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Sin. It’s such a pesky word. We don’t use it anymore. I mean, when my kids do something wrong, I don’t call them and say, "Son, you sinned." You know, you don’t use that word. Or, imagine how weird it would be at work if you get a report in late, you get a deal in late, you mess up a deal or you lose something and you’ve really messed up and your boss calls you in and says, "You sinned against the company." You know you just didn’t meet expectations. Or, if you are pulled over for speeding or something worse, the police don’t use the S-word. It’s like, you broke the law; you violated something. If the IRS writes you a letter, you can read the whole letter and they may have lots of words you don’t understand, but that one’s not in there, right?
I mean, sin makes me think of God. Sin makes me think of judgment. Sin would mean there’s some giant moral absolute or absolutes out there, and I’m accountable and if I’ve broken those laws or those rules that God has set up, then I’m in big trouble and I’m accountable. There might be a judgment and I might have to beg for forgiveness. Or, probably, if there’s such a thing as sin, that I’m going to be punished, right? In fact, the dictionary definition supports all this. Let me just read you this kind of simple definition to get us going today.
Here’s what the dictionary says the definition for sin is: "Sin is a transgression [and here it is] of divine law." That’s why I don’t tell my kids, "You’ve sinned against me." It’s a transgression of divine law, which means there’s like a divine person or God or something that has a law. "Any act regarded as such a transgression, especially, [here it is] a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle."
So, sin means I did it on purpose. Sin means it was willful. You know, I planned this and I did this. Sin means I knew it was wrong when I did it, and that doesn’t make me feel very good about myself. In fact, if I have sins, then after a while I think I’m kind of a bad person. So, we don’t use that word. We like this word: "I didn’t sin. I just made a mistake. I made a mistake."
In fact, let me read you the definition of mistake. "A mistake [you gotta love this] is an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment [and check this out] caused by poor reasoning." "Oh, I just wasn’t thinking straight" (carelessness) or "Oh, I didn’t see that" (insufficient knowledge). "Well, I didn’t know any better," etc. See, this is a lot better word, because when you catch me, I can say, "Ah, my bad! My mistake."
And then if you kind of get a little forceful and if it’s you and your husband or your wife or your parents, and you’re having an argument, you can say something like, "Okay, okay. So I made a mistake. Is that the end of the world?" Try that one.
Or, "Okay, look. I made a mistake. Nobody’s perfect. I made a mistake."
And, the assumption is you can’t be too mad at me because it was a mistake. I didn’t know any better. I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Okay, I took my eye off the ball for just a minute. Okay, I didn’t know everything I needed to know. Could you just give me a break? Nobody’s perfect. I made a mistake. A mistake. It’s a much better word.
But there’s a big difference between mistake and sin. Let me get these straight, because some of you will just go crazy if I don’t get those lined up just perfectly, okay? All right, I don’t want anybody distracted the whole service, right? There’s a big, big difference. This is God, you know--God and sin. This is like just you and me--get over it, right? This is like I might need to be punished for something and I’m accountable to someone I can’t see. This is "Hey, you don’t need to punish me because, after all, you don’t punish someone for a mistake. It was a mistake. For instance, if I mistakenly knock your vase off your mantle, I’ll pay you for it, but you don’t punish me. I don’t have to pay you triple. I mean, there might need to be restitution if there’s a mistake, but you don’t punish me. So let’s just take every possible, imaginable, bad thing we can do and let’s just dumb it down to where it’s just a mistake."
"Okay, Honey, so you caught me with him. Okay, Honey, so you caught me with her. Okay, okay. I’m sorry. It was a mistake. Can we just move on in our marriage? Can we just move on in our relationship?" "Okay, the expense account thing. I’m sorry, because I can say I’m sorry. It was a mistake. Can we just keep that in the category of mistake, which means you can’t hold this against me; you can’t punish me because, after all, nobody’s perfect. I made a mistake."
