Daily Radio Program with Charles Stanley - In Touc... - Bearing the Greatest Burden - Part 1

Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, March 10th.

Through his death and resurrection, Christ accomplished what only God could do, discover

how His work can transform your life today.

What is the heaviest burden that you've ever borne in your life?

Now, most of you have to stop and think about that for a few moments, but some of you

could think immediately I remember exactly what it was.

It can be one of a number of things.

You had the greatest opportunity in your life, you made the wrong decision, and you missed

it.

You had automobile accident, your best friend got killed, you can't ever get over it.

It was time when you had lots of wealth, you lost it all, because you gambled it away.

And then God called you to preach the gospel to serve Him in some fashion, and you decided

and said, no, have I have been happy ever since.

Lovely married, lovely family, lovely children.

You walked away because you thought there was something better, and now you don't have

either one.

They're all kind of heavy burdens at people there, but there's one burden, heavier than all

the rest.

And that's what I want to talk about this morning.

We've been talking about how to handle the burdens of life that you and I deal with.

We've talked about how to deal with the burdens of other people's lives.

We didn't respond to that, and then what is the heaviest burden of all?

And this is one of the most deceptive things, because some people appear it seems to be getting

by all right.

When deep down inside, we know they're not, because what God says is true.

So I want you to turn if you will to the ninth chapter of Hebrews.

And I want us to read the 24th of the 28th verses of this chapter, and then I want us to

look to see what is the heaviest burden of all.

Hebrews chapter 9, verse 24, for Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere

copy of the true one, but unto heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Know was it that He would offer Himself, often as the high priest and as the holy place,

year by year with blood, that is not His own, which is what there was their responsibility

in those days.

Verse 26, otherwise, He would have needed to suffer, they often since the foundation of

the world, but now once at the consummation of the ages, He has been manifested to put

away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And in as much as it appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so

Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second

time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await Him.

What is the greatest burden of all?

The greatest burden of all is not any of these things that we mentioned, though that's a

great burden.

The greatest burden of all has to do with our sin, and all of us have experienced sin in

their life, so all of us have had to bear the burden of sin.

And so as you think about your life and what's been going on and how far you are long

in life, maybe you had dreams and ideas, and you had maybe some kind of dreams in your

life that you thought could never happen, and now they are moving right along, and somehow

you see me doing that without God, and everything seems to be just fine.

What a deception, because you see the truth is, every single one of us have to give an

account to God, very evident from the Scripture that we do, and so what we do is we just move

along in deception, thinking everything is going along really well.

So I want you to think about this passage of Scripture, because in this passage of

Scripture is the most important truth in all the Word of God, no matter where you go.

Now what is the greatest burden?

Here it is.

The greatest burden that mankind bears is simply this.

It's the sin and the consequences of that sin in our life.

That's the greatest burden of all.

And while a person may not feel that, because we said, what is a burden?

A burden is a weight.

It's an emotional weight.

It can sometimes become weariness, discouragement, despair in a person's life, but it's that

heaviness of soul and spirit.

Many people are bearing that burden, do not realize what it is.

And so therefore, because they don't know what it is, they go about in the wrong way

trying to alleviate that burden, that feeling of despair, awareness of failure and so

forth, and they get themselves in deeper trouble.

Sin is a very deceptive burden.

And while a person on the outside may appear to be doing well, deep down inside the

very nature of guilt and sin is that it's inescapable.

And people go to all kinds of means and ways of trying to escape it, but they cannot.

And they deny it, they rationalize it, they try to excuse it, they don't blame their

feelings on someone else.

And sometimes what they do is they blame their spiritual feelings on something that is

physical.

That is, they say, well, this is a physical thing.

Well, I'm just going through a time in my life.

The very presence and the very essence and the very character of sin and guilt is destructive.

It wears away at your body, wears away at your soul, wears away at your mind, fragments

you're thinking.

And no matter what a person may do, it may be all the prominence and prestige that the

world can offer.

It may be alcohol, sex, drugs, whatever it may be, you cannot escape the burden of sin in

its consequences.

And many people who, I don't believe in any of that, when they lie down at night, look

up in the night, and it's just themselves, they somehow deep down inside know that there's

something beyond what they're willing to admit.

So what are these consequences?

I want you to think about it from moment and think about how heavy this has to weigh.

And the first is this is the bondage of sin.

I want to name four.

Four consequences of living without Christ.

Here they are.

First of all, living in bondage.

A person says, well, I'm not in bondage.

Ask any, most, most any alcoholic or most any person who is addicted to drugs or sex.

And if you ask them, are you in bondage, well, certainly not.

I'm stopped as in a time I want to.

That's why all these rehabilitation places are so full of people who said they weren't

in bondage until they get absolutely so desperate, then they have to finally confess that something

is not right in their life.

