The List
Psa 139:16, Dan 7:10, Rev 20:12, John:1,14, Psa 44:2-3,Col 2:13-14, Isa 44:22, Acts 3:19
Psa 103:12, Heb 8:12, Heb:10:17
February 5, 2003
I. It would probably have been better if I had not started keeping the list, and I am sure the building committee would have appreciated it.
A. When we built this building I planned it out in my head for a long time.
B. I tired to talk to different people and gather information and think out all the details and make sure that all the bases were covered.
C. I tired to make sure that everything was done just right, but there are some things that I wish I had done differently, and some things that were not finished when we moved in.
D. I didn’t notice them before we moved in, but once you take up residence in a place you start to notice things that you didn’t notice before.
E. There are some sheet rock nails that can be seen through the texture, the video screen isn’t up yet, some places where the switch covers don’t cover all the holes, Some receptacles don’t work and a few other things.
F. Thinking about the mistakes that were made in building this building, makes me think about my list of mistakes that God has made.
G. I mean after all hasn’t God taken up residence in my heart, and if I can see the flaws in this building just imagine what he can see in me.
1. The hinges to the prayer room have some rust on them from not enough use.
2. The heater called anger overheats at times.
3. The attic floor is weighted down with too many regrets, and the cellar has more past secrets in it than I would like.
4. And the some of the cynical thoughts probably need to be aired out of it too.
H. Actually I don’t imagine that any of us would really like to look at the list of failures that has been compiled by God about our lives.
I. You do know that there is a list being kept don’t you? A list of all of your actions and sin.
Psa 139:16 NIV) your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
(Dan 7:10 NIV) A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
(Rev 20:12 NIV) And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
J. Kinda scary isn’t it? It is scary to think that God knows every thought and action that we have ever committed.
1. How would you like for you list of failures to be made public, and lifted up so high that they could be seen? I think we all have the same answer to that one.
K. Well, there has already been a day when that happened. There is a list of every sin that you have ever committed, and there has already been a time that it was publically displayed.
L. You’ve never seen it, and no other human has ever seen it, but Jesus saw it.
II. Let me say before I go any further that there is no way that I can 100% prove that our list was seen, but I think I can take you to the moment in time when it was seen.
A. Let’s go to a hill called calvary for a minute. Watch as the soldiers shove the carpenter to the ground. He has spit on his face and a crown of thorns on his head.
B. Now, watch as the soldiers stretch out his arm. Watch as one of the soldiers presses his knee against the Jesus’ arm and holds the spike in his hand to his wrist.
C. Watch as Jesus turns his head just as the hammer lifts to strike the nail that will pierce his wrist.
D. Now a question. Couldn’t Jesus have stopped it? With one flex of his muscles or even one thought Jesus could have stopped the whole thing.
E. Wasn’t his hand the same hand that had calmed a storm, and cleansed the temple, and healed a leper, or even brought someone back from the dead.
F. The hand that was laying on that cross beam of wood was the hand of God. Jesus was God in human form.
(John 1:1 NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(John 1:14 NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
G. The word that was God became flesh in the form a man called Jesus.
H. It was God’s hand that was on that cross, the same hand that had knocked down the Tower of Babel, parted the Red Sea, and sent the plagues on Egypt.
I. A writer of Psalms talked about that hand.
(Psa 44:2-3 NIV) With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.
J. The hands of Jesus were the hands of God, hands that set people free, hands that healed, hand that taught, and served, and hands that brought salvation.
K. All the people that were there at the time Jesus was being nailed to the cross could see, was a human hand and a spike, but I don’t think that was all the Jesus saw.
(Col 2:13-14 NIV) When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. Listen to that last statement again, he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
L. I think that as he lay there on the ground with a spike against his wrist, Jesus was looking at something that the others there could not see.
M. Between his hand and the beam of that cross there was a list. A list of our mistakes, and our lust, and our anger, and lies, a list that covered those years that we were away from God, and the failures that we have caulked up since.
N. According to the passage that we just read, a list of your sin was nailed to the Cross too.
O. God has done with my life and your life what I have done with this building. He has made a list of all the failures, and imperfections.
P. But the list that God made can’t be read. It can’t even be read by God, anymore! Because the writing is smeared and distorted to the point that it is not readable, and it is smeared with God’s blood. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code....he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
Q. That’s why Jesus refused to fight back, that is why he chose not to throw the soldier that was holding his arm into the next universe, because he saw the list.
R. He saw the list of things that would keep you from being able to be with Him. He saw the list that would condemn us to eternity without his presence.
S. He knew that the price of sin was death, and He knew that you were the reason that the list was there was , and he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you. So he let the nail pin His wrist to the cross.
T. He let his blood run out and cover the list of our imperfections.
U. The hand that was on that mallet that drove the spike looked like the hand of a Roman soldier to us, but it wasn’t, it was the hand of God.
III. God knew the position that we were in. He knew that the only way out of the position that we were in was death, so he took our place.
A. The same hand that stilled the sea was on a cross to still your guilt, and the same hand that cleansed the temple was nailed to a Cross to cleanse your heart.
B. The wages of sin is death, and God came to die in your place.
(Isa 44:22 NIV) I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you."
(Acts 3:19 NIV) Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
C. The hand that swept away the tower of Babel, swept away your sin notice what Isa 44:22 says....your sins...have returned to me!
D. The very things that separated us from God, God took upon himself and paid the price of death for.
E. Your list of sin, my list of sin, that guy at work that you despise’s list of sin was nailed to the cross and covered by his blood. The things that were written there can’t even be read by God any more because the blood that ran down from the cross wiped them away.
(Psa 103:12 NIV) as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
(Heb 8:12 NIV) For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
(Heb 10:17 NIV) Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
F. Our sins, the list of all that we have done and will do in our lives has been forgotten, the writing can no longer be read if we have accepted by faith, God’s gift of salvation.
G. You see the only thing that can keep the blood of God from covering our sin is us. If we refuse to (believe, trust, put our faith in, what ever words that you want to use to describe it,) God’s sacrifice for us through Jesus on the Cross, then we block the flow that covers our sin. Everything that needs to be done to make it available has been done by God.
H. But, there is something that we have to do, and that is we have to trust what God did on the cross and nothing else to bring that forgiveness.
I. We have to at some point in our lives accept the gift of salvation by telling God that we acknowledge that it is only by what He did that we can be saved.
J. We have to acknowledge, that we can’t be good enough to be right with God.
K. We have to put our unconditional trust in what God says to receive His unconditional love in a way that will wipe out the list of our imperfections.
L. But, when we do the hand that opened for the nail, opens the door of heaven for us.
M. And when we do the realization of what we have been given should make us determined to serve the one that made it possible.
N. Our gratitude for what we have been given in Christ should make us do all that we can to serve the one that made it possible, and be a part of seeing that his will is done on Earth as it is in heaven.
O. And, we should try in every way possible to live the way that God wants to, not to get Him to forgive us. He has already seen to that, but we should live the he wants us to because he has forgiven us.
P. Our trying to live by God’s standard should come out of gratitude for what he has done not to try to get him to do something, because he has already done exceedingly more than what we could have ever expected.
Q. And we should serve God, not to try to keep Him from zapping us, but because he has done what it took to keep us from being zapped.
R. And we should do everything possible to love that guy at work that we despise, because in God’s eyes his imperfections have been covered too if he will accept the forgiveness, and God may want us to be the one that helps him see what he really needs.
