FBCWest 633 | Jesus Didn’t Die for Our Mistakes
Recorded On: 11/17/2024
Bulletin
Hymn # 499 “When the Morning Comes”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 30:1 - 5
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Resurrecting”
“Battle Belongs”
“Good Grace”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Jesus Didn’t Die for Our Mistakes”
“God so Loved”
Benediction “Egypt”
Sermon Notes
Ephesians 2:1 We were dead in our trespasses and sins
Romans 3:23 All have sinned and come short of God’s glory
Romans 5:6 – 8 While we were still sinners Christ died for us
Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death
1 John 1:5 – 10 Denying our sins simply is self-delusional
Romans 10:8 – 13 Confession and belief results in salvation
Ephesians 2:4 – 9 Saved by grace through faith
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
The title of today's message is "Jesus Didn't Die for Our Mistakes." If that sounds a little odd to you because you've been listening to current Christian music, I encourage you to listen to today's message, especially if you think that maybe I'm wrong. I want you to see what the Bible has to say about Jesus dying, not for our mistakes, is, is to say that's the way we've always done it. I remember many decades ago our congregation was deciding whether we would keep 11 o'clock as our worship time, or move it to 10, and there were two main arguments to keep it at 11 o'clock. One was, because that's the way we always did it, the second was, well some other member of our denomination who may be traveling would get the wrong time.
Well we changed the time anyway, but what I thought was interesting was that summer I went to Arkansas and was going to go to one of the largest congregations in our denomination, and so I got, tell you how long ago this was, I looked up in the yellow pages for the time of the service thinking it was at the same time our congregation had it previously, only to find out that they had changed their time to when we had changed our time. So just because we've always done it that way isn't a good argument.
But sometimes change is good, and if the change stays within certain things then it's going to, I'll give you an example. There is an old hymn called "At the Cross"
and one of the very, the original version of that is in one of the verses, it says
that he would devote that sacred head to such a worm as I. Well you know during the period of time it was like oh we all got to have better self-images and to call people worms, oh how, how, whatever. So they changed it to sinners such as I, which is fine because that's what we'd be. So the change was fine because it was consistent with the Scriptures. There is a change that has been taking place particularly in Christian music that I'm going to push back on because unfortunately a lot of people get their theology from Christian music rather than the Bible. And so because one of my jobs as pastors is to be warning where things should not be, I'm specifically giving this message. And that is this. Mistakes can be small, inconsequential, they can have some impact, or they can be devastating. So for instance if you're doing homework and you don't carry the one or do something like that, you get the answer wrong but you know, okay. Or it can be have some consequence, for instance, you're deducting the check from your checkbook and you make a wrong subtraction, you either have more money than you think you do or you have less money. Now if you have more money, the mistake is not that significant. If it's less money you may bounce a check. So it may have a consequence. Or it can have devastating consequences. So for instance, we're wanting to send people to Mars. Well when you send the rocket ship, you're not going to send it to where Mars is, you're going to figure out where it's going to be when the rocket ship gets there. Well if your calculations are wrong, the people on the rocket ship are probably going to die because they're going to miss Mars with no way to get back home. So it can have devastating consequences as having gotten the answer wrong. And mistakes happen for various reasons. They can happen because you're not totally concentrating on the situation or in math, for instance, you may use the improper or you don't have the right formula and so you get the answer wrong. Or it may be, and I'm not using, my daughter-in-law is a middle school math teacher. And frequently when we watch our favorite football teams on Sunday, and I'm not going to tell you who the favorite football team is, but they are now trying to do something that no other team has ever done before. And so when we watch this, we kind of gather together and she will oftentimes grade papers and sometimes she will like give a test and then give them an opportunity to get better points by telling her why they got the wrong answer and whatever. Now those of you who may be in her class or hearing this, she never tells me or us who the name is or even what class it's in, but she will sometimes say why the student wrote why they got it wrong. And sometimes it was, I just didn't want, I just didn't care. Or I just didn't want to put in the effort. And so sometimes we get things wrong and make mistakes because we just don't want to put in the effort. It's plenty good enough. In Christian music today, you will hear people sing about in essence how Jesus loves me even though I make mistakes. Oh yes, none of us are perfect. We all make mistakes. But Jesus didn't die for our mistakes.
