All the time God is good, right?
Absolutely. I don't have a particular name
for this sermon, but there's going to be a lot of reading
and a large swath of scripture that we're going to go through.
We're going to kind of address Well, not kind of. We're actually
going to address original sin, and then we're going to hop over
into the New Testament to Romans and find out where we are before
the face of God or Coram Deo and then the good news of the
gospel. The original sin is not good
news, but it is news nonetheless. I had a call from Pastor Clark.
There was a small emergency down where they were. They ran out
of suntan oil, so they had to go over to CVS, make sure everything
was covered. And then I went to my financial
advisor today and he said, keep on working. You only got to 98
then you can retire. So that's good news on that one
too. So everything's coming together.
So I want to start out by reading a particular song that was introduced
to me by our speaker this weekend, Bill Sasser and his wife, Lynn.
Some of you may have heard him sing it, but I want to reference
it into Original sin and then as I said before we're gonna
read some scripture and then we'll go ahead and we'll find
ourselves in the book of Romans and then we'll try and land our
plane as gently as we can with one more hymn that Is I think
one of the best contemporary hymns? Going today and I would
like to see our praise team if at all possible to actually include
it in our repertoire of hymns that we do sing So the name of
this song, the name of this hymn is called, Deeper Than The Stain
Has Gone. Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature, long the distance that he fell, far removed from hope
in heaven into deep despair in hell. But there was a fountain
opened, and the blood of God's own Son purifies the soul and
reaches deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for
full salvation, for God still reigns upon His throne, and I
know the blood still reaches deeper than the stain has gone.
Conscious of deep pollution, sinners wander in the night.
Though they hear the shepherd calling, they still fear to face
the light. This the blessed consolation
that can melt the heart of stone, the sweet balm of Gilead reaches,
deeper than the stain has gone. All unworthy we who've wandered
and our eyes are wet with tears as we think of love that sought
us through the weary, wasted years. Yet we walk the holy highway,
walking by God's grace alone, knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. When the holy choirs were standing
in the presence of the king and our souls are lost in wonder
while the white robe choir sing, then we'll praise the name of
Jesus within millions around the throne, praise him for the
power that reaches deeper than the stain has gone. Let's pray. Lord, let your name be glorified
and magnified by our time together. Let's help us to understand that
Satan always tempts us to find our assurance from within, but
it does not exist there. Inside we only find sin. We have
a God, however, who has replaced our sin with his own righteousness.
And rest assured and be at peace. Before God, the righteousness
of Christ is all we have. And before God, the righteousness
of Christ is all we need. Be with us tonight. Open up our
minds, open up our hearts to the Spirit of God. We ask these
things and pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. This
is from a commentary on original sin and total depravity. Scripture
diagnoses sin as a universal deformity of human nature found
at every point in every person. Both Testaments describe sin
as rebellion against God's rule, missing the mark God set for
us to aim at, transgressing God's law, offending God's purity by
defiling oneself, and incurring guilt before God the judge. The
moral deformity is dynamic. Sin is an energy of irrational,
negative, and rebellious reaction to God. It is a spirit of fighting
God in order to play God. The root of sin is pride and
enmity against God. The spirit seen in Adam's first
transgression and sinful acts always have behind them thoughts
and desires that one way or another express the willful opposition
of a fallen heart to God's claims on our life. Sin may be defined
as breaking the law of God or failing to conform to it in any
aspect, whether word, thought, or deed. Original sin means sin
derived from our origin. It is not a biblical phrase.
It comes from the great reformer Augustine. But it does bring
into focus the reality of sin in our spiritual system. Original
sin does not mean that sin belongs to human nature as such. God
made man upright. Nor does it mean that the processes
of reproduction and birth are sinful. The uncleanliness associated
with sexuality in the law was typical and ceremonial, not moral.
Rather, original sin means that sinfulness marks everyone from
birth in the form of a heart inclined towards sin. Prior to
any actual sins, this inner sinfulness is the root and source of all
actual sinning. It is transmitted to us from
Adam, our first representative before God. The doctrine of original
sin makes the point that we are not sinners because we sin, but
we sin because we are sinners, born with the nature enslaved
in proclivity to a sin. The phrase total depravity is
commonly used to make explicit the implications of original
sin. It signifies a corruption of our moral and spiritual nature
that is total in principle, although not in degree. For no one is
as bad as he or she might be. No part of us is untouched by
sin. No action of ours is as good as it should be. Consequently,
nothing we do is ever meritorious in God's eyes. We cannot earn
God's favor no matter what we do, unless God's grace saves
us, we remain lost. Total depravity includes total
inability, that is, being without power to believe in God or His
word. Paul calls this universal unresponsiveness a form of death.
