FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VILLA RICA, PCA

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`THE DEADLIEST RADIOACTIVITY

By

Todd W. Allen

Acts 10:34-43

Villa Rica June 1, 2003

Text:   To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43).

The April 9, 1979 cover of Time showed a picture of twin silos of the atomic energy plant at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and in bold yellow letters etched in red were the words "Nuclear Nightmare".

The Time cover story was titled" A Nuclear Nightmare" because of a damaged reactor. There was a crisis atmosphere in the surrounding community. The fear of course was that radioactive steam and gasses would escape into the atmosphere, or even worse, that there would be a meltdown in which the core could drop into the water coolant at the bottom of its chamber, causing a steam explosion that could rupture the 4-foot thick concrete walls of the containment building; or the molten core could burn through the even thicker concrete base and deep into the earth. In either case, lethally radioactive gasses would be released, causing a nuclear catastrophe.

Some critics of nuclear power predicted that this accident was going to sound the death knell for nuclear power. One radiation physicist who has been a vehement foe of nuclear power rushed to the scene with a Geiger counter in hand, crying disaster to anyone who would listen. He predicted an increase of 5% to 20% in the incidence of leukemia in children in the area within a year. His advice to the community, "Stand up and scream! "

There was radiation hysteria abroad in the land at that time. At an anti-nuclear protest in New York marchers carried signs reading, "STOP NUCLEAR POWER BEFORE IT STOPS YOU.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in this power plant accident. The reactor was cooled down and the usual fact finding commission made an investigation to try to make atomic energy even safer. But because of this incident the Anti-nuclear movement gained momentum.

After the Three Mile Island scare the movie The China Syndrome seemed quite plausible to many. In that movie there is a total "meltdown" that causes the reactor core to sink lethally into the earth (hence, fancifully toward China) and so got its name. 

            Since the advent of the atomic bomb in World War II there has been great concern to ban the bomb. The fear of radiation has brought about a worldwide moratorium on atomic explosions that emit dangerous radiation fallout into the atmosphere. That fear has been transferred to the peaceful use of atomic energy. I believe all of us can understand the basis for that fear. No one wants to be exposed to radiation that can cause leukemia or thyroid cancer; or damage to the lens of the eye, as we know occurred in survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.

The concern that prompted the most recent war in Iraq to remove Sadaam Hussein was our intelligence that he had a secret program of producing weapons of mass destruction. Weapons that produce poisonous chemical and biological substances and atomic bombs. But in thinking about chemical or biological substances of various kinds contaminating the atmosphere and nuclear or atomic bombs that maim, kill and emit deadly radiation I think of how much worse it is to be soaking up a worse form of spiritual radiation and contamination.

I. Sin Is A Radioactive Contaminant

A.   The Bible teaches us that in every soul there is a constant exposure to the fallout from sin. The by-product of sin is guilt. God has built into every sou1 a conscience. In making man in his own image God made sure that man would recognize his moral responsibility. Man is not able to flout and ignore the moral law that God has built into his universe. God operates on fixed and immutable standards of righteousness. All moral creatures that he has made are subject to those standards.

       The conscience is man's personal spiritual monitor. It is a self-contained, indestructible robot-like faculty. It might be likened to a spiritual moral sensor system. It can detect moral offenses and turpitude. But that isn't all. The conscience has arresting, convicting and trial authority. It can summon you before the bar of justice and bring forth witnesses and testimony to prove your guilt or innocence. Once it finds the soul guilty it can pass sentence and demand that sentence be executed. It is a court in continuous session on your every thought, word and deed. Nothing escapes this moral monitor. It sees every detail of one's entire existence and continually is passing sentence.

The case against the sinner is constantly getting heavier. The caseload is voluminous. And the by-product of all wrong attitudes and words and behavior is guilt. Guilt is continually being produced.

B.  Now the problem for the sinner is what can I do with my feelings of guilt?  Guilt is like radioactive waste.

No one has any use for it and it produces bad effects in the personality and can even cripple the body. It also, like radiation fallout, contaminates the atmosphere and can harm innocent bystanders. A guilt stricken man can lash out at others; inflict emotional and even bodily injury on himself and others.

              God uses guilt to influence us to change our minds about what we are doing, leading us to repentance.  If we never felt guilt, we would not follow rules or standards, obey the law, or have good relationships with loved ones. We label some people conscious less because they are so hardened in their sin that they no longer seem to feel any guilt for their evil deeds.  The Bible tells us that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. Guilt is a warning in the soul just as pain is to the body.

Unfortunately, men seek relief from their guilt by many devices. Men will try to transfer their guilt to others, as Adam and Eve did in the garden. We can blame our parents or society for the cause of our guilt. Many adopt the philosophy of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. He taught that we are victims of the influence, impressions and mistakes of others rather than sinners in need of grace. His idea, widely adopted, is that if we can only recall suppressed and forgotten impressions we can pass the blame for our mistakes on to others and ultimately be cured of our feelings of guilt. By identifying the culprit for sin other than oneself a person can excuse himself and thus silence conscience.

            Remember, Jesus never attacked the sinner. He simply said, "I forgive you." Meanwhile, he attacked the self-righteous with a vengeance, because he knew that until they felt guilty, they couldn't repent and be forgiven.

Guilt can lead to hopelessness and despair. Judas

Iscariot, the betrayer of our Lord, was convicted by his conscience of having wronged Christ. He felt remorse and he tried to undo his act. He took the blood money back to the chief priests and tried to give it back to them, as though giving back the money would expiate his guilt.

