Jesus Became Like Us

Amen. Amen. Y'all can already be seated. Good job. Let's just rule a habit there. Um kids, I believe heading out to class.

Awesome. Head out to little district. For the rest of us, go ahead and grab your Bibles. Hebrews chapter chapter 2. Let's see if I can get my words right today. Uh thank you, Chris, for praying for us.

Y'all give it up for Chris. Thank you. Yeah. Hey, why not? Uh Hebrews 2:10 through18. We're going to be covering this passage this morning and uh titled this Jesus became like us.

Jesus became like us. And I'm hoping that as we work through this passage, we can ultimately see the the reason for that, why he ultimately became like us. Um in order to accomplish some things that we could not accomplish for ourselves. And so Hebrews 2:10 through18, I'm going to read through this. And as I read through this, uh you're probably going to think that's a lot to cover in one message. And so my whole goal is to hopefully be able to not dumb it down for you because you're dumb, but be able to simplify it and uh clarify it for us so that we can just again have our faith be built in Jesus and all that he has accomplished for us.

And so let's read through this and um see what the Lord would have for us this morning starting in verse 10. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. and again I will put my trust in him and again behold I and the children God has given me.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. May God bless the reading of his word and instruct us this morning on what we are to believe about who he is. The big idea I want you to see from this is that Jesus became like us.

He died instead of us and now he stands for us. Honestly, that's the summary of the passage right there. Jesus became like us. He died instead of us and now he stands for us. And so in other words, this is a merry Christmas. It's a Christmas message before Thanksgiving.

How about that? I mean, I've already seen it. People are already putting trees up and stuff like it's every single year as soon as Halloween hits, you see the crazies come out and they start the the Christmas trees and the lights immediately. It's like, let Thanksgiving have its space, right? But I get it. I'm actually probably a little here more for it now than what I used to be.

All right? Because again, I love Christmas and I love celebrating Christmas and three and a half weeks is not enough time. And Thanksgiving is going to have its day, but be honest, it only needs a day. So, I'm all for now Christmas being more than just the three and a half weeks. And so, here's a Christmas message before Thanksgiving. But what I hope you do is not tune out this message because you've heard it before.

I hope you don't tune it out because I know all of you, you go to the same restaurant over and over again. You order the same meal over and over again. Why? Because you love it. Same thing here. This is the greatest message that you get to hear.

Don't get tired of hearing it. Don't tune it out. The message is ultimately God with us. Why did God come to be with us? It's so that he could produce for us with God. That's why God is with us.

That's why he came. And so the big concept or to to set this up for us, a big context recap, if you will, from last week, God originally created mankind to be crowned with glory and to exercise dominion over all of the earth. This is what we looked at last week was why did God create? What did God create? And essentially what God created was us to enjoy God, to follow his instructions, and to take care of his stuff. That's it.

That's why God created us, to enjoy him, to follow his instructions, and to take care of his stuff. And so, if you've ever wondered why did God create us? Why did God create the heavens and the earth? That's it right there. To enjoy God, to follow his instructions, to take care of his stuff. So when God created Adam and Eve, he told them to enjoy him, to listen to him, and to ultimately take care of everything that he created, to exercise dominion over it.

Now just contemplate that for a moment. Like actually really think about that. God's command us was to walk with God, to have unhindered access to him, to commune with him, to behold his splendor, to bask in his glory, to to just stand and be in awe that you get to be friends with the greatest of all time, which technically' be the greatest of outside of time because he's outside of it, but you get the point. And to steward the world. So what God did with Eden, he commands us to do with the rest of the world. Go and cultivate it, beautify it, work it, and then also to be fruitful and multiply, get married, have babies, teach them to enjoy God, to listen to his instructions, and to take care of his stuff.

And in those first couple of chapters, life was good. I mean there was true shalom. There was peace with God and peace in the world. And what this last Tuesday revealed in the election cycle and honestly every election cycle, what it reveals is that there is no more shalom, right? There's no shalom. There's no peace with God.

There's no peace with one another. There's no peace in this world. It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you land on when it comes to voting. But what God first created in Genesis 1 and2 was awesome. It was awesome. But then, as my dad would say, it went to hell in a hand basket.

Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." That's our reality. This is what happened. all sinned and fell short of the glory of God. Romans 5:12 then says, "Sin entered the world through Adam and because of that, death through sin." Death through sin.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death." Death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hebrews 2:9 is what alluded to this last week. Everything was great and then everything went to hell in a hand basket because we did not enjoy God. We did not listen to his instructions and we did not steward his stuff and therefore we disobeyed and we brought death into the world because we sinned.

We sinned. But the free gift of God is eternal life for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so what we're talking about is how Jesus did that. How did he look at what is broken and then come to be able to offer eternal life for all of those who have fallen short of the glory of God. That's why verse 9 says, "But we see him, Jesus." We're not looking to one another to fix the problem.

We see him, Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. For everyone. And so because the reality of what every human is trying to do is avoid the wages of sin. We're all trying to avoid our penalty and our punishment. We're all trying to avoid death.

We get facelifts, tummy tucks, hair extensions, lip fillers, on and on. I could keep going. Why? Because people are trying to avoid the reality of death. They're trying to avoid death. They're trying to take it into their own hands and figure it out themselves.

They're trying to avoid the reality that we have sinned against a holy God. And when you obey a holy God, life flows. And when you disobey a holy God, death comes. I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise or eat healthy or improve your curb appeal. Take care of yourself. That's part of God's instructions for us to be healthy and wise with our bodies.

But we also need to be honest with ourselves and with others that death is coming. Death is coming because all have sinned. And because death comes through sin, all are going to die. And then comes judgment. Then comes judgment. What's judgment?

Judgment is God determining what you owe. Judgment's God determining what you owe. Judgment means payment. Judgment means it's it's time to settle the tab. It's time to settle the tab. Think about it this way.

When when Jesus was on the cross, he declared to telly, which who remembers what to telly means? It is finished. He declared it is finished. Now, to telly had one meaning applied in three different ancient contexts. Number one was that it had uh it was a receipt for purchase. In other words, if you paid for something, you could receive it and on the receipt they would stamp to tell us paid in full.

The second meaning was that it was a courtroom sentence. And so if you committed a crime and the judge sentenced you, once you served that sentence, he would then on your account to tell us served in full. And then it was also a military term for victory in battle. So if a battle was being won and someone became victorious to telly the war is over, the battle is done. That's what Jesus is accomplishing for believers. But just contemplate this for a moment.

For the unbeliever in judgment, none of that has happened yet. For the unbeliever, your payment is due. Your sentence is about to begin. And the war is never going to end for you. Death is coming and the world's trying to avoid that reality. If the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, those who do not follow him receive an eternal death instead of eternal life.

And so we look to Jesus because death is coming and no amount of Botox or Pilates is going to suffice. Kelsey recently bought me some under eye serum with the fact that apparently I look like death is coming. Sooner than later, right? But Jesus didn't come to help us escape the reality of death. He came to defeat it so that you don't experience it. He came to defeat it.

And that's what we're talking about today. First thing I want you to see is that Jesus became like us. Jesus became like us. He entered our humanity and he endured our suffering. Look specifically at verse 10 again. I know we finished last week with verse 10, but we we we need to start this week with verse 10 for it to all make sense.

Verse 10 starts with him saying, "For it was fitting that he," meaning God, "for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering." Now, let's stop there for a second. Some of y'all hear that and you think Jesus was made perfect through suffering. And you might think, "Hold on a minute. I thought Jesus was already perfect." He was Jesus never sinned.

Jesus never messed up. Jesus never needed improving. So what's the Bible talking about here? How can someone who's perfect be made perfect? Like where I'm from, people say that don't make no sense. Think about carpentry for a moment.

I I build accent walls from time to time on the side. And you can have perfectly good lumber. You can have a perfectly good tool. You can have a perfectly good blueprint, but until the carpenter does the work, the house ain't finished. Nobody's going to admire the wall just because you've got a stack of wood sitting on the floor. That's what the word perfect means here.

