October 13, 2002

Service Theme – "Our God is Righteous"

Genesis 1:31; 6:5

From Righteousness to Ruin in Three Easy Steps

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – John Fischer in Contemporary Christian Music (Feb. 1987, as cited on PreachingToday.com), wrote, [Worldly] compromise is so hard to find. It is not an issue that you easily identify, fight, picket, or bomb. It's slippery. It's illusive. It conceals itself in the highest places and wraps its evil tentacles around the most bedrock truth. It disguises itself with much good intention and, when uncovered, it excuses itself repeatedly with helpless cries of fatalism. Compromise is primarily a heart issue and this is what makes it so hard to find. How do you examine the heart?
2. Context – Compromise is an issue we all struggle with. Compromise has been our downfall many times in our lives. And compromise caused man to go from righteousness to ruin in the beginning of time. Let’s see how.

1. Scripture Passages

1. Genesis 1:31 – God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Now let’s look at Genesis 6:5 - The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
2. Context - How did man get from "very good" to "only evil all the time"? We try to find excuses. We try to blame it on our parents, or on our circumstances, or on someone who’s hurt us. But as pastor Dave Engbrecht, who I got the concepts for this series of sermons from, said, "You are the sum total of every choice and decision you have made your whole life." It comes down to choices, and we’re going to look at three major decisions man made that brought him from "very good" to "only evil all the time."

