See How Much God Loves You!

4th Sunday after Pentecost, 7/6/14
Romans 5:6-11


See How Much God Loves You!
I. He died for the ungodly.
II. He assures you of your salvation.


A University of Texas study involved counting the number of words people speak. The researchers chose roughly 400 students, almost equal amounts of men and women, and then counted the words they spoke each day over a period time.

Would you like to guess the average number of words spoken by the individuals in the test group? Right about 16,000 and it was the same for men as for women. The lowest was 500 per day and the highest was 47,000. 47,000! Assuming none of those words were spoken while asleep and assuming 7 hours of sleep, that’s almost 2,800 per hour, compared with the average of about 1,000 per hour.

I’d be interested in a study of how many of those words were meaningful. After all, talk is cheap. People say a lot of things each day without any intent behind them. At times we even tell people what they want to hear, even though that’s not how we think or feel.

The Bible is filled with words from our God. But unlike the words spoken by human beings, every one of them is meaningful. In fact, they’re critically important for us. And every one of them—either directly or indirectly—focuses on this one great truth: God loves sinners. And he not only tells you that in his word; he shows it. He backs up his words with his action.

That action is evident in his words to us this morning from this portion of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Join me in looking at it. See how much God loves you! May his love for you fill you with love for him.

Part I.

Sometime this month the Medal of Honor will be awarded to Ryan Pitts of Nashua, NH. He’s receiving the award for successfully defending a position against 200 Taliban fighters while wounded and bleeding in both legs and an arm. He also used a tactic known as “cooking off” grenades, pulling the pin and holding it longer than usual so the enemy couldn’t throw it back. But Pitts maintains that the medal doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to his nine comrades who died that day. Pitts states that they sacrificed themselves so that he could live and return home to his family.

Sacrificial deaths happen and not only in military battles. What mother wouldn’t sacrifice her life for the life of her child? Recently a Dayton area father died trying to rescue his children from a burning house.

St. Paul talks about sacrificial deaths as well. He mentions two scenarios. Listen to them again. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.”

Here you have a righteous man. His intentions and his actions are right and good. He’s a godly person. Would you die for him? Paul says that’s a very rare situation. The righteous man shouldn’t count on it happening.

Over here you have a good man. He does what is good for others.

He uses his position and his power to benefit others. Would you die for him? Paul states it’s slightly more likely that you would. But still, the good man shouldn’t count on it happening.

Paul presents both cases to emphasize this one point: don’t count on such a sacrificial death happening. It just doesn’t happen that often. Even though these men are righteous and good, it’s not enough to sacrifice your life for them.

But look at what your God did for you! You and I were not good or righteous. Paul states, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless.” Some translations have the word “helpless” in place of “powerless.” The point is that we couldn’t do anything that would make God want to do anything for us. None of our words, none of our actions, not even any of our sacrifices would move God to do anything for us.

What was our problem? Paul states, “While we were still sinners.” There you have it. We weren’t the cute, lovable creatures that we might think we are. It wasn’t the case that we were spiritually neutral towards God and just needed a little love to make us lovable. We were sinners. We had willfully and knowingly violated the decrees of the holy God. Every one of our sins declares to God that we don’t care what he says; we’ll do what we want. By nature we want our sinful way, not God’s holy way.

In fact, we’re the ungodly ones that Paul talks about. By nature I’m ungodly. So are you. In another place Paul informs us that in our natural, unbelieving state, we’re hostile to God. We want nothing to do with him.

Notice the deep contrast. It’s rare indeed for one human being to die for a righteous or good human being. But what does God do? “Christ died for the ungodly.” He does what we would never do, what would never happen in our world.

What would cause him to do such a thing? Love. Divine love. The purest, deepest love there is. And he doesn’t just tell us he loves us. He shows it. See how much God loves you! He died for the ungodly.

“I’ll love you if…” Those are some of the most cruel words ever spoken. There isn’t an ounce, not a trace, of love in them. That’s not love; that’s manipulation, which is a form of hatred.

And yet we tend to think like that when it comes to God’s love for us. Who of us hasn’t thought, “God will love me if I…” Or worse, we look at the dire situation around us and we conclude, “God must not love me. Look at the way he’s treating me.”

That flies in the face not only of what God tells us, but also of what he did. While we were powerless to cause him to love us, sinners who didn’t deserve his goodness, ungodly, Christ died for us. Do you realize how astounding that is? It’s unheard of in our world and yet it’s the very heart and core of what our God proclaims to us. There was never anything in us that makes him love us. He loves us because of who he is. That love caused him to die for us. That love goes with us every day of our lives in spite of the terrible things we’ve done and in spite of our dire surroundings. See how much God loves you. He died for the ungodly. For you. For me.

Part II.

It’ll be fine,” says your friend. Your less-than-confident reply is, “I hope so.”
Situations like that occur daily in our lives. We hope for the best, but we know it might not happen. In fact, tragedy could occur.

