The Glorious Comma - From Do To Done

I'm so excited today, as you know, we've talked about it so much. We toured around the country in October on the Grayson Glory tours. Anybody know that? I might remember that back then, way back in October. And it was such an amazing time for us, and I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but we really felt like we just simply wanted to preach the good news, city to city to city. This is time for the good news. People need good news, and we've got the good news. And so that was our mission. City by city was just to preach the gospel, and that's what Gospel means good news. And so you're coming to church today, you're coming to good news.

You're coming around this word of God, you're coming to good news. You're coming to Jesus, you're coming to good news. I think a lot of people sometimes like, I'm not sure how's all this going to go. If you're coming God's way, it's going to go good because he's got the good news. all the good news he's got. And we've just preaching that city to city. But to preach the good news, you've got to also understand that there's some bad news in the gospel as well. And the bad news of the gospel is what makes the good news of the gospel really, really good. And the bad news, we just shared this verse every single night.

It's the verse that most of you know, if you go up around church, you can finish it for me. Romans 3, 23. Anybody know the Roman road when you were growing up? You're like, I'm new to church. I don't know any of this stuff. What is the Roman road? Well, it's a book in the New Testament called Romans. It's a letter that Paul wrote to the church in Roman. There's some verses in it that are key verses that when you stack them together, it shows you how to be saved in a very simple way. And one of those verses is Romans 3, 23. I'll start it. We'll see how many people made it to use group enough to finish it.

For all have sinned and false short, It's on the screen. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye.

For all of sin in false short of the glory of God, that's the bad news because all is a very encompassing word. It means that every single person in this gathering today has missed the mark of God's glory. Now this word sinned, the Greek word underneath this word means simply to miss the mark. And what was the mark? The mark was the glory of God. What does that mean? It means the standard of God's perfection, the standard of God's holiness, the standard of God's righteousness, His glory. We were created for that. We were made for that. Do you understand you were created in the image of God? You were made for relationship with God and in the beginning, Adam and Eve, they had it.

They had a garden that was perfect. They had each other and the relationship, apparently, was going incredibly smooth. They had stewardship over the things that God had made, but that wasn't the whole purpose of their being created. They had a relationship with the Creator. They weren't made in the image of a gardener. They were made in the image of the Creator Himself. And so in the morning and evening, God came and walked with them in the garden. God and man in a relationship in paradise, but they were like the all.

Those two sent, and they missed a mark of what God had intended in their lives. They only had one thing that they couldn't do, and that was eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Every other tree you can have at it. perfection, relationship with God, but the enemy came to them and tempered them, they started to wonder, then they started to doubt, and then eventually they ate of that tree. And when they did, they did no good, and they did no evil, but more than that something else happened to them, they died. God said, whoever eats of this tree will know good and evil, and they will die. the enemies like Shirley, you're not going to die.

And they didn't physically die right in that moment. They didn't bury Adam and Eve in Eden. They died spiritually when they ate of that fruit. They knew good and they knew evil and spiritually they died. One of the other verses in that Roman road in Roman 623 says, the wages of Sin is death. We've said it a hundred times in this building that sin does it make you a bad person, sin makes you a spiritually dead person. And that's a problem. That's doubly bad news because dead people can't do anything to help themselves. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have missed the mark. of the perfection, the righteousness, the holiness of God.

Every single one of the prophets said it this way said, all of us like sheep have gone astray. It started with Adam and Eve, but also true of me, and it's also true of you. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us, the prophets said, have turned to our own way.

And that is really, really bad news. For you and for me and for everybody on the planet and it was a problem in Eden. There was another tree in the garden. We see this in Genesis 3, verse 21, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and he clothed them why because they realized that they were naked and that says that they were ashamed. And so now God is sending them out of Eden. Why? Because there's another tree there. The Lord God said, the man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil. Now, this man is spiritually dead, so he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.

God realized that Adam and Eve are spiritually dead, separated now from him and from the relationship they were created for, should they eat from the tree of life, they'll live forever, but they'll live forever spiritually dead.

And so God had no choice but to put an angel with a flaming sword in front of the tree of life to keep them from it. And he had no choice but to send them out of Eden. So the Lord, another 323,

God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. And after he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Can you imagine God made them for Himself?

And now they're walking away, not just from Eden, but from Him. Gustaf Dore is a famous French artist, a lithographer, and he has done these powerful illustrations of the stories of Scripture. And when I saw this one, it just absolutely gripped my heart. It's an illustration from a lithograph of

Adam and Eve leaving Eden. And Adam is looking over his shoulder at what was. He's looking back. I don't think for the tree of life, I think he's looking back at the source of life. I think he's looking back for the God who actually breathed life into him when he took his first breath.

