REVIEW FROM PREVIOUS LESSON
We started
in the first lesson by saying we were going to look at things the way God does.
Remember that when God looks at our life, God looks on the heart. He sees what
is on the inside. A man's heart is so deceitful that a man on his own cannot
even know his own heart (Jeremiah 17:9). So if you want to know how God sees
things, and how God sees you, you are going to have to come to God's Word.
One day, we
will all stand before God and give an answer for our lives (Romans 14:12). We
will have to give an account for everything we have ever done, everything we
have ever said, everything we ever thought, and God will judge us. He will
judge us according to truth (Romans 2:2). The Bible tells us that truth is
found in the Word of God (John 17:17). So when we come to the Bible, what we
are really doing is checking out the manual by
which God is going to judge our
lives one day. Therefore, we are looking at our lives in light of the Word of
God. We know the Bible is true because of how it was put together and the
claims it makes that it is God's Word. God has given us His law to show us what
He demands of our lives. There are 613 laws in the Old Testament, but the whole
law is summed up in the Ten Commandments.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Not one of
us can say we have lived our life in complete love, subjection, honor, and
respect to God Himself. We live our lives our own way, our own direction, doing
our own thing.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image.
Most of us
do not worship idols, but the Bible talks about people who make a god in their
own mind. They decide how they want a god to be. Maybe they want a god who is
kind, good, loving, merciful and overlooks sin, or who gives whatever they want
and desires. That is not the God of the Bible. Even if you have the right
concept of God there are times when in
your mind, you decide how you want God to be and to act. You have broken the
second commandment.
3. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain.
This
includes cursing, but goes much further than just that. The word vain means
emptiness. To take God's name in vain also means to take God's name and treat
it lightly, to treat God as if He means nothing.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
This speaks
of giving God time in our life, time each week that we might spend with Him. It
means more than just giving God an hour on Sunday morning. Most of you have
your whole agenda for today planned and God is not even in it, except for this
hour you will endure in church. Even
while you are sitting in church, your mind is caught up with a million other
ideas. Your mind is not even giving God the honor that He rightly deserves.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
Who can say
they have honored their parents all their lives? Who can say they have lived
their lives in complete respect of their parents at all times and never said
anything wrong or never acted in a wrong way or never had a wrong feeling in
their heart towards their parents? I
don't think there is anyone who can say they have always lived, honoring their
parents as they should.
All the
good deeds in the world will not save you if you have broken God's law. If you
have offended in one point of the law you are guilty of it all. If you have
ever committed one sin, you are guilty. It doesn't matter how many good deeds
you do in your life, it will never make you right with God. If those good
deeds could make
you right with
God, you would
strut through Heaven
boasting of your goodness and patting yourself on the back. God says
our good works will not get us into Heaven.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
Hopefully
most of us have never killed anyone. But Jesus interprets this command for us
in Matthew saying if you hate your brother or have anger towards a person it is
the same as murder. In a sense, you have killed him in God's eyes. That is how
God sees it.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Jesus said
that if you look upon a woman to lust after her in your heart, you are guilty
of adultery. Not only the physical act,
but also just the wrong thought makes you guilty before God.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
That means
anything, no matter how small.
9. Thou shalt not lie.
There is
not a person alive who can say they have never broken that commandment.
10. Thou shalt not covet.
Coveting
means desiring, wanting something so much that it consumes your whole being.
All you can think about is how you can get it.
As we look
at the law of God we must say that we are guilty, condemned before God. Some people pride themselves in doing the
best they can and hoping God will overlook the rest. However, James 2:10 tells
us that if a man offends in one point of the law, he is guilty of all.
The bottom
line of it all is that we have broken the law of God. There is not one person
down through history today that has ever been able to keep all of God's law
perfectly all of his life. There will not be one person from now until the end
of time that will be able to perfectly keep God's law all of his life. It is impossible
to do. Therefore, we all stand guilty and condemned before God.
