Sin Perverted Us; Grace Restores Us

Review: Life's Most Basic Question and the Analogy of the Woods

0:01 Because tonight is, in a very real way, our study tonight, intricately tied in to the consideration that we faced from Scripture this morning, it will be necessary to take a few minutes to review, for the benefit of those who were not with us this morning, that you might catch the drift of thought as we sought to set it out from Scripture in the morning service. And the theme of our study today has clustered around this general subject, life's most basic question, and how to get an answer. And I use the analogy of the woods. At least one person got it going home.

0:44 I asked my son what he learned this morning, and he said, Daddy, I learned about people being in the woods.

0:51 And I think he got the point. And I asked the question, you see, are you in the woods?

0:59 And men all about us are in the woods. And by that I mean simply, they are caught in this terrible labyrinth of a world of men and things not able to make any sense about it. And when they ask questions like these, Who am I? What am I here for?

1:18 What is the purpose of life? Is there anything by which I can guide my conduct in life? Men are literally lost in the woods, trying to answer those most basic questions. And we say, I saw in our study this morning that when we face those questions, there are only two possible ways to get answers.

1:38 One is to look within, and to observe and to collate this material and say, All right, this is what I think is my purpose in life. And then we spill out our ideas. This is what philosophers do. This is what some so-called theologians do.

1:55 Or the only other alternative is that the God who has made us and made the world and put us in it has revealed to us why we're here, what our purpose is, what is our identity in the midst of this world of men and of things. And so it's suicidal to attempt to answer those questions by looking within. For you see, you can never know who you are until you know everything about everything there is to know, both about the world, about you, and about yourself. You need to be omniscient to make any valid conclusions about who you are and what you're here for.

2:31 But since you're not omniscient, you better listen to the one who is and who's told us who we are and why we're here. And so in answering these basic questions, we are moving on that presupposition that the scriptures themselves and only the scriptures coming as a revelation from our God can give us valid, satisfactory answers. Then having considered where we're going to get our answers, we began to establish this morning that there is a triangle of scriptures and a general truth, which if we see and understand, we can then begin to answer those questions. That triangle, each point of the triangle, this is better, has a basic scriptural truth.

3:15 And when we see those scriptural truths, we can place almost any one of those questions within that triangle and begin to see an answer. Who am I? What am I here for? Is there any guide to my conduct in life?

3:28 What about the world to come? And as we see that triangle, that triangle of scriptural truth, we are then able, standing within it, to look at the world without us, to look at ourselves, and to see some meaning and get out of the woods. So our purpose then in studying is to help some of you out of the woods who are in the woods. Some of you who are out of the woods never realized how you got out, and I hope this makes you appreciate more fully what God did to bring you out.

Point 1: God Created Us in His Image

3:55 And then we live amongst people who are in the woods all around us, and they need a guiding hand to get them out. And so I hope, this will help you to know how to get other people out of the woods. Now, what is the first scriptural truth that stands at the top of that triangle? And we spent all our time developing it this morning.

4:14 It's the simple principle or scriptural truth that God created us in His image. The biblical doctrine of creation is absolutely foundational to understanding the first and most rudimentary things regarding life. What am I here for? What should I do?

4:33 What should I do? What should guide my conduct until this thing has gripped me? I am a creature made in the image of God. I'll never be able to get answers.

4:42 Now, most of us assume that we believe the doctrine of creation. But like every other doctrine, it never is meaningful to us until the Holy Ghost writes it on our heart and makes it a part of our spiritual bloodstream. And I confess that the doctrine of creation was not made a part of my bloodstream until this past year. And the more I minister in special ways, especially in student circles, the more I realize the poor student world is a living demonstration of what it is to be hopelessly lost in the woods because they don't understand the simple Bible teaching God created man in His own image.

5:21 Once I see that, then I'm on my way out of the woods. Because He made us in His image, we consider these three things, and I'll only mention them when we move on to our new area of study. I am a creature made with a capacity to know God. That is, to walk in conscious, delightful communion with God.

5:42 When it says in Genesis 1 that God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He then, male and female created He then, we read after that that God is intelligently communicating with the creature that He made. He was made with a capacity to know His God. And in a real sense, nobody is a true man, nobody is a true man, nobody is a woman until they've come into a satisfying heart acquaintance with God. Now, a cow is a true cow when it just grows up and gives milk and has some little cans and ends up as hamburger.

