#3 - God's gospel alone addresses our deepest need

Many years ago, when I was involved deeply in computers, there were many people that would come to me and ask what should I buy. I would always answer, you ask me, I have enough information to be dangerous.

Then I would always ask. What do you want a computer for, what are you planning on doing with it.

You see, there were many options. If the person wanted to play games, I would direct them to a gaming system.

If they were typing letters, I would say spend money on a good printer, if they had difficult seeing get a good monitor,

If they were planning on using their computer with a high need for calculations or high memory, I would say get as much memory as you can afford.

I would tell them to walk into the store with a limit that they are willing to spend and stay within your budget.

It all came down to their biggest need.

It’s that with every decision we make. If you are buying a car, what is your biggest need.

Traveling around Merritt, smart car, Highway driving during Friday’s first snow. Stay home

What about a mattress? I now hear that you can buy a mattress with a snoring sensor. If you spouse is snoring it automatically raises the head of the bed on the side of the snoring person. By the end of the sleep, I would be sleeping upright.

What is the greatest need?

This week’s big idea is simple

Big Idea God’s gospel alone addresses our deepest need.

"Big Idea" 3: God’s gospel alone addresses our deepest need.

This morning I want you to think for a moment. Do you know your greatest need.

In a world we live in today, the message they give is Me first.

Do what is good for you.

What is your greatest need This morning we are going to look at our greatest need and how God’s Gospel is the solution to our greatest and deepest need?

In order to understand this week’s big Idea, I am going to take you through a 3 step process.

We are going to look who Man is in God’s Eyes. The way in which we were created. The choice made for mankind, and finally finish with How the Gospel fulfills God’s plan for mankind.

Created in God’s Image

The first thing that you must learn is that God created man.

Psalm 8:3–4 ESV

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

The Psalmist reminds us about the creation story. It reminds us of the power of God. The psalmist begins by saying, oh lord our lord how majestic is your name.

It was in this majesty that God created Man?

Original Creation

I love looking at art. If we go to a tourist town there is often an art gallery.

I find myself going into the shop and seeing the art.

I always look for painting that attract me to the skill of the artist.

When you see the artist print there is always a number. You see the original is not on display but a replica of the original. If you are shocked by the price of the print, image the cost of the original.

My siblings are painters. My brother a few years ago began to paint. He one day took up the craft and we were all amazed at the quality. I went to visit him one day and I asked if I could have one of his paintings. He picked up a painting and signed it and gave it to me. It is a picture of a stream and it reminded me of the many psalms.

I have an original. He now sells prints, but I have one of his earlier originals.

To understand our greatest need we need to go back to the original creation.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Original Creation of Adam & Eve

To look at the book of Genesis we hold to the fact there was a literal Adam & Eve. First created mankind.

They were a result of God, the triune God made man in His Image. The eternally existing Triune God looked over creation and noticed that all the He had created was missing something. Relationships.

In our definition of a disciple we

is someone who is seeking to know God, while being transformed into the image of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit in the context of Community.

Community.

Animals existed in creation before man. Their connection with one another is far different that mankind. A mouse and an eagle have a relationship, but the mouse well....

God saw the animals he created and wanted to create something that he can connect with.

Created in His image is a powerful statement.

We did not evolve from a lower class of animal. We need to declare that there was a created Adam and Eve, created by God, Created in the Image of God.

We also need to confirm that Adam and Eve in creation were to bear God’s Image in the purest essence.

They walked in the garden with God. They were the originals. Created with the ability to choose

The Gospel truth writes,

All human life at whatever stage of development from conception to death at whatever social economical status and at whatever level of physical or intellectual cap capability is sacred because all human beings are created in God's image.

Equal in creation male and female

Another fact we need to affirm is God’s description of the original creation is that He created mankind male and female.

The original creation gender issue shows us that God’s design before the fall was to have community of male and female. This is important on various levels.

Genesis 2:18 ESV

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

When you read through Gen 2 it deals in a deeper story of the process of Gen 1. God’s original creation of man, Adam was without Eve.

God saw at that point, that a dog might be his best friend, but human companionship was and is far greater.

If you ever wondered why Eve is described as women, as one comedian once said. When Adam first saw her, he pronounced with excitement … WOOOMAN

I am a strong proponent of teams in ministry. For those of us among us who struggled with group projects in school, you know who you are, teams allow us to work together to commune together God’s original design of mankind built in it a desire to be with one another.

That I would say is the hardest part of this pandemic. We are constantly told, and in some cases good causes, to not be with others. We are told to live like we are travelling on an elevator. Faced in the same direction, not communicating, waiting for our floor to come so that we can leave.

God created the original Adam and Eve for one another and God Created them equal in their relationship and standing before God

So we note that the original creation was created in God’s Image, That the original creation were created equal and finally we find in Genesis God’s design for the original marriage.

Biblical Definition of Marriage

The first description of a biblical marriage is found in Gen 2:24

Genesis 2:24 ESV

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Many of us have heard these words at weddings we have been to. They are words of what God’s design for marriage is.

As a church of the Evangelical Free church we hold to this as a definition of marriage.

let’s take a look at this definition:

First we find this statement is written about what a marriage should look like after the fall.

This is God’s ideal for marriage.

Genesis 2:20–24 ESV

20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This is a description of the first marriage of a man and a women before sin made things messy.

I recently was introduced to a phrase that I can’t get out of my mind as I lead people through the concept of a Biblical Marriage.

What God has made one, cannot be undone. God’s ideal for marriage is that you follow Verse 24 in Genesis Chapter Two.

This was God’s Plan. This was God’s original creation.

Like a Art print to the original, a few things have changed since then.

When I was in Bible School I was introduced to a program called walk through the bible. It’s a visual walking through the story of the bible using hand signals to remind us of the story of God’s unfolding in our lives.