It means bringing something to completion, to finish the job. Jesus wasn't made perfect because there was something wrong with him. He was sent to complete the work through suffering because there was a job that he came to accomplish that only he could. And that job required a horrific death on a cross. And as we saw last week, to pay the penalty of death that is owed to God because of our sin, a human must die for a human. That's why all the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament did not suffice.

They were merely pictures and shadows of the true substance that was to come, the true substitute. If Jesus never came, we'd still be sacrificing animals every single year. But he came and offered himself as the lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice once and for all. Now, technically, that's the second point that we'll get to here in a moment. This point is first in order for him to actually come and die he had to actually become a man. He had to become a human.

He had to become like us. He had to take on flesh. Become a human. He had to be born as a baby in a manger. Grow up in every way as we have been or are to be actually one of us. He didn't just come and just, you know, manifest himself into some type of physical human being and then die a couple of days later.

No, no, no. He was born in every way as we are born and grew up in every way as we grew up in order that a human might be able to die for a human. We call this hypothatic union. He didn't lay aside his deity, but he did take on our humanity. And therefore, he's 100% God. And he's also 100% man.

He became like us. And then he had to live a sinless life in order to earn for us the righteousness that it took and for us to be able to be in the presence with God. Because if God is holy and perfect and good and righteous and no unrighteousness can be in his presence in fellowship and commune with him, Christ came and all and and did that for you in living the perfect life, thinking every thought that you should think, doing every deed that you should do, loving every person the way you should love them. He did all of that on your behalf. and and doesn't ask you to then do it and earn it and try to be like him. He actually goes to the cross and says, "Actually, give me everything that you're that you are.

Give me all your mess. Give me all your bad thoughts. Give me all your sin. Give me all your unfaithfulness. Give me every mistake you've ever made. Just give it to me.

And I'm going to become it. And I'm going to have it be nailed to a cross. And I'm gonna have God pour out his wrath towards you on me. And then what I'm going to do, I'm speaking as Jesus. I'm going to give you my righteousness. Every good thought I had becomes yours.

Every good deed becomes yours. So whatever he earned in his account, he imputes it to your account. Which means right now, like you might be negative in the bank account, you show up on Monday and you're a billionaire. He grants you everything that's his. But he had to become a man and earn all of that for us. He became like us.

So you could read the verse this ways this way. I'll paraphrase it because it was perfectly consistent with God's plan, which means he wasn't like um improving here, okay? He he he wasn't, you know, he wasn't the quarterback throwing an audible out there. I didn't see sin coming. All right? I didn't see that type of defense over here.

So, let's just shift plays and let's do something else. I know it was it was fitting according to God's plan that God the father who created everything for his glory chose to bring many people into his family and ultimately into heaven and to accomplish that he brought his son Jesus through suffering so that Jesus would fully complete the work of saving them of saving them. And because he became one of us, it says in verse 11 that he is not ashamed to call us his brothers. Now, don't miss what the author is saying here. Jesus is the one who makes us holy and we're the ones who need to be made holy. He's the sinless son of God and we're the sinners he came to save.

But because of what Jesus has done for us, he is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. His brothers and sisters. Think about that. Jesus knows everything about you. He knows everything about you. Every stupid decision, every sin, every skeleton in your closet.

He knows the stuff you've done that you hope nobody ever finds out about. And yet, if you belong to him, he's not embarrassed to call you family. He's not embarrassed to call you family. He knows more about you than you know about yourself. And he says, "Come home." Like we we all have that one family member that we don't want people to know we're related to, right?

Not Jesus. Not Jesus. Those who follow him, he says he's proud to call you his family. He's proud to call you his family. Then the author goes to the Old Testament three times to prove his point. Jesus stands among his people.

He praises God with them. He trusts his father and he says, "Look at the children God has given." Like he's proud not because of anything you did, but because of what you received, because of what he did, because of what you've become in Christ. Again, Jesus didn't just die to get you out of trouble. He died to bring you into the family. I've said it before.

The courtroom isn't just you being pardoned from your sin. But it's also an adoption hearing where the judge, God the Father, says, "You're coming home with me. You're coming home with me." And when God brings you into his family, Jesus is not standing off in the corner pretending he doesn't know you. Jesus is not like the older brother in the prodigal son's story, frustrated that God allowed a bunch of us sinners into the family. That's not what he's doing.

