WHAT’S GOD UP TO PART 2: THE RESCUE PLAN
Eph. 2:1-10
Feb.3, 2002 Grace International Baptist Church
Vacationing in Arizona, a group of Brit. tourists spots a cowboy by the side of the road, with his ear to the ground. "What’s going on?" they asked.
" 2 horses, one grey one chestnut, are puliing a wagon carrying 2 men" the cowboys says.
"One man is wearing a red shirt and the other a black shirt." "They’re heading east."
"Wow, u can tell all that just by listening to the ground?" says one of the tourist.
"No" replies the cowboy. "They just ran over me."
perhaps this week you feel like u’ve been run over as well. Things look bleak, see here out west BC govt is moving with cutbacks, imposed legislation on the teachers to get their disputes settled, teachers then threaten that this is first day of more unsettled labor dispute, loss of many job in one of BC’s biggest industries, forestry, Bin Laden is now threatening more violence, terror... News get worst!
A while ago, Minnesota Crime Commission, released this statement, u gotta hear this:
"Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centred. He wants what he wants when he wants it - his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmates’ toys, his uncles’s watch. Deny him these once, and he seethes with rage and agressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He is, in fact, dirty. He has no morals, no knowledge, no skills. This means that all children - not juts certain children - are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in the self-centred world of his infancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions, to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal - a thief, a killer or a rapist."
The Minnesota Crime Commission has in effect indicted the whole human race!
Read Jas. 4:1-2 Makes you shudder, the description is so close!
"Surely I have been a sinner from BIRTH, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Ps.51:5 (NIV)
No need to go far into history to see how much evil is perpetrated by humans on a daily basis, Sept.11th, terrorism is world wide! See in the Philippines, Nigeria, Colombia, France, Middle East! Accidents daily on the roads cause of speed by folks who need to get there 2 minutes faster than everyone else; even to where I move recently, in Richmond, I hear now, it is becoming a dumpsite for toxic waste from Portland, OR?
As we see crime, corruption, terroism, pollution, no matter how hard we try the dark side of humanity is overwhelming, can u see why God says that people are...
The news is bad!
Is there any hope?
1. UNRESPONSIVE: dead, doomed forever… (v.1)
LIKE A CORPSE... so dead can’t move, respond - so we follow the devil...
Like this story:
At the start of every Mass, the priest would make the sign of the cross, followed as usual by the entrance song and the blessing, after which the congregation responded, "And also with you."
One Sunday, after making the sign of the cross, our priest appeared to be having difficulty with the sound system during the singing of the entrance hymn. At the conclusion of the song, the priest said, "There seems to be something wrong with the mike."
The congregation automatically responded, "And also with you."
--Patrick Tayao (from Reader Contributions in Reader’s Digest, 1996)
Yes there’s soemthing wrong, but not with the mike, the congregation’s automatic response "and also with you" hits the nail right on the button. All of us unresponsive to God, something wrong with us and u and u. Unthinkingly we respond with no response to God.
Came about as a result ...
21So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam,... 22Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man… 1 Cor. 15:21-22 (NLT)
DEAD! that’s us!
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely DIE. Genesis 2:16,17 (NIV)
Ø Major implication: Death penalty is a reality! It is in force, enforced, and a force to be reckoned with. Misery, pain, separation, destructive force, the anguish - it is universal in its application. No one escapes it. Something is wrong!
The pain of death reminds us something is just not right!
What happens after death?
“Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2 (NLT)
Ø Jesus explains to His disciples what is meant by everlasting contempt in Mark 9:43-48 (NASB)
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, [[where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]
""If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell,
[ where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]
“If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.
Ø Hell is conscious everlasting torment! Their worm does not die!
Some may argue for some sort of purifying fire, such as the idea of a purgatory, but it is not true. Why?
Speaking to the Pharisees, who were accusing Jesus of being influenced by demon, He said
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in THE AGE TO COME.” Matthew 12:32 (NIV)
if sin is not forgiven now, it won’t be forgiven then!
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an ETERNAL sin. Mark:3:29 (NIV)
A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand,
he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be TORMENTED with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is NO REST DAY or NIGHT for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." Revelation 14:9-11 (NIV)
Conscious torment even begins now… Psalm 32:3-4 (NIV)
"When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah"
Miserable now, it’ll be miserable then!
Ø Final destination… DEATH – eternal separation from God…
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. Revelation 21:18 (NIV)
Speaking in a private setting to His disciples Jesus said:
"Then He will also say to those on His left, " Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;… These will go away into ETERNAL punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’’
Matthew 25:41,46 (NASB)
“…we were by nature objects of wrath.” v.3b (NIV)
Something is wrong. Horribly wrong! There is someting rotten not in the state of Denmark but with us and we can’t help it... it’s in us, in our genes, our makeup, helpess, lost and without hope and without God!
2. GOD RESPONDS
Thesis of Ephesians: BLESSING… 1:3 WHAT’S God up to?
“But because of his GREAT LOVE for us, God, who is rich in mercy,” v.4 (NIV)
I love the BUTS in scripture... don’t u?
Hear that "great love"?
One writer said:
"Our badness is no longer the obstacle to blessing. Nor is our goodness the condition for blessing" "He blesses us just because He loves."
(Larry Crabb, p.1 in Shattered Dreams)
Paul explains more:
, 5that even WHILE WE WERE DEAD (unresponsive) because of our sins, he GAVE US LIFE when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!)
