What's the Matter with People
Tom Shrader begins a four-part series addressing the fundamental questions 'Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?' by examining what the Bible says is wrong with humanity. Using Romans 3:23 and other passages, he demonstrates that all people are sinners separated from God, enslaved to sin, and unable to save themselves through good works or religion.
“We have made God smaller and in our image, and consequently, because we have a distorted view of that, we have a distorted view of everything else.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Know
Recorded: April 05, 2007
Duration: 39 min
Themes: sin, salvation, identity, purpose, humanity, redemption, brokenness, separation, searching for meaning, questioning existence, facing mortality, new believer, doubting faith, seeking purpose, feeling lost, spiritual seeker
Scripture: James 4:17, Romans 3:23, Genesis 3, Romans 5, Romans 6:6, Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 2:5, James 2:10, Romans 1:18-20, 2 Thessalonians 1, Isaiah 6
Theological Themes: hamartiology, total depravity, human nature, fall of man, original sin, anthropology, depravity, spiritual death
Full Transcript
New series today. Four weeks, so this is going to lead us into summer break. We will meet right through till July, then we'll take off July and August, then we'll be back for the most important issue we'll ever deal with.
If you look at the series we've done, there's a lot of really practical input. But in terms of importance, this is the most important. If you don't get this series right, the rest of it really doesn't matter. We can figure out sexuality, finance, how to get control of your life, all of those different things. But if you don't have this one figured out, you're in real trouble.
The Three Basic Questions
The series is titled How to Know, and we're really looking at the three basic questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? That sounds so basic, but for literally thousands of years, people have been wrestling with this.
I happen to enjoy Jimmy Buffett. I like to listen to him, and I don't look to him for my spiritual guidance. I look to him for great insightful lyrics sometime. He wrote in the CD liner of a CD titled Banana Winds, and inside this Buffett wrote this: "This is a collection of songs, and it's just a continuation of my story. Stories of ships and sailors, life and death, women and children, sea planes and paradoxes. Who I am, how I got here, and where I'm going are questions whose answers are yet to be written."
It's fascinating to me—Buffett, different people, just go all the way through. You can see great artists, John Lennon, Dylan, Madonna, and you can keep going where you see the paradox of life exposed and contemplated.
Questions in the Oncologist's Office
Susan was at the oncologist, and she's sitting there. I don't know if you've ever been in one—the offices are a little bit different, but it's not a very cheerful place. It's a very discouraging place. I'll tell you something that you probably know but don't think through: it's filled with sick people.
So there's all these sick people, and you're just sitting, and chairs are like this, they're back to back. It's not good. She's sitting there, and she said there are these two old guys. Clearly one of them is there for treatment, very old and frail, and then another guy. You'll hear a lot of things in there, because the filters are kind of gone on a lot of these people.
The one guy said to the other guy, "What do you think happens to you when you die?" Just then they called his name and in he went. Now that's the question we've asked really through all time, and there are answers all around you.
Cultural Indicators at Costco
I find certain cultural indicators that I'll go to over and over again. One of them is Costco. If you go to Costco, and you look at the books that are for sale, the only reason Costco carries anything is because it sells. And it sells fast, and if they aren't turning it over, they don't carry it.
Go in and look at the books at Costco, and you get a window into the mind and the soul of a lot of people. Not everyone, but a lot of people. You'll go to Costco, and you'll see an NIV Bible right next to something from a Mormon church, right next to something from Deepak. They don't care—they're just selling. But that's what's selling.
When you start talking about who am I, why am I here, where am I going, you really are cutting across the line of any thoughtful person. It's not difficult to understand that if you look at 50 years now, where kids have been told that essentially there is no God, you're here by accident, you don't go anywhere. It's not hard to figure out, then when you begin to try to understand life, there really isn't any right or wrong other than what you arbitrarily assign value to.
The Problem of Moral Standards
To say something is right or wrong, I think you're fair to go, how will you arrive at that? If I came from nowhere, I'm going nowhere, how do you get a sense of what's right or wrong? You have to create something.
Probably 60 years ago, A.W. Tozer wrote these words, speaking about churches: "The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted it for one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking and worshipping men. This she's done, not deliberately, but little by little, without her knowledge. And her very unawareness only makes the situation all the more tragic. The low view of God, entertained almost universally among Christians, is the cause of hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. The whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in religious thinking."
