Continuing the message from yesterday: We hear that Jesus saves us. Saved from what? Jesus said in Luke 13:3 “I tell you, unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” But, repent of what? What does He mean by perish? Acts 3:19 tells us, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” But, what is sin? Sin is defined in the first Webster’s dictionary as: The voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by God; any voluntary transgression of the divine law, or violation of a divine command; a wicked act; iniquity. Sin is either a positive act in which a known divine law is violated, or it is the voluntary neglect to obey a positive divine command, or a rule of duty clearly implied in such command. Sin comprehends not action only, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts purposes, words and desires, whatever is contrary to God's commands or law. Do you see any departure from God’s commands, His righteous standards for us or His moral law today? The devil told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:4 that God lied, which caused our original parents of humanity to doubt God and disobey (original sin). Are we listening to lies still today and doubting God; disobeying God's teachings, statures, commands and laws? Do we ever lie, cheat, steal, hate, lust, or covet? Are we sinners?
Galatians 3:24-26 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
My old Cristian mentor always said that you first have to know what you have been saved “from” [the seriousness of our sin and the penalty thereof], before you can know what you have been saved “to”. God’s Law is a schoolmaster to teach us what really sin is and how we measure up against it. The Ten Commandments are there to show us that we “miss the mark of the high calling of God” (actually, we don’t just miss the target, we aim somewhere else), violating God’s just and holy Word, Will and Way and deserve His righteous condemnation and wrath – step one through three of the gospel message is: I have sinned, there is a penalty for sin, and I cannot save myself, which drives us to the Savior. This skip right to step six message of “My sin is forgiven and Christ is redeeming my story” before conviction, without remorse for or confession and repentance of sin is leading to a false gospel believed and counterfeit salvations ... and an increasing immoral and unethical culture. Interpersonal Human Relationship ministry (taking the focus off of God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit – and the sacred Word of God) is a corruption of Christianity via idolatry (making a god to suit yourself), opening the door to continued disobedience of God, willful sin and unrestrained evil. It gives sinners license not only to tolerate sin, but to sanction it, fanned by demonic influence. We were made for a personal loving relationship with God, not idols. Keep the Main thing [God] the main thing [repent of sin, accept Christ, follow Jesus and the Word of God] and the human relationships take care of themselves in godly living. Proverbs 16:6 says, “Love [Loyalty] and truth [faithfulness] bring forgiveness of sin [atonement for guilt]. By respecting [fearing] the Lord you will avoid evil.”
Jesus said in John 15:23, He who hates Me hates My Father also.” Hate is a strong word. Sin defines the God-rejecting world system with unrepentant and unregenerate fallen humanity in rebellion again God. Romans 7:13-15 explains, “Did that which is good [the Law of God], then become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, in order that it might be revealed as sin, was producing death in me by [using] this good thing [as a weapon], so that through the commandment sin would become exceedingly sinful. We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am a creature of the flesh [worldly, self-reliant—carnal and unspiritual], sold into slavery to sin [and serving under its control]. For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity].” Christ defines the repentant and regenerated as redeemed humanity transformed with a heart in alignment and connected to God’s Word, Will and Way of the Lord.
The Lord and Savior of the world, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” This affirms the Word of God in Proverbs 7:1-3 “My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.” The Psalmist speaks to the source of pure joy in Psalm 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” Praise be to God in Heaven.
1 Peter 1:13-16 instructs us to, “gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
The “born again” Believer knows and understands 1 John 2:15 that says, “Do not love the world [of sin that opposes God and His precepts], nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The sanctified disciple (student/follower) of the Lord Jesus comprehends and makes sense of 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 when it instructs, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?”
The grace of God is not cheap; it cost more than we can imagine. We must understand the dead position of natural man in the unrepentant, fallen sinful state explained in Ephesians 2:1-3 where we all, “were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Why are we dead from the start? Romans 6:23 explains, “For the wages of sin is death”. Dead people can do nothing. The question I hear a lot is, “Why doesn’t God save everyone?” or “Why isn’t everyone saved?” to which I would answer, “It’s not so much, why doesn’t God save everyone, but rather, why does God save anyone! We all deserve hell. None of us deserve God’s grace or to receive His mercy. Not one of us is righteous and there never has been one that was. Understand that sin is supremely serious.
Then Ephesians 2:4-8 makes sense, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Then John 3:14-18 becomes clear that, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Who needs, by the grace of God, the Savior of the world? Everyone. 1 Peter 2:24-25 tells us that Jesus, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that 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 souls.
In Christ, Brian
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