Jesus is the one throwing the party. He's the one inviting us to the table. And what a feast that's going to be in heaven. What a feast that's going to be. When God brings you into his family, Jesus celebrates. He celebrates.

So, not only did Jesus become like us, but he also died instead of us. This is the second point. Look at verses 14- 15. Jesus died instead of us. He took on flesh because he had to. He took on flesh and blood so that through his death he could break Satan's power and free his people from the fear of death.

Notice what the author says here. Since we're flesh and blood, go ahead, just pinch yourself. That's what he's we're flesh and blood. All right? Now, if you pinch yourself and nothing happens, we should talk. All right?

Jesus became flesh and blood. Why? Because you can't die if you don't have a body. You can't die if you don't have a body. So, the eternal son of God took on human flesh, not just to live among us, not just to give us an example to practice, but to actually die for us. And here's what's incredible.

Jesus defeated in that process, he defeated death not by conquering it with a sword, but by dying on a cross. Now, think about that. Satan thought the cross was the end of Jesus. But it turned out to be the beginning of his own defeat. His own defeat. What looked like Satan's greatest victory was actually his greatest loss.

As we would say, Jesus was playing 40 chess with him. not realizing that he would use his own method in his own play to be his own suicide. See, Satan's got one big weapon against us, against sinners. It's our guilt before a holy God. Scripture says he's an accuser. So all Satan is doing, again, remember judgment, payment's due, sentence is about to begin, war is never going to end.

Satan's biggest play is to tell you that you are not worthy of God's love, that you deserve death and that God wants to cast you as far away from his holiness as possible. That's why the Bible calls Satan the accuser. Now listen, that's all true. That's all true. There's a Shane and Shane song that talks about this or I guess sings about this. How we are the enemies of God.

How we do not deserve anything from God. How we are in all the accusations that Satan makes of us, he's right. He's actually right. But in the song it says Satan forgot the refrain. Jesus saves. Jesus saves.

Because when Jesus died on that cross, he paid the debt of our sin and he took away the condemnation that stood against us. We who are far off, Jesus brings near to us because of his death. Because of his death. Romans 7:22-2 says this, "For I delight in the law of God, though in my inner being, I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. wretched man that I am. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

You see, it's one thing for us to meditate on the law of God and to wrestle with our flesh and blood and also the truth of Christ living in me to be able to come to a point to where we say, "Wretched man that I am. I know what to do and I don't do it. I know what not to do and I keep running and doing that thing." You don't even need Satan to be an accuser. We accuse ourselves every single day. Yet, Satan's main strategy is to just keep pointing the finger saying, "You're not worthy.

Christ does not love you." But verse 25 says, 'Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He literally just said, "Wretched man that I am, but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but my flesh I serve the law of sin." And if we stopped there in Romans 7:25, honestly, where's the hope in that?

Where's the hope in that? Romans 8:1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see what you forget is that uh when Paul wrote Romans that he doesn't write it in chapter 1 verse one, chapter 2 verse one, chapter 3 verse one. He just wrote a letter. We added the chapters and verses later. So when he writes, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin, he immediately moves into there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The big key here is that because of what Christ did and becoming like us and dying for us, when we live in that reality, you condemning yourself and Satan condemning you no longer matters. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so therefore, he says, "With my mind, I'm telling myself this." Basically, I got to preach the gospel to myself over and over and over again because I don't know if you realize it yet. Our bodies are still dying. Death is coming.

I'm using the cream. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I was just so needing affirmation that I got it. I got it. The devil can still accuse you, but if you belong to Jesus, he cannot condemn you.

He cannot condemn you, church. We need that hope. We need that hope today. And the only way we get it is by cons continuing to look at who God condemned. He condemned Christ on the cross in your place. condemned.

He stood so that we might have life. In verse 15 says, Jesus came to set us free from the fear of death. This is the only way. This is the only reason why we're able to not fear death anymore is because there's no condemnation. There's no condemnation for us. Listen, you can eat all the kale you want, take every supplement you find at Costco, run five miles a day, but one day you're still going to die.

