How Can A Man Be Right Before God?

How Can a Man Be Right Before God?

Genesis 15:6, Romans 4

How can a person really be right before God. How can a person be justified before God. We use the word Justify all the time. You are just trying to justify your actions? What do we mean?

Explain, Excuse, Blame, etc. When we are caught with our hand in the cookie jar, or red handed, we usually try to justify why we did it, so it doesn’t sound so bad. We have become experts as a culture at justifying our actions. If you shoot your parents with a shotgun in their bedroom like the Melendez brothers, it was justifiable homicide because they had been abused by their parents when they were younger. A friend of ours in Kentucky was called to testify in a court case, because he had dated a woman who had shot her husband in the head with a pistol while he slept on her lap. She said she was justified because he had been abusive. When Jim Bakker was caught with a prostitute, they tried to justify it, saying his wife Tammy had health problems and hadn’t slept with him in a long time. It is so rare to hear someone say, “It was my fault I was wrong.” It is one thing to try to justify ourselves to other people, it is quite another thing to try to justify our selves to God. Because we might lie, deceive, get their pity with a sad story, and get away with our guilt. But not with God. He knows everything we have ever done, (not just what we did last summer (movie) ). He know everything we ever said. He knows every thing we ever thought. He knows everything we wanted to do, but didn’t get to. He knows every bad attitude we had and every evil eye we have given. So “The question of the ages is "How can sinful man be made right in the sight of a Holy God?" Can we work for it ?

I The Problem (Our mounting Sin)(Shoes on a card table for each sin showing visually our mounting sin)

-You tried to look up a woman’s dress when you were 6

-You lied to your mom when you broke her lamp.

-You hit a boy with a cup and broke his teeth off at 7

-You looked at Playboy and Penthouse when you were 8

-You stole a candy bar at the store at 9

You pretended to be sick to miss church and watch the ball game.

-You stole dad’s whiskey and got drunk at 11

-You stole moms cigarettes many times

-You watched an adult porn film at 12 at a buddies house

-You hated your dad for abandoning the family

-You began to cuss and swear whenever you got mad using God’s name in vain.

-You went to porn sites on the internet

-You tried marijuana, speed, etc. to get high

-You hated God for allowing your grandpa to die

-You shook your fist at God for allowing you to be abused

-You begin to work Sundays by choice for more money instead of going to church.

-You decide to believe God is not real anyway, evolution explains it all

-You fantasize about romance with someone other than your spouse.

-You tell your wife to lie and tell your boss your sick, so you can play golf.

-You get paid cash under the table so you won’t have to pay taxes on it.

-You get arrested for illegally downloading songs off the internet in college.

-You were angry with your spouse without a cause

-you told off your boss

-You gossiped about your boss because you don’t like her/him

-You wrote the girls name and number on the bathroom stall for a good time because she dumped you.

-You drive well over the speed limit most of the time

-Your DUI’s

-Your activity in the back seat of a car

-Your parents said not to go to that party, so you snuck out the window

II Our Justification of Our Sin

A. Everyone else is doing it too

B. I’m not as bad as most people.

C. I’ve never killed anyone, or raped, etc.

D. Denial - Sin is an old understanding of ignorant people.

E. I’m a good person.

F. My parents, spouse caused me to do these things.

As long as we justify ourselves God won’t justify us. When we quit justifying ourselves and admit our guilt we become a candidate to be justified by God. But HOW?

III Man’s Way to Be Right With God -EARN IT

a. I’ll quit doing the bad things- But not all of them - Find out we can’t quite quit.

-quit drinking, smoking, drugs, prostitutes

b. I’ll start doing good things-