1/20/2002

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord setting on the throne, lofty and exalted and the train of His robe filled the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.’

We sang that just a second ago, didn’t we, that is what we sang, the whole world is full of his glory and holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. And the proper response when we see the Lord of Hosts is this:

And I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I, Send me!”

You see the Lord of hosts and say oh, oh I am in big trouble because I am a person of sin. He cleanses us then he says who is going to go for me? And our response is “we’ll go”.

Let’s pray:

Father we thank you that you are a God who is, as we say now day, interactive with your people. You love us, you care for us, you are a God with us and you want us to do your bidding. We first of all recognize that we are sinners, we have fallen short of the glory of God and the only remedy for that is forgiveness and you touch are lips as it were with coals from the altar of incense, the altar of forgiveness and you touch us and say you are forgiven now. But now will you go for me? Father I pray that our response would first of all be to bow down before the throne, acknowledge our sin and receive your forgiveness and then to volunteer to do what you ask. Father I pray that is what we are here for this morning. In Jesus Name, Amen

Have you been keeping up with the controversy of the California school that has been, one of its classes, has been teaching there children to learn the ways of Islam, Mohammedism and dress in the fashion of the Islam. And also to take upon Muslim names and to revere the Islam practices during their school time. How many of you have heard about that at all? That has been going on for the last couple of weeks, quite a controversy over that because if you know we are not supposed to be doing that in our schools supposedly. Teaching religion, I mean you can do comparative religion courses but this one sounds like it has gone kind of over the edge and has in view of the September 11^{th events has said we need to learn about this and so not only are they learning about it there are also in a sense promoting it. In comparing it to Christianity and Christianity comes out the worse because they are using textbooks, as I understand at least, that start with Christianity coming on the scene during the crusades and opposing and actually oppressing the Muslims. Not from the inception when Christ was born of course, and beyond. There are been quite a bit of controversy about that. Because as you know a lot of schools can not say it is Christmas vacation anymore it has to be holiday vacation or winter break. Can’t call it Easter vacation anymore because its not Easter, we can’t revere that go now it is spring break because they have to all references to any religion out. So it is interesting that a school would actually be promoting or putting forward a religion in this day and age and saying it is ok to do this.}

Well I find it interesting that all of us would like to chose our own way. You know Jesus says in the Bible it says, there are two ways in life, the wide and easy way that leads to destruction, there is the near way that few find that leads to life. If you ask anybody what there path is to heaven or what they think or believe a person could do or should do in order to achieve eternal life, there are truly only two answers you get. One is the way that says Jesus Christ died on the cross, I accepted him as my Savior, and I am trusting in him for my salvation. He is my way of salvation. Any other way, no matter what the description no matter what the definition of it is, is actually I am getting there myself. Because we are following a man made religion of some sort. Whether is be Muslimism, or Islam or Mormonism, or Hinduism or Buddhism or any of the other isms out there each one teaches that you reach heaven by how well you observe the tenets of that faith. Christianity is not that way. It is not how well you practice being United Brethren or a Baptist or any other kind of denomination out there that believes in Christ. It is not how well you do, it is in whom do you believe. Do you believe Jesus Christ is your Savior, have you accepted him as your Savior? So it is not how well you practice your religion or your faith it is in whom you believe. Any other religion, any other way of salvation is based upon how well I do what I have set out to do. Well it doesn’t work. It says in Proverbs, there is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is a way of destruction. There is a way that seems to make sense. In fact, in the United States we kind of have a scale of justice and a scale of thinking. It says if you want something of great worth, how much effort do you need to put into it. You put in great effort, right? If you want to have an expensive object, then you pay big money for it.

Although I did hear about the people hoping for retirement on Dobson. One third of Americans are counting on winning the lotto for there retirement. That is a way that seems right to man but the end is destruction. No questions about it. But what we think and hope is not always going to take place, not always going to come true. So we need to find out what the actual truth is. If somebody were to ask you, what are you counting on for your salvation? How do you plan to get to heaven? You will have one of two answers. One is there is one way Jesus Christ, I have accepted him as my savior and I am following him with my life. The other one, no matter how nice it sounds, no matter what it is. It really is saying, I am counting on me. I am going to be a good person. I am going to be a nice person. I am going to follow the rules, I am going to set good standards and abide by them. I am not going to slander people, I’m not going to steal, and lied and kill and cheat. I am going to be a good person and God is going to honor me for that and therefore heaven is my home because I have done well. Any religion says that is how you get there except Christianity. Christianity says, No you don’t get there on your own. You get on the benefit on the basis of what Jesus Christ did for you not on yourself, not on the basis of your own good works. Ephesians 2: 8-9 says, It is not by works, it is by God’s grace and our faith. In fact, all sin will fall short of the glory of God, the Bible says. So, there are some ways that we would like to say would work and God says they won’t. He says in John 3:3, Truly, truly , I say to you, you must be borne again. Otherwise you can not see the kingdom of God. You can not understand, you can not see, you will never be there. If you are never born again. Romans 10 says, the person who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The one who calls upon the name of the Lord, that means to acknowledge the name of Jesus Christ and not ourselves. Not based on our benefits, not based upon our goodness or our benevolence, or our charity or anything like that. Based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ and the cross. So there are only two answers. One is, Christ has paved the way; the other one is I am paying my own way.