The fallen heart is dead. As the Westminster Confession
explains, quote, man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly
lost all ability of will, to any spiritual good accompanying
salvation. So as a natural man, being altogether
averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own
strength to convert himself or to prepare himself thereunto."
End quote. To this darkness, the Word of
God alone brings light. We jump over to Genesis 6. I'm
sure all of you are familiar with who Noah is. Then the Lord
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry they had
made man on earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the
Lord said, quote, I will destroy man who I have created from the
face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds
of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Keep that in your front pocket,
because that is going to be the root of all salvific action.
But God found favor, some scriptures say, but when we look at the
word favor, it's translated into our common vernacular today as
grace. So when we are saved by grace,
we are saying that we are saved by God's favor. God is the one
who plucks us off the dunghill of life. We do not actively seek
out God, for the scripture is very explicit in saying that
no one seeketh after God. And we can't because of original
sin. We are dead to what God has to
offer us unless we begin to find favor with God because of God. It's an upside-down economy.
It's God running at us. We're running away. And so we
have to keep those things in mind to understand that it's
a complete God thing all the time. It's not an us thing. For
some reason, we want to have some participation in it, and
it is not. The less participation we have,
the better. The more we find ourselves at
the foot of the cross, the more we find ourselves honoring what
God has done in our stead, in our substitute, in our room and
place, the more we give all praise, all glory, all honor to God.
If there is a thread, if there is a morsel, if there is an atom
that we take, we are taking it away from a thrice holy God.
And he tells us in the scripture that he shares his glory with
no one. And so we always have to go and
find out the idea that we are where we are because of the grace
of God. We jump over to Romans 5, 5.1.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access
by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the glory
of the God. And not only that, but we also
glory in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance
and perseverance character and character hope. Someone asked
one time, what's your greatest drug? And I said, well, I'm addicted
to hope. There's a never-ending supply of it. It's around everywhere.
Not a bad addiction on that one. Now, hope does not disappoint
because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone
would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his love
towards us, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us. Therefore, just as through one
man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death
spread to all men, because all have sinned. Nevertheless, death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned
according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who
was a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not
like the offense. For if by one man's offense many
died, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace of
the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not
like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment
which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free
gift which came for many offenses resulted in justification. For
those God foreknew, he also did justify. For if by one man's
offense, death reigned through the one, much more than those
who receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness
will remain in life. Therefore, as though one man's
offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation,
even through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all
men, resulting in justification of life. Moreover, the law entered,
the offense might abound wherein sin abounded, grace much more
abounded. So that as sin reigned in death,
even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life
through our Lord Jesus Christ. over to Romans 6, 12. Therefore,
do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should
obey its lusts, and do not present your members as instruments of
unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under
law, but you are under grace. What then, shall we sin because
we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not. Do you
not know to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You
are the ones slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading
to death or obedience leading to righteousness. And having
been set free from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. I speak
in human terms because of the weaknesses of your flesh. For
just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanliness and
lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as
slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin,
you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have in the
things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. But now, having been set free from sin and having become
slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end
everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 7. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary,
I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would
not have known covetousness unless the law had said, You shall not
covet. Just sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in
me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was
dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment
came in, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me and it killed me. Therefore,
the law is holy and the commandment holy, just and good. Romans 15. For what am I doing? I don't
understand. For what I will to do, I do not
practice. But what I hate to do, that I
do. If then I do what I will not do, I agree with the law
that it is good. But now it is no longer I who
do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that
in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that
I will do, I do not do. But the evil I will do not do,
that I practice regularly. Now if I do what I will not to
do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who
wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God
according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind. Bringing me into the captivity
to the law of sin, which is my members. Oh Wretched man that
I am who will deliver me from this body of death. I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord So then with my mind I myself
serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Romans
8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus,
who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made
me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could
not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.
He condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live
according to the flesh set their minds on the things of flesh,
but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of
the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed
can be. So then those who are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you, you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells
in you, Interesting how many times he goes over things that
are of our mind and our Sunday school We're always talking about
be transformed by the renewing of your mind Think of this undomesticated
beast we have called our mind and the imagination that has
the ability to run in directions that none of us should ever be
thinking about. Yet, that's the mind that we
have because of original sin. It goes to places that we ought
not to be. And what it ought not to be is
the fact that it is never glorifying to God when we're running and
letting that undomesticated beast run wild and run free. And so
we have to see and understand that as the Old Testament tells
us, that we were conceived in iniquity and we came forth from
our mother's womb speaking lies. So right from the get-go, as
Pastor Clark often says, he says, you know, you're little angels,
and he always makes fun of that saying there are no little angels,
they're just little rattlesnakes. Well, the fact of the matter
is, I never taught my kid how to lie. He knows how to lie on
his own. I never taught my kid how to say no, but he says no
on his own. He's found disrespect because
he's a disrespect for a little punk. He's full of sin, that's
what he does. Sinners sin because they're full
of sin, as do we. And so what we have to keep understanding
is we have the proclivity to sin already there due to our
representative father, Adam. He is our spiritual father. So
the bad news is this. Our genetic spiritual pool is
tainted. We don't have good spiritual
genetics at all. As a matter of fact, we have
lousy spiritual genetics. I'm five foot six and a half.
