"Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet" (Isaiah 1:18) by Tim Lewis

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Neil, that was all very kind, and it is true.
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I said yes to the invitation and then was reminded by my wife,
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you should probably be here to walk your daughter down the aisle.
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I thought that's a good idea. You know, it's nice to start off,
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be the first speaker, and then you can say it's just going to get better from here.
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It'll just improve from here. Though your sins are like scarlet,
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I don't know how you feel.
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I don't, you know, sometimes you wonder, do people even recognize,
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acknowledge the sin in their lives? Balance is such a hard thing.
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There's some should feel guilty and don't. Others should know the joy of forgiveness.
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They struggle with guilt and shame. They just, you know, they can't quite forgive themselves.
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They get off to a great start. They get off track. They make mistakes and they say, I don't know.
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Listen, I don't deserve for God to do this for me again. Can I tell you,
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you didn't deserve it the first time. You don't deserve it this time.
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You're not going to deserve it the next time.
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Thank God for his grace.
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Now, before we get into the theme passage, I want to start. I think it's disturbing.
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It's language from Jeremiah 6, 14.
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God's speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, he laments this painful reality.
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Listen, they dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.
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Peace, peace, they say when there is no peace.
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And I think there's a human tendency to rationalize, to justify,
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to minimize the seriousness of sin.
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The most basic thing that we know about sin is that it separates us from God.
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It separates us from the life-giving presence of God in our lives.
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And yet people say, it's not that bad.
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It's not that big of a deal.
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They treat the mortal wound of God's people like a little scratch. It's a trivial thing.
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Maybe that's why God, through Isaiah, offers this invitation.
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Come now and let us reason together.
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God wants to reason with his people.
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A Hebrew word there for reason together can mean to argue, to plead,
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to correct, to convict. God is pleading his case.
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There are many times that God, it's like he's bringing his people into court.
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He's making his charge against them. He's trying to correct.
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He's trying to convict. Their sins are not small. They're not insignificant. They are like scarlet.
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That word translated scarlet has an interesting background, the caucas illicis.
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It's known as a crimson worm, an insect found primarily on oak trees in the Mediterranean region.
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The dried bodies of those insects were used to produce a crimson dye highly
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valued in ancient times.
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The word sins includes various definitions, our English word grievously.
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The sins of God's people are grievous in his sight, not something small or inconspicuous.
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They stand out in a way that is impossible to ignore. They are red like scarlet.
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That charge then drives us into the text. What is he talking about?
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What sins does God have in mind? And I'm going to use the first verse of chapter
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1 tonight, just kind of walk through some of what we see there.
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The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem
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in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
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The sins under consideration are committed by Judah and Jerusalem under the
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reign of the four kings that are named.
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And here's the thing. We don't have to wonder, you know, what did those guys
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do? The history is reliably recorded for us. We have the inspired word of God.
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We know exactly what was going on in their lives and under the authority of their reign.
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And so the charge that their sins are like scarlet would have included the sins of Uzziah.
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And Uzziah wasn't, certainly, he was not all bad.
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Just 16 years old when he became king, reigned 52 years in Jerusalem.
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He's a man who got off to a great start.
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2 Chronicles 26, 4, the Bible says he did what was right in the sight of the
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Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. And I mean,
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that's a wonderful thing.
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He seeks God because he sought the Lord. God made him prosper.
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And this, listen, this is where he gets in trouble for some strange reason.
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We tend to handle adversity better than prosperity.
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There's something about adversity that humbles us.
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There's something about adversity that drives us to God, but prosperity makes us proud.
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It's what happened to Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26, 16.
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When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.
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He transgressed against the Lord, his God, by entering the temple of the Lord
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to burn incense on the altar of incense.
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And that pattern is sadly familiar.
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We see it repeated over and over again in the story of Scripture.
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God blesses people. They become strong. Their strength produces pride,
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and their pride, they end up sinning against God.
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That's what Uzziah did. He transgressed. He passed a forbidden boundary set
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in place by God. He entered the temple, and he offers incense on the altar of incense.
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And there might be people today that would see no harm in what Uzziah did.
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They believe that people can approach God any time they want, any way they want.
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But God's a holy God. And he can only be approached In ways that he has prescribed And.
