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The Day the Worst City Got the Best News Prosper Christian Reformed Church The Day the Worst City Got the Best News Jonah Mitchell Leach Sunday, November 16, 2025 Audio The Day the Worst City Got the Best News Mitchell Leach 00:00 / 37:45 Sermon Transcript My name is Dandy Kam. I'm one of the elders here. My wife and Mona and I pretty much all grew up in Prosper. We were gone for 20 years, but we've been back for the last five. We've been, thankfully, still here. This morning's scripture reading is Jonah 3. It's on page 921 in your few Bible. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breath. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, Yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. ' And the people of Nineveh believe God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, 'Let neither man nor beast, hard nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. When God saw what they had did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Thus is the word of the Lord. Introduction After the American Civil War, many expected harsh punishments to be handed down for Confederate soldiers and leaders. But Abraham Lincoln repeatedly chose mercy. One man sentenced to death for desertion, had a sentence overturned by Lincoln, who said, I'm unwilling for any boy to die who sincerely wants to live rightly. He showed leniency on thousands hoping to heal the country. But his critics hated this. The people in the north cried out that these people don't deserve this, that they were traitors. Lincoln's mercy to them seemed unjust, as mercy often does. But that That's the same question that Jonah will wrestle with in this passage. How can God forgive people like them? Can mercy be just? And that's our big question for today. Is mercy just? Is the act of giving mercy a justified thing? In Jonah, God is showing us what his heart is like. He's showing and exposing Jona's heart and ours. The question is, do we pursue God's or just his benefits? Is the act of mercy an okay thing to do, or is it somehow wrong? Does forgiving people lead to more societal harm? You might think, why in the world would that be a question we'd ask? But It's an important question in our world and our country right now. Justice and mercy seem to be opposed. Those two words are important for us to understand. Justice is getting the thing that we deserve, where mercy is getting something good that we don't. Critics of this will say that giving mercy avoids accountability for offenders. It allows people who have done wrong, leniency, or to walk free from wrongs that they've committed. In America, this is a big thing, whether you're a Democrat or Republican. And it seems to be that certain offenses matter more to which side of the political aisle you're on. We forgive in the way that we vote. There are certain things that each party holds that we can't forgive and certain things that we see that we should forgive. When it comes to legal ramifications, hundreds of articles have been written about this. The idea that mercy or forgiveness is not a good thing for our justice system. An article titled The Limits of Forgiveness. There's a quote that says, There has to be a limit. There has to be a balance between between mercy and justice. What happens when we separate the two of those things? In the Book of Jonah, we see and we understand that the Ninevites are bad people. There's no excusing what they've done. They are evil people. So how can mercy be just? How is it right that God would forgive these people, that he would let them off? Fortunately, the Bible has answers for us. So if you would keep your Bibles open with me to Jonah Chapter 3. Let's see what this has to offer. We'll see these three points. Outline Jonah responds Nineveh repents God relents Context For context, chapters one and two, what we saw is that Jonah gets the word from God, and he revolts against it. He not only flees God, he flees from the presence of God. He gets into a boat and is thrown overboard and is saved by being swallowed by a fish. In chapter 2, Jonah, in the belly of the fish, praise to God, and rustles as he thanks him and still is prideful that he's being saved or that he's being forced to do this. Jonah seems to repent and thanks God for it. And that leads us to this chapter. In this chapter, we will see God, in his sovereign mercy, brings Nineveh to repentance through his word and withheld the judgment that they deserved. Jonah responds Let's look at this first section as Jonah responds, verses one through four. Notice this section starts with familiar language. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. This is how the book starts, how chapter one starts. Again, God sends his word to Jonah. And after realizing that God is the one who saved him, Jonah now does what he was supposed to do in chapter one. It's at this moment in the story that Jonah realizes that he's getting a second chance. He's getting something he doesn't deserve. He's getting God's mercy. Verses three through four, Jonah then goes into this great city. The Hebrew word for this great city is that it was an exceedingly great city. It was a city so big, it was preposterous to God. Some people have been critical of this passage saying that this is why the Bible isn't true, because a city that's three days in journey long, there's no records of finding one this big in the ancient near east. But the word that we understand as journey in this passage is important. Really, it doesn't mean if you started a stopwatch today and stopped it on Tuesday and you kept walking the entire time, that's how long the city was. What he's talking about is the city was three. It was so big, it took three days to properly get through it. Another way to say it would be, it was so big, it required Jonas to spend three days in it, proclaiming what God had told him to say. So what does Jonas say? Jonas says, Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. I don't know about you guys, but the first time I read this, I thought, this has got to be the worst gospel presentation ever. I mean, essentially, he's saying, 40 days and you're all going to die. No hope, nothing, right? I mean, that's not what I want to hear from the Pope. I like some hope. It seems like this is at least what he's saying. But the truth is that this is communicating what God wanted him to communicate. Biblical prophecy often works this way, warning people about judgment intending to usher them into repentance. If people repent, then God will relent. And that's laid out in Jeremiah 18. It says this, This is God speaking, If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it. And if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. Now, this isn't God's conditional grace. This isn't God making his grace conditional. But it's like a loving father coming to his child and saying, If you don't stop doing this, I will have to stop you myself. Nineveh understood this and repented. Jonah's sermon to them is short, but it works because the power isn't in the prophet, but in the word of God. Jonah obeys, but he doesn't yet share God's heart. You can do the right thing outwardly and still resist God inwardly. And that's what we see in this next section as Nineveh repents, verses 5 through 9. The people believe the word from God, from God's messenger, and they fast and repent. And then it gets to the king, and he repents. And then he issues a decree or a law that the entire city would have had to follow, that everything must repent, not just people, but the birds, the animals, everything, because the king knows what he's done. Look at verse 8 with me. The king says, Let everyone turn from his evil way, his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hand. Nineveh was an evil nation, an evil city. They knew what was wrong. And now they're being convicted of it. It's like if you have a friend tell you something that you already knew that was maybe going wrong in your life. Or if you go to the doctor, right, and you hear you got a bad diet or you don't exercise enough, and you're sitting there and you go, Yeah, I know that already, but it's nice to Now that a doctor tells me, I have to follow it or whatever lie we tell in our brains, right? Speaking of bad diet, why would they fast? Why would these people fast? Fasting in the Old Testament is often more than just a physical expression. It is a physical expression associated with mourning over sin. It's a desire for reconciliation with God. Joel, the Prophet Joel, writes this down writing down God's words. He says, Yet even now declares the Lord, return to me with all your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relents over disaster. This act of fasting that Nineveh does is an act of mourning and submitting to God, mourning over sin. See, fasting isn't a piece of some magic formula that we have in Christianity. We are not some voodoo where if we do the right rituals and we say the right things, then God will have to act in a certain way. No, fasting isn't the thing that God loves. God doesn't love the fact that we're hungry. That's not where he gets his satisfaction from. What God loves is true repentance. We fast not to make God happy. We fast because we hate the sin we once loved, and we love the God we once hated. Nineveh's fasting isn't about earning mercy. It's about expressing real repentance. And that's exactly what God wanted Noah to see. This moment isn't about Nineveh's sin, it's about God's mercy. This chapter shows us something deeper. It's not a story of a people or a city repenting or being saved or being changed. It's a story of a prophet being confronted. That's why this chapter is in this book. This chapter almost seems like a diversion from the overall story. The overall story is God is redeeming. He's bringing his prophet back to himself, changing his heart so that way he can see the heart of God, that he would desire to pursue his heart. Why do we have this story? It seems like this weird story that almost takes away from that narrative, right? Why do we have a story where it seems like the moral of the story is to be more like Nineveh because they repented? No. This chapter is to contrast Jonah. How many times did Jonah have to hear a word from the Lord? How many times did Nineveh? It would be easy at this point to make this passage, this sermon, about be like the Ninevites. They were the good ones. They heard the word of the Lord and repented. That's not why this story was written down for us. The story isn't to put ourselves anywhere in scripture, to put ourselves in the seat of someone who was obedient. Now, we are the Jonah in this story. We're the righteous ones. We're the ones who sit in church, who think that we're good. This isn't a call to be better. This isn't a call to be like Nineveh. It's a call to be like Jonah, to realize that we have some stuff in our own heart. It's a call to be honest, to ask ourselves, do we pursue God's heart or just his benefits? How many times do we need to hear God's word? We must be people who pursue God's heart. What's striking about the response to this, what's striking about the response to this is the King's attitude towards this message as he repents. Look at verse nine with me. This is what the king says. Who knows God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. Nineveh decides to repent, not knowing for sure whether or not God's going to destroy them or not. God knew what he was going to do. Jonah knew what God was going to do, but Nineveh seemingly didn't know what was going to happen next. Nineveh wanted to do the right thing without knowing what God would do next. Too many of us need sure outcomes before we step out in faith. We say to God, God, I'll only go through this suffering if you get my tax situation better or you get us out of debt, or God, you help me with these relationships that seem to be broken, or you fix our family issues, or you fix my marriage. But if you can't do that, then I don't want to go through this. I'll only be faithful if you can promise something better for me. We take passages like this, like Jeremiah 29: 11. We take this and we apply it to ourselves. We read, For I know the plans I have for you, individual, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future and hope. This is a lie that we believe from Satan that everything is going to turn out