And he knows there's no turning back. When I saw this illustration, it made me think, isn't this all of humanity? Isn't this everybody on planet Earth? Isn't this everyone you know? In some way, shape or form, they are looking back over their shoulder, asking the question, where did I come from?

How did I get here? What is life all about? Is there something more? Maybe they're not putting those words around it in that context. Maybe they're not saying to you it worked. Hey, I know there's got to be something more to life than living and dying. There's got to be something bigger than everything I've experienced. There's an ache in my heart. There's a void in my life. There's got to be somebody or something out there that is more. But that's what people are feeling. And people are looking back and they're trying to figure out, how do I get back to where I came from? How do I get back to Eden? How do I get back to God?

Can you aim again at the mark? And right in that moment, that same enemy that tempted Adam and Eve, he steps right into the equation. He says, yeah, you can get back to God. You can get back to Eden. You can get back on good terms with God. I'll tell you how you do it. You do it with

With religion. And religion can be summed up in the word do. And that is why. Don't you find it interesting that everywhere you go on earth, there's religion. Why? Because everywhere you go on earth, there are people made in the image of God. And they're looking for the God. of Eden. And how do you get back? Well, the religion tells you you got to do. You do enough. You do it in the right way. You do it at the right time. You do it according to all the right rules and regulations. And if you do all that, maybe you'll get back. But there's problems with religion. One of the problems with religion is that you never know when you've done enough.

There's nothing in any religion that says, and when you've done this, and this, and this, and this, you're 100% absolute guaranteed sure that you're gonna be with God in paradise. You're gonna make it back to Eden with God in the end. It's so many people are living on this earth, good people, bad people, nice people, terrible people, living on this earth, just hoping that at the end of the day it all works out. Hoping somehow the good, always the bad, my effort, always my shortcomings, the fact that I tried, gives me some kind of credit at the end. And you talk to so many people that you see every day and say, how sure are you that you are going to be with God and paradise.

They say, I hope so. And we are banking our eternity on a hope. The other problem with religion is not always that never tell you when you've done enough is that we're spiritually dead. We're not bad people, we're dead people, and dead people can't do anything to improve their standing with God. Because all the things that we're doing is just in our own righteousness. And it won't work, it never has. That's what Paul was saying before he said that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He outlines the weakness of the dew to make us righteous in verse 19 of chapter 3, Romans. He says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

Now, I know nobody came to church to hear this today, but just under the grace of God, can we all receive it from God today? Every one of us is going to stand before God. And when we do, we're not going to do any talking. So you don't need to worry about rehearsing the yeah, but, and I was going to, but then I couldn't, and if they had it, I would have, and I tried this, and I did that, and of course you know that there's not gonna be any that God is gonna see into our hearts in a nanosecond, and know everything there is to know about. our lives. Every mouth is going to be silenced in the whole world held accountable to God.

Therefore, no one, my goodness. No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law, by the due, by religion. Rather through the law, we all become conscious of our sin. No one, not the nicest person at your work. is going to be declared righteous by doing enough things to get back to paradise. Not the sweetest person in your family, not the most generous person in your neighborhood. No one is going to be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. Now in our sight, maybe so. You'll hear somebody, maybe not go out super bowl, but I think I'm a pretty good person. In my sight, I think I'm a pretty good person, and maybe they are a pretty good person, and we should applaud that and say, well, congratulations.

That is way better than being a pretty bad person. But it's definitely not the glory of God. It's definitely not the standard of His righteousness. It's definitely not the standard of perfection. It's not the standard of a holy, holy, holy God. I heard recently a friend of mine was telling me about this Olympic shooter. He was a rifle shooter in the Olympics and he had won gold medals. He was in this three-position competition in 2004 at the Olympics and he was on his last shot last position and he was in first place going to win the gold medal. All he's got to do is hit the bulls eye. Get it right in the center of the little thing that's all blown up on the screens for people to see.

He lives up his rifle. He takes a deep breath, pulls the trigger slowly, and the shot goes right in to the bullseye. And no one cheered. Because when he lifted the rifle, he accidentally took aim on the target in the lane of his competitor next door. And he hit the bullseye just in the wrong target. And I think there are people who are doing pretty good at being pretty good people. They're just aimed at the wrong target. They're not hitting the glory of God. They're hitting the target of being a pretty good person. And they're going to wonder why in heaven nobody clapped.