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Uzziah ignores God's restrictions. He crossed over God's boundaries.
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He marched into the temple when he was struck with leprosy. His sins are like scarlet.
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There are a lot of people, that idea of sin, transgression, we know the boundaries.
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But we understand the things that God has said that we shouldn't do.
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But when we get proud, when we become arrogant, we ignore the boundaries.
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We cross the line. That's sin.
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Much like his father, there's a lot about Jotham's life that is good and praiseworthy.
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He's 25 years old when he became king. He ruled for only 16 years.
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The Bible says, again, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
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just as his father Uzziah had done.
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We're told that he grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the Lord is God.
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There's a lot of positive things we can say about him and thinking about our
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own lives. And as we stay close to God and walk with God, lean on him and trust
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in him, he blesses our lives in so many wonderful ways.
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And this man grew powerful. And the Bible says it's because he walked steadfastly
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with the Lord, his God. And that's high praise.
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But I want you to notice what else the Bible says about his reign.
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2 Chronicles 27, to the people, however, continued their corrupt practices.
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And those corrupt practices are more clearly exposed in 2 Kings 15, 35.
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The high places, however, were not
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removed. The people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
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During the reign of Jotham, there's religious syncretism. It's almost normalized
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or at the very least tolerated and an appalling fusion of the authorized worship
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of God along with forbidden worship of pagan idols,
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clear violation of the first and second commandments given by God through Moses.
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You've got the sin of idolatry. Their sin is like scarlet.
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Of the four kings under consideration here, Ahaz is by far the worst.
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He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
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He not only tolerated idolatry, he actively engaged in it, and he promoted it in Judah.
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He commanded Uriah to make a replica of an altar he had seen in Damascus,
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and then he insisted it be used for morning and evening offerings.
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This man becomes so depraved, he gathered the furnishings of the temple,
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cut them in pieces and shut the doors of the Lord's temple.
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Can you imagine showing up on Sunday and they've nailed the door shut?
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He's destroyed the furniture of the temple. He shut the doors of the Lord's
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temple. And you think, well, that's bad. It gets worse.
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He engaged in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out
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before the Israelites, including the shocking practice of human sacrifice.
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In 2 Chronicles 28, 3, he sacrificed his children in the fire.
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And it's a mind boggling, I mean, where in the world, how could you become so, you know, fallen,
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so sinful, so darkened by the ugliness of sin, so turned over to idolatry that you would sacrifice?
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Even God is outraged, shocked and amazed that his people, you can hear the contempt of,
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When he says in Jeremiah 19, 5, they built the high places of Baal to burn their
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children in the fire as offerings to Baal.
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Something I did not command or mention.
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He said it never even entered my mind.
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The thought that people would worship idols and false gods and that they would
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offer their children in the fire.
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You can understand now your sins are like scarlet.
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And listen, this isn't in my notes. I'm just telling you, and I'm not being
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political. I'm trying to be moral. I'm trying to be biblical.
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We look at that and say, how could anybody kill a child?
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It's happening all the time in our country. We just call it abortion.
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Folks, you do with that what you want. I'm saying sometimes we're not shocked by sin.
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Sometimes we just grow accustomed to it or we call it by another name.
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What they were doing was absolutely reprehensible in the eyes of God.
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Their sins were like scarlet.
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Sometimes we read the stories in Scripture and we are just shocked and amazed
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at what those people did.
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So many of the things we're reading there are happening here now.
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Now, our sins are like scarlet.
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Well, after everything Ahaz did, it seems almost unnecessary to mention Hezekiah.
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His rule is mostly positive. He's 25 years old, but he became king.
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He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done.
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And to his credit, he opened the doors of the temple. He repaired them.
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He commanded the priests to remove all defilements from the temple,
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to purify it, to restore it, to reestablish temple worship in keeping with God's original intent.
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And while I think it's more difficult to find fault with Hezekiah, it's not impossible.
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There's a sad incident toward the end of his life.
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It's hard for me to understand this exchange of what he's told and how he responds to it.
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Isaiah told him everything stored up in the palace would be carried off to Babylon,
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that some of his descendants, his own flesh and blood, would be taken away and
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made eunuchs in the palace of a foreign king.