6:15 It's done all a good cow is supposed to do. And maybe make some people feel romantic when they look at its big brown eyes or something else. But outside of that, you see, if a cow grows up, gives milk, dies and becomes hamburger, it's fulfilled its purpose.

6:33 But if a man is born grows up, lives a noble life, is a good father, good mother, humanitarian, a good citizen in his community and all the rest. But listen, if he grows up, lives and dies without coming into vital, conscious communion with God, he's made as something less than a true man.

6:58 Made in His image, made to know Him. Secondly, made in His image, man was made to be governed by Him. And we saw in Genesis chapter 2 how God was made to be governed by Him. Now, that the moment God made man, it says, He took him, He put him, and He commanded him.

7:13 I love the simplicity of those words. He took him. He didn't ask for his vote. He didn't ask for his opinion.

7:17 He said, I made you. I'll do with you as I please. So He took him. Then He put him in the garden and He told him what to do.

7:24 Why? Because God so made man that he wasn't made to go and find the meaning to life on his own. He was made that he would find the meaning to life in subjection to the revealed will of God. He was made to be governed by Him.

7:38 He was made to be governed by Him. He was made to be governed by the will of God. He put him in the garden and said, now you're to dress it and to keep it. He said, now you're to stay clear of this tree over here.

7:46 Adam, you've been made to be my subject. And then in the third place, man was made accountable to God. If the cow left its pasture and went over into somebody else's, no indication that God said in the day it did such, it would die. But when man leaves the pasture of the will of God and steps out of that circle of God's revealed will and takes of that tree, God says, as you'll die, Adam, you're important enough to me that I will hold you accountable for your moral action.

8:15 Now I submit, if that biblical doctrine of creation with those three implications does not grip us, we won't be able to answer life's most basic question. Who am I? What am I here for? What's the meaning of life?

8:29 But when that thing grips us, we begin to see there's a basis for answers. Why, if I'm made in the image of God, life can have meaning. Sure, I'm just, I'm just one of three billion, but I was made in the image of God, made to know God, made to be ruled by Him, and one day I'll stand before Him. Oh, you see how all of life then becomes colored by that perspective of creation.

Point 2: Sin Has Perverted Us and Marred God's Image

8:56 Now we come to the second angle. Get these other fingers out of the way. I wish I had a blackboard. What would be the, yeah, this one over here, from your perspective, there's the second angle.

9:06 We'll move from left to right. That's the biblical truth. It's just as clearly taught as the former that God made us in His image, and it's this, that sin has perverted me and marred the image of God.

9:24 Sin has perverted me and marred the image of God. Now when I use the word sin, I am not thinking of sin in its more gross forms as the word usually connotes in common usage, but I'm thinking of sin in its biblical context, namely a ruptured relationship with God and all of its fruits.

9:54 It's that ruptured relationship with God and all of its attendant fruits. And I have said that we must recognize the biblical truth that sin has perverted us and has marred, the image of God. Now when you pervert something, what do you do? Well, you change its form from that which is good to something that is less than good.

10:21 And that's what sin has done. And if you stand where you stand, looking out at light and trying to understand this, the answer to the question, who am I? What am I here for? What should guide my conduct?

10:34 If you stand looking at life as though you're in a normal state, where men stand trying to understand, understand life as though they were in a state of normalcy, that they can see correctly and observe correctly, they never come up with the right answer. They can't. We can never understand life as it is. And ourselves as we are, unless we come to grips with this biblical teaching, sin has perverted us, turned us aside from that which is good and beautiful to something that is less than that.

11:06 Sin has marred the image of God. Now, the fact, the fact of this perversion of sin in the whole human race is stated so clearly in Scripture that only a man who is willfully blind can miss it. Let me just quote very quickly the passages that state that the entire human race is not only a race made in the image of God, but one in whom that image has been marred, a race in which sin has done its perverting work. The fifth chapter of Romans, starting with the twelfth verse, and until God, God apologizes for putting these words in Holy Scripture.

11:44 No one can evade the biblical doctrine of the universality of sin. Romans 5 and verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, or better, translated for that all sinned.

12:15 Then he goes on to develop this theme that sin, like a mighty river inundating a countryside, has inundated the entire human race. Another passage, just turning back the page to the third chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul has been indicting one segment of humanity after another as guilty before God. Then he comes to this concluding portion like the crescendo in a mighty orchestration where he calls together passages from all over the Old Testament in chapter 3, beginning with verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

12:56 There is none that understand it. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable.

