Well I want to greet everybody that is tuned in for the webcast here this morning – at least in Ohio time it is morning - we never know how far out the webcast is being picked up.  I've been reflecting on the upcoming Holy Days and this sermon this morning - and as I think I mentioned in the announcements, I'll be giving a different one in the afternoon service - but they both reflect on that time and ramping up to it. 

You know, it's a religious time of the year when you stop and think about it because not only have we got Passover coming up and, of course, the Jews recognize Passover.  In fact, they tend to refer to the whole season as Passover which is acceptable, we do that occasionally.  Probably more often we talk about the Days of Unleavened Bread, but it's also the time of year for the traditional Christian Easter. 

I am reminded of the display of religiosity twenty-nine years ago when we first moved to Indiana where we served as the associate pastor in northern Indiana.  I can't believe it was twenty-nine years ago, it just makes me feel so old.  However, since old means smart – maybe not, we'll see.  We had never seen people hang Easter eggs on trees till we moved to Indiana.  You know, we thought we had seen the trappings of American Christianity in different places, but I never saw anybody hang Easter eggs on trees.  In many trees, it was not just the eggs, there would be a stuffed rabbit hanging from the tree as well.  All over, up and down.  We lived in Elkhart, that is where we were for the Northern Indiana area.  It was right near the state line with Michigan.  So there were a number of interesting tidbits that we saw.  It was a very religious area back in those days.  I don't know what it is now, twenty-nine years later. 

Elkhart County has a very large Amish population and so do the counties immediately north of it in Michigan around White Pigeon and the other towns in Michigan there.  So you were buggy dodging a lot when you drove through the rural roads, but the Amish are a religious folk, as we well know.  We have many of them in Ohio and Mennonites as well – the Amish actually are the Mennonite faith, a branch of it in many respects.  And in those days you had the Amish – they drove the buggies – and we had church members who had come out of those backgrounds, so they explained how it worked in northern Indiana.  Some had been Mennonites and there were various stages of Mennonites – the stricter Mennonites could drive motor vehicles, but only tractors with steel wheels.  And you saw those occasionally, you know, a fairly modern tractor, but instead of rubber tires, it had steel wheels on it.  Then there were those who were the next level, they could have rubber tires and they could drive cars as long as they were painted flat black like the buggies.  Then there were some who could have shiny black and a little chrome.  Then you went, finally, to the regular brand which was whatever color of vehicle.  Like I say, I don't know that it's like that back there now, but it was in those days.  In a way, it was the way they displayed their beliefs as far as the way they lived their lives.

There was another aspect of religiosity in northern Indiana as well, because you'll remember that South Bend is there and South Bend – we didn't have a church in South Bend – Elkhart was east of South Bend about 20 or 30 miles and Michigan City was about that far west of South Bend and the two churches were there.  And then we had a third congregation down in a very small town called Plymouth about 25 or 30 miles south of South Bend.  I don't know why we didn't have one in South Bend, but where the brethren were wasn't in the city.  But South Bend is not so religious, it's Notre Dame which is on the northern outskirts of South Bend – Notre Dame University.  I'm not quite as much of a football fan as some, but occasionally I watch a game.  I think that it was noteworthy that they have there a giant mosaic – it's a wall of either a chapel or something – it's right at the end of their football field – and if you stand on the 50 yard line, so I've been told, I've driven by and actually saw it – they have a picture in mosaic, quite a nice mosaic as far as that goes, that they consider to be the depiction of Jesus.  We, obviously, know that the artists don't know what Jesus looked like.  None of them do from clear back to the time of Christ forward, they don't know what He looked like and we don't try to paint pictures.  We don't believe we should, but others do.  So their display of religiosity is Jesus standing there with His arms up like this.  Now, if you're on the 50 yard line, He's framed between the goalposts – otherwise known as Touchdown Jesus.  That, I guess you could say, is what you'd expect from a Catholic university that would field a football team like Notre Dame often has done over the years. 

As close as I can remember, religiosity, in that regard, was a Country and Western song that came out in the late 60's and had a line in it that was “Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life, End over end...”  and I forget the rest of the words, but whatever the case there are various displays of religion that we will see in the spring.  That one you would have to see in the fall as well because of football. 

But there was one sign that had some real, down to earth sense when you stop and think about it.  Elkhart had a state route that went through it north to south called Hwy. 19.  I would dodge around the main roads using a really good system of county roads that they had there.  Indiana, unlike Ohio, is laid out completely on a grid and occasionally you will find a diagonal road which used to be an Indian trail that went from one place to another and towns were built along that trail and then they would build roads eventually along the trail.  They were often called a Trail because of that reason.  They were also time savers when you were driving through the rural part of that particular State.  One of the other county roads was part of the grid that I often used to dodge around South Bend entirely and not have to drive through the city traffic or the surrounding suburb traffic.  And it came out on Hwy. 19 right beside a farm and the farm had a big, red barn and they had a sign painted right on the side of the barn.  This was your classic, Dutch colonial style, big, red barn so it has a lot of wall on the end of it.  And the sign said,

Life is short
Death is sure
Sin is the cause
and Christ is the cure.