NO RELATIONSHIP OR RELATED
We said at
the end of the first study that when God looks at the world, He sees two
different groups of people. There are those who have no relationship with God,
and those who have a relationship with God. Two different groups of people:
some who belong to God, and some who do not belong to God. We are going to look
at these two different groups. The Bible uses many different terms to talk
about these two groups of people. We are going to look at a few of those terms.
1. LOST
The first
one is the word lost and it is found in Luke 19:10. “For the Son of man is come
to seek and to save that which was_____________”. What was the purpose of Jesus
coming into the world? In this verse it says His purpose was to ________, to
find, and to ______________ those who are lost. That term lost is a rather
interesting term. There are very few
connotations in which you can use the word “lost” in a good sense. If a man
loses his health, or his wealth, it is not a good thing. If a man loses his
family, or parents, or loses a child, it is not good. Generally when you talk
about something being lost, you are talking about something that is tragic.
The Bible
says the way God looks at people who have no relationship to Him, those who
have broken the Ten Commandments, those who are guilty according to God, is
that they are lost. It is the picture of a child going out into the bush,
forgetting to mark his trail, and getting lost. He doesn't know where he is and
he doesn't know how to get out. He is in the middle of a large, vast
rainforest, thousands of hectares with no hope of finding his way out on his
own. The term is a description of a person who is in great need of help. It
describes a person who can't solve the problem on his own. If you are lost, you
can't get out of where you are. If you are lost, you can't find your way out.
If you are lost, you need someone on the outside to come and give you the assistance you need to get out of the
condition you are in, lost. That is how the
Bible describes people who
have broken the
Ten Commandments. This is how the Bible says God looks upon you and upon me, because we are
guilty.
2. SAVED
The
next term though
is for those who are
related to God, those
who have a relationship with Him.
That is the word saved. In Romans 10:13,
the Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be_______________”.
Think about that term “saved”. That is a
great word, one of my favorites.
When I
first started to attend a Baptist church, I remember hearing them talk about
being saved. It almost caused the hair
on the back of my neck to stand up. My thoughts were something like this. “Saved? What do you mean, saved? I don't need to be saved”. Then I began to
realize that I was a sinner before God. I began to see myself as God saw me and
I realized that indeed I was lost. The night when Christ saved me, I was ready.
I wanted Him to save me, because I knew I was hopeless and helpless. I was like
a child out in the middle of the bush, not knowing which way to turn. If a
child was lost in the bush and someone came along to rescue him, that child
isn't going to be particular about what they look like. The child will just be
glad to be rescued.
Suppose you
go out in an ocean liner and fall overboard in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
and the ocean liner keeps right on sailing. Now you are out there, bobbing in
the water, good shark bait. You can't swim to shore because it is way too far.
After a few days a boat comes along and sees you there in the water and throws
out a white life preserver to you. Would you say, “Excuse me but I don't like
white life preservers. I want a red one please”. No, you are going to be
willing to grab hold of anything that will rescue you. Why? Because you realize
you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you can't save yourself. You
need someone to rescue you.
That is
exactly what “saved” means. It means to be rescued. The Bible says you and I
have broken the Ten Commandments, God's law. It is a sin to break just one of
them, and we are guilty of breaking them all. We are guilty before a holy God.
Therefore, when God looks at you and me, He sees us as lost. But there are some
who have a relationship to God, some who are saved. For a person to be rescued,
there had to be a place and a time when they were lost. They weren't born
saved. Likewise you aren't born rescued. You are born lost, in the rubbish
heap, apart from God, in need of being rescued. A rescued person is one who had
been in danger, but was pulled from danger.
3. UNRIGHTEOUS
There is a
second term we want to look at—the term unrighteous. In First Corinthians 6:9-10
the Bible says, “Know ye not that the____________ shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God”.
Who are the
unrighteous? They are people who are not
right in God's eyes. The term unrighteous means not right, not having the
quality of rightness in your life. If you considered the Ten Commandments
carefully, there is no way you can honestly say you are right with God. There
is no way that you can say you have kept all the commandments all your life. In
fact, the Bible tells us that everyone on earth has broken the 9th commandment
because they were born a liar. In Psalm 58:3 the Bible says, “The wicked are
estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking___________”.