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And he demonstrates what seems to be selfish disregard for future generations.
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He said, the word of the Lord you have spoken is good.
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How is that good? Your descendants are going to be carried away.
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Some of your own children are going to be made eunuchs. They're going to serve
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in the palace of a foreign king. And he said, well, what you've said is good.
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And here's why. For he thought to himself, will there not be peace?
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Will there not be security in my lifetime?
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Instead of pleading with God to spare the people or working to lead them to
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a better spiritual outcome, God, don't let this happen to your people.
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Don't let this happen to my people, not just my children, but the people that
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I'm supposed to be ruling and guiding and leading.
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Please, God, work in my life, work through my leadership as king over your people,
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but don't let this happen. You don't see any of that.
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He expressed relief that there would be peace and security in his lifetime.
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But the worst thing that can be said about him, even as he focused on making
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important religious reforms in Judah, he failed to provide spiritual training for his children.
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And we see this sometimes with people that we hold in high regard for the work
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that they're doing in the kingdom. They are hard workers.
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They are preachers of the truth,
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and they're teaching and baptizing and building local congregations.
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But as they're out there reaching the world, they've totally neglected their own children.
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Paul talks about trying to win others, losing his own soul, and that's bad.
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But I don't want to do a ministry that leads a bunch of other folks to Jesus,
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and I don't teach my own children to know and love him.
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I have a co-worker named Dale Hartman, and Dale talking about Hezekiah said
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he basically raised a certified pagan.
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Manasseh rebuilt the high places his father had destroyed, erected altars to
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Baal, made an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them.
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He quickly became one of the worst, one of the most violent kings in Judah's history.
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He shed so much innocent blood.
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The language of the Bible says he filled Jerusalem from one end to the other,
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did more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed before the Israel.
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The people that were in the land, God says, these people are so bad,
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I'm going to drive them out, and I'm going to bring my people in.
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And now he goes, now this guy, he's worse than the people I drove out.
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That was Hezekiah's spiritual legacy.
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His sins were like scarlet. When we look at the reign of these four kings,
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we find pride and arrogance,
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a spiritual negligence, apathy, idolatry, violence, human sacrifice,
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materialism, a callous indifference to the well-being of the people they were meant to govern.
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All of that is made more shocking by the fact that they were not just the political
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and military leaders of God's people.
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They were meant to be spiritual leaders as well.
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And under their leadership, the people of God are led terribly astray.
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And God confronted them with our theme passage. He said, your sins are like scarlet.
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And if the passage ended there, they would have been left with nothing but fearful
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anticipation of future judgment and eternal condemnation.
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But church, that was not God's last word to them.
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See, I think you see this over and over as you read through the Bible.
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For whatever reason, God has to convict.
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God has to capture our attention and help us almost to feel the weight and the ugliness of our sin.
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And then after he has our attention, he says, I can take care of this.
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You have to understand that your sins are like scarlet.
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But he says to his chosen people in the past that there's hope,
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the hope of forgiveness, the hope of redemption.
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Neil said the theme, behold the glory of God, behold the glory of his love,
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behold the glory of his grace,
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behold the glory of his forgiveness, that he could say to people who did so
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many wicked things, though your sins are like scarlet.
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I can make them white as snow.
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Had a teacher in 10th grade. I don't know why I took German.
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Sprechen Sie Deutsch. No, nine. I don't know how I passed the class. This is free.
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I just, if you're following along in the booth there, this is not on my outline.
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Some of you won't even know what this is. Some of you will. We had a chalkboard. Remember those?
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In her class, after every class, she had an eraser and she erased that board.
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And then she had a pail of water and she would put a sponge, ring out that sponge.
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And with that wet sponge, she would clean the board.
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Listen, she was OCD before any of us knew what that was.
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She had a squeegee. I love this class, by the way. Not for the German,
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but just watching her clean that board.
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And she would, with that squeegee, she would start at the top.
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You could see the chalky water as she went from top to bottom.
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When I think about your sins are like scarlet, but they shall be as white as snow.
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I'm telling you, God can clean your slate.
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God can make you pure again. He can cleanse you. He can wash you.
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He can forgive you. You are not unreachable by the grace of God.
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Your sin is not so bad that God can't forgive it.
