How should the gospel inform our understanding of our past? How does God react to our sin? In this video, Pastor David Platt explains that the gospel tells us that our past sins do not cut us off from a future hope. When a person recognizes their sin, they realize that they are far from a holy God. To despair about our sin is to miss the core of the gospel. Even though we have all sinned, God showed his grace to us by sending Jesus to suffer for our sins instead. When we trust in Jesus as our redeemer, we can begin to live in a new way.
- Our Sinful Pasts
- Hope for the Future
- Jesus’s Sacrifice
- His Grace Covers All Sin
Watch Full Message of Advent: Hope for the Hurting, Part 1
Transcript
Please don’t miss it, brothers and sisters. In the moments when God may seem farthest from you, unbeknownst to you, God may be laying the foundations for the greatest display of His faithfulness to you. You say, “How do you know that?” And the answer is because this is the gospel, this is the story within a much greater story, and this is the promise for all who trust in God. And it’s twofold. One, His grace will cover over our sin.
Amen.
There is Hope
Elimelech had turned his back on God and the Promised Land had taken his family into the pagan land of compromise. But God had brought them back, and in the process, God was using Elimelech’s actions to set the stage for one of the most beautiful pictures of His grace in all of the Bible. Similarly, Ruth was born into Moab, a sinful, pagan, idolatrous, immoral people. She was raised there, immersed in a people unpleasing to God. But don’t miss this. Brother and sisters, this is not in your notes, but write this down, don’t forget this, sin from your past does not dispel hope for your future.
Amen.
Sin from your past does not dispel hope for your future.
Amen.
Because God’s grace covers over sin. And this is the gospel, the good news at the center of the Bible is the ultimate story of turning sorrowful tragedy into surprising triumph.
Amen.
God Has Not Left Us
Because we are all like Elimelech. We have all wandered from God and His promises for our lives. We are all like Ruth the Moabite, with a history of sin that separates us from God and condemns us to curse, to judgment. Yet God has not left us alone in this state, God has sought us out, God has come to us in the person of Jesus.
Amen.
And though Jesus lived a sinless life, not deserving of death, He chose to die on a cross for our sins. But see it, that was not the end of that story because Jesus did not stay dead. He rose from the grave and took the most tragic event in all of history and turned it into the most triumphant event in all of history, salvation for anyone and everyone who will trust in Him.
Amen.
God in His greatness and His goodness has made a way for you and me, not to be held to our past, but to have the hope of a totally different future.
Amen.
Bringing Hope for the Future
Oh, if you are not a Christian today, I am so glad you are here, and I want to invite you to see all the circumstances that have brought you to this place at this time today. I invite you to see the love of God, that you would hear this story today, not just Ruth, but the big picture story, you would see yourself in it. There is a God who is sought after you such that you would say to Him today, “Yes, I trust your love for me. I forsake the things of this world and I will follow you. Turn my story of sin and death into your story of hope and life.”
Amen.
And He will. His grace covers over sin. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