Is our Christian faith much the same? Are we living this life hoping that everything will be fine, especially when we die? Are we simply left to hope we’ll get to heaven, but won’t be sure until we finally step inside heaven’s gate and into our Savior’s waiting arms?

Let’s be honest. One of the truths the Bible states repeatedly is the judgment on the Last Day. That prospect doesn’t fill us with warm fuzzies. Just the opposite. What if something goes wrong? Look at all the reasons it could go wrong! There have been countless times that my Christianity was hidden behind my blatant sins. What if I don’t hear Jesus says to me, “Come, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you” (Mt. 25:34)? What if I hear the opposite?

Wait a minute! Stop right there. Stop and see how much God loves you. Paul helps us do just that with these words, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” In short, Paul states there’s no reason to doubt whether you’ll reach eternal life in heaven or make it through the Judgment on the Last Day. Paul reminds us that our God has already done the difficult thing for us. When we were his enemies, he reconciled us to himself. He did that on a hill called Calvary 2,000 years ago. That’s what the death of Jesus was all about. In taking the punishment for our sins on himself, Jesus reconciled us to God. We’re no longer God’s enemies.

We’re reconciled to God. We’re his friends. We’re his sons and daughters by faith in Jesus. There no reason to doubt about reaching heaven or about getting through the judgment on the Last Day. How can we be sure? Because Jesus lives. He rose from the dead. His resurrection assures us that everything has been accomplished for our eternal life. His resurrection assures us that he will declare us to be his own people on the Last Day.

So, rather than doubt, let’s rejoice. That’s exactly what Paul urges us to do at the very end of our text. We have no reason to doubt about our future. There’s no reason to think we need to scratch and claw our way to heaven. Jesus has done everything for us. The victory belongs to him forever and he shares that victory with us no matter what you’re facing right now.

See how much God loves you! He assures you of your salvation.

Rejoice. That’s not so easy. In fact, it can be difficult when you see what a mess our world is in and how our sins have only helped to make it so. It can be difficult to rejoice when each day is a battle and it looks like you’re not winning the war. That’s exactly when we need to see the love of our God. He knows how tough this life is. He came to live it perfectly for us. And then he died and rose again to assure us that nothing can separate us from his love, a love he will wrap around us forever. He guarantees it. Believe it! See how much God loves you! Amen.

Look What Creation Tells You About the Triune God!

1st Sunday after Pentecost, 6/15/14
Genesis 1:1-2:3

Look What Creation Tells You About the Triune God!
I. All he creates is very good.
II. He creates humans in his image.
III. He entrusts his creation to us.

Men, remember when it used to be a “guy” thing to work on your own car? Not so much anymore. All the time it takes is one reason for it. But the bigger reason is that we don’t feel competent (although we hesitate to admit that to anyone except perhaps a counselor who cannot share confidential information). So we accept that we don’t know how our vehicle works; we just know that it does a nice job of getting us from point A to point B in safety and relative comfort.

Likewise for cell phones. Don’t ask me how I can use this device not only to call someone on the other side of the world, but also to take photos, calculate my BMI, pay my bills online, check the weather and help me navigate my way from point A to point B in the vehicle which I don’t understand either. It seems that no matter what you want these days, there’s an app for that. I don’t know how to make this work. When I want to find out, I ask my children. The only thing I know is that it does what I want it to do. In other words, I know it because of what it does for me.

OK. So we admit that most of us don’t know much about our vehicles and our phones; so now tell me about the inner workings of our God. Tell me how he can be three persons but only one God. Tell me how he knows and sees all things. Tell me how he can create all things out of nothing in six days using only his almighty word. Explain how he came up with the laws of nature. If God is everywhere, is he outside of our universe? By the way, what is outside of our universe? And if it’s nothing, how can you understand that?

Our God knows that, as incredible as human wisdom is, it’s limited. We can’t understand him; at least not fully. But he does reveal to us what we need to know about him. And we can know all sorts of wonderful things about him as we look at the way he created all things. We have that blessed opportunity this morning. We have before us the creation account. Look at it with me. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God.

Part I.

Two weekends ago I spent about 10 hours spreading mulch around my home’s flowers and shrubs. When I got done I stood back, admired the job I had done through eyes smarting with sweat and said to myself, “Good enough.” Good enough?! Is that all? Two days later I noticed a spot I had missed. There was too much mulch here and not enough over there. Mulch spilled onto the sidewalk in one spot and covered a small flower in another. “Good enough” meant I was not going to make any more effort to make it better. “Good enough” meant I was willing to admit it wasn’t perfect. In fact, it meant I knew I was incapable of a perfect effort.