1. The Road to Ruin

1. Man’s first bad choice is found in Genesis 3:1-7. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" ⁴ "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Adam and Eve chose to discount and compromise the word of God. What had God said? Genesis 2:15-17 - The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Eve added to the word of God that little phrase, "and you must not touch it." Eve didn’t believe what God said enough to let it stand on its own. She embellished it. And then she and Adam decided to disbelieve God and believe Satan. Before then they had known only good – God saw everything including man and said that it was very good. Now they listened to the tempter and knew both good and evil. Their choice cost them their home in paradise, and eventually their lives and the life of Abel. They started the downhill moral path of man by choosing to discount and compromise the word of God. Many of us have chosen to do the same thing. Many of our lives have reflected a series of bad choices. I’m living proof of that. I tried just about everything but God to deal with the pain and rejection I felt in life. I was willing to try almost anything rather than do things God’s way. There are probably more than a few people here today who are trying to make it without God like I did. But it’s not too late to change direction. The grace of God is more than enough to turn our lives around if we choose today to start making the right choices – the choices not to discount and compromise the word of God. Ultimately, each one of us has to answer the question – what are we going to do with the word of God? Is it going to be the moral authority over our lives? God’s word isn’t trying to keep us from having fun. Dave Engbrecht says, "God’s word is not so much restrictive as protective." It’s designed to keep us out of trouble. What are we going to do about it?
2. Man’s second bad choice is found in Genesis 4:1-5. Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." ² Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. ³ In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. ⁴ But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Cain was totally torqued. Why? Because his brother showed him up in front of God! How did Abel do that? Simple – he gave the best of his flocks to God, while Cain gave "some of the fruits of the soil." You and I know well enough that if you’re just going to give some stuff to someone and you don’t care about quality, you just grab whatever hits your hand and don’t bother looking to see whether or not it’s good stuff. The key to the passage is the quality of the offering that was given. Cain didn’t care about the quality, but Abel did. If only Abel had just done things like Cain did, then everybody would have lived happily ever after. If Abel had just gotten with the program, nothing bad would have happened to him. Isn’t that how we tend to think? Remember in school the kid who always messed with the grading curve? He’d be the only one to do really well on a test, so the teacher wouldn’t give us another chance. And who would we be mad at? That kid because he worked hard, studied, and did well. It made the fact that we didn’t work too hard or study very much stand out like a sore thumb. So instead of studying harder we’d try to work a deal with the teacher. Think about this: how many times in our life have we tried to work a deal with God? "God, if only You do this, I’ll do whatever You say" or some similar variation. Man’s second bad choice is one we still haven’t left behind. Man’s second bad choice was to give God the second best, not the very best. I tried that. I tried to tell God that I’d make a much better anything else than a preacher. And I tried several jobs to prove it to Him. Between college and seminary, I had seven different employers. I would work hard and do my best to do a good job, but those jobs just didn’t fulfill. It took me a long time to figure out that God created me to be a pastor, and He wasn’t going to settle for second best. Many of the people in this room have been living like Cain for years, only giving God their second best. Isn’t it about time we stopped giving God our feeble excuses and justifying our second best, and give Him the very best of who we are and what we have? Man’s second bad choice was to give God the second best, not the very best, and that’s a choice we can’t afford to make any longer.
3. Man’s third bad choice is found in Genesis 6:1-8. When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, ² the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. ³ Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. ⁵ The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. ⁶ The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. ⁷ So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. This is a difficult passage, but the best interpretation I can make of it is this. Some of the angels saw some real babes walking around on earth. They looked at God in His glory. Then they looked at those babes. They decided that being in God’s presence and doing what God wanted them to do wasn’t good enough. So they followed their own will and came down to earth and married those babes. God said, Okay, you do that, and you and your children will become mortal. They traded the glory of God and the ability to worship and experience Him forever for a few years of a wild fling on earth. They had some powerful kids who did some mighty deeds, but the end didn’t justify the means. The evil of all men on earth became so bad that God’s heart was grieved. Those angels contributed to man’s third bad choice – to follow your own will rather than God’s will for your life. I’ve already told you how hard I tried to follow my own will instead of God’s will for my life. It got me nothing but heartache. I hurt myself and I hurt the ones who love me. I grieved the heart of God with my disobedience and sin, because God in His holiness will not tolerate sin and disobedience. Lots of so-called Christians and so-called Christian leaders try to tell us that God’s love is so strong we can do anything we want and get away with it. God’s love is strong enough to forgive our sin if we call on the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ to wash us clean and then follow Him wholeheartedly. But God’s holiness will not let the sins of those who don’t follow and obey Jesus to go unpunished. Some people in this room right now have been trying to follow their own wills instead of God and still make it into heaven. I’m not a "hell, fire and brimstone" preacher, but I can tell you that if you keep trying to live that way, you won’t make it to heaven. But it’s not too late to change. It’s not too late to make the choice to stop following your own will instead of God’s will for your life.
4. Genesis 6:8 tells us that, no matter what we’ve done, there is hope for us if we choose to change the choices we’ve made. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Grace. Before God brings judgment He always offers grace. And right now, there is a truth you can be sure of. No matter what sin you’ve committed you have the opportunity to make the choice to reverse your direction. That doesn’t mean you won’t have to face consequences for what you’ve done. But it does mean that you will have the peace of knowing that you are on God’s side and He will take care of you. Even if you’ve chosen to discount and compromise the word of God, He is extending His grace to you if you will choose to receive it by changing your direction and asking for His forgiveness and following Him. Even if you’ve chosen to give God your second best instead of your very best, He is extending His grace to you if you choose to receive it by changing your direction and asking for His forgiveness and following Him. Even if you’ve chosen to follow your own will rather that God’s will for your life, He is extending His grace to you if you choose to receive it by changing your direction and asking for His forgiveness and following Him. It is never too late to reverse your direction as long as you draw breath.
5. Dave Engbrecht told the story of going to a discount bookstore and beginning to flip through the pages of a novel, reading enough to get the gist of the plot. But suddenly the words stopped, and the end of the book was filled with nothing but blank pages. He thought he’d get a really good discount on that one! But when he turned back to the front cover, he noticed a phrase he hadn’t seen before. It said, "Write your own ending." And right now God is saying to you, "I know you’ve made some bad choices, but it’s not too late to change the way the story ends. Turn to Me, and we’ll write the rest of the story together." Remember, you are the sum total of every choice and decision you’ve made your whole life. Make the choice for righteousness right now.
6. Illustration – Melvin Newland writes (cited on SermonCentral.com) Shohoiya Yokowai spent 28 years of his life in prison. It was not a prison of bars & locks & wardens, but a self-imposed prison of fear. He was a Japanese soldier on the island of Guam during WW2. And when the American forces landed, he fled into the jungle & found a cave in which he hid for 28 years because he was afraid of being captured by the Americans. He learned that the war was over by reading one of the thousands of pamphlets dropped into the jungle. But he was afraid. So for 28 years he lived in the cave, coming out only at night to look for roaches & rats & frogs & mangoes on which he survived. Finally some natives found him & convinced him that it would be all right for him to come out of his jungle prison. We think, "What a waste! Imagine, spending 28 years living as a prisoner of fear." Yet, there are a lot of people who are prisoners of fear. Changing our choices is scary, but God is greater than our fears. God is extending His grace to you right now. Will you receive it?

1. Conclusion

1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Have you made the choice to discount and compromise the word of God? Have you make the choice to give God the second best, not your very best? Have you made the choice to follow your own will rather than God’s will for your life? It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in these three areas because God’s grace is more than enough to forgive and cleanse you and set you on the right path. Will you receive it?
2. If you want to receive God’s gracious forgiveness for making choices that have been totally against His word and His will, please come forward now to the altars and receive that grace. As that old hymn goes, "Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that can pardon and cleanse from sin; Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all my sin."