Special Message

We're headed for Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, for a message entitled Despising the Shame. Romans 5 is where we'll set the table for what's waiting for us in Hebrews 12. Romans 5, the gospel according to Paul, the gospel according to grace. I said I just got back from a youth camp. The theme of the camp was the pearl of great price from the kingdom parables in Matthew 13,

obviously, and one short parable, and I think there were six of us over the course of nine messages exploring. It's guarded from every possible angle, but everywhere you look at, every facet of that pearl of great price that you examine, it all comes back to grace, and it was great to watch these students, these teens just have their minds blown as we got deeper and deeper, and we pondered more and more, and they began to understand more and more thoroughly, richly the height, the depth, the breadth of God's love. As expressed through his grace, and I had the same conversation. It was interesting.

It was almost like Groundhog Day. I had the same conversation over and over again, except it was with different students, as they would share that God was revolutionizing their perspective of grace. A lot of them came to camp, and these church kids, most of them, but a lot of them came to camp with a distorted, with an inaccurate picture of grace, and most of you don't know me, but Robbie and Diane will tell you, I think metaphorically, I see visually, and I watched way too much TV as a kid, so I translate things into metaphor, and the idea of grace that a lot of these students came to camp with was a scene you've watched in every action movie you've ever watched, because every action movie has that scene.

Where the hero is running, and running, and running, and the bad guys are chasing, and chasing, and chasing, and there's some sort of vehicle, right? And it's a motorcycle, it's a car, it's a plane, it's a helicopter, but that's salvation. If I can just get to that vehicle, if I can just get on board, it'll zoom away to safety, it'll zoom away to freedom, it'll get me away from the bad guys. And just, you know, they cut the scene, and they shoot the scene, so just when it looks like it's out of reach.

There's a hand that reaches down, and pulls them on board, and they zoom away. How many times have you seen that movie, right? That's not grace. We want to think that it is. We want to believe that grace is just that extra few inches we need to bridge the gap. We're almost there in our strength. We're almost there in our righteousness. We just need a little bit more, and we'll be on board with

Jesus. That isn't grace. If we wanted to shoot a scene about grace, you'd have to recast us as the bad guys. We're not the good guys, not when we came to Jesus. We were the bad guys, and we were the ones shooting at Jesus, except we didn't know that we were mortally wounded ourselves. We were shot, we were shot. We were bleeding out. We were dead men and women walking. We were about to die in the street

when the hero, driving the car, looks in the rearview mirror, sees what's happening, and spins a U-turn. And the angel riding shotgun says, what are you doing? He's as good as dead. And the angel in the back seat says, and he deserved it. And the other angel in the back seat says, and he deserved it. And the other angel in the back seat says, you can't go back. You'll be shot. And Jesus says, I

know. And he turns around anyway, and he drives back anyway. And he drives into a hail of gunfire anyway, and he leaps out of the car and does CPR and revives us and gets us in the car. And he ends up bleeding out there in the street. If you want to shoot a scene of grace, that's the scene. And that's the idea. That's the idea that Paul has been exploring as we pick up the gospel of grace in Romans 5.

Grace that is not that last little bit that gets us on board, that gets us over the top. No, it's all of it. We're on board with Jesus because of it. And Paul's been talking about it. Let's stand and we'll read God's word together. We'll pick up at the bottom, verse 4, for a bit of context. Chapter 4, verse 24. God is talking about God who raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because

of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith and into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to read this verse. Excuse me. Rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in

tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope. Now, hope does not disappoint. You might underline that phrase. Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given to us. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died,

for the ungodly. He died for you and me. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love toward us, toward all of us, toward each of us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through

him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the dead, we shall be the death of his son. Much more so, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Lord, my stumbling speech can't corrupt your words. They're beautiful,

they're majestic, they're wonderful, they're life. And now as we dig into them, as we seek to explore and unpack them through the leading of your spirit, Lord, would you illuminate them? Would you use them to change us? Would you use them to sanctify us? Would you use them to make us more like you? We want to leave here, Father, more in love with you than we

entered. We give this time to you. Would you have your way with it? Would you have your way with us? We ask in Jesus' name, and we say amen. Please be seated. Paul, Paul just laid a whole system atic theology of justification on us in like a dozen verses. Justification, the past tense of our salvation, Jesus dying on the cross, you and I believing upon him, and now we are justified.

