WHY GOD WON’T ACCEPT YOUR EXCUSES PART 2
- Read Matthew 1:18-25
For the past 2 months I have been teaching a class on marriage. I am excited about the number of people we have taking the class and the good reports I’m hearing from people actually applying what they’re learning. But let me tell you my friend, you will never be able to keep it up, you will never be able to be the husband or wife God has directed you to be, if you don’t first make your relationship right with Jesus Christ. He is the key.
In March we plan to have a class called “Making Your Children Mind, Without Losing Yours.” The class is on parenting skills. I hope many of you will take the class, but let me warn you. You can take the class, do your homework, and want to be a really great parent, but you will never be the parent you could be and the parent God wants you to be, without first and continually, keeping and maintaining a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is key.
In recent months I have preached on building better relationships. I have preached on getting a handle on your money. I have preached on how to put your past behind you, and facing the future without fear, and many other things. Let me say again, however, you will never get a grip on those things until you first get a grip on Jesus.
Why is that? It’s because, as the singer said, “Jesus is the answer, for the world today.” Having Jesus first and foremost in your life is a necessity to making everything else work.
My friend, you can study baking and become an excellent baker, but you can’t bake without flour. You can study the ways of fish and become an excellent fisherman, but it will do you no good without equipment. You can study flying for years and become a certified, licensed pilot, and it will do you no good without a plane. You can learn to be a good husband, or wife, or parent; you can learn to manage money, but it will do you no good without first having Jesus in your life to free you from your sin.
I was talking the other day, with a Christian counselor in our community. She said she has her doctorate in counseling and has studied all the different techniques and methods for counseling, but has found that the only one that works is Christian counseling. All the others may treat a few symptoms, or teach you to holler softer when you’re upset, but only Christian counseling deals with the root of the problem, your heart and your relationships with Jesus Christ. You got to have “your Jesus right”, or nothing else will work.
The reason is that, as we are told in verse 21, Jesus came to save His people from their sins. My friend, our root problem, the source behind the majority of the pain, struggles, & difficulties in our lives are the sin in our lives. It is your sin and mine.
You notice what the verse said. Verse 21 says, “To save His people from their sins.” My friend, Jesus didn’t come primarily to teach, though after the Sermon on the Mount the people “were amazed at His teaching.” Jesus didn’t come to make you wealthy. The majority of his Apostles died in poverty. He didn’t come to keep you healthy, for Paul had several of prison companions that were sick to the verge of death. No my friend, Jesus came to save us from our sins.
Jesus is not “`God-saves-us-from-them.’ He is ‘God-saves-us-from-ourselves.’” Jesus came to salvage people.
Understanding, then, Jesus’ mission, the question begs to be asked, “Why do we need to be saved?” My friend, the Bible is very clear on why you and I need to be saved.
I. WHY DO WE NEED TO BE SAVED?
1. Sin has a _Punishment_
> Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let there be no doubt, let there be no misunderstanding, sin has a punishment. In this world, you may commit a crime and get away with it. You may murder, you may steal, you may run for political office and lie for 2 years until you’re elected, and get away with it. Some people may even smile or wink at your craftiness, but God will not. All sin has a punishment.
Eventually, sin is punished through our eternal separation from God, but sin has a price long before then. Sin steals joy. Sin hurts others. Sin causes discontentment. Sin causes sickness. Sin destroys marriages and in those that don’t end in divorce, it keeps them from being all they could have been. Sin steals years of our lives. Sin hurts our children. Sin causes prayers to go unanswered. Sin causes loneliness, bitterness, and tears.
Why do we need to be saved, because sin has a punishment.
2. Sin has a _Power_
Secondly, sin has a power. The Bible records,
> John 8:34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.´
Sin can get you into bondage, it can wrap chains around you and cause you to do things you never intended to do, things you never planned on doing.
Why do men return to their pornography again and again, knowing that its hurting them, even after they have repeatedly said they would never go there again? Sin has a power. Why, after promising to slow down and spend time with the family after he got that promotion and raise, do people instead spend less time with their families? Sin has a power.
Why do women return to their daytime dramas and their romance novels again and again, even when they know they are building models in their minds no living man can ever live up to? Sin has a power.
Why do people, with maxed-out credit cards, so far in debt they can’t even see the surface, finance that new car, that new TV, that new stereo, or that new dress? Why does that husband, that wife, spend hour after hour on the Internet when he knows, she knows, that his spouse is lonely and wants desperately to spend time with him? Because sin has a power.
> Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free;
therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject
again to the yoke of slavery.
3. Sin is a _Pollution_
- v21
The best we can do, is messed up. Isaiah 64:6 says,
>Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
In other words, sin pollutes everything we do, even when we are trying our best, if Jesus is not in control. Our motives are mixed with selfishness, and pride, and ambition, jealousy, bitter-ness, and other sin, to where nothing is as good as it could be.
** David Black. Had heart surgery & got a staff infection in the process. The doctors did the bypass, but today David is in & out of the hospital, unable to get well, because of the infection carried on the doctors’ hands & instruments. The doctors did the best they could, but their best efforts were polluted.
Same with sin – marriage, parenting, friendships, finances,. . .
4. Sin causes _Guilt_
> Ephesians 1:7 in Him we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, . . .
Can’t tell you the number of people I’ve talked to, who are overcome by guilt. They are unable to shake the guilt they feel over the people they’ve hurt, or the mistakes they’ve made . . .
Martin Luther, that great instrument of the Protestant Refor-mation, said the Devil regularly came and accused him of his sins. . .
The Devil is the Accuser.
II. HOW ARE WE SAVED?
1. By _Accepting_ Jesus as _Lord_
- Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other names under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Admit you’re a sinner & you can’t save yourself
Believe Jesus is God’s Son.
Confess a. Your sins
b. Jesus as your Lord & Savior
2. By _Keeping_ Jesus _Lord_
Now, the Bible teaches you cannot lose your salvation, but you can lose your freedom, you can lose your joy, you can lose the peace that passes understanding, and so you must continue to keep Jesus the Lord of your life.
- Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free;
therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject
again to the yoke of slavery.
