Well, good morning and welcome to the continuing Bible study and something else today. No more tree lessons. Today's message is entitled The Fatal Flaw. I was sitting at home here some time ago and these things kind of struck me. Usually I write down some notes and then flesh them out later when I have more time. Anyway, this is just a simple gospel message, and the title again, The Fatal Flaw, and not just physically, but spiritually. And, you know, normally we view ourselves flawed as usually in some physical capacity. Mike was just telling me about a fellow up at the VA home that has to run a He's in a kind of a horizontal wheelchair and you have to kind of run it with his chin and yet he has a good mental attitude about it. But the true flaw that we have exists in our nature and that flaw is dead in sins and trespasses. And that's why we call it the fatal flaw. And, you know, the problem comes to us through Adam in the fall in the garden when he sinned against God. And a big change happened in him at that time. And he became a sinner and then he could only produce offspring with the same issue. And my brother, Some time back, him and I were discussing tires, and he says, you know what? I never buy this kind of tire because they make them in a certain place that doesn't care, and the molds are cruddy. They're wore out, and they just produce a bad tire. and they just keep making them and as they keep making them the molds get more and more wore out and they just keep producing worse and worse tires. So I don't buy that brand of tire anymore. So that's kind of an analogy to what we're talking about. That mold could only produce a defective tire with a flaw in it. And the place that made those was too cheap to spend the money to get a new mold. So you're stuck if you want that brand. But you know, God told Adam in the garden, essentially told him, you know, the day that you sin against me by disobeying me, then that day you shall surely die. And of course, he didn't die physically at that moment, but he did die spiritually. And if you go back and read that account, Genesis 2 and 3, you see a big change came over him where he once had a great relationship with God and everything was wonderful. All that changed in an instant. and he became at enmity with God, and his relationship was altered. And since we're all his offspring, the Scriptures are clear in telling us in 1 Corinthians 15-22 that As in Adam, all die. The good news is that so in Christ shall all be made alive. All the people that Christ died for in their place shall be made alive. So the result of this fall by our progenitor Adam, and the only things that he could pass on were that Adam was a sinner. And so that trait or flaw passed to every son or daughter of Adam. And the result of that sin is against God is man by nature being an enmity against God, a deadly, fatal flaw. And we're going to kind of examine some of the things that, some of the effects of that fall. You know, I love that hymn we sang, Isaac Watts' hymn. He wrote so many great hymns, but this hymn that he wrote only makes sense to a person that's been born again. They have no real meaning or depth to anybody that's not experienced grace. They just, well, I don't understand what this is talking about. How could this apply to me? But a great hymn there. And there are a lot of good articles in your bulletin this morning, Arthur Pink and some others. They all repeat the same thing that we're going to be looking at in our Bible class today. You know that when Paul wrote Romans chapter 8, He was, in the beginning of chapter 8, he kind of, and throughout Romans, he's been laying out the problems that we as humans by nature experience because of the fall. And in chapter 8, he begins to tell the wonderful story of grace again. He begins out in Romans 8, 7, he says, because the carnal mind, or the natural mind, the mind that's been affected by this flaw of the fall, is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God. neither indeed can be, because in that state it has no understanding. Even people that are born again have such a slight, small, vague understanding of God the Father, who He is, and the magnificence of Him, and the immenseness, and every aspect of Him exceeds our ability to comprehend it and a little shell this big around. So one that's not born again has absolutely no hope of understanding that. But they're comfortable in that because of this issue of the flaw of the fall. The good news is, though by nature, by birth, we're at enmity with God. That's how we start out in this world. The good news in Christ is that in Ephesians, he says he abolished that enmity. Isn't that good news? It's only good news to a person that's been born again, though, because they don't have a concept of that until then. But he says, having abolished in his flesh Ephesians 2.15, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God by one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereof." He just didn't just eliminate, he killed it, he slew it. And another aspect of this flaw of sin, it separates us from God. And isn't that what happened to Adam? First thing he did when he sinned, well, he hid himself, or they hid themselves. And God knew where they were. God recognized him as elect from before the foundation of the world. God had already had a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. And I think there's an article in your bulletin that says God is never taken by surprise. Nothing. He's not a reactionary God, I guess we might say. Well, we do this and then he has to do that or some such issue as that. And as God, he doesn't have to do that. But the law of sin, the flaw of sin separates us from God. And that flaw causes us to be incompatible with God. And they just can't be, they can't cohabitate. And that's what it tells us in Isaiah chapter 59 verse 2, it says, your iniquities have separated us between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear." And in that condition, that's just how things are. Separated. Divided. There's a gulf there that we can't get over by ourself. He has to be the one that crosses and takes care of us. But you know what the good news is? That's why I like about the Scripture. Every time you read the Scripture, in the Old Testament even, it's really noticeable that God tells you, here's all these results of sin and abominations and