WITHOUT EXCUSE

#028                                                                    WITHOUT EXCUSE

Scripture  John 3:19 NIV                                                                                                                 Orig. 11/12/61 (11/76)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4/20/87 

Passage:  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Purpose:   In preparation for revival, remind my people that sin remains a problem that can only be controlled through the Cross.

Keywords:          Christ                    Forgiveness                        Man                       Lost                        Sin          Disobedience

Introduction

                Matthew Arnold was a prominent author and poet of Victorian England.  His concept of sin, however, was far removed from that found in the scriptures.  To quote Arnold, sin was pictured “not as a monster but an infirmity.”  He spoke of it more directly as “an infirmity to get rid of.”

                The Victorian poet’s views are shared by many people today.  However, neither Arnold, not these contemporary dreamers, ever give us the foggiest notion about how we may get rid of it.  Sin abounded then, as it surely does now, but the resolution to it is found somewhere other than in the human will.

                It would be a wonderful thing, indeed, if humanists owned an answer to such a question.  Of course, to do so, they would have to know more of the human heart than God knows.

                The attitude of the Father is one preoccupied with the seriousness of sin.  God’s disposition was not to admonish us to be done with it, for indeed, he knew we could not.  He, rather, moved in the direction of taking matters into His own hands.  He sent His Son to die with man’s sin burden squarely upon Him.  Man’s deliverance was and is in Christ’s death.

                “Don’t take it seriously” may be the attitude of some, but the attitude of God is intervention.  The Bible declares a substitutionary atonement.  Man’s sin separates. Christ’s death redeems and restores the separated one to favor once more.

                Back in the 1600-1700s, the Black Death claimed millions of victims.  So little was known by way of treatment that two meaningless methods were tried.  Thinking fragrance would help, victims were walked through rose gardens.  If they could no longer walk, attendants (doctors) walked around their beds sprinkling them with posy petals.  Ashes were also used to stimulate sneezing in the hope that some good would result.

                Innocent children still sing a song at play that came out of that awful time.

                Ring around the rosies,

                A pocket full of posies:

                Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

                Only when the cause was perceived to be the bite of fleas of diseased rats was the Black Death controlled.  So is sin.  Only the liberation wrought through Jesus will bring us deliverance from it.

I.             First Note that Man is the Fallen Creation of God.  V19: “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And 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 men, because all sinned….”

                Man was created in and for holiness.  Acts 17:26f: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” NIV.  Thus was Adam created, free of sin, but with the potential to choose.  Of course, the official position is that we evolved.  Judge Duplantier’s writ still stands.  Our schools must teach it scientifically.

                We all find our way into the world the same way.  The baby is conceived.  It comes with potential to health and disease.  Parents seek to protect its wellness.  At some point, we must assume self-responsibility. 

                Created, as we surely are, in holiness as we most certainly are, responsible under the law of God:  Thou shalt not kill/steal/abuse: Yet overnight there may be as many as 15,000 arrests for these wrongs; child abuse alone has reached epidemic proportions.  A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife: Yet the statistics on marriage indicate that every other one ends in divorce; pregnancy among youth is a major social problem, as is HIV.  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: Prison populations are growing faster than society can expedite solutions; mental institutions are full; last night there were 75 or more suicides, some of them teenagers.

                “Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,” 1 Peter 2:13.  The plight of national solvency is affecting tens of millions.  Population will double in less than twenty years.  Hunger is legion.  Amos 5:24 “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

                This unique creation of God, voluntarily fallen… V3:19b “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”  Note: “rather than,” not “more than.” 

