The Communion Cup

(To download an MP3 file of this sermon, click on the title above. To listen online, click on the play button of the audio player here.)

This sermon was given for a worship service that included the sacrament of communion. It compares the words of Jesus, "This is my blood of the new covenant that is shed for many for the remission of sins," to the events connected with the sealing of the Old Covenant as recorded in Exodus 24.

Written Excerpts:

1 Cor. 10:16 ^(NKJV) The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Introduction:

What is your favorite cup? I suppose this question applies only to the coffee or tea drinkers in the congregation. I also imagine that for some of us it doesn’t really matter what cup we drink from. However, there may be some people here today who have a favorite cup that you like to use. If you have the option, you want to savor your coffee or tea from your favorite cup.

I have a cup that I really like, but I wouldn’t say it is my favorite. I guess I haven’t gotten that “attached” to any of my cups that I use. The one that I think I might like the most is a mug with the Penn State logo Nittany Lion on it. But then, there is another mug that I like a lot because of what it represents. It has the name of the seminary I graduated from. After several years of studies and lots of money, I received my diploma and a mug! Regardless of the kind of cup you or I might prefer, many of them have special meaning and significance for us. 

When Jesus shared the last supper with His disciples, He shared a special cup with them, which He said represented something very significant to Him and to them. He called it the “cup of the new covenant in my blood.” Today, as we prepare to share the sacrament of communion, we want to talk about the cup of communion that Jesus shared with His disciples at the last Supper.

I recently was reviewing a communion sermon included in a book by Dr. Stephen Olford. I had intended to borrow his outline and a few of his points but felt led to go in a little different direction after reading some additional sources in my studies.

Dr. Olford wrote that Jesus may have been thinking about a passage in Exodus 24:8 when He made the comment in Matthew 26:28, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” In the Exodus passage Moses sprinkles blood on the people to seal the covenant with the Lord on Mount Sinai. After reading that comment, I began to explore the Exodus passage more thoroughly as well as the comments offered in a commentary by Dr. John Oswalt, whom I have quoted many times before.

I discovered that there are some interesting parallels between what Jesus was saying to the disciples and what God was saying to the people of Israel. Today I want to share some of the interesting comparisons between the events of Sinai and the “communion cup” of Jesus Christ.

I.             Elements of the Covenant

Exodus 24:1-8 ^(NKJV) Now He said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him." ³ So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has said we will do." ⁴ And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. ⁶ And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient." ⁸ And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words." 

These verses appear in the overall context of the giving of the Ten Commandments. (Ex. 19-24)

I want to repeat some comments I shared a few years ago about the use of covenants in the OT. These points are based on material presented by Dr. John Oswalt in his book, Called to Be Holy.

The people who had been chosen by God had been surrounded by and immersed in a pagan religion that was utterly wrong on every important point. (i.e., the nature of God [the gods], the origin and purpose of the world, the origin and purpose of humanity, etc., etc.) If God was going to succeed in teaching His chosen people the truth about Himself, He would need to go outside of the well-known religious forms and use something that the people would still be familiar with but would be separated from the religious corruption and misconceptions that existed. 

The covenant was ideal for this purpose. It was primarily legal rather than religious in nature, but it would serve as a vehicle to teach important truths about this God who had called them to be exclusively His. The ancient covenants contained several aspects that closely corresponded with the truths the people needed to understand about God, such as:

·         The concept of monotheism over polytheism could be easily explained through the common knowledge that any emperor who entered into a covenant demanded that the subjects recognize no other king than himself. (Religious culture knew nothing of monotheism.)

·         A covenant between a great king and the people began with a brief historical prologue that reviewed the historical circumstances that led up to the covenant. This feature aligned with the history of the patriarchs and God’s involvement with them. (I am the God who brought you up out of Egypt…)

·         After the stipulations had been enumerated and other details finished, there commonly were a list of gods called upon to witness the agreement, but in Israel’s case this was substituted by the erection of stone pillars or memorials as a witness and to remind the people of the covenant.

·         In an ancient covenant the bulk of the content had to do with the stipulations the people agreed to follow, but there was also a designated part where the king made promises or commitments to do certain things for the people. This also was parallel to the fact that the Creator God was obligating Himself to His people – something that was totally unheard of in those times.

·         Finally, the additional benefit of a covenant was the part where the king could stipulate absolute ethics, (i.e. require certain kinds of behavior and prohibit other behavior) as long as they were in covenant with him. (This would be totally impossible in a polytheistic “world” because the gods have too many competing desires.) But, since God is the only God, then He can require ethical behavior from his subjects. (Ten Commandments)

Having reviewed the concepts involved in the covenant, let’s look at what is taking place in Exodus 24.