It's just as if, you've heard this, we never sinned at all. That's how thoroughly Jesus erased our sin. Paul just did a whole thing on it. He talked about our need for justification, our sin, he talked about the means of salvation, dying in our place. He talked about the result of it, peace with God, and he ended talking about our response to it, rejoicing. If this were a psalm

instead of an epistle, this is where there'd be selah. Pause here, rest here, just sit and marinate in what you just read. Just enjoy that thought for a while. God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were in the midst of this, we were in the midst of this, we were in the midst of this. We were still sinners. Christ died for us. How good is that? So good. How much does

God love us? We were his enemies. We were those bad guys in the streets throwing shots at Jesus with our dying breath, and he turned around and he came to save us. Not because we deserved it, in spite of the fact, thank you so much. You will surely not lose your reward.

Look again at the passage though. I mean, we could dive into the theology all day and all week, but there's one particular thing lurking here that I believe that the Lord would have us dig into together this morning. Look at the verbs that Paul uses to describe our justification. Bible exposition 101, a little hermeneutics tip. If you want to understand a passage, look at the verbs.

The verbs will, always lead the way. What do you notice about the verbs? Start especially at verse 6 and lower. What do you notice about the verbs describing our justification? They're in the past tense. Verse 6, Christ died. Verse 8, Christ died for us. Verse 9, we've been justified. Verse 10, we were reconciled. Same verse, we have been reconciled. Verse 11, we have received

reconciliation. So what, Patrick? So what is, I think Paul is saying something. I think that he's pointing to something. I think the Holy Spirit is underlining something for us this morning. I think we're being reminded in God's word that in God's eyes, our sin, our guilt is in the past tense. Jesus' next to last words on the cross, to tell us die, it's finished, done, over, completed.

Our debt paid in full. Jesus paid it. Paid it all. Paid it in full. Paid it. Past tense. Completed action. I get that there's three tenses of our salvation. I get that we still labor in these bodies of sin. We still sin. We look forward to our glorification, the future tense of our salvation, where we'll get to shuck off these sinful chassis. And live in glorified, sinless bodies for all of eternity. I get that there's a future tense of

our salvation. I get that there's a present tense of our salvation. Sanctification. That ongoing process where spirit wars with flesh. But justification, the erasure of our guilt, our reconciliation with God, it's 100% finished and complete for those who are in Christ Jesus. Please say amen. There's nothing, you and I, or in Christ can do today or any day ever to make God love us more. There's also nothing we can do

to make him love us less. It's done. It's finished. The work is complete. If we try to add anything to it, we ruin it. We wreck it. We change it. Jesus plus anything, you know this, Jesus plus anything is what? Nothing. Jesus plus nothing? Well, that's everything. Why is the Holy Spirit underlining? This? Why am I emphasizing this? Because, family, I think there's a lot of times that we don't truly

believe it. We might say it. We might preach it. We might share it. But deep down, there are times that we don't believe we have been justified, past tense. That we have been forgiven, past tense. That we are, as a result, at peace with God, present tense. Am I right? Is it? That there are times that, in spite of everything we know about grace, we doubt our forgiveness. We doubt the completion of God's work. We parse it. I know I'm forgiven this.