good for us. You might be sitting here thinking, whoa, this is God's word. How can you say that this is a lie from Satan? Well, I'd ask you this. Has Satan never distorted scripture before in tempting people? That's what we see in the garden. That's what we see with Jesus in the wilderness, Satan using God's word and just manipulating it. This passage is a beautiful passage, but intended for the people of Israel. I can't go too far on this, but this passage was intended for the whole nation of Israel, not an individual person. This passage today should be applied to us as the church, as the global church. God is going to give the church plans for welfare, not for evil, a hope in a future. Future. But for us to read this passage as an individual and to say that God's going to make my life better as long as I'm faithful. That's not always true. We can see that in the Bible. Look at Stephen, the apostle Stephen. What happens to him? Did God have plans for welfare, not for evil, to give him a hope in a future? Stephen was stoned to death. I think his plans were for good for him, but that doesn't mean it's always going to be what we see as good. Our suffering might have good outcomes for us, but it might not. We might end up like Stephen. But regardless of that, it glorifies God. We can't be Christians who only pursue God when it's convenient for us or when the benefits align for us, when the outcomes are sure and it looks good for us. Our faith isn't It's not about what we get out of it. It's not about what I want. It's not about my hearts and desires. It's about pursuing God's heart. Nineveh doesn't know how God will respond, but they turn anyway. That's faith or that's repentance, driven by faith, not driven by outcomes. We don't repent to get heaven. We don't repent to get anything from God. We repent Because we know that our savior, our God, the one who has redeemed us, sin is the opposite of him. The thing that he hates, the one we love most, hates, and we must repent of it. That's why we repent, not because we're promised anything. That's what we see in this last section in verse 10, the pinnacle of this chapter. This is the climax. This is the most important part of this chapter. It's not about the people repenting, but God relenting. We see what God sees. God sees true repentance from the Ninevites and relents. And it might seem for a second on the surface that God told a fib or wasn't telling you the truth. But the truth is that this prophecy was given as a prompt to repent. This was never This was never a sure thing that they were going to be destroyed. This was, again, a loving Father saying, I'm going to put an end to this evil one way or another. See, God eliminates evil in one of two ways. The traditional way that we think about it is Sodom and Gomorrah, God putting an end to destroying his enemies. The other way that God eliminates his enemies is by turning them into friends. Romans 5 says this, But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Here's the important part. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, how much more shall we be reconciled by his life? When scripture says that God relented, it doesn't mean that he changed his character. It means that he acted in accordance with his mercy. See, mercy and justice are never in conflict for God. They perfectly meet in his heart. And because of this, God relents. When God relents, Jonah will be furious because Jonah wants a God who will only destroy his enemies and not one who delights in mercy. That's the tension of the book. Will Jonah align with the heart of God, or will he align with his own sense of justice? This is who God is. God is a God who relents. Exodus says that God is a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. This is who God is, not fickle, but faithful to his steadfast love. God doesn't want his people to die. He wants them to live. Jonah himself had already experienced the mercy from God when he was evil towards his own behavior. But the question is, will he be delighted when he sees the Ninevites and what they've experienced, that they've experienced the same thing? That question we'll answer next week, so make sure to come back for that. Shameless plug there. Here we go. That leads us into our main idea. Our main idea is this: trust God who sends his word to awake in repentance. Trust God who sends his word to awake in repentance. We trust God's word, not because this book has some magic pages. It's because what's written on them. This is God's word, the very voice of God. We get to see God's heart in and it. We can trust God's word because we can trust God. God's word never lies because God is God who speaks truth. God's word shows us who God is. God failed to see that the first time. He failed to see that when he received the word of the Lord, that when he was receiving that, he was receiving the very essence of God's heart. But we can trust God and his word. That leads us into our points of application. Our first point is this, Seek God for God and not just the benefits. We cannot be people who worship God, who seek God out of our own selfish gain. We can't be people who build our own kingdom, who seek God in order to add something onto our life. This is why we pray in the Lord's prayer, Lord, your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Building towards anything else, building towards anything else on this Earth is not only biblically foolish, but it won't last. The reality is we are not immortal. We will die. And maybe this is an uncomfortable thing for us to think about. And maybe this feels cold, but I want to drive this home. I want you guys to understand this. Our children, our grandchildren, and if we're lucky, our great grandchildren may remember us. But after that, most of the time we'll be forgotten. Say you're one of the outliers, right? You're one of the Napoleon's or Julius Caesar's who is remembered throughout history, right? You go down as one of the George Washington. We're going to be saying that name for the rest of history. In a billion years, the sun will expand and destroy the Earth. If all we're building here is our own Kingdom, if all we're doing is using God to make our lives better, the end result is that nothing's going to be remembered anyway. It's all going to be in vain. We absolutely need to do and obey God's word here and obey God. But it's not about getting something back out of it. It's following God because we love the God we know. We must seek God because it's the only thing that will outlast time itself. We don't add God into our life as some another version of a self-help book. It's not like, God, I've got this problem in my life, and if I try sprinkling a little bit of Jesus on it, then that's going to make everything better. God isn't an add-on to our life. He's either everything or nothing. And that's what we see in this next point of application. It leads us into our next point of application, loving mercy. God is either everything or nothing. If we love him, we have to love everything that he loves. We have to love mercy. Our default for this is that we love mercy for ourselves, and we love justice for everyone else, right? If you talk to a kid, there have been studies that prove this, that children enjoy seeing other children punished, and that might seem like a dark thing. The reality is we don't grow out of this as adults, either. We just get better at masking it. Our default is that we love justice for others, and we love mercy only for ourselves. If we are people who have been set free from sin, we must desire that other people would be set free as well. To pursue God's heart means that we love who he loves, even when that mercy offends our sense of fairness, like it did for Jonah. We must desire that people would be set free from slavery to sin. The reality is that this all sounds so nice. It's easy to get behind confessionally or to say this out loud. It's easy to say this, right? Yeah, we ought to love mercy. This sounds great. But do it. It's much harder. It's easy to admire mercy. It's another thing to love it. In our Christian circles, in our Christian bubbles, we can talk about loving mercy. We can say it's a good virtue. It's a good thing that we ought to love and to do. But doing it means that we have to rub shoulders with people that aren't like us or that might not act like us. It means that we invite people into our church not saying, in order for you to... It's It's great if you come into our church and you start acting like us and you start doing the things that we do. No, it's hard to invite people into our church and say, It's going to be messy. It might not look the same. We might have to change. We might have to accommodate people. It looks like sharing the gospel with people when it's uncomfortable, when it's someone you know, a family member, someone you've worked with for a long time. The fear of, Man, will they think I'm weird for saying this? Will they think that what I'm saying is It's too churchy or too Christian-y or whatever we think, whatever lie that comes into our heart? There's a difference between admiring mercy and loving it, and the difference is action. As we close, the question I want for us to think about is, why could God relent from destroying Nineveh? Let's look at verse 10. When God saw what they did, how they turned from the evil ways, from their evil ways, God relented the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. The reason that God could relent from destroying Nineveh wasn't because they repented. It was because on the cross, God saw what Jesus did and how he was innocent of all the evil ways, and yet God delivered him to disaster. He delivered him to destruction. This is why we can trust God. This is Why we can trust God? Because he sent himself to pay the price. In this chapter, he sentiona with his word. Later on, he would send the word made flesh. He proved that we can fully trust him, even when we feel like he's leading us astray. We all love Psalm 23. If you're here on Friday, you heard it in a beautiful sermon, in a beautiful ceremony, in a beautiful funeral. We love this passage that it says, Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. But who's leading us? Go back to the beginning of that. That psalm, The Lord is my shepherd. It's God who leads us through this valley. Are we willing to follow him? Are we prepared for the reality that God may lead you somewhere that makes feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter? Even when the path is dark, even when obedience costs you everything, we can trust the good shepherd because he is the one who leads you through that valley because he's already went through it himself. So what do we do? We turn, we trust, we stop running from God's heart and we run to it as people who have been redeemed. The Lord who sent his word to Nineveh sends his Holy spirit to you today saying, 'Come to me, turn to me, trust me, for I am gracious and merciful. ' Prosper Church, trust God who sends his word to awaken repentance. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for who you are, that you are God who is rich mercy. A God who we can trust because you walk before us. God, I pray right now that you would comfort us. Not all of us are in a good place. Not all of us are in an easy season. God, I pray that we can trust you even in the midst of confusion. God, I pray for the Dick family as they've lost a huge pillar in this family. God, I pray that you would be near and tender with each and every one of them. God, as a community, help us to surround them. Help us to relish in the beautiful moments and the stories that we knew of Caroline's life. God, help us to love them like you've loved us. God, as we respond in worship, God, I pray that we would be changed people, not by the words that I've spoken, but the words that you've spoken through your word in scripture. God, we love you. We love to do your will. So help us do that. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Would you stand and sing as we respond in worship? Before the Throne of God above, I have a I know that while in there, there's a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest who's made his love, whoever lives and please for me. My name is proven on his hands, my name is written on his heart. I know that while in every sense, no tongue can bid me then steep art. No tongue can bid me then steep hard. No tongue can bid me then steep hard. When Satan tells me to despair and tells me of the field within. Upward I look and see him there, who made an end of my sin. Because the sinless savior died, my simple soul is mounted free. For God, the justice satisfied, to look on him and pardon me, to look on him and pardon me. Behold him there, the risen land, my perfect Godless righteousness, the great unchangeable I am, the King of glory and of Grace. For with His self I cannot die. My soul is purchased by His blood. Our life is in with Christ's on high, with Christ my savior and my God. With Christ, my savior and my God. Hear this blessing. May the Lord, who is rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love, send you out with hearts awakened by his word. Go in the strength of his spirit to the ones he loves, to show mercy and to walk in the freedom of grace. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen. With the peace of God, our heavenly Father, and the grace of Christ, the risen Son, and the fellowship of God, the spirit, keep our hearts and minds within his call. And to him we praise for his glorious way. From the depths of earth to the heights of hell, we declare the name of the land One slave, Christ eternal, the King of peace. With a peace which has his understanding, and his grace which makes us what we are, and this fellowship of his communion, make us one, spirit and be called. And this fellowship of this communion makes us one in spirit and in heart. And to him we praise for his glorious strength. From the depths of earth to the heights of hell. We declare the name of the land once slain, Christ eternal, the King of He. Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link

The Blessing of Abraham Prosper Christian Reformed Church The Blessing of Abraham Come Thou Long Expected Mitchell Leach Sunday, December 21, 2025 Audio The Blessing of Abraham Mitchell Leach 00:00 / 31:16 Sermon Transcript Our scripture reading for this morning comes from Genesis 12: 1-9. If you have a Bible, or you can use the Bible in the seat back, if you don't, that is our scripture reading for this morning. We are in the third, fourth sermon in this series called Come Thou Long-Expected, where we're looking at the journey through Genesis of the promised seed or the promised offspring of the one who would come and crush the head of the snake. And this morning we're going to be looking at the call of Abraham. So Chapter 12, verses 1 through 9. This is God's word. Now the Lord said to Abraham, 'Go from your country and your kindred in your father's house to the land I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Heron. And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions in Hairan, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the Oak of Moroth. And at that time, the Canaanites were in the land. And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, I will give this land. ' So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there, he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, and Bethel on the west of AI, on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abraham journeyed on still going towards makeup. This is the word of the Lord. Our world is broken. And it's not just us as Christians who see this. Secular writers and authors have seen this same thing, this problem that plagues this human project that we're a part of. In 1945, an author noticed this, and he wrote a book commenting on the human condition. The author, George Orwell, wrote a book, The Animal Farm. It's a story of a group of animals who revolt against their human owner to overthrow his power. They believe that the problem in their world was external. It was the farmer. That if they remove him, they can create a fair and just and equal society. And at first, everything looks good. The old rules are torn down. Equality is promised. But slowly, the pigs are the ones who are leading the revolution begin to change. They take more power. They rewrite the rules. They claim that everything that they're doing is for the good of everyone else. But the book ends by saying this, the animals looked from pig to man and from man to pig and could no longer tell which was which. The corruption got so bad at one point that one pig says, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a warning, as a warning that removing oppression does not remove sin. And And that revolutions fail when the human heart remains untouched. And that leads us into our big question, can our world be fixed from the inside? If we just change the systems, if we replace leaders, if we educate people better, if we rearrange power, if we pass the right laws or advance far enough in technologies, would this bring a just society? Would this fix our world? This is our modern cred that humanity, given enough time and refinement, can heal itself. And we see it everywhere. Every election promises a turning point. Every movement says that this time it'll be different. Every generation is confident that it sees with the last one missed. We don't just believe in progress. We need to believe in it. Because if our world can't be fixed from within, it means that the problem isn't just out there, but our problem is here. History interrupts our optimism. New systems produce old sins. New leaders repeat ancient failures. Power changes hand, but corruption stays put. The faces change, but the hearts remain. Animal farm isn't shocking because it's extreme. It's unsettling because it's familiar. The revolution that promised equality in the book ended up finding the same heart, the same desires, quietly climbing back to the top, which raises an uncomfortable question for us that we rarely ask. What if the problem in our world isn't simply bad structures, isn't simply having the right people in power? But what if it's our brokenness? What if the reason that every attempt at utopia collapses isn't because we were not trying hard enough, but it's that the human condition seeps into every new experiment, every new world we try to create? That's the tension that we're left with after the flood in Genesis, a cleansed Earth, and yet it's the same old story. So the question remains not just for scripture, but for us. Can our world be fixed from the inside? Or do we need help that is from outside our story altogether? Unfortunately, the Bible has answers for us, so keep your Bibles open to Genesis 12: 1. We're going to be looking at a large swath of scripture today. Our first section will be who will bless the nations. We're going to look at verses one through nine. And then the second section, we're going to look at the rest of the Book of Genesis. We're not going to go verse by verse, but we're really tracing what happens with this family and what will happen with this family. Before we hear God's promise to Abraham, we need to see the space that we're in. We need to remember how desperate the story has become. Genesis 3 starts off by showing us the fall that Adam and Eve brought sin into the world. But we don't get to move on further without God promising that he will bring someone through the offspring of Eve who will redeem all of humanity. But in the very next chapter, the offspring, Cain, murders his brother Abel. The promise line does not bring rescue, but it brings bloodshed. Sin becomes such a problem that by Genesis 6, God sends a flood to cleanse the Earth. And the people that we're left with after the Earth, unfortunately, look a lot like the people who were there before. What we're left with, still no savior. From Eden to exile, from family to flood, God has shown us a pattern. God keeps making promises, and humanity does almost everything it can to try not to fulfill it. The question hanging over the story is no longer, is this world broken? We know this world is broken. The question remains whether God will keep his promise to fix it. So let's look at who will bless the nations, verses one through nine. Where we're left at in this story after the flood is seemingly hopeless. There is no savior, is no redeemer, no one to crush the head of the snake. We're left in a world that has failed every test from God. And yet we see a God who speaks not in anger, but in promise. So let's look at verses one through three. They say this, Now the Lord said to Abraham, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse, and in you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Notice what God is doing here, what he's saying, what he promises Abraham. He promises him a people, a place, and a purpose far bigger than anything Abraham could have dreamed of. We see now, again, in the story of Genesis, God is doing something. It's not just that something is happening. It's not just that the plot is moving forward, but God is doing something again. Notice what God doesn't say to Abraham here. He doesn't say, I will bless you so you can be more comfortable or that you can have an easier life or take these blessings and make them work for you. No, he says, I will bless you so you can be a blessing. I think that forces us to ask a question of ourselves, do we treat God's gifts as a way to bless others or as a way to become more comfortable? When blessing stops with us, it's actually no longering. This is not what God wanted for us. This is not the blessing that God wanted, or it's not what God wanted us to use his blessing for. It's not what God wanted Abraham to use his blessing for. His blessing. Is far bigger than that. It's not just that he will become a good nation or that he'll bless other nations. It's that he will be a blessing to the entire world, to all of humanity. It says that all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is not God choosing one family instead of the world. It's God choosing one family for the world. If God brings blessing to the world through ordinary obedience, I think we should ask ourselves, or maybe we shouldn't ask ourselves, Am I changing the world? But rather, Am I being faithful where God has already put me? I think we need to ask, How do we speak to people when we're tired? How do we handle frustration? How do we treat people who have nothing to give us? How will we handle those ordinary moments of quiet obedience? Because God will work mightily through them, far more than we think. I think that's how God changes the world through those little moments. Finally, in this passage, what we see is that the one who will reverse the curse from Genesis 3 is going to come from Abraham. The promise will happen. This is God reaffirming that his covenant is true, that God is sending a rescuer. This is a better sound. It should be a better sound in our ears than if we were stranded on a desert island and we heard a rescue plane, we all presently today, we all feel the after shock of the fall reverberating through our lives. Every time we see death in our world, every time we experience heartache, every time we're betrayed, every time we long for true satisfaction, and we can't find it, we can see that our world broken. Deep in our souls, we know there has to be something better than this. For the first time since Eden, the future sounds hopeful. Imagine being Abraham hearing this. Imagine what joy would have over load in his heart. We can narrow the scope on where the savior will come from. And yet there's a problem. Sarah is barren. Yet God will intentionally choose to use an unlikely woman in an unlikely way to bring forth the child of promise, just like he would hundreds of years later in a little town in Bethlehem. And that's what she does. She conceives miraculously and gives birth to Isaac. But even here, Genesis teaches us to hold our breath because God promises the blessing will come through Abraham, not from him. It forces us to ask, what will happen with this family? We get to this spot where Abraham is finally given a son. We have to think, is this it? Imagine you're an Israeli child hearing these stories for the first time. Maybe you're at some festival and your uncle is telling you about the story of Abraham. Moses writes the Book of Genesis in a way that forces us to ask every time we come to a new character in the Book, Is this going to be the one. He carefully authors this in a way that strings us along to force us to ask that question. We ask that with Cain and Abel. We asked that with Noah and his sons. And now we ask that with Abraham, who later becomes Abraham. But it