apostasies and everything. And then the next line He says, but here's the good news. Well, the good news of us being separated from God by our sins is then found in Ephesians 2.13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace. When we were at enmity with God, Christ is our peace. Who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinance, again, to make himself of twain one new man, so making peace. We just read that again from a minute ago. He says, here's the problem, here's the solution, and the name of it is Christ. Where once we were separated by this flaw from God in the new birth from above, and God revealing His Son in us, we find that now we're separated unto God instead of from God. we find out that from before the foundation of the world, we've been separated unto God. Isn't that a remarkable thing? And even though we were at enmity with Him, and even though We didn't want anything to do with Him, even though we, like Adam, hid ourselves from us, or even though, like some in the Old Testament, we created little g-gods to satisfy whatever religious inkling that we might have had. He loved us with an everlasting love, and then with loving kindness draws us to Himself. That's an Old Testament scripture there. We love Him because He first loved us. And then again, we find this flaw being by sin separated from God. that He had a view toward us from eternity found in Ephesians 1. According as He hath chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Wipe that slate clean. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." And notice in all these scriptures, we always find the activity part is on the part of God, on the part of Christ, on the part of the Spirit. and not ourselves. We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, Ephesians 1.7. You know, the result of the flaw, the sinful nature, this is kind of almost the most insidious part of the whole thing, is the nature that we have because of sin and this flaw, as we're calling it today. It causes us to lie to ourselves and believe it. We tell ourselves, well, at least I always told myself, well, I'm okay. And we only need to sow a couple of fig leaves together. and replace that covering that we lost in Adam. Norm was saying this morning, I'm glad I'm not like that guy. There's lots of people worse than me. So in our mind we rationalize things and we make deals in our mind that if we ever get to meet God, we'll just tell Him, hey, you know, I did the best I could. And I'm not as bad as old Joe over there that was a robber and a pillager and a persecutor thief and a robber and all those things. I did some bad stuff, sure, but mostly what we tell ourselves is, and I've heard, I don't know how many people I've heard say this, well, when I get to heaven, I hope my good deeds outweigh my bad. You ever heard that? I hope my good deeds outweigh my bad. But they're not really sure. But this flaw, we're able to lie to ourselves and believe it. And we convince ourselves that what Norm brought out in the lesson, every man did what was right in his own sight. You know that deadly flaw is it's only overcome by free grace. And the Word of God tells us the good news that Every result of this fatal flaw is only remediated by Christ. And then we find, and as always, we always find the good news. You're dead in sins, Ephesians 2 says, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in sins. But God, verse 4 of Ephesians 2, But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, that quickened us together with Christ, by grace are you saved. in our natural state. We, by the flaw, we believe that we're not dead in sins and trespasses. And a lot of religion teaches you that you're not really dead. I don't know how many times Norm and I have been conversing about this for probably, I don't know, 25 or 30 years, I think. Religion is the only place he's, I heard him say this a hundred times, religion is the only place where we debate death. When somebody physically dies, there's no debate about that. They are dead, dead, dead. But when we talk about being dead, spiritually dead, and sins and trespasses, not so much. And sometimes we mock that and ridicule it and be sarcastic about it. But that's how the natural man thinks. And religion, I would say probably 99% of religion teaches you that you're not really dead, you're just mostly dead. And there's a little spark in you that if you come to church and religiously, we can fan that little spark into a life and you'll be okay. And we believe that God really, because of this flaw, we believe God really ought to look at things from our standpoint, from our viewpoint. He should be understanding that, hey, you know, I did the best I could. And I had my own view of religion and things. I don't know how many people, guys that I've talked to said, my religion is to go up in the woods and commune with my rifle and shoot something and go fishing. That's when I'm closest to God. Well, I'm pretty sure they hardly ever give God a thought while they're up there doing whatever. I never did. So I'm sure I'm just like them, and they're just like me. But we say things like that to justify and rationalize how we are. Yep. I'm closest to God when I'm there. Not really did. He should accept me as I am. He made me this way. It's his fault. Isn't that what Adam said? You know what? Really, the fault lies with You, God, because You made me. You made the woman. She gave me the fruit, and I ate. Really, it's your fault. I'm not to blame. We play that game. It's just part of the flaw that makes us be able to do that rationalization. We have such a corrupt view of God and of ourselves in our natural state that it's without a divine miracle, it's just hopeless. We'll just sum it up like that. You'll never get past that without God coming and intervening in your behalf. Marvel not, I said that you must be born again. How could you be a master in Israel and not know this stuff? How could you not know that corruption is how we are by nature? Well, you know, the Word of God reveals this to us because he was always having these old wise old prophet guys write this stuff down for us so that we'd have it years later. And he had Jeremiah write down that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Well, you know who can know it? A person that's been given a new heart to know it because the old heart doesn't see anything