Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Today on Focal Point, you're never going to despise or detect sin in your life unless you're willing to measure yourself humbly against the law of God. Put it this way, you are never going to be more sanctified if I can't walk up to you and you can't walk up to me and say, "So, how are you not measuring up this week?" See what I'm saying? You need humility for that. Where am I falling short of the glory of God this week?

Guest (Male): When we read the various news headlines chronicling stories of murder, scandal, and injustice, it's easy to condemn those blatant sins. But somehow it's much easier to dismiss our own small offenses as if they'll be overlooked by God. Well, today on Focal Point, we'll hear an important reminder about the gravity of sins, large or small.

Before we begin, if you're new to Focal Point, let us know online and we'll send you a free copy of Pastor Mike's new booklet called Battling Sin. Go to focalpointradio.org. Well, now here's Pastor Mike with his message, Motivated by Heaven's Perspective.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: The reason I think Jesus was the most drastic in this teaching about sin and temptation is because no one had a better perspective on sin than Christ. As the God-man, as the incarnate God, he certainly knew without any kind of long-distance view. He knew it up close, the problem with sin. When it came to being the Lamb of God, no one knew the cost of sin more than Christ. So Jesus, with that heavenly perspective, taught about sin in a way that is big, it's dramatic, and it should motivate us.

But I think more than just hearing him preach, we need to adopt his perspective. Nothing does that better in Hebrews chapter 12 than verses 18 through 24. It's all about where we started: saying no to sin, taking the sin that so easily trips you up and getting it out of your life. It's about growing in sanctification, but it's all about perspective. Look at what he says in verse 18 as he takes us back to the Old Testament for the ultimate foundation of perspective.

He talks about the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. He says you have not come, in this new covenant relationship, you have not come to a mountain that can be touched—that mountain that's burning with fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm. Do you remember the story at all? When God came down on that mountain, this was a really dark experience. This new covenant thing, this transformation in your life, is not like that one.

That, verse 19, was like a trumpet blast. It was literally a trumpet blast and a voice that spoke from the mountain. Those who heard the voice didn't say, "Hey, give us more of that." No, they begged that no further word would be spoken to them. That's why they kind of put Moses at the front of the parade and said, "You go talk to him. We don't want to talk to God anymore." This wasn't a good experience. This was frightening.

But he says, as you think back to Sinai, that's not what you've come to in this new covenant relationship with God. This is not the old covenant; this is a new covenant. For the present time—that's an important phrase—for the present time, it's like we've come to, verse 22, Mount Zion. Now, when the word Mount Zion is used, rarely is it used to describe a hill on the south part of Jerusalem.

It's usually used by the poets of the Old Testament, by the songwriters, to talk about some kind of idealized relationship that God has with his people. This juxtaposition of Sinai and Zion is so helpful because I've got to understand both of them to get heaven's perspective. Heaven's perspective includes a perspective from Zion and a perspective from Sinai.

Let's start with Sinai. Sinai is going to reveal to us this picture of the gravity of sin. That's not a fun picture. Look at it again, verse number 18. It's a mountain, oh you may be able to touch it—that may be one advantage, it's real, it's corporal, it's right in front of you—but it's burning with fire. That's not a great place to hang out. It's dark and gloomy and there's a storm on it. There's a trumpet blast and a voice that's not like, "Oh, I want to curl up next to that voice." It's a voice where you go, "I don't want to hear anymore." There's yellow caution tape around this place where God is. That's not very friendly.

Number one on your outline, when it comes to getting heaven's perspective: we have to remember the gravity of sin. That's what Mount Sinai is all about. It's to show you how serious sin is. Now think about this, what's the point of Mount Sinai? Sinai is the giving of the law. Here's the standard to live by. It showed that God was holy and we don't measure up. When we grapple with that truth, now we're ready for Mount Zion. Now we're ready for grace. Now we're ready for the gospel.

But here's the deal, if you do not preach the law, if you do not preach Mount Sinai, if you do not present the problem, the gospel answer is not the gospel. You cannot have the gospel without this. The gospel starts with the law. The gospel starts with the fact that the God that created you is so holy you can't have fellowship with him. God is not made for sin; he cannot have fellowship with sin. That's the problem. Sinai revealed that and he graded the test and he showed it to us.

Well, if the law shows us our sin, it must be a bad thing then? Romans 7:7, not a bad thing. "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Is it deficient? Has it got a problem?" Romans 7:7, certainly not. Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. It was the grading of the test. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

I would have thought, "Well, I just kind of thinking about my neighbor's stuff. I don't know, I just like to have that, so I kind of focus on it. What's wrong with that?" Well, the law says that's not a godly thing to do. It's an ungodly thing to do. It falls short of God's glory. You know what, when the test was graded and I realized, "Well, I do do that, I do that all the time." Well, you're not supposed to do that, it's wrong.