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Listen, the grace of God that made it possible for Judah and Jerusalem to be
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forgiven, I think, finds its deepest and its richest expression in the gospel of Jesus.
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And so we talk about, you know, in Hebrews especially, it's a new covenant and better promises.
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It's even better with Jesus. us. It's even better under grace.
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And Paul in Romans 1 16 will talk about the gospel, that it's the power of God
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for the salvation of everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
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And listen, I'm not a language scholar.
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I tap a button on my computer and it tells me what it means. Okay.
00:19:06.834 --> 00:19:11.314
But dunamis, that sounds like dynamic, dynamite, explosive.
00:19:11.634 --> 00:19:15.914
There's not just a little bit of power to forgive and save you.
00:19:16.014 --> 00:19:20.854
It's the explosive, dynamic power of God, and you can be saved.
00:19:21.054 --> 00:19:24.274
And that message started to make its way through the ancient world.
00:19:24.494 --> 00:19:28.134
Can you believe of all places it ended up in Corinth?
00:19:28.914 --> 00:19:34.414
Somebody said they called that the Las Vegas of the ancient world. That's Sin City.
00:19:34.614 --> 00:19:37.694
You know, what happens in Corinth? Are we tracking?
00:19:38.034 --> 00:19:44.154
I mean, y'all see what I'm saying? This is not a place known for its moral standing.
00:19:44.534 --> 00:19:49.174
You got the influence of the goddess Aphrodite, the practice of temple prostitution.
00:19:49.314 --> 00:19:52.494
All of this contributes to the city's immoral reputation.
00:19:53.534 --> 00:19:59.794
It may be hard to imagine that a message of grace would be received in a place like that.
00:20:01.121 --> 00:20:05.061
One of the stories in the Bible that always amuses me is God telling Ananias
00:20:05.061 --> 00:20:09.041
to go to Saul and Ananias telling God, you might not know the full story.
00:20:10.561 --> 00:20:16.121
What in the world is going on with that? And I'm not sure that's all gone amongst God's people.
00:20:16.901 --> 00:20:20.761
The gospel that has the power to save everybody.
00:20:21.461 --> 00:20:25.861
I don't know about that guy. God knows about that guy.
00:20:26.401 --> 00:20:31.881
And God believes that the people that we think are unreachable can be saved by the blood of his son.
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And some of those people were in ancient Corinth when Paul got there.
00:20:36.221 --> 00:20:40.301
In Acts 18, 7 and 8 says this, Paul left the synagogue, went next door to the
00:20:40.301 --> 00:20:42.881
house of Titius Justice, a worshiper of God.
00:20:43.041 --> 00:20:46.381
Crispus, a synagogue leader, an entire household, believed in the Lord.
00:20:46.601 --> 00:20:49.421
Many of the Corinthians heard Paul believe and were baptized.
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I don't know how many heard and believed.
00:20:51.121 --> 00:20:55.761
I don't know how many were baptized. I just know that there were enough to have a congregation there.
00:20:55.881 --> 00:21:01.881
They get two letters that we have in the Bible from the Apostle Paul.
00:21:02.601 --> 00:21:08.101
They're a mess. I mean, I don't know what's going on where you worship,
00:21:08.241 --> 00:21:13.161
but we don't have the, there's a man with his father's wife problem going on in Oklahoma City.
00:21:13.321 --> 00:21:16.921
I mean, my voice cracked. That made me nervous just saying it out loud.
00:21:17.181 --> 00:21:19.001
I mean, are you kidding me?
00:21:19.661 --> 00:21:26.281
Come Sunday and you got that mess going on? and then you've got this language of what they used to be.
00:21:26.481 --> 00:21:30.821
There are a lot of people who are saved. I mean, they are forgiven.
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They're going to heaven, but they've got a past.
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They've got a history.
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They've got things that they did in the past that they're ashamed of and they're embarrassed about.
00:21:42.401 --> 00:21:47.261
And they're just as much saved by the grace of God as any of the rest of us.
00:21:48.061 --> 00:21:50.901
Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
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Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters,
00:21:54.641 --> 00:21:58.561
nor adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy,
00:21:58.661 --> 00:22:00.501
the drunkards, revilers, swindlers.
