All of you NCAA basketball fans know that the Connecticut Huskies beat the Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 in the National Championship game on April 7, 2014. The Huskies obviously had a very good tournament. Yes, the last three weeks have been a really exciting time for basketball fans. There were many upsets in this years tournament. Congratulations to the National Champions.
But do you remember who won last year? Do you remember which teams were in the final four last year? The elite eight? The sweet sixteen? Do you know which teams have won the National Championship for the past five years? 10 years? 20 years? I doubt that there are very many die hard fans who remember the National Champs for the last 10 years. There’s a lot of media coverage of the NCAA tournament right now and a lot of people are talking about it and it seems really important to them, but why can’t people remember the past winners for very long?
If this was something really important, shouldn’t we remember it longer? I used to be a sports fanatic. In fact my wife reminds me every now and then that nearly 20 years ago on New Year’s Day, I had plugged in another TV set in the living room to watch the NCAA football games. There happened to be two games that I really wanted to watch and they were on at the same time. We had a bad fight over that and guess what? I have no clue who those teams even were, let alone who won the games. I will still watch a game every now and then, but they just don’t have any sway over me like they used to. I even had to research who the National Champs were last year, because I didn’t remember (it was the Louisville Cardinals in case you forgot too).
So why did I lose my fanatical love for sports? It wasn’t because of the fights my wife and I used to have over them (and she still isn’t a sports fan at all). It’s because God changed my heart six and half years ago. God took away my selfish desires and He gave me new desires. He gave me His desires. Philippians 2:13 says, For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. You see, when God draws you to Himself, when He opens your spiritually blind eyes and when He opens your spiritually deaf ears, you are no longer the same person. Isaiah 35:5 states, Then they eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. When God shows you how sinful you really are and how Holy He really is, then you can do nothing but cry out to God for Him to save you.
But the problem is that most of us think that we are good (Proverbs 20:6). This makes sense if you think about it. You do what you do because you think that what you are doing is right. Even a thief will justify stealing. He’ll say something like “those rich people rip people off” or “they get all the breaks anyway.” So a thief will justify his actions. We all know that stealing is wrong, but a thief will figure out a way to make it all right to steal. He will convince himself that taking that car is all right because he needs the money to support himself.
Or a saleswoman will convince herself that embellishing how good the skin product that she sells isn’t a bad thing to do. Women need to feel better about themselves. She tells herself “I’m helping women with their self esteem” or “her husband will notice her because of her new attitude.” So what if the product doesn’t work quite as well as I tell my customers? It makes them feel better, it improves their self esteem and that in turn enriches their marriages. So the end justifies the means? Right?
In addition to lying and stealing, we could throw in lusting, sexual immorality, pornography, coveting and worshiping false gods. The list is endless. But the bottom line is that we are all sinners. We have all rebelled against the One True God. We have all fallen short of His perfect standard (Romans 3:23). None of us have perfectly kept the 10 Commandments with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, every second of every day, for our whole lives. God doesn’t set the standard so high because He’s petty or mean. He sets the standard so high because He is perfect (2 Samuel 22:31). That is His nature and He can’t go against His own nature (Hebrews 6:18).
We’ve all sinned and we’ve all missed the mark and there’s nothing any of us can do on our own to change that (1 John 3:4). We cannot earn one nanosecond in Heaven. It is all or nothing and there is nothing that we can give God to earn salvation. All we earn on our own is physical death and spiritual separation from our great Creator. God is Holy, righteous and just. That’s why He must punish sin. Unrepentant sinners deserve everlasting damnation. Rebellious God haters, mockers and scoffers will suffer forever in Hell because their eternal punishment can never make them right with God. He is that Holy! He is that righteous!
But God is also loving, merciful, kind and full of grace. He loves us so much, that He made a way of escape for us. He made a way for us to avoid suffering in Hell in torment and agony for all of eternity. He provided the one and only way of salvation and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died a horrible and painful death on the cross for guilty sinners like you and me. While He hung on that awful cross, God’s anger, God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus as He hung there (1 John 2:2). Jesus took the punishment that you and I rightly deserve. Romans 5:8-9 says, But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Jesus died on that cruel cross and He was buried. Then He rose from the grave on the third day. Jesus walked this earth for 40 days after His resurrection. He was seen by His apostles and then by over 500 men (all at one time). When the apostle Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 15:6, he pointed out to the Corinthians that many of the 500 were still alive. In other words, he was saying, if you don’t believe me, go ask them yourself!
In Luke 24:44-48, Jesus is speaking to His disciples after He rose from the grave. 44 And he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46 And said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47 And that repentance and remission (or forgiveness) of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And you are witnesses of these things.
Only Jesus can make you right with God. We’ve all like sheep gone astray. But Jesus can bring you back to God. He can bring you into the fold. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The key is that you must recognize that you need to be saved. You have to realize that you have strayed in the first place. You need to admit that you are lost. You must believe that you are a sinner who deserves the wrath of God. Psalm 7:11 states, God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. Do you recognize your sinfulness? Do you realize that God sees you as a wicked person? Ezekiel 18:23 tells us, Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
You must repent and believe the Gospel. When God grants you repentance, He is giving you godly sorrow over your sin. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 says, Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance: for you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.
Sure repentance means that you are remorseful. Sure you feel bad about your sins. But is more than feeling low. It’s more than feeling remorseful. It starts with a change of your mind. You realize that you have sinned against the great God of Heaven and earth. In Psalm 51:4 David tells God, Against you, you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight: that you might be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge. You want to be forgiven for your sins. In Psalm 51:2 David cries out to God, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse e from my sin.
You gladly surrender control of your life to Him, and you then desire to please Him. You desire to follow Jesus. You stop committing the sins you once loved. You want to follow Jesus fully and completely from this point forward. You submit your will to His will. You surrender your life fully to Jesus the Christ. You are no longer the same person you were before you were born again. You now love God, truly love Him. It’s more than just a do this and don’t do that type of list. It’s more than giving up the pleasures of the flesh. You truly deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Jesus on a daily basis. You praise God without even thinking about it. You want to read the Bible.
The Holy Scriptures are God’s Word. You want to be near God, you want to learn more about God and you want to meet God. You do this by feeding on the Word of God; the living breathing Word of God. You truly become a new creature in Christ. God starts working on you and changing you through the power of the Holy Spirit which now resides inside you. When you are truly saved, it is supernatural. There’s no way you can go back to the way things were before.
So what are you focused on today? Are you caught up in the hoopla over who’s going to win the National Championship Monday night? Are you worried about the temporary pleasures of this life? Are you worried about what you will eat or what you will wear? Are you focused on temporary things or on things of eternal importance? Where is your treasure today? Because your heart won’t be very far away from it. Who or what do you love? What consumes your thoughts and your desires? What or who are you passionate about? Who or what has your heart? Are you living for eternal life or everlasting destruction? Are you following the One True Victor? Are you following the One True Champion?
Jesus overcame the world and you can be victorious through Him too. John 16:33 says, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Revelation 21:6-7 states, And he said to me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Be a champion today. Overcome your sins; overcome the world by surrendering your life to Jesus. Repent by turning away from your sins and put your faith in Jesus. Do this today and be saved. Today is the day of salvation.