That's 60 years ago. So what he's saying is, we have made God smaller and in our image, and consequently, because we have a distorted view of that, we have a distorted view of everything else.
Isaiah's Vision of God
So Isaiah 6—when Isaiah sees God, he immediately has an understanding of who he is. "Woe to me for I'm undone." So that's what we want to get at in this whole series. Who is God? Who am I? And when I start to put those together, I'll get a very accurate view of life from God's perspective.
Something like 92% of people in this country believe in God. Sometimes it goes up to 95, sometimes down to 90. It varies. That's not the issue. The issue is when you sit down and say, now let's talk about God. Who is He? And if I have a distorted view of Him, then everything else is messed up.
It's like mathematics. I was never good at it, but you have to be able to get it. Two plus two is four. Three times three is nine. We have to do all of those things to be able to get them before we can start to do calculus and all the more complicated things. If we miss who God is...
we miss who we are, we'll never get those two together. So in this whole thing about who am I and why am I here and where am I going, I don't begin with a study of me. I begin with the study of God and what He says, in this case, what He says about me.
So even as we talk about God, I could edit Him. We go to summer camp in a week and I have my three topics. The first one is, we're going to talk about God for seven sessions. The first one is God is love. Everybody loves to talk about that. If you go to the mall today and start talking about God, tell me about God, they'll always start with love.
Now, is God a God of love? Sure He is. But He's also, because He's God of love, He's a God of hate, because He loves righteousness, He hates sin. So we can talk about God in a very accurate way, but in an impartial way. If you talk about, let's say me, and you say, Tom is a grandfather, well, that's totally accurate. But if you leave that out and just talk about that and nothing else, you miss all the other aspects of what's going on in my life. So that's what we want to get at.
My ways are not your ways, says the Lord. What I want to be able to do is to see life as God sees it.
Our Approach to This Series
So here's what we're going to do. And these are crass terms. I apologize for them. Many of you are Bible-believing Christians, and you're going to hate this, but here's what we're going to do. We're going to expose a need today. We're going to present a solution. I'm going to explain the solution. And then we're going to attempt to get you to respond to the solution.
So here's our four topics. You've got the outline in front of you today. What's a matter with people? Next week or next time, what is so special about Jesus? The next time, what was behind the death of Jesus? And then the last one is how can you know, not about God, but how can you know God?
The format that we've chosen for this series are questions. I believe we use 10 of them in every one of these. And they're designed to take you to a conclusion. Full disclosure, I'm not checking to see what you think or feel. I'm not even trying to present to you a balanced view. I'm trying to present you what I think is a biblical view. And therefore, not because I believe it, but because the Bible teaches it, I think it's the right view.
What God Calls Sin
So we're going to start with this. Got the questions right in the outline. What does God call it when you break or knowingly break His rules? James chapter four, verse 17: "Therefore to the one who knows the right thing and doesn't do it, to him, it is sin."
We'll talk about a variety of things. We'll talk about mistakes, miscalculations, bad decisions. We'll attempt to try to explain this sort of behavior away. So you live in a country where we're always a victim, never a villain.
I read not long ago, scanned is a better term, but I was looking for some stuff on marriage outside of the typical Christian stuff that we read. So I picked up some Dr. Laura stuff. And I will tell you this, it was amazingly good. Very biblical, but no Bible references. But it made me think, in context of this, of a call she got one day. I rarely listen, and almost never listen to talk radio. But certainly, God was good and had me listening this day.
The Reality of Personal Choice
This lady calls in and said, my husband is addicted to sex. And Laura said, no, he isn't. And she said, well, you don't even know this guy. And she said, he's not addicted to sex. And she said, yes, he is. Laura said, let me ask you this. Do you like sex? The lady said, yes. Do you enjoy sex? Yes. When do you have sex? And she said, by and large, when I want to. And Laura said, so does he.
So in my life, and I'm not trying to minimize that. I got that I can be imprisoned in this kind of, all of a sudden there's this physical, psychological thing that kicks in. But this is not something that's beyond my control. We meet people all the time who used to be this, but they aren't this anymore. Whatever the this is. Gossip, steal.
So in my case, I used to drink a lot. And so that would be the question all the time. Were you an alcoholic? I don't know. Did you ever go to AA? I don't like meetings. So no, I really didn't go to AA. Met a lot of people who went to AA, never my deal. So I used to drink a lot and it fluctuated. But in my prime, it would be almost a fifth of gin a day.