I'm not sure about that. I know that I was forgiven this, but then I did it again. So, did it really count? And this thing over here that I don't talk about, even when I share my testimony, I don't talk about it because I'm not sure that I was ever forgiven it or ever can be. Do I really believe that I believe that I believe that it's in the past tense? Let's explore that a little bit this morning. Why we don't always feel forgiven in spite of

everything that we think that we know, in spite of everything that Paul just said, and how that feeling left unchallenged and unchecked will steal the joy that Paul just told us is our birthright. You and I who are born again, our birthright is joy in Christ Jesus. Unless we let the enemy steal it. And how do we deal with those feelings, those lying feelings that we sang about on the very first song this morning? Is the Holy Spirit crazy like

that? How do we deal with those feelings and begin to live in the freedom and the forgiveness that Jesus purchased at the cross? That's our three-part outline, except we're Calvary and we don't do three-part themes. So, let's make it four. We're going to review, and I'm sorry that I don't, I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do it. I don't

have a ton of slides this morning. But we're going to review what's real. We'll hit that quickly. We'll examine how it's at odds with how we feel. We'll talk about how our feelings conspire to steal our joy. And then fourth point, we'll get back to how we deal with those feelings, how we get back to rejoicing. Point one, what's real? It's everything Paul just said.

It's the gospel. It's grace. C.S. Lewis called it the great exchange. Others have called it the divine bargain. John Corson, one of the OG Calvary guys, calls it the great switcheroo. Whatever we call it, points at the same thing. Jesus traded places with us at the cross. Amen? He said, hey, make you a deal. You give me your sin, I'll give you my righteousness.

That's how we're saved. As Jesus hung on the cross, God the Father looked at him, treated him, punished him as if he was us, as if he were guilty of our sin. And having done that, today, Jesus looks at us, treats us, blesses us as if we were Jesus, innocent, blameless, righteous. When we get to chapter eight, Paul, in Romans, Paul summarizes all of that. He says,

there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ever again. And before we go any further, I got to be that guy. I got to stop and ask, is that you? I'm not going to spend a Sunday morning with you. And not ask the most important question that anybody can ask of anyone ever. Are you in Christ Jesus? Is he in you? When you stand before God, are you going to stand before

him forgiven or condemned? Because everything that we just said is true. Jesus died in your place to offer you forgiveness. Have you accepted it? It's a free gift. Jesus paid for it, paid for it in full. But like any gift, it has to be accepted. And coming to church does not constitute acceptance of the gift. Singing a song does not constitute acceptance of the gift. I told the youth this week, hey,

four days at youth camp doesn't constitute acceptance of the gift. Accepting is accepting. Accepting is saying yes. Accepting is saying I want it. Accepting is saying it's for me. Accepting is saying thank you. And whether that's a brand new idea or it's something that you've been cooking on for a while and you haven't decided what to do with if you've never accepted christ's free gift of salvation please talk to me talk to pastor robbie

talk to diane talk to someone after service god may have brought you here just to hear that maybe just to be challenged to make a decision about it i was i was intellectually convinced that the bible was true and jesus was who he said he was for two years before i knelt down and and prayed and said jesus forgive me i need you because i had sinned i wasn't done sinning yet and i had pride that that jesus hadn't wrecked yet i needed to get broken good if you if if if you're here and you're saying well i don't know okay that's fair that can be legit what don't you know well i have questions questions cool what are they can we see if there are answers a lot of times i have questions as

code for i don't really want to think about it but man if there's if there's even a possibility that the people around you are right in what they believe that there's one way to heaven and his name is jesus don't you owe it to yourself to get those questions answered maybe you'll find that we're a bunch of fools wasting our time day over day week over week okay then then settle that resolve that but if there's even a possibility that jesus is who he says he is and the bible is true then your forever hangs in the balance because the great exchange is real let's get back to our outline the great exchange is real romans 10 paul is going to say believe in your heart confess

with your mouth that jesus is lord that jesus died for your sins and you will be saved you will be forgiven when you die you will spend eternity rejoicing if you don't you won't you'll spend eternity doing the opposite of rejoicing that's what's true that's what's real the problem point number two is that our feelings don't always keep up with our reality there's a word for that there's a word for how we sometimes feel guilty feel condemned feel dirty feel lost feel forsaken even though jesus says we're none of those things that word is shame some of you know where i'm going perhaps let's go there together let's make sure we're on the same page we often mention shame in connection with another

