Confronting Sin: The Path to Healing and Grace

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there are only two kinds of conscience that will feel the burden of sin: one is a tender conscience, the other is a wounded conscience. If you have a fracture somewhere in your body, let's say in your knee, added weight to your body will become apparent because you're wounded in your knee. The very weakness there will bear testimony to the weight that has been placed upon you. [00:00:54]

when god comes as he comes to his servant david and he brings his willful disobedience before him, and he confronts him with the systematic attempts at cover-up, and he points out to him that his very conscience is in danger of being seared, and he lays his hand of heaviness upon him, a hand that becomes absolutely unbearable. [00:01:49]

you see when you or i have a guilty conscience because we know we're in the wrong, having offended against god and offended against one another, all of the external influences upon us will tend to say, cover it up, smooth it over, just don't address it, because it is too ugly to face, it is too difficult to pursue. [00:02:42]

the bible constantly asks questions which we just don't ask. It asks, for example, in first samuel 6 a correlative question and it is this: who can stand in the presence of the lord, this holy god, and state their case? This question actually comes in first samuel 6 after 70 individuals had poked their nose into something that had nothing to do with them at all and they all died. [00:03:34]

god is a righteous judge, a god who expresses his righteous indignation or his wrath every day. How about that for a t-shirt? How about that for a little card to slip to your waitress at the end of the meal with a decent tip? God is a righteous judge, a god who expresses his wrath every day. [00:05:19]

the god to whom we're introduced in the bible is not a figment of our imaginations. He's not a creation of our own design and desire, a kind of tailor-made god to fit the 21st century, to fit the pluralistic perceptions of our culture, to allow us to absorb and placate every notion that presents itself. [00:06:14]

paul goes to the intelligentsia in athens, right? And he's very gracious and wise in his introduction. I can see you're a very religious group of people. I looked around your place, I've been listening to some of your poets, and there's a direct correlation between a lot of their searching and a lot of what I have to tell you. [00:10:12]

he has set a day when he will judge the world by the man he has appointed, namely jesus, acts chapter 10 you get reference to that, and he has given proof of this by the resurrection of jesus from the dead. Response: some people said we're out of here, another group said quite good maybe we can listen again. [00:11:45]

it was in the area of conscience that luther was tyrannized, wasn't he? If you know anything of history you know how zealous luther was, how good a fellow he was, how committed he was to the very notions of doing the right thing before god and how paralyzed he was by his inability to do so. [00:14:05]

he discovered that not just in the thin air, he actually discovered that by reading his bible. He'd never really seen it when he read it: no one will be declared righteous in god's sight by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin. And yet many who come routinely to parkside are still operating on the basis of the law. [00:14:47]

grace is given to heal the sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes. It is given to those who say, your hand is heavy upon me, I am a disaster and I am broken, and I am wasted. Have you ever said that to god? I'm not asking now if somebody signed you up for purpose in your life. [00:18:08]

have you ever laid down before god and said god I am a dead woman without you, I am a dead man and lost without you, unless you come and do for me what I cannot do for myself, then I remain absolutely hopeless and absolutely helpless. [00:19:05]

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