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He says they're not going to inherit the kingdom of God.
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And then this incredible language, and such were some of you.
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Praise God. Now, I added that part. We ought to get excited about this,
00:22:14.702 --> 00:22:17.662
but you were washed. You were sanctified.
00:22:17.842 --> 00:22:22.842
You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
00:22:23.262 --> 00:22:28.582
When Paul says, such were some of you, he's saying members of this church,
00:22:28.782 --> 00:22:33.322
some of the people that maybe were passing the plate on Sunday or leading the
00:22:33.322 --> 00:22:40.142
singing or saying the prayers or teaching a class, some of them had been idolaters.
00:22:40.682 --> 00:22:46.782
And some of them had been adulterers and some had been thieves and swindlers
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and drunkards and others had engaged in all kinds of sexual immorality,
00:22:53.562 --> 00:22:57.582
including same-sex relationships, all of that,
00:22:57.862 --> 00:23:00.182
before they had become Christians.
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But then they stopped engaging in those things and they were washed and they
00:23:06.182 --> 00:23:09.322
were sanctified and they were justified.
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In the name of Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
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And I wanted to go from Isaiah in that chapter 1 and verse 1 and Judah and Jerusalem
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to Corinth because it's the worst example I could think of in the New Testament.
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I see a relationship between, though your sins are as scarlet,
00:23:36.562 --> 00:23:44.542
they shall be white as snow end, but you were washed and you were sanctified and you were justified.
00:23:45.362 --> 00:23:52.482
If God can forgive the grievous sins of Judah and Jerusalem,
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and if he can forgive the shocking sins that we read about in Corinth,
00:23:59.942 --> 00:24:06.622
he can forgive me and he can forgive you and he can forgive the people that
00:24:06.622 --> 00:24:09.682
we sometimes have a hard time liking.
00:24:10.262 --> 00:24:15.522
He can forgive people that it's hard for us to understand.
00:24:16.322 --> 00:24:19.442
You know, grace doesn't make any sense.
00:24:19.982 --> 00:24:24.902
Somebody said, you know, in our song book, we don't have any songs entitled Amazing Logic.
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It's not there. Who's singing about that?
00:24:29.122 --> 00:24:30.782
Nobody deserves it.
00:24:31.864 --> 00:24:41.564
It's amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
00:24:42.084 --> 00:24:43.804
I once was lost.
00:24:44.504 --> 00:24:46.364
Now I'm found. I was blind.
00:24:47.104 --> 00:24:51.544
Now I see. I didn't grow up in a setting like this.
00:24:52.124 --> 00:24:57.604
I can't tell you how thankful I am that when my dad decided to go back to church,
00:24:57.904 --> 00:25:00.204
the people there loved us anyway.
00:25:00.844 --> 00:25:03.044
So what do you mean anyway? We were a mess.
00:25:03.924 --> 00:25:09.004
Nobody was looking for ways to strike us out. They were patient with us,
00:25:09.044 --> 00:25:11.964
and they let the grace of God do its work.
00:25:12.764 --> 00:25:20.144
In Ephesians 1, 7, in him we have redemption through his blood,
00:25:20.344 --> 00:25:24.984
the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
00:25:25.904 --> 00:25:29.584
I just like all of it. the riches.
00:25:31.664 --> 00:25:35.784
This is terrible. You ever go to a meal and you count the people and you see
00:25:35.784 --> 00:25:38.904
the food like pizza and you're counting the slices and you kind of wonder?
00:25:39.564 --> 00:25:43.804
I mean, if they all eat two, there's just going to be one for me. Have you ever done that?
00:25:44.644 --> 00:25:50.684
Good. Thank you. And I feel less lonely up here. You know that he's never going to run out of grace.
00:25:51.664 --> 00:25:54.724
In ministry, there's only so much of me to go around.
00:25:55.644 --> 00:26:00.804
There's only so much of my time, only so much of my energy, only so much wisdom.
00:26:01.584 --> 00:26:05.864
You're never going to get to the bottom of the riches of the glory of the grace of God.
00:26:06.564 --> 00:26:10.184
He's never going to pour out so much on somebody else. There's not enough leftover
00:26:10.184 --> 00:26:11.824
for you. There's enough.
