Read the story “Love You Forever.” By Robert Munsch.
Now I don’t know about you but for me reading that story “Love You Forever.” always reminds me of my mother and her love for me. But I wonder have you ever realized that love. Because there is a love that is bigger and even more real than you can ever imagine.
And truly should be read like this for us here today.
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
I am the Alpha and Omega,
And my baby you’ll be.”
Some days we go through life never knowing how much God loves us? How much God cares? How important we really are to the God of the entire Universe?
And the truth is everything we need to know about God can be summed up in two words. Look at our passage of scripture here this morning. Ephesians 2:4-7
Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (NKJV)
Did you see it? Two little words can change every man, woman and child here on the face of the earth. Two very simple words.
“BUT GOD!”
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this about these two little words “BUT GOD!” “These two words, in and of themselves, in a sense contain the whole of the gospel of Christ.”
These two words give us insight further and change everything from our previous state. Let me reminds once again real briefly our state “BUT GOD!”
Ephesians 2:1-3 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” (NIV)
Our condition is helpless, hopeless, heinous and desperate according to Ephesians 2:1-3 and then steps in two simple words, two very powerful words. “BUT GOD!”
Now this morning I want to look at these two words “BUT GOD!” from the stand point of asking us four basic questions:
1. Who Is This God?
I guarantee that if I step out of this building either caught somebody walking down the street or went up to somebody’s door and asked them this question: Who Is This God? I would receive many different answers.
Some would say, “Well he started everything, but basically it got out of control and he really cannot do anything. He is a weakling.” Others might says, “Well He is all powerful has total control over everything and He could step in and do something but He chooses not too.” And even someone else might say, “Well I am god!”
So what do we know about God? Who is this God of the bible that Paul is talking about? Well I feel there are three markers that we need to understand here as we go through Ephesians 2:1-10 about God.
Now there are many things we know about God but these are three that I want us to define.
God is Sovereign: Now what does sovereign mean? “Sovereignty means: rule, so to say that God is sovereign is to say that God rules His creation. He made it, and He is in control of it. And nothing happens without His permission and he is actively involved in everything concerning God creation.” Simply God is concerned about everything concerning us and is actively involved in each of our lives and every decision God makes is just and right.
To sum up God Sovereignty would be found in
Romans 9:14-17 “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (NIV)
Everything in God’s Sovereignty is this we can trust Him.
God is Holy: Our God is set apart. Pure, Blameless, without blemish or stain. Holy!
1 Peter 1:15-16 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (NIV)
I take great comfort knowing my God is Holy. Who is God? He is HOLY!
God is full of wrath against sin: God stands opposed to sin. As Paul stated in our present condition in 2:1 “We are dead in our transgressions and sins.” And thus we have become children of wrath as we stand in opposition to God!
God will stamp out all sin. But will we take his way out or our own?
The second question I ask you al this morning is this:
2. What Has God Done?
“BUT GOD!” Once again we are back to those two little words again. “BUT GOD!” So many times we ask that question. “Well what has God Done? Well what has He done for me?” Right!
I know I have asked that question.
“BUT GOD!” God made away for us! See instead of seeing man condition and sin and cutting and running from us. God ran to us! “I love you Forever!” Person chocking Illustration.
We were helpless “BUT GOD!”
• First we were dead in our sins!
• Second we were enslaved to and by our sins!
• Third we were and possible are under God’s just sentence for sins and thus becoming “objects of God’s wrath.”
“BUT GOD!” made us alive with Christ! Even when we were dead in our sins!”
God gave us a new life in Christ!
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:” (NIV)
And if only you could know how much God love you!
Illustration of a gift to Kamden for Christmas something he has never seen!
Story of Dad giving me a give of a steak sandwich.
1 Corinthians 2:8-9 “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (NIV)
And the Third question for you this morning is:
3. Why did God Do It?
Well truly there is only one answer: “Grace” (by grace you have been saved),
Paul helps us understand God’s Grace towards us His Children by expressing this Grace in three words.
• Love: vs. 4 “ because of His great love with which He loved us”
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (NASB)
C. S. Lewis described God’s love like this:
“God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creations in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing—or should we say ‘seeing’?—the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stakes of beams, the nails driven through the nerves of His hands, the repeated torture of the back and arms as it is time after time, for breath’s sake, hitched up… Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love. He gave Himself!”
• Mercy: vs. 4 “, who is rich in mercy,”
Jonah 4:1-3 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, and said, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” (NKJV)
• Kindness: vs. 7 “He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Do you realize the kindness that God had shown you His Children?
And our Final question today:
4. What must I DO?
Acts 2:37-39 “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (NIV)
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
And my baby you’ll be.”
