Accurate Knowledge of Self
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
7/21/2013 AM
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Text:
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Romans 3;
Lord's Day 2
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Psalters: |
425, 1, 188, 364 |
- My wretched misery.
- Misery is the experience of distresses.
- Misery indicates there is something wrong; misery is not the cause, but the result.
- God gives misery as a consequence of sin.
- Unless we see the cause of our misery and treat it, there will be no deliverance and recovery.
- Aware of his misery, natural man uses the standard of himself and thus only increases his misery.
- The correct standard for evaluating misery and seeing its cause is God Himself.
- The standard of God is Himself, which is revealed in His law which identifies what is right and what is wrong.
- Thus the law shows that man's misery is because man is violating God and His determination of right and wrong.
- God’s law is good (I Tim. 1:8), so the problem is not with the law.
- Jesus believed in the law and did not come to destroy it (Matt. 5:17).
- God's law, reflecting His own perfection, requires one thing: love (Rom. 13:10).
- We are to love God supremely with our all, all the time, which goes deeper than the appearance of good.
- The demand of love examines the heart, the motive of the mind and sub-consciousness.
- True love of God is reflected in loving our neighbor as ourselves.
- Just as the bright sunshine shows all the dust, so the law shows me the deep-seated cause of my misery is me.
- The correct identification of me: I have a natural proneness to hate God and my neighbor.
- We actually hate (not just love less) God.
- Anyone who does not fear and love God has no respect for his neighbor.
- No one is righteous; all have sinned and come short (Rom. 3:10,23); man’s heart is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9); spiritually dead in sin (Eph. 2:1) living in malice and envy, hated and hating (Titus 3:3).
- The true believer is the only one with the ability to admit honestly his natural and constant depravity.
- Grace breaks our pride, so this admission is a way of life, not just a doctrinal statement.
- Godly sorrow for sin characterizes the true believer.
- Man tells us to avoid doctrine and just focus on love, but we cannot do that either.
- But there is no reason to despair, for the same faith which acknowledges sin, also acknowledges justification (5:1 and 8:1).