Hmmm.  That makes sense.  It also makes a good title:  Christ Is The Cure is the title of this sermon and I think that you will find that there is a lot more value and a lot more truth in that sign, in that little short poem on the sign - it was in big letters, you could read it from a long ways away – than we'll find in the Touchdown Jesus or the Easter eggs hanging on the trees or anything else that we had in that particular State at the time or, frankly, in most States at that time.  Those are four neatly and poetically summarized lessons that we in God's church can derive significant value from especially as we approach the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.  Life is short.  Death is sure, which is why life is short.  Sin is the cause of why death is sure.  And Christ is the cure for sin, death and the shortness of life.  So in this sermon, I want to go through those four points and let's analyze them.

The first one is simply, Life is short.  In southern Michigan and northern Indiana at the time, the Amish had a saying, I can say it in English - they would say it in quasi-German - “Too soon alt. Too late schmart”.  It was very common.  I haven't heard it in Ohio.  We've, of course, had opportunity in Columbus and Cambridge over the past five years to be around a lot of Amish people, but it doesn't seem to be a popular saying there, but it was a popular saying in northern Indiana when we lived in that area.  “Too soon old, too late smart.”  And that is all too true.  Life is short and we get old too fast and we don't get smart quick enough to really appreciate what God is giving us. 

Let's consider the transitory nature of life.  This is important, I think, to recognize how easy it is for us to drift away from this mortal coil, as it is called, and go into the long sleep.  Let's notice, first of all, James chapter 4.  In many respects, the book of James is like a New Testament Ecclesiastes because what he says here sounds so Ecclesiastesish – I'm not sure that's a word, but we wrote it down.  We can just say it is.  James 4 – we'll look at the little section it lands in the middle of.  Verse 13 it starts.

James 4:13 -  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";

Verse 14 - whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Verse 15 - Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall do this or that."

So there's a lesson for us.  You know, our life is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 

One day I was taking the diagonal road that went from Elkhart to Plymouth.  It was a Sunday morning and I may have told you this story before - I know I told the ABC students - talking about vapor.  A bluebird - just an absolutely bluebird day.  We had Spokesmans Club in the library in Plymouth, and so all the men were gathering for that.  But this was in the dead of winter and, as I said, the sky was absolutely blue, not a single cloud, and it was 20 below zero.  So it was a good, cold morning.  And I pulled my station wagon up behind an Amish Suburban, as I refer to them because these were the longer buggies that would hold a large family when they have a dozen kids, which many, many of them did and do.  So I was pulling up behind it and it was not being pulled by a single team, it was a double team, so there were four horses out in front.  And they were all matched ponies, they weren't the larger trotting horses that we often find in Ohio.  These were matched ponies, probably 14 to 14½ hands at the very most, and fairly long hair because of the winter.  They were a fine set of horses, I'll tell you that.  And I was watching them as I approached and we stopped at the highway and they checked the traffic at Hwy. 19 and then they started trotting across at a fast clip.  They don't want to tarry while crossing a highway.  And I pulled up.  There was no traffic, so I slowly followed them over the highway and then drifted into the left lane of the county road we were on so I could go by. 

I was watching the most amazing thing come up over the buggy.  There were balls of ice crystals about the size of a basketball or a little bigger coming from the nostrils of each of the horses and they would hang in a round globe of ice crystals from the vapor of their breath – the moisture in their breath.  And because the air was dead still and it was 20 below zero, as soon as they would exhale, which they were doing explosively because they were going at a fast trot pulling a heavy buggy, they would send up a series of those magnificent ice crystal balls floating back.  And when they hit the front of the Amish buggy, it was not very streamlined, you know, just like any buggies, straight down the front.  They had the window closed – it was 20 below zero - and so the reins went out through the reins hole there – but the air was pushing ahead of that so they would hit that sort of wall of air just in front of the buggy and drift up and over the back of the buggy and drift off behind it and very slowly begin to disintegrate in the distance.  And I slowly motored around that, wishing that I had a high definition video camera - and I didn't even know they could ever exist – wishing I had any kind of camera at the time to try to capture that shot coming off of those light sorrel horses and out of their nostrils bouncing back against the flat black color of the buggy, the front of it, and then drifting up and just riding maybe 8 or 9 inches above the top of the buggy as they drifted off.  And then there would be a swirl of air that would start to drift them higher in the air.  Thankfully, no traffic was coming because I drove slowly across the highway and very slowly passed them, nodding to the driver and then very slowly in front of them watching for as long as I could in my mirror.  But no matter how long those breaths, those vapors that came from the horses as it were, lasted, they eventually dissipated.  I could see them just come apart and drift away and be assimilated back into the atmosphere. 

