God's Message to Me

Intro:

Welcome to all SWAYer’s - We’re glad you’re here!

My assigned topic tonight is “God’s Message to Me.”

That’s a BIG topic, so I want to get right to it!

Have you ever wondered what God thinks about you?

The Bible says that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

That means you have a Maker …

A wonderful One at that!

What does your Maker think about you? And what would His message to you be?

Well, there’s a lot of subpoints to this, so let’s go!

First, God would want you to know that …

You Are Created in His Image:

Genesis 1:26–27 - “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

You are created in God’s image!

You are God’s special creation!

And with that comes a tremendous responsibility!

You see:

The animal is not God’s image-bearer!

The plants, although technically classified as living creatures, are not God’s image-bearer.

Other beautiful things that God created — The mountains, the seas, the skies, the planets, the sun, the moon — All beautiful parts of God’s creation …

But they are not God’s image-bearers!

Even the angels which are certainly important, are not the image-bearers of God!

No, that role falls on YOU, and me, and all the rest of humanity that was created in God’s image!

And with that comes the responsibility to live UP to that role!

God wants us to live good, godly, moral lives!

He wants us to be HOLY, for He is holy!

But that brings us to the next point …

You Have Sinned, and Thus, You Don’t Measure Up:

This is found first in Genesis chapter 3.

We’re familiar with the story.

Adam and Eve are placed in the garden of Eden, they are told that they can eat of all the fruit of the garden except one — The tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Satan comes along in the form of a serpent and tricks Eve into eating from it, who in turn gives to her husband Adam and he also eats of it.

How did Satan trick Eve?

By changing ONE WORD from God’s instructions!

God said “you shall surely die!”

Satan said “you shall NOT surely die!”

Thus, Satan got Eve to believe a lie and the rest is history!

Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden, punishments are given, and the Bible contains a long list of accounts of human sin after that, including the fact that you and I are also guilty of sin!

Thus, even though God desires that you and I be HOLY, for HE is holy!

We often don’t measure up to that standard, because Romans 3:23 plainly says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!”

But praise be to God that that’s not the end of the story!

What if it WERE the end of the story?!

What if the rest of the Bible was just account after account of the increasing wickedness of men with no hope in the end?!

That would be extremely sad!

What if the account of Noah, with the earth getting so corrupt and full of violence that Genesis 6 says that the entirety of man’s thoughts were only on evil continually …

What if the story ended there, and God just wiped out the earth and there were no Noah to preserve humanity and the rest of Gods’ creation since Noah and his family were spared?!

Genesis 6:8 - “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Why?

Because Genesis 6:22 tells us of the character of Noah: “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.”

Also Hebrews 11:7 - “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

But back to this problem called sin … Because we have all sinned, we don’t measure up to God’s holy standard!

But … Listen to this!

Even Though You Don’t Measure Up, There is One Who Came Who Does;

That Person, of course, is Jesus Christ!

Jesus Christ was tempted to sin, just like we are … But the difference is that Jesus passed the test with flying colors, and thus, He is qualified to be our Savior!

Hebrews 4:15 - “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Hebrews 5:9 therefore says of Christ: “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”

Thus, we must be people who live lives of faithful obedience to Christ, Who gave Himself on behalf of us!

Before we move on from that point, I want to go and read the account of Jesus’ temptation from Matthew chapter 4 (Read Matthew 4:1-11 and comment).

Jesus Died in Your Stead:

This goes back to that point we mentioned earlier about how we’ve all sinned.

What are the wages or earnings that we deserve because of that?

Death.

Romans 6:23 - “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The gift of God that is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord speaks to the fact that Jesus took the punishment that WE deserved when He died for us on His cross!

Jesus Christ provided the vicarious subtitutionary offering on His cross that provides the atonement for our sins, the justification of our souls!

He is the propitiation for our sins!

He provides redemption for our souls!

Now, you probably just heard a lot of big words! You may or may not know all of the meanings of those words, but just know this:

These are extremely important concepts!

They are so important that they are literally the key to either spiritual LIFE or DEATH!

Jesus is the key!

Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through (Him)!” (John 14:6)

Jesus was the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)!

Acts 4:12 says - “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Thus, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the most important event in all of human history, solving the biggest problem in all of human history — SIN!

Jesus solved the problem by dying in your stead!

But there’s one last point you’ve got to consider this evening , and that is …

You’ve Got to Accept the Gift:

Again, Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!”

That’s your and my common predicament before we accept the gift that is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!

We just saw Romans 6:23 - “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

You’ve got to accept the gift!

Remember, we said Hebrews 5:9 says Jesus “became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him!”

The Bible talks about the fate of those who do not obey the Gospel, and it’s not good:

2 Thessalonians 1:7–9 - Talks about “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

You must accept the gift by obeying the Gospel — How do you obey the Gospel if the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

You put your old self that was a slave to sin to death, you’re buried in water in baptism, and you rise up to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:1-7; Col. 2:11-14).

In order to qualify to do that, you’ve got to put all your faith in Jesus Christ, you’ve got to confess that faith in Jesus Christ, and repent of your sins and then be baptized into Christ!

Have you done that?