Echoes of Grace
Mans Predicament
Lesson by Espn McCall, Preacher at Wickett Church of Christ
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- Duration:
- 52m
- Broadcast on:
- 18 Nov 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
- Little Raspberry Pi was doing so well this morning until it was time to use it, and now it's starting to give me problems. This morning we're talking about something, as I said, it's not ever spoken of, but it's not something that's spoken of often enough. This morning we're gonna talk about man's predicament. You say, well, what's man's predicament? That's exactly what I'm gonna explain to you. We're gonna explain to you man's predicament, and God's answer to it. Right, where is man in this world? Red, what happened to man? What is man's predicament? Well, it's pretty simple, isn't it? Sin. Sin's man's predicament. And sin is a problem. And you say, well, how do you get to sin being man's predicament? Well, as we happen to cover during our Bible study period, we understand that sin is a problem. Right, and of course it says that up at the top that sin is a problem, but sins will separate us from God. Sin's not natural, it happened after Adam and Eve, eight of the first, or eight of the fruit, that they were tempted by the devil. And of course, whenever they did that, they knew sin. They knew the difference in good and evil, and that's all sin is. It is knowing evil and yet doing it anyway. For you can not commit a sin if you don't know evil, if you don't know it's a sin, right? However, we do know that it's a problem. Turn us me to Psalm chapter 143. Psalm chapter one, four, three. It will be put up on the board, don't worry. But I'd like you to at least get back into the habit of opening your Bibles. Make sure you know where the books of your Bibles are. I'll put it up on the board for those of you that might not beat me there, but open your Bibles. Make sure you understand where the books in your Bible are. So if you need to, you can get there quickly. Psalm chapter 143 in the first two verses. There's this one into, it says, "A Psalm of David." Here my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my please for mercy. In your faithfulness, answer me. In your righteous, enter not into judgment with your servant. For no one is living, is righteous before you. You say, well, how does that make any sense to this sin being a problem? Go back there. And you say, how does that work, right? If sin's a problem, why'd you pull up a scripture that doesn't talk about sin? Well, as you think back to the first three lessons I gave you, I talked about how to build a Christian. What a Christian is, what it means to be a Christian, how you act as a Christian. And one of those lessons was all about being righteous. First Peter chapter three tells us all about righteousness. And whenever you're righteous, you do no sin. You do what God has asked you to do. And so if no one living is righteous before you, no one living is righteous before the Lord, well, then no one living is sinless. All right, that's the problem. Here, O Lord, my prayer, right here, my prayer, O Lord. In your faithfulness answer me in your righteousness, right? It says, God is the righteous one. Enter not into judgment with your servant. That is David saying, enter not into judgment with me for I am not righteous, right? I have sinned. I'm getting a new power cable next week. That one, keep popping up. But, right, it says I have sinned. There is no one on the earth that is not sinned and that's what creates a problem. We all sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. Turn with me to Job chapter 25. The 25th chapter of Job and the first six verses. This here is Job's remark to erd, sorry, Job's friends remark to Job. Job up to this point has been tested, non-stop. He has had pretty much everything he owned stripped away from him. He's lost his land, he's lost his cattle, he's lost his sheep, his donkey, and his oxen. He has lost even his family, he has bought his wife and a little bit of land that he still has and he has his friends. And he's been testing his friends up to this point, I've been telling him, you know, get rid of God. Curse him, look what he has done to you. And then they say this, in verses one through six, they say, then, build ahead and shoe height, answered and said, dominion and fear are with God. He makes peace in his high heaven. Is there any number of his armies? Upon whom does the light not rise? How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who was born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes. How much less man who was maggot and the son of man who was a worm? This is God, a dominion and fear are with God. He makes his peace in the high heavens it says, right? There are no numbers to his armies, his army is immeasurable, right? And the light shines on everybody. The sun that comes up every morning shines on everybody. Everybody has the opportunity to see it. Everyone has the opportunity to feel it. So if everyone can see and feel the light, right, if the light doesn't arise for none, then how can anyone be righteous to him? Right, how can any man be right in