00:26:12.444 --> 00:26:17.304
I love that. The riches of God's grace.
00:26:18.264 --> 00:26:22.704
There's enough for you, and there's enough for me and there's plenty for the
00:26:22.704 --> 00:26:26.104
people that they don't even know how much they need it.
00:26:27.291 --> 00:26:32.031
I want to do something. I love this. I love the, I just like the language of the song.
00:26:32.151 --> 00:26:36.571
There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners
00:26:36.571 --> 00:26:40.471
plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
00:26:41.391 --> 00:26:48.471
All of them. What are the ones in your life that you, you wonder if grace will cover?
00:26:49.071 --> 00:26:50.671
Not asking for volunteers.
00:26:51.491 --> 00:26:56.711
I'm asking you to really think about it. One man wrote a book to young men when
00:26:56.711 --> 00:27:01.511
he was older. He said the sins that haunt the conscience of an old man are the
00:27:01.511 --> 00:27:03.191
sins he committed when he was a young man.
00:27:03.711 --> 00:27:08.331
There's some things we do when we're younger before we grow and mature that really cause us shame.
00:27:09.011 --> 00:27:16.191
If there's a sin in your life that keeps you up at night and you worry about it, it's bad.
00:27:16.831 --> 00:27:19.171
You wouldn't want anybody to know you did that.
00:27:20.171 --> 00:27:24.031
You hate that God knows it. you hate that you have to live with it.
00:27:24.291 --> 00:27:25.451
Can I tell you something?
00:27:26.431 --> 00:27:32.691
Your worst sin is no match for the blood of Jesus.
00:27:33.451 --> 00:27:40.731
It isn't. Your worst failure, it's no match for the grace of God.
00:27:41.311 --> 00:27:48.611
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
00:27:48.911 --> 00:27:53.031
Now, I was going to end there. Clock says, I got 845. I'm using it.
00:27:53.351 --> 00:27:54.471
I want to tell you something.
00:27:55.251 --> 00:27:59.671
It is really, really important that you believe that.
00:28:00.271 --> 00:28:04.091
Because if you don't believe that, you're not telling anybody else about it.
00:28:04.811 --> 00:28:07.051
And God's counting on us to tell others.
00:28:07.971 --> 00:28:12.891
I remember a guy came to, I think it was, he was selling this long time ago.
00:28:13.111 --> 00:28:16.851
Everything's online now, but he came to my brother's house. Does anybody remember
00:28:16.851 --> 00:28:20.751
when they used to sell vacuum cleaners and they would dump dirt on your floor
00:28:20.751 --> 00:28:23.431
just to show you how well it worked?
00:28:24.071 --> 00:28:28.751
That guy was coming into my brother's house, getting ready to dump that dirt on his floor.
00:28:28.831 --> 00:28:32.471
My brother said, whoa, whoa. Do you own one of these?
00:28:33.131 --> 00:28:35.551
He said, I don't have one. He goes, get out.
00:28:36.311 --> 00:28:41.931
If you don't believe in your product, why are you trying to sell it?
00:28:41.931 --> 00:28:46.351
If you don't really believe that the blood of Jesus is greater than all of your
00:28:46.351 --> 00:28:53.331
sin, how convincing are you going to be when you try to share the story of the cross with others?
00:28:54.211 --> 00:29:02.071
I don't know where we got the idea that we're going to heaven because of how good we've been.
00:29:02.751 --> 00:29:07.891
Folks, I believe that the gospel has appeared to all men, and it teaches us
00:29:07.891 --> 00:29:11.671
to say no to ungodliness and worldly pleasures, to live upright and godly lives
00:29:11.671 --> 00:29:15.631
in this present age, but there ain't anybody going to heaven because of how good they've been.
00:29:16.051 --> 00:29:18.011
I'll end with this. His name was Herman.
00:29:18.711 --> 00:29:24.851
I met him as a newlywed, first-time preacher in Mount Vernon, Missouri in 1997.
00:29:26.878 --> 00:29:29.918
Had to be in his eighties, had never been in the hospital in his life.
00:29:30.438 --> 00:29:33.538
They found a lump on one of his kidneys.