Someone calls attention to what is our ultimate hope.  “Lord, I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely checkered with remarkable changes in 4 generations.  Rehoboam begat Abijah: a bad father begat a bad son.  Abijah begat Asa: A bad father begat a good son.  Asa begat Jehoshaphat: a good father begat a good son.  Jehoshaphat begat Joram: a good father begat a bad son.  I see from hence that my father’s piety cannot be handed on.  That is bad news for me.  But I see also that actual impiety is not hereditary, and that’s good news for my son.” (Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661)

II.            In Adam, All have Inherited a Tendency to Sin.  Romans 5:19 “For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  It was potential to sin, not compulsion.  We know only that he sinned, we cannot imagine if he had otherwise chosen.  It is inconceivable that he had no other choice.  He was not foreordained to sin.  A theater manager was telling a trainee about his new job. “What would you do if a fire broke out?” The trainee replied, “Don’t worry about me.  I’d get out alright.” 

Man’s choice could have been that of obedience.  We have the example of Jesus of the One who chose correctly.  The consequence of Adam’s sin is that all mankind is marked by the taint of sin.  It is the sin of self-will.  It is the sin of conscious deliberation.  Moliere: “It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”  Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

III.           Finally, We are Under Just Condemnation to Eternal Ruin.  Galatians 3:21-22:   “Is the law, then, against the promises of God?  God forbid: For if there had been a law which could have given life, the righteousness should have been by the law.  But the scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”  For all humankind, it is a dilemma. 

The love of God is obvious.  God’s love does not and cannot alter man’s sin nature.  God’s word leaves no uncertainty as to man’s guilt.  Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”  Therein the “good news” of the gospel is established.  There is one way to go home again.  Many say you cannot.  It is because home is ever a variable.  But the gift of God is a constant.  Faith in Christ brings us back to an acceptable posture before God.  John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” 

The means through which this restoral is activated is repentance and faith.  Thomas Fuller: “You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it will be too late.”

Conclusion

                Charles Haddon Spurgeon closed crusade sermons with an admonition to faith.  “This I will venture to say: If thou casteth thyself on Christ, and he deserteth thee, I will be willing to go halves with thee in all thy misery and woe.  For he will never do it; never, never, never!

                “No sinner was ever empty sent back, who came seeking mercy for Jesus’ sake.                 “I beseech thee, therefore, try him, and thou shalt not try him in vain, but shalt find him ‘able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.’”

#028                                                                    WITHOUT EXCUSE

Scripture  John 3:19 NIV                                                                                                                 Orig. 11/12/61 (11/76)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4/20/87 

Passage:  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Purpose:   In preparation for revival, remind my people that sin remains a problem that can only be controlled through the Cross.

Keywords:          Christ                    Forgiveness                        Man                       Lost                        Sin          Disobedience

Introduction

                Matthew Arnold was a prominent author and poet of Victorian England.  His concept of sin, however, was far removed from that found in the scriptures.  To quote Arnold, sin was pictured “not as a monster but an infirmity.”  He spoke of it more directly as “an infirmity to get rid of.”

                The Victorian poet’s views are shared by many people today.  However, neither Arnold, not these contemporary dreamers, ever give us the foggiest notion about how we may get rid of it.  Sin abounded then, as it surely does now, but the resolution to it is found somewhere other than in the human will.

                It would be a wonderful thing, indeed, if humanists owned an answer to such a question.  Of course, to do so, they would have to know more of the human heart than God knows.

                The attitude of the Father is one preoccupied with the seriousness of sin.  God’s disposition was not to admonish us to be done with it, for indeed, he knew we could not.  He, rather, moved in the direction of taking matters into His own hands.  He sent His Son to die with man’s sin burden squarely upon Him.  Man’s deliverance was and is in Christ’s death.

                “Don’t take it seriously” may be the attitude of some, but the attitude of God is intervention.  The Bible declares a substitutionary atonement.  Man’s sin separates. Christ’s death redeems and restores the separated one to favor once more.

                Back in the 1600-1700s, the Black Death claimed millions of victims.  So little was known by way of treatment that two meaningless methods were tried.  Thinking fragrance would help, victims were walked through rose gardens.  If they could no longer walk, attendants (doctors) walked around their beds sprinkling them with posy petals.  Ashes were also used to stimulate sneezing in the hope that some good would result.

                Innocent children still sing a song at play that came out of that awful time.