the sight of God? If God is light, he has immeasurable armies and he has the dominion and the fear then how are we supposed to be right to him? And he is everything. He has everything. Great, it says, how much a man who is a maggot? And a maggot is nothing, right? The son of man who is a worm, right? Man is nothing. God has everything, he has immeasurable armies, he has peace in the high heavens, his dominion, he has fear, he's knowledgeable, he has everything. We're a maggot, a worm. And how can we be worth anything to God, right? How can we be right before God? We don't have everything. Not everything just comes easily to us. In Romans chapter five, verses 12 through 14, we all know this verse, or at least if you listen to any of my lessons, it's been in almost every one of them up to this point. Romans chapter five, verses 12 through 14. Says, therefore, just as sin came in to the world through one man and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted when there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. There's a lot here, and let me explain it to you. Let me break this down, right? Just as sin came into this world through one man. Well, what does that say, right? Oh, it says sin came through one man. Super easy, right? Oh, literally, yes, that's what it says. It says man was without sin when he was created. That's what it says. Right, sin didn't exist. And how we picked that up is Adam, who was the type of one who was to come. Adam was perfect. He was sinless when he was created. The one who is to come, or who was to come as Christ. If Adam was a type who was not, or I'm sorry, if Adam was a type of the one who's to come, he was like Christ. He was sinless, flawless, perfect. And then he ate the fruit. Now, whenever he ate the fruit, he brought sin into the world. And as God said, if you surely eat of it, you will surely die. Because he ate of the fruit, he brought death into the world. Now, that's a spiritual death. We don't know if they would have physically died in the garden. Of course, they had access to the tree of life. That's why they were removed. So that they would not eat of the tree of life as well. Right, and so not only does they bring spiritual death to all mankind, they brought spiritual death to the world. We do die. We had the chance at the tree of life. We had the chance of not dying, of not sinning. And yet now, we can't. Now we sin, right? And it explains it. It says for sin, indeed, was in the world before the law was given. Well, what was that sin? Well, that was Satan. Satan was in the world before the law was given. And what law is that? Well, that's the patriarchal law. There was no law. There was just the rule, do not eat of this tree. Understood, will not be eaten of. And yet, Satan was in the world. Satan was sin, he convinced Eve, eat the fruit. And once he convinced Eve, eat the fruit, therefore sin is now counted because a law has to be created. Now you have disobeyed the Lord. So a law was created. And now sin can be counted against any of those who break. The law, turn with me now to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21, we'll look at verses 22 and 23. Revelation 21, beginning in verse 22, states, and now, and I saw no temple in the city. For its temple is the Lord and the almighty, the Lord God, the almighty and the lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the lamb, right? It says in the city has no need of sun nor moon to shine on it, because God is light. We have numerous times throughout the Bible, where it says, God is light and in him is no darkness. Jesus says, I am the light of the world, right? The glory of God gives light to heaven. Now, if you read verses 27 with me. Verse 27, it says, but nothing, hello? You're not gonna give me verse 27 on the board. Ah, but nothing unclean will ever enter it. Nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the lamb's book of life. All right, so those who sin, any of those who are unclean, the ones who are unclean are the ones who have not been washed by the blood of the lamb. Have an entire song about that. Are you washed? And whenever you're washed, all your sin is wiped away. You enter into salvation. You have the chance to be forgiven, to be cleaned again, right? Anyone who is detestable or false, anyone who wise, who deceives, who goes behind other people's backs, you won't be in heaven. You won't get the glory of God, the light from the glory of God. Whenever you are washed by the blood of the lamb, you are written in Lamb's book of life. Whenever you sin, he blots your name out. Whenever you return to him, you return your name to the book of life. And of course, how much we've learned thus far sin is gonna happen. We all sin. And just in case you didn't pick up on that right now, I'll show you. Go with me to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three, and you might think we're gonna go straight to verse 23. We're not. We're gonna start in verse 19. For we know what verse 23 says. How about verses 19 and 20? Says now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in a sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So it says now that