13:05 There is none that doeth good, no, not one. How can language be more explicit? None, no, not one. None, not any.

13:16 He is piling up word upon word to indict the entire human race. And then it reaches its climax in verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So the fact that the entire human race, the human race has been perverted by sin is clearly taught in Romans 5, 12 and following.

13:46 Romans 3, 10 to 19. Ephesians 2, 1 to 3. These are some of the key passages which teach so clearly that sin has perverted humanity. But now, what are the effects of this perversion?

Effect 1: Man No Longer Knows, Loves, or Seeks God

14:02 And this is the part I want to expand on. All right, granted, sin is perverted. But what has been the effect of that perversion? Well, let's consider it in terms of those three things characteristic of man in the image of God.

14:16 Now, follow closely. Top of the triangle. God created me in his image. I was made to know him, made to be ruled by him, made accountable to him.

14:28 Sin has perverted me. How has that perversion manifested itself? Number one, man no longer knows, loves, and seeks God.

14:40 The very thing that distinguished him from the beast is now absent. So we read in Romans chapter 3, there is none that understand it. There is none that seek it after God. There's none that understand it.

14:53 What? Man in his sinful state understands many things. I'm baffled when I begin to read accounts of the increase of knowledge. Knowledge and understanding of the world about us and the things in the material, a mechanistic way, is advancing at such a rate they can't even get it on the computer fast enough to store the information.

15:15 Let alone sort it out and absorb it.

15:20 So when it says there's none that understand it, it's not talking about the fact that man does not understand certain things about the world about him as far as physical laws and all of this. It's talking about the fact that there's none that understand it. There's none whose mind rightly conceives of God.

15:41 There is none, he goes on to say, that seeketh after God.

15:48 I think those are three of the, the four of the saddest words in Scripture. None seeketh after God. Well, what was man made for? He was made in such a way that God might be the object of his delightful pursuit.

16:03 The picture there in Genesis 3 that we considered this morning, the Lord God comes walking in the garden in the pool of the day. And when you walk with someone, it's the picture of the most intimate, tender kind of friendship and relationship. It is said of Enoch that he walked with God. Sin has come and perverted man, but he no longer walks with God.

16:25 He doesn't even seek God.

16:28 He has no desire after God. As God said through the prophet Jeremiah, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. You see, the 18, the 18 void left by the vacated God is still there.

16:54 Get the picture now. God filling man's affections. God is now excluded and bears the vacuum of desire. And into that vacuum of desire, man has crammed everything but God.

17:09 Passion, love, coveting after things, pride.

17:15 So now he stands in that state with a heart that is devoid of the knowledge of and desire of God. And he's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone.

17:20 He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone.

17:21 He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone.

17:21 He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone.

17:21 He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone. He's not alone.

17:21 He's not alone. He's not alone. And he begins to try to answer this question, what am I here for? Well, it's obvious he'll answer that question in terms with the perverted desires of his own heart.

17:31 He won't answer it from the standpoint of a life that is poured out in worship and praise and desire after God.

17:40 You see, before sin entered,

17:43 God stood above man, governing man by directing his mind, and man's mind stood supreme over his affections and his passions. Get the three levels now. God, the mind, his affections, his passions, his appetite. And as long as that relation existed, man was fulfilling the purpose for which he was created.

18:06 As his mind was subject to the revealed will of God, and all of his passions and appetites and desires were subject to that mind instructed by God, all was well. But now when Eve and Adam believed the lie of the devil, and they allowed their passions and appetites to dictate to the mind, God was pushed out of the place of supremacy, and now what's left? Man's passions and appetites governing his entire life, and now his mind no longer is the governing principle, but the scripture speaks of man as a creature given over to fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind. And his appetite, his animal passions have become the governing principle of his life. So now his mind goes to work to justify that existence and that kind of life. Rather than having a mind subject to the word of God and the revealed will of God, now that the passions are the boss, the mind goes to work to justify what the passions lead him to do.

19:14 So you have all kinds of clever, high-sounding, intellectually-sounding reasons why you can go ahead and live like a dog. And you can live like a dog, and have the morals of Alley Cat, and still be respected.

19:29 And all the filth and the corruption that's being poured out by the movie industry that used to be called just what it is, hardcore pornography, is now called art form.

19:40 Right?

19:43 Man's mind at work to justify the pollution and corruption of his passion. See?

19:50 What used to be called downright immorality, some brilliant young men with turned collars have come up with a beautiful theory. And calling it the new morality. Oh, it is morality. We're never going to call it immorality.