Personal Stories of Change
Now I quit drinking. Here's when I quit. When the pain of the drinking exceeded the joy of the drinking. December 11th, 1980, I'd been a Christian about eight months. We're at a Christmas party. We had elaborate centerpiece. It was a donkey filled with greens and cranberries and all this. I woke up the next morning and apparently I had won the centerpiece and was wrapped around it on the living room floor. Cranberries all over, ruined shirt.
And I said to myself, this is not good. This is ultimately going to hurt me. And I prayed this prayer and I hesitate to say it because some of you, it just hasn't been this easy. And I got it. I said, God, I got a lot of issues. This seems to be the dominant one. Can you take this away? And then it was just gone.
I quit gambling. I used to bet a lot on football. And I'll tell you when I quit, it was one game. Some of you old men will remember this. Just think Joe Pisarcik. I got a bet. It's won. It's done. I can't lose. And a stupid out of nowhere, unnecessary fumble. And I think it was Herm Edwards pick up the ball, went the other way, touchdown, I lose.
And I'm going, this is, okay. I analyze the game, right? I bet the game, right? I did everything right. And Joe Pisarcik, wherever he is, wherever he is, Joe Pisarcik absolutely screwed me over. And that day I stood up and said, I'm done. That was the last bet I ever made. I'm done. Why? The pain of losing exceeded the joy of winning.
Now here's what has to happen. You can't say to somebody, just stop.
Because you create a vacuum. Something's going to go in the vacuum. So I'm tipping off the whole series: it's stop this, but start this. Don't love the booze, but love Jesus. Is it that simple? In a sense, yes.
The Reality of Adam's Sin
When we break God's rules—not our rules, God's rules—what happens is that we tend to minimize them. Genesis chapter three: Adam, Eve, Adam's sins, all man is plunged into ruin. We have these conversations every once in a while. When I get to heaven, I'm going to ask God—well, I don't think you are, but you might do this. When I get to heaven, I'm going to ask Adam, "What were you thinking about? Because you screwed up my life a lot." I don't know about everybody else. You screwed up my life.
Do you believe in Adam and Eve? Yes, I do. Even the kind of secular stuff—about every year they'll come around with some sort of study that says if you trace everybody's DNA back, you can get to an original couple. Well, that couple's Adam and Eve.
Two Common Responses to the Doctrine of Sin
When we talk about Adam and Eve, I get two responses about the sin. Number one: "Do you really believe all this? After all, it's 2012. Do you believe this?" Yeah, I really do. I don't think it's a fictitious story that was created for our feeble little minds. That's what actually happened.
Here's the second thing. If when Adam sinned, he plunged us into ruin, then immediately we get what kind of response? What would I say? "Adam sinned thousands of years ago. As a result of that, I—every person sins—fourteen billion people roughly are born in sin." What's our response to that? "That's not fair. That's not right. I didn't want something here. He made a decision for me."
Well, number one, God set that system up. If you don't like getting things that aren't yours that somebody else did for you, you're going to have a problem then when it comes to salvation because Christ died in your place. That's why—and we don't spend a ton of time here—that's why the virgin birth is so important. Christ was born of a virgin. Why? If Jesus had an earthly father—really important now—if Jesus had an earthly father, then He would be born with a sin nature just like you. At that point, I might as well die for you or you for me. Not a lot of hills to die on. Virgin birth is one of them.
How Sin Began
When we get to the second question, "How did sin begin?" Well, now we just gave it to you. Romans 5: "As through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men." We have empirical data that would, for us, verify the reality of sin, and that is that all of us die. All of us die physically. Sin's affected everyone. No one's exempt from this.
Are All People Sinners?
It's the third question, Romans 3:23: "Are all people sinners?" The answer is yes. "All have sinned," Romans 3:23. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Every person.
We do this all the time, and I'll go ahead and acknowledge this is repetitive for many of you, but I can do this simple phrase. I'm just telling you, put me with a hundred people who hate Jesus and hate church and hate everything else, and I say to them, "Let's finish this phrase. Nobody's..." What do they say? If nobody's perfect, then everyone's imperfect. That imperfection is what God calls sin.
A Personal Illustration About Perfection
I used to work with a guy—great guy, wonderful guy. In fact, I just saw him not long ago, wanted to play golf. Great guy. He said, "Schrades, I know you're into this Bible thing. If I come to your deal, will you come to one of mine?" I said, "Let me just tell you, when somebody says that, you go, 'Well, tell me what it is. How long will this take?'" So I said, "Sure."
Well, he was in—remember years ago, est? So he's into est. Well, this is brutal. The worst thing is you go to a meeting, they won't let you go to the bathroom. So I got about a ten-minute lifespan in est. I'm in, I lasted, so this is nuts. Well, this was such new age, goofy garbage. I said, "I'm out of here, I can't." Well, it's a two-day deal. I said, "It isn't a two-day deal for me." He said, "Well, you said you'd go." I said, "I did go. I didn't say I'd stay. I'm out of here. I'm done. I can't handle any more of this. This is nuts."
I talked to him on Monday and I felt like—and he's my manager, so he's kind of my boss. So I don't want to risk the relationship, but it's just too nuts. I mean, he didn't know, he needs to know it's nuts. He said, "I believe in reincarnation." I said, "Explain it." You understand that: you live this perfect life, spin off, you're a star, a moon or whatever, and you're perfect. So I said to him, "Have you ever met one of these perfect people?" He said, "No, but I know they're out there." I said, "Isn't that interesting? It must be a very slow process. We must be really building up the earth because you have never met one. You've met—how many people have you met in your life? Like thousands and thousands and thousands. Have you ever met a perfect person?"
I remember standing with Larry one time and this guy came up and they're having a discussion. One of the things that happens in Bible studies like this, if you're teaching, you meet a lot of arrogant, stupid people. This guy was one of them. He came up and he said to Larry, "I haven't sinned in three years. I have not sinned in three years." Now that's possible, I think, I guess. What's interesting is two weeks later, his wife left him. So living with perfection, apparently it was too much for her to take.
The Reality of Sin in Every Life
You haven't sinned? Think about it now. The sin of omission and commission. So you haven't done anything, but you have. What are those things that God would have you do that you omitted? All have sinned. There is no exception.
Here you go, the fourth question: "How great is sin's impact in your life?" Romans chapter six, verse six says this, talking about Christ and His crucifixion: "So we would no longer," talking about Jesus dying, our responding, we...
When we become Christians, we are no longer slaves to sin. What does sin do to you? Well, the wage of sin is death. Death, meaning spiritual death, separation from God. I'm separated from God, but I'm enslaved to sin.
Jesus said, "You can't serve two masters." Before we try to pull that apart, just pull this out of it. If Jesus says you can't serve two masters, implicit in this is that you're always the slave serving a master. You're never the captain of the ship. Jesus said you can't serve God or the world, you can't serve God and the world also. You can't serve two masters. You're going to be enslaved to something. Sin kills us spiritually.
Our Default Destination and Designation
Our destination when we come into the world is hell. That's everybody. Our designation, in other words what the Bible calls us, we don't like this, is sinner.
For many people in this room, I don't know if it's everybody, for many people in this room, when Christ came into our life, He changed destination, no longer hell but heaven. If I die, we're going to drive over to Coronado here in another day or so, and if I get out and get distracted, not paying attention, get to the dunes, it's so pretty and I'm looking around, I get distracted, put the car into a ditch and I die. Here's what I know. That's not a prediction. That's just if it happens. If it happens, here's what I know. If I die, absent from the body, present with the Lord.
The Question of Assurance
Last Friday I got married. And I think some of you know that, probably all of you know that by now. In preparation for this, one of the things we did was to get together to redo our wills and trusts and all this other stuff. And so the attorney, a Christian guy, and I'm not sure why, he probably does it with all his clients, I don't know. But we're talking, so he's never met Sandy, and he's asking her, "Tell me a little bit about you."
So he said to her, "If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?" And of course, she said heaven. And then he asked what I think is really a good question, although I'm not sure, I don't know what he's doing. I'm thinking, am I paying for this? Because if the clock's running, man, let's go. We're in here to draft wills, not in here to do theology. You want to come to my place, I do it for free.
So he said, "Why do you say that?" And she kind of looked at me like, what am I supposed to do? And I said, answer the questions. He said, "Well, not based on anything I did, but based on the finished work of Christ, and I embrace Christ and Christ alone." So that's what we're going to talk about really in session two, three, four.
