Welcome

Hello. This is Tim Pasma, pastor of LaRue Baptist Church. Allow me to extend to you my warmest personal greetings. I hope that as you visited, you found a welcome that was warm and worship that directed your attention to the Lord Jesus Christ. We at LaRue Baptist Church are excited about that worship, for we have been profoundly changed by the truth that we have found in Christ Jesus through his word, the Bible.

Allow me a few minutes, if you would, to share some of those truths with you. In the Bible, God reveals himself to you. He speaks in the words of Scripture. There, he describes himself. God is personal. God is not a thing, a power, or influence.

He thinks, feels, desires, and acts in ways that show him to be a living, personal being. But he is not just a man upstairs or some kind of Superman. Jeremiah 10.10 says, God is plural. There is only one true God. He says in Isaiah, I am the first and the last. Apart from me there is no God.

Yet God has revealed himself as a trinity of three persons, the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is truly, fully, and equally God. The Bible speaks of the glory of God the Father. It says that the Word, Jesus Christ, was God. And it speaks of the Lord who is the Spirit. While there is only one God, there are three persons in the Godhead.

God is spiritual. He has no physical dimensions. He does not have a body, nor does he have any characteristics that we can define in terms of size and shape. In John chapter 4, we read these words, God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. This means that God is invisible. No one has ever seen God.

It also means that he is not confined to one place at a time, but is everywhere all the time. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord? Quite apart from anything else, This means that God is fully aware of everything that happens everywhere. This includes not only everything you do and say, but every thought that passes through your mind.

These truths are almost beyond our comprehension, but there are other qualities of the living God that we can and we must understand. It is essential that we understand that God is holy. He is majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, says Moses in the book of Exodus. There's no comparison with the holiness of God. There's no one holy like the Lord who is utterly without fault or defect.

The Bible says of him, your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong. And this holy God demands holiness from every one of us. His command to us today is, be holy because I am holy. God says he is just. The Bible says that the Lord is a God of justice. and that righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

You see, God is not only our creator and sustainer, he is also our judge, rewarding and punishing in time and eternity with a justice that is perfect and beyond any appeal or dispute. God is perfect. His knowledge is perfect. In Hebrews 4, verse 13, we read this, nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account God knows everything in the past present and future including all our thoughts words and deeds his wisdom is perfect and utterly beyond our understanding the apostle Paul says in the book of Romans oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out Now since God is holy and perfect he demands perfection Jesus summed up that demand in Matthew 22 when he said, 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 neighbor as yourself. You see, God demands absolutely perfect love toward God and others. But do you see that anywhere? Today's newspaper, television, and radio headlines remind us of the fact that the world is in a mess. It is easy to condemn violence, injustice, disorder, and wrongdoing in society.

But before criticizing others, ask yourself whether you are perfect and living a life pleasing to a holy God. Are you absolutely honest, pure, loving, and selfless? God knows the answers to these questions, and so do you. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, it says in Romans 3.23. You are a sinner by birth, by nature, by practice, and by choice, and you urgently need to face the facts and the consequences.

Many people almost certainly, cheerfully, admit to being sinners because they have no idea what this means. They treat it as being just human nature or they shelter behind the fact that everybody does it. But those statements dodge the real issue. Is sin serious? Here are some of the things the Bible says about you as a sinner. You are debased.

This does not mean that you are as bad as you could possibly be, nor that you are constantly committing every sin. Nor does it mean that you cannot tell right from wrong or do things that are pleasant and helpful. But it does mean that sin has invaded every part of your nature and personality, your mind, your will, your affections, your conscience, your disposition, and even your imagination.

Jeremiah 17.9 says this, The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. The root of your trouble is not what you do, but what you are. You sin because you are a sinner. You are defiled. The Bible pulls no punches here. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

Now, those are the words of Jesus. Notice that the list includes thoughts, words, and actions. This shows that in God's sight, all sin is equally serious. Some people limit their idea of sin to things like murder, adultery, and robbery. But the Bible makes it clear that we have no right to think of sin in this way. Sin is anything that fails to meet God's perfect standards.

Anything we say, anything we think, or anything we do that is less than perfect is sin. Now face up to this question that the writer of Proverbs asks. Who can say I have kept my heart pure. I am clean and without sin. Can you? If not, you are defiled.

You are defiant. The Bible teaches that sin is lawlessness, deliberate rebellion against God's authority and law. No civil law forces you to lie, cheat, have impure thoughts, or sin in any other way. you choose to sin. You choose to break God's holy law. You deliberately disobey him and that is serious because God is a righteous judge who expresses his wrath every day, says the Psalms.

