United Church of God
Sermon Transcript — April 19, 2008
In early March of 1865, probably the greatest president, certainly most Historians would say one of the two greatest presidents of this country, President Lincoln, took the oath of office for the second time, inauguration day March 4th, 1865. And he gave again what many Historians....and I read a little bit of history, and I would say I have to agree with his greatest speech, or certainly one of the two greatest — and again there's always a debate between the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural address. If you ever visit Washington and have a chance to visit the Lincoln Memorial, you'll see that the words of both of those, the Gettysburg Address on one wall, to one side of Lincoln, and the Second Inaugural on another wall to the other side, are engraved on the stones of that wonderful memorial.
And in that Second Inaugural address, he tried to, at the end of four horrible years of war, he tried to capture the essence of where the nation was at the time from his point of view as the Commander of what obviously was going to be the winning side by then — the die was cast and just within a few more days General Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. But, he did something quite unusual, and I think he shocked most of those who heard his speech: he did not blame either side, but he lifted it up to a level, the recent four years of experience, and in fact the recent forty or fifty years of American experience, to something that God was very much involved in. I'll quote you just a few passages from that great speech. After his introductory comments, he got to the heart of the matter. He said, "One eighth of the whole population (as he looked back in retrospective over the last four years especially) — he said, "One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest — all knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it . Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already obtained ." And of course more people, more soldiers, more American soldiers died in that war than all the others combined up to that point and clear through the second world war — it was just a horrible slaughter, and many other tens of thousands were maimed by it.
"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already obtained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease". Of course by that time the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued and slavery was essentially a dead issue even before Lee's surrender. "Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and both pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged."
That was the first of three references to the Bible that Lincoln said in this great speech. "The prayers of both could not be answered — that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes." Again, quoting from scripture, the words of Jesus. And then he said something that one Historian said was the most terrible, not in the sense of bad, or poor, or sub-quality, but the most awesome, the thing that would strike deep reflection about major issues of life — the most terrible statement an American President had ever said, one Historian said. It's the following passage: Lincoln said, "If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses, which in the providence of God must needs come, but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove, and that He gives, (that He gives), to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came. Shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away, and yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another, drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous, altogether."
He shocked his audience by what he said; he didn't blame either side. He said, "This is bigger than me, it's bigger than any of us, and if God has given this horrible conflict to us until His justice has been satisfied, then who are we to complain?"
Now there was a politician from the state of New York, quite prominent at the time, his name was Thurlough Weed, and he was in the audience, and he thought about this second inaugural address for two or three days, and then he wrote President Lincoln a letter, and he commended him for this incredible speech and these insightful comments. And then President Lincoln wrote a letter back to this man, Thurlough Weed, and in it he said something which I want to use to introduce the sermon. He said, "Men are not flattered" ... . (this is Lincoln 's March 15 th reply to Thurlough Weed — he wrote this almost exactly one month before he was assassinated). He said, "Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world."
It's not human nature to be flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and us. Now in this time, leading up to and during this particular Feast, God's people are compelled by our understanding of God's plan, to do something that we don't really want to do, or at least that we don't enjoy doing: we must think about the sin in our lives. We're not flattered by realizing that there's a difference in purpose between the Almighty and us. We don't much enjoy thinking about sin, or specifically, our sins, my sins, your sins, but God has us do it, and so it must be good for us. And it seems quite proper at this time to ask and answer the following question (as long as we're thinking about sin, and leaven): What is the greatest sin? Because you know, if we "major in the minors", if I do, if you do, if we spend a considerable amount of our time dealing with lesser sins — is there such a thing? Well, we'll see in the Bible that that's not something that we made up, that there is in a sense a categorization. But, if we "major in the minors", just as when we de-leaven, if we worry so much every crumb to the exclusion of the large box of baking powder that's right out there in full sight and let it go untouched, then I think we've shadow boxed all the way through this Feast, and in larger measure we're shadow boxing through our Christian lives.
So, I think it's proper to ask, and try to answer from the Scripture, the question, "What is the greatest sin?" Because that certainly should consume some of our attention — What is the greatest sin? Now I'm addressing a crowd here, not of Biblical illiterates, but of people who know their Bibles. Many of you know your Bibles frontward and backwards — you've studied them, you've read them many times through — you've heard many sermons. You've been a part of the Church of God for many years, so I suspect that if we took the time to have everyone of you who wanted to do so, to stand up and give a brief answer to that question, what is the greatest sin, we would hear fifty/sixty wonderful, answers, biblically correct answers — they might not exactly parallel each other in exact wording, but they would all be biblically correct answers.
So, I don't pretend to say that this is some new truth today, but I also say it's not insignificant. What is the greatest sin? Now I believe the answer to that question is really so obvious , and is really so simple , and is self evident that you and I may consider it unworthy of serious consideration — "I mean it's so obvious, let's go on to something else — tell me something I don't already know — tell me something I don't already think about a lot — I mean, that's child-play, that's kindergarten." If we do that, if that's the reaction to the question, What is the greatest sin? — "we'll it's so obvious, let's just all agree that we know that and then we'll go on" — then I think it would be a mistake. We should seriously consider the matter, because the more we do — the more we do — the greater is our exposure to matters of greatest importance in fulfilling our purpose for life, not during just this week but through our lives.
