Beleive or Behave

Love to hear from and know who is listening I know this may be hard for you to believe but when I was a teen boy I wasn't the best behaved child... I know that is surprising isn't it! Many of us, as we were growing into young adults, had to learn the hard way. Poor choices and poor behavior for teens and college age kids is pretty common. Since the very beginning of time the human race has had difficulty following the rules. Adam and Eve were in the midst of God's perfect creation. God was present with them and walked in the garden with them. Sin had not yet corrupted creation. They were only given 1 rule to follow. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden and they still misbehaved. Genesis 2: 16-17 ESV And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God’s moral law requires complete, flawless adherence. Because of the broken human condition, no one can keep the law perfectly. The apostle Paul describes his agony of being torn emotionally between wanting to do good, yet finding the power of sin at work within him that makes him do the exact thing he hates. He cries out in Romans "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Romans 7:15-19 ESV For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. So since the beginning of time no one has be able to perfectly keep God's law. Just over 3,000 years ago God wrote out 10 simple commandments on 2 stone tablets for Moses to deliver to the Isrealites. According to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites broke the Ten Commandments while Moses was still on Mount Sinai receiving them, which was 40 days and 40 nights. If you do a quick Google search on how many laws there are in the United States today you will find that over 30,000 federal statutes have been enacted since 1789. Furthermore, each of the 50 states has its own constitution, state legislature, and massive body of state statutes and administrative codes. And finally, counties, cities, towns, and local municipalities add tens of thousands of local ordinances and codes. And the bible tells us that in addition to God's law we are to follow man's laws. Romans 13: 1-3 ESV Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. Still think you can behave well enough to be completely flawless? Because humans cannot bridge the gap through rule-keeping, righteousness is credited to us through faith in Christ, who bore the penalty for for our sins, our bad behavior. So it comes down to this, If you want to spend eternity in Heaven you must believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and arose 3 days later to pay your penalty for your sins. So the choice is yours, “Believe or Behave!” Support the show