20:06 So now we've concocted a clever way to still call ourselves moral and let our passions be in control rather than the mind in control as it is subject to God. Now that's what sin has done, all the insidiousness of it. Even when we're regenerated by the Holy Spirit, that work of restoration and correction is not complete. And we're still prone to that deceptive corruption within that would move the mind away from subjection to the revealed will of God and bring it in subjection to the dictates of the passions and the appetites.

20:46 Can you see now why people can't find an answer to life's questions? Who am I? What am I here for? What should guide my conduct?

Effect 2: Man No Longer Desires the Rule of God

20:53 Unless they view that as people who are seeking after God then they've found the blessedness of a God-centered life. They can't. They can't do it. They can't do it.

21:04 The second place, sin is perverted on sin that man no longer desires the rule of God. He was made to be ruled by God. If you read that passage in Genesis 2, let's look at it again for a moment in this connection.

21:20 Let's try to paraphrase and catch something of the mood of this directive of God to Adam and to Eve. Genesis chapter 2, verse 3, verse 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.

21:50 For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

21:56 Now God made clear to Adam that it was his good he had at heart in commanding him to stay clear of that tree. Adam, in the day that you eat, that is, in the day that you no longer have your appetites and passions subject to my revealed will, in the day you no longer are my subject but seek to become a little independent, self-governing God, you will die. Death will enter. There'll be a rupturing of the whole beauty of the creator-creature relationship.

22:30 Adam, I've made you that you might find bliss in the course of obedience. And the moment you step out of that course instead of bliss you'll be dead.

22:42 Obedience, life. Disobedience, death. Now, of course, the devil had to first of all persuade Adam and Eve that God was really pulling the wool over their eyes, that he had some other motive in mind in telling them this and he proceeded to do so. And you remember the account of the temptation in the third chapter where the devil in the form of the serpent spoke and said, well, you see, the real reason God told you to stay clear of that is not because he wants you to avoid death, but he doesn't want you to know the true attainment of life.

23:14 Real life will be getting out of the creator-creature relationship.

23:21 You can become like God. You can have a basis of knowing in yourself good from evil. Isn't that what he said? In the day that you eat, he knows you'll become like him.

23:32 Verse 5 of Genesis 3, your eyes shall be open and you shall be as God knowing good and evil. There's the key. You shall be as God. Bliss will come if you leave the place of subjection and become a little God.

23:50 Adam and Eve believed the lie. At least Eve did.

23:55 And then Adam, in open disobedience, took up the truth and they found to their own horror and shame that what God says was true.

24:05 And from that point till now, every one of us is born with this terrible disposition to play God.

24:15 We're born with this disposition that we're going to play God.

24:23 Chapter and verse. Well, I'm almost embarrassed to quote it. I've quoted it too often from this book. Romans 8 and verse 7.

24:31 You ought to be able to quote it from heart, all of you now. For the carnal mind is enmity against God. The mind of the flesh, the kind of thinking and attitude that we all have by nature, Paul says in Romans 8, 7, is enmity against God for it is not subjection to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

24:54 People like to boast themselves about their so-called free will.

24:59 Man by nature is free, yes, free to carry out the disposition of his rebellion against God.

25:10 That's all. He can't will a noble thing. He can't will that which is pleasing to God for this text says that carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

25:25 The word can is a word of a billet.

25:29 The cry of every heart by nature is that of Pharaoh when Moses came and said, let my people go that they may serve me and says, who is Jehovah that we should serve him?

25:42 God comes to every one of us and says, I made you and I made you in such a way that you're not a true man or a true woman until you take your place in subjection to my revealed will. And you say, who are you to tell me what to do? I'm a human being. I've got a mind.

25:55 This was the vocal objection of some of these students at Lafayette a couple of weeks ago. They couldn't stand this idea. What do you mean? God gave me a mind.

26:05 I won't subject this mind to anybody. I'm going to stand here and make my own conclusion.

26:12 Oh, you mean the God who made the world doesn't have a right to tell you what he made it for? No, I'm going to find out for myself. See? The pride of human life.

26:20 Same way, in the realm of morals and ethics, I've got these appetites and passions. I'll kill them if I want to. Nobody's going to tell me that I'll show up. I've got seven days in a week.

26:31 I'll spend them the way I want. Hey, wait a minute. Who gave you seven days? God did.

26:34 Well, he's told you how to spend them. He said, six days you ought to work. Seven days you ought to set apart for me. Well, I don't care what...

