THE HOLY SPIRIT BRINGS ALLUMINATION.

Ps 119: 105 Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a lightunto my path

The light had dawned.

Years ago when I was a teenager the Gideons came to my school.  During assembly they gave a quick talk and handed out these little red cover backed King James New Testament Bibles.  Whilst many of the kids joked about burning them, I found in my hand something which I treasured.    Now I was not a Christian at that time, but I would from time to time read the word.  But whilst I could read the words I never really understood the message.  Years later I started work.  The production manager was a Christian who would chat to his staff about Christianity.  This prompted me to take out that little King James and occasionally  I read it.  Now I could read the words, but the message was as ever hidden as it had always been.  The mystery of its message was lost.  It remained just another book.  Now this Christian invited me to his church.  I knew what was going to be asked and I talked it over with the Lord the night before.  I was going to say YES to receive him as Lord and saviour.    I remember that the previous day reading my Bible and the message was only darkness to my understanding.

The day after having received Jesus as Lord and saviour, I opened that same little King James Bible.  Something had dramatically changed.  Suddenly the words became alive.  They literally jumped out of the page with meaning and understanding.  So what had changed from one day to the next?  There can be no doubt that I had indeed received God into my life.    I still had to read the Bible and study it, but the insight was illuminating.  Someone was now interpreting that word to my heart and mind.  No longer was I looking at mere words, the words now had meaning depth and life.

It was as if someone had literally walked into a dark room and flicked the switched.  The room became bathed in light.    The Holy Spirit brought that light into my soul and was now feeding my mind with the truths contained in the Bible.  From there God started to make all those little connection between all those chapters.  The Bible works folks.    It makes sense from cover to cover.   Now you can never say you know it all because that same Holy Spirit is still revealing his word.   But I can say that what I hold in my hand was treasure indeed.

WHAT WILL MY PRIDE COST ME?

A man is out swimming one day and he suddenly finds that there are currents stronger than he has.  They begin to pull him under.  He believes in his ability, his strength and his tenacity, but the currents are stronger.  He  refuses to acknowledge that he is in reality helpless against the flow.  Bit by bit the currents pull at him and bit by bit he is dragged to his death.  What should a person do in such circumstances?   In many beaches in Australia
rip tides exist not far from the beach.  life guards watch the sea shores closely for signs of distress.  Often an outstretched arm is a signal that someone is in distress.  What does it take to lift ones hand and cry for help?  It takes humility and recognition that  you are in difficulty, and  in such circumstances  there is the realisation of a need of a saviour .

 THE MORAL GOD

 Now we love to depict GOD as a God of LOVE and so he is, but God is also a God of righteousness.  His justice requires that man be perfect in all his ways.  As you can see man is not perfect in all his ways.

 A criminal is brought before a judge; he has done many heinous crimes.  People gasp as his criminal record is read out.  The judge must prosecute the man for that is his job even if the criminal was his brother, the law must run its course.  Even though the Judge has a love for his brother, the law demands justice.  The punishment is death.  Now if our Law courts demand Justice, how much more are the demands of a holy and righteous God?

UNTIL WE UNDERSTAND THE SERIOUSNESS OF SIN, WE NEVER COME TO APPRECIATE ITS AWFUL CONSEQUENCES.

 THE GREAT BALANCING ACT

 Most religions believe that by good works God will look favourable on them.  So they hope that at the end of their lives there is this unseen balance where God balances their good deeds against their bad deeds, with their good deeds coming out on top.  Just as this swimmer hopes his strength will see him to safety, many trust in their own deeds to make it.

Pride will stop a man realising his own need of a saviour, and keep him from recognising his failure to live up to Gods standards.  Justice demands that sin must be punished not according to man standards but according to Gods standards.

 Pride says God must recognise my efforts and those efforts must weigh in my favour.  God says not if you cannot keep all the laws I commanded. 

Pride Ignores Gods warning, but cannot state how much he must accomplish in order to secure him a place in heaven.  God however says you must keep every word and syllable he commands or you will never make it.

 MAN IS A BONDSERVANT TO HIS OWN SIN. 

 Pslam 51: 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

 Rom 7: 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

 Is 64: 6 But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

 There was nothing wrong with Gods law; it was man who had the problem.

From the moment man is conceived he is being shaped by forces greater than himself.  Man is born with a nature that loves to go its own way.  Man is betrayed by his own sinful nature.  From mans point of view our  righteousness is something we boast about, but before God they are nothing more than defiled and worthless rags.

 Many will argue and debate that God will look favourable on them so long as they “try to do their best.  But “TRY” is just not good enough.

 Sin is nothing more than a downward current  which will sweep all that swims in its tides.

 Rom 6: 19-20  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Rom 6: 23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is another who also thought that his deeds or good works would be able to grasp him a prize

 Is 14: 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

 Is 14; 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

 Satan thought his works would achieve his goal, but he was sadly mistaken.  Man in his stinking pride will keep him from seeing his failures.  Pride will not allow a man to realise that his good works will not make
it.

 Rom 10: 2-4   For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.    For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  For Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Rom 6: 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 There lies the failure of man; we have inherited a fallen nature.

 Rom 4: 3- 4 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt?

 There is something in pride that believes that I can by my own good deeds make it and God in turn must recognise those deeds and accept them.  Pride almost refuses to acknowledge that this reality is an allusion.  God on the other hand says OK but you must be able to obey ALL THE LAWS I GIVE. 

 Man was created perfect, holy righteous and perfect being, but wrong choices made in a moment had awful consequences for the rest of mankind.   Mans failure to keep all the laws was his own undoing.

Is 57: 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name [is] Holy; I dwell in the high and holy [place], with him also [that is] of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones

ONLY IN OUR WILLINGNESS TO BOW THE KNEE IN HUMILITY WILL SEE THE ANSWER TO OUR DILEMA.

 When the swimmer who is being pulled down by the current comes to the point where he stops trying to do it his own way, and calls for help and surrenders himself to the life guard.  Only then will he see and receive the help he needs.  But that takes humility and the crushing of his pride.

 SUBSTITUTIONAL  ATONEMENT.

 If we go back to the Judge whose brother stands convicted in court.  The judge has a love for his brother, but he also has a responsibility to execute and fulfil the law.  However if the Judge decides that he would step down and willingly take the punishment which his brother so rightly deserves , then both justice and love is satisfied .  The judge gives his life to atone for another.

In the same way God has a vested interest in man whom he created.  He has both a love and a righteous requirement to make.  Sin must be punished, and yet he loves the sinner as well.  By becoming that substitutional atonement, Jesus takes our guilt and punishment so that we might go free.  Our sinful record is made clean.  Our lives are saved.  Unlike those who try to work their way to heaven and fail we can be assured because Jesus took what we could not pay.  The righteousness of another is played on our records, which instead of a guilty verdict now records a righteous verdict.

So whose righteousness would we like to see on our score card our OWN righteousness or Christs righteousness?  Our failure of Christs victory?

Rom 3: 22 Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Phil 3: 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith

 Now at this point the prideful will shriek  and state that the guilty is then freed to continue his life of crime , but you forget that the lifeguard does not save the person to continue in his circumstances but saves him from it.  So Jesus saves us from ourselves by imparting a new nature where we desire a new life free from sin.  We are no longer our own we are bought with a price and now we belong to the one who saves us.

 SO TO ANSWER THE  QUESTION: WHAT WILL MY PRIDE COST ME?

 Everything if you decide to keep it, but life if you choose to lose it.