Alright, this is a three part Sermon. Tyrel Koenes spoke on this stuff, it really was amazing. So good to know why we believe what we do and just to really break down the Gospels and learn why we NEED a savior and pull out all of the truths and the depth of the things that sometimes we quickly forget to acknowledge or overlook.
Sin.
So, I think that all Christians would agree that they believe God is both Holy and Just.
Okay, so God is Holy. He is Holier than Holy.. we cannot even begin to understand how holy he truly is. The elders in heaven fall face down before him and sing day and night "holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come."
-He's HOLY.
Now our God is also Just God.
Meaning.. basically He will condem wickedness and reward righteousness. (You get what you deserve)
Let me look up the definition of Justice. one moment.
Justice : The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
Right, so God has these laws that he created. They are set.. The punishment for sin is death. We KNOW this.
So in a nutshell those are just two really important things that we know about our Lord.
He is holy, and he is just.
So what about us.. who are we?
Well we have fallen short of the glory of God. We have failed. We have sinned.. that means we are condemned.
God's will for our lives.. is a bullseye after a bullseye after a bullseye after a bullseye.. like PERFECT PEOPLE. Not just a bullseye but the very center of the bullseye. God is holy, he demands holiness and perfection. God cannot be around anything that is sin.
So all of us. Every single person. It is made clear in the bible that everyone has fallen short of the Glory of God! Therefore, we are rightfully condemned.
We deserve death.
We have sinned.. we are not holy anymore. God is holy we should not be in his presence.
God is just! So justice will be served. We are wicked and wickedness is condemned. We should have eternal damnation.
(Now if anyone is reading this and is like.. wow why is God making this so hard, why is he so uptight.. you need to acknowledge the Lord a little better. It is not up to YOU to decide what is fair and unfair .. and easy and right.. you are not God this is not your universe.. you are a creation of his Glory. So stop there. We need to understand that. We must understand our proper place in accordance to him.)
So a little story that Tyrel used to make us be able to understand this Justice thing with God.
Okay you, me, and about 30 other people watch a man shoot and kill another man.
We go to the trial as the Jury or something.
We all declare, "yes we saw the guy shoot the other guy."
The murderer is declared Guilty! (rightfully condemned.)
But then, after the judge declares him guilty.. he just lets him go free, no penalty. Just go.. its fine.
WHAT? we don't like that do we?
So here comes our problem.
This is the dilemma.. how can a Just God.. declare someone who is guilty innocent??
That is when Jesus comes in.. but that isn't this time that is in the next blog. (This is important I think. We need to really understand how much we need a savior.. we are going to continue to acknowledge our sin and how wretched we really are.)
So back to our sin.. (yay I know, but it is essential to understand our sin.. understand who we are without Jesus..)
By nature we are sinnners.
Titus 3:3-7 "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, DECEIVED and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteou things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."
So yeah, we sin.. we have been deceived.. If you don't think you sin you have been deceived.. (we shouldn't be offended by our sin either!) We should not get all .. annoyed when we hear we are sinners.. we should be sad yes. But we should not try and defend ourselves. We sin. We are not righteous.. we don't throw bullseyes, many times we miss the whole board. I do at least haha.
Romans 3:10
"As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one;"
Kind of repetitive.. I think Paul wanted to let us know that no one is perfect, .. not one of you people on earth is perfect.. and again if you didn't catch that .. NOT ONE OF YOU. Not even one.
Okay!!! we know i'm sorry.. haha
but really.. we just.. fail! We failed we failed. We cannot do it on our own..
God says in Genesis.. Genesis 8:21 "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood." He is talking about man.
EVERY INCLINATION OF OUR HEART IS EVIL FROM CHILDHOOD. God knows what he is talking about.. and the only good you have in you. It comes from God! The grace of God .. God revealing himself to you.. that is what holds us back from doing evil.. its this law of nature, Moral Law.. (ask C.S. Lewis.. Mere Christianity..)
