Friday, January 7, 2011
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Over the years I've had the privilege of being in all of the United States, but one of the last ones I got to was Alaska. I've been there a few times now, but oh man, what a place! And you know what? From the first time I was there, I saw that they lived up to their license plate motto: Alaska - the last frontier. Wow! Hundreds of thousands of miles of unpopulated expanse. All kinds of abundant wildlife you just don't see anywhere else. These great, untamed areas...even some untamed people. But you know what? It really is the last frontier.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Last Frontier."
Now, the most significant final frontier ultimately isn't geographical. It's personal. It's about what goes on inside of us. And we could take into that frontier in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in the third chapter of the book of Romans. It's a very interesting passage, because it's sort of like a spiritual x-ray. And the doctor, as it were, gives the conclusion of this x-ray. And what he has discovered in verse 12 and then again in verse 23. In verse 12 he says, "All have turned away. There is no one who does good, not even one." Then in verse 23 it's reiterated when he says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The spiritual x-ray shows that we all have cancer. Yeah, we all have spiritual cancer, and it's terminal.
He then goes into more detail between verses 12 and 23, with how that sinful cancer shows up. Listen to these statements, "Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now, did you notice there were six statements that showed the kind of cancer we have, and they all involve parts of the body?
One had to do with the eyes, one had to do with the feet, the other four had to do with the same area of the body. Did you notice: your tongue, your lips, your mouth, your throat? It would appear that most sinning is done with your mouth. That's why the Bible says that, "It is like a roaring fire." And if you're able to control your tongue, you're able to keep your whole body in check. It's interesting that the most spiritually infected part of our body is what comes out of our mouth. The cancer comes out through our mouth more often than anywhere else.
See, the Bible says, "No man can tame the tongue" in James 3. We tend to think of sin in terms of adultery and abortion, and murder, and abuse, and drugs, and stealing. But this brings it right to my doorstep. The greatest sins - the most sinning are sins of the tongue. Think about it, just today the number of sins committed with our mouth. The hurt that we inflict on people, the things we say in anger, the put-downs, the lies. Those all come through our mouth: criticism, off-color remarks, negative comments.
Man, this indictment tells me two things. First of all, if I belong to Jesus Christ, I need to focus the lordship of Christ on my mouth. The cancer of sin has poisoned my daily speech. But as David said, "The Lord can put a new song in my mouth."
The other thing this indictment from scripture tells me is, "I desperately need a Savior." Because what I'm finding out is that my mouth displays what's in my heart. Why do we hurt most the people we love the most? Why do we say what we say? It's because of the animal inside. And Jesus named that animal. He called it sin. And Jesus did what we have not been able to do. He tamed that animal, because He took all the fury of that animal on himself when He died on the cross. And the Bible says, "He carried our sins in His body on the tree that we might be dead to sin and live for righteousness."
You want to change and tame the animal inside? It's time for you to give yourself to the Savior who came to rescue you from that darkness. If you've never given yourself to Him, we'd love to help you do that. Just go to our website will you? It's YoursForLife.net. This could be the day that you experience the freedom from the darkness inside that the liberator, Jesus, can give.