And that's what our life is like.  If it's long, we'll hang around like the horses' breath when it's 20 below zero when crossing the highway in an Amish community.  And if we don't live to a very old age, then it's even more vaporous than that. 

We can go back to Ecclesiastes itself to consider the fact that life is short.  It is very short.  We need to make the most of what God gives us in our lives.  Let's see, let's go to chapter 12 – well, let's cut ourselves a bargain, let's start in the end of chapter ll.

Ecc. 11:9 - Rejoice, O young man, in your youth...  you know, before you've gotten old  ...And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment.   In other words, live responsibly.  God has a way of life, follow it from the time you are young until you are old.  ...God will bring you into judgment.

Verse 10 - Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, And put away evil from your flesh, For childhood and youth are... vapors.    That's what vanity means.  It doesn't mean necessarily arrogance unless it is actually describing arrogance.  In Ecclesiastes it mostly means it is a vapor just like James said.  It disappears – childhood and youth.  From childhood on up into your early 20's, perhaps, it is just here and then it's gone. 

Ecc. 12:1 - Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, "I have no pleasure in them":

And then it goes on describing down through – let's see,  in verse 8  it describes getting old in poetic language.  We won't go through all of that, but it talks about getting old.  You know, we are young and then we get old.  Too soon old, too late smart.  Life is a vapor.  It's very short.  We have to value what God has given us.

Let's go the Psalms now because David also wrote about this.  We'll start in Pslam 39.  I read these kinds of scriptures and, you know, stop and take a deep breath and become more thankful for what God has given us and to savor it and to enjoy it – the friends that we make, and true faith in Jesus Christ, and the work that God has given us to do, and our friends and family in society who don't understand the things we understand.  We pray for the day that they will, that may even arrive quickly for some.  But notice in chapter 39 – or Psalm 39 – it's not a chapter, it's actually a poem – in verses 4 and 5.

Pslam 39:4 - LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.

Verse 5 - Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths...   that's about 8 or 9 inches depending on the size of your hand from your thumb to the tip of your middle finger – that's a hand's-breadth.  It's not how you measure a horse, a horse's hand is measured by stacking the hands like this, but a hand's-breadth is when you stretch it out a little ways, but just a little ways.   ...And my age is as nothing before You...   The Father and Son are eternal!  They have always been and they will always be.  When we enter the God family through the resurrection to life, we will always be, but you know, we will never always have been.  God always has been and always will be.  This mortal coil, this human life we live right now, though, is vaporous.  It's just here and then it's gone.   ...And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.

And he goes on waxing eloquent about that, beautifully done.  But over in Pslam 103, we find it again.  I want to look at verses 15 and 16.

As for man...   it says in verse 15 of Pslam 103  ...As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

Now on our way down from Columbus which is, you know, two hours northeast - so we are not really two hours fully north - but we have just got the little green buds.  This brush that is out here on the slopes next to the Home Office is in full leaf now here and has been for over a week, but up in Columbus, they are just little tiny green buds, they are just barely getting started and we have no wild cherry blossoms like the blossoms scattered all through the woods here.  None of those are out at all.  Now, they'll come along, but you, being a little further south, are a little further ahead down here by the Home Office.  And that's the way it is around the world, the various latitudes and the time frame of when the grasses all come out and the flowers come on in the field or on the trees. 

So As for man, his days are like grass...  we all know about grass in Ohio because it grows up and every week we mow it down and that's about as long as it gets to last.  ...so he flourishes.

Verse 16 - For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.

Verse 17 – However the mercy of the Eternal is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children,

Verse 18 - To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.

There is a secret, then, that we have a short life, but there's a secret to living that life that is going to provide an extension, shall we say. 

The next line in the poem:

Life is short
Death is sure
Sin is the cause
Christ is the cure.

is Death is sure.  We'll look at the Death is sure line.  Now we know the scripture and we should look at it in Hebrewsrews chapter 9.  Death is sure because God said it is very clearly.  Chapter 9 of Hebrews and verse 27 is where we want to get to here.  Here it says:

Hebrews 9:27 - And it is appointed for men to die once...  or in the King James more eloquently  ...It is appointed for all men once to die, but after this, the judgment.

Verse 28 - So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many...   We commemorate that offering of Jesus Christ.  He offered His life to bear our sins so that we could be forgiven and they could be passed over.  ...To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

So it is appointed for all men once to die.  Death is sure, but as the scripture hints very clearly, there's a future, something exciting to anticipate. 

