February 26, 2006
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What’s
Wrong with Me?
Romans
5:12-19
Last week we asked the question: “What’s wrong with the world?”
This week we are asking an even more problematic question: “What’s
wrong with me?” There seems to be
something wrong with the world for sure, but there also seems to be something
wrong with me. Why is it so hard
for me to do what is right? Why do I have these feelings of wanting to fight God, resist
him, rebel against him, or just walk away?
Why do I have these thoughts? Why
am I struggling with things? Why is
it easier to do what is wrong than what is right?
Why do I have to work at being good, but being bad comes so naturally?
Welcome to the human race. If
that is how you feel, then be assured you are normal, and there are reasons why
you have those feelings and struggles. One
of the things I have always appreciated about the Bible is how open it is about
the character flaws and sins of its most prominent people.
They wrestled with God. They
doubted, got mad at God, sinned, had huge personality flaws, fell on their face,
and failed. But what made them
people of God was that, in their struggle, they overcame doubt with faith; knew
that even though they were temporarily mad at God, they loved him; sinned, but
sought forgiveness; fell, but got back up, and failed, but kept going. They struggled, but they did not quit. They stumbled, but they did not fall away completely.
Their faith was not in themselves, but in a God of grace and power who
was always there for them.
Look at King David. Here was
a man whom the Bible says was “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22).
He wrote countless songs of praise and worship.
For the most part he was a righteous ruler of Israel.
But in one unguarded moment he took another man’s wife as his own, and
then he had the man killed to cover up his sin.
How could someone this close to God do something so awful? The answer, in part, is because he trusted himself too much.
Probably the day before his heinous act you could not have convinced him
that he was capable of such evil, but because he did not take his capacity for
evil seriously, he fell into grievous sin.
Perhaps he had been worshiping the Lord that very morning.
It is possible that he had written one of his beautiful Psalms of worship
just the day before . David could
have given up on himself, but instead he turned to God with true penance, and
his prayer of repentance is recorded in Psalm 51.
David mirrored the feelings we have all had when he wrote: “Surely I
was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm
51:5).
The problem is that we, like the people in the Bible, struggle in the
same ways. Why are we like this?
What is wrong with us? The
Bible has an answer at several levels. The
first is: Our problem is the condition of
sin. There is a distinction
between sin (singular) and sins (plural). Sin
(singular) is the condition that exists in us as a part of our human nature.
Sins (plural) are our actions, the things we commit.
Let’s first talk about sin, the condition.
As we read in the Scripture today, the first human beings invited sin
into their hearts and thereby into the world, and we, like them, have continued
the tradition. Sin originally came
into the world through Adam and Eve, and the whole world fell away from God, but
sin continues to come into the world through each of us when we decide not to do
God’s will. Sin is not a word
that our culture likes to hear, but from the beginning the human family has made
itself the enemy of God. We wanted
to be God rather than belong to God, even though we were God’s creation and
had no idea how to be God. We
wanted to maintain control over our lives.
This is the condition that marks our hearts.
Clean House is the name for a
show, hosted by Niecy Nash on the Style Channel.
The show has experts in cleaning, organizing, remodeling, and painting
who descend on a cluttered, messy home with the purpose of leaving it organized,
clean and livable. The experts
trying to get the home in shape have to overcome a house with clothes strewn
across the floor, cabinets overflowing with junk, closets filled from top to
bottom, counter tops piled high, and kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, and living
rooms that are a mess. There is not
a clean or neat room in the house! The
experts first have to inventory everything.
Then they have to decide what to keep, what to sell and what to throw
away. The problem is that the
people who live in the house want to hold on to everything.
Even outdated clothes, things they have forgotten, stuff that has never
been used, dated decorations and just plain junk that has no good use has all
been hoarded. A yard sale is held
and the money that is made is used to help with the makeover.
When the family leaves the real work begins.
Rooms are cleaned out, organized and repainted.
New window coverings, cabinets, shelves and more are put in place.
The rooms are painted and decorated.
The home is transformed. As
the family returns, they are often overwhelmed by the change.
Tears of gratitude are shed, and they are profuse in their thanks for the
change that has taken place.
The only problem is that the same people are living in the house.
You just know that even though the house has been decorated and cleaned
out, it will not take long for it to get back to the condition it was in before
the cleaning was done. Jesus told a very similar parable. He said: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes
through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’
When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in
order. Then it goes and takes with
it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there.
And the final condition of that man is worse than the first” (Matthew
12:43-45). The meaning of Jesus’
parable is that we can rearrange all the spiritual furniture; we can be forgiven
and cleansed, but if there is no inner transformation, no change in the
condition of who we are at the core, then things will not only go back to the
way they were before, but may even be worse. Something must happen to change the sinful nature within us.
We cannot just try to take out the sin, it must be replaced with
something else.
The problem begins with a condition, the reality of who we are, but the
results are lived out in what we do. So
the second point is: Our problem is
committing sins. The result of
having the condition of a sinful heart is that we will do sinful things.
Our aim is not just putting forth extra effort and trying harder.
Our goal needs to be to aim at inner purity — a transformed heart that
loves God and wants to please him. We
may still fail, but our desire to love God and live for him will keep us coming
back to him and the life he wants us to live.
We want our lives to be an example and count for God.