Well, I would like to suggest that there are some problems with that thinking. Why can’t we pay our own way? Why can’t we do it ourselves? Why can’t really nice people who don’t claim Christ make it to heaven? This sounds pretty arbitrary, doesn’t? This sounds like this is a pretty mean thing for God to say, No you have to accept my Son otherwise you can’t make it. Because I know a lot of really nice people who have no regard for Christ whatsoever. God says they are lost without Christ. That doesn’t sound very nice to me. Well, one problem with that, of course, is we see the outside, he sees the inside.

I was at the mall yesterday with Kate and I was setting in one of the benches that they provide for husbands and was setting there, it seems like hours, but it wasn’t. She was trying on dresses and brought back pants. So, not sure she doesn’t know the difference or she got sidetracked. Anyway, I was setting there and as you are setting in the mall you see lost of people. People coming towards you, going away from you and you just become an observer of human nature. It is not a plus or minus evaluation it is just like there is a person who is wearing such and such. There is a person who looks nice, there is a person who could use some help. Ok, one or the other. I began to realize that I look on their appearance and value them by how they look. But you know, if I were God would I be looking on there appearance? Or would I be looking beyond there appearance to their heart. You know if you look on the inside it may be that person over there who doesn’t look as nice this person over here is twice the person because they genuinely

love God. They might love God with all the heart, with all their mind, with all their soul, their strength. And so I look on the outside and give sort of an evaluation not really a moral evaluation it is just like nice looking, not so nice looking, I know them, I don’t know them. Actually I didn’t see anybody I knew last night, quite often you do when you go someplace like that. So you just kind of give a little evaluation not whether you really would like them or not, or whether they would like you, it is just like Oh, there is a person like this and you do see categories. You will be people who have the same kind of hairstyle as somebody else you have known and so you kind of click but if you look on the inside you don’t even notice the outside and you begin to notice what kind of person they are, what kind of character they have.

I watched an event last night and I wasn’t quite sure how to evaluate this one. I was setting next to a store that had a bunch of stuff, they had sidewalk sales, and they had a bunch of stuff over here and there was some small containers on the table. There were like a container that a young girl of about 14 or 15 picked up. I don’t know if she had it with her or if she had already bought it or she bought it from another store and was just kind of comparing. I don’t know what the story was. What caught my notice was that it hit the floor and the top shatter. You know how plastic tops do that once in awhile. The glass bottle didn’t, might have been plastic, but the top shattered and went about in three, four or five pieces. Well, she kind of looked down and wasn’t sure what to do. There was no salesperson out there, nobody around just her family. There was a Dad, Mom and about two other kids there. I thought I don’t know if it is her’s the she took it out of her purse or if it is something she was looking at. I didn’t know whose it was but I knew that it fell. So I am making up the story in my mind as I watched them trying to figure out what the story is here because I don’t know if they had bought it and it was her’s already or if she was picking it up and dropped it and it was the stores and she should pay for it. Or at least let them know that it broke and so she went over to her Mom. I couldn’t hear anything that was said. But you could see her showing the Mom. The Mom just kind of looked at her and went across the hall to another store. Then she went over to her Dad and he looked at it and he must have said where is your Mom because she pointed toward her Mom. They didn’t say anymore about it they just shuffled along. So I don’t know what happened. But it looked like the girl was picking up the thing, dropped it, it broke, they didn’t pay for it, they just walked off and assumed it was not noticed. The Mom didn’t want to involve herself in it, Dad wanted Mom to help make a decision but she was way over there, like I am out of it. And they walked off with the item not having paid for it. I don’t know if that is what really happened but it sure looked like it. So it was like, that’s interesting. A really, really nice looking upperclass family, all very nice looking people, well dressed, but what was their character if that was the story? Where would God look? Would he look at their outfits or would he look at their heart and say, do you know what you just did? You stole from the store. What kind of people are you? But if I look on the outside and say, well there is some really nice people and I wonder what happened. But if God knew what happened he would say, I don’t care what you are wearing, you are a thief. And you all were in on it. If that is what happened. Like I say I really don’t know.

