OPEN: Video of Maxwell Smart ending in “missed it by that much”
Back in the 60’s the spies on TV and in the movies were heroes. Whether it was James Bond, Matt Helm, Napoleon Solo, or the cast from Mission Impossible - they were suave and resourceful, capable of escaping danger and death with skill and ingenuity.
They were almost superhuman in their abilities
And then along came Maxwell Smart.
Smart was always supremely confident in his own abilities. He always knew that his superior abilities and training would help him save mankind from Kaos.
But in reality was he was totally inept.
He was totally incapable of even the most basic spy techniques.
And he was always “missing something” by “that much.”
Now, that was funny on a TV sitcom. But if that was how everything happened in real life, we could end up in some serious trouble.
ILLUS: Back in the 90’s a California research firm considered the advertising slogan for a popular soap that was 99.4% pure. And they asked themselves the question: “What if everything in the world operated at 99% efficiency?” They discovered:
- drinking water would be unsafe one hour out of each month.
- two planes would crash land - each day - at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.
- five hundred surgeries would be botched each week
- and 20,000 prescriptions would be improperly filled each year.
I wouldn’t want to drink that water.
I wouldn’t want to fly on those planes.
And I wouldn’t want to have those pharmacists and surgeons anywhere near me or my family.
99% efficiency is NOT acceptable in these matters, because missing these things by just “that much” (just 1%) can many times be deadly.
And here in Romans 3, Paul is telling us that this can be true of salvation as well.
There’s a lot of people believe out there that all they need to do to get into heaven is live a comparatively decent life. Now, they’ll grant you that they probably sin a little bit each day.
They’ll grant that they’ve thought bad thoughts.
They’ve done bad things.
And they’ve said bad words.
But they think that on a scale of 100, they’re somewhere in the 90 to 95% range of being moral. Maybe they’re even in the 99 percentile.
But Paul wrote: “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
The Greek word for sinned in Rom. 3:23 is hamartano which literally means “To miss the mark”. In other words… all of us have missed the perfection needed to be saved… by “that much”.
Now, there are a lot of people who believe that, if they can just follow a set of rules, they will end up living a fairly decent life and they will stand a chance of being acceptable to God.
In fact, there seem to have been some Jews in the church at Rome who thought that very thing about themselves.
You see, the Jews had been the people of the Law.
They had all the rules and regulations all laid out for them.
They knew what to do and not do to please God.
But could they keep those rules perfectly?
NO!!!
The Bible repeatedly points out that such sinlessness was impossible.
To prove that, Paul goes through a whole list of Old Testament Scriptures that show that even the Jews who had God’s Word sitting right in front of them - even the Jews couldn’t live perfect lives.
Look at vs. 10-18
“As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’” Ps. 14
Then he turns to another verse:
"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." Ps. 5
Then he turns to another verse:
"The poison of vipers is on their lips." Ps 140
Then he turns to another verse:
"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." Ps 59
Then he turns to another verse:
"Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." Isaiah 59
Then he turns to another verse:
"There is no fear of God before their eyes." Ps 36:1
Paul hits it again and again – like a drum beat.
Over and over, he proves that Israel couldn’t stay moral because of their list of dos and don’ts.
They couldn’t do it!!!
And neither can you or I.
In fact, in Colossians 2 Paul says NO SUCH LIST can ever make us holy
“’Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These are all destined to perish with use, because… (amongst other things) they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
But, but, but… I have a whole list of things that I don’t do – because I want to live a moral life. Doesn’t that list help make me be more moral?
Well, kind of… except that the list only helps me be moral - if I WANT to follow those rules. If I don’t want to abide them, then the list is useless.
ILLUS: For example. If I’m driving down to Indianapolis on US 29, what’s the speed limit? (55)
How often do you drive all that way UNDER 55 miles an hour?
Have you ever driven 60, 65, maybe even 70 on that road?
(Well, yeah, if I’m in a hurry! Well, maybe I wasn’t really in a hurry… I just wanted to go faster than the speed limit said I should).
So we find that if the rule fits my needs, I’ll abide by it.
If not – it gets set aside for awhile.
Now, if a policeman were to pull me over for going 59 mph on that road would he have the right to give me a ticket? OF COURSE he would!
I may have only gone over the limit by “THAT MUCH” but that’s all it takes to break the law.
And Israel broke the law - sometimes by a little bit - sometimes by a whole bunch - but it made no difference, because “all have sinned and missed it by ‘that much’”.
When people are faced with that reality they get a little emotional about it.
ILLUS: For example, if we get a ticket for going 85 mph in a 55 mph zone we may be upset, but we’re resigned to the fact that we deserved it.
But, now, if we get a ticket for going 56 we tend to get upset… we only missed it by that much.
If a basketball team loses by a 30 or 40 points, they’re frustrated, but they’re not too upset because it’s obvious the other team were better players.
But if that team loses by only 1 or 2 points and they messed up on a play or two, or their free throws were below par, or if the refs made some bad calls, they tend to become critical of their playing or the calls that were made.
Similarly, when people are caught up in terrible and obvious sins, they can be upset, but they usually believe they deserved the punishment.
