INTRO. - At one time we were foolish. We all have a past. And sometimes our past is not the best. Haven’t we all done some foolish things?
ILL.- The running of the bulls. Did you ever want to run with the bulls in PAMPLONA, Spain? Thousands of daredevils dashed through the narrow streets of Pamplona on July 6, 2010 for a goring-free first bull run of this year’s San Fermin fiesta.
The thrillseekers raced to keep ahead of six fighting bulls and six bell-tinkling steers tasked with trying to keep the beasts together along the 930-yard course from a holding pen to the northern town’s bull ring.
Several of the runners were knocked to the ground and some were trampled on by the animals but there were no gorings.
NOW THAT’S FOOLISH! As far as I am concerned, it is foolish. It is asking for trouble or even death. Now what about you? Do you remember doing anything foolish in days gone by? We all did and some it is called sin!
ILL.- John Newton was a rough, dirty sailor with a foul mouth and an appetite for rotten living. He hated life and life hated him. He was captain of a slaveship. Then someone placed in the hands of this derelict a copy of Thomas À Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ. He also had the gift of a good mother who told him about the Saviour when he was young. And he finally accepted Jesus as His Savior. Then he went all over England sharing his faith.
Well past his “retirement” age, he had to have an assistant stand in the pulpit with him on Sundays. He was nearly blind and spoke in whispers, but nothing could keep him from preaching while he still had breath. (I like his spirit of keeping on!)
One Sunday, while delivering his message he repeated the sentence: “Jesus Christ is precious.” His helper whispered to him: “But you have already said that twice.” Newton turned to his helper and said loudly, “Yes, I’ve said it twice, and I’m going to say it again.”
The stones in the ancient sanctuary nearly shook as the grand old preacher said again: “Jesus Christ is precious!”
At one time we all were foolish but now we consider Jesus to be precious...our precious Lord and Savior. Amen.
PROP.- Paul talks about what we once were but what we are now.
1- We were once slaves to sin but now we are saved
2- We were once lacking mercy but now we are recipients
3- We were once ignorant of grace but now we are heirs
I. WE WERE ONCE SLAVES TO SIN BUT NOW WE ARE SAVED
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us...
Slaves to sin. Oh, come on now?! Yes, we were.
ILL.- A pothead walks into an appliance store and asks the owner, "How much for that TV set in the window?" The owner looks at the TV set, then looks at the stoner, and says, "I don’t sell anything to potheads."
So the pothead tells the owner that he’ll quit smoking pot and will come back the next week to buy the TV. A week later, the guy comes back and says, "I quit smoking pot. Now, how much for that TV set in the window?"
And the owner says, "I told you I don’t sell to potheads!" So the he leaves again. He comes back a month later and says, "How much for that TV?"
The owner says, "I’m not going to tell you again, I don’t sell to potheads!!!" The pothead looks back at the owner and says, "How can you tell I’m a pothead?" The owner looks back and says, "Because that’s a microwave."
Frankly, I don’t know anything about smoking pot because I’ve never done it. I’ve heard things about it is all. Marijuana addiction has the same characteristics as any other addiction to other drugs including alcohol, tobacco or even caffeine.
The frequent obsession with the drug, thinking about it all the time, where to get it, when to get it, is there enough, is it good enough, will I have the money for more are frequently asked questions.
Marijuana is a drug that masks reality. People use it to forget about their problems, and eventually, it becomes a crutch to deal with life. Marijuana abuse develops when users find it impossible to cope with everyday life unless they are high.
That was what happened to 15year-old Sarah. She said, "I used to smoke pot to try to get away from the pain of my dad leaving my mom, so I’d smoke all the time. But after a while, I realized the pain was still there."
Kathy, 19, of St. Louis, Mo., turned to pot when school became overwhelmingly stressful. "I was having a crazy, hard time one semester, so all I wanted to do when I got home was smoke a bowl and chill out," she says. "It became my way of life, of dealing."
Smoking pot sounds like a powerful addiction and I believe it is. While most people won’t be addicted to smoking pot or will even try it, we may become addicted to other things: drinking soda, smoking cigarettes, eating food, sleeping, TV.
Anything can become an addictive habit if we’re not careful and the problem is when it becomes a form of slavery. We can become a slave to almost anything and when it’s something that is obviously sinful, we’re in trouble. Addiction to sin is hard to overcome. AND WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE IN SOME FORM!
But the good news is that hopefully, slavery to sin is a thing of the past! 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us...
Do you remember the day that you decided for Jesus? You may have thought, “enough is enough, I’ve had it with sinful living. I want to be forgiven for my sins.” And that day you chose to follow Jesus in faith and obedience. WHAT JOY COMES WHEN WE YIELD TO JESUS! Once enslaved but now saved in Jesus!
II. WE WERE ONCE LACKING MERCY BUT NOW WE ARE RECIPIENTS
5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior...
ILL.- “No Mercy” was an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
And no mercy is what most wrestlers show to one another in the ring. They are out to win at all costs, including showing no mercy at all! Some of its fake but some is very real!