Since sin is defined in the Bible as the transgression of the law, or lawlessness, it follows, doesn't it, it follows that the greatest sin is the transgression of the greatest of God's commandments. And what is the greatest commandment, or the greatest law of God? Jesus was asked that question — let's see how He responded in Matthew 22, beginning in Verse 35. As I say, this is so simple, but we're not going to just pass over it, we're going to think about it a little bit, and dwell on it, and drill down into the Scriptures a little bit about this today. If sin is the transgression of law, then the greatest sin must be the transgression of the greatest law, and again, in Jesus' own words there is a hierarchy of the commandments.
Matthew 22:35 One of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying,
Verse 36: "Master, which is the great (or the greatest) commandment in the law?"
Verse 37: Jesus said unto him, "You shall love... (agape, divine love)... "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
Verse 38: "This is the first and the great, (or the greatest) commandment.
If the first and great, or greatest, commandment of God is to love God with all of our being, including of our minds and our understanding, then the greatest sin is the failure, or the refusal to love God with all of our being. And our minds do not naturally, nor by an act of human will can they love the Father, certainly not with our totality, and there's the rub. The greatest commandment — it identifies the greatest sin — and yet we're not born with the capacity to avoid the greatest sin. And I can show you that very clearly in the Scriptures. Our minds do not naturally, nor by an act of will, once we wake up to the fact that that is the greatest sin, that is the greatest commandment, therefore by an act of will, "I will from now on do that" ... can't! It's a noble thought, it's a good desire — can't do it of our own will power or of our own strength.
Romans 8:7 makes that crystal clear. For many years that's been a memory verse for many people.
Romans 8:7 The carnal mind (that's the mind we were born with — it's the natural mind with the natural endowments of human reason, human strength, human discernment) — The carnal mind is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God (including the greatest law of God), neither indeed can it be.
Further, even when a person becomes convinced of this fact that we just focused on, and is as we say, converted, even when a person is converted, the shocking thing is, that person is still not capable of changing by a simple act of human willpower, the inability, or the unwillingness, or the failure, to keep the greatest commandment, even though he wants to. And again, the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 made this so clear — there is no denying the import of what he says here.
Let's begin in Romans 7:14. I think you would all concede the point that this is a converted person talking, and had been for over twenty years, and had done a great work in serving the Church of God — many, many years after the Damascus road experience. Beginning in Verse 14:
Verse 14: We know the law is spiritual (and the greatest law is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, understanding — that is a spiritual law) but I am carnal, said Paul, sold under sin.
Verse 15: For what I'm doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; (not all the time, not perfectly), for what I hate, that I do (at least occasionally).
Verse 16: If, then, I do what I will not do, I agree with the law that it (the law) is good. And it's better than I am. It defines a standard that I cannot by an act of human will, meet, or live up to, even though I want to, he's saying. And each of us that is honest and has true discernment must echo what he says, putting our own names in his place.
Verse 17: But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. This nature, this deficient nature, this imperfect nature that we are endowed with, by virtually having gone through the human birth experience.
Verse 18: In me, (that is, in my flesh) — with my natural endowment of human willpower, human goodness, human desire to do what's right — nothing good dwells; — and we heard about self-righteousness; we're endowed with the capacity to have human righteousness, and human goodness, and the human mind can observe, desire, take, eat, digest and live by the good from the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, but it's not the righteousness of God, and it's not that which fulfills the greatest commandment, and therefore it leads to the greatest sin. I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I don't find. — it's just not there.
Verse 19: For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not do, that I practice.
Again, I repeat, even when a person has become converted, that person is not capable of changing this inability to avoid the greatest sin by a simple act of human willpower.
Verse 21: I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
Verse 22: For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. (That's an expression of a converted mind.)
Verse 23: But — (Verse 23 — we see that there's a conflict) — I see another law in my members, (it hasn't gone away; it hasn't died, it hasn't been de-activated, or made totally weak), warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity — (and notice , this is all in the present, or the progressive tense — he's not talking about the way he was before Damascus — he's talking about now, in the present, an ongoing battle, and ongoing reality) — bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Verse 24: O wretched man that I was — (nope!) — wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Our minds do not naturally, nor by an act of human will can they, love God the Father, certainly not with our totality.
Well, if we stopped right there it would be a pretty grim picture! If we accept the proposition, as we have seen in these last couple of scriptural passages, if we accept the proposition that it is not natural, nor even possible, to love God the Father through our own nature, and will, we might then wish to understand the nature of the barriers to doing so, that are a part of our human nature, as influenced by Satan the Devil.
So as I say, let's drill down into it a bit, okay? I think we have to stipulate the point: the greatest sin is the failure to keep the greatest law — the greatest sin is not loving God. It's just that simple, but it's also just that profound. And loving God in that totality is not possible, even though we want to, by human strength. Well, why? What is it about our natures, what is it about our thought processes that leads us to, refuse to, or be incapable of, loving God, our Creator, with all of our being? How does the human mind work in this regard, regarding loving God? The Scriptures will be quite enlightening as we follow them through.
