Sunday
Morning Bible Study
July
17, 2016
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Regular: 2900
words Communion: 2500 words Video=75wpm
Have you noticed lately how much of a mess our world is in?
This week it was…
We have yet to see how the attempted coup in Turkey will eventually turn
out.
Last week it was…
We want to know whose fault it is.
Some want to blame guns
Some blame the police, as if all police are bad.
Others blame the difficulties in black society, young men growing up
without a father in the house, a lack of education and available employment.
The problem is that these explanations don’t go far enough.
I know that what I’m going to say today may sound a bit over-simplistic, and
I know it’s more complicated than I’m presenting today, but I want to deal with
the underlying reason why our world is in so much trouble.
Romans 6:23
:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
:23 the wages of sin
wages – opsonion – a
soldier’s pay, allowance; that part of the soldier’s support given in place of
pay [i.e. rations] and the money in which he is paid
When you enlist in the army of sin, this is what you will be paid.
sin – hamartia – to miss
the mark; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go
wrong; to wander from the law of God
Some of the “wage” is a natural consequence.
If you are trying to catch a Pokemon and you walk off a cliff, you will get
hurt.
You can’t blame God for punishing you.
Gravity does it all by itself.
When you engage in sexual activity with
someone other than your spouse, you just might contract an “STD”, a “sexually
transmitted disease”.
You might think of it as a penalty
from God for your sin, but it’s also simply a natural consequence of risky
behavior.
Some of the “wage” is a judicial consequence.
If you rob a bank and get caught, you will go to prison.
Even if the police never catch you, there will be a day when God judges the
world and the sentence handed down for sin is “death”.
:23 is death
death – thanatos – the
death of the body; that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and
the body by which the life on earth is ended; in the widest sense, death
comprising all the miseries arising from sin, as well physical death as the
loss of a life consecrated to God and blessed in him on earth, to be followed by
wretchedness in hell
It all started back in the Garden of Eden.
(Genesis 2:15–17
NKJV) —15 Then the Lord God
took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of
every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall
surely die.”
We see “death” playing out in so many ways.
Physical death is just one of
the consequences.
Relationships
Sin didn’t just bring an end to man’s relationship with God, but we see
that sin blows up all relationships, whether it’s friendships, marriage, or
race relations.
Disease
There’s the zika virus fears.
Many in our church are fighting various forms of cancer.
Don’t get me wrong here – I’m not saying that your disease is caused by
your death (though there times when it is), I’m saying that Adam’s sin brought
all disease and disaster into the world.
(Romans
5:12 NLT) When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death,
so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
Disaster
When Adam fell, all of creation was corrupted.
The Bible tells us that all of creation is looking forward to the day this
is fixed.
(Romans
8:20–22 NLT) —20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But
with eager hope, 21
the
creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious
freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of
childbirth right up to the present time.
Hell
We look at this verse and think that it’s only “life” that’s eternal (“the
gift of God is eternal life…”)
This death is also eternal.
It’s being eternally separated from God.
This is what hell is all about. It’s
a result of sin.
:23 For the wages of sin is death,
What do we do with the knowledge that the wages of sin is death?
Lesson
Hate Sin
We have trouble in marriage and resort to hating our spouse.
We see race relations dissolving and one side hates the other.
When we recognize the real source of our trouble, shouldn’t we take that
frustration and turn it against our sin?
Don’t hate sinners, hate sin.
(Colossians 3:5–6 NKJV) —5 Therefore
put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons
of disobedience,
Sin is the reason that God will one
day bring His wrath on this planet.
We should be as far from it as we
can be.
Don’t just hate the sin of others, but learn to hate your own sin.
(Matthew 7:1–5 NKJV)
—1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge,
you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to
you. 3 And why do
you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in
your own eye? 4 Or how can
you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a
plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
It’s kind of a funny picture. Would
you like “this guy” to remove a splinter from your eye?
The problem with sin is that we can be pretty good at pointing out other
people’s sins, but not so good at accepting the truth about our own sin.