word shame goes hand in hand with guilt if i said it in the other order you would have gotten there guilt and because they're related but they're also distinct ideas they're similar but that they're not the same guilt let's define our terms guilt is a legal condition it's the fact i did wrong i lied i cheated i stole i raged i hurt people before god and man i am guilty shame is the emotion that accompanies guilt we sometimes refer to it as feeling guilty but it actually goes beyond that guilt is about what we did shame is about how we feel about what we did or about what was done to us shame is feeling like we need to hide or clean ourselves or conceal ourselves or compensate in some way for what we did or what

was done to us guilt is the fact shame is the feeling so far so good first place we see shame in scripture anyone in genesis in the garden first place in scripture first place in history adam and eve they didn't start off that way god didn't create them shameful the first time we see adam and eve in fact the bible describes them genesis 225 first time we see adam and eve that bible describes them as naked and unashamed they were innocent they had no guilt they hadn't done anything yet and they felt innocent they had no shame they were unashamed but on the other side of the apple or the apricot or the pomegranate or whatever it was what do we find them doing fade out fade back in

sewing fig leaves together to hide their nakedness because they were now guilty of disobeying god that was a fact god said don't satan said do adam and eve did so they were guilty and they felt guilty they were ashamed and immediately they began trying to cover up their shame instinctively they tried to hide who they really were who were they who they believed themselves to be even though the one the only one to hide from was god and he knew everything that's how deep shame can go even when everybody knows something we try to hide even when no one could possibly find out anything we try to hide don't look at me i'm dirty i'm gross i'm disgusting i'll never be clean again and if you know the truth you're

not going to want to have anything to do with me shame and guilt both began that day they both began in the garden but they're two different things and we've got to get that they're twins if you want to think of it that way but they're not identical twins they're fraternal twins born at the same time not the same thing guilt is objective reality the facts say i did something bad shame is a subjective belief it's the feeling that i am something bad you see the difference i'm camping out here because it's really important we're not going to hide anything we get that these are two different things they came into the world together they do not always travel together possible to have guilt without shame when i was in my 20s i was i wasn't saved

and i was running around sending sins with the guy who turned out to be a thief and it took me the longest time to figure it out because he didn't steal for me but but but i gradually noticed he would he would shop left it's not stuff he needed he had a decent job just just for he just for fun he just if he could get away with it those of you who are my age you remember we used to if you walk past a payphone you'd sort of reflexively dig around and see if anybody left the diamond there he would do that with car doors we'd be walking through a parking lot is this one open is this one open oh this one is open what's in the center council like what are you doing i remember one time i was in the

he he stole something that he that he didn't need and it was it was i can't remember what it was but i just remember you don't need that you're not going to use it and you have no purpose for stealing it other than you want to and he looked at me completely serious and he said if they don't want me to steal with it they should take better care of it he was i wasn't saved i'm like what are you doing but he was shameless he was guilty but he didn't feel anything about it he had no shame so it's possible to have guilt and no shame is the point of the story it's also possible to have shame without guilt guilt is is the fact say i've done wrong shame says i feel wrong i am what's wrong because of what i've done because

of what was done to me you can pick up shame second hand we can pick up shame by doing wrong can pick up shame by being wronged by being sinned against someone sins against you long enough or in the right way something bad happened because i'm bad that didn't happen to anybody else it happened to me and it happened to me for a reason it happened because i'm bad or something horrible something tragic happened something bad happened and it made me bad something bad happened and now i'm bad i'm bad i'm bad i'm no good i'm dirty i need to hide i need to pretend that it didn't happen i need to cover it up i can't let people see it or i'll be rejected because no one wants anything to

do with someone disappointing or disgusting like me i got i gotta pause because i can see faces and and and some of you are cooking on the things that i'm not saying hang with me jesus redeems and and if and if right now you're saying why did you just rip that scab off you're not even from here why are you coming into our family and poking please know nothing but love and god loves you more and and hang in we can have shame without guilt as a result of being sinned against that proves shame and guilt don't have to go together here's the big idea children's church curriculum that we use to teach children to be sinned against every every lesson there's a page and it's got a graphic and it's got you know this this big font