There’s a big, big difference between sin and mistake. Mistake, I don’t really have to ask you to forgive me. I can just say, "I’m sorry, okay? Can we just move on?" Sin, oh, you know, sin, that’s just a different thing altogether. Here’s the biggest difference, though, and here’s where the twist is. You see, if everything I do wrong can kind of be dumbed down to where it’s just a mistake, then that makes me a mistaker, which means I don’t have sin. If I don’t have sin, I’m not a sinner. If I’m not a sinner, I don’t have any need for a Savior.
You see, if you’re just a mistaker, then all you have to do is do better. Mistakers just have to try harder. Mistakers just have to break little, nasty habits. Mistakers just have to be more consistent. Mistakers just have to try harder next time. But if I’m a sinner, then that seems to be more fundamental to who I am. If I’m a sinner, then simply trying harder isn’t going to get it done, because if I’m a sinner, then I probably owe somebody something. I probably deserve something I don’t even really want to know that much about. If I’m a sinner, trying harder isn’t going to help me. If I’m a sinner, I need a Savior. So, the twist that we live in with our culture, with our world, and with the issues we deal with when it comes to guilt, is that I don’t want to have sin. That makes me a sinner. That means I need a Savior. I’d rather just make mistakes, which makes me a mistaker, which means I just need to do a little bit better next time.
The problem is that we know ourselves. The problem is that we know better. I may be able to convince you that, okay, I made a mistake, so, let’s get over it and move on. I may be able to convince you that it’s just a mistake, but the truth is when the lights are off and the music’s off and the television’s off or you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, you know yourself better. You know that it wasn’t unintentional. It was intentional. You did that on purpose. You just didn’t think you’d get caught. Not only did you do it on purpose, you’ve done it before. Not only did you do it before, you’re hoping you can do it again. And the only problem was that somebody brought it to your attention. You were just able to pass it off and say let’s go on and move on with your relationship or whatever it is, but you know in your heart that what you did was more than a mistake. It was not unintentional. It wasn’t because of a bad calculation, or it wasn’t because of poor reasoning. It wasn’t careless. It wasn’t because of insufficient knowledge. You knew exactly what you were doing. You knew exactly what you were doing last time you did it. It wasn’t a mistake. It was way deeper than that, wasn’t it?
And there’s something else that makes this hard for us to hide. That’s all that internal stuff, because, see, mistakes are what you do in the outside world. What about that internal stuff? What about the stuff you’d love to do but don’t dare do it because you know you might get caught, but you love thinking about doing it, right? What about that jealousy? You smiled and said she looked good, and you think in your heart, "I hate her. I hate her. I hate her." What about when you applauded because he got the award, and you thought in your heart, "I hate him. He doesn’t deserve it. I hate him." What about the time the guy that is in your office and sort of does what you do failed. He lost a deal, and everybody was really upset because he lost the deal, and you’re walking around saying, "Man, I am so sorry," and on the inside you’re thinking, "Yes! I’m so glad he lost the deal because his failure makes me look better." What do you call that? That’s not a mistake. You didn’t even do anything. That’s just kind of that gross stuff that’s inside of you that nobody knows about.
And then what about guilt? You see, you don’t need to feel guilty about a mistake, do you? I mean a mistake is a mistake. You didn’t mean to. You didn’t have enough information. Well, sort of--in a way, it wasn’t even your fault. You weren’t informed enough. You weren’t old enough. You weren’t mature enough. You weren’t paying close attention. Whatever it was, you don’t feel guilty for a mistake. You feel guilty for sin. But if there’s no sin, you’re not a sinner, and there’s no need for a Savior, where is all that guilt coming from?
