OPEN: In a speech Mark Twain gave before the Society of American Authors in 1900, he said:
“I am constructed like everybody else and enjoy a compliment as well as any other fool, but I do… have… another side. I have a WICKED side. Estimable friends who know all about it would tell you and take a certain delight in telling you things that I have done and things further that I have not repented. The real life that I live, and the real life that I suppose all of you live, is a life of interior sin.”
Another time Twain commented: “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side, which he never shows to anybody”
ILLUS: The preacher in a small country church had just given a fiery sermon that powerfully told of the evils of sin and how all men are sinners with no exceptions. When he got to the end of the sermon he asked this question:, "Does anyone here think they are without sin?"
Almost immediately, a man in the back row of pew stood up.
The preacher was astounded. He said: "Sir, do you mean to tell me that you really think you are completely without sin?"
The man quickly answered, "Oh no sir. I’m not standing up for myself, I’m standing up for my wife’s first husband."
APPLY: All of us in this room are sinners.
Everyone in the city of Logansport is a sinner
Everyone in the state of Indiana is a sinner
Anyone who is anywhere on the face of the earth, where anyone lives and breathes…
… we’re all sinners.
I. God tells us as much
Isaiah 53:6 "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…”
Isaiah 64:6 "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."
Romans 3:23 “… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
1 John 1:8 (addressed to Christians) "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
God tells us that we have sinned and fallen short of His glory… we are stained by our sins, polluted, wounded by sin.
And He tells us that – as we are –we have NO RIGHT to stand unashamed in His presence.
In fact, common sense will tell us that even the most righteous man has committed so much sin that there would be NO WAY that they could ever hope to stand in the presence of a Holy God.
ILLUS: Let me prove that to you:
All of us know someone who we think is a pretty decent person. Someone we can look up to. A righteous person. Do you know someone like that? Someone who you think is probably better than you are?
But don’t you think it is fair to say that they commit some for of sin… at least 3 or 4 times a day? Don’t you think they might do, or think, or say some things during their day, things of which they’d be ashamed if others knew of them?
So, let’s suppose that a person only sins 3 times a day. Three times during the day, they do/ say/ or think something that they’d just as soon nobody would find out about. Sounds like a pretty good person! Let’s do some math here.
3 sins a day
Multiply that times 365 days per year
That will equals 1095 sins per year
If that person lives like that for – say – 50 years
They will sin 54,750 sins over their lifetime.
Now - give or take a thousand - that’s a lot of sin!
I don’t care how righteous you may think you are, even if you didn’t know what the bible said about how God views your sin - if you just did that math (as we did just now) you would realize that your life wasn’t a pure white. It’s more of an off-shade of gray.
And, it’s hard to believe that if somebody was completely honest with themselves, that they would EVER feel comfortable in God’s presence. He’s a holy and a righteous god
ILLUS: As I thought about this idea, I remembered an incident several years ago. Diana and I had gone back to our hometown for her step-father’s funeral. We went to the “viewing” at a funeral home and I had dressed in a nice pair of slacks and a nice shirt. You might call my attire: casual. It seemed acceptable at the time I left the house, but about 10 minutes after being at the funeral home, I began to realize I wasn’t properly dressed to honor the death of my father-in-law. I made my way toward the door to go back and change, when my dad (who had also come to the viewing) took me aside and said: “Son you’re not dressed properly.” I replied “I know, dad, I’m on my way back to change right now.
My garments weren’t good enough to stand in the presence of that family.
AND LIKEWISE, I’ve come to realize that even my best and most righteous deeds, aren’t good enough for me to stand in the presence of a Holy and righteous God.
II. So, how am I going to deal with this knowledge
This knowledge that I am tainted by sin.
This knowledge that – as I am – I’m not good enough to stand before God???
One way is to comfort myself by comparing my life with the lives of other people around me
To compare myself with somebody at work who is not as moral as I am. Does anybody here know of someone at work who’s not as moral as you are? (the audience responded with chuckles and several hands raised).
Or how about someone in your neighborhood or in your family? There’s always someone around us that doesn’t have the same moral standards as we do.
And it gets even more comforting if we can compare ourselves with those church people who change into a different type of person when they leave the church doors. The ones that tell jokes that aren’t quite acceptable in polite company. Or who engages in dishonest activities at work. Or who get upset and can be fairly nasty with those around them.
If I compare myself with people like that I don’t come off too badly sometimes.
