May 22, 2006

Hello.

A new week, a new chance to talk about God. That's as good as it gets. Thanks for joining us. Let's continue:

If God is a righteous and loving being, why then is there so much wickedness, suffering, and sorrow? God created this world as a perfect whole. In this perfect world He placed a perfect man. God gave Adam eternal life, freedom, and freedom of choice. Adam walked with God and had fellowship with Him. He was intended to be a king on earth, ruling by the will of God. Adam had total freedom to choose or to reject, freedom to obey God’s commands or go contrary to them.

 

When a man is given freedom he is faced with two paths. Freedom without choice is meaningless. God provided Adam with the perfect setting in which to prove whether or not he would serve God. Adam made his choice. God is not to blame. It is Adam who made the choice to serve the tempter rather than the truth of God.

 

Adam was the head of the human race. Just as we inherit characteristics from our parents, we have inherited our fallen, corrupt nature from Adam. The Bible states that the result of Adam’s sin shall be visited upon all his descendents. Even though Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, they gave birth to children after their own likeness. Cain and Abel were infected with the disease of sin and it was passed on to every generation.

 

We are still trying to make the same mistake that Adam made-we are still trying to be our own king. God sent his own Son to experience the same temptations that were set before Adam and to triumph over them. Satan tempted Jesus just as he tempted Adam. The great difference is that Jesus Christ resisted the temptation. We may deplore Adam’s choice, but we still copy him.

 

There is not a day that we don’t have a chance to choose between the devil’s clever promises and God’s sure word. From the beginning of time, man’s ungodly quest for power has brought him to the brink of doom. New rubble and new misery are being created daily, yet man plunges on his stubborn way. It is because of this sin that man has never been able to obtain the utopia of which he dreams.

 

Sin is what we are all suffering from today. People don’t like to be told that they are sinners. We popularize and glamorize sin. There are multitudes of people who are totally ignorant of sin’s real meaning. It is the lack of understanding of sin that keeps many Christians from living the true life of Christ. Man seeks to excuse himself of sin, but God seeks to convict him of it and to save him from it.

 

Sin is lawlessness, the transgression of the law of God. If you look at the Ten Commandments of God, you will see how mankind is not only deliberately breaking them, but glamorizing the breaking.

 

Sin is inequity. Inequity is the deviation from what is right. Inequity has to do with our inner motivations. They are the wrongs that spring from our own corrupt nature rather than the evil acts which force of circumstances sometimes cause us to commit.

 

Sin is missing the mark-Falling short of God’s goal of Christ. The object and end purpose of all of life is to live up to the life of Christ. When we fail to follow Christ’s example, we miss the mark and fall short of the divine standard.

 

Sin is a form of trespass. Sin is the intrusion of self-will into the sphere of divine authority. Sin is making the decision to prefer ourselves to God.

 

Sin is unbelief. Unbelief is a sin because it is an insult to the truthfulness of God. He that believeth not God makes Him a liar. It is unbelief that causes men to turn a deaf ear to the gospel and to deny the miracles of Christ. It is only in Christ that the remedy for sin can be found. It is only Christ who can save the sinner from the fate that surely awaits him.

That's all for today. Send your comments to me at: [e-mail].

Please stop by our website at: www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org.

See you tomorrow!

Pastor Bob Emery