we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. That makes sense, right? If I'm under the law, the law speaks to me. Everything it has to say speaks to me. So you have to ask yourself, well, what's the law? Right, how can we be under a law that we don't know? Oh, we do know. That gave us an entire book of the law. Say we call it the Holy Bible. Right, it has three different laws. And if the patriarchal law, the mosaical law, or the law of Moses, and Christ's law, the new law, the new testament. And that's the law that we are to follow. We are to follow the law of Christ. We're to follow Christ's law, and Christ's law is out there for everybody. That is God's law. That is God's only law. You don't follow the mosaical law. Well, even if you tried to follow the mosaical law, you can't today. We don't have the Levitical priests anymore. I'm sure there are some Jews that claim to trace themselves back to the Levites, but we don't have the Levitical priests. We cannot follow the mosaical law. We do not have the patriarchal law. We just don't have it. So we have one law that we can follow. I know. And that law is, of course, Christ's law. It just turned you off. Well, and so whenever we follow Christ's law, we are accountable to Christ's law. And it says, for by the works of man, no, or by the works of the law, no human will be justified in this sight. If we follow the law and only the law, we're not gonna be justified. How can we be? We're human. We're but a maggot. We're a worm. And how can we truly be justified into God when we know sin, right? Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. And it goes on, but that's where I want to draw your focus. So I do encourage you to read it. It's a wonderful verse. But put your focus there. For the wages of sin is death, right? So how can we who have the knowledge of sin be justified to God who has no sin, right? He doesn't have the knowledge of sin because he does not sin. He is light and him is no darkness. So how can we who, verse 23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, how can we who have sinned, follow the law and retrieve the glory of God? That's the question. If we say, if we know the knowledge of God or the knowledge of the law, we know the knowledge of sin, how can we be glorified by the one who knows not sin? Well, the answer is we can't. We can't fix our problem. There's nothing we can do. You say, well, that's very depressing. That doesn't make any sense. Now you just told us we were saved. Now you're telling us we have a problem that we can't fix? Now you're telling us we can't be glorified like God? Go to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23 and verses two through four. Matthew chapter 23, beginning in verse two says, Now scribes in the Pharisees sit on Moses's seat. So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move with them, their finger. That's what it says, we can't fix our problem, right? For the strikes in the Pharisees, the top of the Jews, highest of the high, they know everything about the law. Do what they say, listen to them. They know the law. And of course, this is what Christ is telling to the people before his law was put into effect. Do what they say, they know the law. But heed this, heed this warning is what he says. Don't do their works. They don't put in the work. What they do is they build everybody up. They say, this is the standard you have to hit. Now it's a burden on everybody's shoulder. I can't hit that standard, right? I can't be sinless. I mean, I can't be glorified through God because I know the knowledge of sin. Right? That's a burden too heavy to bear right there. And that's what they do, they build it up. They say, look at this burden you have now. You'll never meet this. They say, I ain't doing that. I don't believe that. That's just what I'm gonna tell them, get their hopes down, make 'em feel like they have to listen to me. Okay. All right, that's what they do. Look at all this thing that you have to meet up to. You have to be as good as me. I know everything about the law. And that's what they say. You have to be sinless. And they say, I'm not even sinless. And they don't do anything about it. Scroll down with me to verse 23. Matthew 23, 23, it says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites, it says woe to you hypocrites. If you understand how English works, says woe to you hypocrites, for you tithe, mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. And he says, you only do half of it. Woe to you hypocrites. And it calls off the hypocrites. That's how English works. Woe to you hypocrites, you scribes and Pharisees. You top of the top. All right, the people everybody looks up to woe to you. For you build up these burdens, right? You say, this is what you have to do. You have to have justice and mercy and faithfulness. And yet all you do is tithe, mint and dill and cumin. All you do is half of it. That's what he says. All right, so we can't fix our problem. This is a problem with the top of the top of the Jews. This is a problem with the people that know the law inside and out. Go to John chapter five with me. John chapter five versus five and six. John chapter five