Ask Pastor Mike Fabarez

Speaker 1

Well, ever wish you could sit down at the kitchen table and have an informal chat with your pastor? Well, you're about to have that opportunity right now. Join us for a question and answer time with Pastor Mike Fabarez on Focal Point. I'm Dave Droueh, your host for this special edition of Focal Point.

When we place our faith in Jesus, we receive grace, forgiveness, and hope, but we don't receive all the answers to life, especially in those sensitive areas that people disagree on. Your walk of faith is a personal journey of discovery, and each time you learn something new, you're growing.

That's why we clear the deck every weekend here at Focal Point to sit down and ask the pressing questions we all have on our minds. Let's join executive director Jay Worton now for this edition of Ask Pastor Mike.

Speaker 2

Well, thanks, Dave.

Pastor Mike, in a recent Barna survey, we see that most people surveyed think that they're going to heaven. Yet when we look at the Bible, we see that there's clearly people that are going to be going to hell and there will be people going to heaven.

But what is it that makes people think that they're good enough or they're so good that they are going to heaven?

Speaker 1

Right.

Speaker 3

Well, sin is not taken seriously. I mean, that's the problem. And you can see, like in the great book of Romans, that he spends so much time dealing with sin because that's the thing that needs to be first understood. We've got a sin problem, and it's a real problem. It's a problem that makes us unacceptable before God. And it doesn't matter that we can compare ourselves to others and say we're better than other people. The sin that we have qualifies us enough to be sinful.

I think of an illustration I used speaking to some teenagers this last summer about the broken windshields. I put up on the screen different broken windshields. Some were broken with a golf ball, some were broken with what looked like a bowling ball, and some were smashed, looking like they were hit with a wrecking ball. But they were all broken windows. The broken window with the golf ball-sized smash and spidering of the glass from that small impact can say, "Well, I don't look as bad as the one that's got the wrecking ball mark on it where it's just shattered all the way," but it's still a broken windshield.

And that's the point that I think Paul's trying to make so often in his presentation of the gospel to people like the Jews of the first century who said, "Well, we're a lot better than the Gentile neighbors. You know, they're the real pagans. I mean, we got our problems, but it's not all that bad."

Speaker 1

And.

Speaker 3

And so we've got to come to grips with the problem of sin. People think they're going to heaven because they're better than the next guy.

And what we have to measure ourselves with is God's standard. And that's what the Bible is all about, trying to get that clear message of sin clearly understood in our minds so that we can embrace the solution, the message of God's grace.

Speaker 2

Certainly, when you start to question these people a little bit more about why they think they're going to heaven, a lot of them will say, "Well, I'm a good person. I do good things. I'm not an axe murderer. I'm not doing that."

I know that's part of that lateral comparison. But for those people that aren't really doing bad, bad things, how do we respond to them about their sin and heaven?

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, again, I guess I would drive really hard to say when people compare their sin, you've got to try and realize that's not the proper standard. It's like, you know, I was just hearing some people talking yesterday about encountering a skunk and, you know, how hard it was to get that odor and how terrible it was, and, you know, it's so awful.

Well, skunks apparently get along pretty well. I mean, I illustrate this in a recent book I wrote on the idea of, let's just imagine that some skunks are looking at Pete the Skunk saying, that guy really stinks. But human beings, because of our sensitivity to their stench, we think they all stink. I don't care who it is in the skunk kingdom.

So when God looks at us, we are sinful to him because he has a holiness we know nothing of. His holiness is so holy. When he looks at human beings, every one of them is sinful, sinful, every last one of us, of course, except for the one who paid for our penalty, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was incarnate. And he himself, of course, was God and didn't share in our sin in that regard, only became the payment for our sin.

So we have to stop making lateral comparisons altogether and realize you may be the best human being on the planet. You may be able to honestly say.

Speaker 4

If we put your thoughts on a.

Speaker 3

Screen, your thoughts are more righteous than every other person that we could ever compare you to on Earth. That'd be like saying that skunk 2205, that skunk is the best smelling skunk of all the skunks. Maybe, but to a human being, I don't want that skunk in my house because he still stinks to me.

And the angels of heaven and God himself clearly feel that way about every last human being until they're washed in the blood of Christ and their sin is eradicated from their life. When that something happens judicially, they're cleansed and forgiven of their sin, and then even in practicality, they start to live more in step with Christ.

But what we need is that justification, which is what the book of Romans is all about.

Speaker 2

So Pastor Mike, you talk about the lateral comparison. I'm not as bad as the next person, but what about the person that really thinks they're good?

