Just Perfect- The Sufficiency of Christ- UCI CCM Gospel Night

Intro
Drunk Man
It’s the nature of man… we always try to do something to cover up what we’re guilty of or ashamed of.
Fat Kid-, t shirt swimming.
All throughout history, man has tried to do whatever he can to try to cover himself and hide behind guilt or shame.
We are ALWAYS doing it. But you know what, it has never been enough. It will never be enough.
The truth is, there is nothing we can do.
Actually, there is one thing… we’ll get to that.

Adam and Eve; It was not enough
Adam and Eve, in the very beginning, enjoyed fellowship with God. God put them in the garden with everything they could enjoy, including Himself. Life was perfect. They only lacked 2 things: Sin and clothes.
A while ago it was HOT. I was asked, do you ever sleep naked? It feels so good! I was like, “that’s weird, even by myself”
They were naked! And they loved it. It did not bother them!
2:9 “And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
You guys know the story, they are free to eat any tree in the garden, but are forbidden to eat one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Because if they eat from it, they will be exposed to evil, and the result will they will die.
And what does man do? We always want what’s forbidden. We always want what we’re not supposed to have.
Sure enough, they eat of it.
What happens? They IMMEDIATELY had their eyes opened to shamefulness.
3:7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. “
They feel ashamed and they cover themselves up from each other.
The very next verse, they realize that God was going to find out.
3:8 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”
They quickly sewed together leaves made of fig to cover up their guilt and shame, and since that wasn’t enough, they hide behind the trees…
But it was not enough! Their attempts to cover themselves could never be enough.
How do we know? Because after the Lord rebuked them and pronounced curse upon them, he lovingly covered them. 3:21 “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”
EX: Jonathan Fong
God looked at their coverings and it was not enough.
He removes their clothing of figs, and puts on clothing of skin.
What made the skin a better cover than the leaves? Was the material substantially better? Did it do a better job of concealing?
I don’t think so… I think it’s the giving up of a life, the shedding of blood, for the sin that made it sufficient covering.
God says in Heb that without the shedding of blood, the giving of life, there is no forgiveness of sins.
Somehow in the eyes of God, this covering was sufficient for the time being.
Adam and Eve Tried to cover themselves…it wasn’t Enough.

Jewish Sacrificial System; It was not enough
The bible says in Romans, that because Adam and Eve sinned, sin has entered into the world. And everyone who descends from Adam, which is everyone, will sin just like Adam did. And everyone who sins, will die physically, and will also die spiritually because they are separated from God.
Rom 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
That means all who come from Adam, behave in the same exact way.
From Adam, many were born, including the whole nation of Israel. Israel, too, began to crave the things that were forbidden to them. And Israel would constantly fall into sin, just like their father Adam.
They too would try to do things and get their sin covered.
But instead of trying to cover themselves us with leaves like Adam and Eve, they would make a sin sacrifice at the temple.
They would have to bring a goat, or a lamb, or two doves, whatever they could get a hold of. But one exception, it had to be without defect. Why?
EX: When I was young, we I loved to collect and trade baseball cards.
So this animal sacrificed would have to be without defect, and they would bring it up to the alter.
There, they would lay their hands on it, symbolically transferring their guilt and sin onto the animal, and then the life of the animal would be taken because it bore sin. It would then be slaughtered, and the priest would take the blood and
And when they offered their sin and had the blood shed, the bible says the Priest would make atonement for the sinner. They would be covered.
And they would do this day after day, year after year…
But you know what? It could never be enough. Man’s attempts to cover his sin can never fully cover them.
How Do we know?
Hebrews 10:1-4
“By the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, (it can never) make perfect those who draw near to worship...4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
God says so Himself, it could never be enough. They would try to cover their sins, but it was never enough.
Adam tried to do things to free them from guilt and shame, the Jews tried to do things to free them from guilt or shame… But it could never be enough.
And it’s easy for us to point our fingers and say “Silly ancient people”.

