Wayne's World...(4 Feb08)

What is the Good News?

The Gospel can accurately be translated the "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news".

Why is it "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news", and what is this "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news", and is it "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news".

These and many other exciting question will be answered in today's preach.

Before we look at these questions, I would like to briefly recap last weeks message for in many ways it forms a platform for today preach…what is the "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news".

We looked at Galatians and Paul's passionate plea to the Christians in Galatians.

Galatians 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

We see here that Paul was guarding the one true Gospel, the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. This was what Paul lived for it was his mission from on high. Protect and proclaim the one true Gospel. He gave his life for it.

Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

So we learn a few things from these two scriptures.

1) We learn that Paul was protecting and proclaiming the one and only true gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified, the gospel of grace.

2) We learn that the gospel is a gospel of grace. In other words gospel=grace. Paul uses the words interchangeably.

3) We learn that from the beginning, it has been the plan of the enemy to rob, kill and destroy the Gospel. He wants to pervert it and turn us to another gospel which is really no gospel at all.

The enemy wants to pollute our Christianity with religion, tradition and legalism. Why, well these things remove us from God.

Look at Galat 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel

Galatians 5:4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace

We see that following another way besides the pure gospel leads to separation and alienation from Christ.

Following another way, putting our faith in anything else besides Jesus and what he did on the cross causes separation between us and Christ. Following any other gospel, putting our faith in any other way, trying to do good to get right with God, trying to be self righteous to earn Gods favor, causes separation from Jesus. That's what 5:4 says trying to be justified by law causes alienation from Christ. Intimacy with Him comes from the place of total surrender, realizing we can never do or become enough, but that Jesus paid the price required from heaven in full, and now we enter into the new covenant, where our inheritance and promises are received based not on what we do, but on what Jesus has already done.

With this as an introduction, what is the "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news".

Here it is.

In the beginning Jesus created Adam and Eve to walk and talk with God in the cool of the day. Man was without shame. Then they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before this they were not aware of there nakedness of there inferiority. Man is inferior to God, coz he is so infinitely great. When they ate, they became aware of there shortcomings, they gained an awareness of the fact that they were not perfect. They became shameful, and gained the knowledge that compared to God, they were not perfect. Shame and embarrassment took them over. From that day on every person was born in the same state. Born into sin, and born into the knowledge that God is perfect, and we are not.

Then the Father made a covenant with man. He said, if you fully obey my commands that I give you today, I'll be you God, and you will be my people. If you obey me I'll bless you. If you disobey me, I'll curse you.

Deut 11:26See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse-- 27the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD

Chapter 28v1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: 3You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 4The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock--the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 5Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. 6You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 7The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. 8The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. 9The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. 10Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. 11The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity--in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground--in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you. 12The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them. 15However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. 17Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. 18The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 19You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 20The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. 21The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. 25The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you. 30You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. 31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. 34The sights you see will drive you mad. 35The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 36The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you. 38You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. 41You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 42Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land. 43The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail. 45All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. 47Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. 53Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. 54Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56The most gentle and sensitive woman among you--so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot--will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities. 58If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name--the LORD your God-- 59the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. 63Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. 64Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods--gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 65Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"--because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. 68The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

Chapter 29v1 These are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb

What awesome promises and what terrible curses. The problem is, and this is the catch. In order to enter the promises one would have to fully obey everything the Lord commanded. The problem with that is that no-one can fully obey the Lord. It was not as simple as do something good and get a blessing, do something bad and get a curse. It was fully obey and be blessed. Disobey and be cursed. Hence we are all born under the curse of the law.

The reason the law was issued was not to be kept. But rather to show us that we can never measure up to the perfect standard of God. The law was created to get us to a place of hopelessness so that we will throw our selves at the feet of God and say, I need a savior, I cannot measure up to your perfect standard. This is the state of all of man.

Then Jesus came to make a way, he fulfilled every requirement of the law on our behalf.

Colossians 2v13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross"

Jesus came and did what no man could. He lived a life without sin. He fulfilled every requirement on our behalf, so we don't have to. Then he took the written code, the law. He took all the commandments and regulations that stood opposed to us. That stood and constantly reminded us that we cannot measure up to Gods perfect standard of holiness, He took all that to the cross. He took all the punishment that was due to us, all the wrath of God. He absorbed it for us.

Please note he took it away, and he cancelled it. So if you believe in Jesus, if you have accepted his sacrifice, what dominion does the law have over you? None, nothing nada. Its cancelled. In Romans Paul says were dead to the law. You cant be more removed from something than to be dead to it. As Christians who accept and believe in Jesus, the law is dead and has no effect.

How was this achieved, who did it. Was it something we did, no. All we did was believe. Jesus lived the life, Jesus paid the price, He did it all on our behalf. Did we cancel the law…no. Did we forfill the law…no.

So now all the consequences for not following the law are cancelled too, all the curses from Deut 28, and all other curses, are cancelled. Jesus became a curse for us at the cross, so we might become the righteousness

2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This means that Jesus took the punishment for our sin. Reconciled us with God. We are now in right standing with God and nothing can threaten that glorious position of the freedom of the saints.

This is the "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news".

It's all done, and in one last death pronouncement Christ cried… "it is finished".

Jesus met every requirement of the law, and then cancelled the regulations that stood against us.

Now get this with the regulations cancelled, what is there to stop us from being in the original state that Adam was in? What's to stop us from walking unashamed and naked with God. Why would and could we not walk and talk with God in the cool of the day.

Ever obstacle to our separation from God is removed in Christ. The bible talks about this in many ways. It says we've been reconciled to God. It says we've been atoned, made as one. It says we have become one with Christ, and one with the Father. It says we are now in Him. We are now one body, and He is the head…God's trying to tell us something, He loves and accepts us, and its all through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.

This is the "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news". And in fact its much better that all that, but time does not allow, we'll look at it in more detail as time progresses.

What I would like to touch on is this. Jesus paid the price right. Not us. It's not what we do, but what Jesus has already done by laying down his life. What an insult it is to God, what a slap in the face when we turn around and say, I deserve this coz of what I do. When we say that I live such a good life, do so many good things, am so holy, that I deserve this gift of righteousness, and eternal life. Please friends, we can never be holy enough, never do enough, be moral enough, read our bibles enough, or pray enough, to deserve this free gift from God. We cannot obey enough rules, do the right thing enough.

When we think that our behavior affects the blessing of God, or we feel that we can earn or deserve our salvation, it called self righteousness. This is directly opposed to Christ's righteousness which is a gift to all who believe through what Jesus did. It's self righteousness that separates us from God. Self righteousness says "I can be like God", by following rules and standards, which are ultimately like new testament law, we think God will accept us more, or be convinced to keep us in right standing with God. This is not the "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news".

The "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news", is that we are right with God forever through what Jesus did on the cross. We're accepted, we're loved, we're sons and daughters, perfect forever. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. It's all been done, Jesus did it all, all we have to do is believe. From this place of rightness with God, we will experience Him in ever increasing ways. As we are in Him, and with Him, he changes us. From this place of intimacy that He bought for us, He will transform us from Glory to Glory, as he works in us, changing us into ever increasing degrees of his likeness. But loving and accepting us every step of the journey.

This is the "nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news", its not what we do, it's what Jesus Christ has already done.