Video: It’s Not About The Nail
For some of you, you are watching this and thinking about
someone you know who just doesn’t want to admit they have a problem.
I want to challenge you to think about YOUR sin, not
someone else’s.
David Brainerd
David Brainerd is considered by many to be the “father” of modern missions.
He was born in 1718 in Connecticut.
Even though he grew up in a Christian home, and was taught the Bible, he
didn’t become a Christian until the age of 21.
In 1743, age 25, David began working as a missionary to Native American
Indians in New York. He then moved to
Pennsylvania. Initially he had no
success in either place, no one responded to his ministry. He eventually moved to New Jersey and
everything changed, within a year he had established a church with 130
converts.
David would contract tuberculosis and die at the age of 29. Jonathan Edwards would write a biography of
David, which would become a book that inspired many to go into missions.
One of the outstanding characteristics of David’s life was the passion he
developed for God.
He had a deep, contagious love for Jesus.
Along with that was an accompanying awareness and hatred
over his own sin.
When we see the trouble that the world is in, we need to own up to our part
of it.
We need to take seriously our own sin and learn to deal with it.
:23 but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
:23 but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
While “death” is the “wage” that’s earned when you sin, eternal life isn’t
a “wage” at all. You can’t earn it. It’s a free gift.
the gift – charisma (“work
of grace”) – a favor with which one receives without any merit of his own
Lesson
The answer is grace
The answer to the problem of sin in the world is the grace of God.
God loved you so much that He gave His Son as a sacrifice to die for our
sins, to pay the penalty of our sins.
That’s a gift that we didn’t deserve.
(Romans 5:8 NKJV) But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
If you are a person who has never opened your heart to Christ, God has an
answer to your sin.
Jesus wants you to find His forgiveness today.
If you are a believer, and you’ve gotten yourself caught in sin, there is
an answer.
God still loves you.
God wants to help you.
God wants you serious about your sin.
If you are a person grieved over the state of our world, the answer is
grace…
Lesson
Share your faith
Are you sick of what’s happening in this world? Then do something about it.
Only Jesus can change hearts
It starts with one heart at a time
It starts when you learn to share your faith.
If you look at the history of revivals through the centuries, you will see
that revivals came when a people or nation were at their farthest from God.
Even the last great revival, the Jesus movement of the 60’s and 70’s came
out of the unrest over the Viet Nam war, the rising drug culture, and the
assassinations of Kennedy and King.
You might be tempted to be quite discouraged at the times we are living in,
but they may be times of great opportunity.
As discouraged as you might be, think of what it must be like for the
person who doesn’t know Jesus, the person who doesn’t know that in the Grand
Scheme of things (God’s “meta-narrative”), Jesus will one day return.
Jesus actually commands us to share our faith.
(Matthew 28:19–20
NKJV) —19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
How do we do this? Four things…
Be a friend
It starts with being a friend
Too many people think that sharing their faith means that
you stand across a room and yell at everyone that they’re going to hell.
God wants us to connect with “sinners”. God wants us to love on sinners. That requires that we be like Jesus, who was
accused of being a “friend of sinners” (Luke 7:34)
(Luke 7:34 NKJV) —34 The
Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a
winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
Be nice to your waitress.
Be nice to the cashier at the grocery store. Be nice to the fellow next door. Look for opportunities to just chat.
This is one thing that our pastor Alexi in Kirov has been
working at in Russia.
The laws are changing in Russia and they may no longer be
allowed to share their faith outside of church.
We may not be able to do anymore open outreaches.
But Alexi and his church can be friends.
Live right
It requires that you live your life seriously for Jesus.
(Matthew
5:16 NKJV) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Take your own sin seriously.
Speak up
What do you share?
Your story.
What was your life like before Jesus?
How did you find Jesus?
The Gospel –
We are all sinners, our sin has consequences
God loved us so much He sent Jesus to pay for our sins
We need to turn from our sins, believe in Jesus, and
follow Him.
Invite
Take advantage of opportunities to bring your friends to hear about Jesus.
Bring them to church.
Bring them to the Harvest Crusade
Have you given your life to Jesus yet?
Today is the day.