Because when they held the rifle, they were spiritually separated from God, spiritually disconnected from the Creator, spiritually dead. So great shot, nice try. Yes, be a nice person, but that's not how you get back to paradise, is by being a nice person. It's like getting on the Stairmaster. We got any Stairmaster people at Passion City Church. We got any fit. Yes, thank you. One fit person right there. Thank you so much. Anybody else? I'm looking for, yeah, okay, we got two fit people. All right. We're not a real fit bunch. I asked a few weeks ago if anybody was running and there's no response whatsoever. Okay, we got a few stairmaster people going here. The stairmaster is very tricky because you get on there and you work, right?

I mean those stairs, they just keep on coming and you gotta keep on going, they're keeping on coming and you're going and they're coming and you're going and they're coming. Maybe you go 30 minutes, 40 minutes, I don't know, maybe you're gonna go an hour probably, just, you know, I can tell from here, just overachiever. And you're gonna go on that thing and eventually, and it's telling you all kind of information the whole time, but then you're tapping out.

You're back down and you're excited because you just went 45 flights of stairs. But you never got more than 30 inches off the ground.

That's the bad news of the gospel. The gospel is not that sin makes you bad, it's that sin makes you dead, and maybe you stare mastered better than everybody else, but you did it spiritually dead. And you didn't get any closer to the perfection, to the holiness, to the righteousness of God. them when you started.

That's the problem of the gospel, but there's some good news. Look at this in Romans 3, 21. My goodness, this is so incredible. There's a big conjunction here that tells us the scene is changing. Don't you like that? But now. But now, apart from the law, that's apart from the one thing that they had. The Israelites only had 10 things. They couldn't do the 10 things. And we've got a whole higher standard because Jesus said, if you covet what your neighbor has, you might as well have stolen it. If you're angry with your coworker, you might as well have killed them. If you look at someone with a lustful thought, you might as well have gone through with it.

And now we're all cooked because the standard is so high. It's our thoughts, it's our attitudes, it's our motives, everything about us. But now apart from our effort, The righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. They've been telling us there's a new thing coming.

This righteousness is given, not earned, through faith in what? In who? How? In faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe. This word, believe here, let's don't get tripped up on this. That doesn't mean simply, oh great, because I believe in God, so I'll be okay. No, that's not what it's saying here. I believe in Jesus, so I'll be okay. No. What this is denoting here, if you read the context of Romans is, I put my trust for my salvation and my standing with God in the finished work of Jesus. in his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, in his exchange of his innocence for my guilt, of his life, for my death, of his righteousness, for my unrighteousness.

That exchange was enough to bring me from death to life and into a new relationship with God. I believe it. I trust it with everything I've got. I am trusting in the finished work of Jesus. And when I do that and put faith in Christ, I'm given righteousness. There's no difference between Jew and Gentile. That simply means if you think you're close, okay? If you think you're really far, okay? If you think you're pretty good, if you think you're pretty bad, if you think you deserve it, think you don't deserve it, fine, great. There's no difference here, okay? This is true of everybody because all, there's our verse,

All have sinned. Those who thought they were close and those who thought they were far. All have sinned in false short of the glory of God. I love this. We've preached on this so much at our church. I hope that you could preach this sermon. When I grew up, I was convinced that there was a big fat period at the end of Romans 3.23.

It was like a banner. It was almost an identity. For all of us, and then fall short of the glory of God, and let the people say, Amen.

And that became an identity. I'm a fall shorter, you're a fall shorter. I fall short, you fall short. What does that mean? I send you sin. We're sin. We're sin. We sin and we are sinners. We fall short. That's who we are. That's what we do. That's our identity. And then someone came along and said, oh no, that's not our identity. We're not just a bunch of sinners. We are sinners saved by grace.

And then people were like, hey, I'll get behind that. Can I tell you today, the fact that As a believer, you would take on the identity, I'm just a sinner, terrible theology. The fact that as a believer, you would tap out and top out at, I'm just a believer saved by grace, terrible theology. There are so much more on the other side of the gospel. And when you understand that there is not a period at the end of Romans 3.23, Romans 3.23 is not a complete sentence. There is a huge, glorious comma at the end, meaning there's more in this story and what is the more, and all, and who are the all? These people up here who have believed, all say this word with me, are what?