isn't him. Later in the story, Abraham disqualifies himself. He has a child with his wife's servant. He lies about his wife being his sister. We see the fall reverberating through Abraham's life. We see him choosing to define what is good and evil in his own eyes. From this point on in Genesis, Genesis begins to repeat itself like a drum beat. Promise, hope, failure, death. Promise, hope, failure, death. And so now our attention turns to Isaac, Abraham's son, Abraham's son, who as a child, is part of a story that points directly to the gospel. Abraham is asked to bring his only son up on a mountain and to sacrifice him, and yet God provides a ram as a substitute. It's an example of how the Old Testament continually points to the need of a better savior. The Old Testament points to the need of the advent story. So Isaac grows up, and through his wife, Rebecca, gives birth to a boy. Isaac, the child of promise, grows old, dies, still waiting for the promise. And so now we look at his children, Jacob and Esa. God tells Rebecca that These two will be at odds, and they are. Jacob tricks his brother into selling him his birthright. Later, Jacob tricks his dad, Isaac, into giving him the family blessing. Jacob becomes the one who will carry out the promise he will be the new covenant representative, even though it disqualified him from being the one who could complete it by tricking his dad and his brother. It leaves us wondering, is this just another failed experiment. Jacob wrest with God and has renamed Israel. Jacob is the one who has 12 children. And at this point, the reader has to surely think one of these 12 has to be the one. Just a law of big numbers. It's got to be of these guys. A lot happens with these sons. They're important. They become the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is where we get the story of Joseph in the multicolor coat. A lot happens with these brothers that we can't cover this morning. But in the remaining chapters, what happens is that the promised family leaves the promised land in exile and moves to Egypt. And the story ends here in chapter 50, it's the last chapter, the last section of the book. It says, So Joseph died being 110 years old. They involved him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. The Book of Genesis ends not with a throne, but with a coffin. The promise alive, but the people are not. Joseph dies in Egypt. Like animal farm, Genesis ends with a dream still written, the world unchanged, staring death instead of deliverance. Hebrews 11 is the famous chapter where it recounts all of the Old Testament saints. It's called the Hall of Faith, all these people who had exemplary faith. It talks about Abraham and his family. It says this in verse 13, talking about these people, These all died in faith, not not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. All the Old Testament, all of Genesis, the lineage This family looks from afar, not seeing the promise come through. No snake crusher. Every single person dies being disqualified from being the one who can defeat what Adam and Eve brought into the world. That's what we've been doing in this sermon series. That's why we've been tracing the seed of the woman, the offspring, the promise. It's all throughout Genesis. It's as if each character we interact with is crying out, 'Come thou long-expected Jesus? ' Genesis ends in death. No savior on the horizon. Time after time, people choose to define what is right and wrong in their own eyes rather than trusting God. Genesis is a genealogy of humanity's failed attempt to save itself. We cannot fix the world from the inside. We do not have the ability to. No matter how hard we try, no matter what tactics we employ, Genesis is clear, no one born in sin will be able to save themselves, let alone save anyone else. That leads us to our main idea. We long for a redeemer who will defeat what we couldn't. We long for a redeemer who will defeat what we couldn't. This longing is not accidental. It's not weakness. It's design. Genesis shows us that we were made to live in blessing, not under the curse, to flourish under God's rule rather than trying to grasp and to scramble for control. So when the world feels fractured, when relationships break, when our bodies fail, when justice ends. Don't stop longing. We can't stop longing. The problem isn't that we hope. The problem is where we aim our hope at. Every generation in Genesis feels the ache that surely this will be the one. And every generation ends the same way with another coffin. So we learn something crucial. If redemption is going to come, it has to come from outside the story. And yet we, as a people, continue to try, try to save ourselves. We try to redeem ourselves through success, through family harmony, through control, through being right, through getting back to how things used to be. I mean, especially in Christmas, that desire is there. The expectations intensify. Christmas tempts us to believe that this year, finally this year, Something will save us. Something will bring us what we truly need. But it doesn't. It can't. Advent, it's not what advent's about. Advent doesn't train us to hope harder. It trains us to hope rightly. And that's where Genesis presses on us, not to condemn us, but to prepare us. Because if we cannot receive a savior, or we cannot receive a savior if we are trusting in a substitute, and that leads us into our points of application. I've got to mix up here, but we're going to start with the second one. Let advent expose our false messias. Advent has a way of bringing out the false things we like to worship. And especially, especially this week, as we are just a couple of days away from Christmas, it reveals what we truly believe will save us. When time runs out, when emotions rise, when expectations peak, Whatever we believe, whatever we're counting on to make things okay, that's what you believe in. Ask yourself, what do you think would finally make things right? What would be the one thing that would happen that would ruin Christmas? What outcome are you quietly hoping will justify you? Advent doesn't shame us for these answers. It clarifies these. Whatever you ask to save you will will one day ask everything from you. This season, we don't just celebrate Christ coming. It reveals everything that we hope would have come instead. An advent doesn't end by telling us to try harder or to be better. It ends in pointing us to a savior who came anyway, who came even though we could not save ourselves. When the calendar fills and the pressure rises, our saviors, our false saviors, will reveal themselves. And it leads us to our second point, have hope bigger than your lifetime. Genesis teaches us something uncomfortable. Sin is never private. Adam's disobedience did not stay with Adam. Cain's worship did not just affect him. It fractured a family, then a culture, and then the entire world. Cain's legacy. His lineage is marked by violence. Lamech, his offspring, boasts about that violence generations later. By the time we reach Noah, it has invaded every aspect, every corner of creation. It travels quietly. Sin goes and multiplies when it goes unrepented. This is why scripture never lets us say, This is my life. I get to do with it what I want. I'm in control. Yes, our choices are personal, but they are never isolated. What you normalize today, someone else will inherit. What you excuse, someone else will... They will repeat. What you refuse to repent of, someone else will suffer from. But Genesis also shows us something hopeful. That grace is generational, too. God promises blessing through Abraham to a people Abraham will never meet. Faithfulness plants seeds whose fruit grow long after they're gone. And that's why Adam's hope is bigger than one lifetime. God works through families, through communities, through histories, not just single individual people or individual moments. So ask yourself, not only what am I allowed to do, but what am I allowing to pass on? Because your repentance today may interrupt cycles tomorrow. Your obedience may become someone else's safety. Your faith today may spare generations, wounds you will never see. So hope bigger than your lifetime, because both grace and sin echo far beyond us. Genesis ends with a death. But advent begins with a birth. Hope has come. Heaven meets Earth. Love has come down. Grace is clothed in skin, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel. Jesus comes as our long-expected redeemer. The death that ends Genesis confirms terms the curse, but the death we see on the cross was there to end the curse. This is why we celebrate Christmas. This is why we celebrate Advent. Our savior has come. Our savior has come to take our place. Jesus came to be the better Adam, came to be the better Abraham, the better Noah, the better Joseph, the better Isaac. We talked about that earlier in the story that Isaac followed his father up a hill, carrying wood on his back, obedient even to the point of death. And yet a ram was caught in the brambles as a sacrifice. Jesus would come, and he would be the lamb who would be our substitute, following his Father up a hill, carrying wood on his back to take our place. We could not reach up to heaven, and so heaven came down to us. This is what we remember this advent season. We long for a redeemer who will defeat what we couldn't. Let's stand and pray together as we prepare for worship. Stand and pray. Father, we thank you for who you are, that you are a God who condescented, who came to us. You sent your son to take our place. Thank you for being our substitute, our savior. Thank you for humbling yourself to being born here on earth, humbling yourself to being put to death on a cross. God, we love you. We love to do your will. So help us do that as we respond in worship here this morning. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Before we get to our song, you guys can come up. Before we get to our song, I want to read this closing benediction, and then we will sing our closing song. May the God who calls us out by grace keep you from trusting in in what you cannot save. May your hope rest in Christ alone, the one promised to Abraham and given for the life of the world. Go in faith, hope, in peace. Amen. Go tell it on the mountain, the one that we've been waiting for, the King of our salvation. Born on this day, our savior, Christ the Lord. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, that we can be forgiven. The weight of all our sin he came to bear. Emmanuel God with us, Emmanuel King Jesus, the savior of the world is born. Emmanuel God with us, Emmanuel King Jesus, savior of the world is born. Go tell it on the mountain. Humbly in a manger lay. Mercy sent from heaven. Angels till the sky with highest grace. Emmanuel, God with us Emmanuel, King Jesus, the savior of the world is born. Emmanuel, God with us, Emmanuel, King Jesus, the savior of the world is born. We tell it on the mountain. This baby born of Virgin birth, the ruler of all nations, the glory of our God has come to earth. Emmanuel, God with us. Emmanuel, King Jesus, savior of the world is born. Emmanuel, God with with us, Emmanuel, King Jesus, The savior of the world is born. We'll tell it on the mountain. This baby born of virgin birth, the ruler of all nations, the glory of our God has come to Earth. Emmanuel, God with us. Emmanuel, King Jesus, the savior of the world is born. Emmanuel, God with us. Emmanuel, King Jesus, the savior of the world is born. The savior of the world is born. The savior of the world is born. The savior of the world is born. Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link