beginning in verse five says one man was there who had been an invalid for three, eight years. When Jesus saw him laying there and knew that he had already been there a long time said to him, do you want to be healed? So there's a man who couldn't walk. That's what invalid is, can't do anything for himself. He's a man in sin. That is us. We are that man in sin. We are the invalid one. We can't do it ourselves, can we, right? And Jesus came up and he said, do you want to be healed? Do you have the desire to be saved? Do you have the desire to be under the glory of God? And in verse seven, of course, he says, yes, I want to be healed. And I encourage you to read it in verse eight. Jesus said to him, get up, take your bed and walk. I want to hold you there for just a second. This is an invalid man. He's been invalid for 38 years. He hasn't walked. He can't move his arms. He's paralyzed and he has no strength whatsoever. No, of course, his beds, not like our beds today. He's not Christ isn't telling him, hey, pick up your mattress and your bed frame. I'll walk down the street. Oh, don't forget your box. That's not what he's telling him. His bed would essentially be a piece of cotton laid out on a piece of wood with two handles on it so people could carry him around. Just two sticks that stick out both sides. And you just carry him around like this, one in front and one in back. It's not going to be a light thing. It's not going to be incredibly heavy, but this man hasn't lifted anything for 38 years. And Jesus says, get up, take up your bed, walk away, pick up that wooden bed that takes two men to carry, of course, with you on it and walk away. And it says, and at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. And of course, there's the no working on the Sabbath and Christ is about to get bombarded by the Pharisees and the Sadducees on that. Because how dare he heal somebody on the Sabbath. And he has a beautiful remark. I do encourage you to go read it. But Jesus has the power to say to a man who has used no muscle and in 38 years, get up, takes a lot of muscle to stand up. I don't know if you know how many muscles it takes to take one step, but it's more than 38 muscles just to reach out your foot and take a step. This man has used none in 38 years, which means he doesn't have that muscle, right? So God Christ says, get up. You have muscle now, stand up, says, not only do you have muscle on your legs, that you can stand up, you have muscle on your legs that you can take a step. You have muscle in your arms that you can carry your bed. He had a predicament. He had a problem. He couldn't walk. He didn't have any muscle. And for 38 years, he didn't have any muscle. And Christ said, now you do. And so he couldn't fix this problem. So Christ fixed it for him. Do you want to be healed? Christ didn't say, look, you're healed now. And he said, Lord, I didn't want to be healed. Christ said, do you want it? Do you have the desire to get past your problem? Is that something you want? Turn with me to Romans, chapter seven, Romans, chapter seven, and verse 14. We'll break this up into two parts. We'll read verses 14, 15, 16, and 17 first. Romans, chapter seven, verses 14 through 17, it states, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am flesh, sold, understand, or I do not understand my own actions, for I do not want, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So we know that the law of spiritual, and I am flesh. It's what it says on the law of spiritual, we are flesh. There's your tie in in case you were looking for it. You were made of flesh. You were not a spirit. You're not just this ghost that flies around. You're not a weird goop that just sinks into every hole or dries up in the dirt or I guess soaks into the dirt, your flesh, the law is spiritual. It's not flesh, right? And because you are flesh and you desire to do what is right, but you can't, you want to do what is right, but you do not do what you want to do because you don't have the ability to, but you can't be right just because you know sin. So it says, so I don't do what I want it says, right? If I now do what I do not want, then sin dwells within me. Or I agree with the law that it is good. I don't think I translated this slide from the King James version. I apologize for it. Right. If I don't do it, and or if I do what I do not want to do, if I sin, if I do not be righteous, well, I abide with the law, the law makes sense. Right. For God is lightened in him is no darkness and sin is darkness. And I abide by the law that is spiritual, that says sin cannot be in light. And I am in sin because I have the knowledge of sin that it makes sense. Right. So now it is no longer I who want to do it, but the sin that dwells within me, or so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lives close at hand. Or I'm sorry. I'm reading the next few verses. Oh, if I'm going to read, I might as well show them to you on the board. I accidentally clicked the next button on my computer and I was like, wait, I know I just read this right. Here we go. If we continue, it explains it to you for I know that nothing good dwells in me. That is in my flesh for the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. And I can't do the good I want because I continue to do evil. He doesn't want to continue to do evil, but that's what keeps happening. All right. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. Right. If I commit sin, it's not me that does it. This is not what he's saying, but that's what it sounds like. Right. All right. That's what it sounds like. If I do what I do not want, so it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that's in me. I'm not the one committing sin. Sin is committing, no, you do not want to not be righteous. The sin that dwells within you makes you not righteous. Right. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. Now, of course, this is because our knowledge of sin, because we have this knowledge of sin. Evil is always close at hand. We can't do right. We can't be righteous because there's a knowledge of sin within us. And of course, when you have the knowledge of sin, you have darkness in you. When you have darkness in you, you cannot be right with God. You cannot have his glory. You say you have the most depressing lesson ever. We're sitting in a building. You've told us we're spiritually saved. We all think we're spiritually saved. And you've just told us that we're not. You've just told us that we can't be as spent. So either you're crazy, I'm crazy, or we're both crazy. Well, the answer is yes to all three of those statements. We're all a little bit crazy in every shape for our fashion, but you're not crazy about this. And I hope I'm not crazy about this. Because just as the man who could not walk, he could not move for 38 years. And Christ said, do you want it? Do you want to walk? Do you want to be healed? This man couldn't do it himself. Man cannot fix his problem. We cannot fix the sin that's within us. We are not perfect in order to fix the sin within us. Huh? So we have an answer, don't we? We're given an answer. Jesus. Jesus is that answer. Jesus is how I don't sound crazy anymore. Go with me to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five will begin in verse 17 and read through verse 21. Romans chapter five, again, we're going to split it up. And I won't click the next button this time. Begin with me in verse 17. Says, for if, because if one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men. So one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. It makes sense to you. Adam said, we know Adam said, I mean, because Adam sinned, death is brought to the world. Every man sins, right? Because of one action, death is here. Well, that one action was the action of a perfect man. The action of the first man, a sinless man, someone full of light committed to sin. So someone full of light is the only way to counteract that, isn't it? We have to have another perfect something. Now, the old law states that you have to have a sacrifice. You have to bring a lamb without blinlish, spotless lamb, the best of your flock, the firstborn of your flock. So God says, here's what I'll do. Here is my son, my only son, the firstborn son. He will be without blinish, without spot. He will be pure light, just like the one man who trespassed against me, just like Adam. And his name will be Jesus Christ. And I'll bring a gift to everybody. I'll bring life for all men. For Adam and his sin brought death for all men. So Jesus in his sacrifice will bring life for all men. For that is how they got over sin. Continue with me to verse 19 now. Verse 19, it says, for by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. So by one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. And let's stop right there. By Adam's disobedience, everyone is now a sinner, because we all have the knowledge of sin. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to send my son. I'm going to send another spotless one. Another pure one. And he will obey me. And he will die, so that everyone may have righteousness. And as we continue in verse 20, it says, now the law came in to increase the trespass. So now I made this law is what he says. And this law says, whenever you sin against me, because you're going to do it, you have to sacrifice a lamb. You have to make a sacrifice. And it says, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Every time they sinned, and they came and they brought me a sacrifice, they had grace. That's what he says. Whenever you sin, and you do something about it, whenever you sin and you come and you ask for repentance from God, grace abounds all the more. So that as sin rained in death, grace also might rain through righteousness leading to internal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So when you are in sin, you rained in death. You were going to die. You were dead. But Christ came, and he made a sacrifice, and he brought grace that might rain. And whenever this grace rained through righteousness, we get eternal life. And we can't do any of this without Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's who it's all through. Go to Romans chapter 7 with me. Romans chapter 7, look at verses 24 and 25. Romans chapter 7 verse 24 says, "Wrenching man than I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. Wrenching