Oh, come on, say it with me, they're what? They're justified freely by his grace. What is grace? That's God doing it. That's when we know that we can't do it. God comes and does it, and how did God do it? He did it through the redemption, the buyback plan, the reclamation project that came by Christ Jesus' period. Now, it's a way more complex sentence in the original language, but let's just take that one there. That is the gospel. Not that sin makes you bad, but that sin makes you dead, but here's the truth. It is not that Jesus came from heaven to make bad people, better people. No, Jesus came from heaven to bring bad people.

I mean, dead people back to life again and to give them a brand new identity and him.

We went and preached this message to 60,000 people. And the 60,000 people, most of them could finish the verse for all the sin and fall short of the glory of God. But I ask every night, can anyone finish that sentence? And then I just waited. There might be 34,000 people in here, but we'll wait.

Night after night, city after city. not one person. I said, over here, if you can run a mic back, I can finish it. Get it right here, okay? I got it. Not one person. Now maybe there was a person and they just didn't want to get into it.

And now I've realized that the enemy has sold us half of the truth. Now understand, the half of the truth that we've got is 100% true. It's just not 100% of the truth.

For all of sin in false sure the glory of God and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Justified. So what does justified mean? Mary Webster says that justified means to be made righteous,

To be made righteous. So I am definitely not just a sinner, I am alive in Christ. I am not even just a sinner saved by grace. I am a sinner saved by grace justified in Christ a new creation and a new position with God. When I was growing up and they were teaching us about justification, that big word, they said, justified. It's just as if I'd never sinned.

It's not me having enough righteousness to get back to the mark of the standard, the glory of God. It's God giving me in Christ a new standing with him and a new position with him and a new identity in him. It's him giving me the gift of righteousness in Christ. That's the whole gospel. I have a brand new identity in God.

No, I know that's hard for you to process. It's hard for me to process. I remember sitting in a friend's living room when I was in seminary in Texas, first grad school experience and I'm at this Bible study and this guy is talking about our new identity and my mind is kind of being blown because I grew up in an incredible church and I knew a lot of truth to the scripture and a lot of the gospel but I really didn't fully understand my identity in Christ. And he was teaching on this passage from Matthew 5. This is Jesus talking. And he's saying to this group of people, for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now this would have been a breakdown moment for someone sitting there going, you're pointing at the chief doers among us. These are the Stairmaster Kings right here, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They get it all right. They check all the boxes. They know how to walk on the right side of the road. They know what to eat, what not to eat, who to talk to, what not to talk to, what day you can do it, what day you can't do it. They got all this stuff packed up in a big neat understanding. And Jesus looks at these people and said, unless you're more righteous than them, you're not coming to paradise. You're not going to be a part of the kingdom of God, unless you're more righteous than them.

And somebody could have said, well, how are we going to do more than them? And Jesus said exactly, exactly, great question. You're not going to do more than them, because that's not how you get righteous by doing more than them. You get righteous by me doing what you cannot do in your place.

And that's why if religion is summed up, you can clap for that. Don't let people rain on your celebration, I would. That's why if do sums up religion, it's the NE that we champion at Passion City Church. Come on. That's what faith in Jesus is all about. It's not about do. It's about understanding it on the cross. He said it is finished. what is finished

My innocent death to bring you into a new standing with God. Me becoming guilty so that the guilty can become innocent in me. It is done right here and right now for anyone and everyone who believes in the finished work. of Jesus. It is all ready, done. It may be hard for you to grab that because you know, you still can sin. It's just that you're not a sinner. It's not your identity. Or you can choose still to turn and go your own way. And we do. But that's not who we are. And when we do make bad decisions and choices, the enemy comes really quickly around and say, see, I told you, don't buy that stuff.

They're preaching at Passion City Church. You're a center and you know it. And we go, yeah, I guess you're right, because I'll blew it again. Or I'm not feeling it today. I'm not feeling really righteous today. I'm not feeling really justified today. In fact, you hardly ever hear anybody say that. Talk to followers of Jesus. You'll hear them say, I'm saved, I'm forgiven, I'm loved, I'm a son, I'm a daughter, all of which are true. You rarely hear a person following Jesus saying, praise God, I'm justified.

Why? Because it makes us sound like we're up on our moral high horse, right? Better than everybody else. But no, we're not up on a moral high horse. We're down on our knees going, dear God, at the foot of the cross, I look up to you in gratitude that you took me from death to life and from guilty to innocent. And you gave me your righteousness so that now I have a new standing with God. I am justified by my God.