big i this is the big idea for this morning we can have shame without guilt because they don't have to go together we can have shame without guilt after our guilt is absolved after our sin is forgiven how does that work let's go back to what's real for a second in christ we're just just as if we've never sinned it's more than that but let's focus on that part psalm 103 12 god has removed our sin from us how far as far as the east is from the west how far is that that's forever far our guilt is gone forever that's real that's true that's factual but our feelings don't always keep up our guilt is gone our shame can persist in god's eyes we're spotless in our eyes we're filthy especially if we've ever been to a place where we've never been

told that some of you have been called filthy dirty wretched i remember counseling a young man who tried to kill himself and as as we got into it together he confessed that he was he was a he was a teen who had sexually molested a younger teen and and and he tried to kill himself in remorse immediately afterwards and when it didn't work he almost immediately he came to the church and and and and and as we got into it how did things get to this point well not surprisingly he had been abused but the reason that that he tried to take his life was that everything that anybody had ever said about his abuser was that there was no forgiveness for that person that that person was a monster that there was a special place in hell for that person and so

so that he he took that on himself and he said well now i've done that and now i'm him and now i'm that monster and now i'm stained in a way that not even christ's blood can wash away and the whole time i knew him he wrestled with that he knew he was forgiven he could preach a a message of of forgiveness better than any pastor that i know but that was for other people he knew that god had forgiven him his victim forgave him the family forgave him but he couldn't release the feeling that he was stained in a way that not even christ's blood could remove except what does scripture say jesus died to remove our guilt and shame those who look to him are radiant psalm 34 4 and their faces are never covered with shame

it's you and me who look to jesus the author and finisher of our faith our faces are never covered with shame fear not isaiah 54 4 speaking to israel but by extension speaking to us fear not you will not be put to shame how is that possible it's possible it's factual it's real because on the cross jesus took our shame and we see it if we're looking for it isaiah 53 is all about shame he was despised and rejected he was shamed in our place everything about the cross is an exercise in shame jesus was mocked he was spat upon he was crucified between thieves that was a way of declaring to everyone he is the lowest of the low he was crucified how naked ignore every crucifix you've seen in every catholic church you've ever

been in he was crucified naked do a word study of naked in scripture again and again consistently it points to shame jesus was shamed on the cross shame was put upon him but what was his response this is where we come to our text this morning for the joy set before him hebrews 12 2 for your sake and my sake you and i the pearl of great price you and i his joy for your sake and my sake jesus endured endured the cross despising the shame we quote that first part so often we get to the second part not often enough jesus endured the cross despising the shame and what despising means in this context is he shamed shame back he scoffed at the scoffer he mocked the mocker he refused to

succumb to shame or submit to shame because he knew it had no power he knew in death he would defeat it i came across this written in the first chapter of the first chapter of the first chapter by a pastor doing an exposition of that verse and he imagines jesus on the cross to say listen to me shame jesus despised shame what does that sound like listen to me do you see that joy in front of me shame compared to that you're less than nothing you're not worth comparing to that i despise you you think you have power no compared to the joy before me you've got nothing joy joy joy that's my power not you you're worthless shame you're powerless you think you can distract me i won't even look

at you i have a joy set before me i'm looking at that why would i look at you you're ugly and despicable and you're almost finished yeah you cover me now with a shroud but before you can say so there i'll throw you off like a filthy rag and put on my royal robe you think you're great because even last night you made my disciples run away you're a fool shame you're a despicable fool abandonment that loneliness this cross these tools of yours they are my sacred suffering and will save my disciples not destroy them shame you are a fool because even now your filthy hands fulfill holy prophecy farewell shame it's finished even as he hung on the cross jesus knew his death would remove our guilt and destroy any reason for shame

he he removed our guilt so there's no there's no reason to feel guilty jesus knew jesus said it and because jesus said it paul knew it and paul said it look again at verse five i i said he underlined this while we were running by it i was reading new king james and new king james we read verse five hope does not disappoint other translations translate that same phrase hope does not put us to shame paul says it again in chapter 10 verse 11 whoever believes on him will not be put to shame and it makes sense right if jesus has removed the fact of our sin we don't have to feel anything about it except joy and thankfulness thankfulness for the cross joy in our forgiveness that's what's

