Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

• Romans 3:20

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

• Deuteronomy 6:5

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

• Leviticus 19:18

As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; …
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• Romans 3:10, 23

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

• 1 John 1:8

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

• Genesis 6:5

“Q. From where do you know your sins and misery?

From the law of God.

Rom 3:20; 7:7-25.”

• Heidelberg Catechism, Question 3

Q.  What does God’s law require of us?

Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:
Love your neighbour as yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Deut 6:5.
Lev 19:18.

• Heidelberg Catechism, Question 4

Q.  Can you keep all this perfectly?

No, I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour.

Rom 3:10, 23; 1 Jn 1:8, 10.
Gen 6:5; 8:21; Jer 17:9; Rom 7:23; 8:7; Eph 2:3; Tit 3:3.

• Heidelberg Catechism, Question 5

The Message

I only provided a few of the Scriptures, but the Bible references are provided, if you care to look them up.

There are three questions for this vespers service.  They relate to each other.

How are we made aware of our sin?  The Law of God, written in the Bible, tells us what sin is.

What is that Law? We could do it the hard way and read the second half of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and various parts of Numbers, but then Deuteronomy goes over a lot of it.

But we could reduce that to the Ten Commandments, but Jesus said that the intent to do one of those “shall not” statements is as bad as doing it.

Or we can reduce that down to the summary that Jesus used: Love God with everything that we have, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

I have wondered about people who do not love themselves, but many of those people love themselves too much.  They focus on the wrongs done to them and handicaps that they might have and they see the injustice.  They really love themselves unrealistically.  We all sin.  None of us deserves Grace and Mercy.  Not deserving it is in the definitions of the words Grace and Mercy, so why do we think we deserve it?  One reason that I can think of is that we sin.

We cannot get out of our way.  Paul speaks of how the Law does not save us.  The Law condemns us.  The Law is this high standard that is impossible to reach.

I taught a Sunday school class called the Video College of Biblical Knowledge at one time.  The person on the video said that if we locked ourselves in a room without a TV, radio, phone, etc.  He did not think we could last an hour without sinning at least once.  No external stimuli.  Just us and our thoughts.  One lady thought she could do it.  She could prove this biblical scholar wrong.  I told her that knowing her, she would do great for the first fifty-five minutes.  But seeing the finish line in sight, she would be so full of herself, proud that she had done it, that she would ruin it all right before the finish line.  She cackled and agreed.

But God had it written into the Bible that we could not succeed.  Because Jesus has already paid the price if we place our trust in Him.  Can we avoid sin?  No, but Jesus paid that price.

And when we are with Him, that sin will be washed away.

And now let us sing.

Here is Jesus, Friend of Sinners sung by Casting Crowns.

 

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We believe in You.  We cannot get out of our own way in order to reach out for You.  You must even do that.  Lord, we love You.  You suffered greatly for me.  And yet, I whine and complain when I am in pain.  Let we know that the suffering continues until we are with You forever.  That makes Your salvation that much more wonderful.  We have within us the gifts that You desired for us to have, and we must love You in return and love our neighbors also.  We have unlovable neighbors at times.  They sin, just like we do.  Do we not love them as we should because we see ourselves in them?  Lord, thank You for helping me remember that I am still a work in progress, and any progress that I make comes from You.
In Thy name we pray,
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.