Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reminded, in a shocking and brutal way, that nothing in this world is indestructible. For over two decades, the twin towers of the World Trade Center stood watch over New York City, monuments to man’s skill, and energy, and intelligence. Everyone assumed they would remain standing for decades to come. But in the space of only a few minutes, they were gone, reduced to a jumbled heap of glass, and metal, and concrete. And the people, the thousands of souls whose broken and lifeless bodies still lie entombed in the wreckage of those buildings. None of them expected September 11th to be their last day on earth. None of them expected that before the sun had set, they would be standing before God’s judgement seat. I’m sure they all assumed that their lives would continue for many more years -- another ten, or twenty, or thirty, or forty. But in the space of a few minutes, those lives all came to an end.
Other things ended that day, as well. Such as our sense of invincibility as a nation, the feeling of being absolutely secure within our own borders. Never before has there been an attack of this magnitude on the United States, never before an attack like this on civilian targets. And as our understanding of the terrorist threat has deepened, we’ve come to realize that even the air we breathe and the water we drink could be dangerous, could be poisoned with chemical or biological agents. The letters in our mailbox could be carrying some deadly disease.
As we contemplate this new world we’re living in, as we evaluate what we steps we should now be taking to protect ourselves and our families, I think many people have been asking, "Where can I find security? What can I really depend on? What can I be sure will never fail me?" And the disappointing, but truthful answer is, "nothing". There is nothing in this world so strong as to be incapable of being destroyed. As far as physical security goes, there is no building, no shelter that is impervious to attack. Even the caves and tunnels that Osama Bin laden has carved deep into the mountains of Afghanistan can’t protect him forever. Eventually, he’ll be found and rooted out. It’s just a matter of time and determination. And if all the military might of the United States couldn’t protect even the Pentagon building from destruction, and if the congress of the United States had to evacuate the Capitol building because of Anthrax contamination, then it’s clear that there is no such thing as an absolutely safe structure, no such thing as an impregnable fortress.
Or consider political stability. It is unthinkable to us that the United States should ever be defeated, or cease to exist as a nation. But history teaches us that there is no such thing as an invincible empire. The Roman Empire lasted a thousand years, but ultimately it collapsed. The British empire, which once encircled the globe, is now largely a thing of memory. The Russian empire, likewise gone. The Egyptians, the Incas, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Ottoman empire, the great Chinese dynasties -- all gone. And the United States is no exception. I love my country. I certainly don’t wish her any harm. But I’m confident that whether the United States of America lasts another eight years, or eighty, or even eight hundred, ultimately, like all nations and all empires, it will come to an end.
The bottom line is that there is literally nothing solid, nothing permanent, in this world. There is nothing in the political world, or in the physical world, or in any other aspect of our existence, that is absolutely safe from destructive change. The only place where complete security is to be found is in the spiritual world, and in the love of God for His people. Listen:
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." -- Psalm 46:1-3
Mountains are symbols of strength and permanence. We think of them as being completely solid, indestructible, immovable. And what the Psalmist is telling us here is that even if the most solid and reliable things in our world start to tremble and give way, God will still be there, unchanging and unchangeable. His love for us cannot be shaken. It cannot be overthrown. It cannot be altered or diminished in the slightest degree. God’s love for his people is literally indestructible.
This morning, as we conclude our series of messages on God’s love, I’d like to focus on that fact -- that his love for us is not only unchanging, but unchangeable. That his love is not only strong and lasting, but eternal and indestructible. Nothing can, and nothing ever will, separate us from the love of God. As Paul writes,
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -- Romans 8:35, 37-39
Why is this important? Why is it important to understand and believe deep in our heart that God’s love for us never changes? First of all, because we need an anchor for our souls. When everything around us is collapsing, when the people we were depending on let us down, we need to know that there is someone we can trust completely, something we can hang onto, something that will never fail us. And that "something" is the love of God. In the words of the old hymn, "The Solid Rock":
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
Two weeks ago, I got a bit of a shock. I found out that my employer was going to be laying off 200 employees. A week later, I got a bigger shock: I was one of the 200! Now, I’ve never been laid off before, never been fired. And I had no warning that this was coming. I’ve worked for this company for over eight years, and it’s a stable company, in good financial shape. They weren’t losing money. I thought my future there was solid, that this job was something I could depend on. But in the space of two weeks, it was gone. They simply decided that they needed to be more profitable, and that the way to become profitable quickly was to eliminate 200 jobs. As you might expect, I question the wisdom of this move, since they also lost several hundred accumulated years of experience that they can never get back. But be that as it may, the job which I was relying on as the foundation of my family’s economic security is gone. When something like that happens, it’s helpful to remember that God’s love for me, and his loving plans for me, have not changed one iota. He is not surprised by any of this; in fact, this has been a part of his plan for me from the very beginning. A company that I was relying on let me down. The American economy let me down. Some people I was relying on to act in my best interest let me down. But God didn’t let me down. His love for me hasn’t changed at all.