But I look on the outside, God looks on the inside. So an awful lot of people that I know that I would say they are really nice people. But they don’t acknowledge Christ so why doesn’t God just let them in anyway cause they are such nice people. And God may be saying, Chuck remember something, you look on the outside, I look on the inside. I know their inside, I know their character, I know their thoughts, I know their heart, I know their intents, I know they are all the things that they are on the inside so let me make the decision here. And I have made the decision that they have to follow my Son, Jesus Christ, they have to be forgiven. Because they have sin in their life, you just don’t notice it but I do.

Why can’t we make our own rules and follow them and be ok? Well, we have a screen here and I actually have disc up there. Let’s show them, Bonnie. There are six fallacies actually. I call them six futility factors. Ever hear of the fear factor, these are futility factors. If you are going to follow standards, who gets to set the standards, by the way? Who gets to set the standards? Do I get to set the standards for you? Does Mohammad, does Buddha, does Confucius, does some guru of today, does one of the writers that you see on the stands out there. There is all kinds of people will tell you how you ought to live your life. Do they get to set the standards for you or do you get to set your own standards? Do you know what happens when there is not a standard above us? You get things like are happening in New York City right now. If you didn’t hear the school in California, you may not have heard this either. But remember the World Trade Center came down a few months ago, you read about that it was in the papers. Well, there are three fireman who raised a flag in the rubble of the World Trade Center. They raised a flag, they were on all the news shows, people talked to them, and interviewed them and got there pictures and things. Well they want to use that an a memorial at the World’s Trade Center. Well, what they did instead of using the three guys who were their. They used a white man, a black man and a Hispanic man for their models and they depicted the multi-cultural nature of the city and this act by putting three different people in the act. A lot of other people said, wait a minute here I know those three guys, I don’t know these three guys in the memorial. That is not a memorial I would like because that doesn’t depict the actual three guys. It is not like it’s a memorial just choosing some people to depict something good. It is an actual memorial of an actual event and we know these guys names. I heard one person say, well are we going to rewrite the Hiroshima flag raising

too then and put some new guys in there. Well we know who they were, we know who did this. By the way, was it Abbott and Costello who went across the Nation in 1804 and mapped it out? It was two famous guys wasn’t it? It was either that or Laurel and Hardy. Who were they? Lewis and Clarke. How do we know? They were two actual guys, right? Ok, so who raised that flag, a white man, a black man and a Hispanic man, right? That is what our next generation would believe. No, it was three actual guys, that we could name them. Who sets the standards? Why would they change it from the three actual guys, because we want to include people, we don’t want people to feel bad. If they are not involved, if they are not represented there. Well, it happened that there were three guys, now they feel bad because they are not represented there. Ok, who sets the standards? Do you know now what they are going to do with the memorial? They are not going to do it. That was the last I heard anyway. Because they couldn’t please everybody. They couldn’t please the three guys who put the flag up, they also couldn’t please all the rest of the people, so they are not going to do it at all. They will think of something else. They could of done that anyway. They could have thought of that and put the flag up with the three guys. So who sets the standards? If you get to set the standards you may put the three real guys, if another person sets the standards he might put ten guys. Three rounded up is ten, ok? And it wasn’t the American Flag it was the Union Jack too because the Englanders don’t want to be left out either because they had some people in the World Trade Center. And also we are going to put a Filipino flag up there, also going to put a Canadian flag up there because there was some Canadians in the building, we don’t want them to feel bad. So we have 15 flags and 50 people now.

Well, who sets the standards? Somebody has got to set a standard of right and wrong, of propriety beyond us. And God is the one who says, I will set the standards. That is why he says sin is falling short of my standards. Falling short of the glory of God, not falling short of somebody else’s standards because we set all kinds of standards. The problem with that is we can’t even keep our own rules, can we? How many of you have used the snooze control? The snooze button. Ok you set a standard and you change it. You set a standard and you change it again. You set a standard and you change it again. It is easy isn’t it.

