OPEN: A woman recalled the hardship of growing up… different. As a child she’d grown up with a cleft pallet which made it so that she had a misshapen lip, a crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech. “When schoolmates asked, ‘What happened to your lip?’ She’d say she’d fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow that seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. She was convinced that no one outside her family could love her. In 2nd grade there was a teacher named Mrs. Leonard that all the kids loved. She was a short, round, and happy – sparkling lady. Every year, the school had hearing tests for the students and Mrs. Leonard gave test to everyone in her class. Finally it was this little girl’s turn. Students would stand against the door and cover one ear, then Mrs. Leonard would sit at her desk and whisper something, that the students would have to repeat it back – things like “the sky is blue” or “do you have new shoes?” The woman recalled: “I waited there for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, ‘I wish you were my little girl.’” (“The Whisper Test” by Mary Ann Bird)
Among the favorite verses we’re preaching about in this sermon series is THIS one that essentially says “I wish you were my little girl. I wish you belonged to me.” In 1 Peter 2:24 we read “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds YOU have been healed.”
This is personal. This is about God loving you so much that He DIED so you could be healed of your guilt and shame. It’s a little bit like the other favorite verse that echoes this which says “For God so loved YOU (the world) that He gave His only begotten Son…”
In that single act – of Jesus dying on the cross - God said “I wish you were mine! I want you to belong to me!
Now that’s Scriptural.
(pause) But it doesn’t seem normal. I mean, why should God love us?? Scripture tells us we’ve all sinned and that none of us is righteous. In fact, when God saved us Romans 5:10 says “we were His enemies” and Ephesians 2:3 declared “by nature we were children of wrath.”
God’s righteous… we’re not. So why should He love us? It seems that even the world agrees with that.
ILLUS: Back in 1968 there was a picture in the movie theatres called “2001: A Space Odyssey.” There are people who still talking about that movie. The author of that story (Arthur C. Clarke) made this comment about God “If there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they can’t be very important gods.”
In other words: a real god wouldn’t bother himself with weak and flawed mortals. A real god couldn’t love people like us. And even the world religions agree.
Did you realize no matter what world religion you talk about, or religious books of those religions - their gods (if they love anybody) only love “nice” people? Love, in those religions, is reserved only for the ones who deserve it. The Hindus have many books and their many gods, but amongst their 1000s of gods there isn’t a single one who would love you. And Muslims have the Koran that tells of Allah… but Allah is an impersonal god who really isn’t known for loving people. And Buddhists have a book called the Dharma – but Buddhists don’t actually believe that there is a god, let alone a god who would love you.
ILLUS: John Stott once told of being shocked when he entered a Buddhist temple. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statute of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time, after a while I have had to look away. And in imagination, I have turned instead to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross; nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.” (From his book: “The Cross of Christ”)
All, the religions of the world have their gods, but their gods don’t really love people unless those people as WORTHY of that god’s love.
By contrast the Bible is literally drenched with verses that show God’s love for us. From beginning to end… God declares He loves us. As children we even sing a song about that. Sing it with me:
“Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong – they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me; yes, Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so.”
God loves me, and He loves you… deeply. As Jeremiah 31:3 says “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
Jesus talked a lot about that love in His sermons. Jesus said that…
• Five sparrows were sold for 2 pennies, and yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:6-7
• There’s the parable – shepherd - left 99 safe sheep to find one sheep that was lost; and the woman who lost her one coin and swept the house till she found it.
• And then there’s the parable of the prodigal son, where the Father of that prodigal Son constantly watched the road looking for His boy to return, and then RAN to embrace His sinful child, embraced him, gave him a robe and a ring and sandals and then had a great feast to celebrate the return of his lost son.
Over and over again, Jesus drove home that truth: GOD – LOVES – YOU.
In fact, in the Old Testament there’s a couple of passages in Isaiah that tell us about this. Romans 10:15 quotes Isaiah 52:7-10 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
That verse declares how much we please God when we talk about His salvation. And then it says “The voice of your watchmen — they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. Break forth together into singing, … for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
NOTE, GOD BARED HIS HOLY ARM (remember that)
Then, a few chapters later in Isaiah God says this: “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede (no one able to step in for us and save us); then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.… "And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression," declares the LORD. Isaiah 59:16-17 & 20
That passage speaks of God interceding for us because there was no one else to do it. He dressed for war, and He bared His holy arm to be our redeemer.
