Pastor Brad DeLong - The Debt Of My Deeds

feel a word for God's church this morning centers on the thing that's centered in the room today cross thank the Lord for the moving of the spirit and I believe that that moving has just paved the way for God's word to get in our hearts and get in our spirits if you allow me I want to turn to the Book of Luke chapter 23 starting at verse 32 and on your way to your seats I want to say how thankful we are every guest that's here I know this is different

yeah we welcome you and honor you truth is the Lord and any time he wants to do that he's more than welcome but 10 Milligan read this passage two weeks ago and the Lord began to deal with me about this day if you recall from my previous reading the Lord Jesus at this point had endured a tremendous amount of torture and derision on his way to the cross in his eventual death I feel a Thanksgiving in the room today that's right and fitting verse 32 of Luke 23 says there were

also two other criminals LED with him to be put to death when they had come to the place called Calvary There They Crucified him and the criminals one on the right hand the other on the left and Jesus said father forgive him for they don't know what they do they divide his garments and cast slots and the people stood looking on but even the rulers with them sneered saying he saved others let him save himself if he's the Christ the chosen of God soldiers also mocked him coming and offering him

sour wine he said if you're the king of the Jews save yourself they had no idea he was dying for their sins inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek Latin Hebrew this is the king of the Jews verse 39 and one of the criminals criminals if it wasn't bad enough the one hanging next to him blasphemy him saying if you're the Christ save yourself and while you're doing it save us for the other answering rebuked him saying do not even fear God saying you're under the same condemnation

and we indeed justly for we receive the due reward of our Deeds but this man has done nothing wrong he said to Jesus Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom Jesus said to him surely I say to you today you'll be with me in Paradise read again verse 41 from The New International Version the Thief said we are punished justly for we are getting what our Deeds deserve but this man has done nothing wrong today with this passage in mind with the wonderful glory of God that is here

and with the Cross of Christ and full of you I want to preach to you from this title the debt of my Deeds thank you the debt of my Deeds you have done this already it won't be the last time you do it today would you put your Bibles down and lift up your voices and thank the Lord for paying off every last bit of debt it's on your life oh would you take a moment thank him and glorify him before you're seated oh God we praise you Jesus thank you

Lord for the cross thank you for Calvary of God we thank you Jesus we thank you preparing every last bit of that debt but that you should not have had to pay but the one that you did on my behalf thank you Jesus you may be seated this one on the heels of reading my title my mind goes back to one of my earliest memories as a child in my parents home in North County I remember standing in the doorway of my sister in Nicole's room as she was trying to

convince me and sell me into playing a game that I just I did not want to play at that time for those that don't know my sister Nicole she's about 18 months older than I am and she learned early on how to convince me to do things that she wanted her younger brother to do and she often did that by offering me promises that in hindsight we're just ludicrous on this particular day the promise was too good for any four or five-year-old to pass up you see I recalled distinctly Nicole

told me Brad if you will play with me just this one time I will give you a million billion dollars as you can imagine that moment my mind I began to consider all of the things that I could buy all the toys the candy everything I could purchase with that kind of funding it's a serious Hall it's a number and opportunity I had never encountered before it's one I have never encountered since regrettably in my youth and my inexperience I never actually stopped to consider if she truly had that kind

of cash on her in the first place for that matter I really not to con didn't stop to consider of anyone much less my six-year-old sister could accumulate that amount of money in one lifetime or even a hundred lifetimes instead with my eyes seeing dollar signs in my mind considering being set for life with my sister's money I relented and I gave in her request this week I decided to Circle back to that story especially as I considered our theme today and I did do a little research I found out

that a million billion dollars is actually called one quadrillion dollars and it's represented sister Olivia help me out if you would it's represented by that number it's a large number for a debt that is yet to be paid I would add it's an enormous balance that has been owed for 25 plus years it's this implausible invoices hung over my dear sister's head for over two decades now I told her this morning you are officially forgiven I love you as I considered that number I thought truly no one could pay that

debt known no one could fulfill that obligation no one could take on that responsibility it's simply impossible for any of us to accumulate and to pay off it's it's beyond the scope of our abilities and our and our powers that supersedes our capacity in in our limits and I know that it's a humorous illustration in many ways but it is also indicative and it's representative of the very same debt that the thief on the cross recognized in Luke 23 and 41 now he did not owe a quadrillion dollars he he

was not on the hook for a million billion bucks or some kind of financial compensation there was no astronomical number that he needed to pay but the truth of the matter is that the debt that he referenced it actually came at a much higher cost the debt that he alluded to it was it was much more than a financial obligation or a set amount with added interest it was far more than what money could attain or buy or cover but you see his debt in our shared debt it cannot be

