4 07 23

Good. Have a seat. Um, I'm going to pray for us this evening, this Good Friday, a day that we remember Jesus's finished work on the cross for us. Lord, your word tells us for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We come to you this evening and we ask Lord that our affections would be stirred as we remember this finished work on the cross. That all of our sin, all of our shame, all of our guilt has been poured out on Christ for our sake so that we might become the righteousness of God.

That our adoption into the family of God would be complete. and Lord, our sins would be white as snow and that you would look at us with delight. And so let us remember that this evening, this Good Friday in Jesus name. Amen. Good evening. My name is Josh.

I'm one of the lead pastors here at the district church. And I want to ask this question this evening about Good Friday. What makes it good? Good Friday is an odd phrase because we recognize and know that somebody died. And not just someone, but the sinless, spotless, perfect, incarnate Christ. And if anyone did not deserve to die, it would be him.

And yet, as we read in Hebrews chapter 12, the author writes, "For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and is now seated at the right hand of God. He did this willingly and with joy set before him, he endured the cross on our behalf." But why do we call this Good Friday? Why would we call a death good? Especially because death goes against everything that God created and brings into this world. But the Bible shows us that our position before God is guilty.

We are guilty because of sin and we are separated because of that unrighteousness. From Genesis 3 on till today, we see the destruction of sin and the separation that it has caused between God and man. This is what God meant when he commanded Adam and Eve, "Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat, you shall surely die." In God's grace, we see that they did not suffer immediate death that day, but death did come. Augustine would go on to write about the kind of death that Adam and Eve received and through them all mankind.

He said, "If it be asked what death would be given, we answer bodily, spiritually, and eternally. It was all all three of those. No longer were their bodies free from sin. Now they were marred by sin and they had a slow decay. No longer did they have the presence of God in the Garden of Eden. And no longer did they have that spiritual rest that they once knew.

Because as Paul tells us in Romans 6, the wages of sin is death. Adam and Eve died bodily, spiritually, and eternally. And because of that we also because of sin separated from God can die bodily, spiritually and eternally. And from this day the corruption and fracturing of relationships between God and man and even man and woman have come through Adam and Eve's sin. As you read through the end of Genesis 3, you also see that this separation happens from the presence of God. They were cast out of the garden, no longer enjoying eternal fellowship with him.

This is the tragedy that we find in Genesis 3. And what I want us to see this evening from Genesis 3 on throughout the rest of scriptures, we see our foundational problem, which is sin. David tells us in Psalm 51:5, "This is the state of all mankind." He says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me." That is true about every one of us in here. There is no part of us that is not marred or corrupted by sin.

Even our good works, we are not merely sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. It is in our nature. It is who we are. Everything we think, do, and say is marred by sin. Joe Thorne goes on to say, "Your sin is far more destructive than you know." Your sin, not just your general sin, but your specific sins in your life is more destructive than you know.

But he goes on to say, Jesus is far more necessary than you can imagine. That is why Good Friday is good. And the only people who see Jesus as a great savior are those who see their great sin. Jesus will not be all satisfying, all comforting, all important to us until we recognize the ugliness of this sin. But I don't want to stop there. And if you're worried about what I'm going to say next, please don't be worried.

But I want to give us an understanding quickly of what the Bible means of sin. You see, the Westmin Westminster Shorter Catechism answers the question, what is sin by this? Sin is any want or conformity or transgression of the law of God. Basically, what that says is doing what God forbids or refusing to do what God commands. And the reason I want to bring up that question of what is sin is because often times we can walk in to church or talk to each other about sin and we don't truly know the depth and weight of it and then can't understand why Good Friday is so good. Sin is doing what God forbids or refusing to do what he commands.

And we know these things whether you've been in church or you've never opened a Bible. We know these things because God's law is one impressed on our hearts as Romans 1 tells us. Or we know these things because God has revealed it to to us through scripture and we still refuse to do it. Scripture reveals this unrighteousness, this lawlessness. In Romans 7, Paul writes this. What then shall we say that the law is sin by no means?

Yet it if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet. If the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive, apart from the law.

But when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. for sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. We sin by doing what God forbids or refusing to do what he commands. And we do this through sins of commission or omission.

Commission are things we actively do that God has called us not to do or omission not doing the things that God has called us to do. Thomas Brooks says these types of sins damage who we are. He says sinful commissions stab the soul but sinful omissions starve the soul. We are guilty of this all. We are not just wicked because we've done some sins. This is who we are.

And I know that we like to make excuses or point to other people to better ourselves. But Romans 3 is clear that we are all guilty before a holy and righteous God. Paul quoting the Psalm says, "None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.

All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one." He's not talking about the desperately wicked or the desperately immoral. He is talking about us.

This is our status. And later on down in chapter 3, Paul says, "We all fall short of the glory of God." The moral, the immoral, the religious, the irreligious, we all fall short. This is what sin is. But what makes sin so bad? Because if we can all attest in here, sin sometimes feels great.

Am I right? But what makes sin so bad is that it corrupts us. It erodess us and it has separated us from true joy and freedom in this life. Sin counteracts and corrupts our happiness, our rest, our contentment, our conscious, our beauty, our understanding of all things. Sin will steal happiness and is seeking to find pleasure in anything and everything but God. And this is its great trick.

It's like drinking salt water from the ocean hoping that you will become hydrated. It erodess our happiness and robs us of rest. It robs us of our rest even in our consciousness because we know that sin is dwelling deep. We know what we've done and so we can't rest. It robs us of the beauty of humanity in our relationships with one another. We see this in our marriages.