And I consider that to be very, very important because he did not die for our mistakes. So telling people about how Jesus loves me despite of my mistakes doesn't discuss really what the issue is. If you get a math problem wrong, oh well, doesn't make you a bad person. Jesus came not to deliver us from our mistakes, but deliver us from something more, more, more, more, more deadly. And for those to cheapen what Jesus has done by simply saying, "Oh, he loves me and he does all these things and he died for me basically from my mistakes," is against the Scriptures. So let's look at what the Scriptures do say. So if you'll look in your Bibles and if you have them, open initially to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. And like I said, as I keep saying, if you have your Bibles and you should turn to it. And it says this, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." It did not say you were dead because of your mistakes. You're dead in your trespasses and sins. Now, when all of us are human and we make mistakes, all of us are human and we also sin. I can try to be much better in my math, but no matter how hard I try to not be dead in my trespasses and sins, I can't because I am dead in my trespasses and sins. I can turn over a new leaf when it comes to avoiding mistakes. I am by nature a sinner. Therefore, I cannot turn over a new leaf and become a better person in the sense of no longer a sinner or a trespasser. I can avoid mistakes, but I am a sinner and I trespass. Romans chapter 3.23 says this, "For all have sinned," and I noticed, "for all" means without exception.
All of us, there is not a single person who's ever existed who has not sinned. We have sinned in two areas. One, we inherited it. It's called original sin. When Adam sinned, he passed on that, if you will, sinned gene to all of us, and we are by nature sinners. But we are also sinners by our own choices. We choose to be sinful because we are sinners. So all have sinned, and notice it didn't say, "For all have made mistakes," because yes, all of us made mistakes, but God again did not die for our mistakes, "and fall short of the glory of God." It's funny people talk about, well, when I get up before God, I'll tell them that I'm a better person than this person, and I'm a good person, and all these things. First off, when you actually see God, you're not going to be able to speak, as He's holy and you're not. Second, as Jesus said, "There is none good but God." So if you enter into heaven, you must be good, but Jesus has already said there's none good but God. Therefore, only God can be into heaven unless He makes the exceptions. So all of us have fallen short. We have missed the mark. Sin is missing the mark. We have missed the mark of being like God. Now I want to show you something even more depressing. Not only have we fallen short of the glory of God, we have fallen short of the glory of us. What do I mean by that?
You don't have to say it out loud. I just want you to think. At least one time, when you did something that you didn't think you should have, or you didn't do something you thought you should have, you have fallen short of your own glory. So even if the standard was, it can be just your glory if we fall short of the glory of Joe. But I have fallen short of the glory of Joe because I have several times done things that I should not have done and not done things that I should have done. I have fallen short of the glory of Joe, let alone fallen short of the glory of God.
So that's a major problem. He's not taking an eraser out and fixing my math mistake. He is saying, "I have sinned and I have fallen short of the glory of God."
But God does something significant. In Romans chapter 5 verse 6 it says this, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
While we could not change who we were, that we are sinners, and we could not do it, and we were helpless in that, Christ died for the ungodly. Not for the mistaken, but for the ungodly.
"For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone might would even dare to die." But God demonstrated his own love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Again, the situation is that while we were sinners, God demonstrated his love that Christ died for us. Again, the Scriptures keep saying that Christ died for us because we were sinners. Now I did something in preparation of this message to make sure I took a look at what's called complete concordance, and I also looked at strong, exhaustive concordance. In case you don't know what a concordance is, a concordance is, and many of you have it in an abbreviated one in the back of your Bibles, this word,
and it will tell you where those words are found in the Bible. And so you can look for sin, and it will give you whatever. So I took a look at two complete concordances, exhaustive concordances, for the word mistake. You know how many times the word mistake appears in the whole Bible?
Zero. So why are we saying that God died for my mistakes when you can't even find it in the Bible? You see, it's not like worm versus sinner. It's fluff versus reality.
And then it says, "For the wages of sin is death." I didn't say the wages of mistakes are death. Now if you are on that capsule going to Mars, and the people don't do the right math, your error may cost you your life.
But that's not the mistake we're talking about. For the wages, you are earning something. God is rich in mercy, but it'll pay you what you deserve. I would much rather be God rich in mercy than pay me what I deserve. So I will gladly admit that I am a sinner, rather than I'm mistaken.
Because the free—and this is—you can see Paul writing this. How do I explain this? Because what is a gift? A gift is free. If at come Christmas time, and you give me—most of you here know I like Mont Blanc pens. So if you got me a Mont Blanc pen and say, "Here, I got you this for Christmas," and I go, "Great, what a wonderful gift. Now pay me." I thought it was a gift. I could have gone bought it, and maybe the one I actually wanted, rather than the one you decided for me. So Paul's saying, "I want you to understand that this is such a gift. It's free. There are no free conditions. There are no post-conditions. It's a free gift. It's not just a gift. It's a free gift, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus, who died for me for my sins, gives me eternal life."
In 1 John chapter 1, verse 5, it says this, "This is the message that we have heard from him, and I ask of you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all mistakes." Oh, not there? That's right, because mistake is never in the Bible. He cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We are deluding ourselves when we think we are sinless.
