The Four Spiritual Laws
A few years back there was a man named Vince Lombardi who took over the role as head coach of a failing football team called the Green Bay Packers. This team was in the midst of suffering through a ten year slump and had went 1-10-1 the year before he took over. In Lombardi’s first year, the Packers won the championship with essentially the same players. They had only replaced two insignificant players. He is famous for many things but with that team he is known for re-teaching them the basics of the game, even going so far as saying his now famous quote, “This…is a football.”
We’re taking a short recess from the Sermon on the Mount this week. Don’t worry, we’ll pick right back up next week, but today we’re going back to the basics. We’re going to be discussing laws. Just like nature has laws that cannot be broken or adapted, God has laws that cannot be broken or adapted. Take the law of gravity. You can say, “I don’t believe in gravity. Gravity is just a crutch for the weak. Gravity is just an old outdated model of thinking designed to keep me from having fun,” but when you step off the roof of a ten story building…. What’s going to happen? Are you going to prove the law of gravity right or wrong? Right, 100% of the time. In fact in the history of mankind, there has never been a case of a person stepping off of a ledge or a cliff and went up instead of down. Just like the law of gravity cannot be broken or manipulated to fit our circumstances, God has spiritual laws that cannot be broken or manipulated to fit our circumstances or desires. There are four of these laws.
Law #1: God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
There are billions of people in the world who have never heard that verse before. We’ve heard it so much we take it for granted, and don’t even really listen to it or think about what it means. Let me give you an illustration.
A switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place when a train crossed. One evening as the switchman was waiting for the light of the day to come, he looked off into the distance thru the dim twilight and caught sight of the trainlights. He stepped to the controls and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance within the bridge. He turned the bridge into position, but, to his horror, found the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not secure in position, it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came on to it, causing the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This was a passenger train with many people aboard.
He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across bridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever switch that could hold to operate the lock manually. He would have to hold the switch back firmly as the train crossed.
He could hear the rumble of the train now. He took hold of the lever and kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man's strength.
He could hear the rumble of the train now. He took hold of the lever and kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man's strength.
Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control room, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold. "Daddy, where are you?"
His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run! Run!" But the train was close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time.
He almost left his lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him but he realized that he would not be able to get back to the lever in time. Either the people on the train or his little son must die.
He took a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely about, on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the tiny broken body, thrown mercilessly into the river by the onrushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging tightly to the locking lever long after the train had passed. They did not see him walk home more slowly than he had ever walked: to tell his wife how the child had brutally died.
Sadly, that train full of people can easily be us. The majority of the people in the world will be born, live a full life, and die never giving a thought to Christ’s death if they ever even know about it.
John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Christ came so that we could experience life to its fullest and that we may find deep meaning in it. Do you believe that the majority of people are living an abundant life, or just getting by? Are they living a meaningful life, or just passing time? Why do so many people waste their time drinking, smoking, doing drugs, playing video games, chasing one sexual encounter after another if they are not just passing time?
They are wasting away their in the doldrums of life because of…
Spiritual Law #2: Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” How many did it say? Most? Some? All? Just Michigan
Man was placed in the Garden of Eden, a literal place of paradise on earth, where they walked and communed daily and personally with the God of all creation. They were given one rule—don’t eat from that tree. But they willfully disobeyed the directives of God. And we’ve been going down hill ever since. Because of their sin, God could not stand to be in their presence any longer and banished them from the garden. A holy God cannot be in the presence of sinful man. Because of man’s rebellious self will, he chose to do his own thing, and fellowship with God was broken. This rebellious nature can take on two forms: 1) The active antithetical attitude where the person opposes God at every opportunity. We see this with atheists, the ACLU, and other anti-religion organizations; 2) The passive attitude where religion and God play almost no part in their lives. They are the CEO Christians--Christmas and Easter only. God plays no part in their lives and therefore, He cannot direct them. A moving car is a lot easier to steer than a parked car, even if it is headed in the wrong direction.
Which of these two rebellious natures do you think is causing the most troubles for Christianity in America
The Bible says in Romans 6:23 that the result of this rebellious nature is death. “The wages of sin is death.” There is a great separation between man and God that cannot be crossed. Man has been desperately trying to find a way to get to God since we were kicked out of the garden, and we do this through religion. Religion is man’s attempt to connect with God. Some of the ways people try to connect with God is through fasting, tithing, volunteering at the church, singing in the choir, saying a particular prayer over and over again. All of these fail because our efforts and good works are useless. The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6,
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
The word used for “filthy rags” means a dirty, used menstruation rag—a used Tampon or Maxi-Pad. This is what God thinks of our efforts to get to Him.
The gulf is too wide; we cannot get to Him by our own efforts. It is like standing on the California shore and swimming to Hawai’i
Spiritual Law #3: Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.
Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Imagine that. The same God that can’t tolerate any sin in His presence was willing to take on our sin problem head on, while we were still sinners—while we still had nothing to offer Him.
And also in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, “3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time….”
That’s what Christianity is all about. While we were still sinners, Christ took the punishment for our sins, was tortured then executed, buried, but praise God three days later He rose from the dead defeating death once and for all. If Christ had not taken our place, if Christ had not died, and if Christ had not rose from the dead, then we would all still be slaves to our sin, and doomed for an eternity in hell. But He did all of those things, so you wouldn’t have to face that fate anymore.
He is the only way to God. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.” What does no one mean? Some? Most? All? Only the really good ones? What about Ghandi? Was he good enough to get to heaven outside of Jesus? This is where many people separate themselves from Christianity. They call Jesus a good teacher and they call Him a wise man, but they reject that He is the only way to go to heaven. But here Jesus is very clearly saying that HE IS the only way to go to heaven. So either He’s lying and that wouldn’t make Him a good teacher or a wise man. Or He’s a lunatic because He certainly believed it enough to die for it, and that definitely would not make Him a good teacher or wise man. Or lastly, He is the Lord and He is exactly who He said He was. Liar, lunatic, or Lord? Those are our only three choices.
But the last Spiritual Law is the kicker….
Spiritual Law #4: We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know God’s love and plan for our lives.
If I gave one of you the best Christmas present ever given. I bought it, I wrapped it, and I left it under the tree with your name on it, but if you never opened it and received it, the gift is worthless. If you look at it everyday, and consider receiving it but never actually do what good has it done you? Christ has given you an awesome gift, better than any gift anybody could ever give you, but if you only consider it but never receive it, it is worthless.
John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” This is the new birth people speak of. Or being born again. You become a new creature in Christ, except this time you no longer have that sin nature weighing you down, but you have the righteousness Christ died to give you.
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