Our Attempts to cover up; It is not enough
Fast forward a few thousand years and today we STILL try to whatever we can to cover up our stuff. We’re no better.
Let me ask you. If you were to die tonight, where would you go? Would you be in heaven?
If you said yes, I’d be in heaven, let me ask you why? If it’s not because you believe in Jesus, then why?
Because you’re good? Because you’re not that bad? Because you go to church? Because you sometimes read your bible? Because you help people? Because you try to be nice to others?
I need to tell you something guys. All those reasons will never be good enough. You can tell yourself that you’ll go to heaven for whatever reason, but none of those are sufficient enough to make up for your sin. You can do all you want by yourself, but they can never sufficiently cover up your sin.
We do so much to try to make up or cover up. We either lie about sins, keep it a secret, we block it out of our memory, we try to do more to outweigh it or to relieve guilt, we spend more time reading the bible or in prayer, we do more at church. We volunteer work, we help our friends with homework. We try anything we can to cover them up, and sometimes, we get kind of creative.
EX: DB…I tutor a 7th grade boy named Jonathan.
Sometimes our efforts to cover up our sin are pretty foolish, pretty obvious, actually Highlighting our sin. Other times, we might do a pretty good job at it, thinking we fixed it permanently.
But when God looks upon our sin, it can’t be hidden. It can’t be covered good enough. God still sees it, and hates it.
Fig leaves weren’t gonna do it, animal sacrifices wouldn’t do it. And you can be sure that nothing you can try or do today can cover it up.
Only another man could satisfy the requirement of God, the trade.
Just like in the example of the planner, only the same ink can cover the same ink. Man’s blood for man’s blood, life for life.
And not just any sinful man, not another guilty man, but one who’s in perfect. Remember, God doesn’t settle for anything less than mint, perfect condition.

Jesus Christ; ENOUGH. Just Perfect

EX: Coach Tony Dungee But then Tony says, “And that’s what’s so awesome about God. He did exactly that. It was a high price. And he paid it.”
Jesus Christ was the only person who could have made the sacrifice, because he was man, flesh and blood. But it could not be any man, it had to be one of “mint” condition.
The bible says that he was fully man, but in very nature God. He is the ONLY one who could make this sacrifice because he is the Only one who is fully man who has the perfect, sinless nature of God.
Why can’t I die for you? Why can’t Pastor Yun or Pastor Ronnie? Because we’re sinners too. We’re less than perfect.
God wants nothing less than a perfect sacrifice. No sinful man is gonna do. Only one who’s perfect.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Jesus came down from heaven, sent by the one we’ve offended and sinned against. God himself.
Can you believe that? The one we’ve committed the offense against? The one we sinned against is providing the payment? His OWN SON?!
You can’t do it! Nothing you can do can ever be good enough to save yourself. Stop trying so hard to clear your own conscience and save yourself.
Jesus Christ, came and lived, took on flesh, for the very purpose of dying for you on the cross.
And I hope you don’t think it’s just that he was willing to be beaten, spit on, mocked, socked in the face, flogged and humiliated. I hope you don’t think it’s just that he was willing to be nailed on a cross with spikes piercing his hands and feed, and a crown of thorns driven into his head.
As painful as his physical death was, what ought to break us is the fact that he was willing to take my sin and your sin, along with the sins of the world, and have his own Father turn his face from him. He took the blame for me and for you, and was separated from his own Father for that time being, for something he hadn’t done. Now that is love.
I mean have you ever been blamed for and even Punished for something you didn’t do?
EX: CMO I was at a Christian conference a longtime ago, and 5 guys showed up at my room wanting to jump me because someone blamed me for stealing his money.
And then it turned out that someone stole money from the offering and somehow blame came to me! I was furious!
And yet Jesus willingly took our blame, our guilt and our shame, and was willing to take the physical, but more painful, the spiritual consequence of our sin.
And he hung there and he died.
It was the Perfect sacrifice. It was JUST PERFECT.

Application
So what does this have to do with you?
Ever since sin entered the world through Adam, we have a horrible disease called a sin that keeps us separate from God.
Rom 6:23 says the wages of sin is death.
If we do nothing about it, if we don’t get our sins covered some how, we ARE DEAD. We will be eternally separate from God.
We can’t know Him, we can’t enjoy Him, we can’t be with Him.
Here’s the bad news. There is NOTHING you can do to cover up your sins. There is nothing you can do make up for it. You can try and you can try. Like Adam, like Israel, like everyone else today, you WILL FAIL.
There is Nothing you can do.

Here’s the good news. Jesus has already done it. The bible says that if you, by faith, trust that Jesus died for your sins, in your place, and rose from the dead, you will be saved and be reconciled to God.
Rom 10:9 says “If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
You have to first be able to proclaim it, “Jesus Is Lord.” If you can’t even do that, you gotta ask yourself if you really believe it.
Second, you have to Believe in your heart. Believing in the heart is not believing in the mind. Believing in the mind means you simple know. Even the demons believe God in their mind, and shudder.
But it’s when we believe with our heart, that we are saved.
The heart is the core of our being, the essence of who we are and how we live. What we harbor in our heart, is what comes out. When we believe Jesus is Lord, we live like Jesus is Lord. And when we live under the Lordship of Christ, then we will be saved.

Invitation