I know friends that say, "I know where it comes from. I was raised in the Catholic Church and they just taught us to feel guilty about everything." Maybe you’re in that category. You know what? It’s not just that. Maybe you were raised like me, in a Baptist church. We were taught to feel guilt about everything too. We were taught to feel guilty about stuff there was no reason in the world to feel guilty about, but the idea was if we make them feel guilty about stuff, that’s like the third cousin to sin. Maybe they’ll never go close enough to sin to actually sin, you know? But after a while, you realize there’s that kind of guilt, and then there’s the real guilt. I really feel guilty about what I did, but I shouldn’t feel guilty. After all, it was a mistake, but boy, that guilt, that sure feels real. And I may convince you that I’m not guilty, but I sure feel something on the inside. And if I’m just a mistaker who makes mistakes, why do I carry around in the pit of my stomach this deep, dark thing that I don’t know any other word for but guilt? And why is it that because of this deep, dark thing that I call guilt, why is it I feel like I need to pay people back? After all, if it was just a mistake, there shouldn’t be any of that. But it is, and here’s why: because culture may tell you you’re just a mistaker who makes mistakes, but if you’re honest with yourself, you know it’s deeper than that, because you’re a sinner who sins.
Now, if that wasn’t enough, Jesus comes along and just stirs the pot and whacks the hornet’s nest and just makes a mess of this whole thing. He comes along and in his ministry he taught these two very opposing ideas that seem like they shouldn’t even come out of the same person’s mouth. We’re going to look at some verses in Matthew 5. He basically came along and he made everybody feel worse. He raised the bar. He came into an environment where they sort of dumbed down God’s law to say, "Okay, well, you know, it’s not as hard to be godly. It’s not as hard to be righteous. God wasn’t as serious as, you know, maybe you thought he was. And Jesus came along and pushed the bar way up high and said, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It’s worse than you thought. You thought you were kind of bad? You’re really bad. You thought you were good? You’re not good. You thought you were righteous? Ha, ha, ha, you are not a righteous person."
It’s like he came along with one message that was extraordinarily condemning that said nobody’s good enough to be in God’s good favor, and then he came right along and said, "Oh yeah, by the way, God loves you. Oh, God loves you. He loves you just the way you are. God loves you."
People are thinking, "Wait a minute. Which is it? Either I’m terrible or God loves me."
Jesus said, "It’s both. You’re terrible and God loves you. You’re worse than you thought and God loves you more than you imagined."
And this was so strange to people. As for the people that just wanted to be mistakers, they did not like Jesus because he made them feel so bad. And the people that knew in their gut they were sinners, guess what? They loved him because they were honest enough to be able to look in the mirror and say, "You know what? He’s right. It’s worse than I thought. And if there is any hope in the world for me, it’s not because I’m going to be able to do better, promise harder, commit more, and you know, discipline myself. If there’s hope for me, a sinner, it’s not going to be through my efforts. I need a Savior."
Here’s how Jesus said it, and you know, this is extreme. Let me just tell you up front. In fact, a couple of these verses may convince you that you don’t want to be a Christian, but let me just read them to you anyway. Matthew Chapter 5, jumping in at verse 17. This is the Sermon on the Mount, his famous sermon, and this was at the beginning of his ministry. I’m thinking I would have saved this, because this was a good way to run off a crowd. He had a giant crowd, and he started by telling everybody how righteous God is and how unrighteous they are. I’m thinking, who would stay for this sermon? Here’s what he said, Matthew Chapter 5 verse 17:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets."
That’s all the Old Testament. He said, "Look, if you think I’m here to start something new and to do away with all those laws, forget it. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. In other words, if you thought maybe I came to get rid of those extreme laws, you know, where I maybe dumb them down and make it easier, lower the bar so you can get over it a little bit easier. No, No, No. I’ve not come to dumb anything down. I’ve come here to fulfill all that was taught in the Old Testament."
Jump down to verse 19. Now check this out:
"Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments [he’s talking about the Old Testament] and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven."
In other words, let me make this clear. What I’m about to say in no way annuls what you’ve been taught in the past. I’m not lowering the standard. I’m about to raise it.
Verse 20: "For [and there was a gasp in the crowd when he said this] I tell you that unless you’re righteousness [right kind of living] surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of Heaven."