wrong with it. The old heart doesn't think anything needs to be done. And the old heart doesn't believe that it's deceitful and wicked, desperately. It's not just wicked, but desperately wicked. That's how in the viewpoint of God, because we deny that the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. But Paul writes, you know, the invisible things of the world being created by him out of nothing testify to the fact that he is. But we don't have eyes to see or heart to understand that in our natural state. But you know what? He gives us the good news in Ezekiel. He says, I have a remedy for that flaw. I'll give you a new heart. a new spirit. I'll take away the old stony heart, just a metaphor for the one that's flawed and dead and sins and trespasses, and I'll give you a new heart, a heart of flesh. But even after the new birth our physical nature still can be consumed with trying to overcome perceived flaws in ourselves because we have that linked with everything in our existence. And we just get into this process of, well, I can overcome this, and I can overcome this, and I can overcome this, and I can overcome this. And spirituality is just another one of the things that the flawed nature tells us, well, we can overcome this somehow, artificially usually. Last year, there was a news article that for 25 grand, a guy like me could go down to some hospital in the south and they zip my leg open and cut my femur in half and put a little extension in there that with a screw and Over 12 months. They just keep turning the screw and I just get taller and taller and taller and taller For 25 grand you can get two inches For another 35 grand They can do the same thing in your lower leg and give you another inch and a half, but it's two bones down there so it's more complex, but It's just another thing that you can do to, because you're dissatisfied or a perceived flaw. I tried to get Norm to do that, but. I would have done it, but then I'd have to adjust the seat in my pickup, so. But you know, by grace, we kind of learn to distinguish physical from spiritual issues. Once we've experienced grace, once we've experienced the new birth, then those things, they're things that we just realize that that's how things of this world that we have to cope with. But it's not our eternal position. And, you know, Paul, he wrote, I think he wrote to Timothy and he said, you know, I have this thorn in the flesh. And he said, the reason God gave me this thorn in the flesh, because I had a lot of revelations. or 2 Corinthians, I guess it is, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He said he had an abundance of revelations. He got to see things that, he said, they're not even lawful for me to talk about. But you know, because of the flaw in our physical body, we'd have a swelled head. We'd have to buy bigger hats. And he says, you know what? God gave me a thorn in the flesh to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. And for this thing, I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said, unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So most gladly, therefore, Paul said, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Isn't that a wonderful view that you only get after the new birth? If we were perfect in every way and we would just be bragging. You know, the flaw of dead and sins and trespasses is total. And that flaw, it impacts and controls our every thought and imagination until the new birth. it affects everything. Every aspect of spiritual ability has just been killed. And you try to substitute some homemade version of it, if you feel the need at all. A lot of people don't feel the need to, any religiosity at all, but I'd say probably a bulk of people at one time or another think about it and they come up with some scenario where they have some religiosity And there was a, when we lived up in Fairbanks, there was a big, used to be called a Baptist church, and then they changed it to some, people were kind of put off by the Baptist nomenclature, so they dropped that, and they just became Bethel Church, I think it was. But that church was humongous by Alaska standards, and many, many people went there, and all sorts of people, doctors and lawyers and lay people, and they had to, got to where they had to have like two services a day because there were just so many people wanting to go there. And it was so huge, you could just go there and kind of melt into the crowd. And you could check the box that says, I went to church. And they had a 20-minute band performance, musical, religious music performance, and 20-minute sermon, and then 20 minute coffee break after that. So you could just go there and it wasn't demanding at all. And then people, people could go there and, and see their friends could see them there and saying, yeah, I saw Bob over to out the church. And, and they all said, this is, this, this takes care of the, that problem. And I would say the majority of them had no inkling of the gospel. So it's just self-lying because of that flaw. The flaw tells us that we can self-repair. Well, I know I did some bad stuff, but this week I'm going to go do volunteer work somewhere and make up for that. It's the old, I hope my good works outweigh my bad kind of theory. But the flaw makes you think that that's acceptable. You rationalize it and it makes you think that that'll work. But You know, when something has a flaw in this world, we kind of look out for that kind of stuff and we watch for it. But in the spiritual world, they remain invisible to us. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. I think that's what it tells us. 2 Corinthians, or 1 Corinthians 2.14. He receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and neither can he. That means he has no ability to know them. because they're spiritually discerned. So they're just gone. But in this world, we look for flaw stuff. I mean, we go down the produce aisle and say, I'm not buying that squash because it's got a big old brown spot on it. that apple's been dropped or that meat looks a little too brown for me to purchase. How many people have bought a used car and show me the car facts? See that commercial where the guy's looking at the two cars and they both look pristine, you know? And then the little Carfax fox pops up and goes, and the one car, all of a sudden, it's all mangled, beat up. But the other car still looks okay. So the Carfax. There's, you know, when a car has been totaled, sometimes a guy will buy them from the insurance company and rebuild them. But they never get a clean title from them. They get what they call a salvage title. It means it's been written off, it's been totaled. So you're not getting a car that hasn't been totaled. It's been fixed, sort of. And the value of them is greatly diminished. But even though they seem like they're nice to look at on the outside, they've experienced corruption. But you know the good news of the spiritual world is that in every one of God's children, the carfax comes back clean. He says, I find no fault. We're without spot, without wrinkle, no dents, no total collisions, without blemish. That's kind of vernacular that it tells us in Ephesians 5.27 when it says, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He paid with his own life. He loved it that much that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle. or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." And so in the analogy with the flawed car that recorded on the title and it's there forever, in Christ we have a new title, a clean title that's free from flaws. In our bulletin this morning, there was a hymn by Isaac Watson he wrote. Well, he wrote another hymn that sometimes we sing it here when I can read my title clear. He wrote that in 1709 or 1707 I think it was. Long time ago. But he He was able to talk about this stuff and understand it because he had experienced the new birth and it all made sense to him, and he was able to write down in poetic words how he viewed grace and how we're delivered from it. And he says, I can bid farewell to all my fears. When I can read my title clear to mansions in the sky, I'll bid farewell to all my fears and wipe my weeping eye." What a contrast that he had in his view of himself and all the things that God had done and taken care of for him. And a great hymn writer, great theologian there. Grace does that to you. You know much if not all of human endeavor is geared to entice you to overcome by some physical means, whatever flaw that they convince you that they have. If you watch TV, every commercial is, well, you can get younger, taller, cleaner, this or that. get stretched, reshaped, taller, thinner, stronger. And even in the religious world, there's guys that come on TV all the time and say, hey, you got a problem? Just repeat after me. Say this, repeat this thing after me, and then dial this 1-800 number and give me your bank account number. Don't forget to contribute. But they think that if you just say those words that God has obligated to you, to have mercy just by abracadabra him. But that's just a part of the flaw that we keep trying to bring up, that that's your perception of God, how he deals with people and how grace is. They think we can manipulate him. And you know what he says in the Bible? He says, you thought I was altogether such a one as yourself. But I'm not. I'm a righteous and a holy God. And righteousness must be observed and holiness must be observed. And the only way that that can happen is through the substitutionary death of my son in your behalf. That's the only way that that can be achieved. And your minuscule warp view that you have of God by the flawed nature of sin is not acceptable. And the real issue is that that fatal flaw of sin we're born with is hidden from our hearts and minds. And the heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked, convinces us that we're OK and we're not so bad compared to others and probably repairable. A lot of people say, well, before I die, I'm going to get baptized so I can take care of all the stuff that I've done. And then after that, I won't do any more bad stuff. I won't sin anymore after, but I'll say that till like the last minute so it kind of like covers everything. It's crazy stuff that we convince ourselves that's acceptable to God because our mind and our spirit and our natural condition is flawed by sin. We're enmity to God, we're dead in sins, unaware that before the foundation of the world, Christ reconciled the church to Himself by His being the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. You know, when we get the new birth, we find out that He caused us to believe it. That's what tells us in Ephesians 119. We believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. That's the only way we believe that. And then we find out that all of our sin has been removed as far from us as the yeast is from the West and cast into the bottom of the sea and all those metaphors that tells us about how God views our condition. Like those fellows in Daniel, thrown into that fiery furnace when they came out. He said, didn't I throw three guys in there? Yeah, I see four walking around in there. When they came out, they didn't even have the smell of smoke on them. What a picture of grace. Not even the smell of the smoke of sin remains to be detected. No flaw exists in the eyes of God. We still have this mortal world to deal with and physical things, but by the Spirit, we learn that We are flawed, but in the same scripture, we learn that He's taking care of it. He said, we always read that scripture from Ezekiel where He said, I'll give you a new heart. I'll cleanse you from all your iniquity. I'll clean all your sin up and everything and give you a new heart. And He says, when that happens, He says, then you're going to loathe yourself. Where before you thought, I'm okay. I'm not, there's no problem. I'm just fine. Then you're going to say, my word. You know what Paul said? He said, Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Not like I used to be a bad sinner. He said, I am the chief. That's a, what do they call it, present tense participle or something. He said, I am. I am of whom I am chief. So in the new birth, we learn all these things. We learn that we've been delivered from them. And so we only have praise and thanksgiving to Him with whom we have to do, because He's overcome the flaw in us. We've been delivered. He came to save the, what Norm said the other day, He came to save the ring strait and the speckled and the not many mighty. Those are the ones He came to save. He came to save sinners. No condemnation then tells us in Romans 8.1, and we'll close with this verse, Romans 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Be free.