In the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Dr. Oswalt points out that this section describes the “sealing of the covenant” which included three things: a ceremonial meal between the covenant parties (introduced in 24:1-2 and described in 24:9-11), the taking of the oath before witnesses (24:3-8), and the provision for receiving the official text of the covenant (24:12-18).

(Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary) - This is very clearly a covenant ceremony, and covenant ceremonies close with a blood oath…. When the blood is divided into halves, with one half being thrown on God (the altar) and the other half being thrown on the people, the two parties to the covenant are swearing in blood that they will keep the covenant and are calling down death on themselves if they default. That, in my judgment, is the obvious significance of the statement, "this blood confirms the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you [lit., "according to"] these instructions" (24:8).

In the NT setting, Jesus is not sprinkling blood on the people, but He is sharing a cup of wine with them that He declares to be a representation of His blood. It represents His blood that was soon to be shed as God’s commitment to the covenant, and His followers were to drink as their commitment to the covenant. It all takes place during a meal, which we learned in Exodus is also a common part of the ceremony used to seal the covenant.

II.           The Covenant Goal

(Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary) – …the covenant and obedience to it was not an end in itself. God wants us to know about him in order that we may know him. Thus, the covenant sealing ceremony here ended with a covenant meal in God's presence (24:9-11). 

Here in Exodus 24, we read about God bringing Moses and selected leaders of Israel up on the mountain to commune with Him. Then, Moses is called up to a higher level for a greater intimacy with God. God desires to teach us more and more about Himself with the goal that we truly come to intimately know Him. In the OT covenant, the meal is a time for the participants of the covenant to enjoy fellowship and getting closer together.

A similar parallel can be drawn with the communion cup. Each time we share the sacrament, we are eating this bread and drinking this juice in fellowship with the Lord and in celebration of the New Covenant Christ has enacted for us. Jesus has paid the price in blood so that we can have an intimate relationship with the Father and live according to His desires for us.

Conclusion:

When I look at my Ashland Theological Seminary cup, it reminds me of the years of studying, juggling family, church and schoolwork, and the insights and lessons gained in the classroom. Some of us at the graduation reception joked about how “expensive the mug was!”

When we take the cup of communion, it reminds us of the blood that Jesus shed to seal the New Covenant between God and all believers. It reminds us that God desires to celebrate that covenant by intimate fellowship with Him. This cup of communion was far more expensive and costly than my seminary mug!

Let us share the communion emblems again today in gratitude for an everlasting covenant.

Before we share the emblems, let us sing

Blest Feast of Love Divine      

Our Problem Has a Remedy

(To download an mp3 file of this sermon, click on the title above. To listen online, click the play button of the audio player here.)

This sermon is a follow-up to last week's message, which presented evidence from Scripture concerning the problems all humans have with sin and the sinful nature. Because of our problem, we cannot have a relationship with God. But God provided a remedy through the death of Christ and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

Written Excerpts:

Matthew 3:11 ^(NKJV) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Introduction:

One of the remarkable traits of humanity is the desire, the capability and the success in wiping out globally devastating diseases and other similar threats. This is only one of the many ways that humans differ from animals. We have a history of discovering the causes of devastating epidemics and then proceeding to eliminate them through the development of effective solutions.

One such example is the discovery of a vaccine that eventually led to the elimination of the “smallpox” disease. Edward Jenner made a discovery in 1796 that he continued to develop and experiment with until 1801 when he published a treatise “On the Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation,” in which he announced the vaccination and hopeful elimination of smallpox.

Some sources report that there were approximately 30 million deaths throughout the world that were caused by smallpox during the 20^th century, which was still a century later than when the vaccine was discovered. The Center for Disease Control reports that the last known case of death from smallpox was in September of 1978. In May of 1980 the World Health Assembly officially declared the world to be free of the disease. 

This is only one example of remarkable cures that have been discovered and implemented in the medical field, let alone the myriad of other problems that have been solved and permanently eliminated as a result of human inventions.

Last Sunday I preached a message about a problem far bigger than the smallpox epidemic. I tried to describe a problem that has plagued the entire human race ever since the Garden of Eden and continues to do so today. It is inherently a spiritual problem, but it affects every part of our lives and it not only destroys physical lives and health, but our eternal happiness as well.

It is the problem of sin that has corrupted our hearts and motivations, causing us to deliberately rebel against the authority of God and insist in having our own way. The Bible describes this condition as the fleshly mind, which is “not subject to the law of God, neither can be.” (Rom. 8:7) This inherited depravity has been the source of every kind of evil that has ever been manifested throughout all the areas of the world for all times.