Changed Destination and Designation
What she was saying is, my destination has changed. Was hell, now heaven. But my designation has changed. So the Bible now calls those of us who know Christ, saints. Now when we think of that, I come from a Catholic background. So you think saints, you think of these guys, canonized, got to go through this process, got to have miracles done. Interesting, whatever, don't really want to talk about it that much, because the Bible says, if I believe in Jesus, I'm a saint. That's what the Bible calls a saint. But prior to that, I'm enslaved to sin.
Are There Degrees of Sinners?
This is always interesting, and Romans chapter 2 verse 5 said this: "Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Sin is sin, and sin will be punished, and yet it seems to teach, the Bible does, that there'll be some who are in hell, who are worse off. I don't know why, I just thought hell's hell. I don't know how that happens.
Conversely, there seems to be rewards, the flip side of this, and there'll be some that are in heaven, and like some of them are in the bleachers, and then some of them are like at home plate with Dodger dogs like me. So there'll be both sides of these things. There'll be this whole thing going on. I don't get it. Heaven, hell, I don't know, but the Bible seems to say that there's this sinfulness, and we're all right with this, there's this sinfulness, but there is even in God's economy, no distinction in terms of needing salvation between Billy Graham and Jeffrey Dahmer. I love to use Jeffrey Dahmer as an example, but there's no difference there. But there seems to be that I can continue to sin, and sin, and sin, and it's as though I'm storing up God's wrath, and there's a punishment there.
The Response to Awareness of Sin
Here's what I do know. When I get awareness of sin, something happens. Some of you know the name Benoit Cook. He's a college football analyst, apparently. I mean, he'll pick this year Indiana to win the national title. That's how he does stuff. He's nuts, but he's got my all-time favorite line. When the Iranian hostages were released, remember that, Reagan freed them, although all he did was get inaugurated, but that's the way things go. When the Iranian hostages were released, they were given a lifetime pass to every major league ballpark, and Benoit Cook said, "My God, haven't they suffered enough?" So that's like my all-time favorite comment.
I'm watching a show one day on hostages, and they said when hostages are released, there's two characteristics they see in them. Number one, they're extraordinarily gracious. Number two, they're exceedingly thankful. They're gracious, by that we mean they're kind.
Thank you. If I see myself in bondage, and Jesus comes along and rescued me, it's like worship. We have all these books and all this stuff. How do people worship? If you understand that you were lost, you were captive, you're enslaved, and now Jesus freed you, there should be in your heart a sense of kindness, and there should be an exceeding sense of thankfulness.
of gratitude. When you realize that He saved you, and let's go back to Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer, you, that in God's eyes, in terms of salvation, both equally lost, and God reaches down, and He saves you from that. There should just naturally well up in you this extraordinary sense of thanksgiving, and all of a sudden a sense of kindness as you live.
One Sin Is Enough
Number six, how many sins does it take to separate you from God? You know this, one. James 2:10, whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles at one point becomes guilty of all the law. If I break a law, I broke the law. That's why in terms of specific action, you might look at a Jeffrey Dahmer and a Billy Graham, or Mother Teresa, whatever. You pick these and go, gosh, there seems to be much more transactions on Dahmer's part. That may well be, but a sin makes me just as guilty as if I broke them all.
My favorite illustration of this is just playing golf. So imagine I'm standing on the tee, which is hard to imagine, and let's say I just hit this snap hook, really hard to imagine, because I'm going to hit it high right with this fluttering little 190-yard drive. But I hit this snap hook, hit it into a guy's house, let's say there's the image of a window there. And I hit it with such velocity that when it hits the window, it doesn't just shatter, it just pierces it like a bullet.
So I come up and there's the guy, golf ball, I go, "Titleist, Titleist four, my ball." He said, "You broke my window." I go, "Man, I'm sorry. I want to make this right. What's the window cost?" He says, "A thousand bucks." And I said, "Wow, well, it looks like my part of that would be about ten bucks. So I'll give you the ten bucks." And he goes, "No, no, no, no." And he takes out a five iron and shatters the whole window, because once I put a hole in that window, I didn't break just that, I broke the window. If you break a law, you break the law. I love the way that stretches us.
Max Lucado, I've never read a Max Lucado book, but I've quoted him a lot and read a lot of his material. I should read one of his books one time. He's talking about Jeffrey Dahmer, and he said, "Here's what bugs me about him. Not that he raped innocent boys, not that he killed them, not that he cut them up and ate them. What really bugs me about Jeffrey Dahmer is if reports are true, three months before he died, he came to Christ in repentance and faith." And he said, "I don't know how I get my arms around that, but he's going to be in heaven."