Death can be meant here in three ways, I think.  One is metaphorically.  There's a metaphorical death that comes from being cowardly.  Spiritual cowards is what we are more worried about being than physical cowards.  I mean, if a Grizzly bear is chasing you and there is no other alternative, run fast and climb high.  That's just being smart, not cowardly.  But we don't want to be spiritual cowards, afraid to come to grips with our sins and faults and overcome them or afraid to step forward in faith and do the work that God has given us to do at this end of the age.  So metaphoric death can be experienced by a spiritual coward who is afraid or unwilling to deal with his own sins or in conquering them through Christ.  Julius Caesar is given the words by Shakespeare, “Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant taste of death but once.”  Spiritually we want to be valiant, brave, fearless really – other than fearing God in the proper way. 

Death can also be meant here in another sense – we'll look at the main sense of what it means here in a moment – but it can be looked at in another sense and that is the end result to human suffering caused by sin, you know, man's better idea going back to the garden of Eden.  They thought they had a better idea that they would listen to the snake, eat the fruit and lo and behold, now what have we got in the world today?  The scriptures are clear on that and it's summary form is in Proverbs 16:25 or 14:12, whichever you can write down the fastest – they are the same proverb. 

Proverbs 16:25 - There is a way that seems right to a man...  but the end of it is death.   ...But its end is the way of death.   There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death. 

You know, war seems right to mankind.  Mankind fights wars, has always fought wars over and over and over.  In the early 1900's – it was published in 1903, a French historian named  Jean de Bloch who had done his study of about 3,300 years of history up until, let me think, I believe it was the mid 1800's just after the American Civil War, and as near as he could research those millennia – thirty-three or thirty-four hundred years, as near as he could research them, he believed that for every year of peace on earth, when there wasn't a war being fought, there were thirteen years of war.  13 years of war and then a year off.  Now other historians – others who read a lot of history and myself included – think that he simply didn't have enough information.  I rather doubt that there is ever a single year that mankind someplace isn't fighting a war.  War is the normal way of life for humanity and it brings death.  There is no doubt about it.  The more technologically capable we are, the more death comes. 

Some of our best poetry about death has come out of wars, strange as it may seem.  I remember one, I can only site you the title of it, but it was written by a man named Alan Seeger who died July 4th, 1916 in the trenches in Europe in WWI.  And he is probably one of the best of the era and of the genre.  It was I Have a Rendezvous with Death.  If you're a poet and you enjoy reading that, it's a very poignant piece, a very sad piece because that's the way of man.  The way that seems right to man always ends up being the way of death. 

So those are two of the senses of what we read in Hebrewsrews 9, but the greater sense and the direct meaning is simply the wages of sin.  We turn for that back to Romans 6.  The wages of sin is death.  Romans chapter 6, we know that passage.  It is fundamental to understand it does not mean eternal life in a less than advantageous place.  It means death, meaning that there is no immortal soul and when people die, they are dead unless God resurrects them.  The wages of sin produce death. 

Romans 6:23 - The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You notice how Christ appears at every level of the poem and certainly appears here.  Death is sure.

Notice back in chapter 5, this process of death alluding back to the way that seems right to a man starting with the garden of Eden, let's start in verse 12 of chapter 5 of Romans.

Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world...  What man was that?  It was Adam – just a minute, wasn't it Eve?  Well, Eve was beguiled, deceived.  She ate the fruit, she talked to the snake - she did that, indeed.  However, when you go and read the account carefully and also the apostle Paul's comments on it in Timothy, you find out that Adam was there and he was not deceived and he still let her go ahead and do that.  He was supposed to have provided some leadership and he was not deceived.  So, I guess when you stop to think, well which one was it that sinned first - I don't know, but in essence, they together being mankind at the time in its total - through man came death.  Sin entered the world   ...and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Verse 13 - (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Until the Exodus being the time when the law was written down, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  In other words, there was law, it just wasn't written down yet, but it was commonly known.  

Verse 14 - Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses...  the penalty of sin, which is the power of the law, the penalty of sin  ...reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

So life is short, death is sure.  And the next point, Sin is the cause.  Sin is the cause.  That's why life is short.  That's why death is sure.  And since the wages of sin is death, it makes it clear.  But since we are here in Romans, move over, if you would, to chapter 3.  We'll begin in verse 10 because it starts to cite a series of passages out of the Old Testament explaining the extent of the sin in the world and who's responsible for the sins. 

Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;

What does that mean?  Well, it means there is none who are righteous, not one!  That's what it means.  What it implies to you and to me, it means that includes us that we are not without sin, that we are human beings.

Verse 11 - THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS; THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS AFTER GOD.

Verse 12 - THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE; THEY HAVE TOGETHER BECOME UNPROFITABLE; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, NO, NOT ONE."    It is the way of man.

