born with a sin nature. And that sin nature is traced back to the original sin in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against God's commands. That this is now, because of this, humanity has now been morally corrupted because of the sin nature that originates in the Garden of Eden. Does that make sense? And so this is what Paul is gonna teach us about this in Romans. I want you to see what he says here. In Romans chapter five, verse 12, Paul says this. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, everybody say Adam. All right, so that's who he's referring to when he says the one man in this context. So sin came into the world through one man. So Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden is where sin entered the world. Now, notice what he says here.

And death through sin, so that's the consequences. And so death spread to all men, this is mankind, because all sinned. Now, when he says because all sinned, he's not talking about your individual sin. He's talking about the sin condition that you were born in. So in other words, this one man's sin ushered in sin and death for all of humanity. And from that moment forward, mankind has been under the penalty of our sin, which is death, because we have been reckoned as sinners. We are guilty under the original sin. Verse 19 says this. He says this, he says, for as by one man's disobedience, one man being Adam, many, this is talking about all of humanity, were made sinners. So eyes right here for a second. Sinning is not what you do. Sinning is who you are. We are sinners. We have a nature that's bent towards sin. And what Paul wants us to see is that because of Adam's first rebellion, see, Adam was created in moral perfection. Adam was created without a sin nature, but he had the capacity to sin. In other words, God gave him a choice. You can walk in obedience, or you can walk in rebellion, and he gave freedom there for Adam to choose.

So Adam had the capacity to sin, he didn't have a nature of sin. Watch this, but the moment Adam sinned, now all of a sudden something shifted fundamentally in the nature of Adam. Now his nature was morally correct. And when the serpent was trying to entice Eve, he says, no, no, no, your eyes will be open, and you'll know both good and evil. So in a way, the serpent was telling the truth. You see, before the rebellion, they only knew good, and they had the capacity to do evil, but they only knew good. But the moment Adam sinned, now they can only do evil. They don't have the capacity to do good anymore. And now the moral perfection has been broken, so they do know both good and evil. The problem is now we have a nature that's bent toward evil and so from that point forward, all of the offspring of Adam has been born with the nature of Adam. This is why, and I've used this illustration a number of times, this is why none of us have to teach our kids to sin. Like they just come out of the womb looking for that, right? Like we don't ever teach our kids, like I need you, son, to be more disrespectful when talking to your mother, right? Anybody ever had that conversation with your kid? Like you need to talk back, son.

Like no, we don't do that. Now what do we do with our kids? From the moment that they kind of start experiencing their nature, we're telling them, like don't do that, don't say that, don't act like that. Like we teach them how to do good, why? Because they're born sinners. This is the nature. And this goes back to the doctrine of original sin. Why, here's why. It's because all of us in this room are descendants of our first father, Adam. We have our father's nature. Now this is why the virgin birth is so critical. For Jesus to be fully God and fully man necessitates a virgin birth, but Jesus to be fully man and completely sinless also necessitates a virgin birth. Why? It's because Jesus is not the descendant of Adam. Jesus, what the Bible describes, is the truer, better, and greater Adam. You see, Jesus is not born of his earthly stepfather, Joseph. He is divinely conceived by the heavenly father, which means that the lineage of the sin nature that's been passed down from generation to generation because of Adam's sin, Jesus interrupts that flow. This is why in Matthew, and watch this,

I just learned this this week, so if you didn't know this, or you did know it, you're a lot smarter than me. If you didn't know it, join the team, all right? So how many of you, like when you read the Gospels, let's be honest, all right, let's be honest, how many of you skip over the genealogy parts? Okay, a few honest people in the room, rest of you liars. Like I grew up in the King James world where it's begat, begat, begat, and I'm like, there's a lot of begatting going on, and I don't understand any of this. So in Matthew's Christmas account, you know where Matthew starts? He starts with genealogy. Getting us from David, watch this, to Joseph, Jesus's earthly stepfather. Now, Matthew does something that's brilliant. Every time there is an offspring, he says, and this person, the father of, the father of, the father of, the father of, the father of, until you get to the very end, and then he says, Jacob, the father of Joseph, and he doesn't say the father of Jesus. He says, Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Because what Matthew is showing us is that the family line has been broken. Jesus has not been conceived.