Wow. Jesus goes and says, "I prepare a place for you, a home for you." So there's your house here and Jeffrey Dahmer's house here. Even though you're in heaven, you might want to lock those doors at night, just to be sure, because I'm not sure how it's all going to shake out. You may want to use stranger danger.
But isn't that amazing? I have one guy, a really good friend of mine, he cannot get his arms around the fact that Jeffrey Dahmer could be in heaven, or that Mother Teresa could be in hell. We know Gandhi is, based on his own testimony. Let's get Mother Teresa out. Gandhi would read and study the Gospels, reports vary, but as much as two hours a day, he would study Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Loved the Sermon on the Mount. And he said, "I love the teaching of Jesus, but I refuse to believe that Jesus or any other man could die for me."
Well, you're not saved by the teaching of Jesus, you're saved by the death of Jesus. So what makes us Christians is not what we do, but what we believe. How many sins separate us from God? Just one.
The Consequences of Sin
Number seven, what are the consequences for sin in this life? Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, you're dead. Dead means separation. You're separated from God. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2 says you're a son of disobedience. Chapter 2 verse 3 says you're by nature children of wrath.
That's every kid. Whenever I'm in here teaching about that, I just look at that building right there. That's the children's building and every kid that's ever gone in there, we've had to teach to tell the truth. We've never had to teach them to lie.
When I was in college, there was a bumper sticker. It was everywhere. Two words, question authority. That was everything and you breed that into somebody's heart. Question this and question that. Now I want a questioning mind, but I don't want a mind where everything goes in here and out here and never hangs around very long. The problem, frankly, you have, especially with a lot of guys that are really smart, is their mind is so open that something goes in here and out here and never kind of hangs around very long.
So you're questioning everything and I'm not saying commit intellectual suicide, but I will tell you minds far greater than you have embraced this word. Jonathan Edwards, greatest mind America ever produced, embraces these and essentially believes the very same things that we talk about all the time.
Authority Cannot Be Questioned Everywhere
Question authority. You can't run a family if mom is questioning dad's authority or the kids are questioning mom's authority. You can't run a business. If you're going today, you're the manager, so we're going to do this, and the response is "I question that." We're going to miss you, but we can't run this whole operation if you're not going to do it.
Can you imagine that? Sandy and I were walking yesterday. We were in downtown Scottsdale. I hadn't been down there. It's got a lot of cool little places and we found a bookstore, a Civil War bookstore. So that's kind of cool. We went in there for a while looking around.
Imagine you're at Gettysburg and they say charge and you go, "Yeah, I just don't think so. Why? Why are you going now? This is obviously stupid. We're going to get killed." We were at Fredericksburg. I don't know if you've ever been to Fredericksburg. I don't understand warfare. I mean, I don't get it, but Fredericksburg, there's like a wall. It's about this high and there's a meadow and the Union soldiers are just attacking.
this wall. They got no shot. They don't have a chance in the world. I got to tell you, something in me would go, really? I mean, you went to West Point? Seriously? What, you missed the one where we get shot out here in an open field? You skipped that day?
Now I come to God and go, yeah, that's very interesting, God. That's something to think about, God. But I question that. Again, I get the fine line. I'm not suggesting committing intellectual suicide. I'm just saying to you, there is in you something that naturally questions everything.
The Consequences of Sin After This Life
Number eight, what are the consequences of sin after this life? Well, Romans chapter two, verse five, you're storing up the wrath of God. There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun.
I'm talking to a friend of mine, just got back from a funeral and I love funerals. He said, Schrade, you should have been there. This was a great funeral. I said, why is that? The pastor got up and said, and this is almost exactly something to have in me. The pastor got up and said, at this point in the service, your daughter asked me to put this service together. Your daughter asked me to speak to you. Not just all the friends and family, you can listen, but the family in particular, mom, dad, siblings.
At this point, your daughter, your sister wanted me to speak to you and to tell you how much she loves you and how you've all said, listen, honey, we know you're going to die. We'll die too. And we'll see you someday. Your daughter wanted me to tell you because she loves you so much that you're not going to see her unless you come to Christ's repentance and faith, you're going to go to hell.
