Don’t Waste Your Life
(A Message on God’s Forgiveness)
By Pastor Matt Black
09 April 2006
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 1:7
Introduction: Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The title of this morning’s message is “Don’t Waste Your Life.” Look at our text:
Ephesians 1:3-7
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
When you look at all that is in our text—it is amazing! The whole theme is that we are blessed! Look at all that God says is ours in Christ—
· Verse 3—we’re so blessed God is pouring out heaven for us
· Verse 4—we’re blessed because out of every one in the world, God has chosen us!
· Verse 5—He’s even adopted us into His own family just because He wanted to
· Verse 6—All of this is done through Christ!
Does all this describe your life today? If not, what are you doing with your life? Are you wasting it? You say, well how can I have all the blessings of God in my life like the Bible describes? The ticket to receiving the whole thing—the Christian life is found in verse 7.
So look at verse 7. There we come to a phrase—Paul says, you know what? In Christ you have something that is more important than anything!—you have “FORGIVENESS OF SINS.” What is that all about?
Well, the word “sins” there has the idea of offences or crimes.
I. Man’s DISASTER (His Greatest Problem)
We don’t like to think about our sins as something that really has consequences. We don’t want to call it sin.
Illustration: Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman told of a distinguished minister from Australia who preached very strongly one day on the subject of sin. After the service, one of the church officers came to counsel with him in his study and he said, "Dr. Howard, we don't want you to talk as openly as you do about man's corruption, because if our boys and girls hear you discussing the subject, they will more easily become sinners. Call it a mistake if you will, but don't speak so plainly about sin." The minister took down a small bottle from the cabinet and showed it to the visitor and said, "Do you see that label? It says strychnine, and underneath that in bold red letters is the word poison. Do you know, man, what you are asking me to do? You're suggesting that I change the label. Suppose I do and paste over it the words, essence of peppermint. Do you see what might happen? Someone would use it not knowing the danger involved and would die--and so it is too with the matter of sin. The milder you make the label, the more dangerous you make the poison." And so we cannot mitigate the danger of sin. We must speak of the issue.
What is sin? It’s when God says “DON’T.” And when God says “don’t,” He means “Don’t HURT yourself!” Sin will hurt you!
Because of sin there are tears and pain. Because of sin there are war and fighting. Because of sin, people have anxiety attacks and depression. We think we can make it without God, but we can’t! You may think you are doing fine now, but you will realize that when you leave God out, what you get is fear and worry, sickness and sadness, and ultimately you get death. That’s right, you’re going to die—maybe not today, but someday.
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23).
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
The problem is, we don’t think about those consequences. We think we are invincible. Don’t you know that you’re going to die?
Illustration: I think we are all familiar with the boxing legend Mohammed Ali. Reportedly, he was on a plane that had hit moderate turbulence. Anyone of you who flies knows that moderate turbulence is does not feel moderate at all. That’s like being a moderate millionaire. Usually when they say that, it you want to start praying. At any rate, this plane was hitting some pretty moderate turbulence, so the flight attendant ordered everyone on board to return to their seats and fasten their seatbelts immediately. Everyone complied except Mohammed Ali. So she went over to him and asked him to please put on his seat belt, at which point Ali looked at her and said, “Superman don’t need no seat belt.” She looked at him and replied right back, “Superman don’t need no airplane either.”
However super we might feel as men or women, we have suddenly come to the realization, if we are honest with ourselves, that we are not invincible. We are going to die. The airplane of life is going to eventually crash, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You will die.
What exactly is sin?
1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
What Law are we talking about? It is speaking about God’s moral Law. We are all going to give an account before God about this law.
Look at Revelation 20 and verse 12.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
What is it that God judges us by? Look at Revelation 21:7
Revelation 21:7-8 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
This is a basic summary of the ten commandments. You will be judged by them sooner than you know it.
1. Have you ever told a lie? That’s the ninth commandment. God’s not going to put his arm around you on judgment day and say, “Oh, you are a pretty good person.” Here you have the end of the story already. What do you call those who lie? A liar. God is going to tell the truth about you. He’s going to say, “You’re a liar.”
People think they can sin and get away with it, but they can't. This assumption was amply illustrated in a newspaper article about a man who died after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. An autopsy revealed that he had half a million dollars worth of cocaine packed in eleven rubber containers in his stomach. The coroner said that one or more of the containers appeared to have leaked, causing the individual to die of an overdose of the drug. Sin is that way...you may think you can contain a lot of it in your life, but it will eventually leak out and kill you.