man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death." That's what it says. Your physical body is a body of death. It is a body of sin. So who's going to deliver you? It says, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." For he's the one that's going to deliver you. So I myself serve the law of God with my mind, with my spirit. This is that word translates to in the Greek. That I might serve the law of God without this fleshly body, without this body of death, this body of sin that I might choose to serve God. It says, "Although I choose to serve God, my flesh, this body of sin will serve the law of sin." This is a wretched man. So we have to choose to serve the law of God. Now, you can't serve the law of God and use your body to do it. Now, of course, you say, "Well, that doesn't make any sense you're talking to us." You're preaching a lesson about this. Are you not serving the law of God? Well, I am. But it's a choice I made up here. It's a choice you made in your minds. Whenever you were baptized, it's a choice you make every day that you wake up and choose. Your body is a body of sin. Because you have this mortal body, because you have this physical body that is in death, you will continue to serve. So you have to make the choice. And whenever you make that choice, you're glorified. Whenever you make that choice, you get eternal life. You get glory from God in righteousness, which leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ. And I'll bring you one more scripture, and then I'll just give you the lesson. If you want to add an email, just ask. I've got it. Go to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19, we're going to read the first 10 verses, but we're going to split them up into groups of 5. Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 5. We're beginning in verse 1, we have Jesus. So as he entered Jericho, it was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sick, more tree to see him, where he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down. For I must stay in your house today. Now there's a reason that I want to break it up into groups of 5, and that's not just so it fits on the slide. I want to introduce you to Zacchaeus. It says Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was rich. Now if you don't know about tax collectors in the time, just like Matthew was a tax collector, the tax collector was a man who did not get paid well by the Roman government. They worked straight for Rome. They collected taxes on the account of Caesar. Now in order for them to make any money, it says for he was rich, which means we know he did this. In order for them to make money, Caesar says everybody owes me $10. It says, okay, everybody owes me $20. And whenever he clicks that $20, he takes $10 of it and he slips it in his pocket. It says, I have now made $10 and Caesar has made his $10. And so they are despised because they are known to be liars, to be cheats. And so this man was a liar and a cheat. He was not only a tax collector, he was a rich tax collector. Let's say he makes $2 from the Roman Empire. Every time he goes and he collects taxes, $2 a person. Well now he's just gotten $10 off everybody else. He's now making $12 a person. He's a liar and he's a cheat because he's only giving $10 of it to Rome because that's all they owe to Rome. But he wants money. And so he's a liar and he's a cheat. He's a tax collector. He wanted to know who Jesus was. Who's this man everybody's raving about? The man that's healing people. And who's this man? Everybody says is so good. So he goes to where the crowd was and it says he's a short man. So you can't see over the crowd. He says he can't see over him because it's a statue but he sees a tree. He says I'm going to go climb that tree so that I can see God. So I can see who this Jesus character is. So he runs ahead of him and he climbs a tree. And Jesus walks by and he sees him. He says the chaos, hurry and come down for a mistake in your house today. You say that doesn't make any sense. You just told us this was a wicked and crooked man. Why would Jesus stay with him? I answer that. Read with me verse 6 and 10. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all grumbled. He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. This man who are worshiping is righteous. The sinless one has gone and he is going to be a guest of a sinner. So then the chaos stood and said to the Lord be hold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have defrauded anyone of anything I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him salvation has come to this house. Since he also is the son of Abraham the son of man came to seek and save the lost. He says salvation has come to this house. You are saved because why? Because I restore it fourfold. That's the law. If you steal something from someone you restore it fourfold. If you kill somebody's goat you restore it tenfold. You give them ten goats for the one goat you killed. Really helped people not kill goats. I don't have ten goats to give you. I'm not going to kill you. And so he restores it. He says if I have defrauded anybody I restore