OPEN: A man and wife were sitting in their living room when they noticed their neighbor across the street pull up in to his drive. He stepped out of the car with flowers in his hand, met his wife at the door and laid a passionate kiss on her.
As they watched all this play out across the street, the woman turned to her husband and wistfully said, “Why don’t you do that?”
The man looked at his wife and replied, “Well, Honey, I hardly know the woman.”
APPLY: That wife was looking for a special kind of love. She was looking for a love that said she was worth something… that she was valuable.
That’s the kind of love Scripture says God has for us.
And that’s the kind of love the Bible says we can learn to practice when we follow God.
1st John tells us:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:7-8
In other words: REAL love comes from God because God is the real thing: He is love. Thus, as it says in I John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” We know how to love, because we’ve learned from the Master. We love best when we learn to copy God’s kind of love.
Now, Psalm 85 tells us about God’s kind of love.
But it starts out telling us we aren’t worthy of His love.
Why not?
Because God is righteous… and we’re not.
We’ve all sinned. We’ve all failed.
We don’t deserve His love.
In verse 5 the Psalmist acknowledges that when he asks God “Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? (Ps. 85:5). And a couple verse before in vs. 3, this Psalm talks about the fact that God had “fury”… He had “wrath” towards us
Ephesians 2 explains why God would have this anger:
“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.” Ephesians 2:1-3
God is righteous, but we chose to be unrighteous. As Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Thus we became “objects of God’s wrath.”
Now, people try to duck that truth.
They don’t like the idea of being called “sinners.
So in order to avoid that label, they do one of at least 3 things. They either
1. Redefine the terms: They don’t sin… they make mistakes, they fall short.
Or, they’ll say that’s just the way they are. Are they angry people? That’s just how they’ve always been. Or they’ve always been bitter, lustful, or whatever. But don’t dare call it sin.
Years ago, a famous psychiatrist named Dr. Carl Menninger wrote a book called “Whatever Became of Sin”. He maintained that for decades people had talked about sin in their lives. But as Psychiatry became more prominent, sin was removed from people’s vocabulary… and society has drifted away from personal responsibility and the need to change.
So, people either redefine their terms so they don’t have the label of “sinners.”
2. Or they Lower their standards so that sin is always something below how they live. These people tend to look at their lives like Bette Midler does:
“I have my standards. They may be low, but I have them."
ILLUS: Everybody has their standards. They might be low standards… but most people rigidly try to keep them.
I first encountered this approach to life at a church I served years ago. It was an old congregation and about a third of the church were glorified pagans. These people belonged to the church because their parents or grandparents had… but they really didn’t belong to Jesus. Many in this group would engage in gossip and backstabbing if they didn’t like you. Frankly there were some in this group I wouldn’t have trusted with my dog (if I had one).
In this group of pagan church members were a couple of men who had promised to donate a sizable portion of money to an upcoming building project. But while they had promised that donation, they really didn’t want to part with the money… so they did everything they could to scuttle the project.
I noticed that while these men engaged in all sorts of shady tactics to derail the building project, they did so because they had given their word they would give the money. It would never have occurred to them to renege on their pledge… because they’d given their word. BUT, if the project didn’t go forward, they didn’t have to “sin” by going back on their promise. That was their standard. It was a low one, but they held to it religiously.
ILLUS: Even society at large does things like that. About 20 years or so ago, psychologists regarded Homosexuality as being an “aberrant behavior”. But eventually they gave in to outside pressure groups, had a vote, and decided that they should shift toward regarding sodomy to be an acceptable “alternate lifestyle.” Without convincing studies to prove their case, they have come to believe that the “gay” lifestyle is hardwired into people. It’s in their DNA. That mindset has taken root in our culture.
But, it also laid the ground work for further lowering of standards. Now, there psychologists who are arguing that Pedophilia (the abuse of children) is not a life choice – it’s part of the predators DNA. They were born that way. And because these foul people can’t help themselves, we should be more “understanding” of their problem.
So, to avoid the “sin” label, people redefine their terms, lower their standards… or
3. They shift the blame to someone else. This is a time honored dodge. People will say “I know I’ve done bad… but you ought to see my neighbor, my wife, my husband, my parents, etc. They are to blame for all the things I’ve done wrong. If it weren’t for them I’d be a much better person.”
No matter what technique people use to convince themselves their sin isn’t all that evil, ultimately they refuse to accept the idea that what they’ve done is SIN because that would mean they were bad people… and they just can’t accept that.