But if they see themselves as missing sinlessness by just a little bit - by “that much” - they can end up being fixated on attaining that last measure of perfection. And in the end they can end up being gravely disappointed because that kind of sinlessness is always just beyond our grasp.
ILLUS: A friend of mine was telling me about one of his relatives that was a Baptist preacher (no disrespect intended toward Baptist preachers, by the way). The man would show up at family gatherings and argue about religion with everyone. Everyone else was there just to enjoy each other and the beauty of the day, but he seemed only to want to argue. And he was driven by being absolutely perfect in every aspect of his religion and was obsessed with being sinless in his life.
The man’s no longer a Baptist minister.
He’s a truck driver who has little to do with the church anymore.
He drinks, cusses and carries on.
Why?
Because he began to realize that kind of sinlessness was unobtainable... and he just gave up.
But God said “….no one will be declared righteous … by observing the law…“Romans 3:20
You’re never going to get yourself cleaned up by your own efforts.
I’ve heard people say they want to become a Christian but they want to clean up this or that area of their life first. They say that once they remove all the sin from their lives, then they can come to God.
In Romans 3 God’s telling us: you’ll never get that done… you’ll never get there.
But that’s ok, because “…now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known…” Romans 3:21
And this righteousness comes – not from our abilities and our efforts – but “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe...” Romans 3:22a
And then Paul pounds it home. He says: “There is no difference, for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:22b-23
Everybody has missed it by “that much”.
Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
BUT (says God) there is a way of dealing with your sin.
It comes through faith in Jesus Christ
It comes thru faith in Him.
And this is true if you’re a Christian or if you’re not.
Here’s how it works.
If you a Christian and you’re feeling miserable because you’ve messed up in your life…
Maybe you’ve messed up just a little, or maybe quite a lot…
Then God says to you: Your righteousness “comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” Romans 3:22
I can attain my righteousness (or rightness) with God, if I believe SOMETHING about Jesus. OK… so what am I to believe in order to regain this right relationship (or righteousness) with God?
Well, I John 1:7 says WE ARE TO BELIEVE that Jesus is faithful.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
In other words, I deal with my sins by believing that Jesus died to take away ALL of my sins. Not just the ones I committed before I became a Christian but even the ones I commit now.
BUT I have to confess those sins to Jesus.
I have to admit I was wrong - and desire not to do those things again.
Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that we can live however we want and get away with it.
Paul even brought that up in the first verse of Romans 6.
"What shall we say then, shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"
Oh, by no means, he says.
’We’ve died to sin, how can we live in it any longer."
You see, if we love Jesus, we want to live holy and righteous lives. And the more we walk with God and live according to His teachings in our lives, the less we’ll stumble and falter in our life. But we need to realize, that even the most advanced Christian will sin periodically in their lives. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God is true even of us, and we who have been saved need to rely – not on our own ability to be “sinless” – but on our faith in Jesus and His faithfulness when we confess the sins we do commit.
Ok, so how can I obtain a right relationship with God if I’m NOT a Christian?
Once again, it comes “through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
So, what am I to believe in order to become a Christian?
(I asked for the audience to respond and waited til someone said I have to believe that Jesus died for my sins)
That’s right.
I have to believe that Jesus died for my sins, and that he was buried and that he rose from the dead.
Romans 6 tells me that’s what I declare in my baptism.
“…We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Romans 6:4-7
In our baptism, we die with Christ.
When we’re buried in baptism’s waters, our old life, is buried in a watery grave. And then we rise with Christ, a new creation.
At that point, we’re freed from the past and we’re made “right” with God.
But that’s not all there is to it.
Some people believe all you have to do to be saved is get baptized. They’ll try to use baptism as a kind of fire insurance.
But, Romans 10 says we have to do something more than get wet.
Romans 10:9 says “…if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Confess? Hmmm, isn’t that what Christians are supposed to do when they sin?
Yes, but this is slightly different.
The Christian is supposed to confess his sins
What does Roman 10 say I have to confess in order to be saved?
Not my sins, but “Jesus is Lord!”
I have to confess that Jesus now owns me.
He owns my talents, my treasure, my time.
I owe Him everything I have
And everything I have is now HIS to be used for Him and His church.
Becoming a righteous before God is not something I can do once and then walk away.
If I’m going to be right with God, I need to make Him the center of my life.
I may miss “sinlessness” by “that much” but I don’t want to miss belonging to God, by any measure.
I want to be His.
I want a righteousness that can only come thru my believing in Jesus Christ.
CLOSE: The story is told of a man who rushed into a suburban railroad station one morning and, almost breathlessly, asked the ticket agent: "When does the 8:01 train leave?"
"At 8:01," was the answer.
"Well," the man replied, "my watch says it’s 7:59, the town clock says it’s 7:57, but the station clock says it’s 8:04. Which clock am I to go by?"
"You can go by any clock you wish," said the agent, "but you cannot go by the 8:01 train.
It’s already left."
He missed his train by “that much” because he didn’t pay attention to the right things.
We need to pay attention to Jesus.
We need to belong to Him and lean on His faithfulness in our lives.