26:42 Yes, that's right. We don't care what God says, do we?

26:46 You see, sin is perverted. But though made in the image of God to know him, we no longer know him and seek him. Though made to be governed by him, we don't want the rule of God. We wanted its place in our own ideas and notions to be accomplished.

Effect 3: Man Hates Accountability to God

27:05 Then in the third place, man made in the image of God was made accountable to God. But sin has so perverted us that we don't like the thought of accountability to God. Remember what happened when Adam and Eve sinned? Instead of running out to meet God, apparently the Lord came.

27:18 My own conviction is that it was a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ. And God would come at a certain time in the day to walk with them in visible presence. As the angel of the Lord. But the moment they sinned, instead of thinking with delight that their lives were naked and open before their God and wanting to meet him, where are they found the moment they sinned?

27:43 Hiding behind some bushes. We don't want to face God. Because we know we sin. You see, an unregenerate, an unsaved person can't think with delight about the God of the Bible.

28:00 He can only think about him with horror. That God knows me. Every thought. Every movement.

28:09 That's why unregenerate men will do everything to cast thoughts of God out of their minds or they will whittle down the God of Scripture to the size of a God where they can be comfortable with him while they sin. That's what sin is done. We see it there in Adam and Eve running from God and we see the statement very clearly in the third chapter of John that is turned to it for a moment, please. It's illustrated there in Adam and Eve.

28:36 It's stated categorically in John chapter 3 verse 19 through 21 And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. Here are two kinds of people those who love light and those who love darkness and those who love darkness they don't want to get in the realm of exposure. Let's see how it works. That's why men don't take any pains to read the Bible and just will gladly read the Passover Plot There are hundreds, millions of people in America who've spent hours reading the Passover Plot that tries to demonstrate that the whole crucifixion was really a clever concoction of our Lord. He actually engineered the whole thing and all the rest.

29:54 They'll spend hours doing that and they won't spend one half hour reading the Bible itself. Why? Is it the Bible's not interesting? There are people that'll spend hours reading magazine articles that tear down the Bible like the light article of a couple of years ago.

30:18 They sit down and read every word. People never do anything but look at the sports page and read the averages of their ball player. An article like that comes in suddenly they get a real intellectual thirst and they really devour an article like that. If they won't spend ten minutes reading the Bible, why?

30:37 Why? Here's the answer right here. Here it is. Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light as a sneaking suspicion stamped upon the conscience of every man who has the least inkling about what the Bible's talking about that if I get too near that book it's gonna tear away the veneer and it's gonna show me for what I am.

31:04 And they'll want that. So they'll read everything that critics say about the Bible, read long books that tear down the Bible. They won't read the Scriptures. I talked with a girl a week ago Friday night who is in this precise condition.

31:19 She sat under some instructors in her school in the religion course who just tried to poop all the Bible as being anything other than the collection of some of the ideas that popped out of the heads of the Israelites while they're wandering around in the wilderness. And then some enthusiastic people who love Jesus sort of thought it'd be nice to perpetuate the lovely feeling that came because of this one that they knew and loved and so they wrote the Gospel accounts and filled it with a lot of myths and all the rest. I finally stopped and I said, young lady, let me ask you a question and I want you to answer me honestly. Have you ever spent an honest hour reading the New Testament documents themselves firsthand just to see what they say?

32:03 She dropped her head and said no. I said, well, there's an old banning yogurt commercial that says don't knock it, try it. Remember that one? Don't knock it, try it.

32:19 And I said, why don't you begin to start reading the Gospel of John, the Holy Word? Well, you see, under the guise of being so-called intellectual and all the rest, I said, look, you're not even intellectually honest. You're not even academically fair to condemn a whole body of literature to which you've never exposed yourself. Now, why?

32:44 Well, you see, this girl didn't realize it, but the Bible tells us why. Down underneath, being an unregenerate person, she hated exposure and she didn't want the light to shine. That's what sin's done to us. So, when man stands in the middle of the world, in the midst of light, trying to figure out, what am I here for?

33:03 What's my purpose in life? You see what he's going to do? He's going to shape answers to those questions that'll let him build a castle of darkness in which he can gratify his passions and his appetites in every murky corner. So his whole idea of what light is about will be shaped by that hatred of light and that love of darkness.

33:33 Does that make sense? Does it? If you're a bat and you hate the light, if you were a bat, you'd hate the light, you'd love the darkness. If somebody asked you, what's the meaning of light?