Like I'm a good parent, I'm a good father, a good mother, a good worker, good co-worker.

How do we respond to someone like that?

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, Jesus told a parable about the person who thinks they're better than the next guy and thinks they're good. And clearly we're not. And I don't know, I guess even when you said that, I thought of those people. Think, really? Do you really think you're good if I got an auditorium full of a thousand people, set you on a stage, as I like to say in my preaching, if you heard much of it, I talk about the brain scope, because with the brain of scope on your brain, look back in your week, pull out things that you know are wrong, that you entertain in your mind or you did or you thought or you said and put that on the screen and we could all look at it and analyze it, would you really sit there and feel totally comfortable?

If you do, I mean, you're self-deceived. Where's your conscience? I mean all of us really, if fully exposed, I mean, I think everyone would have to admit we're sinful. Everyone's sinful. And we have to see that and we have to come to grips with that. Because if not, as Jesus tells that parable in Luke chapter 18, you know, if you think you're righteous and you trust in your own righteousness, you will never be justified. You will never have a right relationship with the living God until you see your sin for what it is. And that's just being honest about who we are.

And again, I don't know, I just came up with that illustration off the cuff right now. But I think if I could put you on a stage in front of a thousand of your peers, we could put the worst of thoughts just from the last seven days on the screen.

Speaker 2

Would you still think you're good?

Speaker 3

Are you still going to sit there and say, "I'm good? God will. Yeah, I'm good. God should let me in. I'm all right?" No, of course not. You're not. None of us are. We're sinful beings, and we need to realize and admit that.

That's called confession. That's a great biblical word. To confess is to agree with God. That's a great Greek word. The compounds are, you know, to say the same thing that God says about us, and that's what we have to do in admitting our sin.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you. Pastor Mike truly will never fully appreciate the grace of our sav unless we acknowledge the extent of our sin. So let's listen to a message you did called the word's clarity about our sin.

Speaker 3

Friday night, I took my kids to.

Speaker 4

See the Harlem Globetrotters. Remember those guys?

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 4

Well, the names have changed, but their little wacky basketball show is pretty much the same. My kids absolutely loved it. They soaked in two hours of guys running around on the court, you know, spinning the ball on their finger, chasing each other around, throwing water buckets at each other. They loved it.

And they loved it, especially when the referees would call a foul on the Globetrotters because the Globetrotters would do things they hadn't seen before on the basketball court. They would pull the ref's pants down. You know, they would take the ball and bounce it off the ref's forehead. You know, they'd kick him in the rear end.

And my kids, just fun to watch. My kids were eating it up. They thought, this is fabulous.

Speaker 1

They loved it.

Speaker 4

My only concern is that my 5th and 6th grade boys are in the middle of their basketball season right now. They got playoff games this week. And as we're leaving the San Diego sports arena there, I just want to make clear, hey, boys, these guys, the Harlem, they're not role models when it comes to basketball. I know that was fun and everything, but it's just not the way the game is played. See, I don't want my kid arrested for pulling the ref's pants down, right? Because if the NBA commissioner or maybe some real rules officials were there, I guarantee you the score at the end of the game wouldn't be what it was on the board. I mean, the players would be fined, and there'd be several of them in jail this morning for what went on on the court. But it was all just for fun, which, by the way, is how most people view life, unfortunately. I want my kids to realize that when it comes to basketball, it's not like that. As a matter of fact, when it comes to basketball, the rules matter. They matter a lot. They matter a lot.

And I also want them to know it's not just basketball. When it comes to life, the rules matter. God's rules matter. They matter a lot. And you better know that. You better not forget it. See, we live in a Harlem Globetrotters world, if you know what I mean, where everyone's just in to have a good time. It's all about having fun. There are rules, and God has given us many. But people don't seem to care anymore. I mean, it's just a joke that if you're going to live by the rules, there are some referees right in their little striped shirts behind pulpits, pointing out the moral rules of God. But, you know, I can attest to this firsthand. We are, for the most part, just a joke to the world. I mean, they think we're just silly.

It's important for us to realize that in this Harlem Globetrotter world that we live in, that the Bible says, you know what? If it's bad in the first century? I just want you to know it's going to be really bad before I come back. Did Jesus not say that? Paul, in the very last book he ever wrote, Second Timothy, chapter three, he said, you know what? Things are going from bad to worse. Take a look at verse one. He says, mark this. There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves. They'll be lovers of money. They'll be boastful, proud, abusive. I mean, people are going to be disobedient to their parents. They're going to be ungrateful and unholy. They'll be without love. They'll be unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good. They'll be treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Now, note this carefully in verse number five. Having a form of basketball, right, so to speak, but denying its power. I mean, they'll look like they're playing the game of life, right? They'll look like this is what is good and godly, but they'll deny its power. Now, that's an interesting way to sum up this warning that things are going to go from bad to worse. But there are people that will do what they want to do without any regard for the rules. And they'll still say, but I'm in with God. But there'll be no power in those kinds of statements.

