Working Together for Our Good - July 27, 2014 - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12) - Text: Romans 8:28-30

Last week we were reminded by Paul that God never promised us that life would be easy. I might suggest that the phrase, “God never promised us a rose garden,” is quite true, because the fact is that even roses have thorns. So, even with the beauty of the rose comes the pain of the thorns. There may be times in our lives when everything is beautiful and there may be times when things are thorny. Yet, Paul’s ultimate reminder was that our present suffering is nothing, really nothing, compared to the glory which will be ours forever in heaven. This morning Paul again reminds us of the fact that our God is a God of love who never leaves us nor forsakes us and as He is always with us through good times and bad times. Paul even reminds us that it is God who works all things together for good.
 

This morning, in order to better understand our text, we will begin in the middle, at verse thirty, and work our way back to verse twenty-eight. First, which is the middle in our text, Paul talks about predestination. We read verse thirty, “30And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified”(v. 30). Very often people have questions concerning this thing called predestination. Who did God predestine? Did God predestine only some to go to heaven and others to go to hell. The logic is that if He predestined some to go to heaven and we know others are going to hell, then, logically speaking, He must have predestined the others to go to hell. However, that argument is not substantiated by God’s Word. As a matter of fact, God’s Word tells us the opposite. According to Paul, writing young pastor Timothy, God’s will is that all people are saved. Paul says, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,  who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). God’s desire is not that some are saved and others are not saved. His desire is that all people are saved. So this negates the human logic that God has predestine some to be condemned.
 

How does God work out His desire? He has called all people to be saved. How has He called all people to be saved? The way in which we have been talking about over the past few weeks, through means, namely, through the means of grace. Through the Word of God all people are called to believe in Jesus as their Savior. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to give faith and forgiveness and with faith and forgiveness is also given life and salvation. This is God’s usual way of working with us in His world today. This is God’s usual way of calling people to faith. Certainly He can call directly as He did the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, but that is not His usual way of dealing with us in our world today. God’s desire is that all people are saved and He calls all people to faith through His Word.
 

Then, the question is asked, “How come some are not saved?” Some are not saved because some refuse the call. This should not be a surprise to us. Even as God has called us and given us faith and all His good gifts and blessings, we constantly refuse the gifts He has to give as well. Whenever we fail to remember our Baptism, we are refusing the gifts God gives through our Baptism. Whenever we fail to read our Bible, we are refusing the gifts God gives through His Word. Whenever we fail to confess our sins, we are refusing the gift of God’s forgiveness. Whenever we fail to come to the Lord’s Supper, we are refusing the gifts of God’s forgiveness and strengthening of faith. Whenever we fail to be in worship and Bible class, we are refusing the gifts and blessings God gives through His Word and the hearing and study of His Word. Yes, we daily, and weekly refuse the gifts God has to give. Fortunately for us, the only condemning refusal, that is the only unforgivable sin is the sin against the Holy Spirit. What that means is, refusing the Holy Spirit is refusing faith in Jesus. In other words, the only unforgivable sin is dying in unbelief. So, although we may at times refuse the gifts God has to give, we still cling to our faith in Jesus. Whereas, those who refuse faith in Jesus are refusing all God’s gifts. Thus, to complete Paul’s words in this verse, one who dies in unbelief has no glory because he or she desires to stand before God of their own justification meaning they are refusing Jesus’ justification, meaning they are standing before God as sinners, condemned sinners. Thus, they have refused God’s call to faith and His desire for their salvation.
 

This predestination does not negate nor contradict the fact of God’s foreknowledge. Backing up to verse twenty-nine, Paul says, “29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (v. 29). Although God’s desire and will is that all people are to be saved, being God, He knew before He even began creation who would refuse. Again, just because God knew who would refuse and reject does not mean this is what He has determined would happen. He does not make this refusal and rejecting happen. It is like when a teacher has a certain student in her class. She knows when that student is sitting next to another certain student what will happen, they will get into trouble. It is not that she has predetermined this, but she just knows it will happen. The only difference between this and God is that what God knows will happen.
 