I'm not going to dunk a basketball. I'm okay with that. My genetics
tell me I'm not going to dunk a basketball. My spiritual genetics
tell me I will run from God every chance I get. Even as a saved
person who professes Christ, I run from God every chance I
get, if I don't do it physically. I do it mentally all the time.
Prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. Just close your
eyes and let your mind go to a place, and you'll go to that
place lickety-split. And I'll guarantee you, it's
not going to be a God-glorifying place. It's going to be a problem place,
things that are going to be un-glorifying to God. See, the struggle that
we have is between the willingness of our flesh and the doing it
of our flesh. The spirit is willing and the
spirit is willing because jesus christ and the holy spirit are
now inhabiting our body We're not our own anymore. We're bond
slaves to christ. We're a slave to righteousness
in our spirit but in our flesh Oh, as capacitor clerics like
to say, it's a wild ass' coat. We'll run in the wrong direction
every single time. So, if you think that your flesh
is a little bit stronger, I have a couple of challenges for you. If your vanity is your vitamin,
you're going to die malnourished. If your popularity and good looks
is your currency, you're going to die bankrupt. If your intellect
is your hydration, you'll eventually die of thirst. If your good works,
intentions, and deeds is your brilliance, you're going to perish
insane. And if you're counting on the
government or culture, you'll die a prisoner, not anywhere
near liberation. And so, look how much we count
on those simple things right there. How crazy are we? The
first thing we do when we judge a person is on how they look,
right? Unbelievable. I mean, think about
that, unbelievable. That's how shallow we are even
after being saved, even after being converted. You know, we
used to, in chiropractic, we used to say, imagine how you
would be much more willing to take care of your spine if you
could wear it on your forehead. So if your spine's all crooked
and out of alignment, you'd be much more concerned about it. They
showed a picture for a dental office, and they showed a guy
smiling like this, and he had a missing front tooth right here.
And at the bottom it said, I bet you didn't even see his missing
eyebrow. And you look back at the picture, he has no eyebrows.
What do we see? We see how somebody looks first.
Absolutely. Absolutely. But if your heart
and mind have been quickened by the Holy Spirit, well, my
friend, your salvation is secure. And that's the difference. You
have found the answer to Paul's question. Who can deliver me
from this body of death? This body of death. Why does
he use the term body of death? Because in that time, if you
committed a crime, and you committed a crime such as murder, and you
were found guilty, you carried that body on your back until
it rotted off. Now, you start thinking about
that. Start thinking about carrying a dead dog with you. Okay, now
multiply it, you know, you got a dead cat, pretty soon you got
a human body on your back, rotting away with flesh. Who can deliver
me from that body of death? Have you ever laid awake at night
and thought to yourself, how sinful I really am, and you had
an unquenchable desire of absolute and thorough disappointment?
You're like, unbelievable how bad it is. If you haven't, may
I challenge you to do some introspection and think, you know what? I'm
in trouble. I'm in trouble. See, the conflict is always going
to be real whether we are saved or unsaved. So, I have a question
and you can give me the one word answer as you see it coming at
you. What makes a person relapse?
What makes a person return to their vomit like a dog? What
makes a man visit websites he shouldn't go to? What makes a
man take what isn't his? What makes a man fashion earthly
ideas into little gods? What makes a man think that he's
better than the neighbor? What makes a man touch a child
when he shouldn't? What makes a man cheat on his
taxes? What makes a man do all these things even after he's
saved and has a profession of faith? See, the indwelling sin
from our genetic gene pool, Adam, is still there in the flesh.
Like that wild ass's coat, it's not going away. It's going to
buck, it's going to bronco, it's going to do everything to throw you
off as a spiritual being. But it's hard because we have
this flesh and in my flesh dwells no good thing. And I understand
that. I understand that in total. Someone
asked me one time, what's the worst thing you ever did? And
I said, you think I've reached my potential? Maybe I've got
more bad things to do. I don't know. I hope not. But
you understand the point of it. See, we're kind of like a moth
that's drawn to the light. The moth doesn't take directions
and look at the GPS and say, you know, I think I'll avoid
the light. Why does the moth run to the light? Because his
genetics tell them, run to the light. That's what we're like
when we run to our sinful behavior and our sinful inclinations.