real what happens when we forget that when we neglect that when we pay more attention to our feelings than the fact of our forgiveness shame represents the fact that we're not able to forgive we're not able to

repent proper love and love we're dissolve see put why do we have we we we and we someone categories, cover up or give up. If I'm still carrying shame, if I'm still convinced that I'm broken and ugly, I try to cover that up. And one way to cover something up is to convince people to look at something else. Magicians, right? Don't look at what I'm doing over here with the hat and

the rabbit. Look at what I'm doing over here. Look at my perfect house, my perfect yard, my perfect garden. Look at my awesome boyfriend or girlfriend. Look at this amazing body. For me, it was education, it was grades, and then it was sports, things that translated into the approval of other people. If you tell me that what I'm doing over here is great, maybe you won't notice or care

about what's filthy over here, about what I'm convinced is filthy. Ministry. People will throw themselves into ministry, trying to win the approval of God for what we do. Over here, and maybe God will overlook what we did over there, except he's already chosen to forget it. And the only one still obsessing about it is us. There's a lot of ways to try to cover

up shame. They have one thing in common, they don't work. Go back to the garden. Very first efforts, the very first humans made to cover up the very first episode of shame. Fig leaves, right? You've heard sermons preached on fig leaves. But you know what fig leaves? First thing is that they're uncomfortable. If you've ever held a fig leaf, it's like sandpaper.

They're covering up with, ooh. And they only work temporarily. They brown up really quick, they dry out, they blow away, you need new ones. Those same two things are true for every fig leaf we find, for everything we try to hide behind, everything we use to conceal, everything that we try to cover up our shame with. If you have two things in common that won't last, it will get really, really frustrating. If I'm

trying to hide from shame in my job, the feeling over here isn't going away no matter what success I have. And I'm going to get frustrated that the success over here isn't erasing my perceived failure over there. So I get mad at my boss, I get mad at my coworkers, I get mad at the work, I get mad at the customers. I change jobs because it's not healing my pain. But I can't admit that

I'm in pain because I'm covering up my pain. So I blame the job. I move on. Have you seen that? If I'm running from shame in a relationship, same thing. They either won't last or they shouldn't last. They either won't last or they'll be incredibly unhealthy. Because when I realize that my partner, my boyfriend, my girlfriend isn't fixing what's wrong with me, I'll either get frustrated and move on and try to find someone who will fix me,

who will make me feel better, or I'll stay and make sure we're both miserable. If I'm running from shame in a minute, I'm going to get frustrated. I'm going to get frustrated. I'm going to get mad at my ministry. I'll get mad at my overseer. I'll get mad at the pastor. I'll get mad at the church. Or I'll go straight to go and I'll say, God, look at everything I'm doing to serve you,

and this is how you repay me. I could keep going, but I think you get it. Variations on a theme. The thing that fig leaves have in common, they always hurt, they never last. The other big category, I said there were two. First is cover up, second category. I might give up. And just let shame be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm filthy, so I might as well go do filthy things. I'm unholy, so I'm going to go be an

unholy terror. Nothing I can do. I'm a sinner, so I'm going to sin. I'm dirty, so I might as well degrade myself. Raise your hand if you've seen that play out in somebody's life. Lots of us, right? Is there anything sadder? Is there anything more tragic than the self-fulfilling prophecy of someone convinced that they're beyond hope, and so they go out and try to prove it?

It's tragic, because Jesus wants so much better for us. The cross made us so much better than that. So what do we do? We decide we're going to believe what's real. We're going to believe what's real. We're going to believe Jesus. How do we deal with shame? We can't. But Christ has. And we've got a picture of it in that very first episode of shame, back in the garden,

Adam and Eve frantically trying to cover themselves with sandpaper underwear. What does God do? Genesis 3.21, for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skins and clothed them. God says, stop. Just, just, just, just, no, stop. Let me deal with that. Let me deal with your nakedness. Let me deal with your shame. Adam and Eve couldn't deal with their shame in any real lasting way.

