October 1
Isaiah 62:6-65:25 | PS 73:1-28 | Prov 24:13-14 | Phil 2:19-3:3
C.S. Lewis said, "The barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin". In the book, "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges, he writes, "A pastor invited the men in his church to join him in a prayer meeting. Rather than praying about the spiritual needs of the church as he expected, all of the men without exception prayed about the sins of the culture, primarily abortion and homosexuality. Finally, the pastor, dismayed over the apparent self-righteousness of the men, closed the prayer meeting with the well-known prayer of the tax collector, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Just as it is the book of Revelation, not Revelations, meaning it is a singular revelation to the church, many don't realize that it is God's law (singular), not God's laws. We read in James 2:10, "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." We don't get to list the individual laws to see how many we keep and how many we break to see how we measure up against others. Not realizing this truth has led to people feeling they are "pretty good". There are pastors of churches now who not only don't condemn sin, but welcome it as though they have a fresh new view on what God has clearly called sin. Unless people see themselves in the depraved and hopeless state they are in without Jesus, sinners that we all are (not were), most don't see any real reason to change their minds, or repent, and come into a saving relationship with the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,
Isaiah acknowledges this truth, as we read in Isaiah 64:4-7, "For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned— In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities." In case you miss the strength of Isaiah's analogy of "righteousnesses are like filthy rags", the term, "filthy rags" described were used menstrual garments. It is only coming to God in a humbled state, realizing who He is, and who we are, realizing that we compare ourselves not to one another, but to a perfect and holy God, that we can read and mean what he writes in 64:8, "But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand."
I know that people prefer "feel good" messages. But unless we see ourselves rightly we miss the whole point. God wrote the law, we did not. Even a cursory glance reveals that we are all law-breakers. That is why in Galatians 3:24, it states that "the law was our tutor". If any still feel they are still righteous and good, read in Hebrews 4:12-13, that He even knows our "thoughts and intents". I know that in the crucifixion scene, we prefer to see ourselves weeping at the foot of the cross. But in reality, we are the mockers, we are the ones driving the nails in, we are the ones piercing Him. This is what He died for. He died for our sins. He did that which we are incapable of doing. He is perfect, that is why His sacrifice was accepted on our behalf. Denying the reality of our sins (past and present), denies the reason of his coming and why He died for us. We bring nothing, He brings everything. Hallelujah, what a Savior!!!
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: