Sinner

“Sinner”

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[f] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 10:14-16

Intro: If you look up the word sinner and find the definition my picture could be right beside it. And your picture could be right beside mine. All us…, You are a sinner…, I am a sinner. I never forget that I am a sinner. I make it one day at a time.

Even though I walked down the aisle over 40 years ago…, Was baptized and joined the church. I can never forget that my life is broken. I have an illness, a craving, a compulsion, a hereditary nature.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned”

That does not seem fair that God would declare us guilty for something Adam did thousands of years ago. Many feel that is not fair.

Yet, each of us has inherited both the sin and the death of our ancestor Adam. In truth, it is not just the sin of Adam that God judges us by we have the same sinful nature and same rebellious nature against God in us also.

So God does also judge us by our own sins. Because we are sinners, it is not fairness we need---it is Mercy and Grace that we need.

1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

John counters the false prophets and false teachings who were saying they had no sin. These natural born Jews were claiming purity and sinlessness because they were physically born a Jew. Therefore they needed no baptism.

If you think you are not a sinner at best you are guilty of self-deception and at worst you are a bold-faced liar.

But there is a remedy for sin. That remedy is Grace and the Spirit of God that comes when you are completely born again. Your life becomes nothing like it used to be.

An old preacher once said, that before he became a Christian he had the urge to sin the urge to go out looking for more sin. After he became a Christian he realized he still had the sin but now he had the urge to trust in God to control the urge.

There is a remarkable difference between a sinner who has never been born again and a sinner who has been born again.

That being said, like a recovering drug addict or an alcoholic who falls off the wagon. Christians also find themselves crawling down that same old road of sinful attitudes. Have you ever failed at something and then sworn to God and others that you’d never do that again (whatever that is)? If you’re breathing and you’re human, then the answer is yes.

Sadly, if most of us are consistent at anything, it’s that we are consistent at failure. We think thoughts that we shouldn’t think. We do things that we shouldn’t do. We say things that we shouldn’t say.

Or we don’t think, don’t do, or don’t say the things we should! We all fail. Consistently.

We have good intentions. We truly want to be good. Only a truly evil person delights in evil, and it’s rare to find someone that twisted. Nonetheless, we are no different from them for we blow it on a regular basis.

Yet despite our sinful nature, it is the nature of God who gives us Grace. It is God’s divine nature to forgive us even when we don’t deserve it.

When you read the Old Testament…, the book of Leviticus and read the book of Judges, you know it’s a bit depressing. The Old Covenant Law was made up of some 613 laws, plus countless ordinances, plus numerous statues. You would try to do what was right…, but you would see the 613 laws and ordinances and statutes. You would try to do what was right…, but you would see the 613 laws, ordinances statutes. It was impossible.

God helped Moses to summarize the Law into Ten Commandments. 613 summarized down to ten… You would try to do what was right…, but you would see the Ten Commandments. You would try to do what was right…, but you would see the Ten Commandments. It is was still impossible.