He bared His Holy Arm.
Now, in Psalm 8:3-4 we’re told “When I consider your heavens, the WORK OF YOUR FINGERS, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
When God created the heavens it was mere FINGERPLAY for Him. It was effortless and was something like a game for Him. But when Jesus came down to die for us, God bared His holy arm. He rolled up His sleeves and He prepared for WAR. He put on His armor of righteousness and salvation and vengeance and zeal.
Why would He do that??? Because He loves us!
ILLUS: A little over 60 years ago there was a doctor in my home town who was a very competent surgeon. But there was a rumor floating around that he would occasionally do surgeries that weren’t necessary, so he could make a little extra money. Now granted… it was just a rumor, but it did make you think a little.
Well, the day came when my sister, Donna Mae, experienced serious stomach pains and my folks took her to the hospital… and this surgeon was on call. He examined her and said she needed surgery… almost immediately. Well, my dad had “private meeting” with this Doctor and he said “You’re the doctor, and my daughter has a problem you say you can fix. But let me tell you - if it turns out that this surgery wasn’t necessary, or that you hurt my daughter in any way… I’ll be coming for you, and no one will be able to stop me.”
Now I’m not sure… it might have been something in my daddy’s tone of voice or something… but suddenly that surgery wasn’t necessary. And she survived the crisis. In fact my sister is still alive and healthy to this day.
What dad was saying to that doctor was this: “I love my child… and I’m prepared to go to war to her. I’m rolling up my sleeves and I’ll do what I have to, to protect my child. So you make sure you don’t hurt her, because if you hurt her, I’ll hurt you.”
That’s the imagery we see in scripture. God loved us so much that He went to war. He loved us so much that He rolled up his sleeves and bared holy arm. He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son. He did all that … for us!!!
THAT’S GOOD NEWS!!!!
But now, the question is this: What difference does that make? What difference does it make that God loved us that much? Well, it comes down to this. Ephesians 2:3-5 tells us that (before we became Christians) we “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.”
We were still dead in our sins when God decided to save us. You and I weren’t worth saving and there was nothing you or I could do earn a place in heaven. Did you catch that part in Isaiah where it said “He could find no one to intervene”? Nobody who could fix what was wrong in our lives? He couldn’t find anyone to save us… so He did it Himself.
So, not only could you or I not earn our salvation, no one else could do it for us either. It’s by grace you have been saved. You and I were saved ONLY because of the great love with which God loved us.
If God hadn’t loved us and interceded for us we could never have gotten into heaven. It wouldn’t have mattered how much you believed, repented, confessed or were baptized – there was nothing you or I could have done to expect to have eternal life. We simply couldn’t have been good enough to be good enough to rise to heaven after death.
And frankly… that’s a good thing. Because, despite what many people think none of us deserve heaven. For a lot of folks that will come as a surprise, but there are a lot of others who never any illusion of deserving anything from God. The very idea that God would want them amazes them. And for true Christians, there’s the knowledge that the only way they ever had a chance for heaven was because God loved them so much that He was willing to come down from heaven and change their lives.
There’s a powerful poem that points this out for us, that goes like this…
CLOSE:
‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile, “What am I bid, good folks,” he cried “Who’ll start the bidding for me? A dollar, a dollar”; then, “Two! Only two? Two dollars, and who’ll make it three? Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice; Going for three” – but no. From the room, far back, a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; then, wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody pure and sweet as the caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low, said: “What am I bid for the old violin?” And he held it up with the bow. “A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it 2? Two thousand! And who’ll make it 3? Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice, and going, and gone,” said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, “We do not quite understand. What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply: “The touch of a Master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune and battered and scarred with sin, is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd - much like the old violin. A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine - a game - and he travels on. He is “going” once, and “going” twice He’s “going” and almost “gone,” but the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought by the touch of the Master’s hand. (Poem by Myra Brooks Welch, 1926)
Its the love of the Master that changes our value. It's the love of God that gives us the promise of eternity.
