Acts 13:13-52

So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:“Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen.”

Sermon Transcript:

I invite you to take your Bibles as we return again to the Book of Acts. We’re gonna be looking at Acts chapter 13 this morning. Acts chapter 13.

We have a sermon. About a sermon this morning. Basically, this is a sermon. It’s the Apostle Paul’s first recorded sermon. We’re gonna hear. Paul is a preacher For the first time, there’ve been some pretty awesome gifts that have been given in world history, a lot of them romantic gifts. Joe DiMaggio, the former husband of Marilyn Monroe, when she died, contacted the Parisian florist in Los Angeles and put it in order.

And here was the order I would like six long stemmed red roses to be placed on Maryland’s grave three times a week forever. Didn’t quite last forever. After 20 years, he finally canceled the order, but for 20 years, three times a week, those long stem roses. We’re put on her grave. King Neba Kezer married a woman from MI Media, modern day Iran.

She missed a mountain greenery so much that he developed the hanging gardens of Babylon for her. One of the seven wonders of the world, Emperor Shaw. Johan dearly loved his wife, Moonage Mahal heartbroken. After she died in 1631, giving birth to their 14th child, he commissioned 20,000 workers to build a structure of white marble as a monument.

To her memory, it was called the Taj Mahal. Taj means Crown Mahal was her name. It was her Crown Maha’s crown. In 1875, August Baroldi and Alexander Eiffel began working a gift from France to honor the 100. Year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The gift was to show honor for the American Vision for Democracy.

In 1884, they shipped their piece of art to the United States and a and a variety of ships because it came in 350 pieces was erected in New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty was raised. There have been some awesome, cool gifts, thoughtful gifts, costly gifts, but none compared to the gift that Paul is going to talk about here in Acts chapter 13, as he presents God’s great gift to humanity.

Here in Acts 13, in Paul’s first recorded sermon, he talks about that great gift. I’d like to read about it here in Acts chapter 13, and I’m gonna pick up down in verse 16 and go to verse 37. So Paul stood up motioning with his hand and said, Men of Israel and knew who fear God. Listen, the God of this people.

Israel chose our fathers and made people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm. He, he led them out and for 30, 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years, and after that he gave them judges until Samuel, the prophet.

Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king of whom he testified and said, I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart who will do all my will. Of this man’s offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior Jesus as he promised before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

And as John was finishing his course, he said, What do you suppose that I am? I’m not he, No. But behold after me, one is coming the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God to us, has been sent the message of this salvation for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him, nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read.

Every Sabbath fulfilled them by con, by condemning him. And though they found him not guilty, worthy of guilt, they founded him. No guilt worthy of death. They asked Pilot to have him execut. And when they had carried out all it was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children by raising Jesus as is also written in the second Psalm.

You are my son today. I’ve begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy ensure blessing of David. Therefore, he says also in another Psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption for David after he had served the purpose of God in his generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he and God raised up did not see corruption.

Let it be known to you. Therefore brothers. That though this, through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Let’s pray together.

Lord, there are truths in this passage which are deeply meaningful to me. God, I pray as we look at this passage and as we try to track with the apostle Paul and this lengthy and lofty sermon, Lord, may we see the one that he seemed so intent on us seeing. May we see Christ? May we see the glory of Christ.

May we see the glory of the, the plan about Christ and the story of Christ. May we love him more. May we be more stunned with our redemption because of what we read in this passage this morning. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As we look at this passage, we are looking at a passage that actually is introduced in the verses just before we read, which was telling the story of the people of Israel, excuse me, not the people, Paul and Barnabas, who had been, uh, on their missionary journey. If we can bring up that map quickly. and the map of, here we are with them.

I did remember my pointer this week. Um, and you just followed these guys and they had left from Antioch. They had been sent out and as they went they went down to Cyprus, which was where Barnabas actually was from. Um, then they went over, they left there and on their way up and the versus just before the sermon, it says that John Mark left them.

And that was an ominous note because we believe he left cuz he was spooked or upset or something. But he deserted them and that will be a cause of conflict Later on in the book of Acts where Paul and Barnabas will go out again. Barnabas wants take John Mark. Paul doesn’t want to because of the way he deserted them, but as they continued up here, Paul and Barnabas went up and they went to this area right there into another Antioch.