We're like the moth is doing exactly what the moth has the
genetics to do. Our genetic gene pool, spiritual
gene pool, tells us to run to the light. And you've seen all
the little commercials, don't run to the light, and the little
monster, and he's like, don't run, oh, crap, he ran to the
light. Yeah, he ran to the light. See,
we run away from the light to run to the light. And that's
a problem. The believer must understand
that the Christian life is a struggle. A state of sinless perfection
will not be obtained by salvation, by faith, or gradual obedience
in this life. The total eradication of the
sinful nature from the believer's earthly experience is never taught
in Scripture. While the scripture calls the
believer to be more like Christ, each day he can become more obedient,
he will never reach the point where he will completely obey
until he is with Christ either in death or at the rapture. There
still remains in the believer unsubdued tendencies towards
sin which are in constant conflict with the new man. constant conflict
with the new man. The spirit is willing and then
my flesh puts on a set of boxing gloves or MMA gloves and wants
to do battle constantly. And there's no corner man, there's
no bells going off, there's no scantily clad girls holding up
round three. It is constant struggle all the
time. I used to tell people all the
time, I used to get in the best arguments with my wife on the
way home from church after the best sermons. Could never understand
why until you understand that you know what we're constantly
God is break or the devil is constantly attacking us He does
not want us close. He does not want us righteous
He wants us to pursue what glorifies him not what glorifies God sinful
behavior is what the devil is all about If you don't think
it's true go read the paper If it doesn't bleed it doesn't lead
Keep this in mind though, although we are constantly referred to
what Christ accomplished at the cross for us at Calvary in his
death, it's because he lived a sinless life of obedience to
his father that makes him the perfect spotless lamb acceptable
for sacrifice. Tevigin writes, The urge to pick
one aspect of Christ's life, namely His death, is more important
than the others is understandable. We've certainly seen in the New
Testament how everything seems to turn on the cross. We could
accurately say that the cross is the crossroads of history,
the moment at which our sin was laid on Christ's shoulders and
His righteousness was transformed to us. It is easy to see why
Christ's death might overshadow anything else about Him. But
to talk about cross-centeredness as if the death of Christ, His
passive obedience, is more important than the life of Christ, His
active obedience, is to miss other incredibly important things
about Jesus. The truth is our redemption depends not only on
Christ's substitutionary death, but His substitutionary life
as well. J. Gresham Macon's last recorded
words, as sent by a telegram to fellow theologian and friend
John Murray, were, quote, I'm so thankful for the act of obedience
of Christ. No hope without it, end quote.
He understood that apart from Christ's law-fulfilling life,
there is no righteousness to impute. We are, therefore, left
dressed down in our own filthy rags. Christ's life, in other
words, is just as central to our rescue as his death. As I've
said before, we are not saved apart from the law, rather we
are saved in Christ who perfectly kept the law on our behalf. So
Christ's death is not the center of the gospel anymore than Christ's
life is the center of the gospel. One without the other fails to
bring about redemption. It's more theologically accurate
to say that Christ himself is the center of the gospel. He
just didn't die for you, he also lived for you. So when we consider
Romans 7.20, Paul, it seems that he would be excusing himself
from his sinful actions of impotency. And it is important to understand,
however, that Paul never avoids personal responsibility for his
sin. He knows he's fully culpable and responsible for his actions.
Jonathan Edwards, a great American theologian, wrote a book called
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And what he does in the
book is he gives an incredibly detailed and graphic analogy
of being held by a spiderweb over an open pit that the flames
are licking up at the spider. and that this is God holding
us by a thin web over that pit of hell as those flames lash
and lick up towards us because we are sinners in the hands of
an angry God. And there becomes only one appeasement
to that anger, and that is the substitutionary blood at Calvary.