We see this even in our singleness and our relationships. We see this even as we parent our children. Sin erodess everything. It's far more destructive than we know and give credit to. It stretches into every corner of our life. It impacts our families, our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

There is no aspect in our life that has been not has not been tarnished or marred by the consequence of sin. And some sins cause years of hardship and pain. And some carry hefty burdens of guilt and shame that linger like a disease or cloud that hovers over us. RC Sproul would say that sin is cosmic treason against God. And yet in all of this we can be arrogant to think that our sin is small. Our sin is not small.

Our view of sin may be small and really our view of God may be even smaller, but it's far more destructive than we know. It's not just doing what God forbids or not doing what he commands. It's recognizing that we are offending and defying a holy, righteous God. And the important point that I want you to see and hear when we talk about Good Friday and why it is good is because the thing about sin that makes it so heinous is that it defies God. Is it awful to hurt one another? Yes.

Is it sinful when we wound a friend? Absolutely. To lie or steal? To cheat on our taxes? These are wrong things. Yes.

But beyond all of the shame that we may experience because of sin, there is a much bigger guilt that we often do not recognize or not aware of. And that is the most offended party is always God. God is holy and righteous and just. He is not like us because we are self-obsessed and self-absorbed. We are sinful and hostile to the things of the Lord. Paul tells us this in Romans 8:7.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Ralph Venning in his book, Sinfulness of Sin, says this, sin is the denial of God. It is denying his sufficiency, challenging his justice, disowning his omniscience, despising his goodness, and abusing his grace. This is what we do when we sin.

We are offending and defying a holy God. Defying his sufficiency, challenging his justice, disowning his omniscience, despising his goodness, and abusing his grace. Our sin is this serious. And I hope that we can see how deep it run how deep it runs within us and how far it stretches around us. Our sin is never done in a vacuum. It always works against God.

It denies God and it separates us from him. This is the type of sin that leads to condemnation. It's the reason that a good and righteous God sends sinners to hell because of our unrighteousness and lawlessness. It is far more destructive than we know. But this Good Friday, I want you to know that Jesus is far more necessary than you can imagine. You see the scriptures def describe this state before knowing Christ that we are guilty and hostile.

We are dead in our sin. And the only thing that can change our lives, our state before this holy and righteous God is a perfect spotless sacrifice that takes our place and gives us his righteousness. And this is what Jesus did 2,000 years ago on the cross. This is why he came to set sinners like you and me free. As the hymn says, it was our sin that held him there. It was my sin.

It was your sin. And now for those who have placed their trust in him, all the accusations that can be made against us before a living and holy and righteous God, Jesus says, "No, no, no more. This is my son. This is my daughter in whom I am well pleased. My blood covers him. My blood covers her.

So anytime the devil just try tries to deceive you in saying, are you truly a son or daughter of God, you can look to the blood of Christ. Anytime you think about your past, anytime you think about that lie, anytime you think that your anger has flown off against you and you have sinned and you believe the lies of the devil, you can look at the cross and Jesus's blood, what was laid on him at the cross, God's wrath, our shame, our sin, our shame, our guilt. He receives and he gives to us his righteousness. That's why Paul can say in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me."

At the cross of Christ, all that made you and I enemies towards God was poured out on him, absorbed by him, so that you and I are no longer under wrath, but we are under mercy. This is why it is a Good Friday. Because the life we once lived was nailed to the cross with Jesus. and every sin, every shame, every guilt, every rebellious thought or deed that you and I have committed, we bear them no more. And we now live by faith. This is why we call it Good Friday.

So, what I want us to do this evening as we close out is celebrate in communion, but I want to do it differently than we normally do on a Sunday. What I want us to do, I'm going to invite you to come take these elements and have you go back to your seat, but I'm going to give us time to just reflect on the sin that held him there and remember that his blood poured out and that righteousness has been imputed to you, imputed to me because of the sin that is poured out on him. That's what we celebrate in drinking this blood and taking this bread. But I want us to reflect on the cross, on the weight of sin, on the weight of shame. Not to condemn yourself, but to remember and to reflect on this death because Jesus hasn't come. He will we'll celebrate the resurrection on Sunday.

But we want to take time to remember and reflect on this this Good Friday where Jesus bore our sin and shame on the cross and spilled his blood for us. So I'm going to close us in prayer. I'm going to invite you to come to the elements and then you can take your time in partaking in communion. We're going to leave this space as silent as we can. Yes, there will be background pads, but we're going to leave this space as silent as we can. And when you're done communing with the Lord, you can get up and fellowship out here in the foyer.

But what we want to do is we want to leave this time for those who want to sit and commune with the Lord and celebrate in communion. So let me pray and I'll invite you to come and get the juice and the bread. Lord, you are good. And even on a gruesome day, the cross, we can see your love. We can see your grace. It was our sin that held you there.

And yet, Lord, your word reminds us that it was with joy that you endured the cross, that you despise the shame of sin and guilt, knowing that this would seal the adoption of your brothers and sisters, the church, your body. And Lord, I pray that we can look at the cross and be reminded of the weight of sin, who we once were. Lord, I pray that we can also celebrate in who we now are. Those who live by faith in the son of God who gave himself up for us. Thank you for that ultimate sacrifice. It is in his name we pray.

Amen. Come and grab the communion and again go back to your seats and and take time to just reflect on the cross.