Notice I included, as influenced by Satan the Devil, and I think it will be helpful to see the truth today revealed elsewhere in Scriptures that there is, though, a source of power and love that does permit us to do what we can't do on our own, and that's really the essence of the meaning of the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread. There is a source, but it's an outside source that does permit us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, at least as He views us through His judgment, and thus it becomes us truly to cease boasting. Paul said in Romans 3:27:
Romans 3:27 Where is boasting? He said, It is excluded. There is no room for human boasting, or pride, in all of this that we discussed today.
It truly is God's righteousness in us, not our own, as we will see. It truly is a new creation that we're not entirely responsible for, but it is the new creation of the Creator — a new mind that is capable of loving God as it is developed in us. I think it's important to start at the beginning and to see how Satan affects the human mind with regard to love for God, and therefore keeping of the greatest commandment.
So we go back to the Book of Genesis and see the first interaction of Satan with our human parents. We've gone there many times, and again, I think it's good to review it and to see what he did then, because just like God doesn't change, Satan doesn't change in his basic approach to try to separate people from God — separate the human creation from loving it's Creator. So we begin in Genesis 2 and let's start with Verse 15.
Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. (It appears that he was created elsewhere — wasn't created in the garden of Eden, but was, after he was created, was put there — put in there to tend and keep it.)
Verse 16: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
Verse 17: "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
And in those three verses God gives a basic structure of His revelation to His human creation. God first communicated with His newly created children, Adam and Eve, two fundamentally important things that are implicit in those three verses. Number one: He revealed that He was their Creator, and thus He was the giver to them of all things, including the most fundamental thing: life. Said, "I give you this, I give you a job to do, but I give you all this fruit — look at all the things I'm giving, all this trees — it's all yours. There's only one thing I'm withholding from you, but all these other things — you can have them. I created you and I'm the one who gives you these good things." That's a fundamentally important thing for a person to think about and to understand in their relationship with God, that He's the Creator. You know, it says there in the Psalms, "He's the one who created us and not we ourselves." We didn't create ourselves, we are a created being. Somebody is responsible for bringing us into existence, and that individual is the giver of every good thing.
The second fundamental thing that He revealed to them (and again, it's so simple, but just to state it): He said to them, He revealed to them, that they were free to maintain a relationship with Him, which would be for their good — these good things, this good fruit, this good life. Not much work involved — the toil and the "sweat of your brow" came later, after they were ejected from that garden. But, they were free to maintain a relationship with Him, which would be for their good, but only if they complied with rules that He had given — cause now he starts saying, "You can have that, you can't have that." There are rules associated with maintaining this relationship between the created and the Creator for the created's good — there are rules involved. And He revealed that right at the outset: only if they complied with the rules that He had given.
Now, if we just stop and say, "Okay, He revealed to them that He was their Creator and the giver of all good things, and that they could maintain a good relationship with Him, but only if they complied with the rules" — if we just say those two things, does that seem unreasonable on God's part to have laid out the ground rules in that way? Does that seem at all unreasonable that the Creator would say, "there's certain rules that I want you to follow — certain things you can do, certain things you can't do, if you want to maintain this relationship with Me, for your good." I think, in the abstract you'd say, "well, that's not unreasonable at all." But here's the point: Satan's answer to that question, is that unreasonable of God, and the answer that he injected into their minds and which is relevant to our main point today, (what's the greatest sin?), is "yes, that is unreasonable of God." And we'll see that he (in not so many words), but he implied, "that's unreasonable of God — it's not fair of Him to make demands on His human creation in that way — in fact it's motivated by evil in God, not goodness in God." That's Satan's line.
"Those rules and this relationship maintenance agreement is motivated not by God's goodness, but by God's evil and an underlying motive that's not good for the created, and therefore God is not good — He's cruel, He's evil, He has an agenda that's not for your good, and therefore He is not worthy of your love." Getting back to the point of the sermon.
All of that is implied in what he said as he tempted Adam and Eve. Satan says, "He gives to His creation — yeah, I'll agree that He gave you some things, but He doesn't give you everything; He doesn't give you the greatest gift, which is total freedom from His sovereignty. If He really loved you, He wouldn't set those rules — He'd let you decide for yourself — He's a tyrant." When you boil it all down, that's Satan's message, God's a tyrant and He is not worthy of your love because He has withheld a good thing from you that would make you happier; He is withholding something that would make you happiest. And since He withholds that ability to achieve the greatest happiness, He is not really all that good to His creation. He does not merit your love.
That I believe is the essence of Satan's message to mankind, both then and now, dissuading mankind from loving God completely. So we go to the next chapter and we see how that's all included in what He says:
Genesis 3:1 The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field .... now Satan's not going to come right out and say those things in so many words, as I tried to articulate it — he's going to try to inject it very smoothly, through the backdoor, through subtlety and injecting doubt about God's goodness — so he was cunning. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
"Where did these limitations come from? What right does He have putting limitations on you? First He tells you're a free moral agent, that you choose, but then He tells you, you can't do certain things — what's that all about? What's He holding back from you? — what's He holding back from you? Must be something that would make you as good as Him, as happy as Him — why is He holding that back from you?"
