Just published: Sermons on Selected Psalms.
I gathered some of my past messages, meditating on key themes from several psalms. From Monday, January 24 through Friday, January 28, the Kindle version of the book will be available for free download through Amazon, for reading on Kindle devices or online using the Kindle Cloud Reader app. Reviews of the book would be welcomed! A paperback version is available (for purchase) also if preferred.
If interested, for the week of January 23-28, two other books available on Amazon are offered for 99 cents:
- Faith Lives
in Our Actions (James 2)
- The Lord Cares for Me (Psalm 23)
For a blog post this week, here is an excerpt from the book, Sermons on Selected Psalms.
View also on new version of this website: https://theelectricgospel.com/the-lord-has-redeemed-you/
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Your sins are forgiven
An excerpt from sermon on Psalm 130:7-8
Israel, hope in Yahweh,
for there is loving kindness with Yahweh.
Abundant redemption is with him.
He will redeem Israel from all their sins.
People sometimes have asked me, “What if Jesus came back
today, and caught me in the middle of a sin when he came? Would I go to hell?”
My usual response to that is: “Tell me a day and a time when Jesus could come
back and not catch you in some sort of sin.” We are constantly wrestling with
sin in our souls, embedded with sin in our nature. We daily commit wrongdoings
and omit good things we could be doing. Even our most noble deeds are typically
tainted with aspects of selfishness. As Isaiah confessed for all of us, all our
own righteousness is “like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). Remember that the
word “sin” means to miss the mark, to come up short, to be fractured and
imperfect. It’s a description of the entirety of our lives. We always
come up short. We’re never perfect. There is always something we’re lacking.
Even if we were to sit in a chair and do absolutely nothing—trying to be
motionless and clear our minds of all thoughts—we could not avoid sin that
way. Even the holiest of monks who isolated themselves in the desert
struggled with sinful thoughts. And avoiding action could well be sinful in
itself, when there are other persons in the world around us who need our
action.
So the reality is, we cannot free ourselves from sin by our own power. We need Jesus at every moment. We need Jesus day after day. Only Jesus can complete us. We are not perfect persons, but Jesus is the “author and perfecter of faith.” He keeps us from growing weary, “fainting in our souls” as we keep “striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:2-4). Jesus makes us worthy of heaven. He fills in what is lacking for us. Jesus, who had no sin, was “made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In connection to Jesus, attached by faith to Jesus, we are made whole. Jesus comes to us and enters our hearts so that we are forgiven today and stay forgiven every day.
Bible quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).