Now let me tell you what was going on. There’s this big crowd and out on the periphery of the crowd are all these people (we’ve talked about this before) the Pharisees and religious leaders whose full-time job was to be good. Literally, that was their job. What do you do? "I’m just good. I’m just good. I spend all of my time, you know, just being good. That’s what I do. My job is to be so good that if God were to speak, I would hear him and I would speak to the people." That was part of their deal. They didn’t even mix with the crowd. They were off by themselves, lest some dust blow off one unrighteous person onto them. They were so holy and pure. And Jesus is teaching. He’s saying, "Okay, let me tell you how righteous you have to be. See those guys over there?"
They’re thinking, "Oh, yeah, they’re like the most righteous people we know."
"Okay, your righteousness has to surpass their righteousness."
Well, for the average person, game over. "Okay, I don’t have enough time to be that good. I have to go to work. I have to clean stalls. I’m a shepherd. I’m elbow-deep in¬--in stuff. You know, I build things. I serve food. Jesus, if my righteousness has to surpass their righteousness to get into the kingdom of Heaven, there will be no place for me in the kingdom of Heaven. I’ll never be that good."
Jesus is saying, "It’s bad, isn’t it? I mean, it’s way worse than you thought."
And while they’re letting that settle over them, he gives them some specific examples.
Check this out, verse 21: "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago [and he refers to the Old Testament] ’Do not murder.’"
And they’re all thinking, "Yeah, I remember that. Thou shalt not murder. Ten commandments, and you know what? I have never murdered anybody. Have you?"
"No."
Jesus says this: "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."
"Okay, wait a minute. Time-out. So you’re equating actually murdering someone with just thinking about murdering him? You’re saying that actually murdering--well, we’ve all got that. That’s a sin. We’re with you there. You’re saying that if I even imagine it, if I’m angry enough to do it and I just don’t want to get caught, or if for some reason I don’t pull the trigger on that--but you mean my anger toward somebody makes me guilty? I don’t even have to do anything and I can be guilty before God?"
"Oh yeah, you’ll be judged for your anger."
"But I didn’t even do anything! I just felt something. I just thought of something. I just imagined something."
Jesus said, "Oh yeah, see, the bar’s higher than you thought."
While they’re thinking about that, then he really levels the playing field. Verse 27, "You’ve heard it said, ’Do not commit adultery.’"
They’re thinking, "Right. That’s wrong. I’ve never, have you?"
"No, we have not committed adultery. We’re good people."
28"But I tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
"Okay, that’s it. We’re leaving. You’ve just called us all, well, not me personally," they would say, "but my friends, you have just called all my friends adulterers. You’ve just called every man who’s looked on a woman lustfully an adulterer. Now, come on, Jesus. I get that ’thou shalt not commit adultery.’ That’s a do thing. But you’re saying if we’ve even thought about it, imagined it, looked lustfully at another woman, that we are guilty of a sin, we are guilty of adultery? Are you kidding? Do you realize, Jesus, you just condemned all men? Do you realize how broad that is? Can we take you seriously? I mean, who can be that good? Who could be that righteous? Who could live his whole life as a man and never look at a woman lustfully? I mean, if that’s the standard and if that’s what it takes to get into heaven, then none of us are going to be there. God will be in heaven all by himself, because nobody is that good."
Then he keeps going. Verse 31: "It has been said, ’Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce."
Back in the Old Testament days, women had no rights and a man could say to his wife for almost any reason, "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you," three times and they were divorced. No certificate. She was just out of the house. You cooked a bad meal, "I divorce you." Honestly, you could be divorced for almost any reason a man came up with. Moses said, "Okay, we’ve got to bring some order to this chaos, so, from now on, if you divorce your wife for whatever reason you choose to, because a man could divorce his wife for any reason, "from now on if you divorce your wife, you’ve got to at least give her a certificate so if she’s wandering the streets, people will know that you kicked her out."
And if she wants to be remarried, she can at least say, "Well, I’m not married anymore because Frank over there didn’t like the meatloaf and he divorced me." You know, whatever the reasons.