We were liars from the time we were born.
We have to teach our kids to tell the truth. We don't have to teach them
how to lie. They already do that by nature.
The Bible
says we are not right before God. We have broken the Ten Commandments. He also says in the verse we read, (1
Corinthians 6:9-10), that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of
heaven. That is pretty tough. Let's take those verses apart and see what God is
talking about.
Be not deceived:
Remember we are looking at things from God's viewpoint. He says don’t be
stupid, don't tell yourself a lie. That is what people are doing in our world
today. They think because they go to church and are religious, or because they
are a good person or they have been baptized that they are right with God. They
have their list of things they have done and think surely since they have done
all those things, they will be okay. God will make an exception for them. But
God says, be not deceived. Don't tell yourself a lie.
Neither fornicators: Fornication involves the sin of
the mind, sexual lust, thinking wrong thoughts.
Have you ever had a bad thought about someone of the opposite sex, or
even a bad thought about someone of the same sex?
Nor idolaters: Did you ever make a god to your own image, a god which you thought this
is how God ought to be
like, instead of letting God be God?
Nor adulterers: Did you ever commit adultery? Since you have been married, have you ever
been sexually active with someone besides your spouse? Have you ever even had a wrong lustful
thought about someone of the opposite sex? Jesus said that is the same as
adultery.
Nor effeminate: There is a tough one in our
generation. We talk about Sodom and Gomorrah of the Bible days, but we have
Sodom and Gomorrah around us everywhere. Homosexuality is everywhere you turn.
Nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners
shall inherit the
kingdom of God: These
people whom God has listed
for us here in these
two verses are not going to make it to heaven because they are not right
with God. Remember I didn't write the Bible. We are looking at things from the
way God sees it, and God says that people who violate the commands of God are
guilty of sin and will not inherit the kingdom of God. We are all in trouble.
Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous; no, not one”.
Just in case you are thinking you are not in that group so you must be okay,
God says, “There is none righteous; no, not one”. Now if you are not righteous,
that makes you unrighteous. God said
very clearly in First Corinthians 6 that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
of God. Remember we are looking at how God sees things not what we think. One day you and I will stand before God so we
had better be prepared for that day. We are going to stand there before God who
says, “You are not right before me”. I
think we’d better get concerned.
4. RIGHTEOUS
But look at
what God says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you; but ye are________________
“. Not only are there some on
one side that
are not right
and have no relationship with God, but there are some
people on the other side who do have
a relationship to
God. There are some people who were unrighteous, but now they are right
with God. Something has changed them.
They have a relationship with God and are termed “righteous”. At one
time these people weren't right with God; they were seen as vile in the eyes of
God. But now God sees them in this condition of righteousness. Somehow God
cleansed them.
Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made_______________”. We read in
Romans 3:10 that no one is righteous on their own. Yet it says in Romans 5:19
that there are some who are made righteous. Something happens to them. They
don't make themselves righteous. That is not what that verse says. Notice the
words again. It says they were made righteous. Something, some power from
outside of them works upon them, to literally pick them up out of the
unrighteous side and put them into the righteous side. Something happens to
move them from no relationship with God to having a relationship with God.
Note these
two things we have seen so far. There are some that are lost. They can’t find
their way. They can't get to Heaven. They don't know how to get to Heaven. They
don't have a clue on how to find God on their own. But somehow God is able to
rescue them, to save them. There are those who are not right before God. But
something happens in some of their lives, and they are picked up out of the
column of not right before God and are put over on the side of being right with
God. Again, it is something that is done for them. It is not anything they do
on their own.
5. UNFORGIVEN
Let's look
now at a third term found in Romans 4:6-7. “Even as David also
describeth the blessedness of
the man, unto whom God__________ righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed
are they whose
iniquities are forgiven,
and whose are covered”. The word imputeth means “to put on the account”. It’s a bookkeeping term,
and is used when something is charged to a person's account. God says there are
some people to whom He has imputed righteousness. Notice that the righteousness
He is speaking of is imputed to them and did not come because they worked for
it. Notice then in verse 7 He describes these same people as having their
iniquities [sins] forgiven. Obviously, for God to say He has forgiven their
iniquities there had to be a time in their life when their iniquities were
unforgiven.