I finished up last week’s message by briefly stating that God has provided a remedy, which is summed up perfectly in the words of 1 John 3:8 “… for this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

In a sermon I gave several years ago I pointed out that the meaning of this verse, when taken in context, includes the destruction of a spirit of lawlessness, which John says is the very definition of sin. The overall problem I described in the message last week was a rebellious or lawless heart. And, John says that Jesus came to destroy that work of the devil in us. 

The problem may be great, but Jesus was revealed to this world for the express purpose of destroying the work of the devil in the hearts of humanity. Jesus can and will destroy every seed of rebellion that Satan plants in the human heart. The remedy is Jesus. But what does the Bible say about how Jesus provides the remedy to our human problem?

Let us consider several other passages to find the answer to this question.

(Again, today I will be sharing bits and pieces from the notes I jotted down from Dr. John Oswalt’s messages at the Pastor’s conference I attended in 2014.)

I.          The remedy is predicted by the OT prophets

There are a number of passages throughout the OT prophets that make reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. Many of them speak about the Spirit’s work in specific individuals of the OT, and others speak about a day when the Spirit will be poured out on all of God’s people.

Isaiah 11:1-2 ^(NKJV) There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. ² The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

The Messiah would have the fullness of the Spirit like no one has ever had prior to Him.

Isaiah 32:14-15 ^(NKJV) Because the palaces will be forsaken, The bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks-- ¹⁵ Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, And the fruitful field is counted as a forest. 

When the Holy Spirit is poured upon us, he changes the desolate places into flourishing places. Things cannot remain the same when God’s Spirit comes!

Joel 2:28-29 ^(NKJV) "And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. ²⁹ And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 

These and many other passages in the OT prophets predict the day when the Holy Spirit of God would be available to cleanse, fill, and empower the people of God. There were many indications that the Old Covenant written on stone would be replaced by a New Covenant written on the “tables of the heart.” That would be accomplished by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit.

The prophet Jeremiah makes a specific prediction of this sort. God will write His law on the heart rather than on stone.

II.        The remedy is predicted by the NT prophet (John the Baptist)

Matthew 3:11 ^(NKJV) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John Oswalt – John the Baptist did not say, “I will baptize you with water, but He will die for your sins.” John certainly believed in the sacrifice of Jesus as the atonement for our sins, but John was describing the ultimate plan for disciples and followers of Jesus – to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Jesus would provide the possibility for His followers to be cleansed by the Spirit (analogy of fire) and to be filled up with the Spirit. John is alerting his listeners to the fact that the “Lamb of God” will provide for them something that no other person has ever provided. He will provide a baptism with the Spirit – a life lived through the power of the Spirit of God Himself.

III.       The remedy is promised by Jesus Himself

Luke 24:49 ^(NKJV) Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." 

Dr. Oswalt – There were a lot of cases in the gospels where Jesus said things to His disciples, and they would question Him about it later because they didn’t understand what He was trying to say / teach them. But when Jesus makes this promise, they do not question. It is as though Jesus has finally said something that they have expected to come from the Messiah. They expected Him to make the Spirit available to them so that they could keep the covenant or live by the covenant with God.

Acts 1:4-5 ^(NKJV) And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; ⁵ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

Dr. Oswalt – When Jesus first told the disciples these words (I read from Lk. 24:49), they did not realize that the only way He could give this gift of the Spirit was through His death on our behalf. 

Now, in Acts, Luke provides evidence to show that even after His death and resurrection, the disciples are still looking for something other than what Jesus meant. In their minds the promise of the Father – the empowerment of the Spirit – meant power to overthrow the Romans and establish a kingdom on earth. But, Jesus has to explain that this Spirit and this power would not be for political purposes. It would be a power for witnessing. They would be filled with the power to be transformed and to be a testimony to the world about what Jesus has done for us and can do in us.

IV.       The remedy is presented by the Apostles

Acts 19:1-6 ^{(NKJV) 1} And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples ² he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." ³ And he said to them, "Into what then were you baptized?" So they said, "Into John's baptism." ⁴ Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." ⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 

Writers in NT Commentaries indicate that these people at Ephesus had only been taught about John baptizing and exhorting people to repent of their sins. By the time that message had gotten to them, it had somehow gotten separated from John’s presentation of Christ. They apparently hadn’t heard about John’s words we quoted earlier, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” They knew about John and repentance, but they didn’t know about Christ and forgiveness and empowerment by the Spirit. So, as soon as they were baptized in the name of Jesus, the Spirit came upon them!

