Hi friends, my name is Keith. I’m here to bring the Gospel message to you. Its great news; you can have eternal life by being reconciled with God. The Gospel is a spiritual message, so it’s my prayer that God the Holy Spirit would reveal his message to you.
I'd like to start with a news story as an illustration.
I was watching the news back in July. This story took place in a town called MORGAN HILL, California, which is about 20 miles south of San Jose. As I'm sure you know, California is experiencing some of the worst drought conditions probably in history. The drought and the fires are pushing wildlife out of their natural habitat and into contact with humans. The collision between wildlife and humans is taking a toll on the wildlife. The news story focused on the aftermath of a beautiful California bobcat (a mama bobcat) that had been shot and killed for eating a farmer’s chickens. She left behind a 10 week old cub and it wasn’t going well for the cub. The cub was found roaming a Sacramento area neighborhood emaciated and full of ticks. If that bobcat cub had been left on his own he couldn't have survived because his mother would have been bringing him food and teaching him how to hunt on his own. But that wasn’t to be.
If it weren't for “The Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center” in Morgan Hill, California, that baby bobcat would have starved. Their unique approach to rehabilitating abandoned and injured wildlife is for volunteers at this “Rehab Center” to dress up in a bobcat costume whenever they feed or interact with the baby bobcat. That’s right, the person nurturing the baby bobcat was dressed up in cat costume herself, and the reason they give for that is to minimize human contact with the wild animal. Since wild cats and people don’t mix, when he gets well and is released back into the wild, it would be dangerous for the baby bobcat to be too familiar with humans,. It’s because his caretakers only have the baby bobcat’s best interests in mind, and their compassion and love for bobcats that they came up with this clever idea to disguise themselves as cats. I think it might be a little humiliating to dress up in a costume to serve a baby bobcat his breakfast. I even remember the news anchor snickered a little, when he was reporting this story.
But the story actually represents a profound Christian truth.
In Exodus 33:20 God said to Moses, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” Why is that? It is because God is so holy and so pure and so awesome, that He is a consuming fire to our sinful nature. Just like bobcats and people don’t mix, we sinful humans can’t coexist with a Holy, Righteous, Glorious God.
Psalm 5:4 says For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.
So we’re faced with a dilemma. God is good and we're not. We can’t dwell in God’s presence because of sin. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, “God’s arm is not short, that He cannot save, and His ear is not deaf that He cannot hear, but it is our iniquities that have separated between us and God and our sins have hid His face from us that he would not hear our prayers. You see, without God, we cannot have eternal life, because the Bible says “In Him is life”.
So here's the crux of what I'm saying, here's the point, just like those rehab center volunteers veiled (or hid) their humanity beneath a cat costume, God Himself covered (or clothed) his divine glory in the human ‘costume’, if you will, of the person of Jesus Christ. John 1:14,17-18 And the Word (Jesus Christ) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son of God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Galatians 4:4,5 says… But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
When I say we're sinful, here's what I mean...
Ten Commandments
Sin, righteousness, and the Judgement to come
The Gospel (grace and truth)
Repentance and Faith
New life
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