They left Antioch of Syria. They’re now up in Antioch of PAs, Pisidia, and it is here that we read this sermon that Paul is preaching. The interesting thing about this sermon is they’re doing it in a synagogue. They’ve gone in on the Sabbath, they’ve sat down and they’re there, and apparently somebody, or somebody’s noses.

Paul, probably because of his heritage as being a student of Gaal, the leading, uh, Jewish leader of the day, and they invite him to do what often happened in synagogues, in synagogue worship. What they did was they had a, they had a reading from the Torah. Then they had a reading, which was the first five books of the Old Testament.

Then they had a reading from the prophets, and then they had somebody give a commentary on it, and often they would turn to a guest speaker and say, Would you be willing to do the commentary for us today? That’s what’s happening. And Paul is standing up and, and he’s got a message for him they hadn’t seen coming.

And in the sermon he presents four parts. About God’s great gift to humanity. And here we read in verse 16 to 25, we read the first part how God prepared his great gift to humanity. God is the subject of virtually every verb that is presented in these, in these verses, in verses 16 to 25. As he’s talking about God in the past had prepared the way for this great gift that he’s given you, humanity.

And it says things like this. God led the people out. God put up with them, and he’s talking about the history of Israel. God gave them the land. God gave them judges. God gave them soul. God raised up David. None of their history he says is random because they are it. It’s not about, it’s about a God that is not random, that the whole story is he is accomplishing his purposes in history.

He says, David is the rightful king of God’s people and the Messiah, Jesus will be the risen and reigning king as his descendant . The whole thing is reminding us history is God’s story. It is his story. It is presenting a plan, and God is using, orchestrating all these events for these 2200 years of Israel’s history.

Paul is saying it’s all been leading to one person. It’s all been leading to the the Messianic King, the promised Anointed one, and his name is Jesus the Christ Jesus, the anointed one. It gives a clue of how to read the Old Testament, that it’s part, that everything is part of a bigger story, that there is creation.

And then there is the fall, and then the majority of the Bible is talking after Genesis one, the creation, Gen one and two, Genesis three, the fall in the latter part of Genesis three, all the way up to the end of the Book of Revelation, God is presenting the story of redemption. It’s what? World history.

It’s his story. He’s presenting this story of the one who comes as the redeemer and from the beginning in verse 23, as he talks about, of this man’s David offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior Jesus as he promised. Our pastors are involved in a training process. We go twice a year to a thing called Word, part Word partners.

It’s a, uh, Bible. It’s actually a preacher training program. Uh, we go up to Clark Summit. We’re there with Steven Merck. Um, Younger Dave Merck is a part of it. We’ve had Jeremiah Davidson there, we’ve had instructors. We’re doing it again this Tuesday through Thursday. We’re going up and we are going to go up and basically what we’re, we’re, we’re being, uh, given opportunities to practice principles of.

Preaching the scriptures exegesis, uh, which means to take the passage and get the truth out of it. To lead out is literally what Exegesis ioes is, is is putting it in. And that’s not what you wanna do with preaching. You don’t want to put in your thoughts and find it text. Oh, good. That might support this.

I’ll throw that one in. No, the idea is you hear what the text is about and you teach it. Well, we’re, we’re going to, First and second Samuel are the books that we’ve been studying in preparation for these couple of days together. And it’s fascinating as you read First Samuel, it’s all about David as king as he’s talking about.

And, and the striking thing is in First Samuel, it starts with the period of the judges and then the people after those 400 years, they say, You know, we don’t wanna have God as our king, where he just says, temporary judges. He raises up that there’s no human authority over. We want a king. And God says, Don’t do it.

And they say, We will want a king. And he, and, and so finally they give a. And Saul comes, and he’s warned them, Sue Sammy, you know, here are the things that are gonna happen if you have a human king, and it’s gonna be, he’s gonna be despotic and he’s, all these things are gonna take place. All those things take place with Saul.

Saul’s removed. And then God appoints David as the king. And he says, I’m, and, and, and it’s put in here in, in Paul’s message. He says, David was a man after his own heart. David was the line that he chose to be the line for Christ, the Messiah to come. And you look at this thing and you think, Wow. Basically what’s happening here in First Samuel is God’s just accommodating, uh, the, the, the folly of the people.

You know, he didn’t want a king, but he’s given him a king. But then you realize there are prophecies before the book of First Samuel where God says, There’s going to be a king. He’s gonna come from the line of Judah. And so this whole plan has been, and you realize as you look at First Samuel, And you put it together with what he’s saying here in Acts chapter 13, God is even able to take the folly of humans and incorporate it into his plan and somehow accomplish his purposes.

