John 3:16-21 I. THE PROBLEM All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 The pollution of sin: What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ Mark 7:20-23 The power of sin: Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. John 8:34 The penalty for sin: For the wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23 The partition of sin: Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:1-2 II. THE SOLUTION The “self-substitution” of God: He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree…by His wounds you have been healed. I Peter 2:24 The agony of the Cross: We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6 I choose God’s love. We have come to know and believe the love He has for us. I John 4:16 I pray that you might have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:18-19 III. THE RESULT