Verse 2: And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
Verse 3: "but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
Verse 4: The serpent said, "You're not going to die.'" — you're not going to die. He's just trying to scare you — "fear religion". He's withholding the ultimate thing He could give you, but refuses to, which is total freedom.
Verse 5: "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
And we know the rest of the story. In carnal man's twisted, Satan influenced, way of thinking, a fundamental reason for not loving God is the refusal, on our part, to believe that He is worthy of love, at least a total love — of unconditional, total love. It's the refusal to believe that He really is good to His creation in an ultimate sense, and to believe instead that God's working out in His plan in His human creation is motivated not by His love, but by some cruel and hidden motive of His. He's on some kind of a "egocentric power trip" — you're just puppets on the end of His string — He's playing with you. He doesn't love you or He wouldn't have set it up this way. Those are the thoughts of Satan that mankind has bought into, to instead believe that He withholds some good things, some right, or some freedom, and that withholding on God's part denies us our greatest potential happiness and fulfillment. And these thoughts are planted in the minds of men and women and have been from the beginning.
Well, is the withholding of absolute freedom — is the withholding of absolute freedom from God's sovereignty, proof, as Satan charges, of the incompleteness of God's love, of the tainted nature of God's love, making His demand over our total love for Him unreasonable, and cause for our refusal to do so?
Joh. 15:1....I think when we find ourselves spelling it out in these questions in stark form, we're horrified by their ramifications — we might be horrified to the degree unknowingly that we've bought into some of these charges against God's goodness that Satan has injected into the world, and that we sometimes have found ourselves being troubled by.
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the true vinedresser. (Who is the true vine? — Jesus, whose death, the sacrificial gift of love for us we commemorated on this day, last night.)
Verse 2: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. — A pruning process can be unpleasant, because some of us gets cut away — some of us gets "cut back", and we tend to like to have our complete self "uncut back". But is the cutting back process, are the rules, are the facts that God is directing this process evidence that He doesn't do it out of motivation of love? No, it's evidence that He wants us to produce the most fruit. What kind of fruit are we talking about — the fruit of the spirit. What are the "fruit of the spirit"? The fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace are those things that would give us total happiness.
Look in the spiritual mirror and say, "Do I have total love in my life, total joy, total peace?" — well, if the answer's no, which it is, then imagine, "what if I did?" What if every thought in my mind, regardless of what was going on around me, was totally loving, totally joyous, totally peaceful, and all those other things. Can you imagine a greater state of happiness? I don't think so. So what is the motivation for what God is doing, including the pruning back process, and including the saying, "You can't do that — I want you to do this" — It's so we can produce the most fruit, which will produce the greatest happiness in us, ultimately.
Verse 3: You're already clean (it says in Verse 3) because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Verse 4: " You have to abide in Me, and I will abide in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me."
This progress toward a state of having produced much fruit and of being totally happy, at the end of the story, is only possible through Jesus Christ — and its abiding in Him. Last night each of us that partook of the Passover took a little bit of unleavened bread which symbolized Christ abiding in us — we ingested it. And so, Christ in us truly is the only hope of this all working out. And that is the source of that power that does make it possible for a human being to keep the greatest commandment and to avoid the greatest sin.
Verse 5: "I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; (all of which combined makes for the greatest happiness in life).
Verse 6: "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; (because that person is not capable of ultimately being happy, and so will be put out of his or her misery in the final sense) — and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Verse 7: "If you abide in Me, and if My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. — Because there that relationship with our Creator will be healthy and we'll have our prayers answered, and we'll have an ongoing two-way relationship.
Verse 8: "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. ( And that leads to the greatest happiness.)
I joh. 4:10 . We're just looking at a few scriptures and we're arguing the case that Satan, who is a liar from the beginning, gives the great lie that you shouldn't love God because He's not worthy of your love; what He has done is not in your best interest. Well, if somebody is doing something that's not in your best interests, why would you love them with your totality? We must become convinced in our minds that everything God does is motivated by His love for us, because you see, it says in the scriptures, we don't love God first — we love Him because He loved us first. So our love for God is in reciprocation for His love for us, of which we must be convinced, and against which Satan argues and tries to give evidence that it isn't really pure.
I John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (I think this was read last night.)
So, I go back to the original statement, based on Romans 8:7, and Romans 7 — even if a person wants to, the human endowment of mental abilities is not capable of loving God. It has to be a part of a process which is initiated by God's love for us and us becoming convinced of that love for us. I just don't think you can over emphasize this point in your relationship with God on an on-going basis — we must believe that God loves us, or we'll be looking through a "twisted lens" that will lead to all kinds of mental aberrations.
It talks about fiery darts of the wicked, and part of the Christian armor is to have the shield of faith — we must believe that God loves us regardless of what He lets happen around us or to us. Because if ever one of those darts of Satan's accusations that God doesn't really love you penetrates that faith, we're in trouble, because then we question His love for us and therefore we won't reciprocate with total love for Him.