But the Bible is very blunt about sin – it doesn’t matter how YOU grade your sin, if you don’t accept that you’ve sinned… you can’t fix the problem.
ILLUS: It’s like a man having a deadly disease. He experiencing distressing physical problems but doesn’t KNOW he’s going to die… he’s just afraid that might be the outcome.
So what does he do? Does he go see a doctor. Noooo. Going to the doctor would be admitting that he might die and he refuses to accept that.
If he doesn’t go see the doctor, then there’s no verdict that he will die. Therefore, he won’t die. And yes, that’s the way some people reason.
But since this ailing man refuses to see a doctor, he can’t fix what’s wrong in his life.
And so… he dies.
And so it with sin.
God is the doctor.
Sin is the disease.
And unless we give our sin sick souls to Him, we will die in our sins.
We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
As one person once noted: The word SIN… has an “I” in the middle.” (Dr. Karl Menninger)
I have sinned.
It’s MY fault.
MY problem.
MY guilt.
MY shame.
And until I deal with that sin and guilt… it’s always gonna be there.
What Psalm 85 is telling us is this: God knows all that.
He IS a righteous God. He knows you’ve sinned... but He loves you anyway. And He wants to FIX the damage your sin has done to your life. And He loves you so much, He wants to forgive you. He wants to remove your sin.
God is righteous, and you’re not.
You don’t deserve His love or forgiveness, but He gives it anyway.
As Psalm 85:2 says: “You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins.”
So, first – God is a righteous God.
And second God wants to give you His peace. It’s a peace you can’t obtain on your own, by your own righteousness (since you aren’t righteous anyway).
I noticed something here in Psalm 85.
“YOU showed favor to your land, O Lord; YOU restored the fortunes of Jacob.
YOU forgave the iniquity of Your people; YOU covered all their sin. Selah.
YOU withdrew all Your fury; YOU turned away from Your burning anger.
Restore us, O God of our salvation,
And cause Your indignation toward us to cease.
LORD, YOU showed favor to Your land;
YOU restored the captivity of Jacob.”
Notice Psalm 85 doesn’t say anything about US. It focuses on HIM.
Now contrast, look at this passage from Hosea 13:2
“Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols.’”
Notice the difference between pagan worship and Godly worship:
In pagan worship… it’s all about the worshipper loving his pagan god.
THEY make the idol
THEY cleverly fashion the images of calves.
And THEY kiss those idols.
It’s all about their love for a god that doesn’t even exist.
But – by contrast, Psalm 85 talks about GOD doing all the loving
GOD shows favor and restores fortunes.
He forgives iniquity and covers sins
GOD withdraws His fury and turns away from His anger.
He restores salvation and restores His people to their proper place.
This is the basic difference between manmade religion and Biblical faith.
• Manmade religion is all about what WE do.
• Biblical faith is all about what GOD has done.
As Lee Strobel once wrote:
“As we say around here, other religions are spelled “D-O,” because they teach that people have to do a bunch of religious rituals to try to please God. But Christianity is spelled “D-O-N-E” because Christ has done it all on the cross.”
Well, you might ask “Jeff, what difference does that make?”
Well the difference is this: If my relationship with God is based upon what I can do then I’m always going to wonder – have I done enough?
If I haven’t done enough, I’m not going to heaven. I’m going to hell. Thus, my faith will be shaky. I’ll never be certain of my salvation. I’ll never know whether I’ve been good enough to be good enough to please God.
BUT – if my relationship with God is based on HIS love for me and what HE has done for me, then I don’t worry nearly as much. Why? Because my possibility of getting into heaven depends on what He does… not on what I do.
ILLUS: Just to illustrate how pagan religion thinks, consider this story about Warren Buffett. Back in 2006 Warren Buffett announced that he was giving his fortune to charity. At the time Buffett was worth $44 billion just in stocks.
And he was giving away $37 billion dollars - most of went to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. By anyone’s thinking… that’s a lot of money.
When he presented his gift to the Gates, he made the remark,
“There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way.”
So, according to Buffett, heaven can be bought… as long as you can give away enough money.
If that were true, how much money would be enough to buy that ticket? And how would I KNOW FOR SURE I’d given enough to be sure I’d get in?
By contrast to Buffett’s thought of buying his way into heaven… God says: it’s a free gift.
Ephesians 2:4-9 says: “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
• I don’t have to worry about giving away enough money.
Now, if I love God I’m going to spend my money on things that are important to Him. But I’m not doing that to purchase heaven. I’m giving my money because I know that pleases Him.
• And I don’t have to worry about doing enough good.