God can never be soft about sin and you can be sure that not even one sin will go unpunished. Some small part of God's punishment of sin comes in this life, though we may not recognize it, But the final punishment will be inflicted after death when on the day of judgment each one of us will give an account of himself to God Sin is serious Everyone is a sinner. God is perfect, and he must punish all sin.

Now that presents us with a dilemma. How can anyone then be right with God? Is there an answer? Yes there is, and God has provided it. The central message of the Bible is summed up in these words, and I'm sure you've heard these words before. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

We saw earlier that a just and holy God must punish sin, but the Bible also tells us that God is love. While God hates sin, he loves sinners and longs to forgive them. But how can a sinner be justly pardoned when God's law demands his spiritual and physical death? Only God can solve that problem. And he did so in the person of Jesus Christ. In 1 John chapter 4 verse 14 we read this.

The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. God the Son became a man by taking upon himself human nature. Although Jesus became fully man, he remained fully God. The Bible says that in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. He remained as completely God as if he had not become man. He became as completely man as if he were not God.

Jesus Christ is therefore unique, and the Bible confirms this in many ways. His conception was unique. He had no human father, but was conceived in a virgin's womb by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. His words are unique. People were amazed at his teaching because his message had authority, says the gospel writer Luke. His miracles were unique.

He went about healing every sickness and disease among the people, and on several occasions even raised the dead. His character was unique. It says in Hebrews, he was tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin, so that God the Father could say of him, this is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Notice that last statement. This means that as a man, Jesus kept the law of God in every part and therefore was not subject to sin's double death penalty.

Yet he was arrested on a trumped up charge, sentenced on false evidence and eventually crucified at Jerusalem. Yet his death was not a freak or an unavoidable accident. Peter says in the book of Acts that it was all part of God's set purpose and foreknowledge. The Father sent the Son for the very purpose of paying sin's death penalty and Jesus willingly came.

In his own words, the purpose of his coming into the world was to give his life as a ransom for many. His death, like his life, was unique. This makes it vital that you understand what happened when Jesus died and what his death can mean to you. All the Bible's teaching points to the death of Jesus. Neither his perfect life, nor his marvelous teaching, nor his powerful miracles are the focus of the Bible's message.

These are all important, but above all else, Jesus came into the world to die. What makes his death so important? The answer is that he died as a substitute, a sin bearer, and a savior. Jesus is the substitute. This demonstrates the love of God. Sinners are guilty, lost, and helpless in the face of God's holy law, which demands punishment for every sin.

How can they possibly escape God's righteous wrath? The Bible's answer is this. It says in Romans chapter 5 verse 3, God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners Christ died for us As part of an amazing rescue plan God the Son volunteered to take the place of sinners and bear the just penalty for their sins Thus the sinless Son of God willingly suffered and died for them, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

Jesus is the sin-bearer. This demonstrates the holiness of God. There was nothing fake about Christ's death. The penalty for sin was paid in full. He died not only physically, but spiritually. As he hung on the cross, he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

At that terrible moment, God the Father turned his back on his beloved son, who then endured the penalty of separation from God. Notice how this shows God's perfect holiness. All sin, every sin, must be punished. And when Jesus took the place of sinners, he became as accountable for their sins as if he'd been responsible for them. The one man who lived a perfect life suffered the double death penalty of the guilty.

Jesus, last of all, is the Savior. This demonstrates the power of God. Three days after his death, Christ was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, it says in Romans. In Acts it says, he gave many convincing proofs he was alive, and he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. In raising Christ from the dead, God powerfully demonstrated that he accepted his death in the place of sinners as the full and perfect payment of sin's penalty and as the basis on which he can offer a full and free pardon to those who would otherwise be doomed to spend eternity in hell.

Well, how does this apply to you? How can you get right with God? How can Christ become your Savior? According to the Bible, you must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, you must repent. This means a complete change regarding sin.

There must be a change of mind. You must admit that you are a sinner, a rebel against a holy and loving God. There must be a change of heart, genuine sorrow and shame at the vileness and filthiness of your sin. Then you must be willing to forsake it and change the direction of your life. God will not forgive any sin you're not willing to forsake. You must have faith in Christ.

First of all, this means accepting that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that Christ died for the ungodly. Secondly, it means believing that in his power and love, Christ is able and willing to save you. Thirdly, it means actually putting your trust in Christ, relying upon him and him alone to make you right with God. You're proud that sinful nature will fight against abandoning trust in your own goodness or religion, yet you have no alternative. you must stop trusting in anything else and trust only in Christ who is according to Hebrews 7 25 able to save completely those who come to God through him these are the truths that have transformed us our desires that you share in that transformation once again we want you to know that we have counted it a privilege to have ministered to you in our worship service we look forward to seen you again.

Now, if you have any questions, would you please call us? The church phone is 740-499-2979, or you can reach me at home at 740-499-2238. Thanks for listening. We hope to see you soon.