PREACHED: OL,
“WHO ARE THE LOST?”
(F)
INTRODUCTION:
I. IS YOUR POCKET BUTTONED?
A. Years
ago at the Redstone Arsenal in
1. The
inspector, a full colonel, passed down the line until he came to one soldier
and snapped, “Button that pocket,
soldier!”
a. “Right
now, Sir?”
“Of course, ‘Right now’!”
2. The
soldier very carefully reached out and buttoned the flap on the colonel’s shirt
pocket!
B. Mt 7.1-5 “Judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce
you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Why do you see the speck that in sin your brother’s eye,
but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your
brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in your
own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
C. Question:
Was it wrong to the colonel to inspect the soldiers under his command? No!
1.
The man clearly
did not pass inspection.
2. What
was wrong was the failure to apply the same standard to himself that he did to
the soldier.
a. He failed to inspect himself first!
D. What
the Lord was condemning in Mt 7 was hypocritical judgment that sees the faults
in others but cannot see one’s own faults!
II. With that truth
in mind, let me ask an important question:
A. “WHO ARE THE LOST?”
1. “It’s not my place to
judge!”
a. What
about John 7.24 “Do
not judge by appearances, but judge
with right judgment.”
B. We
live in a non-confrontational culture!
1. A little poem well-describes the dilemma:
“I cannot judge what
my neighbor does;
I
cannot censure his acts.
I
cannot be scornful of him because,
I do not know all the facts.”
2. Often
we hear: “It’s not my place to
judge.”
a. Many
times—merely a cop-out to relieve myself of responsibility to teach others the
gospel and to avoid negative confrontation.
3. Care
enough to determine the facts: A person’s soul may be at stake by our
failure to judge between right and wrong!!
B. I
ask again the question: “WHO ARE THE LOST?”
DISCUSSION:
I. WE MUST FIRST ASK: “WHAT DOES IT MEANS TO
BE LOST?”
A. ALIENATED
FROM GOD
1. There
is only one thing that alienates us from God—OUR SINS!
a. Is 59.1, 2 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his
ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you that he
does not hear.”
Hosea 5.5-7 “The pride of
2. What
is sin?
a. Hosea
says it is being guilty before God! It is a failure to walk by faith with God!
b. What
are we guilty of? A failure to do what God expects and commands!
1) A man
is declared “guilty” in a court of law when he is found in violation of the
law:
a) Justice
prescribes and demands penalty!
b) A
price has to be paid for satisfaction of the debt for freedom to result!
c) It may
be spending time in jail, or it may mean paying a hefty fine!
d) We may
have a gracious benefactor who will pay the debt for us, but the debt still has
to be paid!
2) John
says that sin is unrighteousness or wrongdoing, I John 5.17
a) What
determines what is right and what is wrong?
·
Ps 119.172 “…all your commandments are right…”
·
V 151 “…all your commandments are true…”
·
V 127, 128 “…I consider all your precepts to be
right; I hate every false way.”
3) I John 3.4 “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
4) Example: Adam and Eve
a) Gen 2.16, 17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat
of every three of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
b) Consequence
– Rom 4:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—“
II. NOW WE CAN ASK, “WHO ARE THE LOST?”
A. Everyone
is lost:
1.
Rom 3.23
Rom 6.24
B. Everyone
is lost until their sins are forgiven:
1. Rom 4. 7, 8 (Cited
from Ps 32.1, 2) “Blessed are those who
lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man
against whom the Lord will not count sin.”
C. Everyone
who has not accepted God’s grace by faith:
1. Rom 5. 1, 2 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we
stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
D. Everyone
who has not been justified by the blood of Christ:
1. Rom 5. 6-11. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the
ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a
good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since,
therefore, we have
been justified by his blood, much
more now that we are reconciled to God
by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be
saved by his life. More than that,
we also rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation.”
2. That’s
why Jesus said, “I am the way, the
truth and the way; no one comes to the Father except through
me.” (John 14.6)
a. Two things to note:
1) “No one comes to the Father…”
a) On my
own, I cannot approach the Father, because my sin has separated me from Him!
2) “Except through me (Jesus)…”
a) Acts 4.12 “And there is salvation is no
one else...”
3. How
does one reach the blood of Jesus shed in His death on the cross?
a. Rom 6.3, 4. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into His death?
We were buried therefore by baptism into
his death, in order that, just
as Christ was raised, from the dead, by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death
like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection
like his.”
b.
c. No wonder Jesus said, Mark 16:16
d. No wonder Peter said, Acts
D. Everyone
who does not continue to walk in the light of God’s word, will and purpose:
1. I John 1. 6-10.
a. When
we say, that someone is forgiven by their good deeds and their moral
uprightness without submitting to God’s will, we are in essence calling God and
liar!
CONCLUSION:
I. WE OFTEN HEAR SOMEONE SAY…
A. But
what about “Mother Teressa, she wasn’t immersed…? She
did a lot of wonderful things—a lot more than I have done, and am I going to be
saved because I have been immersed into Christ and she was not?”
B. What
about Ghandi? What about the Dahli
Lama? What about Albert Switzer? What About Jonas Salk? And the list could go on and on…”
1. Ghandi was a follower of a pagan belief…Likewise the Dahli Lama…but they were great, compassionate men… will that compassion alone save them?
2. Albert
Switzer didn’t believe in the divinity of Jesus nor
the inspiration of the scriptures…but he spent many sacrificial years I Africa
serving the physical needs of helpless people…will that compassion alone save him?
C. Don’t
we see: If morality and good deeds alone
will save us, the cross was not necessary and Jesus is not the only way
to the Father!
1. Just
be a good person, serve others and stand before God on the basis of your own
morality and goodness!
D. The
only way we can ever know who is saved and who is lost is on the basis
of the Bible, and not on the basis of human, finite speculation and
philosophy!!