Again, if I love God I’m going to do good things. I’ll remember that Jesus said that when I let my “light shine before men, they’ll see my GOOD DEEDS and glorify our Father which is in heaven.” And I want my God to be glorified by others.
• I don’t have to worry about paying off the sins in my past. I couldn’t do it if I wanted to.
All I need is the blood of Jesus Christ. When I have that, I have a free pass into heaven. And all I need do to accept that free gift is
Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God
Repent (turn away) from the sins in my past
Confess Jesus as my Lord and Master
Be buried in the waters of Christian baptism/rise up a new creature in Christ
And live my life for God from that day forward.
You might say: that all fine and good, but what if I’ve sinned so much that God might NEVER forgive me? What if my actions have been so foul and despicable and evil that even I have trouble looking myself in mirror?
Well, that’s the reason Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal Son:
A certain wealthy man had two sons. One day, the youngest son said to his father:
“I don’t want to wait for you to die to get my inheritance. I want my share NOW!”
So the father gave the son what he’d asked for.
He gave the boy his share of the inheritance and his son didn’t even bother to say thank you… he leaves for the big city. He doesn’t need his daddy… he doesn’t even seem to love his daddy. He has his friends to keep him warm.
But his friends only stayed with him on as long as his fortune did.
When the money ran out… so did his friends
Then a famine struck the land. Food was scarce and food there was, was very expensive and the boy didn’t have much money. So he went to work at the only place he could find – a pig farm (not good place for a Jew). Even then he apparently didn’t make enough to eat well, and he got so hungry… he started to considering eating some of the pig slop.
Then he started to thinking: My daddy has a lot of servants and they eat pretty well. You know, if I could just go back and be a servant. Then – at least I’d eat. I know what I’ll do, I’ll go back and throw myself on his mercy.
And he practiced what he’d say to his dad.
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” Luke 15:18-19
In that boy’s eyes, he’d messed up so badly his father would NEVER forgive him. There was NO WAY he’d ever be able to live with his family again. He was no longer WORTHY to be called a son… and he knew it.
He could never pay his father back for the inheritance he’d squandered. He could never do enough good to undo the pain and sorrow he’s caused his family. He looked in the mirror… and he hated what he saw.
But he had to eat. And so he started back home…
ILLUS: I’m told the Pharisees had a similar parable. In their story, when the prodigal son came home, his daddy said “That serves you right. You got exactly what you deserved. And you’re right, you aren’t worthy to be called my son. I’ll put you to work, and if you can prove you’ve changed, then MAYBE I’ll let you back as my son.”
But, notice how Jesus ends His parable:
“… while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20
Did you see what the Father did?
He KISSED his son.
He welcomed him back.
But the son tried to interrupt his dad. He tried to explain he DIDN’T deserve his Father’s love. “I AM NO LONGER WORTHY!” he said.
But it’s almost like the father didn’t hear those words.
“the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” Luke 15:22-24
The Father kissed his wayward son.
In Psalm 85:9 - 10 it says:
“Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
When God forgives our sins, His righteousness is satisfied and we receive His peace. When all that takes place… God KISSES us with His righteousness and His peace.
CLOSE: To illustrate this truth, I want to close with this intriguing story:
Steve and Kathleen Monforto live in Laurel Springs, New Jersey, and they love baseball. It was a Tuesday night, they had seats in the first row of an upper deck along the third-base side of the field for a Phillies home game against the Nationals.
Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth was at the plate and he hit a foul ball headed straight for Steve Monforto. Steve leaned over, extended his hands, and made a great catch. It was his first-ever foul ball at a game! He smiled, exchanged fist bumps with people in his section, and put the newfound treasure in the hands of three-year-old daughter Emily. Dressed in her pink shirt and Phillies cap, she promptly tossed it over the railing to the fans below! Her dad’s arms went up and his jaw dropped.
At the same instant, Emily turned toward Dad -- and sensed she’d done something wrong. Maybe it was the look on Dad’s face. Maybe it was the groans of all the fans nearby. But even a 3 year old knows when she’s disappointed her father. And her face began to cloud with the guilt of having done a “bad thing.”
At the moment her father did something very God-like. He smiled at her, took his little girl into his arms, and kissed her. He told it was “ok.” He still loved her.
This father had suffered pain and loss because of the actions of his child. But he let his child know she was so valuable to him that she worth the price.
Our Heavenly Father suffered pain and loss at the cross because of the actions of His children. But in the cross, he let us know that we so valuable to Him that we were worth the price.
(from article by Rubel Shelly 10/12/09 http://www.heartlight.org)