And so that's why I get so upset when I hear the music, and I almost want to, actually I do, I change the channel because it irritates me because you're lessening what God has done
and who I am. While I may be mistake-prone, again, I am a sinner, and so I do not deceive myself, but I'm afraid certain Christian music is trying to be delusional, and I don't want us to be disillusioned. For we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, not our mistakes, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Again, I'm not asking him to take out the eraser, I'm asking him to cover me in his blood.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. If you understand why I find this common situation that is so reprehensible, because it leads us away from his word, which is truth, and it's not being in us.
And as your pastor and those who are listening on the various ways that they listen, I do not want you to be self-delusional. I want you to understand what the word of God is.
The Scriptures tells us, if we have sin, and we do, and Christ died for our sins, how do we remedy that situation? In Romans 10, 9, 8 through 15 says this, "But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we are preaching. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation."
We are told, we don't have to guess, we are told that we are sinners. We are told we are dead in our sins and trespasses, and then we are also told how to remedy the situation. If you will, there is a quadratic formula that you can find what the answer to A may be,
but the most important formula in your life is this one. If you believe with your heart
and you confess with your mouth, results in salvation.
Coming back to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 it says this, "But God," see we were dead in our trespasses and sin. A dead person cannot resurrect himself. Not even classic writers like Shelley and the Frankenstein. They were reanimated. They were never resurrected. So when you are dead in your sins and trespasses, there is nothing you can do about it, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Everybody wants to be impressed by self-love.
And well you have to love your fellow first and if you are not happy then if I understand how much God loves me,
that is going to help me understand how much God loves me and everything is okay.
Because God not only loved me, he was rich in mercy. He is not cheap in mercy. He is not stingy in mercy. He is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. You are dead. You believe. You do the Romans formula and you become alive in him. And then to make sure that we don't misunderstand for by grace you have been saved. Grace is unmerited favor. It means you don't deserve it.
There's not a person ever alive that ever deserved grace. David didn't. Abraham didn't. Adam didn't.
Daniel didn't. Ezekiel didn't. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John didn't. Joe didn't.
By grace I have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Not only does he love us and not only is he saving us, he's making us to sit next to him and to rule with him.
I'm told to love you and I'm trying really hard and some of you make it a little easier than others.
But as much as I love you, I'm not inviting you to stay at my house.
I like being there by myself. I don't want you there.
But God loves you so much, he wants you to see the next to him.
God, that's a lot of love. Wow.
In the heavenly places, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
So 100 million years from now, when the angels are wondering, what about that mercy and what about the grace? And he goes, "See Joe, that's why he's here.
My grace and my mercy." Oh yeah, now we remember God. You're a really merciful and gracious God because you let Joe sit next to you. And 347 billion years from now, when the angels will forget why God is rich in mercy, he goes, "There's Joe. Oh yeah, we keep forgetting. We make mistakes, but you cover to sin.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. How do I know that I have received this grace?
Because he's given me faith. That I believe that Jesus is and was and always will be the Son of the living God. That he came and was born of a virgin, dwelled on this earth. Not only did he teach us, he died for us. And three days later as he said he would, he rose from the dead. He left and ascended to heaven and gave us a promise that he's coming back the same way. And I believe that." There are people who used to say, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it." That's wrong. God said it. That settles it. It doesn't matter whether I believe it or not because God is going to do what God is going to do when God does it. But I have faith and that's how I know that I have been given grace. And that not of yourselves. He didn't give it to me because I'm special. I'm special. He gave it because he's rich in mercy. It is a gift of God. And again, so that there's no misunderstanding and there's no post or pre-conditions, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. You see, we don't talk about self-righteousness. We talk about his righteousness. And we say that we have that righteousness not because we are righteous, but because he gave us that grace through faith, which makes us righteous. And the righteous person shall live by faith. So I'm giving this sermon because I want you to not be
impacted by incorrect theology because it happens to be popular, because you may like the tomb.
And that when something seems a little odd, that you check it out in the scriptures.
Now there are a lot of great Christian artists,
and we sing a lot of their songs and whatever. But make sure you don't get your theology from them.
You make sure their theology is correct, and then you move on.
So study the Word of God. Make sure that if we change, it's not because we've always done it,
but because it has merit, because it's consistent with the Word of God.
And if it's not consistent with the Word of God, then reject it.
Because it's a lie, and I don't want to be self-deluding. I want to know the truth.
By knowing the truth, I will know the way and the life. Because God so loved.
He didn't use an eraser. He used the blood of His Holy Son.
And nothing ever should lessen that incident. For our righteousness, and all God's people said.