The question isn't whether you're going to die. The question is what happens when you do. what happens when you do. And for the Christian, death is not the end of the story. It's the beginning. Jesus walked out of the grave.

You will too. You will too. And that gives us hope that in this momentary affliction that we're living, we don't even have to compare it to anything because we have infinite glory and eternal life ahead of us. So, it doesn't matter what happens to this broken down hoopty of a body that we have right now. The entire Bible is preaching this central message that Jesus came to be like us and to die instead of us in order to defeat Satan, to defeat sin, and to defeat the sting of death. Genesis 3:15, it's called the Evangelion, the first gospel ever preached.

The promised offspring of the woman will crush the serpent's head. Who's the serpent? That's Satan. So in Jesus being bruised, being killed, being put to death, it puts to death Satan's sin and death. Colossians 2:13-15, Christ cancels our debt and disarms the rulers and authorities of this world. Satan's accusations don't mean anything.

They mean nothing because all that matters is what God says. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, death is swallowed up in Christ's victory. Death is swallowed up in Christ's victory. He eats it for breakfast. Romans 8:1, as I said, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 1 John 3:8, the son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil.

The whole Bible is preaching this. This is why he came to become like us and this is why he died instead of us. And so Jesus defeated death by dying. Why? Because he made the payment on our behalf to God so that God could give us what Jesus deserves, which is life. And now death cannot condemn those who belong to him.

So we've seen that Jesus became like us. We see that he dies instead of us. And now we'll hit the last point which is Jesus stands for us. He stands for us. Jesus became fully human to represent us before God to make atonement for our sins and to help us in our weakness. Look at the text verses 16- 18.

for surely it is not angels that he helps. And that's not him saying like, you know, angels aren't worthy of anything. We already covered that. Go back to chapter one and look at it again. Angels are awesome. They do some amazing, wonderful things.

But it's not for the angels that he helps, but the but he helps the offspring of Abraham. And if you don't know what offspring of Abraham is, Abraham's the guy that God started with, he says, "I'm going to set you apart, and through your offspring is going to come one that's going to be able to bless not only the people of God, but all nations." And so through Abraham, eventually Jesus will come. And even though Israel essentially becomes the blood lineage of Abraham, all right? So he's the father of this nation. What we end up having is that it's not through blood lineage that you actually become an offspring, but it's by faith in Christ that you become the offspring of Abraham.

So essentially, that's what the Bible is ultimately preaching and teaching when it comes to the offspring of Abraham are those who have faith in Christ, not just blood lineage. And so, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. That is, just put church in there if you will. He helps the church. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect. In every respect.

So that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Who's tempted? Like how often are y'all tempted? Thank you. Yeah, think we got a couple people are honest in here.

Every single day we are tempted. Isn't it nice to know that we have someone who can help us when we're tempted? Now, don't miss what the author is saying. Jesus didn't come to rescue again fallen angels. He came to rescue people like you and me. Again, verse 17 says, "Jesus had to become like us so that he could be our merciful and faithful high priest."

If you don't know what a high priest is, think of him as the guy who stood between sinful people and a holy God. He represented the people before God and he would offer sacrifices for their sins. He's like a mediator. But here's the problem. Those priests who were doing that in the Old Testament were also sinners. That's why none of them are still alive.

They would die over and over and over again. Find another one. Find another one. Find another one. Jesus becomes the perfect high priest because he never sinned. And instead of bringing an animal to sacrifice as the old priest would do, he brought himself.

He became the sacrifice. That's what propitiation means. In verse 17, he is a substitution for you and I. Jesus took the punishment of our sins, deserved, and satisfied God's righteous judgment against us. He didn't just sweep our sins under the rug. He paid for them with his own blood.

He paid for them with his own blood. And that's in like that's any other religion that you look into is just sweeping sins under the rug. Hey, don't worry about that. Do these things instead. You'll earn it. All right.

sweep it under the rug and then dust this off over here. And Jesus saying that's not going to suffice. God sees what's under the rug. He sees what you shove in the closet. And when judgment comes, you got to settle the tab. Payment's due.