Now, a lot of people take their minds and go a lot of different places because they like to think of power in lots of different ways. The Bible has defined for us what we're talking about when we talk about the power of godliness. As a matter of fact, that's how the book of Romans started, wasn't it? Paul says, as the opening statement and theme of the book, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God. It's the power of God. The whole book of Romans, specifically chapters one through eight, are about the gospel, which is, according to the scripture, the power of God. You want to get things right with the Creator, this is how you do it. If you want to live life the way God intended, in the redemptive light that is given in Christ as fallen creatures, here's where you find it. Here's how life is supposed to be played. It's the power of God.

Now let's move to the scripture. Romans, chapter three. And by that I mean the Old Testament scripture that he quotes for us. Twelve verses from six Psalms, fourteen indictments, and one passage from Isaiah. He says in Romans, chapter 3, verses 10 through 18, as it is written. Now he starts with a summary statement. Here's the conclusion. There is no one righteous. No, not one. That comes from Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1. They're identical phrases. There's no one righteous, not even one. Now he gets to some specifics about it. He gets into our thoughts. There is no one who understands; your thinking is all wrong. Now he moves to our goals. There is no one who seeks after God. You're seeking after something else. That's not God. Ball turned away speaks to our goals as well.

Now more conclusion statements. You've together become worthless. There's no one who does good, not even one. Now he moves to our words. Their throats are open graves. That's not good. They reveal things that are bad in their heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It shows that we're not right with it. It's wrong. Tongues, you practice deceit. You're willing to lie if it's going to advance your own agenda. When people torque you or tick you off, the poison of vipers is under your lips. And like a snake, you'll go out and bite them with your words. Mouths full of cursing. We're talking about our words here and bitterness; it's not blessing and building up and edification. We'll tear them down if we have to.

People's behavior, well, look at verse 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Oh, you may not have killed anybody lately, but when you tear them down with your words, when you do things that promote your agenda at the cost of someone else, the Bible says, yeah, that's what it's like. Ruin and misery marks your way. Your behavior is not what God intended it to be. The way of peace, your attitude, you don't know that. The fear of God, which God has intended for all of his creatures, it's not in our eyes, it's not before us. We don't feel it. We might say that our thoughts, goals, words, behaviors, and attitudes may be better than some, but they are not acceptable before God. And these statements are absolute and they're superlatives and they're all-inclusive.

We need to accept number two, the biblical diagnosis. Regardless. This is the biblical diagnosis. We just read it. And that is that you and I, though we may be better than some, are not good enough, and therefore we are before God, unacceptable. Now think this one through. When people in scripture get a clarified picture of God, the clearer that picture of God is, the more sensitive they become to their own sin. Have you noticed that in scripture? You remember in Isaiah, the first five chapters, Isaiah is railing against their sin, the sins of the people. And then in chapter six, God gives him a vision of the high and exalted God seated on a throne where the glory fills the temple. And the first thing he says is, wow, those people that I was saying were sinful are really sinful. Is that what he says? No, he says, woe to me, I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips.

Now wait a minute. Compared to what they're doing in Israel, that ain't so bad. So you say some bad things sometimes. So what? Well, when you stare at the glory and the holiness of God with angels floating around saying holy, holy, holy, he starts to realize, I'm a sinner too. Now I know he knew that. That became acutely and painfully evident in his life. Which by the way explains when you grow in your sanctification. When you become a Christian and you start growing, the goal is for you to sin less. Am I right? And hopefully you're making progress in that. Here's the paradox of the whole thing. Even though you may be sinning less, your sin as a 15-year-old Christian seems to hurt a lot more than the sins you committed as a five-year-old Christian. Have you noticed that? Because normal Christian sanctification increases our knowledge of Christ. And the more we know about Christ and God and the holiness of heaven, the more painfully acute our sin feels.