And so Jesus refers to this. He says, you know in the olden days you had to have a certificate. You could divorce your wife, but you had to give her a certificate. Check this out, verse 32: "But I tell you anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness causes her to become an adulteress."
"Oh, give me a break!" He’s not finished: "And anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery."
"I am so sure. Okay, Jesus. Don’t you think you ought to at least let everybody tell his story and give you the specifics of what happened? Can you make such a blanket statement as that? Are you saying a man can’t divorce his wife for any reason except for marital unfaithfulness? And then if she remarries she commits adultery? Oh, okay. That’s way too high of a standard. Now you’ve just called all of us adulterers and adulteresses."
Jesus said, "Oh yeah, I’m not finished. Keep your pen out." Verse 43, "You have heard that it was said, ’Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
"Jesus, I don’t even pray for my neighbors. I don’t really pray for anybody. You’re telling me God expects me to pray for my enemies and pray for the people who persecute me? That’s the standard? That’s righteousness? That’s what God gets excited about? So, what you’re telling me is I’m a murderer because I’ve been angry. You’re telling me I’m an adulterer because I’ve had lustful thoughts. I’m an adulteress because I’ve been divorced. It’s not even my fault. And that, basically, I’ll never please you because I don’t love my enemies? Hello. That’s what it takes to be righteous? Good
grief! There’s nobody righteous but God."
Jesus smiles and says, "I know. That’s my point."
You came to this sermon thinking you were just mistakers who needed to do better. I’m here to convince you you’re sinners and there’s no hope for you if it depends on your efforts and your righteousness.
Now, here’s the amazing thing, and if you don’t read the New Testament, it’s worth reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John just to find these little bits and pieces right here. Throughout the Gospels, the people who were the most convinced that they fell into this category flocked to hear Jesus. They loved him! They were nothing like him and they liked him. The tax gatherers, the prostitutes, the men and women who were condemned by society as being outright sinners, they loved to be with Jesus because he had these two messages--Message #1: You’re a sinner; you’re in trouble. Message #2: God loves sinners and has sent a Savior on their behalf. Message #1: You’re hopelessly lost. Message #2: God sent me to find you.
And here’s what his message was. Until you embrace the fact that you’re a sinner, you’re not open to embracing the fact that God sent you a Savior. As long as you’re a mistaker, you’re going to try harder. But you have to finally come to grips with the fact that no, you don’t accidentally do things. There’s something fundamentally wrong with you and with me. He says, "Until you embrace the fact that you’re a sinner, you will never embrace your Savior." So Jesus came to say, "It’s worse than you thought. You’re worse than you thought. The standard’s higher than you thought. Nobody’s going to get in on his own merit and his own righteousness because God is far more righteous than you gave him credit for originally."
You may have heard this story: One day a bunch of men brought a lady and threw her down in front of Jesus. Remember this? And they said, "Jesus, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery, and we’ve heard what you say about the law. You’re not here, you said, to dumb down the law. The law says she has to die. So, what do you say, Jesus?" They were trying to trap him.
Now, here’s the Son of God, all of truth and all of righteousness and holiness, the whole thing rolled into one, and you could read it for yourself. Essentially, what he doesn’t say is: "Now, now, now, hold on, hold on, wait, wait, wait. Now, let’s be careful here. She came from a really difficult environment. You know her father kicked her out when she was young. Her first husband and her second husband, and she was tricked; she didn’t know, and the guy lied to her, didn’t say he was married. I mean, come on, let’s cut this lady some slack. She made a mistake. Can we just not all move on? She made a mistake."
No, he says, "You’re right. She sinned. She deserves to die." That’s what she deserves.
They’re thinking, "Okay, here we go."
And then he said this: "Everybody in the crowd with a rock in your hand who is not a sinner, on the count of three, stone her. Everybody in the crowd who is just a mistaker, but not a sinner, then you condemn and you stone this woman. On the count of three." And the Bible says that one by one, everybody in the crowd dispersed, starting with the oldest who knew best that he fell into this category, all the way down to the youngest.