So sin is a bondage in a person's life, no matter what it is.

It is a bondage that's inescapable except in one way.

And so one of the burdens of the consequences of sin is bondage.

A second one is this.

Not only is there bondage, but there's this whole issue in a person's life that oftentimes

we don't want to admit.

And that is the separation from God.

Sin separates us from God.

There is anything in this life worth making me feel separated from Him.

But while I know that once you're saved, you're not ever separated, but a lost person

is separated from God.

And so the very idea of being separated from God, and the Scripture is very clear, there

are lots of verses we can turn to, for example, when the Scripture talks about how sin has

separated us from God, and when you think about being separated from Him, if a person's

not spiritually minded, that doesn't faze them.

But if you are a believer, you desire the will of God in your life, and you're trying

to walk a godly life.

When sin enters your life as a Christian, if you can stand it, and it doesn't bother you,

you need to stop and ask yourself the question, am I really saved?

God hates it.

God hates every form of sin, and here's the reason He does, because He sees what it does

to His children.

Look at what's happening to millions and millions of people who are misled, believe all kinds

of error, living in all kinds of bondage in their life.

They don't understand what in the world's going on, but they're not happy, they're not successful.

It takes more than money and pleasure and prestige and promise to make a person successful.

And so what happens?

They're living separated from God.

And we see a person who is without Christ is separated from God because that's what

sin does, and all the denial in the world has not changed that.

This is separated, it separates families, it separates friends, but sin most of all separates

us from God.

And for example, when you turn to Ephesians, look in Ephesians chapter 2 from moment, and

notice what Paul said about this whole idea of sin and how it affects their life.

He says in chapter 2 verse 1, you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

That is, that's what sin does.

Like deadens us to the things of God.

That's why when a person is saved with the grace of God, what happens?

We're transformed.

Salvation brings us into a relationship with God, our spirit comes alive.

Now we can talk to Him and relate to Him and have a relationship with Him.

He says in which dead in trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to

the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit

that is now working in the sons of disobedience among them, we too all formerly lived in the

lust of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh in the mind and were by nature, children

of wrath.

It's two things I want you to notice.

Sin is a separated, absolutely your spirit cannot relate to God, but that spirit is made

alive by the Holy Spirit.

Dead in trespasses and sins.

And notice this, notice what He says.

He says not only that, but He says by nature the children of wrath even is the rest.

Now what's the wrath of God?

Because this is the third.

Look, first of all, there's the bondage of sin separation from God and there's a wrath

of God.

If you said to one of your lost friends, do you realize you're living to the wrath of

God?

Here's what they'd say.

Well, who are you to judge me?

You're not judging them because they would probably say, well, I believe lots of parts

of the Bible, but I don't believe that part about wrath.

What I do is I live with the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.

Let me tell you something.

There are no two passages of Scripture in the Bible, more condemning the way people live

than those two passages.

And they say, well, that's the two I believe, then you just condemn yourself.

Listen to what He says, for example, in John chapter 3, we all love John 3, 16 for God

so love the world, gave His only begotten Son, whose ever believes in Him, have eternal

life and never perish.

We love those verses and I too love them.

And I too believe that one of the most awesome, awesome, awesome beliefs in the Bible, ideas

of the Scripture, principles of the Word of God is His unconditional love for us.

But if I reject it, also there's a principle that says, whatever I saw, I'll reap what

I saw more than I saw later than I saw.

Listen to John chapter 3, verse 36, after Jesus has talked to Nicodemus and now He's coming

down to the end, listen to what He says, verse 36, he who believes in the Son has eternal

life.

He who does not obey the Son, which is meaning to believe in Him, will not see life, but

the wrath of God abides on Him.

Now, here is the condition of a lost person.

Here is the burden a lost person is dealing with.

They're in bondage to sin.

We say, well, I'm not a sex addict, I'm not in alcohol, I'm not in drugs, all of this

kind of thing.

What do you mean?

I'm in bondage.

You can be in bondage to pride.

You can be in bondage to what you're seeking in life.

If it's promise and prestige, you can be in bondage to anything.

All of us are in bondage to something unless Jesus Christ is living and ruling and reigning

in our life.

So bondage is one thing, separation from God.

For example, somebody says, well, but I'm not a Christian, but I pray and God hears

my prayers, no, He doesn't.

Well, how can you be so prodigal and egotistical and arrogant to tell me that God doesn't answer

my prayer, not being either one of those three things?

I'm just telling you what God says.

He will not hear the prayers of the wicked unless the prayer of the wicked is a prayer of

confession and repentance toward God.

Why?

This is the thing the world doesn't want to understand.

That sin by its nature separates me from a holy God who says, he hates sin.

He does not hate the sinner.

He hates sin.

He hates everything about sin because it destroys so much and it destroys his children.

That's why he hates it.