But it says again, that:
I John 4:10 : In this is love, not that we loved God, (we didn't start the process — nor can we), but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Verse 11: Beloved, if God so loved us, (and He did), we also ought to love one another.
So, our love for the Father, which maintains and complies with the greatest commandment, also of course, leads to the second commandment — the second greatest commandment, to love our fellow human beings, especially those who are brethren in the Church.
Verse 12: No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. — Ah, so this love can come from within us, but it doesn't come from our own human will; it has to be a new creation, it has to come from an outside source.
Verse 14: And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
Verse 15: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (It all comes back through Christ, the intermediary between the Father and us.)
Verse 16: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. That's it in a nutshell — we have known and we believe. Now the fiery darts of the wicked, (which are only able to be combated with the shield, of what?: Faith, belief), will poison us if we become unconvinced of God's love. But we have known and believed the love that God has for us — and that all that He does is motivated by love and in our best interests. God is love — (well, how could He do anything that's not motivated by love if He is love) —and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.
Verse 17: Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so we are in this world.
Well, not naturally, not carnally, but another thing has begun: another process, a new creation has begun in us — those who have the spirit of God, of Christ living in them.
Verse 18: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. Now wait a minute — now God says He's sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves — He says: many the afflictions of the righteous. He says it's through much tribulation we must enter the Kingdom of God. " Ooh, that all sounds pretty tough — I'm afraid of suffering — I don't like that". Perfect love will filter that reality and say, "Well, yeah, it must be good for us to go through difficulties. God must know us better than we know ourselves. He must have the longer view in mind than we do — the temporary problems that we have, and the temporary suffering that we endure. He must know that in the long run it's necessary, in fact, it's the only way for Him to elevate us ultimately to the level of son-ship in eternity."
So, we don't have to fear. How many times throughout the scriptures does God end up telling His people, don't be afraid — don't fear. Again it was read last night: you believe in God, believe also in Me. Do not fear. Let not your heart be troubled. So our natural state, when confronted by the words of the scripture, without the spiritual nature — the natural state when confronted by the words of the scripture — (ooh, sheep surrounded by wolves, great tribulation, much suffering), is to be afraid and have that fear, cause us to doubt that God is in our lives and loving us, because surely if He loved He wouldn't let us suffer. The perfect love — being perfectly convicted of God's love for us is the shield of faith that strikes down that fiery dart and it allows us to face whatever comes our way without fear. We love Him, as He says in Verse 19, because He first loved us and we have not bought Satan's lie that that love is tainted or incomplete, but that it is perfect.
Now the Bible answers the charge of Satan — a few minutes ago I was trying to picture him perfectly, but I was trying to paraphrase the essence of Satan's charge against God. See, the temptation in the Garden of Even, and in fact, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness after He had fasted for forty days, that temptation, in effect, when you boil it all down, was an accusation against God — "well, if you're the Son of God He wouldn't expect you to be suffering like this — forty days without food — look at you, you're about ready to die of starvation — why don't you just take it upon yourself to use this power and turn it into bread. Well, if you're the Son of God and you jump off this high spot, He's not going to let you die in that fall. Look, you and I don't need Him (Satan says to Christ). He's not worthy of our attention any way — you come worship me and I'll give you the whole world — the world will be your oyster — it will be at your feet."
Fundamentally, the temptation was an accusation against God, both in the Garden of Eden and in the wilderness, when you think about it. So, the Bible answers this charge, or this accusation against God's love, in two fundamental ways: First by God's words, and secondly by god's actions.
James 1:17 is the clearest statement in just words of response to Satan's accusation against God, which is the great temptation to commit the greatest sin — to break the greatest commandment.
James 1:17 Every — and the emphasis I want us to see here today in this context is on the first word of the sentence — every (not some, not most — but withholding one or two really goodies) — every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
"Well, yeah, God gives you a lot of things, but He withholds the greatest and that is total freedom." No! Their isn't a good gift, there isn't a perfect gift that God does not give His people — He withholds nothing — that's the key. So, those words are a direct refutation of Satan's charge against God's pure love. There isn't anything God could do for His people that He hasn't done, isn't doing, won't do — nothing is being held back in the plan of God. It's good for the creation. Well, you might say words are cheap — those are words — what about God's works? How does He back that up by His actions? By what we are commemorating last night and today.
The most commonly quoted scripture in all the Bible — God is saying: "You want to know how much I love you? Wrap your minds around this — this is the extent of My love, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." The sacrifice of Christ and the way that that sacrifice was made is the expression by actions, not words, by actions of the extent of God's love for His human creation. That silences, or should, the argument, "yeah, but You could have done more." There isn't anymore that God can do. There isn't a greater gift, there isn't anymore that God can do, either member of the Godhead, than what happened on Passover of 31 A.D. And to even try to imagine that God is withholding when He's gone that far, is perverted thinking. And that is the kind of thinking that Satan tries to inject into the mind of Christians — not just to mankind in general, but those who know about, but maybe really haven't fully digested, the scope of that act of love.