Imagine this--as a Christian--this is just emotional to me: "And then Jesus knelt down and looked at this woman," caught in the act of adultery, who knew she deserved to die, who was condemned because sin requires payment for sin, and he looked her in the eye, and he said, "Where are all the people that accused you? They’re gone, aren’t they?" She said, "No one condemns me, sir." And then Jesus, the Son of God, looks her right in the eye--just like he would look you in the eye if you were ever to come to the point that you were to embrace your sinfulness--and he looked her in the eye and he said, "Then neither do I condemn you." And then he said this, "Now go and leave your life of sin."
I’m not going to dumb it down for you to make you feel better. I’m just not going to condemn you for it, because now that you know you’re a sinner, you’re a candidate to meet your Savior.
And one time he told three stories that we’re familiar with. The most famous one of the three is called the prodigal son. You’ve heard it and read it, possibly, or seen it enacted or you’ve heard it referred to. And in the story of the prodigal son, Jesus makes it really clear that the father in the story represents God and the son represents all of us, you know, other people, people who’ve strayed from God. And the story was told to help people understand what God’s attitude toward sin was.
Do you remember the story? The son comes to the father and says, "Dad, I wish you were dead." He didn’t say that, but that’s what he communicates. "Dad, I wish you were dead, because then I’d get half of your . . . I’d get my inheritance, but now I’ve got to wait till you die. Would you just pretend like you’re dead and go ahead and give me half of your inheritance?" That’s what he was saying. He insulted his father, took half of his father’s estate, went to the city, to the town, and blew it on wild women and partying and just had the time of his life for several weeks or months. We don’t know how long it went on. Finally spent all his money. There was a famine in the land. He had to go get a job. And one day he realized, "You know what? I should go work for my dad. I mean, I’m not going to go back and try to be a son again. That’s over, okay, because, after all, I mean, there’s no way he’s going to take me back as a son. But, you know, the guys that work for my dad? They get treated better than they’re treating me here in the city. I’ll just go back and ask my dad for a job."
And he comes up with this speech, and he rehearses this speech. And here’s what he says when he gets to his father. Listen to these words, because Jesus is telling this story so we understand God’s reaction to sin and how God views sinners who are coming back. This is in Luke Chapter 15, verse 21. Just listen to this: "Father, I have [what’s the word?] sinned." In other words, he didn’t say, "Dad, I’m back, dude. How’s it going? You know, things didn’t go too good. Hey, I made a few mistakes. I’m young and stupid, okay? I should have known better. I should’ve listened. Can we just kind of move on, ’cause, okay, I made some mistakes, alright? I’m embarrassed, but can we just move on?" Uh-uh. He says, "Dad, I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son." In other words, I love this, "Dad, I’m not here to commit to you. I’m here with my hands raised in the air to say you don’t owe me anything. I’m pleading for mercy because I’m a sinner."
Do you remember what his dad said to him? Look at this. Here’s what he said: "And the father said, ’Now I’ve got you, my little pretty.’"
He didn’t say that. They’re thinking, "That sounds just like the Wizard of Oz! That’s in the Bible?" Okay.
Now, listen to me really quickly before we look at what he really said. Here’s the deal. Listen, listen, listen. Mistakers never run to God. They run away. As long as it’s just a mistake, I don’t need God. I don’t need church. Okay, just give me a little time and I’ll do better. I’ll do better. Honey, please don’t make me read that book. Please don’t make me go to church. Honey, please, look, look, look. I’ll do better. I’ll do better. Because your thought is if I take all these things, I know in my gut they’re not mistakes. I know they’re probably the S-word. I don’t want to think about that. I want everybody to think I just made a few mistakes and I’m going to do better. But if I take my boatload of mistakes and say, okay, it’s not a mistake, it’s sin, and I turn in God’s direction, what is he going to do to me? Because you know in your heart what you deserve, don’t you? Because you know your thoughts, you know the lust, you know the jealousy, you know the indiscretions, you know the secrets, you know the habits. You know in your heart you deserve something and you don’t really want to know what you deserve. And to bring that, and to turn toward God and say, "Okay, I’m not just a mistaker, I’m a sinner," you know, you expect the worst.