Verse 13 - “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN TOMB; WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY HAVE PRACTICED DECEIT"; "THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS";   

Asps are poisonous snakes and I don't know if you have had to deal with snakes very often, but you want to stay away from the poisonous end.   I grew up in rattlesnake territory.  I think the snake that scared me the most wasn't even poisonous, at least that I know about.  It was a bull snake, that's what we called them.  They ate rattlesnakes for breakfast if they could find one.  And we always gave bull snakes freedom of the place.  But I didn't know that when I was 8 years old.  We had moved to South Dakota from a State where there were no rattlesnakes, at least not in our neighborhood, and I was being warned constantly about watching out for rattlesnakes.  We did not wear tennis shoes outside the front yard.  We always wore western boots or high rubber boots, or chore boots of we were doing chores or walking in the mud because we had lots of rattlesnakes in that part of South Dakota. 

So I had gone off with my father to repair a piece of machinery in a nearby field.  I had gone down to a swamp and there were some cottonwood trees and they had blackbirds in them and I had my BB gun. So I was out on a blackbird safari, wasn't particularly successful.  But as I was walking along in the Buffalo grass – Buffalo grass can be quite long, but it never gets a nap that is more than 4 or 5 inches high.  That's the prairie grass that we had there.  I was walking through that and I heard a hiss.  To me, I thought that must be a rattle of a snake.  And I looked back and started to jump because close behind me was a snake in full strike – mouth wide open aimed for my calf while my calf was flying through the air trailing the rest of me.  I never, even in high school, could do a standing broad jump as far as I did that one at 8 years old.  Of course, I never was that good of a jumper the way it was, but still there was high motivation there.  I was certain I was going to be bitten by a rattlesnake.  I was watching this over my shoulder – that was about the most coordinated thing I ever did - and I am seeing the snake's mouth reaching for the back of my leg.  And my leg – there's this point where the leg starts to accelerate faster than the snake can reach.  They can only strike about a third to a half of their body length and this one was five feet long so I out jumped him and so he then went down to the ground and promptly got filled full of steel thinking I had killed my first rattlesnake.  And my father came down and said, “Nah, son, that was a bull snake.  They eat rattlesnakes for breakfast.”  I felt so bad that I had - well, I still felt scared, you know, it's kind of a motivation when you get struck at by a snake.  And real poisonous snakes, those are the ones you do watch out for.  We did watch out for the rattlesnakes. 

The poison of asps is under their tongues.  That's where the fangs come up there and they are like hypodermic needles that can inject the venom into your flesh. 

Verse 14- WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS."

Verse 15 - "THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD;

Verse 16 - DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR WAYS;

Verse 17 - AND THE WAY OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN."

Verse 18 - "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."

That's mankind.  We've been among mankind.  Even as God's people, we know we are fallible human beings.  We have a different will, a different desire and a different drive now than we did before conversion.

Verse 19 - Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God...   Sin is the cause – we are guilty of sin before God.  

Verse 20 - Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

You know, you can't obey your way into salvation.  You literally can't do that because you already sinned before, when you needed to do that.   So even if you managed to be absolutely obedient in mind and in action, you already were dead in the water like the Bismarck.  You remember the Bismarck, I hope.  It was the giant battleship the Germans launched about 1941.  It had guns so big that it could out shoot anything the British Navy – which was the biggest navy in the world – they couldn't get close enough to destroy it.  And the Bismarck had to be knocked out because that was a threat to supplying the British Isles.  What happened was that on its maiden voyage it sank the British ship, the Hood, and sailed down and around to German occupied France where it ran into a small torpedo plane off of a British aircraft carrier.  They were bi-planes flying off an aircraft carrier.  They were not fast planes, but they carried great, hulking torpedoes underneath.  And one of them – several, you know, exploded on the side, but it was such a heavily armored ship that they really didn't do it much damage.  However, there was one torpedo that hit the rudder.  Now, that was a problem.  No ship is worth anything without a usable rudder and all the Bismarck, then, could do was turn in a tight circle because the rudder was permanently damaged and the British Navy was closing fast.  And so they put the quietus to the Bismarck and it sank and that was the end of it.  You know, that ship was dead in the water.  Likewise, because we are part of mankind, we've sinned.  And before we knew that we shouldn't sin, we sinned – and often even after we knew we shouldn't, we sinned.   But if it was possible for you to live a perfect life without sin, you still haven't been forgiven of that sin unless you come under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Even if you are perfect thereafter, you're still dead in the water to start with just like the Bismarck was.  Battleships do not like to be dead in the water, in fact most ships don't. 

Verse 21 – Now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets...  you know, in the Bible.

Verse 22 - even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

And then we come to verse 23 - for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,

There is none righteous, no, not one – not one of us.  We have all sinned.   And if we have sinned, then that's going to bring death because the penalty for sin is death. 

