The Word of Substitution - Part 2

Thanks for joining us here today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love. There are seven words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours on the cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now, here's Pastor Rick with part two of a message called the Word of Substitution.

Second thing we learn is this, is that sin is ugly. I want you to write that down. Sin is ugly. And on the cross we see how ugly sin really is. Now, the truth is we don't think sin is ugly. We live in the 21st century. We don't think sin is ugly. We think sin is fun and we think sin is funny. In fact, most TV shows and most movies use sin for humor. And this is Satan's strategy to get you to laugh at what? Put Jesus on the cross, to not take it seriously. Oh, it's no big deal. And jokes in situation comedies and movies make fun and make light of sin. And Satan disguises sin to make it look attractive, to make it look appealing, to make it look desirable, to make it look fun. On tv, you rarely see the consequences of sin. You see the fun part, but you never see the consequences. In a typical James Bond 007 movie, he'll go to bed with five or six women and it always shows the real romantic part and having fun part. And then when he leaves and he goes for the next woman, it never shows. The broken heart. Never ever shows the broken heart, never shows the damage done, never shows the consequences. The STDs. A lot of times you'll see people on TV, in bars and they're drinking, they're having a great time and they're all laughing. It looks like everybody's having fun. They. They don't show the guy going home and beating his wife cause he's drunk. They never show that consequence. They never show people ending up in prison because they got drunk and had a car accident and killed somebody. They never show the consequences of sin. Sin is not funny. Sin is ugly and it put Jesus on the cross. If you wanna know how ugly sin is, you wanna know the damage sin does. You look at Jesus bleeding on the cross. He's saying this is how much, how much it takes to pay for your sins. The cross shows the damage that sin does. And sin, we don't realize this. It does three things. Would you write this down? The first thing sin does is it alienates me from God. Sin alienates me From God. Why? Because God is holy. And I'm not. And I'm not. And so it breaks a relationship. It creates conflict. It puts distance between you and God. It always separates you from God. It always estranges you from God. The Bible says this in Isaiah 59. Your evil, the things I've done wrong, have separated you from God. And your sins have caused him to turn away from you. So he does not hear you. He says, I'm holy. I can't listen to that. Now, anybody who's been married for any length of time knows how conflict strains and separates and stresses a marriage. You know, I've been married 40 years. Kay doesn't have to tell me anymore when she's mad. I know it. I know it intuitively. I can read it. I can feel. I can feel it coming out of her pores. I don't even have to be looking at her. I can feel the vibrations, okay? Because I've loved her so long. And when there is a break in a relationship and the harmony is strained and the intimacy is lowered and the conflict is raised and the stress comes on in, it's because somebody's done something wrong. Sin alienates. It alienates us from God, and it alienates us from others. People say, I just can't feel connected to people. Why? Cause we've all blown it. We've all made mistakes. We've all sinned. We've all done wrong things. Nobody lives perfect in a relationship. Guys, you married a sinner. She married a bigger one. And you can't take two imperfect people and have a perfect relationship. It isn't gonna happen. You're gonna have misunderstandings. You're gonna have conflict. Sin alienates. It alienates me from God. It alienates me from other people. Number two, sin distresses me. It causes an enormous amount of stress in my life. It takes an emotional toll on. On my life. And when I hold sin in my life, when I break God's laws, I don't really break God's laws. They break me. And they cause worry in my life, and they cause fear in my life, and they cause remorse and regret and guilt in my life, and they cause insecurity, all that stuff. You wouldn't have any of that stuff if you always did it God's way. You wouldn't have any insecurities in your life if you live the perfect life. But you don't. And you can't. And I don't, and I can't. But it causes anxiety and shame and insecurity and all these Psalm 38, verse 4. David says, My guilt has overwhelmed me like the burden too heavy to bear. You know, I honestly believe one of the greatest sources of stress today is unrecognized and unresolved guilt. Stuff that you, you know, you keep rationalizing it with your mind. What you know in your heart was wrong and you keep trying to rationalize it. And that causes stress in your life. You weren't designed to in conflict with your creator. So not only alienates you, it causes stress, stress in your life. The third thing is it condemns me. It condemns me. In fact, all three of these alienation, distress and condemnation, we see them on Jesus on the cross. When I violate God's laws. When you violate God's law, your conscience. You violate your conscience and your conscience goes tilt, tilt, tilt. And there's always a penalty. And it's both in self condemnation, I beat myself up. And in judgment from a righteous God. It comes together. Now here's what the Bible says. Psalm 7, verse 11. God is a righteous judge and he always condemns the wicked. Now circle the word righteous. This is another word like holy. Nobody. What's righteous? The only thing we know is about the righteous brothers. And they were from Orange County. Okay, you lost that love. No, you never close your eyes. God is a righteous judge. He's not a righteous brother. He's a righteous judge and he always condemns the wicked. What does righteous mean? Well, let me put it in real simple terms. Righteous. Righteous means he always does what's right. That's what righteous means. He always does what's right. He always does what's right for you. He never does. God never does what's wrong for you. He always tells you the truth. He never lies to you. He always does what's right. He always does what's fair. He always does what's honest. You can't get God to be dishonest. You can't get God to be unfair. You can't get God to be. He always does the right thing. You may not think it's the right thing, I may not think it's the right thing. But God always