33:46 What should be your goal in life? Well, if you were a bat, you'd say, well, to create a world of darkness. Then I could go out at any time I want to and do as I please and never be shocked and hurt by light. Well, that's what man has done.

The Hopeless Condition of Man Apart from Grace

34:00 In his blindness and his love of darkness you come to man and say, what's the goal of life? He has a terrible passion to have a world of darkness because he loves darkness and he will not come to the light. That's the picture of man perverted by sin and in this condition the scripture tells us that he is under the control of the devil Ephesians chapter 2 John 8, 44 Ye of your father the devil He is bound by the devil 2 Timothy 2, 26 He is blinded by the devil Ephesians 4, 4 The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not He is deceived by the devil Revelation 23, 20 and verse 3 says the devil that deceiveth the whole earth He is in a state of spiritual impotence He is under the wrath of God Romans 1, 18 and Ephesians 2, 3 Now get the sad picture Here's a man under the control of the devil bound by the devil his eyes plucked out blind to spiritual truth a slave of his own passions under the wrath of God his affections perverted and he tries to look out and understand life Is it no wonder that he is so hopelessly confused Is it no wonder

35:28 that the most brilliant philosophers are as unable to understand the meaning of life as a poor blind man changing his mind to a blind man blind and fettered with no ability to feel objects about him trying to understand the world about him and he touches this and he's never seen anything and he tries to figure out what it is That's the picture scripture gives It's a sad picture But beloved it will help you to understand the world in which you live When the great philosophers or excuse me when the great statesmen and the great politicians when they stand and they say we trust that the peace talks in Paris will progress and it will be one step further to that world of peace for which we all yearn you think they're kidding no they're dead in earnest but they're just hopelessly blind hopelessly blind they mean business they're in earnest they want peace I don't believe they're kidding but they're blind I said in the last session now that you've learned these new things and all the rest you're going to go out and make the world a better place he really meant that

Point 3: Grace Can Restore Us

36:55 you don't know what he's talking about but he really meant it he really meant it blind under the wrath of God Now thank God there's a third part of the triangle but I can only touch on it briefly as time permits tonight We must recognize God has created us in His image we are made accountable to Him second angle of the triangle sin has perverted us we no longer seek Him don't want His rules we don't want to be accountable to Him third angle of the triangle grace grace can restore us grace can restore us Now what do I mean by grace when I use the term grace I am speaking of the unmerited favor of God to those who deserve just the opposite let me illustrate suppose Mr. Bischoff sitting out here since he's closest to me was subject to the certain kingdom over which presided a very gracious loving, just, upright honorable king who had nothing but the good of his subjects at heart and he received word that Mr. Bischoff as one of his subjects took his rules and his government very seriously and he sought wherever possible to walk as an honorable

38:20 submissive subject to the king and the king heard about this and one day he came to the area where Mr. Bischoff lived and he said in the light of what I've heard about your loyalty to me as your king and of your desire to extend my rule and to get others to appreciate my rule out of the kindness of my heart I want to give you a thousand dollars now that would be an unmerited act of kindness but that wouldn't be grace that wouldn't be grace that wouldn't be benevolence that would be getting something you had no claim on when the king comes to town Mr. Bischoff can't go up to him and grab him on the left side of his crown and say now king you deserve I deserve a thousand dollars you better give it to me no, he'd have to say all I've done is what any subject in such a kingdom would do for such a king as you are who has our good at heart whose rules are righteous and whose laws are equitable and just unmerited kindness but now suppose he's reputed to be nothing but a first class scallywag he just hates the laws of the king every law he discovers he defies it and he goes around and tells everybody the king's no good he's not worthy to be obeyed he's not worthy to be honored and every time someone says the name of the king he spits on the ground and any time anyone says anything about the king

39:49 he pulls a sour face he's a downright inveterate rebel against the king the king hears about this and he could come with his whole army and fall upon him and seize him and slay him or commit him to a dungeon but instead he apprehends Mr. Bischoff and he says I know all about you I know about your spitting on the ground when my name is mentioned I know all about your kicking against the traces of my righteous and just laws Mr. Bischoff I want to submit to you that if you will go to the rebellion I am prepared to bring you into my court to legally adopt you as a joint heir with my own son as heir apparent to this entire kingdom and all of my wealth will be yours now that's grace that's giving somebody just the opposite of what they deserve you see if he was a good loyal subject and he deserves a thousand dollars he has no claim to it if he gets it it's an act of kindness but if he's been a rebel and an anarchist and one who just defied the king and instead he gets an invitation to become heir apparent to the kingdom that's getting just the opposite of what he deserves