Now I had something very similar. It was a young gal that came in, same situation. She said, well, you tell my mom and dad and siblings that if they don't come to Christ, that they're going to go to hell. I said, you know what? You ought to write that in a letter. Then I'll read the letter that day, but I'm not going to get up and just say that that seems like an inappropriate place. No, it's true. Consequences of sin after life is that you are in hell.
Are You Still a Sinner Even If You've Never Heard About God?
Question nine, are you still a sinner even if you've never heard about God? We put this in there because it comes up all the time. The Bible says in Romans chapter one, verse 18, 19, and 20. And again, in second Thessalonians chapter one, that though they did not know Him, they denied His power. So I think the Bible teaches that yes is the answer.
If by the way, you don't believe that, I don't know why you'd send missionaries anywhere. Why would you say if a guy in Africa or China or some jungle somewhere or some populous city somewhere, and they've never heard of Jesus, but he can get to heaven. Why would you send a missionary there and condemn him? If people can get to heaven apart from Christ, our missionary strategy should be, shh, don't tell him. You're just going to screw him up. Don't let him know.
By the way, that's kind of an irrelevant argument at this point for you, because now you've heard. So that's interesting theoretical discussion, but I rarely get sidetracked in that because I'm going to go, doesn't matter to me. I don't know. Here's what I think the Bible teaches, but it's irrelevant pal. What about you? You've heard.
Is There Anything You Can Do to Solve Your Sin Problem?
Here's the last thing. Is there anything you can do to solve your sin problem? The answer is no, there's nothing you can do on your own. Anything you can do? No. The wage of sin is death on your own.
Now wanting to do something is what we call religion. So when Peter, Paul preach a message in the book of Acts, the minute people hear it, they go, what should we do? And so in our context, it's going to do some action.
I was talking to a guy yesterday and he was talking about a 90 year old guy and a 88 year old lady. We were talking and I said, are they Christian? He said, no, no, they are wonderful people. They just can't see or imagine that they've done anything that God would not like that isn't counterbalanced by how much good they've done. What the Bible teaches is no one does good. No, not one.
The Motivation Behind Good Works
So you go down to special Olympics, go and interview the volunteers and go, why would you take a weekend when it's a hundred degrees and serve out here? The dominant answer is it makes me feel good. I feel good about myself when I do this.
I got saved and I'll give you the guy's name. Tom Woods. Tommy's a great guy. Tommy and I got saved almost the same time. A year later, we were celebrating our one-year anniversary place called Chubbs. I said to Tommy, it's been an amazing year. He said, it's been an amazing year. I said, my life has changed so much. Yours hasn't changed much. That wasn't a criticism. What I'm saying is Tommy was a great dad. Tommy was just a great guy. My life was kind of all screwed up and then ended up way better.
Tom said, you know what? I'm doing the same things that I used to do, but I'm doing them now for a totally different reason. I used to do them so people look at me and say, Tommy's a good guy.
Religion vs. Biblical Christianity
When I understand, and that's today's lesson, real simple. You have sinned. There's no exception. So it's everybody in this room. Your sin has separated you from God. Your flinch is to say, I want to fix it. That's religion.
Religion is a sinful man or woman trying to reach up and appease a holy God. Biblical Christianity is different from every other faith in the world because it is a holy God reaching down to a sinful man. In and of yourself, on your own, there is nothing you can do to get yourself right with God.
What's the matter with people? The Bible says it's sin. We push that away and want to rationalize they're always a victim, never a villain. But the Bible doesn't let you off the hook. It says it's a sin and it says there's no exception. It's every person that's ever lived. The consequence of that sin is we're separated from God. We're enslaved.
to that sin. We'd rather sin than do good. Our heart is deceptively wicked. We explain away all sorts of behavior. And even when we sin, we say "little white lie." And God said, "Well, lie, a lie, the lie, break a law, you break the law," and the consequence of that.
Hopefully you feel, not to manipulate you or scare you, hopefully at this moment you feel that. You feel a sense of helplessness and hopelessness in and of yourself. And the answer, by the way, is Jesus. The answer is to come to Him in repentance and faith, to pray and acknowledge that He did for you what you couldn't do for yourself. And that is He died on the cross and paid the price for your sin.
We're going to talk about what's so special about Jesus. We'll look at that next time.
Father, help us see this amazing, awesome truth. Will you please open our eyes? God, don't let it be a sense of despair, but help us see ourselves as we really are. And that's because we begin to see You as You are and Your view of life and Your view of our life. God, do that work in our life. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.