Remember we
are talking about how God sees those who have no relation with Him. Every
person born in the world has sinned against God. We have violated His law and
mistreated Him. We are guilty, lost, unrighteous, and therefore in the state of
not being forgiven by God. Forgiveness is not something you get on your own. It
must come from the other person.
Suppose I
went down into the congregation and slapped someone on the face very hard just
because I felt like it. Then I declared myself forgiven and walked away. Would that be forgiveness? Can I give myself
forgiveness when I have wronged someone else? No, of course not. If I am to
have forgiveness, the person I slapped has to forgive me. The person who is
sinned against has to give the forgiveness.
It won't do me any good to strut around and say, “I'm forgiven because I
said I'm forgiven. I say it is all right now, so it is okay”.
Yet that is
how most people on earth live their lives, isn't it? They walk around declaring
that they are okay, yet they have never been forgiven by God. The Bible
declares that we have all wronged God. We have all sinned against Him. Wait
until you meet up with God and see what happens then. When you stand before
God, you will realize it is not you who can forgive yourself. God says there
are many people who have not been forgiven.
6. FORGIVEN
But God
says in Ephesians 1:7 that it is possible to be forgiven. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the_______________
of sins, according to the riches of His grace”. It is possible to have
forgiveness in Christ. Romans 4:6-7 describes this forgiveness as something given by God. It
also describes forgiveness as being a covering for sin. Forgiveness comes from
God, and it was made possible by the blood of Christ. It is God who has to
forgive you because He is the one you have wronged. Therefore, God says there
are those who have a relation with Him because He has forgiven them. They have
wronged God, but God has forgiven them.
Remember,
we are looking at the two groups of people that God sees in the world today.
When you stand before God, you are going to be standing there in one group or
the other: unforgiven or forgiven. There are some that God has not forgiven.
Many people think that if they just tell God they are sorry, everything will be
okay. But I've known people who say they are sorry but they don't truly mean
it.
Remember
God knows the heart. There are also some that will be standing before God who
have been forgiven. God promises to forgive, but He only promises to forgive if
we come on His terms. God knows what is in our hearts. He knows whether we are
just trying to manipulate and use Him. He knows if we are trying to make a god
after our own image, or whether we are willing to come to Him the way He says
we have to come.
7. ENEMIES OF GOD
Another
term that God uses to describe those without a relation with God is in Romans
5:10. “For if, when we were____________, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”. He
says there is a group of people who are enemies of God. When God looks at those
who have no relationship with Him, He sees them as lost, unrighteous,
unforgiven, and as His enemy. In most churches today you will not hear this
truth preached. But it is true. The God of the Bible says you are His enemy.
You are fighting against Him.
Notice that
God says we are enemies against Him, not the other way around. It is not that
God sits up in Heaven and says, “I hate you and I want to find a way to
annihilate you”. If He wanted to do that, He would not even have to snap His
fingers. He could speak the words and you would be gone, you would be history.
But you are the one fighting against God. You are God's enemy. Yet, you think
God is going to let you into Heaven the way you are. God says, “This is a joke.
You think you want to come to my Heaven? Do you think I'm going to let you in
after the way you have treated Me?”
Suppose my
family and I were going to stay at your house for a week. But before we get
there I started telling others what I really thought about you. I told them you were a low down rat,
lower than a flea's
belly, a lying, cheating scum,
etc. When word gets back to you about what I have said, are you going to
open your door wide and say, “Come on in, pastor. We just love to have you here
with us. Everything we have is yours. Just help yourself”. No, I hardly think
so. You would be very upset and cancel the invitation promptly, and rightly so.
Now, if you would not be happy about that, why do you think God up in Heaven is
any different? Why do you think God is
going to let you into heaven when you hate Him? God is not going to say, “He
hates me, but when he dies, I think I can reform him”. You don't find that in the Bible. God says
you are His enemy.