41:16 now that's grace you see God could have left us all at the second point in the triumph if God if he can speak this way if God were to have permitted the entire human race to suffer the just deserted its sin not one member of the human race could have wriggled a pinky in the pit of perdition and said unjust unjust not one but in his infinite grace moving out to those who deserve his wrath God has determined out of every kindred and tribe and tongue and nation shall be the objects of his restorative grace now let me define the word restore I'm just defining words now grace can restore us once in a while you'll see a restored car what has happened well someone has taken a car that has through the years and through the pressure of the elements and use has become a far cry from what it was when it came off the production line some thirty forty years ago so these people who collect antique cars and restore them what do they do they bring them back to their original condition they repaint them they put new tires on do whatever is necessary

42:43 to bring it back to a condition that is somewhat akin to the way it was when it rolled off the assembly line thirty forty years ago now the grace of God you see comes with restorative power because sin had perverted man God did not as it were say alright since sin has done its ugly work I'll have to be content with something less than a man who knows me than a creature who loves my rules I'll have to be content with something less than a creature that loves the thoughts of being counseled to me no God moved out in his grace to do something that would bring his creatures back to the place where once again God stood supreme in the heart and in the affections in life where the mind directed by the revealed will of God would then dictate the exercise and expression of these passions and appetites God was determined to reverse this again and put himself back in that rightful place and this is the whole end of his grace to restore man and then put him in a footing that is even more secure than the footing he had in creation for in that footing in creation there was the possibility that man could fall into a state of sin but when grace has restored him God in the purposes of grace

Restoration 1: Grace Brings Us to Know God

44:12 has so worked that there isn't even the possibility that man can defect from that position when once rescued and restored by the grace of God now consider with me briefly in those three areas the grace of God can restore us in that it brings us back to the place of knowing God and having fellowship with God why did Christ die why did Christ die well I hope you see now that the purpose of his grace is consistent with the whole idea of why God created man and what sin did to man and we turn to scripture and there's no question but this is the way we ought to think notice carefully first Peter chapter 3 first Peter chapter 3 and verse 18 for Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust why that he might take us out of hell well that's the scriptural truth but that isn't what Peter says here that's negative this purpose is stated positively Christ suffered the just for the unjust that he might

45:42 bring us to God when Christ found us we were turned away from God we didn't delight in God we didn't delight in fellowship with God we didn't delight in the rule of God and Christ has come to reverse that to restore man to the place where God is once again central in his life where knowing God fellowshipping with God becomes the delightful preoccupation of the sons of men that's why Jesus said in John 17 3 this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ in thou hast said I've said it often but I'll say it again being a Christian is not being fireproof being a Christian is being brought to know God that's Christianity and if I don't know God then I've never experienced the purpose for which Christ died to bring us to God to bring us to Moses not just to give me a lot of blessing to give me peace and joy all of those things follow why don't I have peace because

Restoration 2: Grace Brings Us to Love God's Rule

47:10 my relationship to God has been what ruptured through sin why do I have conflicts and problems it's because things are out of joint Christ came to bring man at the deepest level at his knees to bring him back into the knowledge of God and from that central relationship peace then flows joy direction he has a basis to begin to resolve his inner conflicts and problems and all of the rest second place Christ died to bring us back to the place where we love the rule of God did he make us to be ruled by him perverted so that we reject his rule well what is the purpose of grace nothing less than to bring creatures back to the place where they love the rule of God from the heart and so I read in 1 Thessalonians 1 9 this beautiful description what happens when a man through the grace of God is converted becomes a Christian what happens look at verse 9 of 1 Thessalonians for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we have unto you that ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God he had said in verse 5 that the gospel came to them not only in word but in power and in the Holy Ghost God did effectually work now when God

48:39 works in the purposes of redemption how does he work simply to stick a pardon in the pocket of the sinner to let him go down in that course of self-will and rebellion with no fear of judgment that's the concept I'm afraid of Christianity held by the rank and file in our evangelical circles today no no Jesus had a bold in mind he came from the presence of the Father to bring men back into delightful subjection to the Father so it is said of the Thessalonians they turn to God from their idols to serve this God they were brought back to the place where they loved the womb of God they realized as creatures we weren't made to run our own lives we weren't made to whittle God down to the place where we can make an image of him here and call this our God and then go on serving our lust no no when we saw who the true living God was we took our idols and all that idol worship gave us permission to do and we were brought back into the place of subjection to the living God and to his revealed will Romans 14 9 categorically states that this is why Christ died to this end Christ both died and rose again that he might be Lord both of the