It begins like this.

Creation. Circling your hands like making the whole earth. Sadly the next hand motion is what is next in today’s big idea. Fall

Crushed by Depravity

Man was created with the ability to choose. Choose from right or wrong. To follow God or to walk away.

The Gospel alone addresses our single most important need. A restoration to that which was lost through the fall. In order to understand depravity I want to walk you through three things. The cast of original sin, its cost and the consequences.

Cast of Original Sin

As Adam and Eve were instructed not to eat of the tree of knowledge, that knowledge told to them by the tempter was to challenge the authority of God. God alone knew what determined good and evil. He alone is the one we should follow.

Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 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.”

They cast of original sin was the desire to be like God. Although there were already created in God’s image, the desire to be God was thrown to them as something to be grasps.

The Cast of the original sin was to elevate oneself higher than God had intended them to be.

Cost of original Sin

The cost of original sin affected their very lives.

The first thing that we read is shame. Once the cast of sin was set, the cost brought about shame.

Shame is that which the tempter still uses today to stop us from Coming to the father for forgiveness.

God, you can’t possibly forgive me for my thoughts are impure. God forgave David

God, you can’t possibly love me for the things I have done are so wicked, I have killed people. God forgave Paul

God, you can’t possibly purify me for the life I have lived. Rahab was not only forgiven, but became part of Christ heritage.

Is there something that you are holding onto because of shame. God’s sustaining grace will hold you fast and we must come to him to remove the cost of sin in our lives.

Consequences of original Sin

finally, the consequences of original sin.

Because of the original sin, there are consequences.

Creation was tarnished. We have had to toil, not work, but toil. Work once enjoyed now becomes laborious.

If you find yourself in the perfect job, there are probably some aspects of that job, that you can do without.

The most intimate relationship, the original marriage was marred. One author writes that the most intimate transparent relationship was shattered.

Marriage is now work. If you leave your marriage to your own will, it will fall apart.

We live in a broken world and marriages are and continue to be in crisis. Because of sin in this world, some marriages fail. For those of us who are in a marriage, work on keeping your marriage strong by looking to God’s Word for direction.

The other day I was reading a comment on marriages. The suggestion was made to treat your wife like you would on your first date. I thought it was a great idea. I could take her out to a fine restaurant and then after a wonderful evening together we could go for a drive and I would drop her off at her parents home.

Just kidding.

Consequences of sin have also affected our relationship with one another. Power, dominance, control, when feed bring destruction to our lives with one another.

Love, grace, and truth need to be the words we use with one another.

Forgiving one another overcomes the consequences of original sin.

Folks the world in which we live in is very messy. It’s view of many things have been so corrupted by the original sin that the glory of God’s creation is far from what it was created for.

Romans 8:20–22 ESV

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

There is a song we use to sing as children. Deep and wide. Deep and wide.

It was a description of God’s Love. Its a fountain flowing. It flows deep and wide because that is where sin lies.

The consequence of sin is wide. It affects everyone

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

The consequence of sin deep.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have now come to the understanding of our deepest need.

Our deepest need is that we from birth, because of the case, cost and consequence of original sin are separated from God.

The Gospel brings us to that hope that we have in Christ to answer our deepest need.

Restoration with God.

Confidence in Christ

our hope and confidence is in the person of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:15 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

We will be looking closer at Christ in the coming weeks, but we must hold fast to the fact that Christ in his human form was the image of what Adam and Eve were created to be.

He came to this world that through him we would be rescued from the sinful plight that we are born into. Through Christ shed blood on the cross we can be reconciled to God. Finally we will have a renewed image, restored through Christ.

Rescued from our Sin

And this is our only hope we are either enslaved in the sinfulness of Adam by our natural birth or we are liberated in the righteousness of Christ by our new birth. Jesus Christ alone can rescue us from the wrath of God that rightly stands over all who are in union with Adam. Jesus Christ alone can rescue us from the alienation which came when God justly cast Adam from the garden and Jesus Christ alone can renew that divine image which has been corrupted by Adam sin - Gospel Truths p 88

We often sing the Song, he’s our rescuer. He has rescued us from our sin.

We must remember that through Christ alone we can stand before an almighty God. It is not anything we have done, other than to accept the free Gift of God’s Grace

Reconciled to God

The gospel also shows us that our deepest need is fulfilled as we are through Christ, reconciled to God.

Romans 5:11 ESV

11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

In a few moments we are going to celebrate communion together. Its a time to remember what Christ has done for us by the brokenness of Christ body and the shedding of his blood so that we can be and have been reconciled to God.

Christ stands in the gap between the man and God and through Him we are once again reconciled to God.

We can have communion with God because of Christ’s willingness to come in the form of man, giving his life for us, allowing the wrath of God upon him, so that we might be reconciled to God.

Renewed Image

Finally, We have confidence in Christ that we will have a renewed image before God.

The Gospel meets our human condition face on and restores that broken marred image into once again new creations

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

You may have heard the term Born again. Accepting Christ, our hope for our lost condition will renew that image.

This is a spiritual issue. It’s a transformational renewal.

The Gospel truths sums up our big idea this way.

More than that, in Jesus Christ, our God has come personally into this world to adopt us as his own being created by God in the image and then our fall into sin together provide the key to the Riddle of the human condition. They explain our origin, illuminate our present tragedy common and point us to our glorious destiny when we are Christians, rescued from God's wrath and reconciled from our alienation with him , shall be fully renewed to the image of Jesus Christ. Gospel Truths p 89

Communion

"Big Idea" 3: God’s gospel alone addresses our deepest need.

We come together now to celebrate communion knowing this Big Idea.

As we celebrate this morning, we celebrate that our image has been restored through Christ’s sacrifice for us.