And Paul’s saying, This is what’s going on guys. God has been at work for all these millennia of time, and it’s all pointing to this great gift that he’s gonna give to humans. It’s happened now in your generation. He says It’s happened in the person of Jesus, the Christ. He is the one that is coming, and God has been orchestrating this whole enterprise all of this time.

The second thing we read about in his sermon, what Jesus did to accomplish God’s great gift. In verse 26 to 37, he talks about this, and first of all, he talks about how the religious leaders aided Jesus in his work. This, it’s an amazing thing. He says He, he says this in verse 26. Let me read it to you.

Brothers, Sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God to us has been sent the message of this salvation for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they didn’t recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath. So here’s what he’s saying.

First of all, the Messiah came and the religious leaders missed it. The one who is prophesied about who they have been anticipating all these centuries. He says, First of all, they didn’t recognize him. Second of all he says, They didn’t understand the prophecies about him, even though they read them every Sabbath.

Paul says, Worse. They had no basis on which to condemn him, but they got him. They got pilot to condemn him and execute him. But here’s the thing that Paul then throws in. He says, But in rejecting and executing him, they fulfilled God’s plan for Jesus dying and rising from the dead. Notice verse 27 of this passage here in Act 13, they had the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, and they fulfilled those prophecies by condemning.

And though they found him in verse 28, they found no guilt worthy of death. They asked Pate to have him executed, and when they had carried out, all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. Here’s what he’s saying. They had these prophecies for their whole life, for centuries.

They’d been waiting. They gather in the Sabbath, in the synagogue, and they gather in the temple, and they, they quote these prophecies. And when Jesus came, they didn’t see it. As a matter of fact, they completely misunderstood those prophecies, and they actually put into death they were crazed in their, their, uh, vehement against him.

They, they created trumped up charges against him. And he said it was horrible stuff they did, but in doing it, they were fulfilling God’s plan to have Christ executed and be buried. and rise from the day, and he said God was over. Even that, that’s why he says in Peter’s sermon, said the exact same thing.

He says in Acts chapter two, he’s talking to the religious leaders there and he says, You by wicked hands crucified Christ, but he says, You fulfill the determinate counsel and pleasure and purposes of God, that even in their folly, even in their rebellion, somehow God was going to bring about this matchless gift to humankind.

God was at work. We see in verse 30 how God the Father aided Jesus in his work, but God raised him from the dead. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children by raising Jesus. The raising of Jesus from the dead was the fulfilling of the prophecies of David and others that Jesus would rise as the risen Christ, the risen king.

It’s interesting, there’s a verse here of verse 35. I just won’t point this out cuz it stood out to me in verse 35, a chapter 13. He’s quoting Psalm 16, verse 10, where David said, Lord, for you will not abandon my soul to the grave or let your holy one seed decay the, And then what Paul does, he said, David said this, but, and if you read Psalm 16, it’s a very personal Psalm of David, but he says David wasn’t talking about himself because David did die and David’s body did decay.

He was talking about Christ who died, but was in the grave, but was not in the grave long enough for his body to decay. Now, I actually did some research. I was curious to know how long it takes for a body to decay. By the way, this is not a savory, uh, research. I don’t, And, and then half of you’re gonna be diving your phone, say, How long does it take?

But I’m telling you, you won’t be glad if you hear the process of decaying. But what I can tell you is it takes a minimum of three to five days for the body to start decay. Jesus was in the grave, literally two and a half days, three days, uh, is the definition by, by the reckoning. But basically his body did not see dec.

But Davids did. God says all this was happening by the determinant council and and pleasure of God, that, that God was, I mean, he, here are the religious leaders and they think they’ve beaten Jesus. And, and, and all the time it says they were fulfilling the very prophecies. They didn’t know what was going on, but they were the fulfillment of the prophecy by Jesus actually being crucified.

The cross and resurrection were God’s design. He used the rejection of the people to fulfill his plan and purposes. This God is big. This redemption is glorious. The third thing we read, and now I just wanna read versus 38 to 41 again here is really, here’s the, really the focus of the sermon. This is where he is going.

This is the kicker. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Be aware they’re left. Therefore less what is said and the prophet should come about.

