<h2>Part Two: Something's not right....</h2>

In college I heard hundreds of sermons. Most of them were good.... err.. for the most part. Most people would say, "At least the sermons came from the Bible, and we can be ok with that." Be ok with that? Folks! Just because someone is preaching from the Bible doesn't mean it's good preaching! Or proper preaching! Or biblical preaching! Ask yourself a question. Does the preaching you hear present Christ as the focal point of the subject or is He 'tacked' onto the end like the caboose of a train? Let me give you some stark examples. Ezekiel 22:30 says, "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one." God is looking for someone to stand in the gap! He's looking for people to stand up for what is right! He's looking for someone to stand before Him on behalf of the land. Do you know how we can be that gap man? Check out: Romans 12:1-2 "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." If we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God and being transformed by the renewing of our minds, we can do what is that Good and Acceptable and Perfect will of God! Yes. This sounds good. This sounds right. After all it's out of the Bible! ok - wait a moment. Who says we (Christians) stand in the gap?? I tell you - this is not right! Look at it; we're talking in 'moral' terms and 'tacking' Christ on the caboose - if at all! Earlier in chapter 22 God says that the people were defilers - basically. God then proceeds to say that He is looking for someone that can bridge the gap between Himself and man ("So I sought for a man 'among them' who would ... stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land"). Now tell me, what Christian can do that??? No one! Except Christ! If you look at verse 31, God says, "... I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have compensed their deeds on their own heads..." ok - Ask yourself this question: Did God pour out his wrath on anyone? yes He did, but not on the people. He poured it out on Christ! Christ is the one who stands in the GAP before God on behalf of the people! Now look at Romans 12:1-2 - How can we prove what is that Good and Acceptable and Perfect will of God? We can't. Christ did it for us, in our place, whereby, when we feed on the Gospel! When we feed on what Christ did in our stead, we become transformed and Christ perfects us and through Him (Christ) we are proven to do what is Good, Acceptable, and Perfect. (God looks at us through Christ) Look at the end of chapter 11 - "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things..." We can't be the GAP man! Christ is the GAP Man! God poured out His wrath on Christ! God's righteous indignation was placed on Christ! in our place. Now. Do you see the difference between the 'moral' teachings and Christ centeredness? Wow. Big difference, right? When we recognize what Christ did in our place, obeying the commands of Scripture is a JOY! Not a drudgery. For when you do something out of duty, it's only that - how can it be joyful service? We do things out of gratitude! How about another example? Remember David and Goliath? I've heard many, many, many sermons on how we can overcome our "giants". ok whatever. Think about this. In this instance, David represents Christ. Yes, David overcame a real giant, but Christ also overcame a very real giant. Christ overcame the biggest giant of them all - DEATH! And since Christ overcame death, there is nothing that can overcome us! Only by Christ can this happen. We can't overcome our little giants. It's only by Christ! I can preach "we can overcome our giants - just like David did" from any book besides the Bible. Those thoughts are very moral; very encouraging. We say "by God's strength we can overcome our giants" - who says so? Can't it be possible that the 'giants' we do have in our lives are there for to live with? (hence, Paul's thorn in the flesh...) and not to overcome? It's not - "God helped me to overcome my giants" - that's an ok statement, right? It should be - "God Himself (Christ) overcame the biggest giant of them all - DEATH - and because He did that, all of our little 'giants' are as nothing. They have no effect on us. They are like a 'shadow'! For what is death? A Shadow! (read Psalm 23) - If Death is a shadow, then what does that make all of our little 'giants'? I'll give you a hint. It begins with an 'S' and ends with a 'w' and has 'hado' in the middle. Do you get my point? Think Christ. He is the right paradigm. Anything else is man centered and blasphemous! This is where the command "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" comes into play. When we focus on what man's duty is, we violate that command. When we tack Christ on our subject as the caboose, we violate this command. Christ. Christ. Only Christ is the answer. If we don't preach Christ, we preach another Gospel. The other Gospel Paul refers to in the NT is adding duties and other things on top of Christ. Yes people said, "Christ is the answer", but they also said, "you need to be circumcised to be fully accepted by the Father". That's blasphemous! Our faith in Christ is the only means by which we gain acceptance with the Father! So when we say we can be the Gap man or that we can overcome our giants in life by Christ, we tack on "circumcision" to Christ. Thereby, we attach Christ as the caboose of our topic. 'nough said.