But Jesus, because he comes and satisfies God's wrath against us, when that payment's due, Jesus looks at us or God looks at us on the day of judgment and he says, "Well, your tab is paid in full. Your sentence has already been served. The victory of your death has already been won. You get to have eternal life. Well done, good and faithful servant. Come on in."

Jesus calls you his brother even. So you're welcome here. And for everyone else, they'll hear, "Depart from me, for I never knew you. I never knew you." Verse 18 says that because Jesus suffered and faced temptation himself, he knows what you're going through today. He knows what it's like to be exhausted.

He knows what it's like to be rejected, betrayed, tempted. But unlike us, he never made a mistake or a misjudgment or was guilty of misconduct. How many of us this morning can say the same thing? Like just this morning, I don't you don't even have to go back into the week. All right? God's grace covers that.

just this morning. How many of us can walk in here and say, "Yeah, I you know, I didn't make any mistakes or misjudgments or any misconduct this morning." So, when life gets hard and temptation comes knocking, you don't have to fight it alone because guess what? That same temptation is going to come tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day. Honestly, what I found and as I talk to like younger guys, especially younger guys who follow Jesus and they've just been rescued from like deep embattled um sins, habitual sins. They think just because you start following Jesus that all the sudden the desires for those things are all going to go away.

The temptations for those things are all just going to go away. And I said, I'm 25 years in and I think they're getting stronger. Like the temptations are getting harder now. The self-control is building. The ability to say yes to worshiping Jesus and no to whatever the sin is that I'm tempted with is getting better because I am being sanctified as I hold on to Christ. and I trust in his word and I hide his word in my heart and he transforms me from one degree of glory to the next.

Yeah. The self-control gets stronger, but the temptation Satan's just going to keep fighting and fighting and fighting. And so he's not some distant savior who doesn't understand your struggles. He's your merciful and faithful high priest. And he's ready to help you when you call on him. He's ready to help you when you call on him.

And every single one of those moments where you feel weak, he's ready to be strong. That's what he tells us. In our weakness, he exercises his strength. Turn over with me to Titus 2. This is where I want to close with. Titus chapter 2.

I don't think it's enough for me just to tell you that Jesus is going to help you. I think you need to see how it happens. I want this to build your faith, your trust in Jesus for the rest of today, tomorrow, Tuesday. Everyone needs it on a Tuesday, right? Tuesdays are just awful. I think that's why they invented taco Tuesday to get you through it.

Titus 2 11-14. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. That's what we just talked about. The grace of God has appeared. What is that? That's not a what?

It's a who. Jesus appeared bringing salvation for all people. How do you do that? He became like us. He died and saved us. And now he stands for us.

What I mean by he stands for us is he's the high priest in the courtroom. When we're on trial and judgment's coming and we have sins, he stands for us and says, "Yeah, that th those sins, those are awful. Those are terrible. This is a wretched person, but I paid for every single one of those sins. Paid for them all. Their sentence is death.

I served it already." and the battle that they have with Satan, sin, evil, all those shackles, I've also defeated those things and I've set them free. So the grace of God has appeared and it's brought salvation for all people who believe in Jesus. Now we when we think of grace, we usually think of it ending with our salvation. We think of it just in that moment that yes, I'm an awful person. I've done a bunch of awful things.

But now, thanks be to God, he has come and he's grace has come to me and I've received it and I am now forgiven. Praise be to God. And I received my ticket to heaven, my salvation. And then we wake up on Monday and we think we've graduated from grace. Now, let's try to earn it. Let's try to just keep telling God, "Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But am I actually still good with you?" The same grace that saves us in verse 11 is the same grace that sustains us in verse 12 and trains us. So the same thing that saved you, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as a high priest standing on your behalf.

When you leave that room, he walks with you as a brother and says, "Now, let me show you how all of this now applies to your life so that when you wake up tomorrow, you can say yes to Jesus and no to sin." Look at what it says. the grace that appeared that brought salvation for you and I, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Stop trying to do it in your own strength. It's the grace of God that we trust in in order for us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. It's Christ living in me.

