Far from God

7/17/1986

We were all far, far from God with no right to claim anything for ourselves. We couldn't do God any favors. We couldn't serve God. We were blinded in our minds. We thought we were innocent, but we were guilty as we could be. There was no hope, and yet, by faith in Jesus, by opening our eyes to who Christ is, finally there is going to be hope through faith in His blood. And, there can be no faith in anything else. As long as your faith is based in your knowledge, or based in your commitment, or based in anything else, you are missing the boat. Your morality means nothing. And, most of us can't even claim that. Romans 5:6-…“You see, just at the right time, while we were still powerless [(Greek: sick) just at the right time, while we were still sick], Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners [and there was nothing good in us], Christ died for us. Since we have been justified by His blood, how much more will we be saved from God's wrath through Him. For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved through His life!”

That points out something stated earlier: “While we were God's enemies.” Nobody says, “I'm God's enemy. Here I am. I'm an enemy of the Creator.” And yet, anyone apart from the righteousness of Christ is an enemy of God. He who chooses to love the world becomes an enemy of God. If your life conforms to the patterns of this world, you become an enemy of God. We've chosen to be an enemy of God. He said, “You were enemies in your hearts.” And yet, the righteousness of Christ can free you from that bondage. The works of the devil can be destroyed. You can be free from that. You can be absolutely, totally free from that. Jesus said, “The prince of this world, satan, has come. But, he has no hold on me.” I'm not enslaved by him. He hasn't got me by the nose anymore, dragging me around in misery and despair and self-examination, and in the futility of my thinking and the blindness of my walk. God can free us from that by faith in Jesus Christ, and that's the only way. Someone born of God and born of a human being at the same time—that is the only hope we have. Born of a teenage girl and born of God. This tremendous gulf of darkness that was between God and man? Christ Jesus walked right in the middle of it! There is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ. There is no other name in heaven and on earth by which man must be saved except the name Jesus Christ. Why is that? Because of God Himself—His Glory came down to us. Some men wouldn't receive Him. But, for those of you who will, you can walk through that channel, through the pipeline of Jesus Christ and His righteousness and His freedom and His forgiveness. Jesus said, “The glory I had with you, Father, I give that glory to these people who will believe in My name, who will fully trust in Me.” So we have that choice that we will make. Will we fully trust Him? And, that's what the word “faith” means.

Some people have taken religion and made it kind of a little sprig of parsley on a plate of the dinner of life. “I will have a well-rounded life. I will have my sports and my hobbies and my job, and I will take some religion and garnish the whole thing and make it all wonderful.” There is death in that. There's no life in that. Faith is this one thing. Faith is putting your whole weight on Christ. By His blood, by faith in His blood, by faith in Jesus we are freely justified. We are forgiven. We are transformed by totally putting our weight on Him. You can think of it in these terms: if you were sitting in one of these chairs and you were rocking back in that chair, there's a point where there's no return, right? There's a point where you are leaning backwards, and if you go just a little bit further, there is no way to stop yourself. Bang, down to the floor you go, right? Now human nature says this “I’m not going to lean that far. I might enjoy a little bit of rocking back and forth on the plate of religion, but I’m not about to go back past that point of no return.” And that is the definition of Faith. You don’t have Faith if you haven’t gone past that point. That’s what Faith is, going past the point of no return. That’s what the word means. That’s the only thing that can justify you. It’s the only thing that can free you and destroy the works of the devil in your life. It’s the only thing that can let you put your foot on the throat of the destroyer. Anything else is just a game. You are just fooling yourself. You’re not kidding God, surely. He’s got something better for you. But you’ve got to put your whole weight on Him and not hold back. There is no other way. That is the only thing that will justify you freely is to put your whole weight on Him—heart, soul, mind and strength.

Now the question becomes “How do I walk into this? How do I position myself into where this can actually happen?” And I think I need to say this right up front.

There is no way you can sit here and somehow sift through all the things I say, and say, “Well, what is true and what’s not true? I’ll go home and I’ll think about it and if I believe what he said then everything will be ok.” That’s not true. You can let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages all day long but that is not going to put groceries on your table. What I’m talking about is not some kind of idealistic thing. What I’m talking about is investing in it. In John 5 Jesus spoke to these people who knew their Bibles backwards and forwards and He said, “You diligently study the scriptures thinking that by them you will have life and yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.” Memorize your Bibles all day. Memorize the cookbook but if you don’t fix the meal you are going to go hungry. And that is what I’m talking about. In John 7 Jesus says that if you want to know if these words of Mine come from the Father, if you really want to know if these words are supernatural, you’re going to have to live them.

That’s the picture you are going to have to step into. Quit painting the picture and seeing if you like it or not. Step into it. That's the only way you will ever know. And, you will go to your grave miserable and condemned because of the wickedness in your soul if you aren't willing to step into the picture. That's a choice that every one of us is confronted with—to do something about it. To say, “Yes, I will walk forward and find out what this is all about. And, I will give my life to it. I won't talk about it; I won't just think it's cute and very satisfying to my mind.” What a challenge this is, how gratifying to memorize all of these things.” There is no power in that. Some of you have found that out firsthand as you've experienced things out there and tried to do it in a way that really wasn't touching God. And, you found out—“Well, wait a minute, this doesn't work so I'll try something else.”