I just finished watching a video on YouTube by a man named David Platt. It’s called “The Glory of God, the Lostness of man, and the Gospel of Christ.” The link is below if you’d like to watch it, it’s about an hour long but totally worth the time!
I know a lot of people are not crazy about sitting down to watch a one hour video about God or Jesus unless they know it will benefit them. So I would like to take a few minutes to summarize this video. I pray I explain it properly and that God is glorified through this explanation. Maybe this summary will spark further interest in the video. (*Some of these bible verses are my own, not quoted by Mr. Platt. I didn’t write down all the verses he used.)
Mr. Platt starts off by talking about the greatness, goodness, holiness of God. What does Holy mean? He says holy is without error; it is perfection; righteous; and without equal. He uses the Book of Isaiah to illustrate how great God is. *When I use the word “great” I’m not just talking about great as in good, I’m talking about the definition meaning “unusual in degree of power, degree, and/or intensity”. I’m talking about the splendor of God in ALL His perfection. It’s so hard to comprehend perfection and righteousness in our minds. Mr. Platt talks about how God placed each of the bazillion stars in the sky and called them all by name. He says God placed a mountain in one place and gave the rivers their boundaries. (Read Psalm 148) He talks about the majestic angels that surround Him in Heaven who are set ablaze with fire from His glory. All they can do is sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” all day and all night because of His glory. God never has a wrong motive. God is perfect. When Isaiah saw the glory of God, he fell on his face and said, “Woe is me!!!” because he knew he was not righteous enough to see God. He knew he was not a “good enough” person to see the Lord God Almighty. His greatness is reflected in earth. Our planet is just a speck of proof of how great God is. And that God, in all His glory and wonder, wants to be in relationship with us.
The next point Mr. Platt made was that we are ALL sinfully lost people. From the third chapter of the first book in the Bible, we have been a lost people. We are sinful to the core of who we are. Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Romans 7:18 says, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” In John 8:34-35, Jesus tells the Jews, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.” Romans 1:24-32 talks about how God gave them over to shameful lusts and sinful desires to sexual impurity and defiling their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped things created rather than the Creator. There is no person who is innocent. We are all sinners and we are all destined for Judgment of God. In the book of Isaiah, God brings judgment on the Assyrians for their disrespect to God. In a word, 185,000 men of Assyria died. Back in the book of Leviticus, God told the people about atonement for their sins. In this ritual, the priest is to take a goat as a sacrifice (slaughter it for the sins) of the people and sprinkle the blood around the Most Holy Place (the altar of God) to cleanse it from the sinfulness of the people. Then they take a second goat and lay hands on its head and confess all the wickedness and rebellion (all their sins) and put them on the goat’s head. He sends the goat away into the desert and releases it, never to be seen again. Imagine that! God sends the sins away so they are no longer seen!!!!
The third point is that we have a Merciful Savior!! Mr. Platt uses the word “scandalous” to describe this. He references John 3. In this chapter, God is teaching a man named Nicodemus (who is supposed to be a widely respected scholar of the Word of God) about what it means to become “born again”. Jeremiah 31:34 says, “…For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Psalm 103 talks about God’s love and compassion. “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” How does God forgive and forget our sins? Matthew 1:21 says, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 26:28, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus became the atoning sacrifice (1 John 2:2) mentioned earlier in Leviticus. Jesus’ blood was shed so our sinfulness could be made clean, then remembered no more!!! In John 8:24 Jesus says, “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” So we must believe Jesus died for our sins, but we must also REPENT! In my study Bible under Mark 1:4 which says, “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”, the text under it says, “Repentance involves deliberate turning from sin to righteousness, and John’s emphasis on repentance recalls the preaching of the prophets. God always grants forgiveness when there is repentance.” John the Baptist preached on repenting. Jesus preached on repentance (Matthew 4:17). And Peter spoke in the book of Acts about repentance, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The fourth and last point Mr. Platt makes is that Christians have an urgent mission. That mission is to spread the Gospel of Christ. Spreading the Gospel means telling people about how Jesus came to take away our sins so we could be made right with a Holy and Righteous God. We don’t just say a prayer and invite Jesus into our hearts. It’s so much more than that. It’s abandoning our past. It’s turning FROM what the world says is good and turning TO what God says is good. We need to engage in the Life of Jesus so we can share His love with others.
I’m sure this entry does not do much justice to the video, but I encourage everyone to spare an hour to watch it. It’s a great evangelical tool that I think will move people to not just say a prayer but experience a “heart change” and a “life change” for the Kingdom of God.
waitinsilence 