If Jesus, watch this, would have been the son of Joseph, Jesus would have been born with the nature of Adam, which means Jesus could not have been the Savior because he would have needed a Savior. But because he was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, it means that he was born, watch this, with moral perfection. He did not have the nature of our first father. He had the nature of the heavenly father, which means that he was born in moral perfection without the guilt of sin and its consequences upon him. Though Jesus had the capacity to sin as man, he didn't have the nature of sin because he was God. And I love this, he's the true and greater Adam because the first Adam failed in the garden when tempted. But the greater Adam, he was victorious over temptation in the garden. Listen to what Paul says. This is the beauty of our salvation. Paul goes on to describe this. He says, Romans five, verse 18. He says, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so this is talking about Adam's sin, led to the condemnation for all of humanity, so one act of righteousness, this is Jesus's righteousness, his perfect life, leads to justification in life for all men. Verse 19, for as by the one man's disobedience, Adam,

Many, this is humanity, were made sinners. So, by the one man's, Jesus' obedience, the many will be made righteous. So because Jesus was born of a virgin without a sin nature, and because though he had the capacity to sin, he said no to sin, what Jesus does is he fulfills the righteous demands that God has made on all humanity so that Jesus could become the substitute, and he was able to provide a righteousness that we then could receive. If you go back to Genesis chapter three, verse 15, there is a promise there about Christmas. Did you know that? So when God is giving the consequences to Adam and Eve because of their sin, he turns to the serpent, which is Satan himself, and he begins to give the consequences, and here's what he says. I'm gonna put enmity between your seed and the seed of the woman. In other words, there's gonna be a break between the two, and he says, and he, so he says the seed of the woman, which is interesting because that's not how babies are made. This is a foreshadowing of the, you can't understand Genesis 3, 15 without a virgin birth because it's the seed of the woman that God is gonna rise up, and it's talking about a particular person in the future who will crush the head of the serpent. Satan will be defeated because the seed of the woman, a virgin will give birth to a son, his name will be Jesus,

and he will be the one that crushes the head of the serpent. How does he do that? By living the life we could never live, dying the death we deserve to die, and resurrecting from the grave so that in him, listen to this, we might be born again and receive the nature of the greater Adam. That Jesus Christ would be our savior and we would be transformed from the inside out. This is why my favorite verse of scripture in regards to the gospel is 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. It says, therefore God made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, the perfect, spotless lamb of God, to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, so here is the great beauty of what God has accomplished through the virgin birth of Jesus. The fully God, fully man, completely sinless, lives a righteous life, dies a death as if he was the sinner so that he could stand in our place and this is what he offers humanity. Though you are broken and busted and dead in your trespasses and sin and the rightful recipients of God's wrath, Jesus stood in your place and if you will turn from your sin and you will trust in him, his righteousness will be given to you, his forgiveness will be granted and you will be raised to a brand new life so that now though you struggle with sin,

there is a new nature, it's the greater Adam who lives inside of you through the Holy Spirit and he is gonna transform you from one degree of glory to the other until the day King Jesus comes again and he will restore and make all things new. This is the great work that we are celebrating this holiday season. It is Jesus miraculously born of a virgin fully God, fully man, completely sinless who dies in our place, resurrects for our salvation and this should blow us away. What kind of a God and how much love does he have to have for us? Even though like when you think about like I was blown away this week at the Psalm 8 passage we read in our reading plan. When I consider the vastness of the universe and how small and insignificant we are, who are we that he is mindful of us? That he would visit us to make us his own. I was reminded of a story this week that really to me captures and articulates the beauty of what God is doing in the incarnation of becoming a man. There's a story of a judge and he's a righteous judge, he's a good judge. Everyone trusts his judgment and there was a young man who had been caught in breaking the law and everyone knew this man was guilty.

The man knew he was guilty, the young man knew he was guilty. Everybody in the courtroom knew, the judge knew, the case was laid out, there was no refuting it, no denying it, but the judge knew the man. He knew he was guilty, but yet he loved him. And as he saw the case and there was only one verdict that could be rendered and that is the verdict guilty. And with tenderness and love, he looked at the man and said, the case before you is unmistakable and undeniable and I have a responsibility to uphold justice and the law and the verdict. And he slams the gavel as guilty as charged. And he says, this is the punishment. It was a payment that the young man, everyone knew. There's no way, he doesn't have enough money. He doesn't have the ability. There's no way he's gonna be able to pay what is owed because of his crime. And he begins to weep. And as the gavel strikes guilty as charged, penalty must be paid in full. Story says that the judge stands up from the bench and he takes off of his robe and he steps out from behind the bench and he goes down to where the young man is. He says, I need you to step out of the way. And he moves the man aside and he stands where the young man was standing. He reaches into his pocket and he pulls out his own money and he begins to count out.

