Introduction:
Our theme for today’s sermon is “understanding God’s purpose”. There is always a purpose behind everything that is invented or created. There is a purpose for inventing electricity. There is a purpose for inventing the printing press and there is a purpose for creating the mobile phone, the computer and the internet. We were created in the image and likeness of God and if there is a purpose behind everything that man creates there must definitely be a purpose behind everything that God creates. The Scriptures are from the beginning to the end about the purpose of God for creating man. The Psalmist wonders and asks “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4) God cared so much that when Satan deceived man and made him lose his crown of glory and honour God Himself paid the price for his redemption so that man could fulfil God’s divine purpose. God’s divine purpose for creating man is clearly revealed in the marriage supper of the Lamb where man becomes a member of God’s family, a family made up of the Creator Himself, His only begotten son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and all those who have become joint heirs with Christ. God’s purpose can be delayed and was delayed but it will always be fulfilled. Satan delayed God’s purpose when he deceived Adam to sin by disobeying God but through Christ God’s purpose could be fulfilled when He paid the price for man’s redemption.
Step One: Satan delays the fulfilment of God’s purpose – The Fall
a) The wages of sin is death
The Scriptures describe how Satan sought to prevent the fulfilment of God’s purpose. Man had been given authority and dominion over all creation and was to rule over the earth as a member of God’s family. This meant that man was to also rule over Satan. Satan tried to prevent this and the only way was to deceive man to disobey God. He knew what God had said that to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would lead to death. When Adam yielded to sin, he became separated from his source of life “For the wages of sin is death”. (Rom 6:23)
b) All have sinned
When Adam sinned, he lost God’s image and likeness, his authority and dominion and his right to rule and fulfil God’s purpose. All of us have inherited Adams sinful nature for in Adam “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
c) Satan became the god of this world
When Adam lost his authority and dominion, Satan became the god of this world and illegally began to exercise the authority and dominion that had been given to man.
Illustration:
Satan is a deceiver and continues to deceive man today. When he spoke with Eve he cleverly appeared to be ignorant of what God had said and asks to be instructed. His question was to make Eve doubt the goodness of God and suggest that God did not love them unconditionally and was hiding something from them. God had clearly told Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will surely die. Once doubt had been planted in her mind Eve added her own words to what God had said. Satan immediately seized the opportunity to tell Eve the exact opposite of what God had said that they will not surely die. Eve believed Satan’s lie, ate of the fruit and gave it to Adam to eat and they came under Satan’s control. The same thing appears to be happening in the world today. How else can we explain how so many so-called Church leaders can manipulate their followers to perform unimaginable and degrading acts that do not glorify God. They use enticing words to deceive their followers and bring them under Satan’s control.
Application:
There are many people in the world today who should rightly be called snakes, trying to change the way we think about God. They cleverly add to the Word of God, then change it and finally convince us to deny its truth. The moment we believe their lie we come under their control and that is the same as coming under Satan’s control.
Step Two: God reveals His provision to deal with sin - the Law
a) The Law was given to reveal sin
God loves us and went to great lengths to free us from the control of Satan. The awareness of sin is the first step in dealing with it and God chose Abraham and His descendants to reveal sin and His provision to deal with it. He gave them the Law on Mount Sinai through Moses to reveal sin.
b) The Law was holy and perfect
The Law was holy and perfect but could not make anyone holy as no sinful person was capable of keeping it. It was not to make them holy but to reveal sin in their lives. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:20)
c) The sacrificial system to reveal Christ
The Law was to reveal sin and the need for a sacrifice to deal with it. The sacrificial system under the Old Covenant was instituted to temporary deal with sin and point to the perfect sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who would permanently deal with sin.
Illustration:
The Law was holy and perfect and demanded a perfect life that no one was capable of living. The religious leaders, the Pharisees, boasted that they kept the Law but their boasting only pointed to their pride and self-righteousness. The Law makes demands that no one could keep and to break one of them is to be guilty of all of them. Jesus fully explained the Law when He said that even looking at a woman lustfully is to commit adultery and that hating someone is to commit murder and on and on. The Law was to reveal sin and when sin is revealed God instituted the sacrificial system to deal with it. The sacrificial system pointed to the ultimate and final sacrifice of Christ. Christ has achieved what the Law was not able to do. On a visit to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, Christ went to the Temple. He saw how the people, who claimed to obey the Law, ended up defiling the Temple. They allowed the court of the Gentiles that was reserved for worship by the Gentiles to be used as a market because of greed and their love for money thereby denying the Gentiles a chance to worship. This is a picture of how miserably the religious leaders had failed in their attempt to obey the Law.
Application:
Many people today still believe that they can keep the Law and that they will be saved by their good works. The truth is that no one can meet the demands of the Law and the reason we are saved is not of works but of grace through faith.
Step Three: Christ restores God’s purpose – The cross
a) Christ paid the penalty for sin
The only person who could save us and restore God’s divine purpose was God Himself. Jesus Christ qualified to be the Lamb of God since He was without blemish. He was born of a virgin and therefore without the sin nature and He lived a life without sin being tempted in all ways as we are yet did not sin. Christ’s death paid the penalty for sin for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
b) Christ justified the sinner
When Christ took our place on the cross He was made sin with our sinfulness so that we could be made righteous with His righteousness. We are justified, just as if we had never sinned. We are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, a righteousness that had never know sin before.
c) Christ has reconciled us to the Father
The righteousness of Christ has reconciled us to the Father and we become His children and can call Him Abba Father. When Christ died on the cross one of His last words were a quotation from Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) Jesus was forsaken and rejected so that we might be accepted as God’s beloved children who can come to Him and call Him Father.
Illustration:
The cross was God’s chosen way of salvation and restoration planned from the beginning of the world. Different people have a difficulty understanding its meaning. According to Paul the cross was a stumbling block to the Jews. They believed in their own works as descendants of Abraham rather than in God. They believed righteousness could be earned by obeying the Law yet no man, apart from Christ, was capable of keeping the Law. The cross was foolishness to the Gentiles who according to their wisdom found it ridiculous to even think that a god, who is supposed to be immortal, could die. The cross, however, is the power of God to believers. It is the power of God because all that we receive, the grace of God, depends on Christ and not on us. What the Law demanded from us, Christ gives to us as a gift. Paul, the author of most of the New Testament, initially could not understand the importance of the cross. According to his understanding of the Scriptures to be hung on a tree - that is on a cross - meant to be under the curse of God. How could someone under the curse of God be the Messiah? But his life was radically changed when he understood that Jesus Christ became a curse because of us. Jesus Christ became a curse because He was made sin with our sins that we might be made righteous with His righteousness.
Application:
Jesus Christ took our place and endured all the evil consequences due by divine justice to our sin so that we could take His place and become members of the family of God.
Conclusion:
The entire message of the Gospel revolves around one unique historical event: the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Writing about this, the writer of Hebrews declares that “By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Heb. 10:14) Perfected and forever speak of a sacrifice that meets every need of the entire human race, and its effects extend throughout time and into eternity. A single sovereign act of God brought together all the guilt and the suffering of humanity and offered one all sufficient solution, the cross. On the cross Christ took all the evil we deserved and gave us all the good we did not deserve.
Personal Response:
Christ’s sacrifice made us to be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and qualifies us to become children of God. John confirms this when he says “as He is so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17) Let us allow Christ to live in us to the praise and glory of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!