When it revealed that, now I knew I was a sinner. I recognized that. And sin, verse 8, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. Now what you need to know about that is it's not the instigator of it, it's the revelation of it. The law shows. It's like every answer now I start to see, "Wow, was wrong there, was wrong there, was wrong there." Everywhere I looked, there was red ink on the paper of my life.

For apart from the law, sin is dead. Now it doesn't mean you didn't fail the test before it got graded. It didn't mean that the people before the coming of Sinai who were coveting in their heart about their neighbor's camel—it didn't mean that they weren't sinning, it just meant when the law came and showed them, now all of a sudden, "Wow, I'm guilty."

My kid fails the test the minute he takes the test, right? Not every time thankfully, this is not autobiographical. But he fails the test before it's graded. The point is when it's graded, now we know he failed the test, and that's exactly what the law does. Once I was alive apart from the law—I thought, "Hey, I think I did all right on that test"—but then the commandment came and sin sprang to life and I saw the F at the top of the paper, I died.

I found that the very commandment, verse 10 now Romans 7, that was intended to bring life actually brought death because the whole law-giving was about, "Do this and you'll live." The problem is we couldn't do it. And it deceived me, and through the commandment—middle of verse 11—seizing the opportunity rather, it deceived me and through the commandment, it put me to death.

So then, verse 12, there's no deficiency in the law. The rules are godly. They're holy. The commandment is holy. The commandments are righteous and good. Did that which was good then become death for me? Well, by no means. It didn't cause it, it just revealed it. But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good. I had the death sentence now, I realized I flunked.

So that through the commandment, sin might become utterly sinful. Now, I've talked a little bit about justification, but our series is about sanctification, right? And the point is you can't be justified unless you grapple with the guilt of sin. You have to know you're sinful before you can embrace the grace of God. Same thing works for sanctification though too, right?

If the whole point is hating sin enough to forsake sin and say no to temptation, I gotta despise it. I need to hate it. The commandment helps me hate it. The commandment reveals how utterly grave and drastic sin really is. The perspective of Sinai—don't ever lose it. I recognize we've passed Sinai to go to Zion, I get it, but don't ever forget Sinai. Sinai is the reminder of the desperate need we have for Zion, to put it in terms of Hebrews 12. We've got to remember that.

And the thing that makes the difference as it relates to the law—the law doesn't change and you are who you are—what changes it is your attitude. The first four verses of Psalm 36 make it clear that you and I are only going to respond to sin and we're only going to see that the commandment says we don't measure up if we're humble enough to recognize it.

To put it in terms of virtue and vice, the virtue is humility and the vice is pride. And here's what the psalmist says: "Here is an oracle about the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes because in their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin." So just to get another level deep in this first point, you will never see the gravity of sin unless you're humble enough to measure yourself against the law.

And whether it's for justification—the gospel—you can't be saved with an appeal that says, "Hey, improve your life" like some multi-level marketing program. It's not about that. It's about that you are not acceptable before your Creator. The law has to create that sin is utterly sinful in your mind, okay? So you need that humility to embrace the gospel.

But you also need it for sanctification. You're never going to despise or detect sin in your life unless you're willing to measure yourself humbly against the law of God. And that, let's put it this way: you are never going to be more sanctified if I can't walk up to you and you can't walk up to me and say, "So, how are you not measuring up this week?" See what I'm saying? And you need humility for that. "Where am I falling short of the glory of God this week?"

If you're a prideful person, here's what the Bible says: you will flatter yourself too much to detect or hate your sin. You see where we're going with this? You and I need to visit Sinai regularly. Do we live under the law? Are we stuck on Mount Sinai? No. But we should recognize that our sin has made a separation between us and God and that we ought to detect in humility and hate in humility the sin that is pointed out in the rules of God.

Remember the gravity of sin, that's what Mount Sinai is all about. But here's the good news, thankfully—and you're so glad to get on to verse 22—but verse 18 said we didn't come to that kind of arrangement anymore. We've been there and done that. Now, don't forget it, that's what we've got to say about Sinai. We don't neglect it, we don't ignore it as a bunch of Gentiles outside of the Old Testament. We don't say, "Well, we don't have to read it." No, we read it, we understand it, we're convicted by it, but now we've come beyond that.

We haven't come to the mountain that you can touch, we've come to a mountain you can't touch, verse 22. You've come to Mount Zion. As I said, the idealized picture of the poets in the Old Testament about God reigning as he should over his people. It's the heavenly Jerusalem. Please note this carefully—I've already underscored it, but if you missed it because I talk too fast and a lot of people say that about me—it's not the old Jerusalem and it's not the new Jerusalem.