The amount that is owed. When he gets to the end, he says, paid in full. You are free from the penalty. You're no longer under the weight of your choices. The debt has been paid. Church, that's what Jesus has done for us. The righteous judge has looked at our life and none of us with honesty can say, I'm not guilty. All of us, he knows the thoughts and the deeds and the actions and the secret parts of our life. He knows us better than we know ourself. And so in the court of God's justice, we are guilty as charged. And he says, look, I'm a righteous judge. I have to condemn the guilty. And so he slams the gavel and he says, look, we're all guilty, but in the incarnation, the judge stands and he takes off his robe of glory and he steps and says, step aside. And he stretches out his arms and with his hands and his feet pierced, the demand of our sin is the blood of a perfect sacrifice that we cannot pay ourself. So what is Christianity? The judge that condemned us loves us so much that he said, I'll pay the price of my own demands. God loves us so much. God, he loves us so much. He loves us so much that he said,

I'll pay the price of my own demands. He loves us so much. He loves us more than we could ever imagine. There's some of you in this place and you're trying so hard to be accepted by God. Some of you have heard the gospel a thousand times and yet you still think somewhere along the way, your effort and your work or your upbringing is gonna bring some sort of difference in your eternal position. And I'm here to tell you, it's not. But the great news is this, is you don't have to stay in that condition. God put on flesh to stand in your place. And at some point, if you're gonna experience what he has to offer, you gotta come to the end of yourself and let him stand in your place and surrender yourself to him. One of my great fears of preaching every single week is the hundreds of people that gather who nod their heads yes at the gospel, but yet for some reason will not submit and surrender. And you will neglect such a great salvation. There's some of you, you've heard the gospel a thousand times but you've never experienced the freedom. Maybe today is the day for you. I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads and there's some of you in the room this morning and there is a man in the room. There is a very real sense right now in your heart

that I'm speaking to you. And if you sense that, I want you to know, I am not speaking to you, the Holy Spirit is. Maybe you've affirmed this gospel your entire life but you've never experienced it. never been transformed by it. But I want you to know that I'm speaking to you today. You've never, maybe today it was like, I knew the gospel, but now there's something different. I'm speaking to you right now in your heart. I'm recognizing that it's my only hope. I'm gonna encourage you to do something right now. Just right where you are, just say, Jesus, I'm a sinner, and I need a savior. If that's you, say, Jesus, I'm a sinner, and I need a savior, and I'm coming to the end of myself today. And I'm asking you to be my Lord. I believe that you are God. I believe that you are man. And I'm trusting in your death and resurrection is my only hope. With no one looking around, if you, this morning, are praying to receive Christ, or want to today, if you just prayed, or you say, I got questions, I'm gonna ask you to do me a favor. With no one else looking around, just lift up your hand and look up at me. Keep your hand held up for a moment, if that's you. Say, Pastor, I just prayed with you.

Raise it up real high so I can see it. Look up at me. Praise God back here at the top. Keep it up. Anyone else? We have some prayer encouragers that are gonna make their way to those who are with their hands raised. There's a couple, is there any others? We don't wanna embarrass you, we just wanna pray for you. So if you prayed to receive Christ, just lift your hand up. We wanna be able to encourage you and pray with you. We have some prayer encouragers that are gonna be able to encourage you and pray with you. Believers in the room, with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I wanna talk to the Christians in the house. And some of you, you know Christ as Savior, but for whatever reason, you're not dealing with some of the stuff in your life, sin in your life, disobedience in your life, because you've forgotten how much He loves you. Or you're trying to hide from Him. And today, maybe you've been reminded of just how beautiful He is and how much He loves you. And my encouragement to you today is that if you're living in some disobedience or rebellion, you don't have to hide from Him today. Because of what I just shared with you,

you can actually run to Him with open arms and He is gonna embrace you. He loves you. He knows where you are. He just wants to restore you. So what I wanna encourage you to do is this morning, and just so we can have honesty with no one looking around, if you're in the room and you say, man, there are some things I need to surrender to Jesus this morning, whether it's situations in your life of disobedience or whether it's just circumstances in your life that you need Jesus to work in your life, raise your hand if that's you. Several in this room, all over. My encouragement to you is don't just acknowledge, respond. So this altar is gonna be open. We have encouragers that are available. We'd encourage you to leave your seat and come and be prayed for and being encouraged today. I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet as I pray. Father, we love you. We ask now that we could respond in obedience to you, that you would stir in our hearts. And Father, that you would move and bring us to a place of complete surrender in light of who you are. God, I pray that you would break strongholds today in light of who you are. I pray that you would free people from disobedience

in light of who you are. I pray that secret sin would be brought to the light in light of who you are. And God, that we would not just live in the shadows. We have a great Savior who died so that we could be forgiven and restored. And if we're walking out of fellowship, Jesus, would you bring us home today? We ask this in your name, amen. And listen, if you need to respond today.