But the message of Jesus was this: The best thing you can do is to acknowledge your sin, because that’s as close as you’ll ever get to needing what you need the most -- a Savior. So, listen to what he said. Here’s what the father said, which reflects what God says in a situation like this:
"But the father said to his servants, ’Quick!’" [I love that.] "’Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.’"
"Why so quick? Shouldn’t we let him grovel here a little bit?" "No, quick. Listen, I want this restored as quickly as possible. Now that he’s recognized that he’s a sinner, let’s get on with this thing.
"Quick!" he said to his servants, "Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger."
"Ring on his finger? That’s like you’re reestablishing him to son-ship."
"Absolutely, I am!"
"But look at what he’s done."
"Yeah, but he’s back."
"But doesn’t he owe you?"
"No. And put sandals on his feet because he’s not a servant."
Verse 24: "For this son of mine was dead and now he’s alive."
"How is he alive? All he did was come back and say, ’I’m a sinner,’ and beg for mercy.
"I know. He’s alive." [I love this] "’He was lost and he’s found.’ So they begin to celebrate."
The moral of the story -- the sooner you and I embrace our sinfulness, the sooner you and I are candidates for God’s grace. The sooner you and I embrace our sinfulness, the sooner we have an opportunity to meet our Savior. The sooner we see our misdeeds as sin, the sooner we are, the closer we are, to knowing what it feels like to be forgiven.
The apostle Paul, years later, said it this way. This is from Romans 3:23. He said:
"For all [that would be all, no secret, tricky word there] have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God."
That is, we all fall short of the standard of God. We all fall short of the righteousness of God. It’s basically saying what Jesus said, that you’re good but you’re not that good. You’re not as bad as some people, but you’re not nearly as good as God would need you to be to just, you know, go eye to eye, to be a peer with God in terms of righteousness. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And you would expect the next verse to say all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and boy, is God mad, and God is going to make you pay, and God is going to come after you, and there are lightning bolts in your future, okay?
And here’s what Paul says: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified [what’s that next word?] freely." What is it? Say it again. "Freely."
Now, this is huge. You see, as long as I’m making mistakes, I can make up for them. When it becomes sin, I know there’s a debt I owe. I know there’s restoration that needs to be made. I know that there’s some sacrifice I need to make. I know there’s something I’ve got to do.
Here’s the great news: Paul said, "For all have sinned and all are made right with God." That’s what justified means. All are made right with God freely.
"But don’t I owe you?"
"Yeah, but that’s been paid."
"But what can I do to make it up to you?"
"You don’t have to do anything."
"But, God, I finally reconciled with the fact that I’m a sinner. It’s not just mistakes, I’m a sinner. What do I need to do? I owe you so much." God’s saying, "The good news is you owed me so much you couldn’t pay it, so I had somebody else pay it."
Listen to the rest of this verse: "Freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." God presented him, not you, as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. That’s just a fancy, theological way of saying this: That while we were mistakers, we were going to figure it out on our own. We were going to do better. We were going to convince God that the good outweighed the bad. We were going to pay back our debt to society. We’re going to do better next summer. We weren’t going to work as hard. We’re going to break that habit. We, we, we, we, I, I, I, I, me, me, me, me. Mistakers are all about me trusting in myself to get it right.
As a sinner, I realize that I can’t. I don’t need to do better. I don’t need a motivational speaker and a cheerleader. I need a Savior. And becoming a Christian is this moment in time where you recognize ’I sin, I’m a sinner, I need a Savior, and Jesus came to be my Savior.’ It’s when you transfer your confidence or your trust from yourself (I’m going to figure this out and get it right) you transfer your confidence and your trust to Jesus Christ as your Savior. You say, "I am now placing all of my weight, all of my trust, in what you did on my behalf. Because as a sinner, I realize there’s nothing I can do to pay for my sin. That even if I got it right from this point forward, there’s no way to go back and make up for what I’ve done wrong. And what I did wrong weren’t simply mistakes. They were intentional in some cases. I’ve sinned, and now I’m placing all of my faith, all of my trust, in what Christ did on my behalf. I believe that when he died on the cross, he was the sacrifice for my--not my mistakes--he was the sacrifice for my sin. That’s why. That’s why."