Some of you have experienced losses and tragedies much more devastating than what I just described. People you were depending on, people whom you had every right to trust and rely on, have betrayed you, and hurt you, and mistreated you, and abandoned you. Husbands, wives, parents, children. Relationships that seemed stable, suddenly falling apart. You know the feelings of intense disappointment, and anger, and grief, and confusion, and hopelessness. How could someone you were so close to suddenly leave, or worse, become your enemy? When that happens, it’s important to have an anchor, something you can hang on to. And that anchor is the unchanging love of God. As we read in the letter to the Hebrews:
"God has said, ’Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’" -- Hebrews 13:5
We need to know and believe that God’s love for us never changes, because sometimes that’s all we have to hold on to. We have no other support, everything else is falling apart, and we desperately need that assurance that nothing can separate us from God’s love.
The second reason it’s important is to enable us to walk according to grace, and not by works. Sadly, there are many, many people in Christian churches who don’t really believe in the indestructibility of God’s love. People who suspect, deep down, that God’s love for them is conditional; that God’s acceptance of them, and his affection for them, are somehow dependent on their goodness and their performance. And so they can never truly rest in God’s love. They’re always trying to be good enough, trying to do enough good works, for God to love them. But the problem is that they can never quite measure up. They’re always aware that they’ve failed, that they haven’t met God’s holy standard. And so instead of peace, they have anxiety, and even anger. Instead of serving out of love and gratitude, they serve out of duty and desperation. They may be some of the most productive workers in the church; they may receive praise and admiration from the church leaders for all that they do, but deep down, they’re miserable. They’re on a treadmill of works, and they can’t ever get off, because the minute they do, they’re afraid God will stop loving them. They have forgotten that not only is their salvation by grace rather than works, but that God’s love for them every day is also by grace and not works. It’s not something to be earned, it’s something to be received by faith.
Have you ever met someone like that? Are you someone like that? Then you need to hear this: God loves you the same, no matter what. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more, and nothing you can do to make him love you less. His love for you is absolute, and it will never be anything otherwise, throughout all eternity. Rest in His love, so that you can say with the Psalmist,
"I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation." -- Psalm 13:5
"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you." -- Isaiah 54:10
Why is it that God’s love for us can never change? Two reasons: First, God’s love never changes because He never changes. In human relationships, sometimes the other person stops loving you because they change. For instance, they develop new interests which you don’t share. Or perhaps they become infatuated with another person, or they go through some kind of mid-life crisis, and become dissatisfied with everything in their life, including you. Maybe they become addicted to drugs or alcohol. Or they begin to suffer from some disease, such as Alzheimer’s, which affects their thinking.
But none of those things is ever true of God, because He doesn’t change. His attitudes don’t change. His beliefs don’t change. His plans and purposes don’t change. His knowledge doesn’t change. He knows all things; past, present, and future, the end from the beginning -- including everything about you. And therefore his love for you does not change. Once he chooses to set his love upon you, there is nothing that can change his mind.
"God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" -- Numbers 23:19
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." -- Hebrews 13:8
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will" -- Ephesians 1:3-5
Did you catch that? Before the world was created, before you or I had even come into existence, much less done anything good or bad, God had determined to make us the objects of His love.
The second reason that God’s love for us can never change is that it isn’t based on our "loveliness". It isn’t based on who we are, or what we do, because if that were the case, no one would qualify. In God’s eyes, the whole human race is ruined by sin. As Paul writes in Romans chapter three:
"As it is written: ’There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ -- Romans 3:10-12
Or, as Moses explained to the ancient Israelites as they were about to enter the Promised Land:
"The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery . . . It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people." -- Deuteronomy 7:6-8; 9:5-6
In other words, God does not choose to love people because of their inherent loveliness or goodness, but in spite of their sin and corruption. He chose us, not because of what we were, but because of what he wanted to make us. Therefore, if He didn’t begin to love us because of what we were or what we had done, then he won’t stop loving us because of what we are, or because of what we may do. His love is independent of our behavior. We didn’t earn it by anything we did, and we can’t lose it by anything we do or don’t do..
So then, if God’s love is not based on our loveliness, then what is it based on? It’s based on what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. God loves His Son, Jesus Christ, and we are united to Christ through faith. And so God loves us for Jesus’ sake; He loves us with the same love that He feels for His own son, Jesus. God loves us, and will always love us, simply because we are "in Christ".
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." -- Ephesians 1:3-8
In conclusion, I have two applications for you to consider. First, although the reality of God’s love for us never changes, our experience of it can and does. So if you feel far from God, if you feel that his love for you has diminished, then understand that his love for you has not changed in any way. It may just be that you are out of fellowship. Perhaps you need to repent of some sin, and confess it to God and seek forgiveness. Or perhaps you need to spend some time in prayer. As the Bible promises, "Come near to God and he will come near to you." -- James 4:8
The second application is this: stop trying to earn God’s love. Stop trying to be good enough; stop trying to do enough, to be worthy of His favor and affection. Instead, just relax. Accept by faith that if you are in Christ, then you already have God’s love in full measure. Accept that there’s nothing more you need to add to Christ’s work; nothing more you can add. And then begin serving God out of grace, and freedom, and thankfulness, rather than out of bondage, and fear, and obligation. Amen.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