You know what most people think the gospel is? Be good and God will like you. The real gospel is admit that you're not good and God will make you good in his eyes. That's the gospel right there. Do you understand though? That's all of grace. It's his work, the New Testament. That's what we're called, to saints. That's why when you sin, I don't want you to rush to Romans 3 and say, There I am. You want to say, that's where I was. Now you're a saint that has no business sinning, which we do and we should feel bad about and we should repent of. But we're not sinners who sin; we're saints who happen to sin. Which is why he keeps saying, put off all that old life stuff. He started the chapter this way. Heaven's my throne, earth's my footstool. But the one I'm going to look to in esteem is the one who is, you know the passage, contrite in heart, and the one who trembles at my word, contrition, brokenness before God. This was the one I'm going to look to. This is the one I'm going to dwell with. I'm not going to dwell on your fancy temples. I mean, that's not real, that's just ceremonial. I'm going to dwell with people that see their sin and own it without excuse, and who tremble at my diagnosis in the Word.

By the way, as long as we're in Isaiah, at least in our thinking, turn to Isaiah 52 real quick. We don't have time to read the whole context, so let's jump to 53, because 52 is where it starts. At the end of that chapter, you can glance at the end of 52, he talked about the servant here, the servant who would come and suffer. It'll be so unbelievable that this paradox of redemption takes place. And in verse one he says, who's going to believe it? Because really he wasn't like the Kings of the Old Testament. He wasn't like the Pharisees of the first century. He speaks in a prophetic perfect 550 years before Christ ever came. He grew up before us like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground.

Verse 2. He was despised though verse 3 and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. I mean, they were shaking their fists at him, saying, crucify him to Pilate. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. We considered him stricken by God, and he was smitten by him and afflicted. That's what the cross was all about. But it wasn't just that God was mad at him because he was a sinner. No, no, no. He was pierced for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that was going to bring us peace, it was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed. Which, by the way, is not about biological germs in your body. This is akin to John, chapter nine, right? The real healing that we need, the seeing that we need to have all.

We like sheep, back to the universality of sin, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And Yahweh has laid on him, even though we are sinful, the iniquity of us all. Which means that we no longer are. And he is oppressed and afflicted. He didn't open his mouth. He was like a lamb led to the slaughter, just like John said, Here he comes, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And he's not fighting like a dog would if you tried to kill it. He's silent before its shears. He didn't even open his mouth. He stood before Pilate, not even saying anything. By oppression and judgment between two criminals, he was taken away. Who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living. That spells death, crucifixion. For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. It wasn't for his own sin; it was for ours. He was assigned a grave with the wicked. I mean, he was a common criminal. At least that's how they viewed him being crucified. But thanks to Joseph of Arimathea, he was with the rich in his death. Though he had done no violence, he was innocent, nor was there any deceit found in his mouth.

Yet it was Yahweh's will to crush him. God did kill his son and cause him to suffer. And though Yahweh makes his life a guilt offering, which means they're dead as dead can be. That's what guilt offerings were. Dead. Yet he will see his offspring and prolong his days. How does that work? Dead offerings don't live. It's called resurrection, buried right here in this text. And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. And after the suffering of his soul, right to death. He's a guilt offering. He will see the light of life, another reference to resurrection. And he will be satisfied. And by his knowledge, my righteous servant will, here's the key word, justify many. Luke 18, he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great. Paul said, a name above every name. And he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressor. The transgressors have been interceded to the throne of God through the suffering servant, as Paul put it, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.

And what stands between you and the benefit of that verse from 2 Corinthians 5 is whether or not you admit you're a sinner. That's what it's all about. Pray with me, please. God, we are thankful for the relief that comes by understanding the gospel. It is the power of God recognizing that losers like us, people who have broken the rules of the holy God of the universe, have had someone fulfill righteousness for us. And while we never want to abuse that grace, we do recognize that dying is a step into your presence without any doubt, because Christ has done for us everything that we needed. God, may our faith be squarely in you and not ourselves, not our resume, not our good deeds. God, I know this is the basics.

Speaker 3

Of the Christian life, but it is.

Speaker 4

Good for us to have our hearts strengthened by grace. And how good it is, God, to recognize that all of our transgressions, all of our sin, all of our failure, all our rebellion has been paid for, has been satisfied and completely done away with because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Let us live as forgiven children, honoring grace in all that we do by pleasing you and loving you as we ought to empower us to do so.

God, in Jesus' name we pray.

Speaker 3

Amen.

Speaker 1

Amen. You're listening to another edition of Ask Pastor Mike and this is Focal Point. Now to hear the complete, unedited version of this message, look for the title "The Word's Clarity about Our Sin" at focalpointradio.org.

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I'm Dave Drury wishing you a restful and restorative weekend. Hear more relevant and accurate Bible teaching from Romans chapter 14 with Pastor Mike Fabarez Monday on Focal Point. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.