Every attempt was temporary and frustrating, so God dealt with it for them in a lasting way. He covered them with animal skin. And here's something that I believe that I can't prove. Something I think is true, but I can't prove. But I think he covered them with lamb skin, specifically. Because I think that whole episode anticipated the Lamb of God giving up his skin to clothe us,

to cover us, to deal with our shame. The Lamb of God who gave up the skin of his hands and his feet. The Lamb of God who gave up the skin of his side where the spear drove in. The skin of his back where the torturer's whip struck again and again. The skin of his scalp where thorns like fish hooks dug in. All to clothe us in his righteousness. Isaiah 61.10, speaking of Israel's redemption, but also ours.

I'll greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, covered me with the garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, a bride adorns herself with jewels. How do we deal with the shame? Let's be honest, the shame we all feel at one time or another.

How do we deal with the temptation to hide or deflect or just give up that every one of us knows? How do we deal with it? We don't deal with it. We don't deal with it. What we do is remember and remind each other, Jesus has. He's clothed us. He's covered us. He's freed us. And the best way to remember that is to read.

The Bible is one ongoing story of grace from beginning to end. What does God do with David, who lived wracked with shame for more than a year after he slept with Bathsheba and killed her husband? What does God do? Forgives him. David, I love you. I forgive you. You're a man after my own heart. What does Jesus do with the lepers ostracized by society? Leprosy, a symbol of sin, heals them.

What does Jesus do with the woman who's unclean in Jewish eyes because of her issue of blood makes her clean? What does Jesus say happened to the prodigal son? Dad lifted him up out of the mud and embraced him and said, you never stopped being my son. You have no need to be ashamed. What did Jesus do with the woman caught in adultery, refused to condemn her,

told her her past was in the past, that shame was in her rearview mirror, and it was what she did now that mattered? What does Jesus do with Peter after Peter denies him three times and is convinced that he's beyond hope? Jesus, at least in the pages of Scripture, never speaks of it. We never hear Jesus say word one about it. Instead, Jesus commissions him.

Peter, feed my sheep. Peter, tend my lambs. What does he do with the woman at the well who's embarrassed about her past, all of the husbands, and now the boyfriend? Jesus goes out of his way to find her. He detours to Samaria just to talk to her, and after the conversation, he says, hey, go and tell people about the forgiveness that you found here today. I could keep going, but I hope you see the through line.

And it's not just the through line of a few stories that I cherry-picked. It's the through line of the entire Bible. When Jesus removes sin, he removes shame. We're free of the fact of our sin. We can let go of the feelings that we have associated with the sin. And as we wrap up, I want to anchor this in one. One more story. We've begun our initial descent.

You can fasten your seatbelts. You can put your tray tables in the locked and upright position. But one more thing before we close. Turn to Mark chapter 1 with me, if you would. I want you to put eyes on this. And if you're like me when I get done, you're going to want to put an exclamation point and a star and circles around it. Mark chapter 1. We're going to start at verse 39.

Jesus and the lepers.

Mark 1.39. He was preaching in their synagogues. They're on all Galilee, casting out demons. A leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him and saying to him, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Now think about this for a minute. Leprosy was not the result of that man's sin. Leper wasn't guilty of anything, but he was unclean. Just as you and I in Christ Jesus are not guilty of anything,

we've been forgiven. But in our shame, we sometimes believe we are unclean. You see the comparison? Dialed in? What does Jesus do? Let's start with what he doesn't do. He doesn't pull away. He doesn't say, oh, Phil, no, get away from me. I don't want anything to do with you. No, Jesus moves with compassion, stretched out his hand, and touched him, went to him,

closed the distance between him and the leper. And things I believe that I can't prove, I don't think that this was one of those.