8. RECONCILED TO GOD
Notice the
other term that God uses twice in Romans 5:10—the term reconciled. This is
another term that God uses in the Bible to describe those who have a
relationship with God. He says they have been reconciled. We find this term
used in Colossians 1:21 also. The word reconciled means “to bring two parties
back together who have been at odds with each other”.
We are
enemies of God because we wronged God. God never wronged us; He has never
sinned against us or done anything wrong against us. Therefore, God doesn't
have to change. God is not the one that needs to be reconciled. Reconciliation
has to happen on our side. We have to be brought back to God.
Reconciliation
is not something that we can cause to happen. Reconciliation is something that
has to happen from outside of us. It is not something we can bring about on our
own. Suppose I broke your window, but then I come and say I'm sorry and want to
be reconciled to you, but I can't afford to pay for the window. You have to be
willing to say, “All right, I'll bear the cost of your wrong in order to have a
right relationship with you. I'll put your wrong in the past, and whatever it
costs me, I'll pay the cost and we will move on from there”.
But our sin
against God is far greater than just breaking a window. Our sin debt is so
great, it is a cost you and I can never pay on our own. It is a cost that only
God could pay and He did that by the death of Jesus Christ.
That is how
we are reconciled with God. God loves you so much and desires a relationship
with you so much He is willing to forgive your sin and reconcile you to
Himself. He is willing to pay
the price for
your sin through the
death of Jesus Christ on the
cross.
9. CONDEMNED
John 3:18
says, “He that
believeth on him
is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”. Those who have no
relation with God are lost and not right with God, they are unforgiven and
enemies of God, and they are condemned. It is as if we have already been to a
court of law, we have already sat through the proceedings, all the testimonies
have been heard, and the judged has banged the gavel on the table to pronounce
us condemned and under the sentence of death. That is how God looks at you and
me.
Many people
think that when they get to Heaven, they will have an argument with God and work things out. But you need to
understand that when you stand before God, all the arguments have already been
heard. It is already over with. You are guilty and God knows you are guilty.
There won't
be any slick lawyer you will be able to hire to get yourself off. You will stand before a holy God who knows everything
about your life, every sin you have ever committed and every vile thought you
ever had. God knows everything about you, and He has already declared in the
Bible that you are condemned.
Suppose you
had been tried and had been found guilty of murder. The judge has pronounced
the sentence as hanging. Then on the way out of the courtroom, somehow you
escape. Now how would you feel when you walk down the street? You would feel
guilty. How would you feel when you see a police car cruising by? You would
panic and immediately turn in towards a building, hoping he doesn't see you,
ready to run at a moment's notice. If someone treats you wrong, can you pick up
the phone to ring the police to report him? No, you have to handle the wrong on
your own. You are under the
condemnation of the law. For the rest of your days you would be running for
your life, trying to stay alive, knowing one day you are going to get caught
and then it is all over with. There is no plea and there is no way out. You are
finished because the sentence has already been pronounced.
If you have
no relationship with God, that is how you are right now in this life. You live
under the condemnation of your sin. If you drop over dead without Christ, you
would be in the presence of God, and immediately condemned because you have no
relationship with God.
10. JUSTIFIED
The next
word is found in Romans 5:1, “Therefore being____________ by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ”. That word justified means to be declared just. It is a
legal term. If you are tried and condemned in court and the judge assesses the
penalty, you must pay. But if someone walks up to the bench and hands over the
cash to pay for the penalty, the judge bangs the gavel and you walk out of the
room. Your fine has been paid in full and you are no longer condemned.
When you
walk out and see a policeman, how do you feel now? It doesn't scare you or bother
you because the policeman can't do anything to you. They can't arrest you for
the same crime again. You don't get scared because you have been declared just
in the eyes of the law. You are no longer under the condemnation of the law.
You have been justified.
Notice that
it doesn't mean you have never sinned. It doesn't mean that you never committed
a crime, but it means you have been declared just. The penalty has been paid.
The law has no more pull on you, no more power over you, no more condemning
power on your life. The payment has been made; your account is settled. That is
what justification means.