It's the heavenly Jerusalem. Your relationship with God right now is not living in some theocracy in the old covenant. And it's not the new Jerusalem that comes out of heaven. That's coming. The one we live in now is a spiritual relational Jerusalem. You live in a relationship with God that is spiritual. It is Mount Zion, God hopefully ruling over your heart, the city of the living God. That's a totally different thing.

Picture by the way the contrast here. Could you build a city on Mount Sinai? No. You don't hang out on—there's yellow caution tape around Mount Sinai. You cannot hang out there. But this one, not only can you come to the mountain, you can live on the mountain because there are thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly and the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. And that's a place where God dwells.

Now, you're not living in the place where the dwelling of God is among men—that's coming, Revelation 21—but right now I am a citizen of heaven, the Bible says, and I am living with God on a different mountain. Not Mount Sinai that I couldn't fellowship with God, but one I can. Now we're missing the last part of this passage and we'll get to that in a minute—the mechanism is critically important, the blood of the mediator—but for now all I know is that I'm not there anymore, I'm here.

I don't sit there and say I'm unworthy to be in God's presence. Somehow, I'm still unworthy to be in God's presence, but now I can live in his presence. That's a radical change, one that should bring—as the bottom of verse 22 says—a joyful assembly. It ought to be we're all sitting around going, "I'm an inheritor of the kingdom, a firstborn." That's what the firstborn was. Esau was supposed to get the inheritance, but he didn't. Jacob got it. And so for us, we're the firstborn, the assembly of the firstborn whose names are recorded in heaven.

If Sinai was about division and barrier because I saw my sin, now even if I see my sin and because I see my sin, something has been changed. It is not just that I'm allowed near the mountain, I'm allowed to build a living, a dwelling on the mountain of God. See, this is a huge contrast. This goes from barrier and separation to union, access, and oneness. And that change by the way in Scripture, there's a very important biblical New Testament word for this: it's called reconciliation.

And what happens is I'm separated, but now I'm reconciled. Number two on your outline—that's worth being joyfully excited about—I put it this way: number two, we need to joyfully celebrate our reconciliation. Joyfully celebrate reconciliation. The difference and distinction and contrast between Sinai and Zion is we were separated here, but now we're joined together here. That's called reconciliation.

That's gigantic. As a matter of fact, the Scripture makes such a big deal out of this that much of the New Testament is about this one concept of reconciliation, which again if you don't understand Mount Sinai, if you don't understand the law, if you're not convicted of sin, it makes no sense. Reconciliation? What do you mean? Doesn't God love me already and have a wonderful plan for my life, and all I gotta do is grab that plan? No, that's not it.

You were alienated from Christ. You were ontologically repulsive to God, but he wants to bridge that gap anyway and there's a way to fix the problem and it comes through the mediatoral blood of Christ. But the point is you can go from there to here. And that's critically important. It's called reconciliation. Romans chapter 5, verse 1: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith..."

Let's stop with justified for just a second. We've looked at that throughout this series, but that is a critical word. There is something about my ontological repulsion before a holy God that is now changed. I'm no longer repulsive. The difference between repulsion in sin and being right with God is the word justification: I'm made right before God. The repulsion that put up the yellow caution tape is now removed because I'm no longer repulsive to God.

That's called justification. And how did I do that? I did that through doing a lot of good deeds, right? What's the Bible say? We looked at it last week in Titus 3:5, but here it is again. It's a justification through faith. There's something about that very different than your religious friends who go to church every week hoping to be good enough to be acceptable to God. We don't do it that way. It is through faith.

We have peace with God—here's the mechanism now—through our Lord Jesus Christ. Someone had to stand as a mediator and fix the problem for you. Through whom—Christ, that is—we have gained—here's a great word that relates to reconciliation, a great word, circle it—we've gained access. Could you get on Mount Sinai and hang out? No. But you can hang out on Mount Zion. Why? Because now you have access. How did you get in? Something changed about you—justification. How? Through the mechanism of Christ.

That's why Christ came. He did not come as a lot of churches are now preaching in massive quantities, even so-called evangelical churches, that Jesus is just a good example of love and ethical purity. That's not what Jesus came for. If he wanted that, he could have sent a few more Moseses or Elijahs or Jeremiahs. He came to be the mechanism to make me right before God and no man could do that. God had to do that himself.

So, through Christ, I've gained access by faith—not by my works—into this grace, which I don't deserve, in which we now stand. I can stand in the presence of God now. Why? Because I've done a lot of good things? I'm putting money in the bag every week and I help out people who are evacuated from their homes? No, it has nothing to do with that. It's by trusting in the mechanism, the mediatoral blood of Christ that makes me now able to stand in the presence of God without fleeing from the holiness of God.