Not too many people, if given the chance, would step back from our world and proclaim it “good enough.” In fact, most would state our world is a mess. Another school shooting. Al Qaida is alive and well. Storms bring death and destruction. And then people wonder, “Where is God in all of this? Why doesn’t he do something about it?” And then it dawns on them that it’s always been this way. We live in a world gone wrong. And their conclusion? This is all God’s doing. It’s his fault. This is the way he made things.

Such people either don’t believe or haven’t read our first lesson for this morning. They miss or deny this little, but so important verse of God’s holy Word, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” That’s the Hebrew way of saying there was nothing wrong with it. It was perfect.

First, that means it turned out exactly as he wanted it to. He didn’t start out to do a perfect job but once he got into it and realized how difficult it was decided to settle for good enough. Everything turned out exactly as he planned it to. All things worked in perfect harmony. The entire universe beamed with the glory of the almighty, perfect God. He had created a perfect world.

That also means the world was morally perfect. There was no evil lurking deep within just waiting to emerge and ruin everything. There were no evil intentions even within Adam and Eve. There was no sin. There was no death. There was no destruction. There was no frustration. Just goodness. All over. All the time.

Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. All he creates is very good.

So, would you say that things today are getting better or worse? I don’t have the results of any poll before me, but if I had to guess, I’d say only a small minority of people would say that things are getting better in our world. It’s evident to the vast majority of us that things are getting worse. There are political powder kegs in our world just waiting to be detonated by some madman. We still have energy and pollution problems that we can’t seem to solve. That person who seemed so nice to his neighbors was actually despicable. Too many times each day the medical expert tells his patient, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more that I can do for you.” What happened to “very good?” We know what happened. Sin happened. And we contributed far more than our share of it. So what’s the solution? Jesus Christ. He came to make all things very good between us and God. He did that with a gruesome death on Calvary’s cross. He came to make all things good for us forever. He did that with a glorious resurrection from the dead. He will come and make all things very good for us again on the Last Day. And that’s what we need to know. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!

Part II.

Do you realize how often every day you’re confronted with your image? It’s a huge advertising gimmick. If advertisers can just get you to consider that you should look different, they’ve done their job. Now you’ll listen to want they’re pitching. And it doesn’t even have to be physical. Consider the “subliminal messages” You should be smarter. You should be more active. You should be more popular. You should be happier.” It’s all about your self-image.

This first chapter of Genesis also contains information about an image. Not ours, but God’s. It says that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Adam and Eve were created in God’s image. Just what does that mean? Well, let’s state clearly what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean they were God. They were humans. Nor does it mean that they looked like God because God doesn’t have a body.

What does it mean? Scripture states that by faith in Jesus we regain the image of God—true righteousness and holiness. For Adam and Eve to be created in the image of God means that their will was in perfect harmony with God’s will. What they wanted was exactly what God wanted. Their desires about each other and all of God’s creation were holy.

It also means their intellect was holy. They thought about things the way God thinks about them. They didn’t reason how they could use something for a sinful purpose, but only how it could be used for the way God designed it. They didn’t think—either intentionally or unintentionally—about how to ruin something.

What a world! What marvelous human beings! Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. He creates humans in his image.

We might not be so bold as to say, “What I think and what I want are right because it’s what I think and want,” but that sounds fairly familiar, doesn’t it? Given a particular situation or issue, and we can easily conclude on our own what’s right for us. And the corollary to that thinking is, “Who is God to tell me?” How far we’ve fallen from being created in the image of God when our thinking and our desires were in complete harmony with God’s, not in utter discord! This creation account reveals the sad truth about us. But as we read further, we see how God planned and fulfilled the way to restore his image in us—through faith in Jesus as our Savior. Jesus won our forgiveness. Jesus makes us right with God. Jesus will fully restore us to the image of God when we enter eternal life. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!

Part III.

A loving and generous father takes the keys to a brand new car and hands them to his daughter on her graduation from high school. Can you imagine it? Yeah, it happens. A father spends 2 years restoring a vintage car to its original condition and, as soon as he’s done, he hands the keys to his son who just got his driver’s license. Can you imagine it? Most of you are saying, “I’m not picking up what you’re laying down, Pastor.”

Now imagine this. God takes the perfect world—the entire universe—which he had just created out of nothing and hands it to Adam and Eve to use in a perfect way. Can you imagine it? That’s what happened.

God told Adam and Eve to fill the earth and subdue it. The Hebrew words here indicate that they should use God’s creation in a way that God designed it. They weren’t to abuse it. And before the fall into sin, that’s exactly what they did.

It was all here for them to enjoy. They were amazed at the marvelous way God had created all things, from the beauty of a small flower to the vastness of the night sky. God takes the keys to the world and hands them to humans. What a loving God!

Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!

He did that knowing they would ruin it all with their sin. And we wonder why. I can’t answer that because God doesn’t tell us in his word. But when they did ruin it, he immediately announces a fix to it all—he will send a Savior. Now that’s love! Astounding love! Love like no other. That’s his love for you. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. Look, and be eternally grateful! Amen.