Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers… In this crazy, dark, perverted, ______ (add your own adjective) world in which we live today, there isn’t much we can count on – I mean REALLY count on! What used to be thought of as “normal” is being assaulted and turned inside out and upside down right before our very eyes. For instance: accountability for one’s actions; the expectation of law and order and hope for an honorable judicial system; the traditional family unit and gender identity; the value of human life; the reliability of our history; the freedom to stand on one’s religious convictions; reverence for our founding documents; the erosion of faith in our leaders and a government that seems more and more corrupt with each passing day, etc. Wowzzer, Zowzzer! Can you believe this is still America? Did we pass through a time warp and awaken on another planet where we’re actually humanoids devoid of love, kindness, empathy, conscience and COMMON SENSE??
Well, as crazy as this is, it shouldn’t be surprising because these times have been predicted for years, decades, and even centuries. But unfortunately, most people aren’t familiar with THE history/prophecy Book . The prophet Isaiah predicted “our time” with pin-point accuracy: “Destruction is certain for those who say that evil is good and good is evil; that dark is light and light is dark; and bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. Destruction is certain for those who take bribes and pervert justice. They let the wicked go free while punishing the innocent.” (Isaiah 5:20, 22) A few chapters later (40:6-8), the prophet speaks as directed by the Lord: “Shout!’ ‘What should I shout?’ I asked. ‘Shout that people are like the grass that dies away. Their beauty fades as quickly as the beauty of flowers in the field. The grass withers, and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of your God stands forever.” This is restated in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of the Lord will never pass away.” (some translations say, “will endure forever.”)
As hopeless as what I just wrote about appears to be, wouldn’t it be reassuring if we could find SOMETHING to stand on? SOMETHING that we knew we could stake our lives on? Romans 6:23 presents two black and white truths, and the choice is ours. The first half is the fate of the non-believer; the second half is the fate of those who accept God’s gift of grace. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift from God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The choice to continue living separated from God leads to anger, frustration, turmoil, depression, and hopelessness. The choice to accept God’s Gift of Grace gives us confidence, courage, strength to persevere and hope…even in today’s topsy-turvy world.
So the question on the tip of most people’s tongue is…how did we ever get in this deplorable mess? Well…I’d like to share a bit of history with you, and I believe if you connect the dots as I present them, this will shed some light on that very question.
In my opinion, two fundamental principles that undergird everything else written in the Bible are: 1. God is love, and 2. God wants a relationship with us – an eternal relationship with us. We are told in Ephesians 1:4-5, 10: “Long ago, even before he created the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. And this is his plan: At just the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.” So the logical question here is…why did God need a plan even before he created the world and Man?
I propose that since he’s the omnipotent, omniscience God, he knew that he would have to give man free-will so that we could choose to enter into that desired relationship with him. And no doubt he also knew that man would use that free-will for something other than its original intent. And that’s exactly what happened when the first inhabitants of the Garden of Eden disobeyed God’s directive. When they took the focus off of God and yielded to their own desire, that was the original SIN. In fact, that is the very definition of SIN…living independent of God.
So here’s the crux of the problem. When man functions independent of God, he becomes his own god. As such, he knows what he wants; he wants it when he wants it; and if it is pleasurable, or in some other way elevates his stature, he wants as much of it as he can get, and many times is willing to do whatever he has to do to satisfy this craving. When that happens, these character defects begin to define our sin nature (human nature): anger, hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit, lying, cheating, stealing, guilt, shame, remorse, impure thoughts, sexual immorality, hostility, quarreling, etc. I’ll let Apostle Paul sum-up the result of yielding to these defects of character: “Let me tell you, as I have before, anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God! (Galatians 5:21)
So when sin entered the world, this “perfect world” (so proclaimed by God) and Man’s spiritual connection with God came to an end. From that point until 2017 years ago, man lived independent of God and was dependent on his own effort to deal with the dilemma of SIN. So how did that work out for Man? Roman’s 5:6 is our report card: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” So what was just the right time? When we were utterly helpless to overcome the dilemma of SIN through our own effort What an indictment!
But thank you God for your mercy, your grace, and your unending, unfailing, unconditional love for us. Your plan was always to provide a Savior to do for us what you knew in advance we could not do for ourselves. Your plan, as stated above in Ephesians 1:10 says: “At just the right time you will bring everything together under the authority of Jesus Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.” Romans 5:6 above is the fulfillment of that promise.
Here’s why this presentation is so important. In Ephesians 1:4 above, the term in Christ is used. For those of us who accept God’s Gift of Grace, we are in Christ, meaning “We are a new creation in Christ; the old is gone (our sin nature) the new has come.” (Holy Spirit) Remember, this world was perfect at creation. But look at the world we live in today. Not only is it not perfect…it’s a cesspool! The world you see today exhibits the ravages of SIN. And since God has been expunged from our culture by an evil agenda that wants to dismantle the fundamental pillars of our society, what you are seeing is man’s sin-nature running rampant.
But God has promised that all of us who are in Christ will spend eternity with him, Jesus and all other Christ-followers in Paradise. But He also revealed this qualifier in 1Peter 1:16: “You must be holy because I am holy.” Holy means to be sin-free; to be set aside for a sacred purpose. In other words, we can’t come into the presence of God if we are stained with sin because sin spreads, contaminates, destroys and kills. That’s why and how this world deteriorated from paradise to a world characterized by squalor. But that won’t happen in the Kingdom of Heaven because there will be NO SIN! Revelation 21:27 confirms this: “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 is the exclamation point on the subject: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can imagine what God has prepared for those who love him.”
Since man proved he cannot overcome his sin-nature through his own effort, God’s Gift of Grace is our only answer for salvation. Jesus has already paid our sin-ransom. All we have to do is accept his sacrifice in our place to avoid the wages of sin – spiritual death. As Jesus stated in John 14:6: “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
I would like to close now with the hope found in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son; that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” A-men!
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May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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