I've been made righteous. in him. My goodness, this song just totally blew me up this year. Anybody else? This song, The Blood,

Came out of left field one Sunday at Cumberland and knocked me for a loop.

And we just sing it. And it was going off, I'd say, wouldn't you? And what were we declaring? Did it's never been about performance? Ain't no stairmaster gonna get you back to God? Or perfection? Or striving for acceptance? No, it's only by the blood. It's never been about deserving. Nobody in this room deserves it. It's never been about earning. Dead people can't earn anything. It's a gift that is freely given. Let me tell you, it is only by the blood. It's going back to Gustav Dorek, and it's amazing lithographic when Adam and Eve are coming out of Eden. They have these garments on that God made. God made these. He killed an animal. Blood was shed

Because he didn't want them going out naked in a shame. And so he, God made a sacrifice. Blood was spilled in Eden.

To make a covering for their nakedness. But God already had a better plan in Eden. In the better plan in Eden that God had was gonna lead all the way to across. Another sacrifice where different blood was gonna be shed. This program does not like the cross. I've been going away all morning.

Another sacrifice. Different blood shed. Innocent blood of the Son of God shed. It's never been about performance or perfection. It's about the cross and what God did there. And so then we sang this declaration, come on. Does anybody want to be, say it with me, holy, and there's our word, in righteous, purified, in spotless, let me tell you, it's only by the blood. And this isn't, hey, I hope that when I land on heaven's shore, I'll be holy and I'll be made righteous and I'll be justified. Now, this is how you land on heaven's shore. This is why you can land on heaven's shore. This is why you can know God now and you can be with God forever.

Why? Because He has made us new. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood does anybody want to be worthy, forgiven, justified? Woo! Really living. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Praise God for the innocent life of Jesus, His blood shed on a cross for the sins of the entire world across all ages and epochs. Praise God that when He gave His life, we were able to receive His righteousness as a gift from God. Does anybody want to be holy? and righteous, purified, and spotless. Well, that's who you are if you're in Christ. Does anybody want to be worthy and forgiven, justified, and really living? That's who you are if you are in Christ

Jesus. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. And Satan would be happy for you to leave today and take your Bible and your notes and Here, man, we had such a good gathering at church today and go on your way and listen to your Christian podcast tomorrow and

Just not fully know and act like you are justified. The ministry of condemnation is done. Satan got nothing on you. guilt. That is ancient history at the cross. He's got nothing on you. Shame. God said, I don't want to make a covering for your shame, but then Jesus came and He didn't change us. Hello, thank you the blood from the outside in. The blood changes us from the inside out.

Shame's done. Justified people don't carry rocks. Justify people know who they are. And then they live like it. They don't do the right thing to try to become the right thing. They do the right thing because they've been made the right thing.

And so they think, what is the right thing? I want to do that. What's the right path? I want to get on that. Why do you want to do that? Because I'm right. In God's eyes, I've been made righteous. What's the right thing? I want to cheer for the right thing, not the wrong thing. I want to invest in the right thing, not the wrong thing. I want to invite my friends to the right thing, not to the wrong thing. I want to be found partying over the right thing, not over the wrong thing. I want to be found on the right road, because I have been made righteous. I hate to bring it up again, but Freddie Freeman.

Anybody? Freddie Freeman, do we still remember Freddie? Just one, another World Series. No, please tell me you're not a Dodger's fan, back there.

We have so many locations. How did you end up in this location at this time? It must be the sovereign will of God.

He won a World Series as a Los Angeles Dodger. Do you know why he did that? It's very simple because one, they're stacked. two, he's phenomenal, and three, he's a Dodger.

As soon as that deal went down and we don't need to get into that,

He was no longer a brave, and he is at that instant a Los Angeles Dodger. He might not have felt like at the next morning, it didn't matter. His identity, new, his baseball identity, new, changed, done, deal, signed. You can put on a brave hoodie if you want, but you're not a brave. When the Dodgers came to Atlanta, he could have gone and sat in the Atlanta dugout. Still not a brave.

He's a Dodger. And you and I have the choice today to go back and put on the old clothes. and go to the old places and act like the old us, but that's not who we are. That's not who we are. That's why God encourages us to put on who we are,

To wear what we have become in Christ, and to walk it out in our lives. You've been made righteous from the inside out.

So yes, we want to grow spiritually, amen? Yes, we want to become everything God is designed for us to be. We want to get in this word and let this word get in us. We want to mature in our faith, but not so that we can get closer to the standard of the holiness of God, but because God has made us in Christ to be new people, holy, righteous, justified in Christ.