A part of God’s foreknowledge is that He knew He would send Jesus to take care of our sins. Even before He created the world. Even before Adam and Eve were created, God knew they would sin. Even before you and I were conceived, God knew us and He knew our name. He knew when we would be conceived. He knew when we would sin. He knows when we will continue to sin. Before sin entered the world, God knew what He would do. It was no surprise to Him that Adam and Eve disobeyed and brought sin into the world.
 

God created a perfect world, which He knew His creatures would mess up, but God knew He could and would make everything right. He knew He would send His Son, even Himself to take on human flesh and blood, to became as one of His creatures, except without sin, in order to do for us, in our place, what we are unable to do. Jesus came to bring us back into a right relationship with Himself. And God knew this beforehand as well. God knew us, before we were created. His will is that we will be as His Son, that we will believe in His Son so that we might have eternal life with Him in heaven.
 

Because God knows all things, it is not difficult for Him to work out the good for us, His children. We back up to verse twenty-eight. Paul says, “28And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (v. 28). Last week we mentioned again the question which is actually the title of a book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People, and we mentioned that the premise of the book is wrong. A better title would be, Why Do Good Things Happen to Sinful People? And the answer is, of course, because God loves us.
 

Now, Paul says that it is for those who love God that the good is worked. We understand from other parts of Scripture that this is not the first and prime thing. We understand that we cannot love God unless He first loves us. And time and again we are reminded by His Word of His love for us. Greater love can no one have than this, that one would die for another. Jesus shows His love for us in that He gave His life for ours. We are called by God, who knew us from before creation, to believe in Him, to be given His gifts, to be justified and glorified by Him. And as Paul lays out in the last half of our text, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Indeed, God is the prime mover.
 

Again, we love because He first loved us. We love as we reflect His love back to Him and others. You have heard me use this illustration before, it is like the Sun and the moon. The moon has no light of its own. Whenever we see the moon shining in the sky, it is because the moon is reflecting the light of the Sun. We have no love of our own. When we love God and when we love others it is because we are merely reflecting the light of the Son of God.
 

So, what does this mean? As the phrase, sort of goes, “life happens” and God knows what will happen, but He does not predestine or predetermine  life to happen or what will happen in life. God gives each of us a mind to think and to make decisions. Many times it does not matter to God what decision we make, if we choose this or that, He will bless us either way. Please understand, this does not mean that God does not care, sometimes He simply gives us more than one option and He will bless us no matter what we choose. Certainly when it comes to temptation and sin His desire is that we make the right decision, which we can only make with His help. God’s desire is that we do what is good and right. He does not predetermine our doing what is good and right, just as He does not predetermine when we do what is wrong and sinful.
 

God is the prime mover. He has created us to love us and He has given everything to us. He gives us life at conception. He gives us new life, eternal life through the waters of Holy Baptism. He gives us faith and strengthening of faith through His Holy Word. He gives us forgiveness of sins through confession and absolution and through His Holy Supper. He gives and He gives and He gives and we are given too.
 

God loves us so very much and He has so many gifts and blessings that He desires to give to us. He shows the ultimate love in the giving of His life, in the giving of Jesus’ life on the cross for us and for our sins. And God continues to watch over us and work out the best for us, according to His good and gracious will. We may not understand what His good and gracious will is at the time we are going through the struggles of life. We may not even see it later. But, by faith in Jesus we can be confident that God is working out the best for us.
 

By faith in Jesus, given through the means of grace, we have been predestined to eternal life. We have been justified and Jesus works to conform us to His image.  Because of His love for us, all who love Him, as a response of His first love for us, know that all things work together for our good according to His good and gracious will. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Good That I Would - July 6, 2014 - Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 09) - Text: Romans 7:14-25

This week we pick up where we left off last week. Last week we read Romans 7:1-13, this week we pick up at verse fourteen. Last week Paul reminded us of the importance of the Law, that is that the Law shows us our sins. The Law shows us our need to repent so that we might have forgiveness of sins. It is not that the Law makes us sin, but the Law shows us how what we have done or what we have not done is sin. And the Gospel is what shows us our Savior. The Gospel reminds us of all that Jesus has done, all that Jesus does, and all that Jesus continues to do for us. The Gospel reminds us that Jesus has done everything for us, at least everything that is necessary for our eternal salvation. And it is the Gospel that motivates us to repent so that we have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. This week Paul reminds us of the struggle we continue to have, even as saved, redeemed Christians.
 