Paul not only presents the message to the people of Ephesus as recorded here in Acts, but through his epistles to the various churches he also repeatedly presents the message of what the Spirit of God can do and is expected to do for the believer.

Dr. Oswalt - Paul’s most organized presentation of the message is in the book of Romans. This is how he summarizes the first 8 chapters of the book:

Rom. 1-3 – All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (nobody comes to God on their “own hook”)

Rom. 4-5 – We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Rom. 6-8 – By the Spirit, Christians do not sin. 

6 – [The expectation is] Do not sin.

7 – If you walk in the flesh, you cannot help but sin.

8 – There is no condemnation for those who do not WALK by the flesh, but by the Spirit. [Those who are filled with the Spirit and are controlled by the Spirit find the power to overcome the flesh and live pleasing to God.]

Conclusion:

The remedy to the problem we have is a baptism of the Spirit. That baptism begins when Jesus saves us. His Spirit begins working God’s grace into our lives and actually imparts righteousness to us so that we can live victoriously over sin.

But the need of our hearts is for a complete filling by the Spirit and a perpetual refilling and refreshing provided by the Spirit. There are verses in the NT that imply some of the Spirit’s work is instantaneous. There are other verses in the NT that imply the Spirit’s work is continuous and progressive. Both are true.

So the question is, do you have the Spirit dwelling in you today? Do you have His cleansing, His filling and His abiding presence? Have you been simply contented to seek His forgiveness and failed to seek His Holy presence in your life to make you a holy person?

The closing song I’ve chosen for this morning is a hymn that asks a series of questions, then provides the answer to those questions in the chorus.

His Way with Thee     

He can have His way with you if you will ask Him and completely surrender to Him – not only today, but every day.

Humans, We Have a Problem

(To download an mp3 file of this sermon, click on the title above. To listen online, click the play button of the audio player here.)

This is a sermon based on various passages of Scripture that relates to the fact that all people are separated from God due to the inherited problem of sin we share. God desires for every one of us to be in fellowship and communion with Him, but our sinfulness prevents it.

Written Excerpts:

Genesis 6:5 (NKJV) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Introduction:

I’m sure that several people here today can remember the Apollo 13 Space mission in April of 1970 which was intended to make a moon landing but was aborted due to an oxygen tank explosion. There were many tense hours as scientists worked around the clock to help the crew and spaceship make it safely back to earth. When the explosion happened, one of the astronauts radioed back to headquarters in Houston and reported, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Many of us remember the crisis and the anxious hours until the craft and its crew made it safely back to earth.

Years later, when the movie was made about the Apollo 13 mission, the wording was changed to read, “Houston, we have a problem.” Since the movie came out the phrase has been used as an expression of speech to indicate that there is something seriously wrong.

I was recently reviewing some of the notes that I have from a pastor’s conference I attended in 2014. The speaker was Dr. John Oswalt, whom you have heard me refer to many times since then. The theme of his presentation was about the subject of holiness and sanctification as presented in the Bible. Near the beginning of his presentation he was using various references in Scripture to express the problem of sin we all have that prevents us from sharing the holy character of God.

As I was reviewing this material, I thought of the phrase I mentioned earlier that was used during the Apollo 13 mission, and I adapted it slightly to provide the title for today’s message: “Humans, we have a problem!” Take a look at the passage of Scripture that was read earlier – Genesis 6:5-18; especially v. 5. “… every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

We do not know for sure how old the human race was at this point, but regardless of how many years had passed since God created Adam and Eve, it still seems mind-boggling that the sinfulness would have so completely overwhelmed humanity that God describes them as having evil intents in their hearts continually.

The Bible provides overwhelming evidence that we humans have a problem that started with Adam and Eve and has affected everyone who has ever lived on earth. For the message today I will try to describe the problem we humans have, and then end up by touching on the remedy. We may continue the discussion of the remedy into next Sunday’s sermon.

I.           The Problem Identified

Listen to these three statements that Dr. Oswalt gave about our problem: There is something wrong at the core of the human personality. The heart is the control panel of the person. Something wrong at the center of our motivation.

He is summarizing several of the passages in the Bible that describe the condition of our spiritual heart; the center of our life motivation. Let us look at several references that speak about this problem. [Bullet points in italics are taken from Dr. Oswalt’s presentation.]

A.      In the Old Testament:

·    The way we form the mental constructs of the heart is only evil continuously. 