Look, you scoffers, be astounded. In perished for what I am doing. A work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you. We, he tells them how people receive God’s great gift. Notice what he says in verse 39. There is a forgiveness that is available by everyone who believes and actually says, Not only do you have this forgiveness, you have this.

That’s saving faith, placing your trust in Jesus Christ that these individuals and a few, and some of the Jews will do that there in the synagogue the following week, he’ll come back and, and is preaching again. But this time the, the mucky mucks in the town, the religious leaders ha, have risen against him.

And so he actually takes his message on the road outside of the synagogue to the Gentiles, same message. The great gift is given and they’re all excited cuz a number of them embrace Christ as savior. But he says those that embraced Christ, those that believed with the recipients of this great gift. So what does that mean?

Just simply, what does it mean that they believed? Well, of course it doesn’t mean just intellectual belief. It doesn’t mean just because we’re told in James chapter two that the devils the demons belief. But they have not embraced Christ as their savior and Lord, it just means they intellectually know. I, we had a family picnic, uh, last weekend, and my niece was there and, and Patience has, uh, had had some back stuff going on.

And I, and I, and I said, I’m, I’m, and I’m sitting there like a fat cat on my, uh, we, we, we learned from Mike and Joe Candy, They get us into this, this, um, who are experts at soccer games and going to soccer games, and they, they, I saw them one time in a game sitting in a, a, a chair that rocked, you know, just the kind that, you know, you unfold, but this baby rock.

So I got one. I love it. I love it. I wish I’d had it many years ago when my kids were all playing soccer. But, but, so I’m sitting there in my, my rocker and I said to pace, you hi man. You ought try this out. And, and there was a degree of interest. And then I said, and I remembered it back and I just said, Well, you know, just.

Just don’t tilt back too far. Cuz I’ve had a couple of close calls cuz I, I, I rock enthusiastically. Well, I could see the change in perspective on her face. And I said, so I got, Do you wanna try? Uh, no. I, I, I said what? It’ll hold you. Oh, I know, I know. It’ll hold me, Uncle Mark, but I’m good. I’m good now.

Patients believed, and I do think she saw me. I’m bigger and I didn’t fall over. And I think she, But patients had not entrusted herself into the chair. She believed in it. But how would she entru, how would she show her trusting faith? She’d sit down, she’d rock. She hadn’t entrusted herself to the chair.

These individuals didn’t just believe. Yeah, Jesus is the. Oh, he’s my savior. I am taking, I’m entrusting myself to Jesus Christ. I’m receiving him personally as my Savior. As my Lord. That’s what happened to some of these individuals. They looked and they thought, Oh my goodness, God has been working, orchestrating, planning.

He even chose David as the king. So, and he became the line that he would choose as the forefather, and all the promises were directing all these centuries towards Christ. And he’s come and he’s come and he, and he’s been crucified just as they prophesied, but people didn’t get it. But then he’s been raised from the dead victorious, and now offers salvation and forgiveness and freedom.

They received this great gift by their own faith. That was their part. But verse 48 tells us God’s part. And there we’re told about the Gentiles. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed this phrase, the latter part of it, as many as were appointed to eternal life, believe is in keeping with the emphasis on God’s sovereignty.

We see in this sermon, it’s emphasizing God’s role in this salvation. After the Jews at large, certainly not all of them reject Paul’s message. He turns to the Gentiles and he says, Those that were appointed to eternal life belief, they entrusted themself to the rocker, if you will. They, they gave their heart and life, they yielded their, their eternal destiny to Christ and what he had done for them on the cross and in the resurrection.

Now, this of course, is a confusing statement. because it declares that those who believed had been appointed to that belief. Appointed implies chosen, ordained a review of the other uses of the word appointed. In the Book of Acts. Quite honestly, support that sense of the word. Here’s two of them. The two, two prominent ones, Acts chapter 15, verse two.

Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and the elders about this question. They were picked, they were chosen in Acts chapter 22, verse 10. And I said, What shall I do Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus. And there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do what’s been chosen for you to do.

The sense is that those who believed on Jesus here in verse 38 48 had been elected or chosen or appointed to that belief. The argument is that God moved first. . And that’s why they believed that in Grace, he appointed them to salvation and they believed as a result. Now, I’m not gonna get into the questions, the legitimate, understandable questions that are here about fairness, about what abouts, what abouts, what abouts.