So there
are two kinds of people God sees. First, there are those who are condemned
before an Almighty God because of their sin. The Bible teaches that we are all
condemned when we start this life because we are all not right with God. But
there are some that God has justified, those whom God has declared just. The
penalty has been paid. The condemned has become justified.
11. UNDER
WRATH
There is
another term in Romans 5:9. “Much more
then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from____________ through
him”. Romans 1:18 says, “For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men, who bold the truth in unrighteousness”. Another way that God describes
those who have no relationship with Him
is that they are under the wrath of God. These people are described as “holding
the truth” in unrighteousness. That phrase means holding down the truth,
choking it out. You see, it is possible for you to sit in church every service
and not accept the truth. It is possible
to be a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, a church member, and even a preacher
and still not be right with God, but to hold down the truth, to keep it from
having full effect in your life. Truth isn't just meant for us to hear about.
Truth is meant for us to obey.
How did you
do on the Ten Commandments when we went through them? Do you know how you ought
to treat God? Do you know how you ought to treat others? Is that how you are
doing it? If you are not, then you are holding the truth down, not responding
to it as you should. People who have no relationship with God are under the
very wrath of Almighty God. Not only are they condemned, guilty before God, but
they are walking around the world with God angry at them.
It is like
being on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. If you are on the FBI Ten Most Wanted
List and the police find you, do you think they are just going to come up and
tap you on the shoulder and politely ask you to go with them? That is not how
they are going to arrest you. They are going to come at you with guns drawn,
with five or ten agents around you, stick their guns at you, and expect you to
do what they say.
When you
have no relationship with God, you are under the wrath of God. Yet many in our
world that are in that very condition walk around like everything is just fine
between them and God. When you stand before God looking at Him, you will find
out everything is not fine. You will find out that God isn't smiling at you.
God is in wrath. God will be looking at you in anger because your sin is
against Him, and you are ignoring His way of dealing with that sin. God is looking
at you in anger right now you but you may not have realized it yet. That is
pretty serious.
12. ACCEPTED
But those
who have a
relationship with God
are called accepted in
Ephesians 1:6. “To the praise of the
glory of his grace, wherein be hath made us ______________in the beloved”.
Everyone starts out life under the wrath of God. But there are some that have
moved to the column of having a relationship with God, some who are accepted in
Christ. What does it mean to be accepted? It means to be welcomed, to be
wanted.
That is
what God offers. He offers to you the opportunity to be accepted. How do you
get accepted? Is it dependent upon
something you do? Can you be kind enough
to a person until it makes you accepted? No. Acceptance is something the other
person has to offer to you. Acceptance is what God offers to you, through Jesus
Christ.
13. ETERNITY IN HELL
The last
term that God uses to describe those who have no relationship with Him is that
they will spend eternity in Hell separated from God. Revelation 21:8 has been
called the phone book of Hell, because it lists the people who will be there. “But
the fearful, and unbelieving, and the
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and
all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone: which is the second death”.
The lake of
fire is another name for Hell. Those who live their whole life without a
relationship with God are lost. They can't find their way to God. They are not
right when God looks at them. They are unrighteous, and they are not forgiven.
They are enemies of God, fighting against Him. God has already condemned them,
and in condemning them, His wrath, His anger is poured out. God is angry with
them because of their sins. He has a place waiting for them that we call Hell.
It is the lake of fire, where even liars go. All you have to do is tell one lie
and you are guilty.
14. ETERNITY IN HEAVEN
On the
other hand, those who have a relationship with God will spend eternity in
heaven. First Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the air, and so shall we________ ________ with the Lord”. Jesus is coming back
again, and when He comes, those of us who belong to Him will go to be with Him, and so shall we ever
be with the Lord. That is what we today call Heaven, to be with Christ.
Getting to
Heaven is not something I can do myself. It doesn't matter how many times I
jump up. John Glenn has already been up into the heavens two times. But it
doesn't matter how many times he goes up. John Glenn is never going to get into
Heaven by getting on a space shuttle. You don't get into Heaven by doing it
yourself. You will never build a jet big enough. You will never build a space
ship big enough to get you to Heaven. You will never live a life that is good
enough for you to get to Heaven on your own. The only way you will ever get to
Heaven is for God to take you there, and He will only be taking those who have
a relationship with Him.