The sooner you embrace the fact that you’re a sinner, the sooner you are enabled to engage in God’s grace toward you. The sooner you’re able to experience his forgiveness, his pardon for sin, the sooner you’re able to engage in a personal relationship with a Savior. Because at the cross, Jesus took your shame, and Jesus took your guilt, and Jesus took your obligation to God.
So, here’s my question. Has there ever been a time in your life as an adult that you’ve said to God, "God, I’m not doing this anymore. This isn’t about mistakes. That’s an excuse. That’s a cover-up. That’s rationalization." Has there ever been a time when you’ve said, "God, I have sinned, and beyond just sinned, I am a sinner. And I don’t need a second chance. I don’t need to just reboot and restart. I need a Savior." Have you ever told God that? And have you ever said, "And God, I believe that Jesus Christ came to be my Savior. And now I, personally, as an act of my will, receive him as my personal Savior. And I’m transferring my trust from my ability to get it right, from my ability to pay you back and make you happy, I’m transferring my trust from what I can do to what Christ has done on my behalf."
Have you ever done that? And if not, I want to give you a chance to do it today. And let me tell you who needs to do it today. If, while I was talking, you had kind of an, "Ah, I get it," an, "I never saw it that way before. Ah, that’s me and he’s right." And you know what? That was the Holy Spirit, and that’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit takes words and truth and then jams it down in your heart, and there’s, "Ah, I see it for the first time." And God has invited you today to make this transfer of faith that many of us around you have made in our past, where we realized ’I don’t need to just work harder at this. I need to be saved from my sin.’
I’d like to lead you in a prayer, and the prayer will go kind of like this, or you can make up your own words. There’s no magic to this prayer. The prayer’s just a way of expressing to God that you’re making this transfer. And I’m going to pray a prayer that says something like this:
God,
I recognize that, no, I’m not just a mistaker. I’m a sinner, I’ve sinned against you, and I owe you a debt I can’t pay. And I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, he paid the debt for my sin. And today, as an individual, I am receiving freely that gift. I’m transferring my trust from my ability to the completed, finished work of Christ on the cross.
That’s what it means to become a Christian. That’s what it means to engage with the Savior. That’s how sinners get into the kingdom of God. Here’s the great news, and we’re going to pray. You see I don’t know where we got this idea. Good people don’t even go to heaven. Forgiven people go to heaven. And forgiveness is found through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you have never had that interaction or made that exchange with your heavenly Father, I would plead with you today to join me. If you would, just bow your heads, and you can pray this out loud. You can pray it, you know, in your heart. You can get on your knees. You can lift your hands. You can just do whatever you want to do, but if today’s your day, would you just say:
Heavenly Father,
I am a sinner. I need a Savior. And today I’m transferring my trust from my efforts, from my consistency, from my good works, from my promises, from my commitments, I’m transferring all my trust from what I intend to do to what you’ve done on my behalf. I’m placing my faith in Jesus Christ as the final payment for all my sin. Please forgive me. Please welcome me into your family. I love you. I’m so incredibly grateful. In Jesus’ name.
[Andy prays] Heavenly Father, You’ve seen our hearts. Just as you know the sin in our hearts, you just heard us pray those prayers. Thank you for not just sending us another list of things to do. Father, thank you for not dumbing it down so we just feel better about ourselves. Thank you for sending Jesus, full righteousness, grace, and mercy all rolled into one. Father, for the men and women today who made that transfer, who just stepped out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, I would pray that you would confirm their decisions in measurable, tangible ways as they begin their brand new walks and journeys with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