Quantified in numbers and in measurables it can't be expressed in dollars in digits it can't be calculated in figures in numerals instead it's immeasurable it's it's incalculable it's Untold and from our vantage point this morning it is unpayable and it's irredeemable but I came today among other things to thank God that in the very face of that debt that you and I and the thief should have paid the word says for when we were still without Strength In Due Time Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely for a righteous man

would one die yet Perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us while we were still skeet in sin in debt Christ laid down his life for us while we were on the hook for every last sin and every last misguided deed Christ loved us enough to sacrifice himself for us and even though he was spotless and even though he was blameless and even though he did nothing wrong he decided to

pay the debt that I alone should have paid he decided to cover the cost that I should have borne and he decided to fill the obligation that I should have fulfilled Thief said it plainly we deserved our death we owed a debt we merited what our Deeds deserve and yet we you and I incurred none of the cost of Calvary a cost that was fully paid and fully covered at a tremendously high in lofty costs it was the dead of my Deeds my deed but he paid it himself he covered

it with a cross he canceled it at Calvary he prayed paid the price it was it was mine to pay he took on the debt that was rightfully mine to carrying this morning I thank God the price was paid as I mentioned it certainly came in a steep and a sacrificial cost the truth is we all had a death that needed to be paid that day Romans tells us all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God and then Romans 6 says that the wages of those sins are

death the aftermath and the consequences of those sins those deeds the sins that we were born into the sins we've committed since the wages and the allotment of those sins is death but it continues at the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord and I pause to say if you've not experienced that gift and you've never been baptized in Jesus name you've never been filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost it is eternal life it's life and life more abundantly and you can have that gift

today instead of the wages of your sin which is death so what I earn in the debt that I accrued it should have led me directly to death but what I got in return was life and a free gift that the costs and the consequence of death was what my Deeds deserve but the exact opposite is what I received instead my actions and my Deeds dictated only that I should have been saddled with a debt that I could not repay now or ever but the cross and Christ's death dictated otherwise

and canceled a debt that an eternal life of well-intentions in righteous living could never hope to cover simply say it I had a debt that I can never hope to repay and not even a million billion dollars could quantify it or cover it but Christ and the cross and Calvary covered it in my stead even when I was yet a sinner even when I was a far and a long way off even when I had no intentions of drawing near to him even when I had no intentions of loving him

or living for him he died for me my Deeds my sins my words even the Idle Words my actions my thoughts my failures my misaligned mindsets my transgressions my mistakes my intentions my shortcomings had incurred a dead so insurmountable it can't be measured by human methods yet in an act of Grace never witnessed before or since Christ died from me and paid the price for the dead of my deeds and absolutely none of his own Christ covered me he redeemed me paid for me and he paid it oh my dad

was far beyond my ability to compensate but he paid it and he forgave me in the process it was the dead of my Deeds but he covered it willingly this is all Illustrated in several places throughout the word of God there's one place that helps give us the full scope of that debt and it's insurmountable nature it's actually found in Matthew 18 and 23 it's called the parable of the unmerciful servant many of you probably heard this Parable before and it speaks to our dead and our need of forgiveness you

can read with me in Matthew 18 23 it says therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants and when he begun to settle accounts one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents but as you as he was not able to pay his master commanded that he'd be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made this is the consequences of our debt and deeds the sermon therefore fell down before him saying

Master have patience with me and I will pay you all someone today can fall before the feet of a gracious master and say Lord please forgive me of this debt and he will forgive you and he'll take that debt away from you it says the master of that service was he was moved with compassion released him and forgave him the debt now maybe you know the remainder of the story The servant was forgiven but he didn't forgive his fellow man that's another sermon for another day it's compelling and the picture

it paints reminds us of the true nature of our debt to put into perspective today this is what Jesus was getting at we need to realize that just one Talent of what that man owed would have likely represented around 20 years of daily wages it would have been equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dollars in the dollar amount itself was not really the point Jesus was trying to make he was using hyperbole to demonstrate the incredible debt that he's forgiven and paid on our behalf you see the hearers of that

day to them ten thousand talents would have represented about 200 000 years of Labor over 60 million working days for the Common Man or sir in other words it was a debt that no man could ever hope to pay but because of the compassion of the king of the Kingdom that debt was completely canceled and forgiven so when the thief from the cross says that we deserved the due reward of our Deeds this is that due reward this is the debt that we incur this is the cost for my mistakes

and my failures this was the account and the result of my sins and transgression in fact Paul tells us our Deeds actually resulted in a list of charges or ordinances that was against us The New International Version says that we had a charge against us for legal indebtedness there was an indictment an accusation an allegation against us because of our sins and our transgressions and for some of us that list was probably longer than others for some of us the debt was even greater for some of us that whole to