Ok, thy shalt not steal, which means I shouldn’t go to somebody ‘s house and take things out of there house but it is ok to bring things home from work. And it is ok for me not to claim certain income because the government probably wouldn’t know about it. Ok which one is stealing, go to someone’s house and take it, taking things home from work, or not declaring income that you did get? They are all stealing but one is more acceptable, because if nobody knows about it then it can’t be taxed. So therefore, it will just be gone. You know one of those cash deals that nobody knows about. So therefore, there is no tax to pay. Which one is stealing? They are all stealing. We change the standards to fit the circumstances. We change the standards to fit the person. I know its wrong but it is my daughter. I know its wrong but it is my son. I know it is wrong but it is me you are talking to here. You wouldn’t sentence me to death or to imprisonment or you wouldn’t turn me in would you? Well, right and wrong unless they involve us. It is amazing how many people, as we grow older, we find living different standards than they caused their children to live to. It is amazing how many people that I see now days who go to Florida and actually have a friend that they live with down there who is not their husband or wife but they yelled and screamed when their daughter or son tried to live with somebody that they weren’t married to. It is ok in Florida but it is not on here with my kids. Ok so we change our standards if it is us or if times have changed or if we lose some of our retirement if we get married. So which is right or wrong. We change the standards based upon how we feel at the moment or the circumstances at the time. So if we get to set the rules and we can’t even keep our own rules so we are going to stand before God and say, God I have done so well at keeping your standards. He will say by the way, you can’t keep your rules, you didn’t try to keep mine.

We also have no remedy for failure. We have no remedy for failure. Suppose one of your rules, one of the rules of society is, don’t lie. Suppose you lied. What is your remedy for it? We have no remedy. To try to do better next time. That is no remedy that is just the future, it doesn’t try to deal with the past, doesn’t it. That doesn’t cancel out the fact that you lied. Doesn’t cancel out the fact that there was sin committed. You broke the rules, you may say I will try to do better next time. And I will fix what I broke, well that is ok, but you can not do away with the fact that you actually broke the rule. That is why God has to forgive sin. It is not shoved under the carpet somewhere. It is God who does away with sin. It is gone as far as the East is from the West. Deeper than the ocean. All that kind of stuff. He takes it away completely. Because is just can’t be shuffled away, shoved away somewhere and ignored. It has to be dealt with. But see keeping rules has no remedy for sin or for failure. We can’t say, well I am sorry I did that and let’s just forget about it because everyone of us has a memory. We remember that you hurt me. We remember that you stole from me. We remember that you said those things about me. And so therefore saying I am sorry and I’ll do better next time doesn’t deal with the true failure. That is why God has to forgive it. It has to be gone completely.

Not only that my success depends on me. It depends on me. It is how well I keep the rules. Suppose a person says I am going to go heaven because I am a really, really, really nice person. How many of you are really nice people? Most of you are by the way. When I see you on Sunday morning, I think you are pretty nice. How many of you are teachers? You can admit this I am not going to make fun of you or anything. How many of your students would say, I know that person is a Christian because of how they act all the time at school. Or would they go to their friends and say, Man, I hate being in that persons class. You may not know what they say behind your back. It might be that you might not acknowledge you as that nice of a person all the time. Some of you are workers in factories and plants and things like that and others work by yourself and you may have someone come into work with you one day and they might say, I am glad they told me they were Christian because I never would have guessed it.

If I am going to follow the rules I have to follow every one all the time. That is why it says in the Book of Romans, Paul says, The Jews who claim righteousness by law have to keep the whole law. That means you can’t break it one time ever. Because that means we are no longer righteous, we are unrighteous. How many times does it take to kill somebody before you are called a murderer? Just once in a whole lifetime. Well, that is really not that many is it? I have lived 50 years and I haven’t killed anybody yet. But if I did one in my whole life that is really not to many. But I would still be called a murderer wouldn’t I? If I lied onetime in my life am I a liar? I am a liar aren’t I because I lied. I might not be a habitual liar, might have only been that one time but I have lied. If I use nasty language one time, I am a nasty language user aren’t I? Because I used nasty language. It only takes one. You have heard the illustrations of how sin is effected to our life if you have a huge bowl of eggs, you are going to make some. In the Army I hear they do this a lot where they have huge bowls and put dozens of eggs in and depending on the cook, they sometimes do this I am sure. They find the rotten egg and say nobody will notice and throw it in there. How many rotten eggs does it take to destroy a huge omelette? Couldn’t take many does it? You may find some bad taste there. How much onion on a pizza does it take to ruin the whole pizza? We experienced that last night, some of you like onions, the rest of us have taste. But then some of you put salt on watermelon too.

