They will be MY People
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Joke:
One Sunday morning, a man was pulled over for speeding. As the officer asked the driver for his license and registration, folks who were driving by would slow down, honk, and wave.
After about the twelfth driver passed by, honking and waving, the policeman asked what was going on. The driver told him, “I am the pastor at the church a mile down the road. I was headed there to preach my sermon when you stopped me. All my church members are just letting me know they see me!”
The officer smiled and tore up the ticket. “I think you’ve paid your debt to society, for today!”
I thought that was an appropriate joke to start this sermon because in my first point I want to start by talking about how none of us are perfect. Not even Pastors!
What I mean by the fact that none of us are perfect is that compared to our Holy God none of us are righteous.
The prophet Isaiah captured our human nature very well when he was explaining the condition of the children of Israel.
6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
He was reminding them that God was Holy and that as unclean people they were not allowed in the temple for sacrifice or worship. They had to be cleansed.
We are certainly in that same boat because we are all people born with a sinful nature. A nature that is contrary to the Holiness of God. An imperfect nature.
My first thought for you is that...
We come by it Honest…kind of...
We come by it Honest…kind of...
Our hearts by nature are imperfect. The bible has a lot to say about this original sin nature of our heart. All the way back in Genesis we read in chapter 6 verse 5 that the thoughts of mans heart was evil continually. Proverbs 12:8 tells us that the heart is perverted. Proverbs 16:5 says it’s proud. Isaiah 44:20 reminds us that we are deceived. Oh and don’t forget Jeremiah reminds us in 17:9 that our hearts are deceitful.
The list could go on an on. And for your sake and mine, I am not going to list anymore, but I do want to bring it home a bit more.
Have you ever just done something that you didn’t really even want to do?
I can remember one time that I broke one of my mom’s favorite little decorations. It was glass and I accidentally knocked it over. Now, that was bad enough, but I was a kid and I didn’t want to get in trouble so I hide the damage. I’m not a good hider because she found it right away and started asking questions. I didn’t want to be blamed so I just kept my mouth shut as she worked her way around the house. As you probably could guess, no one had mercy and confessed to my crime. When she asked me directly, on impulse, or you could say, by nature, I lied. EVEN though this hurt me to lie to her I did it anyway. My first inclination was not to tell the truth. Now, my mom had a way of getting to the truth. It usually involved a paddle swinging at 100 mph…but the truth always came to light!
We ALL have stories we could tell that we did something that wasn’t right. It could be something as simple as lying to a parent or even what our society might consider a major transgression. Simply put, none of us have lived a perfect life. No matter what your spouse might try to get you to believe.
But you know what? You come by it honest. I mean you and I have been born into this sin nature.
To define this sin nature I would say it’s the aspect in us that makes us REBELLIOUS to God. When we speak of the sin nature, we refer to the fact that we have a natural inclination to sin; given the choice to do God’s will or our own, we will naturally choose to do our own thing.
The bible calls out this “sinful flesh”.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
The thing is that God created humans good and without a sinful nature:
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
However, Genesis 3 records the disobedience of Adam and Eve. By that one action, sin entered into their nature.
From generation to generation, the sin nature was passed down to all of humanity:
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
When we read this verse it not only talks about how sin came into the world it also reveals that sin has brought death too. This death is also the separation we have from God.
There is only one Person in the history of the world who did not have a sin nature: Jesus Christ. His virgin birth allowed Him to enter our world while bypassing the curse passed down from Adam. Jesus then lived a sinless life of absolute perfection. He was “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14) who “had no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This allowed Jesus to be sacrificed on the cross as our perfect substitute, “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19).
John Calvin puts it in perspective: “For certainly, Christ is much more powerful to save than Adam was to ruin.”
It is through Christ that we can be born again. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
When we are born of Adam, we inherit his sin nature; but when we are born again in Christ, we inherit a new nature: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
There you have the gospel, right? This is the truth we stand on as believers. That when we surrender to Christ as our only hope that we can be saved!
Once we are saved from the sin nature we need to talk about Transformation. Specifically..
Grace that Brings Transformation
Grace that Brings Transformation
When we have accepted Christ it erases all the consequences of our sin…wrong!
What we should expect is that God’s GRACE will bring about transformation.
There was once a youth Pastor who tells about one teenage girl in youth group who told him that she was pregnant. After counseling with her for a little while, he was able to lead her to faith in Jesus Christ. The following week she returned to church. It was obvious to the pastor that something still wasn’t right. When he asked her what was wrong, she replied, “Pastor, I thought you said I got saved.” He replied, “Honey, as far as I know you did get saved.” She responded, “Then why am I still pregnant?”
It’s kind of a sad story, but we do the some thing with God and His grace. We often equate God’s forgiveness with Him removing the consequences of our sinful actions.
The only problem with that is – it just ain’t so! It doesn’t work that way! There is a law that weaves its way throughout the entire Bible. It deals with sowing and reaping. The Bible clearly teaches that whatever we sow is what we will reap. The lesson being: Our actions have consequences!
You see grace is not that we won’t have to face consequences in our lives after we come to Christ. Grace is experiencing God’s riches at Christ’s Expense. It’s undeserved favor and love from a Holy God. That grace can give us strength to face our lives even if that means we must live through the consequences of sin that we have committed.
Oh how we need the grace of God on a daily basis. Because guess what...We don’t lose our sin nature once we receive Christ. The Bible says that sin remains in us and that a struggle with that old nature will continue as long as we are in this world.