CONCLUSION
We said all
that to come down to this. There are those who have no relationship with God.
In fact, the Bible tells us, “There is none righteous; no, not one”. Every
person who is born into this world starts out on the wrong side. We are born in
sin and have no relationship with God. We are lost, unrighteous, unforgiven,
enemies of God, condemned, under the wrath of God, and will spend eternity in
Hell. None of us have a right relationship with God when we start this life.
But God
says it is possible for that to be changed and a person somehow to be moved
into a right relationship with God. God calls those people saved, righteous, forgiven,
reconciled, justified, accepted, and gives them a home in Heaven. Notice that
these people did not make themselves right. They were made right through a
power outside of themselves. As we will learn in the next lesson, that power is
God. Through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross He is able to move some
people from no relationship to a relationship with God.
MAN'S ATTEMPTS
Now let
me ask this question:
Is it possible
to somehow someway, do something to have this relationship with God?
Is it possible for a person to change
themselves to have a relationship with God? There are certainly a lot of
people who try. In fact, the Bible says in Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of
________________”. The way that seems right to us as humans is that we ought to
be able to work our way to Heaven by being good enough. Surely if we do the best
we can then God will overlook all the bad.
That is the
lie that Satan has placed in every person's heart. If you don't believe that,
just ask ten people walking down the street how they think a person gets to
Heaven. Every answer will include doing something good, unless that person
happens to be saved and already knows what God says.
People try
many different things. Some try good deeds like being good to a neighbor. I
know a lot of tremendous people in this world who have no relationship with
God, who are under God's wrath, heading to Hell itself, but they are some of
the best neighbors you could ever have. They are wonderful people, but they
don't know God. They do lots of good deeds, but they have no relationship with
Him.
What are
some other things that people do to try to make themselves right with God?
There are people I know who tried things like
getting baptized or reading their Bible. Some give their money to the
church to buy their way to Heaven. Some attend church and pray. These people
think, “Surely if I do all these things, God will overlook some of these things
I've done wrong”.
Let's look
at it this way. Suppose you are convicted in a court of law of first degree
murder. The judge asks you if you have anything to say before he pronounces
your sentence. You boldly walk up to the bench and reply. “Yes, Your Honor,
please give me a moment. I know I committed this murder. I believe it was wrong for me to do it. But
that was five years ago. It took them a long time to catch me. But I want you
to know that in the last five years, I've been a model citizen. I've not killed
anyone else. In fact, my next door neighbor was having real problems and I
helped him. I heard about a family that got burned out, and I donated money to
them. I've been volunteering in the hospital. I even started reading my Bible,
and I've memorized much of it. I go to church. I don't hoard my money. I'm a
good guy. I'm nice to people. And I promise you, if you will let me off, I'll
never do this again”.
Now what
would you think if the judge said, “That is a moving testimony! I think I'll
let you go. You've done so much good, I think you have made up for this murder
you committed”.
No judge in
his right mind is going to let you off just because you have reformed your
ways. You still have to pay the penalty for committing murder. But suppose you
made one more plea to the judge that went like this. “But Your Honor, one more
thing, please. I throw myself on the mercy of the court. I've heard a lot of
good things about you. You are a good
man. I've heard
how wonderful and kind
you are, how
forgiving you are. Your Honor, please, forgive me”.
What kind
of judge would he be if he said, “I forgive you. Go free”. He would not be
judge for long. That wouldn't work in a court of law.
That
doesn't work with God either. God is a God of justice. He is not just a God of
mercy; He is also a God of justice. When you and I come into this world, we are
guilty before God. We are condemned, heading for Hell itself and rightly so
because of our sins. But many think that somehow, by just reforming their life
and doing some good things, maybe somehow God will let them into Heaven. But
that is not what the Bible teaches. Remember we are looking at things God's
way.
