It is me O’ Lord
In this passage of scripture the young man had to come to himself and say, “I have sinned.”
It is me O’ Lord, standing in the need of prayer.
In the 1950s a psychologist, Stanton Samenow, and a psychiatrist, Samuel Yochelson, sharing the conventional wisdom that crime is caused by environment, set out to prove their point. They began a 17-year study involving thousands of hours of clinical testing of 250 inmates here in the District of Columbia. To their astonishment, they discovered that the cause of crime cannot be traced to environment, poverty, or oppression. Instead, crime is the result of individuals making, as they put it, wrong moral choices.
Notice that this son gets as low as he can possible get but then realizes that he is the reason why and decides to do something about he says that I have sinned.
One of the foundational doctrines of the Bible is not only that all have sinned as we are told in Romans 3:23, but that all of us are personally accountable to God for our sin… We are created in the image of God and God holds each of us accountable for our sin.
What is sin?
Man call is an accident, God calls it abomination.
Man calls it a defect, God calls it a disease.
Man calls it an error, God calls it an enmity.
Man calls it a liberty, God calls it lawlessness.
Man calls it a trifle, God calls it a tragedy.
Man calls it a mistake, God calls it madness.
Man calls it a weakness, God calls it willfulness.
The Psalmist comes to this realization in Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: Psa 139:24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psa 41:4 I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
The Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 7 Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
Rom 7:23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Rom 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Frderick the Great of Prussia was walking on the outskirts of Berlin when he encountered a very old man proceeding in the opposite direction.
“Who are you?” asked Frederick.
“I am a king,” replied the old man.
“A King!” laughed Frederick. “Over what kingdom do you reign?”
“Over myself” was the proud reply.
A reporter once asked the great evangelist D.L. Moody which people gave him the most trouble. He answered immediately, “I’ve had more trouble with D.L. Moody than any man alive.:
There are several approaches that have seen in History and even practice in our own lives.
First, We tend to Blame Others
The only thing some people learn from their mistakes is to blame them on others
Blaming others is something learned very young in live
Ken crockett tells this story in a book titled 911 handbook
One day when my son Scott was two years old, I heard him crying. I went into his room and my daughter Hannah, who was four, was there also. A plastic bat was lying on the floor.
"What happened to Scott?" I asked.
Hannah answered, "He hit his head."
"On what?"
She pointed toward the bat on the floor and said, "The bat."
"Where was the bat?"
She said, "In my hand."
Gen 3:9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
Gen 3:10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
Gen 3:11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
Gen 3:12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."
Gen 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Notice that all though God knows that the woman took the fruit of the tree first he starts by talking to Adam…
Adam puts blame on both Eve and God, The Eve Blames the serpent. But no one takes the blame for the sin…
If we are stopped for speeding we immediately offer an excuse, such as “I was going with the flow of traffic” (blaming someone else) or “I didn’t see the sign noting the speed change” (blaming something else). We try to excuse our behavior and lessen the guilt and even the consequence of our sin.
Cover up our sin
This is exactly what David did, After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and it was known that she was pregnant David came up with a plan to cover up his sin.
2Sa 11:8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.
2Sa 11:9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
2Sa 11:14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
2Sa 11:15 In the letter he wrote, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die."
The consequences of covering up sin are grave.
Jos 7:20 And Achan answered Joshua, "Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did:
Jos 7:21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath."
Jos 7:10 The LORD said to Joshua, "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?
Jos 7:11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.
2Sa 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
A man purchased a white mouse to use as food for his pet snake. He dropped the unsuspecting mouse into the snake’s glass cage, where the snake was sleeping in a bed of sawdust. The tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands. At any moment he could be swallowed alive. Obviously, the mouse needed to come up with a brilliant plan.
What did the terrified creature do? He quickly set up work covering the snake with sawdust chips until it was completely buried. With that, the mouse apparently thought he had solved his problem.
The solution, however, came from outside. The man took pity on the silly little mouse and removed him from the cage. No matter how hard we try to cover or deny our sinful nature, it’s fool’s work. Sin will eventually awake from sleep and shake off its cover. Were it not for the saving grace of the Master’s hand, sin would eat us alive.
Blame circumstances
Sometimes we blame our circumstances as the reason we sin..
Hezekiah was born in 740 B.C. to King Ahaz of Judah, an idolatrous king. Hezekiah was co-regent with his father, Ahaz from 729- 715 B.C., but became sole king of Judah at age 25 and ruled from 716/15 B.C. to 687/86 B.C.. He ruled for 29 years, during which time he tried to bring the people back to the true God.
When Hezekiah was told by the prophet that he was going to die instead of letting the circumstances get him down and control him he turned it all over to God.
Ki 20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
2Ki 20:2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,
2Ki 20:3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
2Ki 20:4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
2Ki 20:5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
2Ki 20:6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
Eph 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Matthew Henry, the famous commentator, was once mugged by robbers and they took his wallet. He wrote these words in his diary: “Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before; second, because, although they took my wallet, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took my money, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”[v]
Deny the existence of God
The whole reason that people reject the idea of God is because they do not want to be accountable for their sin. God has cleary revelaed himself to man in nature and in the heavens so that all men must admit that there is a God.
Psa 19:1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Rom 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Psa 53:1 To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
The atheist spends his entire life fighting against that which he does not believe exist