The apostle Paul who was used mightily in the kingdom of God spoke about his own personal struggle in Romans 7:15–25.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
But we have help in the battle—divine help. The Spirit of God takes up residence in each believer and supplies the power we need to overcome the pull of the sin nature within us.
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
This is where we bring up the word sanctification. We are set apart from our old selves and called to live a new life in Christ! That is the grace of a loving God.
His ultimate plan is for TOTAL sanctification when we see Christ face to face and we can be set free from this world completely. I for one am so looking forward to that day when I get to stand in His presence.
In the presence of our Saviour who through His finished work on the cross, satisfied God’s wrath against sin and provided believers with victory over their sin nature:
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
In His resurrection, Jesus offers life to everyone bound by corrupt flesh. Those who are born again now have this command:
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Dead to sin. Does that mean you won’t ever sin again? No. You will sin again. BUT that sin debt has been satisfied by Jesus! We are no longer separated with God because of sin because Christ sacrifice was enough to restore all of humanity.
Grace that brings transformation is found when you make Jesus the Lord of your life!
When you give your life to Christ then things start to change in your heart.
Here are some signs our heart is being transformed by grace:
It is broken because we recognize the need for a saviour and we repent of wrong actions.
17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
It is being cleaned up.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
It is being transformed by the love of God.
5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
It is able to find peace.
15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
A heart being transformed by grace will worship!
16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
Most importantly a heart that is transformed by grace has the Lord Jesus seated as the Lord.
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
No one is too far gone to experience the freedom that comes because of the Grace of God. You can be set free from the judgement of sin. Oh, there may be things that you have to deal with as a consequence of that sin, but God is ready and willing to transform us from the inside out.
So, that brings me to my final thought, if we are this new creation in Christ how are we supposed to live out each day in a sin fallen world?
I want to talk about...
How to BE God’s People
How to BE God’s People
I love the picture of God’s care and love for the people of Israel that is on display in the book of Ezekiel 36. Now I know that Ezekiel was prophesying to those specific people living at the time and it’s really not written and directed to us living today, but what we can see from that prophecy is the character and nature of an unchanging God.
Let’s read a couple of verses:
26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. 28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.
It gives me chills to read this scripture because of the love that God has always had for His people. We are grafted into this family. God see us with this same great love. How incredible is that thought?
Look what it says, He will GIVE a new heart…a new SPIRIT. Which will take the old evil heart out and replace it with a tender purified heart. This is cleansing that is followed by the impartation of a new life.
This new heart results in MOTIVATION to OBEY the laws and decrees that he laid out for them.
So, can you see the nature of God here in this scripture. I mean isn’t this why He allowed Jesus give His life for us? In order for us to have a NEW heart? Even a new Spirit who is God Himself dwelling in all who believe? Through Christ we also can experience this cleansing and impartation of new life.
So like those children of Israel who recieved a new heart were motivated to obey, shouldn’t we in the same way be motivated to obey the commands of our Saviour?
Yes. That’s the answer to that question!
You know what I think? We have it a little backwards in the American church. We think it’s the ministers job to do ALL the work of ministry. Yes ministers are supposed to work in the kingdom like all believers should, but the primary job of a Pastor is to equip other believers to DO the WORK they are called to do in the world.
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
What I am saying is that you, once you’ve accepted Christ, are important! Don’t count yourself out because of something you feel could hold you back.
Not your past, what others think, your education, your feelings, or anything else can stop you if you understand that through Christ you have been given a NEW heart.
There are people watching this video right now that are on the cusp of something great! You through Christ can touch this world.
I was listening to the radio the other night and I heard a story of a teacher who made a difference in the lives of her students. One day as she was teaching she realized that the students just weren't understanding the subject. They started complaining about how they just weren't smart enough to ever be able to get it. She was tired of the negative attitudes so she decided to stop the class and do something she had never done. She told them to sit down and write something positive about each person in the class. They all turned in their papers and she took them home and created for them a combined paper for each student.
She handed it back to each student that next day. There was one particular boy in the class who was not as outgoing as everyone else who also recieved that paper. He read those words and it was one of the first times he ever heard positive things about himself.
Well, time passed, and the teacher got a call a few years later from that boys parents. She was surprised to hear that her student had been killed in Vietnam. The parents asked her to come to the funeral. After the funeral was over the boys parents came up to her and thanked her for coming. They wanted her to know how important she was in that young mans life. She was flattered and let them know how sorry she was for their loss. The father then opened his wallet and pulled out an old taped up sheet of paper. It was the same paper she had complied for her student when he was in ninth grade. The parents told her how important that small seemingly insignificant exercise was to their son. Every time he felt that he wasn’t good enough he would pull out that paper written by his peers and he would push through the negative thoughts.
I wanted to end tonight with that story because we all have opportunities to make a difference in the lives of other people.
Don’t count yourself out!
We are all the same. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all need a Saviour. We all need to be transformed by Grace.
The last part of the Ezekiel 36:28 says something so cool. “You shall be my people, and I will be your God”
I see that as a promise from the nature of God. He wants us! and more than that He’s going to be on our side!
You have God on your side, in your corner, and clearing the way for you to accomplish His will.
What are you going to do this year with God. Who are you going to reach. How are you going to make a change in the lives of people you know?
Start small. Make a note. Make a call. Speak life. Speak hope. Point people with Jesus.