“New Beginnings”
Resurrection Sunday 2006. Pastor Matt
God is Holy
Psalm 99:9
Exalt the LORD our God
and worship
at his holy mountain,
for the LORD our God is holy.
God cannot be where sin is
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God,
Those of you who think you can ignore the sin in your life…
Those of you who think God can’t see the sin in your life…
…God knows everything about you. He knows all you have been
through. He knows all the sin too.
Matthew 10:26b.
There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will
not be made known.
Hebrews 4:13.
Nothing in all creation
is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Matthew 12:36.
But I tell you that
men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
1 Corinthians 4:5b.
…He [the Lord]
will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts…
There is a problem with all this sin in our lives.
Romans 6:23.
For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.
One thing we can guarantee in
this world is death (and taxes). Sin brought about human death as a wage for
sin.
What is death? Ultimately it is
separation from God.
There is nothing you can do to make things right with God.
You have an incurable disease.
There is a cure for the sin in our lives.
John 3:16.
"For God so loved
the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 6:8-10.
Now if we died with
Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ
was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The
death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Life can only be found in Jesus. When we reject Jesus’ gift, we stay separated from God. We
exist but we don’t really live.
There is only two places to go after we die, and really it
is a continuation of how we are already living here on this earth.
- We can continue walking and living with the Lord
- or
- We can continue existing in a place separate from the Lord.
Eternal life is transfer from this world to a world walking
with the Lord.
Eternal death is a transfer from this world to a world separate
from the Lord in a terrible place called Hell
What happens to our sin?
If God can’t be where sin is, how do we spend eternity
with Him?
Romans 2:16. (KJV)
In [that] day [of judgment]… God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Romans 2:16 (Young's Literal
Translation)
in [that] day [of judgment]… God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my good news, through Jesus Christ.
One day we will all face God in judgment for the lives we
lived here on this Earth.
If we have given our lives to Jesus, we will be judged according
to the Gospel.
We will be judged through Jesus
(You have to get past Jesus, you
have to condemn Jesus in order to condemn us…and that’s not going to happen)
If we have not given our lives to Jesus, we will be judged
according to our sin and because we know we cannot exist in the same place as God (with sin) will exist forever in Hell/ the
Lake
of Fire.
We all have sin. God sees all
our sin.
We will all be judged someday.
However, for those of us who know Jesus…
Romans 8:1.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
Acts 13:39.
Through him everyone
who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
Hebrews 8:12.
For I will forgive
their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
Colossians 3:3b.
…your life is
now hidden with Christ in God.
Why would He do this?
Psalm 103:8-13.
8
The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who
fear him;
12
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from
us.
13
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who
fear him;
God Loves you. He
loves you more than you could ever know. He loves us so much that He provided
a way out. It is a gift that you have to receive.
What does this mean?
- God loves us more than we can understand.
- God forgives us even when we’ve done the unforgivable.
- God gives us second chances at life. He
gives us New Beginnings.
Everyone wants a second chance.
Everyone wants a new beginning.
We have that in Jesus.
Here on this Earth and in eternity
to come.
Closing
How do I respond to this?
1 Corinthians 15
1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which
you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly
to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For
what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and
that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred
of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then
he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one
abnormally born.
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how
can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the
dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless
and so is your faith.
All of what I
have said today hinges on whether or not you believe the Cross.
Not just the
death, but the resurrection of Jesus and what it means to you.
Romans 10:9-10
That if you confess
with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess
and are saved.
- Let’s take some time to confess our sins.
- Let’s take some time to Believe in our hearts.
- Let’s take some time to put our lives into His hands.
- Let’s take some time to thank Him that we have been forgiven because of the
Cross.