To accuse God of not doing more than He has, so His love being tainted and not complete, is to conclude that the greatest gift He had to give, His Son, wasn't of as great a value as God Himself says that it was, and it leads to the greatest sin, treating the act of love as something other than the supremely valuable gift of all time.
Now, when I started the sermon I said, "What's the greatest sin?" And I said there'd be many ways to express it. I'm convinced many of you here would have thought of terms of Hebrews where it talks about the sin that cannot be forgiven — the unpardonable sin as we call it. How is that related to what I'm talking about today? It's directly related. Let's look at Hebrews 6. Beginning in Verse 4:
Hebrews 6:4 It is impossible for those who were once enlightened (we're talking about people with spiritual understanding) — impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
Verse 5: and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
Verse 6: if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, — (since they do what?) — they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Well, they consider the sacrifice of Christ, they consider the gift of God giving His Son to die the way He did, for the sins of mankind, and they say, "It's not that big a deal — doesn't impress me — He could have done more." And that is treating that supreme act of God's love as an unholy thing, and that is a sin that will not be forgiven, because it undermines the whole relationship of love between God and His creation.
Now over in Hebrews 10 it picks up this same thought. Hebrews 10:26: — If we sin willfully — these are the two places in Hebrews where we traditionally talk about the unpardonable sin, the greatest sin. But they're directly related to not loving God because they make an accusation against the greatest act of God's love, His greatest demonstration of the purity of His love, of the untainted nature of it and say, "not impressed — you could have done more."
Hebrews 10:26 If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
Verse 27: But a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Verse 28: Anyone who rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Verse 29: Of how much sorer punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, — (why should I love you — all you did was sacrifice your Son — treating that sacrifice as something other than the supreme act of love of all the history of the universe.)
Has trampled the Son of God underfoot, — (nice but not anything great), — counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, — (nice, but could have been more) — and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Verse 31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
A person with that mindset, who filters the sacrifice of Christ which we celebrate on the Passover as an unholy thing, is right on the edge of the lake of fire. "Love you God? Why should I? What have you done to deserve my love — you say you love me first? How? When? Oh, You sacrificed Christ? So what, big deal — You could have done more." See how that all ties together? And, not discerning the Lord's body in that sense, not understanding the extent of what was going on when that sacrifice was made, undermines the motivation to love God completely. It undermines the belief that He loves us completely.
Joh. 16:7 also addresses this point. And Jesus was discussing what the effect of the Holy Spirit would be on peoples' minds when it was given. So, He's describing the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, of course, is not a being, but it's the influence, it's the power, and it's the influence on a human mind, of God's mind. Another way of expressing it, it's Christ and the Father living in, and working in, the heart and mind of a converted person. And He's describing the affect of that and some of the fruits that it would bear, and some of the ramifications of it. So, in:
John 16:7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage (He told His disciples) that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; (so the Holy Spirit is personified as a helper — it's a power that helps us do what we're not capable of doing ourselves, understanding what we can't understand ourselves — producing righteousness that is not ours, but righteousness of God within us, therefore no boasting), but if I depart, I will send Him (or it) to you.
Verse 8: "And when He has come, (Now it says He will do three things, or it will do three things) convict the world of sin, (what's the greatest sin — let's keep that in mind) and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Verse 9: "of sin, (now, what affect does the Holy Spirit have on the mind of a person with regard to sin — how did He summarize it in just this one little phrase?) because they don't believe in me;
They don't believe that My sacrifice is proof of God's supreme and total and untainted love — and again, they treat that sacrifice as a common or unholy thing. The notion of sin is certainly bound up in many directions, many facets, with the Passover. But to fail to appreciate how great is the love that motivated God to sacrifice His Son is essentially at the heart of sin and the greatest sin.
It will convict of the greatest sin, in not believing in Me, Christ said — not believing that God's sacrifice of Christ is proof of His love, of viewing that sacrifice indifferently and without appreciation for the scope of the love that motivated it, as something less than proof of God's total goodness. Now as mortal, weak, human beings, we all desire freedom from pain and suffering, as I mentioned, and we conclude that the difficulties and trials in this life — (we conclude if we're not careful) — we conclude that those things that can be so hard at times are evidence of some sort of a mistake by God, or God's inattention to His creation — that He doesn't love us enough to shelter us from hurting and suffering — that He isn't worthy of our love. Again, that's the reasoning of Satan, not of Christ.
Well, Jesus (back to John 14) showed how wrong that thinking is — how wrong that reasoning is. Joh. 14:30. As He came near the end of His discourse there with them before they went over to the Garden of Gethsemane, He says:
Verse 30: "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me.