Sin is the cause.  Now sin comes in many guises that we need to be aware of.  We need to be aware of our human nature and just simply understand human nature – the carnal human nature, I mean, the sinful human nature.  We're not talking about the nature of man which includes love of mother for her children, or a father for his family and that sort of thing.  These are the good aspects of human nature.  I'm talking about the selfish element of human nature, the part that is hostile to God and His law and is not subject to His law.  You know that passage in Romans 8 and verse 7. 

We sometimes try to blame our problems on other people.  You know how human nature works.  We've done this.  We often see it in others, as well.  But what causes our problems in life and ultimately our death if unrepented of, is our own sin.  Life is short, death is sure, sin is the cause and Christ is the cure.  Now, here are some common sins.  We're putting leavening out of our homes right now because the Days of Unleavened Bread will be with us soon, so we are in the process of the deleavening of our homes and our vehicles because we tend to live in our vehicles quite a lot.  And, if you're like me, that's where there are significant crumbs.  I like to eat while I drive. Eat and drink good coffee.  Ephesians chapter 4.  Here is a list of things to be watching for while you're looking for the crumbs.  You've got that shop vac going and zapping everything you can find.  Well, think about what it is we want to shop vac out of our lives and out of our behavior and our thinking.  Anger is one of those things.  Ephesians chapter 4 and we want to look at verse 26.  It would help if I had Ephesians and not Philippians.  There we go.  Okay. 

Ephesians 4:25 - Therefore, putting away lying…   well, we want to get rid of that, too, don't we?  We want to be perfectly honest.   ..."LET EACH ONE OF YOU SPEAK TRUTH WITH HIS NEIGHBOR," for we are members of one another.

And then, verse 26 - "BE ANGRY, AND DO NOT SIN"...  It's not that all anger is wrong, there is righteous indignation, righteous anger – it is always measured and specifically applied and then withdrawn and the calmness of spirit is restored.  The other kind of anger is unrighteous anger, therefore it's a sin and probably the vast majority of our anger is the unrighteous variety, so beware of that.Do not let the sun go down on even righteous anger because it will fester and become unrighteous.   ...do not let the sun go down on your wrath,

Verse 27 - nor give place to the devil.

So anger is an important aspect of our lives we have to deal with.  You know, some people have anger, I think, that rises up from injustices in their youth.  I know that's the case for many.  Or simply because they borrow the anger from other people.  They mope too much and somebody gets angry then everybody wants to be angry about something.   When you borrow that anger or when you suffered definite injustice that wasn't your fault – you can end up being angry in a way that the anger leads you to sin.  You don't want that.  You want to resolve that anger.  Don't leave unresolved anger in your life.  It needs to be resolved.  You need to look at it, recognize it for what it is and put it away so that it doesn't keep coming back and causing problems.  Bad judgment comes from anger.  There's no doubt about it. 

There is another type of sin that we want to be watchful of and was brought out in our sermonette today.  It was the example where Christ was teaching in the temple area and they brought a lady  to Him caught in the act of adultery.  They didn't bring the man, you notice.  They just brought the lady.  They caught her in the act of adultery.  They didn't catch him?  Now there are some issues there that Christ wanted to dawn on the people who were bringing the accusation, but He made the profound statement.  It was the killer line in that particular account there in John chapter 8.  Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.  And even the carnal, self-serving, hard headed Pharisees, they were stopped in their tracks by that statement.  And then Christ went back down and started drawing on the ground again.  You know, some people speculate maybe he was writing names and places.  I doubt it.  I think He was doodling.  He was playing with their minds while He was doodling.  He just left them with this haunting statement, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”  And then He went quite, grand silence.  And then they were standing there, all angry and all self-righteously indignant and he deflated their self-righteousness – did them a great favor.  And you have to wonder, were some of those people called into the church later, a few years later?  It is possible.  Self-righteousness we must be aware of.  That's what they were filled with.  And we run into self-righteousness sometimes in ourselves and it's easier to identify, obviously, in others because it is SELF-righteousness.  It's hard to identify in your own self.  Typically you need somebody to pop your bubble – a good friend, a family member or maybe sometimes a sermon pops your bubble if there's a level of self-righteousness you've got to come to grips with. 

But you don't go to the other extreme which is self-unrighteousness.  That doesn't work, either.  Notice back in Romans 6.  There is self-righteousness and self-unrighteousness where someone is, you know, kind of arrogantly vain about being sinful.  That's not a good thing.  That definitely comes under the category of 'sin is the cause'.  Romans 6:12-14.

Romans 6:12 – Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body...  you know, don't harbor it.   ...that you should obey it in its lusts.   I mean, it's got control of you, you're proud of it.  Don't do that.  We're called away from sin, not into it. 