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While creeds/confessions/catechisms are not the Bible, they are helpful resources to help us explain and teach what the Bible says. Prosper CRC holds to what has been called the Three Forms of Unity, the historic Christian creeds of the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort. What We Believe Our Theology Inerrancy We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21). We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit (Proverbs 30:5; John 10:35). We affirm that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Scriptures, assuring believers of the truthfulness of God's written Word (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:12-13). We hold to the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration, meaning that every word of Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21). The Bible, therefore, is not just true but the highest authority for life and faith, a sacred and awe-inspiring gift from God (Psalm 119:160; John 17:17). The Gospel We believe that human beings are born into sin, fall short of God’s perfect standard (Romans 3:23), and that this sin is deserving of eternal death (Romans 6:23). Central to our faith is the belief that Jesus Christ came to live the perfect life of righteousness that we couldn’t live (2 Corinthians 5:21), die the death for sin that we deserved to die (1 Peter 3:18), and rose to new life so that all who put their faith in Him can have new life as well (Romans 6:4). We believe in penal substitutionary atonement, meaning that Jesus bore our penalty as our substitute to atone for our sin (Isaiah 53:5-6). Article Baptism We believe that Jesus has commanded all those who are His to be baptized with pure water "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). This sacrament signifies our reception into the Church of God, which separates us from all other religions and dedicates us wholly to Him (Galatians 3:27). Yet, we deny that baptism is necessary for salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9; Luke 23:42-43, Romans 3:28, Romans 4:5, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:5). We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, by His sacrificial death and the shedding of His blood, has fulfilled and abolished the old covenant practice of circumcision, instituting instead the sacrament of baptism (Colossians 2:11-12). Therefore, we believe in the baptism of infants, as it aligns with the biblical precedent of including children in the covenant community, much like the practice of circumcision under the old covenant (Genesis 17:10-12; Acts 2:38-39). Christ's redemptive work extends to the children of believers, and they, too, should receive the sign and sacrament of baptism, affirming that Jesus shed His blood for them as well (Luke 18:15-17; Acts 16:31-33). This practice underscores the continuity of God’s covenant promises, ensuring that our children are marked by the covenant from the earliest moments of their lives (Acts 16:15, 33; 1 Corinthians 7:14). We hold firmly that this sacrament, once administered, is sufficient for the entirety of one's life, symbolizing both our initiation into the faith and God's enduring grace towards us (Ephesians 4:5; Romans 6:3-4). Sexuality We believe God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman for life and for sex to remain within such a marriage (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6). Although there are many temptations in this world, we believe sex outside of such a marriage to be sin (Hebrews 13:4). Those living in sin should turn to Christ with faith and repentance, receive God’s forgiveness, and come to live according to God’s good design (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Acts 3:19). We believe God created man in his own image, male and female in knowledge righteousness and holiness with dominion over the creatures (Genesis 1:27). Reformed We align with the Reformation theology, holding to salvation by grace alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone, to the glory of God alone, and the ultimate authority of Scripture alone (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 14:6; Romans 1:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). We also affirm God's sovereignty over all things in creation and salvation (Romans 8:28-30). We affirm the five points of Calvinism (outlined in the Canons of Dort) (John 6:37; John 10:29; Ephesians 1:4-5). Complementarity We believe God created human beings, male and female, and that God made men and women equal in value yet distinct in role (Genesis 1:27; Galatians 3:28). God has given both men and women extraordinary gifts for ministry but has called men into unique roles of Christ-like leadership in the home and in the church (1 Timothy 2:12; Titus 1:5-9). Specifically — within the church — we believe God calls men exclusively to be pastors and elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7). Within the home, we believe that God calls men to love their wives like Christ loves the church (his bride), and wives are called to submit to their husbands like the church does to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-25). Creation We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His own image as the first humans on earth, from whom all other humans have descended (Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 2:7, 21-22; 1 Corinthians 15:45). We affirm that Satan tempted Adam and Eve, disobeyed God, and thus brought sin into the world, causing all humanity to be born into sin and in need of a savior (Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:22). We affirm the literal, historical existence of Adam and Eve and assert that God was actively and sovereignly involved in creation (Acts 17:24-26; Isaiah 45:12). We believe that God created the world in six days and that He created it good (Exodus 20:11; Genesis 1:31). End-times We believe the millennium began with Jesus Christ's resurrection and will continue until His second coming. This is also called amillennialism. This eschatological view interprets the "thousand years" mentioned in Revelation 20 symbolically rather than literally. During this period, deceased believers reign spiritually with Christ in heaven, awaiting their physical resurrection and the renewal of all things (Revelation 20:4-6). We believe this holds that Satan is bound in a limited sense, having been defeated at the cross, allowing the gospel to spread throughout the nations (Revelation 20:2-3; Matthew 28:18-20). Distinctions Three Forms of Unity While creeds/confessions/catechisms are not the Bible, they are helpful resources to help us explain and teach what the Bible says. Prosper CRC holds to what has been called the Three Forms of Unity, the historic Christian creeds of the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort. Belgic Confession Go Heidelberg Catechism Go The Canons of Dort Go

Offensive Spiritual Warfare Spiritual warfare is a topic that Christians either think too much or not enough about. We’ve all met Christians who attribute every bad thing in their lives to spiritual warfare, so much so that there is no more room for sin or our fallen nature. On the other side, there are Christians who nearly disregard the reality that there is an enemy out there who seeks to kill steal, and destroy (John 10:10). Heading 5 Offensive Spiritual Warfare Mitchell Leach December 18, 2024 Spiritual warfare is a topic that Christians either think too much or not enough about. We’ve all met Christians who attribute every bad thing in their lives to spiritual warfare, so much so that there is no more room for sin or our fallen nature. On the other side, there are Christians who nearly disregard the reality that there is an enemy out there who seeks to kill steal, and destroy (John 10:10). Not Just For Defense One of the greatest mistakes in understanding spiritual warfare is putting ourselves on the defense against Satan. I believe this is what he wants us to believe. It only gives him the advantage if we believe that he has the edge in our world and he is launching assaults against Christians and the church. While it’s true that Satan will launch attacks on us, we must realize that this is not how the Bible paints the picture of what is happening in the spiritual reality. As Jesus was teaching his disciples, he asked them “Who do people say that the Son of Man is.” After Peter answered, Matthew records Jesus saying this to Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Jesus is saying something about spiritual warfare that we have often overlooked. If you're not familiar with battle tactics, it can be easy to miss the fact that gates are used for defense, not offense. Far too many pastors preach that we must protect ourselves from the evil one and his schemes. While it’s appropriate to be on guard, the picture of spiritual warfare the Bible gives us is one that should bring hope and encouragement to us. We’re the ones who get to advance against evil and wage war on hell itself. Too often the scene that is set for us is one where we cower in the corner as Satan and his forces attack and we just hope that we can make it long enough until Jesus comes back. In his book The Invisible Hand, author, pastor, and theologian, R.C. Sproul says, “The basic premise of Scripture is that the power of Christ is greater than the power of the devil and his domain. Therefore, Christians need not live their lives in fear of Satan's power but ought rather to rejoice in Christ's victory over him.” Christians can have confidence in God, all too often we can believe that somehow God and Satan are opposing forces who are equal in power. But scripture reveals that God is all-powerful even over the actions of Satan and his forces. We then have every reason to be encouraged knowing that even Satan’s plans have been accounted for by God and will be used for ultimate good, and will lead to Satan’s ultimate demise. Church is a base not a haven With this view, it is easy to believe that culture is so far gone and under Satan’s control. We are easily deceived that we need to huddle together to weather the storm of life. While we need to band together it isn’t because otherwise we’ll be torn apart by Satan’s attack. It is so that we can mount a strong attack on evil and the gates of Hell. The American church has — unfortunately — believed that it is a safe haven for weary Christians. While it needs to be a safe place for us, this must be because we are a base, an outpost of the kingdom. It is a launch point for us to make our attack against the evil we see in the world. It is the place where we come to get our battle plans on how we will take back the creation that was lost to sin, death, and evil. It’s the place we come back to remember how powerful our God is. And to remember that we carry with us that same power by the Holy Spirit. John Owen a prominent English theologian in the 1600’s wrote this in his book The Mortification of Sin, ”What a comfort this is to believers, that all the power of Satan is under the control of our Captain, who is the Lord of hosts, the Lord mighty in battle! The enemy is mighty, but he is mightier; he is strong, but he is stronger; he is active, but he is more active.” God is sovereign and we know he has already won. Therefore we cannot be timid people afraid of culture, we must be courageous Christians who are ready to take back the culture by the power of the Holy Spirit. I think this is a desire that is lying dormant in the church as a whole. Men — in particular — are attracted to a message that says “Go and take what is ours.” Yet instead of fear-mongering people into political action, scripture is exhorting Christians to go into their local communities and wage war by proclaiming the gospel and loving our neighbors. Satan’s strategy One of the dangers of believing we’re on defense while we’re supposed to be on offense is that it puts Christians in great danger. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus’ battle against Hannibal during the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE) is probably the most famous example of how seemingly random and unpredictable attacks could take down a larger army. Hannibal's army was far superior on the open battlefield, employing innovative tactics and formidable cavalry that the Roman legions struggled to counter. Rather than engaging in direct, large-scale battles, Fabius adopted a strategy of harassment and attrition. The Fabian Strategy involved avoiding large-scale engagements and instead focusing on small, inconsistent attacks such as skirmishes, raids on supply lines, and ambushes. These attacks targeted Hannibal's army indirectly by cutting off its supplies and wearing down the troops through constant harassment. This approach was frustrating for Hannibal, as it denied him the decisive victories he sought to force Rome into a peace agreement favorable to Carthage. Over time, the attrition and inability to force a decisive battle took its toll on the Carthaginians, contributing to their eventual withdrawal from Italy. This — in large part — is the same strategy that Satan uses to attack Christians. Spiritual warfare feels inconsistent. At least it does in my life. It’s not every day that I feel the attacks of Satan and his forces. It is so inconsistent that I get lulled into a false sense of security where I feel nothing will happen today. Armor Of God On Attack The challenge of putting our armor on when you’re not expecting an attack every day is that you’re not reminded you need it every day. This is why getting the perspective correct on our spiritual battles is so important. Imagine yourself in a physical war. Imagine you are given plans for an attack on the enemy. As you get ready what do you do? You’d make sure to put on your armor, to grab your weapon. When we accept the reality that we are the ones on the attack, we are the ones who have the advantage, how we live our lives will change with it. So here’s my plea Christian. Go and prepare yourself for battle knowing you are taking the unlimited power of God as you are carried by the Holy Spirit. Know that you have the advantage, know you are on the attack, and know that Satan is the one who fears you. Arm yourself every day because you will need your weapon as you wage war against the evil in this world. But most of all know this, as you go “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 16:18. R.C. Sproul, The Invisible Hand: Do All Things Really Work for Good (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1996) You’ve probably heard the term legalism, or legalist used — not just in the church — but in culture abroad. Legalism carries a clearly negative connotation (and for good reason). Yet legalism isn’t a word found in the English Bible, but that doesn’t mean the Bible doesn’t say anything about it. Paul uses the phrase “works of the law” eight times in his writings (Romans 2:15, 3:20, 3:28, Galatians 2:16, 3:2, 3:5, 3:10). Drawing the Line of Legalism Read Learn More About What We Believe Prosper Christian Reformed Church holds that the Bible is the inerrant, divinely inspired Word of God and the highest authority for faith and life. We believe in the centrality of the gospel: that all people are sinners in need of salvation, which comes through Jesus Christ’s atoning death and resurrection, by grace alone through faith alone. We practices infant baptism as a sign of covenant inclusion and uphold traditional biblical teachings on marriage, gender roles, and sexuality. We affirm Reformed theology, including the five points of Calvinism, and embrace an amillennial view of Christ’s reign and the end times. What We Believe

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We are not hiring currently About Peace Church Peace Church, located just south of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a vibrant community of believers dedicated to spreading the gospel and serving the needs of our congregation and the wider community. Founded in 1965 as an RCA church, Peace Church has since transitioned to a non-denominational congregation. Our theological roots are deeply Reformed, and we pride ourselves on being conservative and gospel-centered in our teachings and practices. Our commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ drives us to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and spiritual growth is nurtured. We are proud to share that our dedication to spreading God's word and our community outreach efforts have not gone unnoticed. Recently, Outreach Magazine recognized Peace Church as the 29th fastest-growing church in America. This accolade is a testament to the hard work of our congregation and the grace of God. Our church is not just a place of worship; it's a community. From our passionate worship services to our engaging community events, every aspect of Peace Church is designed to bring people closer to God and each other. Function N/A Accountability Qualifications N/A Responsibilities N/A Professional Expectations Apply Now First name Last name Email Phone Position Cover Letter Upload File PDF Only Resume* Upload File PDF Only I am in agreement with the beliefs of Peace Church . * Submit

Jonah Sermon Series Description The book of Jonah confronts us with a searching question: Do we really want God’s heart—or only His help? This five-week journey through Jonah invites us to wrestle with God’s mercy, His mission, and our own resistance to His grace. From a prophet who runs from God’s word, to pagan sailors who fear the Lord, to a wicked city that repents, Jonah exposes the surprising breadth of God’s compassion. Along the way, we discover that God relentlessly pursues not only the nations, but also the hearts of His people. This series will help us read Jonah rightly, see ourselves honestly, and respond humbly as God reveals His heart for the lost, the undeserving, and even the reluctant believer. As we trace God’s saving work through judgment and mercy, we are invited to stop running, to fear the Lord, and to seek God not merely for His blessings—but for who He is. Do you desire God’s heart? More Concerned for the Plant Jonah 4 Watch The Day the Worst City Got the Best News Jonah 3 Watch The God Who Saves in Spite of Us Jonah 2 Watch Overboard and Overwhelmed by Grace Jonah 1 Watch Jonah - Overview Jonah 1 Watch

Crucified with Christ Prosper Christian Reformed Church Crucified with Christ Christ Alone Mitchell Leach Sunday, February 8, 2026 Audio Crucified with Christ Mitchell Leach 00:00 / 46:03 Sermon Transcript Introduction/Big Question What brings people together? What brings people together? Or another way to ask that question would be, how do we determine where we belong? Culture says you belong if you perform, if you fit in, if you signal the right virtues. In the church, things can be similar. You belong if you behave. We can believe this. We belong If we clean up first, if we come from the right family or do the right thing, serve in the right ways. And yet both are the same move with the same motive, building our belonging based on our record. You can tell what you believe makes you belong based on what you're building it on. When you fail, are you sad or do you feel condemned? When you're criticized, do you feel humbled or do you feel erased? When you are excluded, do you feel disappointed or do you feel panicked? These are more than just emotions. They are a way for us to see where our standing is before God. What is our verdict system? What determines in our own hearts what we believe about where we belong? Galatians 2 is Paul saying that your belonging isn't built on your record, is built on something more. If our verdict is built on this, we will either become people who are crushed, people who are proud. And yet, either way, we won't have peace with that. And then Paul says something that's really shocking. In order for us to feel like we're in, in order for us to actually be in, our focus has to be on admitting that we're outsiders. Stop trying to get in by law keeping. What brings people together? And fortunately, the Bible has an answer for us. So keep your Bibles open to Galatians 2, as we see two primary movements in this passage. 2:15-16 — The Shared Problem: No One Is Justified by the Law 2:17-21 — The False Inference Rejected: Grace Does Not Promote Sin Paul is going to do two things here. He's going to tell us how people are made right God, and then he's going to protect that gospel from the most common misunderstanding that humans make towards it. In this section, what we'll see is that justification comes through faith in Jesus Christ because righteousness is not by law keeping, and to try to do so actually nullifies and denies the death of Christ. This passage that we're in today is a bridge between last week and next week. I think we could say that about all passages in this series, but specifically between Paul making a case for his apostelship to next week, what we're going to see is the truth of the gospel really clarified and explained. A Shared Problem: No One is Justified by the Law - Galatians 2:15-16. Galatians 2:15 says this, We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. I want to stop there. What Paul Paul is talking about, he's saying this ironically, he's saying to the Gentiles or to the Galatians, the way that you've been looking at this difference between Jew and Gentile, who can sit with who during mealtimes, is you look at them like Gentile sinners. That's what they would say about these Gentiles. Paul is saying, We're not like them. We are Jewish people, and yet we're going to see something here. And yet this is how the human heart works. It doesn't just break rules. It tries to use rules to create divisions among people. Rules are a way that we can say, Well, at least we're not like them. We don't break those rules. If you love rules more than you love what they're protecting, what you're doing is you're trying to use them in a way to leverage people. You're trying to leverage the law over people. It's a ladder for you to step above them, to get higher than them. If you're first instinct when you sin is not confession, but comparison, then you've turned the law into a tool for self-justification. The solution is not to hate the law. It's to see it correctly. God gave us the law in order to reveal who he is. Paul is not anti-obedience. He's not anti-law. He's anti-earning our salvation. Paul is essentially saying here, the the law is a good mirror. It's a good mirror. It's a terrible savior. The solution here is to see the law as good, and yet to see ourselves correctly as people who are law breakers. And that's what we see in this first part in Galatians 2:16. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith. Paul saying, Even though we were Jews, no one is justified by the law. And that's the core message of this letter, this epistle, is that of justification. Justification or being justified is a legal term. It was used in courtrooms. It still is used in courtrooms. And yet today, outside of the courtroom, outside of church, the word to justify something largely carries a negative connotation. Really, what it means is, and how it's used commonly today in culture, is to excuse bad behavior, to allow someone to get away with something that they shouldn't. You might say it in this way, somebody justified his friend's adultery because he, I don't know, fill in the blank. I don't know why there would be a good way to justify someone's adultery, but using it in that way. And it sounds like God is allowing bad things to go unpunished. When we read this word, it can seem like it's carrying this connotation. And yet this is what the Bible says, a good definition of the law or of what justification means. God declares a sinner to be righteous in his sight, not because the person has become morally perfect, but because God forgave their sins and counts them righteous on the basis of Jesus Christ. Justification is not a feeling. It is not a motive. It is not an emotion. It is a verdict. It is a declaration. It is a pronouncement over you. So the law, and what Paul is saying is the law is not something that can put you in a right standing before God. But why? Why is that? Why is it that we talk about the law cannot be something that we add onto scripture or it cannot be something that saves us? Well, first, no one can keep the law. We see that throughout scripture, but we see it in our own lives. We cannot even keep the laws that we make. If you had a tape recorder or someone had a tape recorder and they followed you around for your life, and they recorded every time you said, You should, whatever that fill in the blank is afterwards. You should eat your vegetables. You should obey the speed limit. You should, whatever. You would not be able to keep your own laws that you tell other people to keep, let alone the laws that God gives for us. The second part of why we can't use the law to save us is that the law, by its nature, is not something that saves us. It can't. Laws are there, whether by God or human laws. Laws are there not to save people. They are there to convict. They are there to reveal wrongdoing and evil. They show us when we've crossed the line. They don't bring us back towards it. See, God is pleased when we obey him, and yet when we obey him out of a heart of love. It's just like parenting. You love when your kids obey you the first time, when they do it out of a right motive, when you don't have to argue with them, when you don't have to try to