Many people in life show no mercy as well. Some employers are ruthless and show no mercy in the way they treat their employees. Some auto drivers show no mercy behind the wheel of their cars. It’s like, “Get out of my way. I’m pulling into traffic and you’d better make way for me.” It’s either this or they never demonstrate courtesy in any way while driving, they never yield the right of way, etc.
Even though people of the world often show no mercy, our Lord does! Amen? And it’s a good thing that He does!
Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” HE IS RICH IN MERCY! Amen.
The Lord demonstrates mercy toward us every day. He gives us life, breath and every good thing. He also demonstrates mercy when we sin by not slapping us around. Or maybe He does!
Hebrews 12:5-6 “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
The Lord is merciful toward us. The reason I say this is because as much as we sin He could deal with us much more harshly or just take us from this world.
Remember Ananias and Sapphira of Acts 5? They died because they lied to the Holy Spirit or God. Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t treat us the way He treated Ananias and Sapphria when we lie about giving or anything else? IT’S CALLED MERCY!
5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Because our God is a God of mercy, He saved us through rebirth and renewal. This may refer to Acts 2:38.
ILL.- Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman tells of a university professor of mathematics who had been ruined by sin but had found a new life by faith in Christ. This man was in a Bible class where Dr. Chapman was telling how God removes sins from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).
Turning to the man, he said, “Professor, this is a mathematical statement. Can you tell us how far this is?” Instinctively the man reached for his pencil and notebook as if about to make a calculation. Then suddenly he grasped the sweep of the statement, and putting away his pencil and book he said: “Men, you cannot measure it: the distance is immeasurable. And, thank God,” he added with great emotion, “that is where my sins have gone.”
Said Dr. Chapman, speaking about it later, “I shall never forget how a kind of electric thrill went over that crowd of men as he sat down, sobbing as though his heart would break.”
That man had caught the truth that God dealt with him in measureless forgiveness. And it’s all because God is rich in mercy. We were once lacking this mercy but now we are recipients.
III. WE WERE ONCE IGNORANT OF GRACE BUT NOW WE ARE HEIRS
7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Justified by His grace. Do you believe that?
ILL.- Someone said, "Don’t I contribute anything to my salvation?" Another replied, "Yes....Your sin!" Yes, tis true for us all. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are not good by nature, we are sinners by nature. Sinning comes more naturally than doing good.
What God did for us in Christ is an act of grace on His part. We didn’t have anything to do with it and we didn’t deserve it. There is new life, new directions and new goals in Jesus, but they come slowly. Leaving a life of sin is like leaving bad habits behind. Sometimes, it takes time to overcome some of them. SIN IS NOT EASILY KILLED IN OUR LIVES. But by His grace they can be killed.
ILL.- In this matter of justification, someone put it this way: The LORD God is holy and righteous. He expects perfect holiness. 99.99% is failure in His holy eyes.
James 2:10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all."
We have all received an "F" on our spiritual report card.
"If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:10).
"There is none righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10).
Sinful man can not live up to the holy demands of God’s law. No one is righteous in the eyes of God.
Throughout recorded history man has tried to build bridges to God by means of good works. All of his bridges have ended in failure. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" becomes "How in the world can I do it?" I can’t. All that sinful man can do is come and cast himself upon the mercy of God. "God be merciful to me a sinner!"
"How can a man become righteous before God?" How righteous do I have to be to be good enough to please God? Am I righteous enough? The Bible says there is only one way we can become righteous. And that is through Jesus!
I Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
II Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
We can’t supplement what Christ did, we can’t improve on it, nor can we add anything to it. The work of salvation was completely finished once and for all by Jesus on the cross.
God receives all sinners who repent and put their trust in Christ to save them. The believer can know he is a child of God because he is not resting on any righteousness of his own, but his righteousness is in Jesus Christ.
I rest my faith on Him and Him alone...Who died for my transgressions to atone.
Romans 5:1: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
ILL.- Chuck Swindoll wrote: Justification really means this: Even though I still sin periodically and have found myself unable to stop sinning on a permanent basis—God declared me righteous when I believed. And because I will continue to sin from time to time, I find all the more reason to be grateful for grace. As a sinner I deserve vengeance. As a sinner I’m afraid of justice. And so, as a sinner, my only hope for survival is grace. In its purest form, it makes no earthly sense!
Even though we were once ignorant of God’s grace, we are now heirs of His grace.
CONCLUSION --------------
8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.
STRESS THESE THINGS! Amen. We need to stress the truth of God’s Word that at one time we were slaves to sin but now we’re saved in Jesus. We need to keep on stressing the truth of God. Keep on preaching, teaching and telling the truth of God! We were once lost and foolish, but now saved in Jesus!
ILL.- Dave Bycroft has preached 42 years at the Tyro Christian Church, KS. W. A. Criswell preached at First Baptist in Dallas 51 years. None of these ministries are long enough. We must keep on stressing the truth of God until the day we die!
Steve Shepherd, Jonesboro Christian Church, AR
jonesborochristianchurch@suddenlink.net