There are those questions of legitimate questions. And I’m glad to traffic with you in those questions, just not right now. But I do wanna say this about this. This doctrine of election of God’s grace in salvation is what I believe the Bible teaches. It has been for me, a decidedly, deeply precious doctrine.

In my darkest no moments, to know that God wanted me pursued me, that God chose me to be His child has been a humbling consoling. And liberating doctrine. For me personally, it does not diminish the concept that these people are only believers because they personally chose to believe in Jesus Christ.

That’s why they belong to him. No one can reconcile God’s sovereignty on one side and human responsibility on the others, but none of us are God.

When I talk about this doctrine come across a passage, I often use this story, which I feel is helpful. My father-in-law was a great storyteller, great professor, and legendary storyteller actually, and you didn’t want to get on a situation where you did something embarrassing with that around because it would become legendarily family lore, and.

Okay. He told the story, They, they, uh, they lived in northern Michigan and where they lived, uh, they were in a small church and they often had preachers come in that were, uh, characters, I’ll say. Um, and one guy dad told the story about this guy came in and he had a classic statement. He was talking about how God had led him to come and preach at their church that Sunday, and here was his statement.

God brought me here, but I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t come. Okay. You think about that,

that’s the best definition of the doctrine of election I’ve ever heard. To me, if you are a child of God, you have come to him through believing in Jesus Christ as your savior. You had to come.

but you wouldn’t have come if God didn’t bring it here. Now we, there are real struggles and I, I get ’em all, but to me, there’s beauty also. This whole passage of Acts chapter 13 is highlight God. It’s all about God. It’s all about God’s big grace. The fourth thing is what we get, What people get in God’s great gift.

First of all, they get forgiveness. Paul tells us is in verse 38, through this man’s forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. He says this, Jesus, who’s the culmination of all history to this point, God orchestrating all the affairs towards Christ, and he says, the first thing you get in him is forgiveness that he bore on the cross.

The punishment, the penalty for your sins. You can be forgiven eternally, unconditionally, absolutely, completely. But then Paul says something else was given the freedom from the verdict of falling short. I, I gotta tell you, I love this. This is the part of the sermon. Just don’t zone me out on this one.

This, this part is too important to me. Here’s what he says in verse 39, And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. He says, Not only did you get forgiveness, you got freed from that, which the law of Moses could not free you. What does that mean?

He’s talking about here, the other aspect of the work of Jesus on the cross, which is essential for salvation, which is essential for a person being a child of God, which is essential for a person going to heaven. It is not enough to have your sins forgiven.

Mark, that sounds borderline heretical. Hang with me at the end of verse 38. The verdict would be this. If you have breathed and Jesus Christ is your savior, you are forgiven of your sin. You are now in a state of innocence. It’s as if you never sinned. And that’s what some people, how some people describe the, the, the doctrine of justification.

Just as if I never sin. I would suggest to you that is not the doctrine of, of justification. That is only a part of it. That it’s more than just as if I never sin because the basis. Of heaven. The basis of a relationship of with God is not innocence. That’s just taking us back to where Adam and Eve were originally, They hadn’t sinned.

That is not the basis of living with God forever. The, the basis of living with God forever is righteousness. That we have done what God has told us to do. We have lived the life righteously. Every religion on the world recognizes the standard of, of relationship with God, of heaven ultimately is fulfilling righteousness in that sense.

Their right God, Jesus himself says the standard is perfection. He talks about this on the, on the, on the sermon on the Mount. So we find him saying, Look, I want you to understand that what Jesus did for you, freed you from. That which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. You had a verdict that declared you unworthy of eternal life, unworthy of relationship with God, unworthy of heaven.

It isn’t just that you were forgiven of your sins and entered innocence, that you are now freed from that standing. The goal is not a verdict of innocence. The goal is a verdict of righteousness. So we look at Romans chapter three, which is a parallel passage to verse 39 here, and Paul concludes this section in Romans three, and he says this.

Now we know that whatever the law teach says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth can be stopped and the whole world may be accountable to God for by works of the law. No human being will be justified in his sight since through the law. Comes knowledge of sin. So Paul’s saying, if you’re trying, if, if you’re hoping that you’re going to earn eternal life by your life, you’re going to fail.