00:29:34.558 --> 00:29:39.658
He had cancer. They had to go in and remove the kidney. He was obviously concerned
00:29:39.658 --> 00:29:42.478
they're going to do a major surgery. They're going to go in and remove a kidney.
00:29:42.678 --> 00:29:47.038
And I went and prayed with him. And here's a man who'd been a Christian longer
00:29:47.038 --> 00:29:49.878
at that point than I'd been alive. I was 25 years old.
00:29:50.658 --> 00:29:55.238
And I said, Herman, I'd like to pray with you before the surgery.
00:29:55.238 --> 00:29:57.018
Is there anything you'd like me to pray about?
00:29:57.598 --> 00:30:02.118
And I remember tears just started to stream down his cheeks and he started,
00:30:02.238 --> 00:30:03.618
his hands started to tremble.
00:30:03.738 --> 00:30:09.498
And he said, brother Tim, pray that I've been good enough to go to heaven.
00:30:10.478 --> 00:30:15.478
And I want to tell you tonight, it grieves my soul as a brother in Christ and
00:30:15.478 --> 00:30:20.598
as a preacher of the gospel, that there are so many people like that sitting in our pews.
00:30:21.138 --> 00:30:26.238
And I don't think God wants us to live in constant fear.
00:30:26.998 --> 00:30:32.618
I think we're supposed to know that what he did for us at the cross,
00:30:33.098 --> 00:30:37.198
enough doesn't sound like a big enough word.
00:30:37.978 --> 00:30:42.198
It's more than enough. And here's what happens to me.
00:30:42.878 --> 00:30:48.658
When I focus exclusively on what I've done for him, I feel afraid.
00:30:49.538 --> 00:30:54.558
But when I can focus on what he's done for me, I feel secure.
00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:03.360
Oh, your sins are like scarlet. If you're baptized into Christ,
00:31:04.340 --> 00:31:06.680
they are as white as snow.
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:11.960
That old man, I can't tell you how many sermons I've preached on baptism,
00:31:12.200 --> 00:31:14.080
folks. That old man is dead.
00:31:14.740 --> 00:31:19.280
When you came up out of that water, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus.
00:31:19.280 --> 00:31:23.980
You're going to walk a new life. You're not that person anymore.
00:31:23.980 --> 00:31:25.880
Why don't you bury that person?
00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:32.300
They said, why are you doing all of this? Because I hope we have a wonderful next three days.
00:31:33.040 --> 00:31:39.360
But when we go home, there are people in your congregation, in your community, they need hope.
00:31:40.020 --> 00:31:41.500
And you're the light of the world.
00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:45.020
You're the soul of the earth and you're a city set on a hill.
00:31:45.160 --> 00:31:50.020
And we don't need a timid, fearful, anxious witness.
00:31:51.460 --> 00:31:55.380
We need to be people who know who they are.
00:31:56.120 --> 00:32:01.560
This is free. I still have 320. I'm counting them. I'm using all of them every second.
00:32:02.280 --> 00:32:09.860
Anybody remember Art Linkletter? He went to a retirement home and he went up to a little old lady.
00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:12.080
He thought she'd be impressed.
00:32:12.760 --> 00:32:18.620
He said, do you know who I am? And she said, no, but if you go to the lady at
00:32:18.620 --> 00:32:20.380
the desk, she'll tell you who you are.
00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:25.020
We cannot be suffering from an identity crisis.
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:33.000
This world that we're living in needs the light that comes from our faith.
00:32:33.760 --> 00:32:38.180
You need to know who you are in Christ Jesus.
00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:42.160
If anyone is in Christ, they're a new creation.
00:32:42.660 --> 00:32:45.700
The old is gone. The new has come.
00:32:45.840 --> 00:32:49.160
We know that outwardly we're wasting away, yet inwardly we're being renewed
00:32:49.160 --> 00:32:51.160
day by day. Every day is a new day.
00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:54.780
That's who you are. You're forgiven.
00:32:55.740 --> 00:33:00.920
You're redeemed, you're saved, you're a child of God.
00:33:01.560 --> 00:33:07.020
Now go tell others, though your sins are like scarlet. See, I love it.
00:33:07.300 --> 00:33:15.280
He can do for you exactly what he's done for me. I'm glad to be with you. Thank you so much.