My life is a little whiter shade of gray than theirs is.
So, I look pretty good - when I compare myself to them.
But that doesn’t work real well when we actually come into the presence of God. When I REALLY come into God’s presence you come face to face with my sins.
That’s what happened to Isaiah at one point in his life, he found himself in the presence of God. Isaiah 6 tells us that he visited the Temple one day and there was the LORD, high and lifted up and His train filled the temple.
Isaiah was absolutely devastated: And he cried out “I’m ruined For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips." Isaiah 6:5
I suspect that is why Isaiah wrote “…all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags…” Isaiah 64:6
III. So… I’m left with this…
God tells me I have sinned and fallen short of His glory.
And I find that I can’t impress Him by the fact that I’m better than the people around me.
And I can’t impress Him by any righteous acts that I might perform no matter how impressive or inspiring those deeds may be.
My righteous deeds are polluted by my sin. My righteous acts are stained and damaged by the wrong that I’ve done.
ILLUS: Have you ever washed white clothes? My wife does the laundry in our house and once in a while she’ll get really upset with me. I forget occasionally to take the pens out of my shirt pockets. What do you think happens to the rest of the clothes in the washer when my pen goes thru the wash? That’s right. I’ve got several shirts now that I can only wear with sweaters because they’re colorful in ways I don’t want them to be colorful. They are damaged and of lesser value because they have been stained… discolored… tainted by my sinful forgetfulness.
So, also, my righteous deeds are stained and discolored by my sinful actions and thoughts.
So… how can I possibly ever become acceptable to God? What can I DO to undo the damage that my sin has brought into my life?
The answer is: I can’t do anything! I can’t heal my own life of sin/ and neither can you.
That is the central message of God’s word: You are damaged goods and you can’t fix it!!
BUT GOD CAN.
In fact, that’s the message of the cross: You couldn’t undo the damage of your sins in your life, so God did it through the death of Jesus. You couldn’t pay the price for your sins… so God did it for you.
As Isaiah tells us God did it BY sending someone… this someone “…took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted….he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. … he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:4-5 & 12)
Jesus became our substitute
Isaiah 53:10 tells us: He was our “guilt offering…”. He took my guilt upon Himself
He took my punishment
He took my place
He did for you and I what we could not do for ourselves
ILLUS: Paul Harvey related that the movie did just that in the life of one man. He related that a man recently turned himself into the police for a robbery that he’d committed several years before. Asked why he’d turned himself in, he responded that it was because he’d gone to see the movie The Passion and realized that he needed to confront his past and to change his life.
ILLUS: That was part of what Mel Gibson was trying to communicate in his movie: The Passion
It was Gibson’s desire that when people came face to face with the reality of the horrors of the cross that it would change their lives.
It would convict them of their sins.
It would bring them to their knees in repentance.
That this image of Christ on the cross would cut thru all the pretence
And all the excuses
And all the defense mechanisms that people build into their lives
And bring them to the reality that they were in need of God’s substitute
ILLUS: One man once wrote that we need to realize that we are not just:
Lonely in need of a friend
Weak in need of a helper.
Ignorant in need of a teacher
Confused in need of a counselor
Bored in need of a friendship
We’re sinners in need of a Sacrifice
We’re sinners in need of a priest
We are sick in need of a great physician
Unclean in need of a Fount for cleansing
Drowning in need of an ark
We are sinners in need of a city of refuge
We are lost. And we need a Savior.
CLOSE: Until you realize that reality… you cannot be cleansed of your sin
Until you come to grips with the fact that you need a Savior to take away your sins… you will not be acceptable to God.
You and I need to come to the foot of the cross – and accept the fact that He did this for you
That’s the kind of effect the cross had upon John Newton. John Newton lived a couple of hundred years ago, and had been a harsh man, given to visiting bars and the red light district. He even engaged in one of the most offensive occupations of his day: slave trading. But one day, he came face to face with the Jesus of Calvary and it brought him to his knees in repentance. He became a preacher and wrote many songs… one of which you know well: Amazing Grace
In another poem that he wrote, he explained what happened in his life:
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopp’d my wild career:
I saw One hanging on a Tree
In agonies and blood,
Who fix’d His languid eyes on me.
As near His Cross I stood.
Sure never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seem’d to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke:
My conscience felt and own’d the guilt,
And plunged me in despair:
I saw my sins His Blood had spilt,
And help’d to nail Him there.