twist their arm into doing the right thing. It's the same with God. Obedience can't reverse the damage that we've caused. It would be like speeding and getting into a car accident. Going the speed limit after that. There isn't an amount of going the speed limit after that that can reverse the damage done to your car. We need someone to take care of it. We need someone to fix it for us. Obedience can't reverse the damage. We don't need a second chance. We need a substitute. We need someone who will come and fix what we could not. We need grace. We need the gospel to rescue us. And that's why Paul continues on in verse 16, But through faith in Jesus Christ, so that we have also believed in Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ, not by works of the law, because by works of law, no one will be justified. It is in faith in Christ that saves. And so what is faith? It might feel like this is another work, that this is something that we're adding on to Jesus, that faith is something that's required. No, faith is not a payment. Faith is not leverage. Faith is not a way for us to earn good standing with God. It's not impressing God with our sincerity or with our devotion. Faith is going to God with empty hands. Faith is saying, I'm spiritually bankrupt. I have nothing to offer. I have nothing to bring. I need to be saved. I need to be raised from the dead. Faith is what allows us to reach to God after we've been resurrected, after we've been raised from the dead, to be able to wake up and receive the grace that God has given us. It's why Jesus says in the Beatitudes, blessed are those who are poor in spirit, who have spiritual poverty. Because it's only then that we can realize that we need a savior. If we think that we're good, if we think that we have it figured out, if we think that there's anything that we can offer God to make him want us, to make him desire us on our own, we don't have it. We've lost it. We have to say, God, there's nothing that I bring. Faith is not a work. It is a response to God's grace. It is a response to his grace. And anytime we think that we can add anything to it, we start to determine who gets to be in and who gets to be out. And that's the problem that the Jewish people had. That's the problem that we see in this book. The Jews thought they knew who was in, and they were sure that it was them. They knew that they could follow the law, that they could do whatever. They had the right relationship with God. And they knew that Gentiles, they were sinners. They were out. Yet the gospel says the opposite, not about Jews and Gentiles, but about that mindset. If you believe that you're in, you're out. If you know that you're outside, you're an outsider, you're in. If your confidence is in, well, I'm basically a good person, and I take my faith more seriously, or I take my devotion to God more seriously than others, I'm from the right background, I'm from the right family, I've cleaned up my behavior, God knows that I'm trying really hard and I do the right things. If that's where your confidence is in, then you're using the law like the pharisees used it, not to repent, but to essentially Collect a case together for yourself to try to declare your own verdict, to try to twist God's arm into seeing, See, I really am innocent. And that's not how justification works. If that's how you see your standing before your God, you can't come in. But if you know that you have no hope before our heavenly Father, if you see your identity outside of Christ, if you see your identity as As with the Gentiles, as a sinner, if you feel crushed by the weight of your sin so greatly that you believe you have no hope to get into heaven, then you're in. The doorway into Christ is not competence, it is confession. The only people who Jesus can justify are the people who stop trying to defend themselves, stop trying to be their own lawyer, their own advocate, and accept the advocate of the Holy spirit. If it sounds like what we were talking about earlier, that God is justifying or allowing sinful people to go unpunished, you're half right. God does let sinful people go, but he doesn't let them go unpunished. He does justify the ungodly, but he doesn't erase sin by just sweeping it under the rug or letting it go. He erases sin by placing it not on us, but on his son, where justice is satisfied, where mercy is sealed. The moment that we say free grace, the moment that we talk about free grace, there are two fears that commonly come up. The first is that the moral person feels chaos and that the guilty person will feel condemned. Paul answers both. He says, First, grace is not permission to sin. And second, grace is power to change. Charles Spurgeon says it this way, If Christ has died for me, then I cannot trifle with the sin which killed my best friend. The false inference rejected: grace does not promote sin - Galatians 2:17-21. In Galatians 2:17, Paul continues on. He says, But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners. I'm going to stop right there. Our natural posture of our heart is to put people into two camps, good guys and bad guys. It's always how we've seen the world. It's a human problem. We've always done this. We put two groups of people. It's us versus them, this group versus that group. Regardless of whatever group you find yourself in, the group that you're in is always the good guys, right? No one ever puts themselves in the bad guys side. Whatever side you are on, it doesn't matter what you've done or what your group has done, you're the good guys. Yet God is telling us, We cannot look at the world this way. This is not how the world operates. Every other works-based religion says, You can divide up the world into good and bad people because it is based on what you do. Christianity says, The whole world is running directly towards hell. We are all sinful. Verse 17 says, Whether you are Jew or Gentile, we too were found to be sinners. All of humanity is sinful. Sin is the great equalizer. It puts us all on the same playing field. It's the beautiful thing about Christianity. It's what makes Christianity different from every other works-based religion. See, if you're a Mormon, those outside of Mormonism, those are the Gentiles. If you're Muslim, everyone else is an infidel. If you're a modern day Jew, everyone else is goyam. If it's based on works, our salvation, our right standing with our creator, then they're There is a divide. There are good and bad people. There are people who obey the law, and there are people who don't. Christianity says, That is not how this works. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Christianity says, Everyone is an outsider. No one gets in. We are all running directly away from God. If you are a Christian, it is not because you are a good person. You are a Christian because Christ has died for your sins. You are not a Christian because you grew up in the right family or in the right church or said a special prayer at summer camp, whatever it is. Our right standing with God is not based on an I statement. It is based on what he has done for us. Christians are the only people who can say, We are getting into heaven without bragging about it. It is not a boast. It is not prideful to say that we get to be in heaven because we did nothing to secure our ticket into heaven. Christians are the only people who say, I get into heaven, and it's not because I'm a good person. It's because I've admitted I was a bad person and I was saved by an even better savior. So now the question is this, and that's what we see in the second part of Galatians 2:17, If Christ saves by faith, is Jesus then promoting sin? It says, Is Christ then a servant of sin? Paul goes on to answer, Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. Paul emphatically answers, No. Christ does not promote sin. In no way does he do this. Jesus already tore down the dividing wall of hostility, the barrier that was set up between the Jews and the Gentiles in the temple. Jesus tore it down. There was a literal wall that said only Jews could get closer to the Holy of Holies. Gentiles had to stay out. When Jesus died on the cross, he tore down that dividing wall for Christians, for the church. This is what the Galatian church misses, had missed so clearly. They this unity that Christians can have, this unity that the church has that is second to none. There's nothing that unites people, that brings people together, that makes them belong in the way that Christ does. There's a mission trip that I was on when I was a youth pastor. We were working on a 30-foot roof. We were putting metal roofing up on this. I don't remember if it was rainy or had rained earlier that day, or if it was early in the morning, they were still due on the roof, but there were places where we couldn't step because it was too slippery. I was at the bottom of this. I was on a ladder, and I was reaching to grab some screws out of my tool belt, and all of a sudden I heard three noises is three kids sliding down. They had stepped where they shouldn't, and they were coming directly at me. I grabbed the gutter. I had nothing else to grab, and it knocks me back. I almost fell. But we stopped these three kids from from falling. I mean, off of 30 feet, it would have been tragic. We sat down afterwards and just realized how scary that moment truly was. I don't want to say it was a near-death experience, but it was something It was something nearly dramatic at minimum. Of the kids I stay in contact with, I like to stay in contact with a lot of the students that I've had the chance to pastor, those kids, those three kids that fell, are some of the three closest kids I stay in contact with. And I would like to say we just had a better relationship, but I think it's largely due to that moment. It's true with men when they get out of the military. There is a relationship that they have with men that they've served that almost no one else can understand because the brothers that they serve with are some of the only people on Earth who understand exactly what they went through. There's nothing like a near-death experience that brings people together. And yet, as Christians, we don't have a near-death experience. We have a shared death experience. That's what Paul talks about in this passage. We have all died. We have all gone through the excruciating pain of died, crucifying ourselves, putting ourselves to death. What Jesus says in Matthew, that we go and sell everything we have to buy the treasure hidden in the field. We let go of all the passions that we once had. We let go of all the things that we held on to so tightly, and we've sold it all. There's something excruciating in that. But now we've been raised with Christ. That's what it says in Galatians 2:19, For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. Might be that I might live to God. Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live, I live in the flesh. I live by faith, sorry, in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. This is all set in faith, not faith in faith, but faith in a person, faith in the one who loved me, faith in the son of God. Look at the motivation here. The motivation is love. It's not a global love, although God absolutely loves the world. This love that we see here is individual. It lands on specific people. It lands on you. Christ loved you. God loved you. Not because we were lovable, not because we've cleaned ourselves up first, not because we've earned it, not because we bring anything inherently within ourselves. We don't have any special talents within ourselves that makes God go, Well, okay, he's got this How can I get it? Well, that makes me love him more. No. Love came first, and he gave himself for me, not merely as a teacher, not merely as a martyr, not merely as an example. Christ came as our substitute He came to take our place, taking what we deserve. So when you hear that grace promotes sin, that this theology that we believe gives us a license to sin, It gives us the ability to just say, Well, if I sin, well, Christ will forgive me. It'll be fine. That is clearly wrong. That's what Paul is saying. Absolutely not. No, certainly not. Grace does not lead to sin. If you believe that, you don't understand what grace is. Grace is not permission, it is power. Grace unites us to God. That leads right into Paul's Closing Line, Galatians 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. You can nullify grace without denying Jesus out loud. You can nullify it by adding something to it. Jesus plus effort, Jesus plus law keeping, Jesus plus an improvement plan, Jesus plus my spiritual resume. If I can add to God, if I can add to Jesus, then I could have saved myself. There's no reason for the cross. If I can add one thing, if I believe that Jesus took me to the one yard line, he's handed me the ball, and he's saying, You go score. If it's just one yard, right? Because it's a Super Bowl Sunday. If it's one yard that I can do, then it needed to be on me the whole time. Then I could have saved myself. Then what Jesus did on the cross Essentially was divine child abuse. If I can save myself, if I have the ability to save myself, then it's on me the whole way. It's not just the last step. If I can get right with God by my performance, if my obedience can declare my verdict, then I need to be the one to make it right. Then Christ died for no purpose. The cross becomes unnecessary. It becomes an add-on. It becomes optional. Instead of Jesus being my own only hope, he becomes one of them. He becomes one way. And Christianity just becomes another ladder. It becomes, how obedient are you? How good are you? It makes our only boast not in Christ, but in ourselves. Paul's point is this, you do not get You get wholeness by climbing a ladder. You get wholeness by living out your union with God, dying to yourself and becoming alive in something better, in something new, alive in Christ. So the false inference is rejected. Grace does not make Jesus a servant of sin. Grace makes sinners new, and he makes Christ central. That leads us to our main idea. Main Idea: We are justified by faith and alive in Christ. We are justified by faith and alive in Christ. The gospel is not what we offer God. The gospel is what we receive from God. We don't seal the deal. Christ sealed it when he said, It is finished. There is nothing we add on. Jesus didn't get up on the cross and said, Well, now I've got it started. That wasn't his last breath. Jesus said, It is finished. To add anything on to Christ after that is to make him a liar on the cross. This is the wonderful part about being a Christian. If you feel like you've done too much, too much evil, if you feel like you're an outsider, congratulations. The good news of the gospel is that it's not on you. Whether you were good, whether you were born in the right family, you did everything right, or you lived the most morally corrupt life you could have. It's not on you. There isn't a single thing you can do to make you outside of the love of Christ that he has for you. This is the good news of the gospel, that we don't even hold ourselves to Christ, that he is the one who holds us to him. It simply does not matter what you have done. Paul was a murderer. Paul was a murderer. I mean, look at every character in scripture. God does a great job of painting every character, except for one, in a negative light. There isn't a single person in here besides Christ who isn't a total screw-up. If you think that he can't use you, he used Paul, a murderer. The Son of God loved you and gave himself for you. There isn't a sin that the blood of Christ cannot redeem, cannot make right. And that's a call for us as a church. There's something here, an application before we get to our application, for us as a church, because if Christ receives sinners by grace, we as a church cannot demand people to get themselves cleaned up before they can start worshiping with us, for people to start earning their seat before they sit down. We do not clean people up and bring them to Christ and bring them to Jesus. We don't clean them up first. We bring people, and Jesus cleanses them. Every church is tempted in two directions. First, to make people pretend they're clean or to invite people to become brand new. Church, we have to be that second church. We cannot force people to act like us, to do X, Y, or Z, to dress like us, to sing like us, to perform a certain way in order to be accepted here. Except for the gospel, which we will never move away from. We will never dilute the gospel. As long as I'm your pastor, that won't happen. We will never move from this. We will never lower the bar. But as a church, we can't ask people to perform. We can't ask people to pretend like they're not messy. If we demand that people aren't messy in order to come worship with us, Sunday morning, we'll have zero people. I won't be able to be here. We are all a mess. I'm not saying that we all have to dress a certain way. We don't have to all lower our dress standards. Sometimes I like wearing a suit and tie. I mean, I'm weird. I understand that, but sometimes I like it, okay? But we cannot pretend that dressing up, that looking clean on the outside, doesn't mean that we're not messy. One of my favorite things about this is my grandpa was one of the men who had faith that I aspire to. He was an incredible man. He was a farmer. And during harvesting season, he would come in straight out of the combine with a hat on, with overalls on, and he would be dirty. He'd be a mess. He'd be dusty. And I remember thinking, how awesome is that? He He would have looked at himself and gone, I don't have the right clothes on. I still have a hat on. I haven't showered today. And yet he said, I'm going to take an hour, I'm going to take an hour and a half to be here on Sunday to worship. If you have to debate whether you're going to be here because you feel like you're too messy. If you're wondering whether you need to... If you're running late and you're going to show up, you're going to miss the first part of worship, come. I'd love for you to be here for the whole thing. I think the whole thing is worth it, but come. If you're coming in your overalls out of the field, come. If you haven't showered today, If you're physically messy, come. If you're spiritually messy, even more of a reason to come. I would so much rather you come messy and experience Christ, experience the worship here, experience the God that we see in scripture, than to try to stay at home and fix yourself. That leads us into our points of application. Use justification as a weapon against guilt and pride. Justification means God's verdict over you is settled. It is God banging the gavel and saying, Innocent. It is not up for renegotiation today. So this gospel hits on two two opposite sins. It hits on guilt that says, I am condemned, and it hits on pride that says, I am better. When Satan comes and assaults you this week, when he comes against you and he says, I know what you've done, and you call yourself a Christian. I saw you in high school. I saw you in college. I saw what you did then. I saw what you did last week. How dare you call yourself a Christian? We can say, Satan, you're absolutely right. That was the old me. That was the old Mitchell. But I am raised in Christ, and you have no longer a claim over me. The gospel sets sinful people free, sets sinful people away from the condemnation that we feel from the judgment that we feel from the enemy. Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer 60. The answer says this, part of the answer says this, Although my conscience accuses me, yet God, out of mere grace, imputes to me Christ as as if I never committed any sin. What beautiful language that encapsulates the gospel here. When your accuser comes and says, You are not good enough, we can say, Absolutely, I wasn't. But Christ was good for me. When your heart says, Prove that you're worth loving this week by trying harder, being better, you can say, If righteousness were through me We're through the law. Christ died for no purpose. Absolutely not. I will not try to make my obedience pay Jesus back. I could never pay him back. I will not nullify grace by doing it that way. And when your pride shows up by saying, Well, at least I'm not like them, you can say, We, too, were found to be sinners. I, too, was found to be morally corrupt, to be It's an absolute mess. The beauty of the gospel is that the cross is at a level playing ground. It is at eye level for everyone. We are all equally convicted of sin before God. It is only because Jesus was my substitute that I have even the faintest hope of being right with God. Live in union with Christ as the engine of Holiness and unity. Union with Christ means dying to the old self and living with Christ. So Holiness is not Earning acceptance. Holiness is living from acceptance. Use the gospel for your Holiness. When tempted to say, I will try harder and be better, tell yourself. That is not who I am anymore. I've been crucified with Christ. Fight sin from identity. Fight sin from identity, not for identity. Use the gospel for unity. Stop ranking Christians as somehow on a different letter, on a different rung in the ladder. There aren't JV Christians. In fact, there is no such thing as a good Christian. It's my least favorite heresy that when people say, Oh, so and so is such a good Christian. There's no such thing as a good Christian because a Christian is not based on what you do. If someone asks you why you're a Christian, you cannot answer in the first person. You cannot answer by saying, It's because I grew up in a Christian home, or I went to Bible camp and I said a magic prayer, or because I decided I wanted to get baptized. No, you are a Christian because Christ, because he. You must answer it in the third person. You cannot be a good Christian. Christianity is not based on what you do. Therefore, it cannot be based. You can't be good at it. You are either a Christian, you are either in Christ or you aren't. We are all justified the same way, so we cannot despise one another. We can't put each other into categories of good Christians and bad Christians. We are all equally in the same category. We are sinners, and some of us have accepted and received the grace that Christ offers. This is why the church has always had a radical unity. It's why some of you might have Some of you might have a struggle with people, even in your own family, connecting deeply with them, where you can connect with someone across the country, across the world, maybe even someone who doesn't speak the same language as you. You have nothing in common with. And your own brother or sister, your own father or mother, you cannot connect with them on that level because you have a shared death experience with that person who you may have never met. You can't talk about that with maybe even someone in your own family. We are called, we are bonded, we are unified in something radical. Why is it that we can be alive in Christ? Because Christ came to be death for for us. Through the law, I died to the law, meaning that the law could never save me. It put me in the grave, but God did not keep me there. The gospel is not, Try harder, be better. If that's at all what you've heard, get your hearing check, because that is not what this says nor what I have said. The gospel is, Jesus came to die for your sins, to be your substitute, to raise you from death to life. He came to be what sin deserved, to be death, to be the separation, to be judgment for us so that we could be what grace received. We can be life, forgiven and accepted. Christianity is not a moral betterment program. It is not behavioral modification. It is life transformation. It is a new source of life and identity. So here's why you can be alive, because he entered death for you, because he took your verdict, and now he shares his life with you. The gospel is not work your way to life. The gospel is: die with Christ and be alive with Christ. We are justified by faith and alive in Christ. Let's stand and pray and respond in worship for the God who has raised us in him in newness of life. Father God, we praise you and thank you that we are no longer dead, that we no longer are ourselves. God, that Satan has no longer a claim on us because we can say, We are alive in you. Father, I pray that we would live as renewed people, that we would live as transformed people, whether we've heard this the first time today or we've heard this a hundred times before. God, let this be a well of living water bursting out of our souls. God, let us declare in this next song that you are holy, holy, holy as people who have been radically transformed. Let us love one another because you first loved us. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link