That's why I quoted Galatians 2:20 earlier. I have been crucified with Christ. That's the best news you'll ever say. Because if I have not been crucified with Christ, that means I am still living in my own flesh and blood and in my own identity. And that identity is an enemy of God. You're like, "Well, I'm not an enemy of God."

Romans 5:12, "While we were enemies of God." Yes, you are. If you are not in Christ, you are an enemy of God. And if we're trying to just earn this and live this in our own ways, it's not going to work, guys. That's why you're frustrated. That's why you get burned out because you're trying to do it yourself rather than seeing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and continuing to preach that gospel to yourself every single day.

Every single day. I got bad thoughts. Guess who doesn't? Christ. All right, Christ. I need your good thoughts.

Help me with that. I need your good thoughts. I see somebody else do something stupid. Christ, I got anger right now. I think this person should die and go to hell. Y'all aren't willing to say it.

I'll say it. He says, "Yeah, but what if I've died for them? Take the gospel to them and see what happens." All right. Well, I'm going to need you to help me with that because I'm still not happy with this person. And he says, "Why don't you start praying for them and see what your heart see how your heart changes towards them?"

The grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Why are we able to do that? Because in verse 14, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people, for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. Zealous for good works. You want to know whether or not you're trusting in your own strength or whether or not you're trusting in the grace of God, just audit your life. Are you moving more towards leveraging everything in your life for the mission of God and the purposes of God and the people of God?

Or are you moving towards leveraging everything in your life for your own gain? Because those who are trained by the grace of God to renounce ungodliness, they are people who are zealous. Zealous, which means get out of my way, world. I'm going to make sure that I'm going to do everything that God wants me to do. He wants me to love this person. I'm going to love this person.

He wants me to give this much money. I'm going to give this much money. He wants me to learn this about his word. I'm going to be in that word day and night. I'm not going to stop. It trains us.

It transforms us. And we have a high priest who helps us with that every single day. Because not only did he pour out his grace just to save you, but he poured out his grace to also sanctify you every single day. He will complete the work that he's already begun in you. He will bring it to completion. to bring it all together.

Jesus is our brother. Jesus became like us to bring us into God's family. He's our liberator. Jesus died for us to deliver us from death. And he is our high priest. He reconciled us to God.

And he helps us in our weakness. He became like us, died for us, and he now lives for us so that we might live forever with him. forever with him. Church, it is finished. It is finished. Father, we thank you this morning.

We thank you for grace. Grace is us receiving what we do not deserve. And we thank you that you gave it to us freely as a gift. Father, we thank you for mercy. Mercy is us not receiving what we do deserve. Father, we were an enemy of you.

We sinned against you. We broke your law. We chose not to enjoy you. We disobeyed and we deserve death because of that. But thanks be to you that in your loving kindness you didn't leave us as we are but you move towards us by sending your son Jesus to become like us because a man has to die for humans. I can't begin to fathom Jesus, the eternal son of God, who always existed in perfect holy communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

for him to humble himself and to take on flesh. Literally the eternal son of God becoming a baby in a manger. I can't fathom that. and for him to be perfect his entire life, earning for us perfection. And then in 2 Corinthians 5:21, he who is perfect, he who knew no sin became sin so that we might become his righteousness. We become perfect.

And it's not because of anything we do or earn before or after Jesus. It's only because Jesus gives us his life. He begins living in us. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. And the life we now live in the body, we live by faith in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. May we declare that truth every day.

May we not graduate from it. May we not move away from it. May we not never revisit it again. May we just sit and live in that truth every day of our lives. Jesus lived for us. He died for us.

He stands for us now. Thanks be to Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Would you all go ahead and stand with me. As we come to communion, we celebrate the second point.

He died for us. He died instead of us. If you live under that truth, if you've called on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. You realize that there's nothing that you can do. He's the one that has to do everything. Everything he has to do it.

And so if you've ever understood that and have called on the name of the Lord and are saved and live your lives through the lens that Jesus conquers everything, Jesus, it's all about him. Then I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seat, and we'll partake together, celebrating his death and his victory for us. Come ye sinners, poor and weak and wounded, sicken and sore. Jesus ready.