So do we see how fallen short we are? We are evil, wicked little things. (Its okay if you hate yourself haha) But it isn't really hating yourself it is acknowledging the sin in you.. and then GET MAD AT THE ENEMY. HE IS WHY WE SIN!
We need to just walk in this conviction.. that wow. We suck and I hope something comes along to save us! Its a "sober judgement" like in romans.. just "don't think of yourself more highly than you ought."
So.. because we are sinners now the Lord has to give us the Law. Something to keep us in check and keep us from not killing each other.
Romans 7:7 "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'"
Okay, so it seems like God gave us the Law to identify our sin.. to know what right and wrong was!
Galatians 3:24 "Therefore the Law has become our TUTOR to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."
Again.. the law was given to us.. that way we can Learn how to try and live holy and righteous. The law are these standards that we strive to meet. It keeps us in check basically.
The Purpose of the Law has NEVER been to save.
The purpose is to expose sin.. so that we will stop hoping in ourselves and start hoping in God.
ROMANS 12!!! what what?? ;) okay
so it says. "In view of God's mercy!"
okay stopping there.. if we understand his mercy.. that he sent his son to justify us... because of his great mercy on us! .. then it says. "offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to god, this is your spiritual act of worship."
The only reasonable thing we can do in response to his mercy.. the mercy we have recieved is to offer everything we have to him. That is how we worship him is through our actions.
-It is because of what Christ did for us that we are able of anything, our hope is in what He's done for us.
-We can only appreciate what Christ has done for us by understanding who we are without him.
-IT'S ONLY WHEN WE COME TO THIS REALITY THAT WE MAY BE SAVED.
If you don't understand and acknowledge that you are in NEED of a savior. Then you cannot be saved. You have to not "want" a savior. You need one. We come to a crisis moment in our lives.. when we understand God's glory and Holiness.. how we don't match up and we go.. "oh no, I am doomed.. eternally damned, what can I do?"
Jesus did everything. You just respond to his action.
Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.
We must recognize that we are poor in spirit.. we are depraved. We are wicked.. We need a savior. We cannot possibly do anything holy on our own. It's through Jesus.
Do you ever onder why it seems that those that were drug addicts, alcoholics, thieves, prostitues, etc. seem the most radical when they come to the Lord? Because the have a deep revelation of who/what they are without him!!!
That is how we need to be people!! DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF. NEVER COMPARE YOUR SIN. "Do not think of ourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of ourselves in sober judgement in ACCORDANCE to the Measure of FAITH God has given you."
its like this.. i memorized Romans 12 right.. and I am like yeah! don't think of myself better than I am .. think of myself in sober judgement.. but you know how you do that?? yeah its that moment that part after.. Paul says.. in accordance to the measureof faith God has given me.. so the better i understand God. the better I understand how holy he is.. that is the degree that I can understand the truly think of myself with sober Judgement!! Cool right? The accordance of faith I have in the Lord.. the more i understand the Lord and myself.. the better i can understand how short i have fallen.
We are all equal to murderers, thieves and prostitutes.. do not DECEIVE yourselves.
(think about where you would be 1,000 years without God.) I know where I was when I was 17.. you know?
Luke 7 "Those that have been forgiven much love much."
We need to really understand how lost we are.
So.. The Law was given that we might identify what sin is and realize that we CANNOT save ourselves.
The only appropriate response is surrender, confession, and repentance.
And then he talked about Atheist and how he doesn't believe they are real haha.. so if you want to know about that ask me! It was really interesting his view of people who don't "believe" in God.
Ask me about it and I will break it down for you..
Anyway this is part one. Sin.. He encouraged us to make sure we listened to the other parts of his sermon to make ourselves feel better haha because this isn't the GOOD NEWS!
JESUS COMES AND SETS US FREE OF THE LAW AND OUR SIN!!
but first we must come to that somber realization that we have failed and have no hope unless God does something to show mercy.
You are a sinner. But God loves you anyway.
That's all
-Mali.
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