I don't think it was that kind of touch. I think he went up and embraced him. At the very least, put his arm around him. And verse 42, as soon as he had spoken, he said to him, I'm willing to be cleansed. And verse 42, as soon as he had spoken, immediately, dramatically, the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. But now the rest of the story. Verse 43, Jesus strictly warned him,

the leper who was no longer a leper, and sent him away at once, and said to him, see that you see nothing to anyone, but go your way. Show yourself to the priest, because you have to. It was part of the law. If anyone's healed of leprosy, he's got to check in with the priest, and the priest will validate, hey, a miracle happened here today. And Jesus isn't going to break the law,

so don't break the law. Show yourself to the priest. Offer for your cleansing of those things, which Moses commanded as a testimony to them. But don't tell anyone else. You've got to tell the priest. Don't tell anyone who's not the priest. In the narrator's voice, the man told many, many people besides the priest. He told everyone. Verse 45, he went out and began to proclaim it freely

and to spread the matter. And as a result, same verse, Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places. What just happened?

Jesus and the leper traded places. The beginning of the story, the leper couldn't enter the town. He had to hide from the people. Now he's free. But at the end of the story, Jesus can't enter the town, and he has to hide from the people. Jesus took the leper's condition upon himself, because that's what Jesus does. He trades places with us. We're forgiven because he was forsaken.

We're accepted because he was condemned. Jesus' cleanness. This is Sam Albury. He's an Anglican pastor. I love his writing. Jesus' cleanness is a far more powerful contagion than any dirt we bring him. There's always more that's right in Jesus than there is wrong in us. More. More grace in him than offense in us. More forgiveness in him than sin in us. The very worst in us cannot compete

with the best in Christ. We can't dirty him. He can only purify us. However deep our mess goes, his holiness goes deeper. We will never exhaust it. And when we read God's word, we're reminded of that. Turn to any chapter, and it's speaking of that. The Bible is one. It's an ongoing story of God erasing shame. We need to read that truth. And we need to let that truth

have a louder voice in our hearts and our lives than the voice we give our feelings. We need to let Jesus have a louder voice in our lives than the voice we give our shame. Because shame is saying you're wounded, you're broken, you're no good, you need to hide. Come with me over here into the darkness. You'll be safe. You'll be here. And Jesus is saying, no, you're healed and whole and holy

and precious in my eyes. Come with me into the light because you're free there.

Some of you here this morning are wrestling with shame right now. You didn't really want to and you weren't coming here planning to, but the guy up front wouldn't stop talking about it. And at least now in this moment, you can't pretend that it's not there. Can I submit to you that God may have brought you here for that reason so that the lies the enemy has been whispering, the lies that your feelings have been shouting can be defeated once and for all and that the big sack of shame that you walked in with doesn't have to be with you when you leave.

You can leave it here. You can leave it at the cross. You can leave it with Jesus. He paid for it. Release it to him. Let him have it.

Rejoice in the forgiveness that he purchased by walking free from it. Lord, I pray for each one here.

I pray for the person whose chest gets tight when someone says, I know what happened. I pray for the person whose stomach drops. When somebody says, I heard. I pray for the person who wants to cry when someone says, I understand because you know they really don't.

Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters burdened by shame that you died to free them from. Oh, how very good Satan is at his job. How very persuasive our feelings can be. Lord, I pray this morning your truth would triumph. Triumph over darkness. Triumph over deception. Triumph over despair.

As in the privacy of our hearts, we say, Jesus, have this. Take this and replace it with joy.

Have your way, Jesus. We ask in your holy name. Amen. Thank you for inviting me to share this morning. I love my Calvary family. It's great to meet. It's great to meet. It's great to meet. It's great to meet the cousins who live out of town.

If you're cooking on this or on anything and you want to talk more, I'll be hanging out on the edge of the platform after this service.

Would you all stand? It is in the morning when I Give me cheese All this world But give me cheese Give me cheese Give me cheese You can But give me cheese To die To die Give me cheese You can This world But give me cheese Lord, when it comes down to it, give me Jesus. Amen. Because he gave himself for us on that cross. He died for our sins. He rose from the dead.

He ascended on high and is up to the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. And we thank you, Lord Jesus. Father God, thank you for sending your son. Lord, we thank you for sending the Holy Spirit. As you said, you wouldn't leave us as orphans, but you would send us the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and would lead and guide us.

Go before and bless our week now, in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord bless you all.