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. One day the new Jerusalem will come out of heaven and I will no longer see through a glass dimly, I will see face to face and the blessings of the inheritance will be completely mine. And that's the hope of the future. We have that hope in the glory of God. Now, you may be going through some hard times as they were in the first century, but don't freak out. Verse 3 and 4 talks about ultimately it builds our character, it purifies our trust and all of that.

Now he says in verse 6, you gotta see this, that at just the right time when we were powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. That's so important. Our salvation was paid for and our salvation was applied when we were powerless and sinful. Now, people aren't gonna die for ungodly people, that's what verse 7's all about. Now maybe if there's a really good person someone might die for them. But God, verse 8, demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

He looked at us ontologically repulsed by us and said, "I'm gonna fix the problem." He had to do it at a high cost, mediatoral blood of Christ had to solve this for us. It says in verse number 9 now, since we've been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath which we deserved if you understand Sinai? If you don't understand Sinai, you'll never have that perspective and you'll never embrace the grace of the gospel.

You've got to understand that we're being saved, not from loneliness or purposelessness, we're being saved from the wrath of God. That's the point. And we're saved from the wrath of God through him. For, verse 10, if when we were enemies, God's enemies, we were—here's the word—reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Why are we singing songs about Jesus every Sunday? Because he was the mechanism of our acceptability before a God that we should never have ever had any chance of hanging out with. But not only do we get to hang out with him, is that the real deal? Well, yeah, that's good. But it's not having to suffer the penalty of failing the test and it's being an inheritor, the firstborn of all the blessings of God. That's what we're looking forward to. Is that a big deal? Huge deal.

Is that supra-circumstantial? Absolutely. If you're here and your $10 million Santiago Canyon house burned down, you know what, in light of this, big deal. Doesn't really matter. Your names are recorded in heaven as someone who will receive all the blessings of God with no reference to sin, you will be completely forgiven, you are completely forgiven. And angels are rejoicing because of the mechanism of forgiveness. Isn't that what Luke 15 is all about?

We learn a little bit about angels in Scripture, not a ton, but we learn they got excited at creation—we learn that in the book of Job—and then we learn according to Luke chapter 15 that the one reason we know for sure that they rejoice in God's presence is when a sinner comes to repentance. That's it. When a sinner repents, they celebrate.

And the Bible says, back to Hebrews 12, you've come to fellowship with God, a heavenly Jerusalem, the city or dwelling of the living God. You've come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly. We don't see it, we don't hear it, it's not audible. One day we'll see all that right up close.

But for now, we understand that the Bible says when we repent of our sins—and I hope you jotted that passage down, Luke chapter 15—it's all about that. Luke 15, the whole chapter: the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son is all about the fact that we have to rejoice because what was dead is now alive. And that's a great line from the lost son. Let me digress for just a second.

Do you remember when you got chosen for a fight in elementary school? Okay, maybe it was just my elementary school. And then he would often look at you if he was bigger than you and say, "You're dead meat at 3:00." Do you remember that? And then, whatever that happens in the morning it's really bad because you got all day to sit around and go, "I'm dead at 3:00. I'm dead."

That's the reality of Sinai. Sinai says you are dead. You're dead meat at when the bell rings and you meet the holy God. You are in big trouble, mister. That's what it's all about. But the good news is, though you were dead, at some point in the day God's grace breaks through. Your enemy—and God is your natural enemy, do not mistake that because he's holy and you're not—he is your natural enemy.

Your enemy has become your friend. Your enemy has become not only your friend, your redeemer. Your enemy has become your defender. Your enemy has become your protector. And you not only have access to God, the one that should take you and wipe you off the face of the universe is someone who's looking at you and saying, "I love you though, and I'm gonna pay the price through the mediatoral work of my son and you will be completely forgiven." You think the angels get excited about that? I think they do. The Bible says they do. And if you have your name written in the register of Mount Zion so to speak, see then you're in good shape.

Guest (Male): What an encouragement to know that our judge is also our advocate and redeemer. You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez and a message titled Motivated by Heaven's Perspective. To listen again, just go to focalpointradio.org. And for even more content from Pastor Mike, be sure to download the free Focal Point app.

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Or mail your gift by writing to us at Focal Point, P.O. Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. Well, that's it for today. Tomorrow, the Mike goes back to the callers for another round of Ask Pastor Mike Live—a mix of church history, personal prayer habits, and the kind of doubt that keeps some believers up at night. Pastor Mike takes each one on directly, straight from Scripture, Friday on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Hi, Pastor Mike here. God's word promises it'll never return void. So I wonder, how is God's word moving in your heart right now? Drop us a line, let us know, we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to be praying for you here. Just go to focalpointradio.org. And then be sure to join us again tomorrow right here as we continue to explore the depths of Scripture. We'll see you then.

Guest (Male): Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.