Well, thank you, Paul. I mean, that’s a, that’s a very helpful conclusion, Lu. So what do you got from me, Paul? Well, Paul is saying exactly here what he says in verse 39 of this passage. He’s saying, Look, you can’t get it from fulfilling the law of Moses. You can’t do it. You’re not gonna measure up. Matter of fact, the law declares everybody not meeting the standard.

So what does Paul do next in Romans chapter three, verse 31, the very next verse, I’ll tell you what you and I would do. Here’s what we would do. We’d look at this thing and we’d say, Okay, here’s the test. The standard of a relationship with God is by being righteous, but nobody’s righteous. We’d be a teacher, like a teacher, like most teachers would do if you did an exam and every member of your class flunked.

As a matter of fact, the high grade was a 59. Most teachers would say, Mmm, I’ve got some really good students in this class, and, uh, you know, it’s possible. Maybe the test was too hard, so maybe I’ll do one of two things. Maybe I’ll redo the test. Let’s, let’s try this second swing, or we’ll grade on a curve, right?

I’m gonna make the 58. This kid that’s never had any a in her entire life, we’re gonna look at her at 59 and say, that’s gonna be now the, the standard that’s gonna be an A or maybe a B cuz you just can’t stand to give an A for 59. But basically you’re grading on a curve and so, so you’re trying to bring everybody up to where they really seems like they would belong.

You’re great on a curve. Well, that’s what we would do in Roman chapter three when he says nobody can do it by their works. We would say, You know what the great news, God dumbed down the standard. God said, This is too hard, too hard. My bad, kind of messed up on this baby. Look, I just need everybody to get Ds and, and your 59 is now, it’s a 94 Now the problem is God is not a bad teacher.

I don’t mean you’re a bad teacher if you’ve ever done that, by the way, but, uh, God knows exactly why we didn’t measure up in righteousness. We didn’t want to. We went our own way. We said living righteously means I’m living under authority. It means I’m doing what God wants. It means I’m making God’s glory more than my glory.

Then I, I don’t want it that none of us fulfill the standard of righteousness, but God doesn’t dumb down the curve. We can just bring up that visual just to, Don’t I have a visual? It says something about, Yes, Thank you. Well, it’s not really visual, is it? Uh, Christianity does not dumb down the standard by great.

No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t change it, It doesn’t make it easier. It doesn’t dumb it down. So we can, we can pass. So what did he do? Well, Romans chapter three, verse 31, and this passage here in Acts is saying the same thing. What happened was Jesus Christ not only died bearing the punishment for your sin and your sins were laid on Christ, and he bore the punishment for them.

He became liable for your sins in the same transaction. He takes all of the righteousness that he has earned in his life by living completely obediently in every thought, word or deed. And he says that righteousness is laid to your account. Justification is not just just as if I never sind. It is also just as if I always ob.

I stand with Christ’s report card. I stand with his standing. Yeah, my junk was laid on Christ, and they’re on the cross. It says that the sins of, you know, the guy that was killed or the woman that was killed, they would actually right there a placard that listed their sins. Well, it says in Galatians chapter three that our sins were inscribed on the cross of Christ.

What does that mean? He was dying for your stuff, but that’s not all. He also was saying, I’ll take all that you’ve done and I’ll be liable as if I am the guilty center for every single piece of it. But now all the righteousness that I’ve done when I was in the garden and I was sweating drops of blood and I said, Lord, if you can remove this cup from me.

but not my will. Yours be done. That righteousness was laid to your account . It’s as if you stood in that garden. It’s as if you fulfilled all righteousness. We are not just given a verdict of innocence with our sins forgiven. We are given a verdict of righteousness that we stand in the very acceptance of Jesus Christ.

And Paul says of the mosaic law could couldn’t free you in this way. The Mosaic law, you can’t fulfill this. You can’t have this freedom of now being declared acceptable, righteous in any other place. But this guy, and I’m coming to tell you about, The one that’s been promised and prophesied through all these millennia of time, Jesus Christ came to give you the greatest gift that has ever been offered to a human being.

The gift of forgiveness. The gift of righteousness, the gift of eternal life. Lord, we come to you this morning.

God, we stand stunned in the acceptance you’ve given us. In Jesus Christ, we stand stunned in the forgiveness that he provided for us. And Lord Jesus, how we love you that you came to live this life, to fulfill righteousness through all those years, to accrue to us righteousness. Not only were you taking our sin, you were giving us your standing

Lord, how we love you for it. In your name, amen. Now go on. Peace to love and serve. Enjoy the work.