Well, what did he try to put in Christ? What did he try to inject in all of mankind? What did he try to inject successfully into the first Adam? And what did he try in the wilderness, try to inject in the mind of the second Adam? And Jesus says: "but he didn't get in there — he has nothing in Me." What did he try to inject? The notion that, "Well, God's love for you isn't pure, He lets you suffer — He withholds certain things, so why should you love Him?" Now look, in that context, when you frame it that way, look at the next verse:
Verse 31: "But so that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
What is Christ's reaction to the fact that His Father let Him suffer?: "I love My Father — I love Him completely" — modeling our reaction in all things in life, including the suffering that Christ, or either God, lets us go through. You see, this notion, "Well, I'm not going to love Him because He doesn't love me because He let's me suffer", is completely absent from His mind. He's ready to go out and face the greatest suffering, the most bitter cup of suffering imaginable. And He said, "I want you to know, that this hasn't diminished my love for the Father one whit, and it's not indicative that I doubt His love for Me." "So that the world may know that I love the Father, as the Father gave me commandment" — (including the commandment to die this way) — let's go — let's go from here.
Now that same trust that God's love is as great as it can be, or could be, and that trust that His love is not disproved by human suffering, that influence of the mind of Christ that we just saw expressed, is also expressed in the words of Paul over in Romans 8:18.
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
He saw the big picture — he saw what God was doing in his life. He understood the plan and he trusted God's judgment that some suffering, at minimum, some inconvenience, some persecution, some of it not being a bed of roses, is necessary, and that in no way is evidence that God's love is not perfect. See, so it's not even worthy to be compared. If a day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and we live seventy years on average, if you divide a thousand by seventy and bring it back down to a day, it's something like an entire lifetime with difficulties is like an hour and forty-three minutes, or something like that. And that's the perspective that Paul had when he made that statement — what's an hour and forty-three minutes compared to eternity, of perfection? I reckon the sufferings of this present world are not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us — and significant for us today, don't persuade me that God's love is in any way lacking.
Continuing on in:
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? (This is one of these great concluding paragraphs in the Bible where an inspired writer has been looking at weighty things — spiritual things, the plan of God, and then he tries to wrap it up in a summary statement) What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Verse 32: He who didn't spare His own Son, (we keep coming back to that evidence of the purity and completeness of God's love, the sacrifice of His Son) — He who didn't spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us (for who? For us, for you, for me — it's God saying, "I love you — this is what I did for you") how shall He not with Him also freely give all things? Every good and perfect gift, nothing being withheld, comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. Satan, you're a liar. God has not withheld anything that would be motivated by love.
Verse 33: Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? (Well, Satan, but he doesn't have standing, because when you and I sin we don't sin against Satan, we sin against God, and the only one who has a right to condemn us is God and He doesn't condemn us — that's the argument that's being made here. Satan has no standing to make an accusation — we didn't sin against him. All sin is against God. David committed a heinous sin, adultery followed by murder, and he said , "against you, you only have I sinned." He really, in a final sense, had not sinned against the man or the woman — he sinned against God and he acknowledged that in his prayer of repentance that we sing.
So who shall bring a charge against God's elect? (Satan has no standing and God won't.) It's god who justifies.
Verse 34: Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore has also risen, (so the one who suffered in our stead, He won't accuse us — nobody left to accuse that has standing) who is even at the right hand of God, that makes intercession (He doesn't accuse; He makes intercession for us.)
Verse 35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? .....
Now this passage is, you know, "on all fours" with our point today, and I can see where a person could read it two different ways — cause it's saying, who can separate us from the love of Christ? Now you might say, well, it's what he's saying is, who can separate us from our responsibility to love God. Can any of these other things give us a free pass so we don't have to love God anymore — who can separate from our obligation to love God — you could read it that way, but I don't think that's the correct way. I think the correct way is: what is it that will give us evidence that God has quit loving us? What is it that can happen to you or to me that would cause us to conclude correctly that God has quit loving us? Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Well, back to the point that Satan accuses — is it tribulation, or distress? — if things go hard on us, is that evidence that God has quit loving us, that His love is diminished, that He forgot to protect us? — or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Are those evidences?
Verse 36: As it is written : "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
Verse 37: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
You see, the emphasis is on God's love for us — not on our obligation to love Him. Now that's an equally valid, biblical, conclusion, that nothing excuses us from not loving God, but the point of this passage is: nothing is evidence that God has quit loving us. And that is the accusation of Satan. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
Verse 38: I am persuaded that neither death (hey, you let me die — oh, you must not love me anymore) — Yeah, He's going to resurrect you and you can be with Him forever, so why is that evidence that He doesn't love you?— nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, (nobody — nothing that anybody can do to us is evidence that God doesn't love us),
Verse 39: nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Which keeps bringing us back to the Passover and the lesson of it. One of my favorite writers in contemporary America (he's actually a blogger and a radio broadcaster) is a man named Dennis Prager. He has a program that's heard here in the Cincinnati market during the early afternoon hours, and he wrote an editorial recently called "It's a Bad World". And I won't read it all to you, but he reaches a conclusion that I think is something I want to start my conclusion with to this sermon, and I wrote it to April 8th , just a recent editorial. He said: "Here is some news items from just this past week" — he didn't pick any particular time period — he just said, "I went to Associated Press", (or one of the news feeds), and he said "I just picked at random a recent week and here is some of the things that happened: "In Tibet, police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist Monks massacring them"; "In Iraq, the mass murder of civilians continues: a forty year old Assyrian Orthodox Priest was killed in a drive—by shooting"; "In Zimbabwe, one of the world's longing reigning tyrants, Robert Mugabe, began to violently annul the latest elections where he lost"; "In Pakistan, where the 25,000 people rallied against Fitna, an anti-Koran film"; "Human Rights Watch released a report that the government of Sudan is giving Sudanese Arab gangs a license to rape black women and girls in Darfur"; In Sri Lanka a suicide bomber killed fourteen people at an opening of a Sri Lankan marathon; in Israel, eight woman were shot in an attempted "honor killing".