Verse 13 – And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead...  we sin.  The penalty of sin is death.  We are the walking dead as human beings unless you take the out.  There is a path to success, you know.   ...present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Verse 14 - For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Now what is that grace that we are under with regards to sin?  It is the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ.  That is, for us, the greatest divine favor or gift – which is what grace means – it means gift, a divine gift in the sense that God gives it to us.  When we repent, we come under that shed blood of Christ which we commemorate at the Passover time and we have the penalty of death lifted off of us - the sin cause because those sins are forgiven.   So self-unrighteousness is one to get rid of. 

Also, in Romans chapter 1, modern idolatry - what do you mean, modern idolatry?  Well, it's in society and clearly this is an address about society.  Some other time I'll talk more about it, but it's a passage that starts in verse 18 of Romans 1 and goes to verse 32, but we should be able to see where we fall in and see the direction the world has gone and that was our way before God shook us loose of the way of the world and opened our minds to His truth.  Notice verse 24. 

Romans 1:24 - Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,

Verse 25 - who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature...  or the creation  ...rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Now we have, for example, modern environmental idolatry where people literally worship trees.  In the northwest where we lived for many years where my wife grew up, they are called 'tree huggers'.  You don't find as many tree huggers on this side of the United States, but in the northwest, there are lots of them.  And, I guess, they think trees are eternal because they're bigger than they are and they like to hug them.  It's just basically a form of idolatry.  Most of them don't know any better.  And they don't really have a lot of the common sense even, that used to come along with growing up in a country with the opportunities that America has had. 

So modern idolatry – no matter what it is that we put before God - that's an idol.  We don't want to have that.  We need to watch out for things that we will spend more of our time, more of out energies on than thinking about God and His way and serving Him. 

Sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is a big one.  Sexual immorality.  In fact, this is the chapter, of course, that talks about the Passover in the New Testament.  1 Corinthians chapter 5 is the section, when you get down to verses 6-8 that just completely destroys the argument that the Gentile churches in the 1st Century did not observe the annual Sabbaths.  They did.  'Therefore let us keep the feast' is what Paul says down there.  But in verse 5, the prelude to it:

1 Corinthians 5:1 – It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father's wife!

Verse 2 - And you are puffed up...   you are proud of it – self-unrighteousness on a group level.   ...and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Verse 3 - For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present)...  that is, judged him  ...him who has so done this deed.

Verse 4 - In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...  again, by Christ's authority we deal with things,  ...when you are gathered together, with my spirit, and with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ...  anticipating the Passover in particular,  ...deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Everything is tied to Christ.  Notice that – three times mentioned there.  Now, the good news - 2 Corinthians.  Oh, the man repented!  Really?  Totally?  And then Paul said, “Okay now, you can accept him back.  Give him a new start, help him out there, but he has repented and I'm satisfied that he's repented so now you can accept him back.”  That was wonderful news. 

Then there's another story.  This goes back to the Old Testament.   It's in 1 Samuel chapter 15.  I can't read it to you, but I will tell it to you to save some time.  It was the time that Saul was sent to eradicate the Amalekites because of their sinful ways and their destructive conduct toward Israel.  And God sent him to do that.  And not only did He want them wiped out, He wanted everything they had wiped out – all the livestock, too.  So off Saul went to do that and he wiped out most of the Amalekites, but he kept the king alive.  And then, they decided they would keep all the nice looking cattle and sheep, as well – he and the people.  So then God told Samuel, He said, “I'm done with this Saul guy.  He's out of here.”  And Samuel prayed all night, mourning – you know the positive life that Saul could have had and the reputation he could have had that he was giving up.  And then Samuel went to see him and he scolded him for what he was doing.  And Saul said, “I've done what you said.  I wiped out the Amalekites.  It's just the people.  They wanted to keep the best cattle and sheep, you know, so I let the people do it.”  And Samuel said, “You did not, you did it.”  And then at the end of it, Saul said, “You're right.”  Then when Samuel told him what the penalty was, that he was going to lose - his dynasty would not exist past him – he would lose his kingship.  And then Saul wanted to be forgiven and he said, in fact, that he had sinned.  But it was in the midst of that correction by Samuel that this statement came out in verse 23 talking about what Saul did.  He said:

1 Samuel 15:23 – For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft...  and you rebelled against the clear word of God, Saul, and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.  ...And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry...  stubbornness is like idolatry because it is worshiping the self, elevating the self.  You can't rebel against God.  That's true Christianity 101, lesson 1, day 1.  OoPslam  Day 2, too, you can throw it in then, too.  And, you know, you can't run and hide from your sins. 