We have tastes and standards, don’t we. If we like certain things, we are known by that thing. If we are a liar, we are a liar. If we lie once we are still a liar. So are you going to be able to stand before God and say, God I never lied, I never was nasty to anybody, I always had a good attitude, I always did what was right. How many would like to stand before God and be able to say that? We would like to but we can’t. All who sin fall short of the glory of God. The problem with it then is that every kind act is ultimately selfish. Every kind act is ultimately selfish. Why do I do good things. To prove that I am good. So therefore do I do truly good things for you. I may just be a nice person and do them out of the kindness of my heart. But if I am really counting on my goodness to be enough for God to allow me into heaven then ultimately every act that I do, if I were to think about it, is like God you noticed that didn’t you. You put that in the column, didn’t ya. That is under the good stuff that I did. That will outweigh something bad over here. Well, no it doesn’t work that way. Because if I do something nice for you and I am counting on my goodness then it becomes ultimately a selfish act. I am doing it for my benefit not your benefit.

I read a book awhile back, George Barne, is a researcher, and he says the myth of altruism. Altruism means doing totally unselfish acts for other people. Said most people are involved in many of the save the planet kinds of things, save the whale, save the whatever else. By the way, today in Sanctity of Life Sunday. We ought to be saving the babies. How many people spend millions of dollars and tons of effort to save a critter when they would be glad to abort your child for you. It is an amazing sin of our nation. We need to be praying for it. I think that there is some hope on the horizon, if we keep on praying and working toward it I believe someday that we will actually as a nation revere life again. We don’t now. Many of the people who get into activitism when they did the research they found out they weren’t doing it because they love the people they were working for, or working to protect or whatever else, they did it because they felt guilty because they had so much and they had to assuage their guilt somehow. It was ultimately selfish. There was not ultimately good, it was ultimately evil. Because they were doing it for themselves to make them feel less guilty or they felt like we were destroying the planet for our progeny, therefore in order to make them love us in the future we had to do things differently than we are going now. So was it not ultimately that they cared so much for the things they said they cared for because they cared for themselves so much. And that is what happens. If we live by standards that we or somebody else set for us and true to be good on our own. We ultimately become selfish. Because the things that we do that are good are truly for my sake not for your sake.

It is not hard to contrast it with God’s salvation is it? He sets the standards, he is the one who gives us ultimate truth. We can’t keep to the rules and he knows it. He never intended for us to keep the rules. In fact he says, The law defines and the law illustrates sin. The law alerts us to the fact of the presence of our sinful nature. He never figured we would keep the rules or we would be able to I should say. He wants us to but he knows our sinful nature. And we don’t get to change the rules. They are not circumstantial. He is not circumstantial. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We have not remedy for failure, he does. He forgives us on the basis of our repentance and our asking his forgiveness. My success depends on me, my success doesn’t depend on me. Neither does yours. Depends on what Christ has already did for us and then every act can truly be unselfish because we are not doing it to gain anything for ourselves. In fact he says, God is satisfied, he loves sacrificial acts of kindness. That is what he desire of us.

Now if you have a friend or yourself that is hoping to make it on your own, I have bad news for you, you can’t do it. But if makes sense to try because there is a way that seems right to man but the end thereof is destruction. But there is a way that doesn’t seem so right that leads to life. Because we think we can earn it on our own but we can’t. This foolishness of the cross, Paul says in 1Corinthains, the Gentiles think this is foolishness, the Jews think it is really silly, they look for signs. It is a silly story to be saved by what somebody else did for you. But how much more silly is it to try to keep rules that we can’t keep and then claim that we are going to get to heaven and say God I am such a good person, you have got to let me in. He will say sorry you looked really good in the mall that day, but you lied and you stole you are not that good. Nobody noticed it but me, but you are a sinner and you have no remedy for sin except salvation in Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray

Father we thank you that we have given us a way. It is not us. It is not something we can do or say or even hope for on our own, it is something that you have offered us as a free gift. You said the wages of sin is death. But the freeness of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you Father that you came and lived and died and provided salvation for us if we will accept by faith the grace that you offer in Jesus Christ. Father help us to know that we can not make it on our own and it is not a cruel thing it is a good thing. You said, No you just can’t get there that way. Many people would like to say you go your way and I’ll go my way and we will all meet in heaven. God says, No there is only one way to get here and I have made it easy for you. Accept Jesus Christ my Son, it is not that hard, just live for me. Father I pray that you would send away any other thought except Jesus Christ in our life right now. That we would not longer think that we can do it for ourselves but somebody did it for us and his name is Jesus. We thank you for that great gift.
In Jesus Name we pray, Amen

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