Uniqueness of Christianity3

But there's more When we turn over a few pages to chapter 3 there is a grisly description of the human heart Beginning in verse 10. There is none righteous No Not one None that understands none that seeks after God. They're all gone out of the way.

They're all together become unprofitable There is none that do with good. No, not one That is by God's standards It's a funny thing to me that some people think that if they do good in certain situations That they will get a credit with God to overcome the bad things they've done I Don't think the arithmetic works You see God's standard is perfection And if by some amazing feat you are actually in a particular day Able to ring the bell actually able to to reach perfection one day That is God's minimum daily requirement So you don't get a credit You've just broken even you've just you've reached perfection for one day You'll never get a credit God says my standard is perfection. Nothing less than that will do me now Obviously that presents a serious problem to those who are honest some people say well, I think I'm a pretty good person Listen, you don't even come up to your own standards.

Let alone God's you can't even keep your own New Year's resolutions We have to agree with God that we're born in sin. I had one man. Tell me I don't think we're born sinners I say obviously you haven't had children No, we are born sinners and We practice sin and we fall short of God's standard we are guilty as charged So we read in verse 20 therefore by the deeds of the law In other words by seeking to live a good life and keep the Ten Commandments live by the golden rule There shall no flesh be justified in his sight everybody falls short of God's standard But now to those who find the way barred the righteousness of God apart from the law is manifested The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all No matter how wicked a sinner you are no matter how good you think you are God has made an offer to the human race to those who find the way barred Because their own sin and failure has kept them from meeting God's standard There is an alternative It is the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all those who believe for all have sinned And come short of the glory of God You know sometimes when gospel preachers preach the gospel they say There's a good news and bad news first the bad news.

You're a sinner But we read in chapter 1 that this isn't a bad news good news situation. It's called good news Oh, it's all good news Good news that you're a sinner Well, not exactly but good news That you can be honest with God about your sin Now I want to tell you that this is the second thing that is absolutely unique about Christianity Christianity is the only belief system in the world that lets you be honest with God about your sin You ask someone who's trying to get to heaven by the good works, how are you doing? Oh, not bad. Oh, really? Not bad, huh? Oh Doing pretty good doing my best.

Oh you are I've never met anybody who does their best even by their own standards One day a woman came out of a little town in central Israel She was making her way to the well at a place called Sychar and as she came near to the well She noticed the stranger sitting on the well She tried to avoid him She saw he was a Jew But it was a bit tough to avoid him and especially when he began to speak to her and he said to her could I? Have a drink, please and she said what are you doing talking to me? You're a Jew I'm a Samaritan and we don't have anything to do with each other and he completely avoided the racial issue and said If you know who you were talking to you had asked me and I'd give you a drink and you'd never thirst again You'd be satisfied She said I'd love some of that water. Why don't you give it to me? He said well, I'll tell you what. Why don't you go get your husband and we'll have a little talk about it and She said I don't have a husband Now He didn't say to her you liar You know what? He said You told the truth, didn't you? You're right.

You're right. You don't have a husband. You have had five and you're living with a man right now.

Who's not your husband and All of a sudden she realized This man Has known all about me all along and he just offered himself to me to satisfy my heart She was looking for the perfect man, you know She'd had five she was living with number six and here was number seven the perfect man who would love her the way she needed to be loved You know when she went into town, you know what her big selling point was Come see a man that told me everything I ever did It couldn't be the Messiah could it See in fine print she was saying there's somebody who knows all about me and he still loves me in spite of my sin He loves me, you know, she emptied the town They all came out to see Jesus Thinking to themselves if he could love that woman knowing all about her. Maybe he could love me knowing all about me, too Listen folks, this is good news God doesn't ask you to pretend you're okay He wants you to be honest with him Listen you're no shock to God. He knows all about you knows every sin You've ever committed knows the sins you've forgotten and the sins you wish you could forget the sins of the mind and the sins of the soul the sins of the flesh the sins of Omission the things you should have done and didn't do and the sins of commission the things you did you shouldn't have done He knows them all He hates your sin because it separates you from God it disappoints you it damages you and ultimately will Damn your soul But oh how he loves you This man Saul of Tarsus who killed Christians for a living At last was able to write the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me You could say that tonight He loved you enough to die for you and the Christian message is this You can be honest with God about your sin Why don't you do that? Why pretend any longer? Just just tell him guilty as charged your honor.

I stand condemned It's all true But Jesus died for me. He died for my sins and I hold God to his promise That any sinner that comes to the foot of the cross by faith Jesus will save me from my sins