He took the money and said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” ⁵And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. -(Matt. 27:4-5

Judas' conscience had set up court in his soul. He became his own prosecuting attorney who drafted the indictment. Then his conscience sat as jury and judge. Having found himself guilty he acted as his own

executioner, and went and hanged himself.

C. But that is not the end of the matter. Jesus said of his betrayer, as they were all together at the last supper, “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus said^* to him, “You have said it yourself.” - Matt. 26:24-25.

The Lord taught that the pangs of conscience are not removed by death but that the remorse and sorrows of regret and self-reproach is then magnified and increased a hundred fold. Jesus said that hell is a place where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. The pangs of conscience that pricked and burned in this life will become a devouring flame, an unquenchable torment that never ceases to burn and hurt in the place that God called the Lake of fire.

God has provided a place for guilty souls to spend eternity. It is a place where all of that contamination and radioactive guilt can be confined and isolated. The atomic wastes of the nuclear age are put into huge storage tanks and buried. They have no earthly use. They are a contaminant, a harmful waste, a glowing mass of poisonous radiation.

Guilt and remorse and self loathing and all the other poisonous and deadly fumes and gasses of sin are to forever be in that place of waste and loss and desolation called hell and the lake of fire.

II.  Thankfully God Has Provided A Remedy For Guilt That Makes Hell Unnecessary

1. The only way guilt can be removed from the sinful

soul is if a way can be found to clear him from his sin and blot out the transgressions. The sinner does not have the power within himself to do this. But God found a way to exonerate the sinner and at the same time to uphold his own righteousness and justice. If a perfect man without sin could be found to stand in the presence of God with satisfactory payment for sin then he might ransom the guilty sinner from his predicament. But what ransom could possibly pay for sins before a holy God in a righteous universe where perfection is demanded? God had decreed that the soul that sins must die. The wages of sin is death. There is no way that God can revoke his just decree. He decreed it because it cannot be that sin can be tolerated. The foundations of the government of God are righteousness, justice and truth. The soul that sinneth must die. To this decree the conscience of man bears witness every time sin produces guilt and shame.

B. The Son of God took upon himself the ministry of reconciliation, of offering to stand before God as the

propitiation, the ransom, the divine remedy for sins. He offers to be the substitute for the sinner to bear the guilt and punishment for my sins and your sins.

My conscience tells me that sin must be paid for by

someone. But there is no one who will bear my sin, is

there? What man can bear my sin anyway if he himself is a sinner? And even if he wanted to take my sin it would not satisfy the justice of God. The Sigmund Freud school of thought would put the blame on others. But that won't do. We cannot shift the blame to other sinners. That won't exonerate me. They have no means by which to justify me. We all, both sinners and victims stand guilty of sin. We need a Redeemer who can take my sin and blame and pay the penalty for it and have that penalty be accepted by the one who made the Law and decreed death for breaking his Law. Only God can take away my sin and he will only do that when his justice is satisfied.

 I must have one mighty to save. I must have one who has God's own commission to save me, and who is

possessed of divine authority, perfect righteousness and divine power. I need a divine substitute. I need the Son of God himself. I need one who can die in my place and justify me before the bar of God and recover from the sentence of death. I need an immaculate and perfect high Priest. I need a sinless and holy substitute to take away my sin and guilt. That man is Jesus. The one and only mediator between God and man, you and me is Jesus.

My text says   To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43).

III. Remission Means Blotting Out Sins And Taking Away My Guilt

A. This remission is free. There is nothing I can bring to God to buy this forgiveness. God tells me that it is a free gift motivated purely and simply by the love and mercy of God. God wants to deliver me from the guilt and power of sin. He wants to wipe the tape of my conscience clean of all guilt. He wants to take away the pangs and sorrows of sin.

B. Secondly, it is a total, complete remission. There is no remnant of guilt in the soul to make my heart heavy and sorrowful for it has all been removed. It has been blotted out forever. In the book of Hebrews we are told, Heb. 10:12-17 ¹²But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. ¹⁴For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

¹⁵But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

¹⁶“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”^{ 17}then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”^  

            Everyone needs remission of sins. Everyone has

committed sins. Those sins are all recorded in the

conscience. Only as the conscience is sprinkled by the blood of the Son of God can there be remission. The hymn writer penned... 

Twas Jesus' blood that ransomed me...

From chains of sin He set me free...

While ages roll my song shall be

Twas Jesus' blood that ransomed me.

C. Thirdly, it is to "whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." There is no remission until faith in Christ is an accomplished fact. But once that is done there is remission of sins. And it matters not how great or small the sins or the amount of the guilt. Sins are cancelled and with that cancellation comes peace and joy. That is just as true for the adulterer as for the prostitute, as for the gossip and the liar. God's remedy applies to the thief and the murderer, the cheat and the charlatan, the drunkard and the dope addict, the backbiter and the boaster, the God hater and the man-hater. Whatever stripe or hue sin might be it is all in need of remission. And to any man or woman, boy or girl who will take God at his Word and receive Jesus as Savior and Lord there is mercy and pardon, forgiveness and remission. God promises to remove our sins forever. As far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions. They can never be brought up against us anymore. They are remitted, put away, purged, cleansed.

Free from the law, 0 happy condition,

Jesus hath bled, and there is remission;

Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,

Grace hath redeemed us once for all.

Now are we free -- there's no condemnation

Jesus provides a perfect salvation;

Come unto Me, 0 hear His sweet call,

Come and he saves us once for all.

Children of God, 0 glorious calling,

Surely His grace will keep us from falling;

Passing from death to life at His call,

Blessed salvation once for all.

Once for all, 0 sinner, receive it;

Once for all, 0 brother, believe it;

Cling to the cross, the burden will fall,

Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

Philip P. Bliss