Text---Genesis 3
It is clear from this text today that from almost the very beginning
of time the world has
needed a Savior. We were created for sweet fellowship with God
but sin separated
creation for the Creator like a great earthquake opening up a broad,
impassable chasm.
Jesus is the bridge across the great divide between God and Man.
I am going to take the word "savior" today and use it as an acrostic
to tie everything
together as we look toward the celebration of the coming of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, into
the world.
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S---We need someone to save us. Why would
we need that? Because we are lost and
dying. Let's go back to the garden. We see Adam and Eve
walking in fellowship with the
Father---in His presence, enjoying His blessings. That is what
was meant to be. By the middle of chapter 3 of Genesis we see them
being driven out of the garden, away from the presence of God with only
animal skins to protect them. They were lost and needed a Savior
and so do we.
Think of a child that wanders away from his parents or think back to
an incident perhaps
as a youngster in which you were separated from Mom and Dad.
My cousin Donald was lost on the beach at Long Island, New York.
I was only 5 years
old at the time but I vividly remember him being lost and then found
after hours of frantic
searching. When he was found he was asked if he had been frightened.
He said, "No
because I knew if I waited long enough everybody on the beach would
be gone except my
daddy."
Folks, that is the kind of Savior that we have (Matthew 18:12-14)
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A---We need an Advocate---one who will plead our
case for us before God. An advocate
is one who clarifies the position or cause of another. We need
someone like that!
1 Timothy 2:1-5---"mediator"---one who acts as an intermediary,
esp. to seek to resolve
differences) between two or more conflicting parties.
Ephesians 2:16---And that he might reconcile both unto God
in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby:
James 4:4---Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that
the friendship of the world
is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of
God.
en•mi•ty---noun. Deep-seated hatred or hostility, as between enemies
or opponents.
Jesus came to reconcile us to our Father (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).
Reconcile simply
means to restore the relationship between to people who were previously
opponents.
Jesus said, "He that is not with me is against me" in Matthew
12:30.
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V---We need someone who will bring us into victory.
A. Victory over death---1 Corinthians 15:55-57
B. Victory over life---John 16:33
Paul defines
victory in Philippians 4:11-13---he had been shackled,
shipwrecked,
snakebit, stoned but he was steadfast. The answer as to why he
could do this
is found in the 13th verse.
C. Victory over our thoughts
1. Anxiety---Philippians 4:6
2. Fear---2 Timothy 1:7
3. Impure thoughts
Romans 12:2 ("Be not conformed...", Philippians 2:5 (Let this mind...")
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I---We need someone to show us just exactly what God is like;
Someone who is the very
incarnation of God; Someone who's name begins with the letter
"I" whose coming was
prophesied in a book of the bible that begins with the letter "I".
Isaiah 7:14---Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a
sign; Behold, a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Can you imagine how hard life would be if we still had to sit around
and wonder what
God is like? That is the epitome of living in darkness.
We have some very precious words of Jesus recorded in John 14:7-9.
He would also need an Internal Medicine Specialist---One
who can diagnose our physical
and spiritual ills.
We see this embodied in Jesus' healing of the man born blind in John
9 (tell the story and
make the application).
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O---We need someone who is the Omega, the Alpha
and everything in between. Someone
who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow because nothing else
in this world is.
The world I grew up in is drastically different than the one I walk
in now but the Great I
Am is still the same!
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R---We need a Righteous Redeemer who can make us righteous
because we sure can't do
it ourselves. Righteousness is necessary for a restoration of
the the relationship between
us and our Father.
Max Lucado story about playing with his daughter on the playground.
He bought her and
ice cream but had to wash the dirt from her mouth before he could give
her the ice cream.
That is what God does for us. He washes us and makes us clean
and gives us
righteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 64:6---But we are all as an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like
the wind, have taken us
away.
2 Corinthians 5:21---For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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Conclusion: The wonderful truth today is that all of these
needs are fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. He is the one and only Savior of the world. As
we walk on into the Christmas
season may we keep our hearts focused on this wonderful truth and proclaim
it to a lost
and dying world. Turn with me now to 2 Corinthians 5:17ff
in closing today. Here we
have our marching orders as ambassadors of Christ. What a great
time to perform the
task that God has given all of us to do!