                Ring around the rosies,

                A pocket full of posies:

                Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

                Only when the cause was perceived to be the bite of fleas of diseased rats was the Black Death controlled.  So is sin.  Only the liberation wrought through Jesus will bring us deliverance from it.

I.             First Note that Man is the Fallen Creation of God.  V19: “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And 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 men, because all sinned….”

                Man was created in and for holiness.  Acts 17:26f: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” NIV.  Thus was Adam created, free of sin, but with the potential to choose.  Of course, the official position is that we evolved.  Judge Duplantier’s writ still stands.  Our schools must teach it scientifically.

                We all find our way into the world the same way.  The baby is conceived.  It comes with potential to health and disease.  Parents seek to protect its wellness.  At some point, we must assume self-responsibility. 

                Created, as we surely are, in holiness as we most certainly are, responsible under the law of God:  Thou shalt not kill/steal/abuse: Yet overnight there may be as many as 15,000 arrests for these wrongs; child abuse alone has reached epidemic proportions.  A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife: Yet the statistics on marriage indicate that every other one ends in divorce; pregnancy among youth is a major social problem, as is HIV.  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: Prison populations are growing faster than society can expedite solutions; mental institutions are full; last night there were 75 or more suicides, some of them teenagers.

                “Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,” 1 Peter 2:13.  The plight of national solvency is affecting tens of millions.  Population will double in less than twenty years.  Hunger is legion.  Amos 5:24 “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

                This unique creation of God, voluntarily fallen… V3:19b “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”  Note: “rather than,” not “more than.” 

Someone calls attention to what is our ultimate hope.  “Lord, I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely checkered with remarkable changes in 4 generations.  Rehoboam begat Abijah: a bad father begat a bad son.  Abijah begat Asa: A bad father begat a good son.  Asa begat Jehoshaphat: a good father begat a good son.  Jehoshaphat begat Joram: a good father begat a bad son.  I see from hence that my father’s piety cannot be handed on.  That is bad news for me.  But I see also that actual impiety is not hereditary, and that’s good news for my son.” (Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661)

II.            In Adam, All have Inherited a Tendency to Sin.  Romans 5:19 “For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  It was potential to sin, not compulsion.  We know only that he sinned, we cannot imagine if he had otherwise chosen.  It is inconceivable that he had no other choice.  He was not foreordained to sin.  A theater manager was telling a trainee about his new job. “What would you do if a fire broke out?” The trainee replied, “Don’t worry about me.  I’d get out alright.” 

Man’s choice could have been that of obedience.  We have the example of Jesus of the One who chose correctly.  The consequence of Adam’s sin is that all mankind is marked by the taint of sin.  It is the sin of self-will.  It is the sin of conscious deliberation.  Moliere: “It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”  Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

III.           Finally, We are Under Just Condemnation to Eternal Ruin.  Galatians 3:21-22:   “Is the law, then, against the promises of God?  God forbid: For if there had been a law which could have given life, the righteousness should have been by the law.  But the scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”  For all humankind, it is a dilemma. 

The love of God is obvious.  God’s love does not and cannot alter man’s sin nature.  God’s word leaves no uncertainty as to man’s guilt.  Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”  Therein the “good news” of the gospel is established.  There is one way to go home again.  Many say you cannot.  It is because home is ever a variable.  But the gift of God is a constant.  Faith in Christ brings us back to an acceptable posture before God.  John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” 

The means through which this restoral is activated is repentance and faith.  Thomas Fuller: “You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it will be too late.”

Conclusion

                Charles Haddon Spurgeon closed crusade sermons with an admonition to faith.  “This I will venture to say: If thou casteth thyself on Christ, and he deserteth thee, I will be willing to go halves with thee in all thy misery and woe.  For he will never do it; never, never, never!

                “No sinner was ever empty sent back, who came seeking mercy for Jesus’ sake.                 “I beseech thee, therefore, try him, and thou shalt not try him in vain, but shalt find him ‘able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.’”