it. Half of everything I have I'm giving to the poor. And you say this doesn't say anything about why Jesus is with this man. Right Jesus chose to be the guest of the center but it does. Right for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. See last sentence that Jesus says to this man in verse ten. Because he's not there for everybody that's saved. He's not there because the Pharisees are such good people that they just he had to meet him. He doesn't care about them. He called them hypocrites earlier in our lesson. He doesn't care about them. He came to seek and save the lost. Zacchaeus was lost. He was a sinner. He was a known sinner because he was a tax collector and he was rich. And yet Jesus went and he stayed with him. Not only did he see his determination the fact that he'd climb a tree just to see Christ. But then he's willing to have Christ in his home. He doesn't stop and say no Lord. He showed the desire to be healed because he wanted to meet Christ. And he followed up on that desire when Christ said come I will be a guest in your house. He didn't argue saying no Lord I'm a sinner, nor are you saying yes Lord. I want to be saved. Here's the things I've done. Now although some people can see that as boasting that is not that does not appear to be how it is taken. That is not appear to be the way it is given off for Jesus saves that man and his household. So we'll put this really simply. We've gone through this entire thing for me to tell you this. We have a problem. Really simple right? We have a problem. We're sinners. Okay. And I didn't tell you this lesson because we can solve it. I actually told you this lesson because we have a problem there's nothing we can do about it. There's nothing you can do about it because it's the body that you're in. Because you are a human you have this problem. Now I do want to tell you this. We have this problem. There's nothing we can do about it that doesn't mean we're dead. That doesn't mean we're never going to be saved. Because although we can't solve this Jesus can. We as human beings have a problem. We sin and we fall short of the glory of God. Nothing you're going to do about that. There is nothing any of us could do. It doesn't matter how many goats or sheep you sacrifice. Doesn't matter the ties of dill or human you give. There is nothing you're going to do about it. But Jesus did something about it. And he said I understand your problem. I understand that you're in sin. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to come to this earth. I'm going to prove that it is possible to be sinless. I'm going to go through the same temptation that you do. I'm going to overcome them. And I'm going to be a living sacrifice for you. I will be the last perfect sacrifice for mankind. For the sinners, the ones with a problem. And the only way you get my sacrifice is if you do three things. Or I guess five things. And then our pesky Seth explains. He says you have to hear what I've said. So he taught. He says you have to believe in me. And he didn't force anybody to believe in him. He asked them do you want to be healed. I do you want to believe in me. And you have to confess it. Do you want to believe in me? Yes, I do. I do you want to be healed. Yes, I do. He says then repent of your sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin. Be baptized into my death into my perfect sacrifice. And you'll be saved. You will enter into the glory of God. Now being human, we have a pesky sixth one and that's our problem. We're going to fall back into sin. He said, I understand you're going to fall back into sin. So here's what you're going to do. You can ask for repentance. You can ask me to forgive you again. And because of the glory of God. Because the righteousness God has, I'll forgive you. So we have a problem that we can't solve and Jesus gave us the solution. If anyone is sitting in the crowd today, maybe you don't have the solution to that problem. Maybe you haven't been baptized yet. Well, the water can be prepared. Apparently certain it still works. And if it doesn't, I know cranes does. We can drive, I think it's 50 minutes from the building up the road. And you can be baptized today. I'm sure Ed wouldn't mind. At least if he does mind we have other issues. But there's a place we can prepare for you to be baptized. There's a place we can prepare for Jesus to fix your problem. And let's say you've made it that far. You've been baptized and you've just fallen back into your problem. You've fallen back into sin. Jesus gave you the option of repentance. Now if it is a private sin, you are welcome to take care of it on your own between you and God alone in prayer. But if it is a public sin, you are obligated to take care of it publicly. Not for the forgiveness of God, but for the forgiveness of man. So that other Christians might know you have acknowledged your sin and you are willing to let God put it behind you. You are willing to change. If you will come forward as we stand and sing, if you need help, prayers or requests for baptism. Here we go.
Lesson by Espn McCall, Preacher at Wickett Church of Christ
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