does what's right. He is a righteous God. Now it says he's a righteous judge. I'm not a righteous judge. I judge people all the time, unrighteously. Somebody looks at me the wrong way or says the wrong thing, I just kinda wanna write em off. You do this all the time. You judge people all the time, unrighteously. You think you know your motivations. You don't. Even know your own motivation, much less other people. Why in the world would you ever dare to question somebody's motivation? You can't even figure out why you do what you do most of the time. So you judge unrighteously. You judge people on the basis of appearance. You judge them on well, he's smart or she's beautiful or they're rich. You make all kinds of unrighteous judgments about people all the time. You're critical about people you shouldn't be critical about. You assume things you know that you don't. God doesn't do that. God is always a righteous judge. He always does what's right, good, fair and just. Now if God was not a. I'm glad God is not just a God of love. I'm glad God is a God of justice. Because if he didn't, evil would never be punished. And all the people who've hurt you, they just get off. And all of the despots and all of the pol pots and the Mao Tungs and the Hitlers and all of the dictators that have killed millions and millions of people and all of the genociders, they just go away scot free. But God is a God of justice. He always. That's what's right. Now we know God is a God of love. Is there anything that God hates? The answer is yes, there is something God hates. God hates evil. And you should, by the way, hate it too. Sometimes hatred is an act of love. I hate it when little children are molested. I hate it when women get raped. I hate it when people are prejudiced against simply because of the color of their skin. Why? Because sometimes hatred is motivated by love. I'm a husband, I'm a father, and I'm a grandfather. And if you hurt one of my grandchildren, I would hate it. If I didn't hate it, it would mean I didn't love. Sometimes love comes out in hatred. Does that make sense? And God so loved the world that he hates sin. God so loved the world that he hates evil. He knows what it does to people. He knows that sin alienates and sin distresses and sin condemns. He knows how it messes with our minds. He knows how sin messes with our bodies. He knows what it does to addicts and he knows what it is. He knows what unfaithfulness does to families. And God hates unfaithfulness. God hates sin because he loves you. That's why. That's why he loves you. And so he hates sin. And you should too. The Bible says sometimes anger is Motivated by love. Now, Romans 6:23, very famous verse. You know this verse? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, there's the bad news, and then, fortunately, there's the good news. We talked about this verse a couple weeks ago when I said, you know, if your boss came into you and said, I've got something that's really gonna make you happy, you should really be grateful for you. It's a really big gift. And he hands you your salary check, and you go, wait a minute. This is no gift. I worked for this. This is not a gift. This is a wage. A wage is something you have earned because of what you've done. A gift is something you didn't earn because you didn't do anything for it. The wages of sin is death. I deserve punishment. I deserve to die for all things I've done wrong. But the gift of God, which I don't deserve, is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Now, let me just say this. Your biggest problem is not the problem you think it is. Some of you think your biggest problem is your financial problem. That's not your biggest problem. It's a problem, but it's not your biggest problem. Some of you think your biggest problem is you can't get a job. Some of you think your biggest problem is the conflict you've got going on in a relationship. It's a problem, but it's not your biggest problem. Some of you think, well, if I could only be taller or shorter or skinnier or fatter, if I were only smarter, if I only had more talent. You got all kinds of those. Maybe. Let me tell you what your biggest problem is. You're at war with God. You're at war with God, and you say, no, I'm not. Yes, you are. Because every minute of every day you're deciding who's gonna be God in your life, you or God. Am I gonna go God's way, or am I gonna go my way? Do I think I know what will make me happy, or do I think God knows what will make me happy? Am I gonna trust what he says in His Word and I'm gonna follow his manual for life, or am I just gonna make up my own manual? I don't like that part of the Bible, so I'm just gonna ignore that. I think I'll just be my own God. You're at war with God, and that's why you're so frustrated. It's why you don't sleep well. It's why you're stressed out, because this is constant. You weren't made to live out of harmony with your Creator who loves you. He made you. He created you. He sent his Son to die for you, and he wants you to be in harmony with him. We learn from this that God is holy. And we learn from this verse that sin is ugly. Now, there's a third thing that we learn. Write this down. Very important. Salvation is costly. Salvation is costly. It is free. You can get a free ticket to heaven. You can have all your sins forgiven, but somebody paid for it. Jesus did you know if there were any other way for you to go to heaven, don't you think God would have used it? If there was any other way for a holy God to let an imperfect person into a perfect place, don't you think God would have done it rather than sacrifice his own Son? Of course he would have. There's a lot of pop psychology out there that just goes, ah, we're all gonna go to heaven. Cause I'm okay and you're okay. I can imagine Jesus on the cross saying, wait a minute, if I'm okay and you're okay, what am I up here for? Why am I up here dying on the cross if you're okay, if you don't need a savior, what in the world am I up here for? Why am I shedding my blood for you if you're okay and you're just gonna get in heaven? Cause you would like to be there. And God's gonna let an imperfect people, person into a perfect place. The cross shows that sin is destructive. It's serious, it's ugly, and that salvation is costly. It is the most expensive gift you will ever be given. Romans 3:25 says this. God sent his son. God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. This is the substitute again. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. That's the substitution.

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