Ø The answer to 6 foot hole to death is the resurrection hope centered in none other than Jesus Christ:
6For RAISED US FROM THE DEAD along WITH CHRIST, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms--all because we are one with Christ Jesus. 7And so God can always point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us through Christ Jesus.
God gladly rescues us, showcasing what an incredible loving Person He is, oh what an awesome thing He did, it is His pleasure to display for all eternity His aswesome favor and kindness by not dealing with as we deserved. He is committed to love us. When God was remote and inaccesible before we knew Christ, we think that this life is all there is to enjoy, so we foolishly set on sight really low, on earthly rotting temporal pleasures - but God chooses to bless with stuff that will last eternally just because He loves and enjoys doing God stuff.
3. OUR RESPONSE
8God saved you by his special favor (when we deserve to be blotted out of existence) when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Have u believed? Have you risen from the dead yet?
The deadness of this world, that promises "heaven" but delivers rot, guilt, estrangement, breeds hatred, killing, terrorism, violence in schoolyards?
Have you seen the light that God wishes to bless, not to blast you? Larry Crabb said "WE dream of good marriages< talented kids, ENOUGH HEALTH AND MONEY TO ENJOY LIFE, RWARDING WORK AND An OPPORTUNITY to MAKE A Diferrence. All good things. Of course we want them. But we think they’re the best things... The greatest blessing is non longer the blessing of a good life. It never was. It is now the blessing of an encounter with Gd. It always has been." And it is now God’s major presentation to the world...
And is your faith now...
4. FOLLOWED UP BY PURPOSE….
10For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that WE CAN DO THE GOOD THINGS HE PLANNED for us long ago.
Is your life renewed with joy in what God did for you and renewed with purpose, sense of mission?
No matter what circumstances u find self in, you have a purpose to present God’s blessing...
Or do u cheat on Him?
In the book, No Bad Dogs, by British dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse, she says dogs understand love better than we do. She writes,
“In a dog’s mind, a master or a mistress to love, honor, and obey is an absolute necessity. The love is dormant in the dog until brought into full bloom by an understanding owner. Thousands of dogs appear to love their owners, they welcome them home with
enthusiastic wagging of the tail and jumping up, they follow them about their houses happily and, to the normal person seeing the dog, the affection is true and deep. But to the experienced dog trainer this outward show is not enough. The true test of love
takes place when the dog has got the opportunity to go out on its own as soon as the door is left open by mistake and it goes off and often doesn’t return home for hours. That dog loves only its home comforts and the attention it gets from its family; it
doesn’t truly love the master or mistress as they fondly think. True love in dogs is apparent when a door is left open and the dog still stays happily within earshot of its owner. For the owner must be the be-all and end-all of a dog’s life. ”The real test of
our walk of Faith isn’t seen in our work or activity, or even in our theological purity. It’s found in this: when we have an opportunity to wander away, to disobey, to leave His presence, do we choose instead to stay close to Him, hearing His voice of love, hearing that He has no plans to harm us, but to bless us, to choose to abide in Christ, to obey with intention and purpose?
Eph.1 teaches us … Blessing… of His choice… His pleasure and will – live with Him as co-heirs with Christ, guarantees it by His Spirit, by the power of resurrected Christ – Paul paints picture of thrilling proportions of God’s incredible love, redemption of the church of Jesus Christ – “it is by grace you have been saved” v.5,8.
God dreams of His masterpiece, His bride, His love!!!
WRAP UP:
Story of Matthew in Lk. 5:27 ff.
Jesus came to call dead people, sinners to repentance not those who don’t need him "the righteous"
What does Matthew do when his life was touched and changed by grace? I believe he had pain in his heart as he sees his own "kind" dead, unresponsive. I believe he wanted them to be touched by grace - life transformed like his.
Could have gone
- plan A: Go to synagogue, chant, religious drill
- plan B: PREACH TO THEM - but no skills, feel ill-equipped
- plan C: do nothing
- plan D: "What can I do well?"What if, threw a party with a purpose, take a risk... rest is history!
Matthew served with what he’s got, what he knew, and with what God planned for him to do long ago.
A. Who has called you?
B. Who gave you Life as opposed to death?
C. How has love leaked out of your life?
D. What will it take to make love your most compelling reason/motivation again for the service/good works you do?
E. Faith is intended to exciting, fresh, invigorating, alive, intimate – does that describe your faith?
F. What has God called u to do, that you already do well and can do for Him?
What’s God Up to?
In Korea, Joon Gon Kim, a well-known Christian leader, witnessed his wife and father slaughtered before his eyes by Communist sympathizers from his own village. He himself was beaten senseless and left for dead. He survived the beating and asked God to give him love for the souls of his enemies. He eventually led 30 Communists to believe in Christ, including the person responsible for the death of his family members.
What’s God Up to?
Kim could have given up in midst of the terror he witnessed against his own family, your wife, father, taken away violently and himself beaten up. But he chose to believe God’s purpose, that His will is to bless, that God knows better, submitted himself to love His God more than his life, his wife, his dad.
To a people who turned against Him, to a people who have seen disaster as a result of completely ignoring God - Jeremiah 32:40-41 (NIV) it is written:
"I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.
I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul."
Have you been touched by grace personally, knowing it deeply in your heart, that God is passionate for you, not for what you think a good life is, eternally committed to your good?
Do u know that God’s up to building His church, by the touch of His grace, and it’s just because He loves?!