Hank Williams, of course, made that clear.  “Your cheating heart will tell on you.”  But the principle from the scripture, that you'll find in Numbers 32:23 for reference.  Again, it's another story.  The two and a half tribes of Israel wanted to live on the east side of the Jordan.  Moses said, “Okay you can do that.  God says you can do that, but you've got to send your army over here and you've got to lead the charge to conquer the rest of the land first.  Then you can go back over there.”  And they said, “Okay.”  And he said, “And if you don't come to the aid of your brothers, then you are going to be sinning and you can be sure that your sins will find you out.” 

Life is short.  Death is sure.  Sin is the cause.  And Christ is the cure - how to solve this problem of sin and death and a short life, because we want to live forever and that's a long time. 

We now go back to Romans.  This is our last point and a profound one.  Romans, chapter. 7.   We want to begin in, well, let's see – I think it's about verse 14.  Here is what Paul realized.  He realized his life was short, that death was sure, that his sins had been the cause and, in this dissertation he makes it very clear that Christ is the cure from death.  We don't have to die for our sins because they would be forgiven by Christ's shed blood.  Verse 13 of Romans 7, we'll start there.

Romans 7:13 - Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.   You see, the commandments explain what sin is as well as righteousness – a dual purpose. 

Verse 14 - For we know that the law is spiritual...  Paul writes  ...but I am carnal, sold under sin.

And you think, when did he write this?  When he was first being called?  No.  He had been converted about twenty years.  And when we're talking about conversion in the apostle Paul's life, you compare it to where he had been before as a zealous Pharisee and a persecutor of the Church.  Conversion with Paul was like a rocket sled on rails.  He went places.  He did things.  He lived enough life to be worth four or five other ministers.  He worked harder than any.  He just was one of those rare individuals that are definitely chosen by God for His purpose.   For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin...  going to die for it. 

Verse 15 - For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that's what I do.

Verse 16 – Now, If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

Verse 17 - But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me...  In other words, he says it is not my will to break God's law – even in the mind.  It's not my will.  I want to do the right thing, but sometimes I don't.   ...it's the sin that dwells in me. 

Verse 18 – For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells...  there is a humbling realization that we all need  ...for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.

Verse 19 - For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that's what I practice.

Verse 20 - Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.   Sin comes after us even after we're converted.  We need Christ's intervention even now. 

Verse 21 - I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

Verse 22 - For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man...  a converted man, inward is another way of describing conversion. 

Verse 23 - But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members...  that carnal nature is still there even after we are converted. 

And then he comes to this expression, verse 24 - wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

And he answers himself, verse 25 - I thank God...   as in the Father  …through Jesus Christ our Lord!  It is Christ who will save him from this body of death because that's the only way we can resolve the sins in our lives is to have them forgiven.  ...So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

The battle goes on, but the only solution is to turn to Christ and to follow Him.  And He will lead us to overcome sin which will overcome death which will then provide, as we mentioned earlier, an extension to our lives called eternity which is a really, really good extension considering our lives are like a tiny span, a tiny hand's-breadth perhaps, a little vapor in the air, ice crystals drifting back from a horse's nostril.

Let's turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 for our conclusion.  1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter.  How does Christ do death in?  Life is short, death is sure, sin is the cause and Christ is the cure.  How does He do in death?  Well, He does in death by doing in sin.  That's how it happens.  When all of the sins are forgiven, then the last thing to be wiped out is death.  Notice in verse 24 of 1 Corinthians 15 – well, we'll back up to verse 22. 

1 Corinthians 15:22 – For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Verse 23 - But each one in his own order...  so God's got a plan, believe it or not.  ...Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming...  that's going to be us and all the brethren who have been converted from the time of Christ forward as well as some from the Old Testament period.

Verse 24 - And then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and all power...  the demonic spirits are out of the way.

Verse 25 – For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet.

Verse 26 – And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

When all the humans that the earth will produce have lived and all those who have chosen to repent and  come under the blood of Christ and have their sins passed over and commemorate that annually, during their life, when the last person has gone through that cycle and then is ultimately resurrected into the kingdom of God, then for mankind there is no more death.  Death is sure now, but it won't exist then.  It will be conquered.  The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.  Marvelous! 

And then, across the page, verse 55 it talks a little bit more about that.  One we read at every funeral sermon is this section. 

Verse 54 – So when this corruptible has put on incorruption...  and we're corruptible.  That means, like Beethoven, when we die, we decompose.  Beethoven, of course, got to compose while he was alive, but we didn't so much.  He did.  But we all decompose because we're corruptible in that sense – physically corruptible.  This doesn't necessarily mean morally corruptible, although that is also true.  This is just speaking of the body's disintegration and death.   ...and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY."

Verse 55 - "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? O...  grave or ...HADES, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?"

Verse 56 - The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

Verse 57 - But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus, the solution to death and to sin and to a short life is Christ, Himself. 

Have a great Passover season, brethren, and reflect on the saying,  Life is short, death is sure, sin is the cause, but Christ is the cure.