GOD SAYS
1. Romans 3:20
What does
God say? Is it possible that maybe we can do enough
good things to be right with Him? No, because God says in Romans 3:20, “Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be______________ in his sight: for
by the law is the knowledge of______________”.
Suppose
this man who has committed murder stands before the judge and says, “Your
Honor, you don't understand. Since I committed the murder five
years ago, I've obeyed every law in this land. I've researched all the ATO tax
laws. I have meticulously made sure that I have kept every single tax law and
I've never violated anything. I don't
jaywalk. I go to the crosswalks. I never walk even if it is yellow. I don't go
through yellow lights when I'm driving. I'm so very careful. If the speed limit
is 60,
I go 59,
just in case
my speedometer
is one kilometer off. Your Honor, you don't understand. I've
obeyed the law. You have to understand, I've obeyed the law”. But what does all that matter if he has
committed murder? He is still guilty.
We try to
impress God with all the good things that we do. But doing good things was
never meant to make up for sin. Keeping
the law or doing right does not save a man. God’s law was not given so we could
keep it and earn our way into heaven. God's law was not given so we could keep
it and be acceptable to God. The Bible says the purpose of the law is to show
us our sin. God gave us the law to give us the knowledge of sin. God gave the
law so we could see what God expects of us, which is total perfection. If we break one point of the law, we are
guilty of breaking it all.
It is
impossible for a person to get to Heaven by keeping the law. God gave us the
law so we could understand that we are in violation of God's law. The law can't
save you. The law was given to condemn you. There is no hope in the law for you
and me.
2. Isaiah 64:6
“But we are
all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as; and we all do fade
as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away”. How does God describe us? He says we are all
as an unclean thing. We would proclaim all our good deeds we have done, but
God says they are as filthy rags in His
sight.
Now
remember we are looking at things from the way God sees them. How does God look
at me? I say I'm a good person. I've been baptized. I go to church. I give my
money. I do good deeds. I'm the best person I could be. I pray. I read my
Bible. I believe in God. Surely this is good enough. But God says all my good
works are like a filthy rag.
Let me
explain what a filthy
rag is briefly
to help you understand what God is describing. A filthy rag in Bible days was
a rag hung on a post outside of town. Lepers weren’t allowed to go into town
because they would infect others with their oozing sores. But on a post outside
of town was a rag hanging, called a filthy rag. A leper could come by with the
puss oozing out of their sores and take that rag and clean their sores off.
They would leave it hang on the post and the wind would dry it, the rain would
come and wash it a little bit, and then another leper would come by, grab the
rag and wipe his sores. The filthy rag
was the community wiping rag of all the lepers.
God says
your good deeds, all the good things you have done, your church membership, your attendance, your giving
money, being a preacher or Sunday school teacher, is like a filthy rag in His
eyes. That is how horrible it looks to God. That is how much good it does for
you. God says He views it like a filthy, vile rag. Can you imagine, ladies,
taking that rag home and washing your dishes with it? You wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. But
that is exactly how you propose to get into Heaven, isn't it? By a filthy, vile
dishrag.
3. Titus 3:5
“Not by__________ of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by
the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the
Holy Ghost”. It doesn't matter
how many good works
I do, if
I have no relationship with God, it will never be
able to move me over into the
column of having a relationship with
God. My good works cannot and will not make me right with God.
4. Ephesians 2:8-9
“For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of___________: it is the gift of
God. Not of works, lest any man should boast”. Now hear what God says. We try
to impress God with our good works, but God says, “You are not saved by
yourself or by your good works. If you
were, you would boast”.
CONCLUSION
But I don't
want to leave you without hope. Obviously, since there are two groups of
people, those without a relationship and those who have a relationship, God has
a way to get you and to get me into a
right relationship with Him. That way is through the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But everyone does not have a relationship with Him. There are only
certain people who are in a right relationship with God, because they have come
to God the way God says you must come to Him.
Don't
deceive yourself into thinking you can stay in your unrighteous, ungodly, sinful
condition, and God will let you into Heaven. Let's go on to the next lesson, to
see what God has done to change you from no relationship to a relationship.
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