Our goal is not to put on a good front, but to experience a genuine
change of heart through repentance and faith, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is not enough to just empty your heart of sin, it must be filled with
the Holy Spirit. You cannot just
master your will and stop sinning, your will must be filled with a transforming
holy desire to be free of sin and filled with a love of righteousness.
It is not enough to just empty your mind of wrong things, it must be
filled with God’s Word. We must
die to self and come alive to God. This
was the prayer of David after he sinned. He
cried out to God saying, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a
steadfast spirit within me. Do not
cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to
sustain me” (Psalm 51:10-12). That
is a good prayer to pray.
When we struggle with these things, we are in good company.
Paul was the greatest Christian the world has ever known, but he wrote
these words: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful
nature. For I have the desire to do
what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For
what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do —
this I keep on doing. Now if I do
what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in
me that does it. So I find this law
at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at
work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making
me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am! Who
will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:18-25).
So what is the answer to what is wrong with me?
How do I overcome this powerful sin problem I have that is both a
condition and a practice? Do we
give up on ourselves and say that we are just no good?
Do we say that we just can’t help being who we are and doing what we
do, so God and everybody else will just have to get over it?
Do we just say that we are living by grace, and therefore it does not
matter what we do? Paul answered
this when he said: “What shall we say, then?
Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We died to sin;
how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-7).
This brings us to the final point: The
solution to our problem is forgiveness and transformation.
We need forgiveness for the sins we practice, but we also need
transformation for the sin condition in our nature.
The Bible says, “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please
God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by
the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.
And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to
Christ” (Romans 8:8-9).
Sometimes I think that a lot of Christians believe that they can do this
by themselves. They can be good on
their own. It’s not that hard:
you believe in God, come to church and try to do what is right. At least this is the way many Christians live isn’t it?
They don’t think they need other Christians.
They don’t need Christian community.
They don’t have to pray every day.
They don’t have to read the Bible regularly.
They don’t have to take time to meditate.
May I ask you a question? Is
this the way you are living? Are
you living as though you can do this by yourself without any help from God or
any connection with others? You
live as though you don’t need the Bible, because you have things figured out.
You don’t have to have any regular time of prayer, because you can
shoot up a quick one anytime you want.
John Owen, a theologian from the 1600's once wrote: “However strong a
castle may be, if a treacherous party resides inside (ready to betray at the
first opportunity possible), the castle cannot be kept safe from the enemy.
Traitors occupy our own hearts, ready to side with every temptation and
to surrender to them all.”
Listen, this is not something we can do for ourselves.
The truth is that the harder we try the worse we fail.
This must be the work of God in us.
It comes to us when we lay down before God admitting our sin, turning
from it, dying to ourselves and asking for the grace to be what he wants us to
be. We cannot change ourselves,
only God can change us. The Bible
says, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the
sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to
be a sin offering. And so he
condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law
might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but
according to the Spirit. Those who
live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set
on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:3-5).
Here is what it takes. At
the risk of simplifying the Christian faith into a formula, here are some
essential steps: 1. You have to be honest with God about who you are and what
you have done. 2. You have to come
to God, confessing your sin and asking for his forgiveness for the sins you have
committed. 3. You have to turn from
those sins with genuine sorrow for what you have done — this is what the Bible
refers to as repentance. 4. You
have to surrender the right to be in charge of your own life, and give in to
God. 5. You have to die to yourself
and come alive to God, asking him to fill you with his Holy Spirit.
6. You have to commit a part of each day to seeking God through reading
his Word and talking to him in prayer. 7.
You have to believe that he has done what you have asked him to do: forgive your
sin, transform your heart and give you eternal life.
8. You have to live in community with others and have your life count by
serving others. 9. You have to live
expectantly and obediently until Jesus comes or you go to him.
I wonder this morning if I could lead you in a prayer. Perhaps you are a Christian.
If so, it never hurts to pray a prayer like this.
Perhaps you hope that Christ has forgiven you and has come into your
life, but you cannot say with absolute certainty that you belong to him.
Perhaps you have never made a commitment to Christ, but only because no
one has given you the opportunity. Perhaps
you have resisted giving yourself to God and surrendering to him, but you
realize you need to do that. You
have been putting this off. Today
is your day. This is your time and
place. Today is the day that will
go down as the time you gave your life to Christ, experienced his forgiveness
and filling. Today you stepped over
the line. Today you died to sin,
came alive to God and experienced the filling of his Holy Spirit.
Would you pray this prayer with me out loud this morning:
“O God I thank you
for loving me and giving me life. I
confess to you that I have sinned and stand in need of your forgiveness.
I am truly sorry. With your help, and by your grace, I turn from my sin and I
turn to you. I want to die to
myself and come alive to you. Take
my life. Transform my heart.
Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Give
me the strength to love you and live in loving obedience to you.
Help me to be your disciple, learning and growing daily.
Thank you for forgiving my sin and coming into my life.
Help my life to make a difference in this world and be a shining witness
for you. In Christ’s name,
Amen.”
If you have prayed that prayed with sincerity today, God has begun a
supernatural work within you. You
are forgiven and free. You are a
child of God and heaven is your home. There
is nothing in this world, or the next, that can take that from you.
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall 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, shall we be saved through his
life!” (Romans 5:9-10).
Rodney
J. Buchanan
February
26, 2006
Mulberry
St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Mulberry
Street United Methodist Church