climb out of that debt was even deeper but even still Paul he makes no distinctions he said you all have a debt to pay you've all sinned but thank God he doesn't stop there Colossians 2 and 13 one of my favorite passages of scripture he says in you being dead in your dead in trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh he's made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses having wiped down the handwriting of requirements that was against us it was contrary to us and he's taken out of

the way and he's nailed it to the cross for everyone to see any disarmed principalities and powers and he made a spectacle of them triumphing over them so when the enemy and the principalities and Powers came and said yeah this is your debt Jesus took that dead crumpled it actually didn't Crown he just nailed it to that cross he painted himself and he paid all of it and having done that having taken on my death a debt that he does not hang over my head thank God but one that in

a master stroke of Mercy he completely cancered having done that he took that legal charge of indebtedness that was against us and he nailed it to the cross for everyone including my accusers to see and in doing so he reminds us that not only did he die for our death and not only did he cancel our death but now no one else has the right to call on that death I want to tell someone today if the accuser comes around saying you owe a death and you you ought to do

this and you ought to have this guilt and you ought to be saddled with shame you remind him no my debt is canceled he cannot not call on your debt your debt has been nailed to the cross your debt has been covered you are free and clear it's been forgiven it's been canceled and if it's yet to be forgiven it can be today it's canceled it was my dad and my dad alone but Jesus Paid It they paid all of it I thought about this this week in an experience that

I had came back to my mind where I and I were early on in our marriage we had a dinner day to the steakhouse nearby we were probably broke and we went there thank God for some wonderful Saints who gave us some gift cards I remember going I felt like a king I ordered I ordered the best and the appetizers I had to select sides sorry I know lunch is coming I incurred a debt probably got the biggest rib eye on the menu I willingly said I'll I'll pay for these

I'll I took on that debt knowing that I'd have to reckon with it I'd have to pay we weren't going to dine and dash we racked up quite a bill little did we know there's some very generous associate pastors brother and sister Reaver happened to be in the same restaurant at the same time unbeknownst to us they had taken it upon themselves to fully pay our bill they do that a lot and I thank them for that no they're not here today out of town but despite that list of charges

that I had willingly incurred and all the extras that I had put on there they they paid it I remember the server coming over hand us our receipt for zero dollars even the tip was added the server mentioned that you're free to go someone's already covered your costs someone's already covered your chart it's thankful as I am today I know a steakhouse Bill hardly compares to what Christ has done on the cross the comparison of death dead is it's not the point I'm getting at but instead I draw a parallel

to tell someone you're free today I need to say that again you are free today Jesus Paid It All he didn't live you with any part of that bill and just in case you need the receipt today and just in case you need to show the enemy that I'm covered I point you to the cross that is fixed and framed behind me just in case you need new receipt there it is it's got a list of ordinances nailed against it Jesus Paid the cost he covered you you are free you

don't know that enemy anything you don't know this world anything you are free today in light of the Cross you and I can and should live in Freedom from Death hell in the grave and we can walk with a God who canceled our debts now we can repent of our sins we talked about this in our connect class today we can turn towards him we can walk in Freedom from our past we can have our past buried in Jesus name and that debt will be left in that baptismal tank you

can come up out of that water speaking in other tongues with the power to overcome anything and now we've got the capacity to live in Liberty we can live debt-free because of the Cross of Christ and the cost he paid Ephesians 2 says in you he made a lie you were dead in trespasses and sins anyone remember that and if that's you today listen to the scripture in which you once walked according to the course of this world this is what was happening to you when you lived in debt according

to the prince and power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of Disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh we fulfilled the desires of the Flesh and the mind we were by Nature children of Wrath just as the others we were living in sin we were living in indebtedness we lived and walked in darkness in Desolation verse 4 but God who is rich in Mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead

and in debt no one to take me on I walked into a loan office with a mound of debt they'd say no we can't cover you you are too much of a liability thank God he didn't look at me and say no your debt's too much you're a liar but instead he said I'll pay that debt I'll carry that debt I'll cancel that debt but God is rich in Mercy he helped us he made us alive together with Christ by Grace you've been saved and raised us up together made us

sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus and the ages to come he might show the exceeding Riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus first Peter 2 and 24 tells us how he did that and Jesus himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree had we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed for you were like sheep going astray but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul the thief from the cross said it

explicitly he did nothing wrong he committed no sins he had accrued no death but even still the Bible says that he who knew no sin became sin became a sin offering for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him he had no debt he knew no sin he was spotless and without fault he did nothing wrong that Thief said he was innocent he's blameless and never committed or tasted sin he had no reason to be on that cross other than my debt and yours and yet he bore

the cross anyway and in doing so he bore my sins in his own body think of it like this it was my bill but he covered it it was my sin but he carried it and it should have been my cross but he died on it it was my debt but he paid it and not only did he pay it but it came at a high and sobering cost First Corinthians 6 19 reminds us it says or do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit

who's in you whom you have from God that you are not your own for you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body that's your response glorify God in your body and your spirit what you did a couple minutes ago worshiping God that ought to be the response I thank God that it is it ought to be the response every day glorifying God everything I do the very next chapter Paul reminds us again we were bought at a price it was a high price it's staggering cost tremendous

debt it required a sacrifice that was beyond what we could give I said it earlier could not be Quantified and measured in any way but even if it was it wouldn't be calculated in dollars in digits it was not paid with material Goods or possessions it was too great a debt for a token offering instead it was paid in tears and in pain and in lashes and then thorns pressed to his brow my dad was measured in labored breaths and moments of excruciating discomfort an incessant taunting and mocking remarks my

my dad was paid and dispensed and drips of sour vinegar in the agonizing steps of calvary's Hill in the literal weight of the cross and in the figurative weight of the sins of the entire world my debt the dead of my Deeds was paid with at least three unpolished nails one crude cross and countless drops of the most precious blood imaginable same blood we're going to sing about in a few minutes and the same blood that proved enough to cover your sins and mine my dad is covered today and oh

what a cost for the dead Almighty acquire the sacrifice of all sacrifices intentional torture it required him Titus 2.

13 14.

verse 14 the beginning it says he gave himself he gave himself for us Mark 10 says he gave his life as a ransom for many for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son paid my debt this past week as I considered this it's in my office type and I got so overwhelmed just paused took a moment to thank the Lord I felt that same feeling as I read this last passage I want to read as musicians come I've read Isaiah 53 many times just like this message I don't ever want a passage like this to not move me become old cliche obsolete I don't ever want to take for granted forget what Jesus did on my behalf especially as I consider the price God help a message like this never become mundane Isaiah 53 and verse 1.

I want you to reflect on these words let them get in your spirit who's believed our report and to whom as the arm of the Lord been revealed he shall grow up before him as a tender plant as a root out of dry ground he has no form of comeliness when we see him there's no beauty that we should desire hymns talking of Jesus the suffering servant he's despised and rejected by Men A Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he

was despised and we did not esteem him surely he's born our griefs carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken Smitten by God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions our debt he was bruised for our iniquities chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes were healed and we all like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone every one of us has turned his own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened

on his mouth it was led as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before it shearers of Silence so he opened not his mouth he was taken from prison from judgment and who will declare his generation but he was cut off from the land of the living the transgressions of my people he was stricken for our debt they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth it had pleased the Lord to bruise

him let's put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed shall prolong his days the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand verse 11.

shall see the labor of his soul he will be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities therefore I'll divide him a portion with the great he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgression bore the sin of many and he made intercession for transgressors for me and for you in light of what he's done I want us to stand together in a very reverent way and would you lift

your hands like you did several moments ago I want to just praise and begin to flow out of you right now for the debt the dad that he paid however that sounds for you this morning doesn't have to be loud and boisterous but just make it sincere thank you Lord for my debt and you did not have to pay but you did oh I thank you Jesus that you were willing to pay that cost high and heavy cost I thank you Jesus if you suffered on that cross thank you Jesus

this altar call this morning is for two reasons two groups of people one if you need forgiveness of sins and you want to come and you want to repent and maybe all of us could do that today you want to come and ask for forgiveness I invite you to come in a moment and if your past has been chasing you and trying to tell you that you owe a greater debt when it's already been covered you can come as well and God can relieve you of that and the second group

of people are those of us whose debt has already been covered and already we're going to come and we're going to thank the Lord we're going to repent and we're going to ask the Lord to help us to live in light of the Cross and the price we paid right now I wonder without hesitation if you want forgiveness or you want to thank the Lord for forgiveness would you just step out of where you are and come right now and lift your hands begin to thank the Lord I feel his

holy presence here this morning what we're doing is Apostolic what we're doing honors God what we're doing is going to help us oh lift your hands and voices right now if you need foreign so you made a way across the Great Divide left behind Heaven's Throne to build it here inside and there at the cross you paid the dead I owe broke my chains freed my soul for the first time I had hoped apply thank you Jesus thank you Jesus you took my place thank you Jesus foreign foreign victory healing

here today because of that blood of Jesus before we move any further if you need healing in your body would you lift your hand right and said by his stripes you're healed if you need healing right now there is power in that blood of Jesus that was shed would you go right now and pray and if you feel to plead that blood over that brother or sister that has her hand up let's pray right now in Jesus name let's live in light of the power of his blood oh there's power

that blood oh it still works it's still enough to cover you replay the lead of Jesus over lives over families over sickness oh it's still enough it's still enough oh continue on I believe God's helping God's strengthened it right now we're just flowing in his Spirit oh Jesus we thank you Lord we claim the power of that blood thank you Jesus get Jesus thank you Jesus