To see that sin damns the soul to hell, all you have to do is read Revelation 20 about the Great White Throne Judgment and how people are cast into the lake of fire. And did you realize that over 50 million people die every year, which makes 136,986 that die every day, 5,707 every hour, and 95 every minute? Furthermore, there are 4.25 billion people in the world who will all die sooner or later, and are being replaced at two and one-half times the death rate. So not only are people all dying, but more of them are being born to die all the time. Hell is waiting for its victims.
Henry Van Dyke said, "Remember that what you possess in this world will be found at the day of your death and belong to someone else; what you are will be yours forever."
Sin will damn a soul. I don't especially like to talk about hell, but Jesus talked more about it than anybody in the whole Bible. Spurgeon said, "Many of you are hanging over the mouth of hell by a solitary plank and that plank is rotten."
The fact is, if you are not walking in your sin today, you are on VERY dangerous ground.
Ephesians 2:3 -- Paul identifies those controlled by their sin nature as "children of wrath," a bull's-eye for God's judgment.
Psalm 90:11 -- Moses said, "Who knoweth the power of Thine anger? Even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath." Who can measure God's almighty wrath? By the way, God's wrath is not just a passion. God's wrath is an act of His pure and holy will against sin which defiles His universe. It is good that God hates sin.
You have to ask yourself when you read the Bible and you read about God's wrath, how sinners can go blindly on in their sin.
1 Corinthians 16:22 -- "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema [accursed]."
II. Man’s DILEMNA: (His Greatest Need): Forgiveness.
Look at our text again in Ephesians 1:7. The Bible promises those who are the faithful of Jesus Christ that they have “forgiveness of sins.”
So you say, well, God’s not going to condemn me. You might say “I’m doing fine. I don’t need God.” Oh yeah? Look at the book of James.
Your goodness is not going to make you right with God! Look at Romans 3:19 It gives us the purpose of the Law. We keep comforting ourselves with the fact that we are not as bad as others. We might even boast to someone that we are a pretty good person. But Romans 3:19 tells us that God gave us the Law to shut our mouths!
Hey, we are not good people—we are liars, adulterers, murders, idolaters, and blasphemers!
You say well, OK, I’m guilty, but God’s not going to condemn the WHOLE WORLD.
If you believe that you are gambling big time. In fact the Bible says:
1 John 5:19 The whole world lieth in wickedness.
John 3:18 says it even more clearly.
John 3:18-19 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
So you need to stop justifying yourself. Then you need to realize that your greatest need is NOT happiness.
If you come to Christ, you must come to have your sins forgiven. Many people come to Christ because they think that He will help their marriage, remove their drug problem, fill the emptiness in their heart, or give them peace and joy. The truth is, your main need is not happiness, a good marriage, or the removal of a addicting habit from your life. Whether you have a good marriage or a bad marriage, whether you are content in your life, or miserable, whether you are a big sinner or all around great person, your GREATEST NEED is not happiness. Your greatest need is righteousness!!
The day is coming when you will stand before God.
Romans 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
God will require Payment for your sin!
Illustration: Think of it this way... You have violated the law and face a $50,000 fine. You tell the judge that you are truly sorry for your crime, but he answers, "So you should be -- you have broken the law! Now, can you pay this fine?" He can only acquit you if the fine is paid. If someone else pays your fine, then he can let you go, but he must have "grounds" on which to release you.
What about your sin? Who’s going to pay for your sin?
There are only TWO options—either you will pay for your sin forever in hell or Christ will pay for your sin.
Christ came to pay for your sins. That was the plan. It was prophesied way back in the Old Testament.
Christ came to give himself a “ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him [Christ], having forgiven you all trespasses;
“Quickened”
What this verse is saying is that you need to be quickened. Do you know what that means? It means that given LIFE! It’s like you see someone who is lying dead in the bed—no signs of life, and you pump his chest, and you know what happens? He is quickened. Instead of the cold dead line on the heart monitor, you see the vital signs begin to jump all over the place!
So it’s like all the sudden you are living your life, and you come face to face with the truth about your sin and your need for forgiveness. And God just wakes you up. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17), and you just say, Hey, this makes sense! I’ve really wasted my life. I’ve lived like a fool. And you say, I want Christ to forgive me!
And Christ WILL forgive you. But what must you do?
III. Man’s DECISION: (His Greatest Crossroads)
Here today you have a decision to make. You must decide if you will continue going the way you are going, or if you will repent and turn to God. Christ has paid the price for you.
Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Hebrews 4:7 To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
2 Corinthians 6:2 Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Christ speaks to you today!
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Mark 8:34
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
Conclusion: Don’t WASTE your life! Your life is precious, and you are wasting it with every sin you commit against God, and every day you live without Him. God has given you something precious—life! Turn to Jesus Christ today!
Closing Hymn: 635 I Have Decided to Follow Jesus