Restoration 3: Grace Makes Us Glad for Accountability

50:09 living and of the dead so whenever a sinner gets forgiveness God gets a willing bondservant God gets a servant when a sinner gets forgiveness then grace restores us to the place where we are glad that we are accountable to God where in a state of sin we want to deny it or forget it Christ died according to Titus 2 14 let's look at that for a moment to have a people who would be glad that they are accountable to God Titus 2 14 who gave himself for that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people that doesn't mean strange or odd it means a people who are his peculiar possession his distinct and exclusive possession zealous of good work and then back up to verses 11 and 12 the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world the grace of God teaches us and we receive that teaching that all of our activity and thought and word and deeds was under the eye of God and ought to be under subjection to the law of God and when the grace of God works in us we're glad to have it so

Applying the Triangle of Truth to Life's Questions

51:37 we're glad to have it so this is why the apostle Paul could say as he did in Acts 24 verse 16 herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man Paul says in Timothy giving some instruction to Timothy that he should pass on to the believers he says in 1 Timothy 1 5 now the end the goal of this commandment is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience you see the Christian hears the word of God in order that he might know better what pleases his God so that he can look to his God without a smitten conscience and the more I know that my life is bought into conformity to the refusal of God the more I'm able to walk with an unbent conscience and when I sin I flee to the blood of Christ in order that the conscience might be purged afresh that I might face my God without embarrassment and without twinges of conscience now can you see how a man can begin to answer these questions when that perspective is the second God made me sin perverted me the grace of God can restore me now I ask that question stick it in that framework what am I here for why it's so obvious isn't it I'm here first priority

53:06 to know God and if I've been brought to know him by his grace to know his will and with all my heart to do it to his praise what's the basis of right and wrong well the God who made me whatever he says is right is right because he's God and I'm the creature he's the Lord and I'm the subject the Savior and I'm the subject why whatever God says must be right how should I order my home husband and wife how should we conduct ourselves as husband and wife in relationship to each other in the ordering of the home well God you made marriage and you made the home it just might be you have something to say about it when you turn to the scripture you find it's got a lot to say about it so you begin to get a philosophy of marriage you get a philosophy of life a philosophy of morals a philosophy of ethics that's all we've been dealing with really I didn't tell you that earlier in the day I'd have scared you but we've been trying to hammer out a little bit of biblical philosophy that you might have a framework within which to view life now you see young people wrestling what shall I do with my life well the first consideration is this am I looking at this question through the right perspective am I out here viewing it from the standpoint of what will bring the greatest amount of joy to me or the biggest amount of money into my pocket or am I viewing the expression from the standpoint God made

54:34 me he brought me into history at this time he gave me certain gifts in short changed me on others but here I am such as I am made by God and from this standpoint I want to know his will now see all the difference in the world as you young people grapple with what you should do with your life where should you invest it when you put it within that triangle remember that even if you're a Christian you see sin has not been so thoroughly purged from us that we still don't need to be watchful here's where the Christian then even though restored through grace realizes he must be watchful lest the passions and appetites get up above the mind and push God off the throne no I must continually recognize the living God is my sovereign my mind must be instructed by scripture and all of my passions and appetites must be subject to my mind as my mind is being governed by the living God and his word and so there is conflict there is struggling there is wrestling but there is a framework within which the child of God can get answers to life's most basic questions I trust that God would be pleased to burn these things into our hearts as I say it's one thing to preach them and believe them in a sort of loose distant way but oh when God makes them real to us by the spirit I don't know any other way to say it then these things begin to

56:03 mold and shape all of our thinking and I trust as you go back tomorrow and rub shoulders with people in the woods that this may be helpful to gently guide them out of the woods mark it down that most of the people you live with are in the woods and they're never going to get out until they realize God created them soon has perverted them grace can restore them very simple isn't it very simple very basic and yet for want of an understanding of this our own generation reels to and fro like a drunken man wallowing in its own vomit in its own spills and the heart breaking thing is that they don't want to even consider this framework as a live option they'll try everything else but this but what a privilege to stand in that generation and say hey fellow I know how to get out of the woods God brought me out and tell others this glorious message this is a great