Genesis 6:5 ^(NKJV) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  

As I stated earlier, it is amazing to realize that the entire human population at this stage in history was so corrupt that God describes them as only thinking evil continually. When left to our “own devices” we gravitate toward evil. The only thing that interrupts that movement toward evil is the grace of God.

In the next few verses we discover that there is only one person who had responded to God’s grace. Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

·    The human heart is “uncircumcised”; “divided.”

Deut. 10:16 ^(NKJV) Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. (see Hosea 10:2 ^(NKJV) Their heart is divided; Now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars; He will ruin their sacred pillars.)

Moses warns the people that they have a problem in their hearts that will adversely affect them when they go in to possess the land that God had promised them. Physical circumcision was a sign of the covenant the people of Israel had with God. But, Moses is pointing out to them that they need more than a physical procedure to remedy their perpetual problem – rebellion. They need something done to their hearts. A heart that is divided and unloyal will sabotage all attempts to live right and please God.

·     The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

Jeremiah 17:9 ^(NKJV) The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 

Jeremiah affirms that it is not really possible to understand the serious condition of a heart that is deceitful & wicked.

·     We have a spirit of prostitution

Hosea 4:12 ^(NKJV) My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God. 

Hosea 5:4 ^(NKJV) They do not direct their deeds Toward turning to their God, For the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, And they do not know the LORD. 

·     They are stubborn and rebellious children; their hearts are not “established”; their spirits are not “true.”

Psalm 78:8 ^(NKJV) And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God. 

In the previous verses, the Psalmist is talking about teaching and training the children so that they will not have the same “heart trouble” of their forefathers.

B.       In the New Testament

NT Term for the Problem: “The Flesh”

·     The body – very good

1 John 4:2 ^(NKJV) By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 

There were teachers in the early years of the Christian church who were teaching heresy because they believed all physical matter was evil. Therefore, Jesus could not be the Son of God because he had a physical body and therefore partook of evil. John rebukes the teaching by affirming that Jesus did come in the flesh and anyone who says he didn’t is not of God. Therefore, since Jesus was in the flesh, then the physical flesh is good.

·     The bodily desires – good

Genesis 3:6 ^(NKJV) So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 

Luke 22:15 ^(NKJV) Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;

God created Adam and Eve with natural spiritual, emotional, and physical desires that are not evil in themselves. Jesus says He had desires – natural, God-given, human desires. But…

·     When desires are in control (now becomes “lust” in the evil connotation of the word) – bad

Galatians 5:19-21 ^(NKJV) Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

1Jn. 2:16 – “lust of the flesh, pleasure; lust of eyes, possessions; pride of life, position/power”

·     The attitude that satisfying my desires is the only purpose in life – very bad.

·     The attitude that I have an absolute right to satisfy my desires just as far as my abilities will permit it – very, very bad 

II.           The Problem Remedied

We do not have the time to expound on the remedy that God has provided. The Lord willing, I will continue with that part of the message next Sunday.

However, let me just say before we leave today that even though the picture looks dark and grim, God has provided an adequate remedy. 

He didn’t abandon the human race to ruin and destruction. He had already planned for our redemption and our deliverance.

1 John 3:8 ^(NKJV) He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Conclusion:

In our bulletins today, I had Kris print a quote from Dr. Oswalt.

If the answer is the cross, what is the question? Of course, we all know: “How can my sins be forgiven, and I be assured of heaven?” No, the real question is: “How can a deeply corrupted human being ever share the character of a holy God?” – John Oswalt

Many people think of salvation as though it is just a “ticket to heaven.” They want to know how all the bad stuff they’ve said and done can be erased and they can be allowed into heaven at the end of life. Many professing Christians give the distinct impression that they are not very much interested in having a relationship with God in this life that will continue on into eternity. (If we don’t really desire a relationship with God now, then we won’t want a relationship with Him then.) I believe God wants us to have a deep, meaningful relationship with Him now that continues to get better and better until we move into eternity to live in His glorious presence forever.

However, the reason we can’t have a relationship with Him now is because our hearts and spirits have been deeply corrupted and we do not share God’s character, which we desperately need in order to have a relationship with Him. It’s not just because we have done some sinful things, it is also because our hearts led us down that path; we did what we desired.

So God has provided a remedy. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, He has made it possible not only for our sins to be forgiven but also for our character and life to be conformed to His image. 

I wonder if there is anyone here today who recognizes that you need the work of God’s Spirit in you own heart to transform your heart and life into one that is more compatible to God’s nature? If God has spoken to you today, why not come and pray for a genuine cleansing of your sins and your heart? If you realize that the human problem hasn’t been adequately dealt with in your life, then come and seek the Lord.

Closing Song: Just As I Am