He said, "These are only the news items of the last seven days. I purposefully chose a period without dramatic headlines, and of course, no news came out of North Korea, which continues to be the world's largest concentration camp. Cubans continue to have no freedom; Iranians continue to be whipped and killed for sexual improprieties; Saudi women continue to be forced to be invisible." He said, "The world is filled with evil — it always has been. The biggest difference today is that we know more about it because of modern communication."
Now here's his point: "I'm convinced that human evil is so great that most people choose either to ignore it or to focus their concerns elsewhere, on small matters; like those who believe that human created carbon dioxide emission, not human evil, poses the greatest threat to mankind. No one will ever get killed for fighting global warming, but fighting evil is quite dangerous."
In a similar way, fighting sin in our lives, which is a common expression for the people of God during this week, or removing the leaven from our lives — these are expressions of what we habitually do and think about at this time of the year. And all of that is, I believe, shadow boxing, just like concentrating all of our energies and our zeal on fighting global warming and not laying a glove on the persuasive evil. It's all shadow boxing — it's all missing the real point if we fail to comprehend and be convicted of what indeed is the greatest sin, the most persuasive leavening, the underlying spiritual darkness behind all sin: not loving God, because we are not convinced of his total love for us, as manifested in the sacrifice of the true Passover, the true Lamb of God.
So, rather than "majoring in the minors", we should "major in the majors." To conclude, I want to just go to two or three quick verses to emphasize that there is great reason for optimism and hope. Just because we're not naturally humanly endowed with the capacity mentally to do all these things that we have to, to avoid the greatest sin, doesn't mean that we can't, and that's the great news of the Passover, and of the Days of Unleavened Bread, which begin tonight. Philippians 2:5 — actually, I'm sorry, I want to do one other before I come to that: Joh. 14:23 first, in the words of Jesus Himself, that which is impossible by human will and desire, is quite possible by divine help, and that's what Jesus said.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come in him and make Our home with him.
So, it's not just the "firing" of: between synapses of neurons of human mental activity we're talking about now — there's the indwelling presence of the Father and Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, and that does make possible the keeping of the greatest commandment. Now, Philippians 2:5 — Paul expressed that same reality in these words:
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you — (now it didn't used to be there, and prior to baptism and the receipt of the Holy Spirit after the laying on of hands, it's not there in this way, but it can be there— Let this mind — it's a different way of thinking) — Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
Colossians 1:25 — so we're not limited to human, mental activity — Colossians 1:25 — breaking into the thought here of Colossians 1, he's talking about the Church, and in Verse 25 Paul says:
Colossians 1:25 Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
Verse 26: The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
What's this mystery? Well, it's the answer to the question of the sermon.
Verse 27: To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And that's why we all took that little bit of unleavened bread, representative of the bread of life, Christ being in us — not just around us, or not just with us, but in us, working from within: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Verse 28: Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Ah! A person can be, through God's judgments, or His loving judgment — it's almost like Christ is a lens through which God looks, and when He looks at us through that lens, through Christ, He sees "perfect" — a perfect son or daughter; not condemned, not failing to keep the great commandment, not guilty of the great sin: perfect in Christ Jesus.
Verse 29: To this end I labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
Of course, the final manifestation of that is in the first resurrection. But it says we're not condemned; there's no condemnation, there it says in Romans 8, to those who are in Christ. Great news! Finally, Romans 5:3 — again, it's talking about the raw material that Satan takes and constructs his accusation against God's goodness: "therefore, why should we love Him?" It talks about that raw material: difficulties, sufferings, tribulations in this life, but it puts a proper conclusion to it.
Romans 5:3 Not only that, but we glory in tribulations, (we glory in them — we don't just in discouragement think. "well that's proof God doesn't love me" — we glory in them) knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
Verse 4: and perseverance, character; — and that's what God is making this new creation — He's making a new son, or a new daughter out of every Christian — and that character produces hope,
Verse 5: Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.
And the ability to keep the great commandment is given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence of God in our lives. It is good to do what God says, to examine ourselves, to examine sin in our lives, even though men are not flattered by seeing that there's been a difference of opinion between them and God. It's good that we do so, to examine the fundamental nature of sin, which is not loving God, to see that not loving God is the greatest sin, because it's the mother of all sins, and to know of the very real hope, the very real hope that God's people have, the only hope of glory, which is Christ in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, giving us the power to understand and love God and His workings, and to quench the fiery darts of bitterness towards God and doubts as to His love for us, that Satan aims at us, at our hearts — with the help of Christ let us love God.