And so the wrath of God is God's hatred and anger and animosity.

Listen, toward those things that are ungodly.

Does he hate the sin and is yes?

Does he love us at the same time?

Yes.

If you save with the grace of God and you sin against him or you lost no, eternal salvation

does not rest upon my conduct.

Eternal salvation rests upon our relationship with Almighty God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

I'm saved by His grace and goodness and love and mercy and kindness.

I'm not saved by them and kept by myself.

We are to live a righteous life and a holy life for him.

But we don't keep saved by our conduct.

Here's the burden.

The burden of the bondage of sin, our separation from God.

Listen what he says in this passage.

He says, but the wrath of God abides on this person who does not believe in Jesus.

That means hovering over them.

And hovering over them is God's judging hand.

Is it because He wants to know?

Is it because He desires that know?

Is it because He likes that know?

Is it because He takes pleasure in that know?

It is because, listen, the threat of the judgment of God should lead people to repentance.

And also the Bible says the kindness of God leads people to repentance.

But there's one other part of this burden and that's simply this.

That is eternal death in Revelation chapter 20.

He talks about the second death and the second death is eternal death.

We die physically.

But if a person dies spiritually forever, it is the second death.

And he says those who die the second death are cast to the lake of farce.

And I said, I don't believe in that hell stuff.

Let me just say this.

You may not believe it.

That does not change it.

You may not believe in God.

That does not eradicate God.

We're living in a day and I picked up this magazine and just reading the letters,

responding to an article in the magazine a few months ago,

and people writing their editorial letters in what they thought.

It was very interesting to me that you could tell where people were coming from.

Some of them were very, very belligerent because they're very odd there

that Christians or some religious people could tell them how to live

or even suggest

a day, for example, or a sentence or whatever it might be.

It was just real interesting to you could just feel the kind of resistance

and rebellion toward the whole Christian faith,

and not just the Christian faith, but other religions also.

You'd tell them, how I ought to live.

You know what the issue is?

People have their own idea of what God's like.

They've already decided in their mind, this is the kind of God I'm going to serve.

This is who I believe God is.

When you say, well, what's the basis of that?

Well, listen, when you decide who God is like

and you put aside the word of God,

there is no way for you to ever come up to what he's like.

Why?

Because the most wonderful things in the Word of God did not come from man.

Man could not have written this book if, listen, he would not if he could have

and he could not if he would have.

For the simple reason, the truth of the Word of God is so totally antagonistic

against the world's ideas of God.

They see him as a God of judgment and a God of condemnation.

They don't see him as a God of love and goodness and mercy,

and with that mercy must come justice.

Because you see, here's how mixed up the world is.

They want God to be all love, no condemnation, no judgment.

Do you know what kind of world we live in?

Unsafe to go out of your house and unsafe in your house if all the doors were locked

and you had an alarm system on.

If there's no judgment, no condemnation of sin,

God's all love treats everybody just wonderfully well,

no matter how they live.

This is the issue with mankind.

They don't want you to tell them about consequences.

Tell me about plays, you tell me about the goodness of God,

but don't tell me about any consequences of my ungodly living

because it makes me uncomfortable and I don't want to hear about it.

And the deception is that people get along so well

they don't think it's true.

Until they're sick and on their deathbed, they've lost everything.

The families walked away.

One of these burdens we had talked about in the very beginning,

they don't want to.

I don't want to believe it, they just think about this.

Living in bondage to sin, separated from the very God who created you

and for his purpose for your life,

living under the wrath of God every single day of your life

and with your destined future to be eternally separated him forever and ever and ever.

That's what hell is all about.

Whatever may be true of hell,

eternal separation from God.

Think about the God who created you,

who's planned the very best as all wise God knows how to plan for you

and then you ignore him in your life, reject him in your life,

and then to be eternally separated from him

because in that moment of separation you will know who he's like and what you've missed.

That's what the judgment of the wicked is all about.

When you not stand before the judgment,

God's not going to bring up all of our past sins and let's say now,

let's see if the good outweighs the bad.

That's not the judgment of God.

When you and I come into the judgment throne,

it's the judgment of rewards.

God rewarding us for the good he's seen in their life having accepted him as our savior.

For the wicked and the great white throne judgment has nothing to do with salvation.

It has to do with the degree of punishment of personal experiences for all eternity

because they deliberately, willfully separate themselves from God.

Now somebody says, what about those people who haven't heard and all this yet?

You know, I got a whole lot of sermon on that, but let me just say this.

One thing you can be sure of.

God makes no mistakes.

He knows everything. He's suffering.

He's not going to be unjust. God is not unjust.

He's absolutely unjust in all that he does.

Thank you for listening to Bearing the Greatest Burden.

If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries,

stop by in touch.org.

This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.

Thank you for listening to Bearing the Greatest Burden.