Glen Bond
June 6, 2006
Picayune, MS

Subject: The Lost Sinner


I want to ask you tonight,have you ever seen yourself as a lost sinner?
I ask you this because the Bible tells us that Christ came to save sinners. 1 tim. 1:15
If you are not a sinner then he didn't come to save you.
He said that he didn't come to call the righteous.

If you have never seen your need of salvation, if you have never seen yourself as a sinner, then you are one of the righteous. Self-righteous.

I went through most of my life as a self righteous person.
I had never seen myself as a sinner.

L.R. Shelton said this morning,
You can't understand the Scriptures unless the Lord God himself opens your understanding.

1 Corinth. 2:14   But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The lost sinner cannot understand the things of God, because they are foolishness to him.
Lets say it like this:
The self-righteous person cannot understand the things of God, because they are foolishness to him.

Thats why we must preach the gospel. 

1 corinth. 1:21   For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

The self-righteous person thinks that preaching is foolishness.
We preach, and expound, and elaborate on the word of God that it might go home to the heart of the self-righteous.

When the word begins to go home to a sinners heart, then he begins to see that he is a sinner.

Now some may stop here and say, "I won't have this man to rule over me" 
They will reject the gospel and turn away from it like the rich young ruler. (Luke 18:18)
He was told to give up all of his worldly posessions and follow Christ.
And he said "I won't have this man to rule over me" 

He turned and went away, and if he never repented and did what the Lord told him, then he is in Hell today.

This man was a sinner. He came to Christ as a self-righteous person.
He didn't see himself as a sinner. He enjoyed the pleasures of this world, and was only looking to have more pleasures when he died.

He never saw himself as a sinner.
Have you ever seen yourself as a sinner?
has the Lord ever MADE you to see that you are a sinner?

The Lord was gracious to me one day and caused me to see that I am sinner.
I didn't do it.
This man here couldn't see that he was a sinner.
The Lord didn't cause him to see that he was a sinner.
The Lord doesn't have to do anything for anyone.
But he did it for me.

Now lets look at another person that could not see that he was a sinner.

Look at Acts chapter 9: 1-20

Lets look at Saul of tarsus.
 -- (READ) --

He was a self-righteous sinner.

He was a lost sinner. He thought that he was going about doing good.
He didn't know that he was a sinner.
He may have just came from making a sacrifice. Thinking that his sins were put away.
He was no different from this rich ruler that went away from our Lord.
Saul could not see that he was a sinner, couldn't see that he was blind to his condition before God.

This is the average person today. They think that they are OK.
They think "Oh I'm not that bad, I think I'll be ok when I die."


1 Corinth. 12:3   Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

This means that you can not see that you are a sinner except by the power of the Holy Ghost.
before the Holy Ghost gives you power to call Jesus "Lord" he will cause you so see what you are.
because when you see that you are a sinner, when the holy spirit reveals to you what you are, then you will cry out to God. you will condemn yourself, and accept that you only deserve eternal Hell for all of your wickedness and your sin against God.

When the Holy Spirit reveals to you what you are, then the Lord has begun a work in you.
What the Lord begins, he will finish.
When tha Lord saves you, then you will call Jesus Christ "Lord".

Now look at Saul.
He was a lost sinner, doing what he thought was good.
The Lord stopped him on the road to Damascus.

The ""Lord"" stopped him, he didn't stop himself, this was the work of the Lord.

Then the Lord showed him that he was a sinner. This was the work of the Lord.

He had never thought that he was such an evil person as he now sees himself to be.
His understanding was opened by the LORD himself.
He was trembling. Why? Because he stood in the presence of God with all of his sin open to God.
Saul had never known himself to be such a sinner as he now sees himself.
He sees himself as a very great sinner. He knows that God sees him as a very great sinner.
He sees and knows that he is condemned to eternal Hell, and unless God will save him he has no hope.
This will make you tremble.

Saul was left in this state for 3 days.
He was in such a state of dispair and distress that he would not eat or drink .
He was going to hell and there was nothing he could do about it.

Three days the Lord worked in the heart of Saul.
Then jesus Christ revealed himself to him.
The Lord God made Saul to know that his sins were forgiven.
The Lord didn't have to do it.

The Lord doesn't reveal himself to any sinner until the heart is broken. (L.R. Shelton)
Psalms 34:18   The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.


My Lord and MY God!

Have you ever fell at the feet of the Lord crying My Lord and MY God,
like Thomas and Saul of Tarsus?