Also the substitutionary life of obedience that he led on our
behalf. So I'm gonna ask you a few diagnostic
questions and then we'll go ahead and see if we can land this plane.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, or you're being introspective,
you're taking some type of inventory, what do you see? Do you see hopeless
and helpless? Do you see an addict? You see
a rehabilitated person or you see a rescue? You see a rebel
or you see a zealot? Do you see yourself as a denier
of biblical accuracy? Or do you see yourself as that
sneaky little shit who figured it all out who's going to get
away with it? Because your mom says you're a good boy, and your
grandma says she's a good girl, and your boyfriends and girlfriends
think you're good. But you know your heart, and you know that
it's desperately wicked. But yet you think you're going
to have it all figured out. You're going to wait for that deathbed
confession when you're that sneaky little shit, right? Not going
to get away with it. So my question is, Is there a
body of death that you see, or is there a new creation created
in Christ Jesus unto good works? Because that's where our good
works always come from, is what Christ has done for us and where
we are driven constantly to find ourselves. Do we mess up? All the time. All the time. Two
questions I want you to ask yourself. Who do you say Jesus is? Well,
some say he's John the Baptist, some say he's Abe Lincoln, some
say he's Mark Zuckerberg. Well, who do you say that he
is? Peter answers, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. Jesus answers him and says this flesh and blood have not
revealed that to you, but my father in heaven So immediately
he takes any type of attribute Spiritually and awakening that
Peter had and immediately dismisses it and says this to him you didn't
figure that out Sherry God figured that out for you and he put that
on your heart and that heart is about what 12 inches away
from your brain and And there's a nice little connection between
the two. And so it is God who does the work. So my question
to you is this, who do you say Jesus is? Just some historical
guy like Abe Lincoln? Or is he thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God, who lived and died for you in perfect
obedience in life and perfect obedience in death on your behalf? And then this is the next question
I have for you. Who can deliver you from that body of death?
There's only one. It's not going to be your good
works. It won't be your intentions. It won't be your deeds. It won't
be helping a little old lady across the street, and it won't
be giving money to the Red Cross. It is only one who can deliver
you from that body of death, and that is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. So I'm going to encourage you to quit carrying
around your sins and transgressions like an anchor in your backpack.
You've got to come to Christ and soar with the eagles into
eternity, knowing that your sins have been washed clean. Eternity
is a long time to gamble with. With Christ and found in Christ,
eternal security. Without Christ, the devil doesn't
offer you spiritual Narcan. You're dead. There is no reviving
that must be done on terra firma, this earth. After death, oh,
you'll confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. but they'll all confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. Because every knee will bow,
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's not a
pitch for universal salvation. That's a pitch for every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's what it means.
And you bow before lords. That's why every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Because
at the end of the day, you're not shocked by your sin. You
may get a little rustle and you get a little maybe get a little
bristle in your mind or your spirit But you're not shocked
by your sin at all. That's why when pastor sets up
here and he says people come up to him all the time Oh, you're
not gonna believe what I did You're not shocked by it. Nobody's shocked
by it. You can't read the papers And be and be shocked by anybody's
sin There go I but by the grace of God Here's here's my admonition
Never ever, if you're saved and you're in Christ right now, never
stop being amazed by his amazing grace. Because it is his amazing
grace that takes us all the way to heaven. It is grace that saves. It is grace that keeps. It is
grace that satisfies. It is grace that we will be singing
eternally in thankfulness to God above as we sing with the
cherubims and seraphims in heaven. Don't ever, ever sour on God's
amazing grace. He doesn't seem like he's being
very gracious to me right now. What does he owe you? Right? I don't understand. You mean
he should pluck you out of everybody and say, I'm going to be super
nice to this kid? For what? If he brings glory and honor
to his name by doing it, fantastic. But we just read in Romans where
he says, I glory in my tribulations because my tribulations cause
character and character hope and hope perseverance. Those
are things that there are no sins against. Just like there's
no sins against being nice and being gracious and being merciful
and being loving. How about we put those shoes on and walk in
those for a little while as opposed to the sinfulness that we find
ourselves clodding around in mud. Remember, CS Lewis said,
there's too many times we're so satisfied with playing mud
pies in our backyard than by enjoying a holiday at the sea.
And how many of us find that it's okay in those mud pies and
deny ourselves the joy of going to a vacation by the sea? This
is a song called Before the Throne of God Above. And it's fantastic. So we took off with how deep
our stain is. We learned exactly what original
sin is doing to us now. We looked at a few metrics and
diagnostics that we can't answer positively to because all of
us are guilty before those answers. So now we're gonna land the plane
on a field of look what we have in God above. Before the throne
of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high
priest whose name is love, whoever lives and pleads for me. My name
is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart.
I know that while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me
thence depart. Oh, when Satan tempts me to despair
and tells me of the guilt within, Upward I look and see Him there
who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me. Behold him there, the risen lamb,
my perfect spotless righteousness, the great unchangeable I am,
the king of glory and of grace. One with himself, I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by his blood. My life is hid with Christ on
high. With Christ my Savior and my
God, with Christ my Savior and my God, one with himself, I cannot
die. My soul is purchased by his blood. My life is hid with Christ on
high. With Christ my Savior and my
God.