By E. L. Thornton
Sermon 23
(Heb 12:1) “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”
A man was on the golf practice course, when the club pro, Maury, brought an important-looking man out for a lesson. Maury watched the guy swing several times and started making suggestions for improvement, but each time the pupil interrupted with his own versions of what was wrong and how to correct it. After a few minutes of this interference, Maury began nodding his head in agreement. At the end of the lesson, the man paid Maury, congratulated him on his expertise as a teacher and left in an obviously pleased frame of mind.
The observer was so astonished by the performance, that he had to ask, “Why did you go along with him?”
“Son,” the old pro said with a grin as he carefully pocketed his fee, “I learned long ago that it’s a waste of time to sell answers to a man who wants to buy echoes.”
Maybe you are one that has all the answers. It could be that this assemble doesn’t need to know anything. There is a possibility that my congregation already knows everything that I could possible tell it. There is a possibility that you don’t want answers,
maybe we will fit the description of the people Paul was talking about in 2 Tim. 4:3-4. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. A description of people who were no longer content to hear the sound teaching of Paul, but who were impelled to turn to many different teachers of novelty and untruth.
I do know that people like to feel good about what they are doing. Prov. 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.
If you have chosen sin as a life style, if you have let “sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” And if you have “yielded your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:” (Rom. 6:12), then there are some things you need to know.
I. YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT YOUR LIFE DOES NOT PLEASE GOD:
Pleasing God will be the one most important thing we do in this life. (Heb 11:5) “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” It is possible to please God.
God is righteous, (1 John 2:1) “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:”
God is holy, (1 Pet. 1:16) “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
God is pure, (Prov. 30:5) “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.”
To think that sin pleases God is preposterous. I was talking to a man once that said, “If Jesus were living in our day he would smoke and drink.” That’s outlandish to think such a thing.
(1 Cor 3:16) “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
It’s one thing to please God and yet another to face an unpleasant God. Your sin does not please God.
II. YOU WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO YOUR LIFE:
(2 Pet 2:9) “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,
and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”
(Mal 3:16) “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.”
(Rev. 20:12-13) “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”
(Col. 3:25) “But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.”
An Atheist farmer often ridiculed people who believed in God. He wrote the following letter to the editor of a local newspaper: “I plowed on Sunday, planted on Sunday, cultivated on Sunday, and hauled in my crops on Sunday; but I never went to church on Sunday. Yet I harvested more bushels per acre than anyone else, even those who are God-fearing and never miss a service.” The editor printed the man’s letter and then added this remark: “God doesn’t always settle His accounts in October.” That editor was right!
III. GOD LOVES YOU AND CARES FOR YOU:
John 3:16-
God the greatest Giver
so loved the greatest motive
the world the greatest need
that He gave the greatest act
His only Son the greatest gift
that whosoever the greatest invitation
believes in Him the greatest opportunity
should not perish the greatest deliverance
but have eternal life the greatest joy
Two preachers were discussing the word of God and one said “I find it hard to understand Romans 9:13 “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” The other preacher ask, “What part do you not understand?” The first preacher replied, “The last part, I just don’t understand how God could hate anyone.” The second preacher said, “I’ve always had a hard time understanding that scripture too, But it’s the first part I can’t understand. I can’t understand how God could love someone as deceitful and conniving as Jacob.”
(Titus 3:5) “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
(1 Pet 5:6) “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
(Matt. 12:31) “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”
God does not like your sin, but he loves you.
Cho. Someone to care someone to share all your burdens like no other can do. He’ll come down from the sky and brush those tears from our eyes. You’re his child and he cares for you.