First, Paul outlines the dilemma we face. We begin at verse fourteen, “14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (v. 14-20). Of course, after hearing Paul for the first time we might go, “huh.” But I think most of us understand Paul and most of us say, “yeah, that is exactly how it is so often in my own life.” We try to do what is good and right and yet we go on sinning instead. We try to not do what is wrong and we do it anyway. It is as if we just cannot help ourselves.
 

How often are we are like Paul? We want to do good. We want to do the right thing. We want to do the good thing, but instead we do evil. Again, it is almost like we cannot help ourselves. When someone says something mean or hurtful to us, we want to be nice and turn the other check. Perhaps we even practice by ourselves saying the right thing. Maybe we stand in front of the mirror working on saying the right thing, but when it happens, what do we do? We say something  mean in retaliation. When someone cuts in line in front of us, when someone cuts us off on the freeway, we want to demonstrate that the “fish” sticker on the back of our car is not just for show, but what do we do, we curse at them, even if it is only in our mind, we shake our fist at them, we call them a name or two. We just cannot help ourselves. Yes, we want to do good, but our first reaction, our natural instinct is to do evil.
 

On the other hand, or to say it a different way, we want to not do evil. We want to not do something bad or mean or harmful, but we sin anyway. Our intention is always to not do something wrong or bad. We want to not react negatively to others and we may even practice and plan as such, but when it happens, we find ourselves sinning.
 

So, whose fault is it when we sin? Paul, sort of, helps us to make an excuse. He tells us that it is sin that dwells in us that causes us to sin. When we do something wrong we want to blame someone or something else for our “lapse” of judgement. You might remember the comedian Flip Wilson. He always said “the devil made him do it,” but I have to tell you, the devil cannot make you do anything, he really does not have that kind of power over you. No one can make you do anything, if we could, believe me, this church would be packed every Sunday morning. Certainly Paul is correct, it is sin dwelling in us that causes us to sin. The fact of the matter is that we are conceived and born in sin. And we add to that fact that we daily sin much in thought, word and deed, sins of commission and sins of omission. We are most certainly in need of forgiveness. But we cannot blame our sin on anyone except ourselves.
 

Paul then goes on to explain this Sinner/Saint syndrom as we read picking up at verse twenty-one, “21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (v. 21-25).
 

When I first started preaching a few years back, I joked with my wife that I always knew when I preach too much law in my sermon, because that is when I usually got the most compliments. I said that because the fact is that we like the law. We like the law and we like to hear the law, because we think that through the law we can justify ourselves. Yes, we actually think, in our own minds, that we can do what the law requires. Well, after all, we do, pretty much, obey the laws of this country, how much harder could God’s laws be? Well, actually, God demands perfection. We live in a country, in a world where we like to do it ourselves. Even from childhood we make a big deal about doing things ourselves. It begins with learning to walk. What a “big” person we are when we can walk without holding on to anyone or anything. And it just gets worse from there. What a big person we are when we can obey all God’s laws, what a good Christian we are when we can live like God wants us to, without any help from God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, as if we could.
 

The problem with trying to justify ourselves, that is the problem with thinking we can make ourselves right in God’s eyes is that the law only condemns. Remember, from last week, and before? Remember from confirmation class, the purpose of the law is to show our sins. The Law simply shows us that we are sinful and how sinful we really are. The law can do nothing more.
 

And so we have this inner battle going on inside ourselves. The battle is between our sinful nature and our saint nature. The battle is between our inborn nature, remember we are conceived in sin, and our reborn nature, remember, at baptism we are given faith and made saints. Although it may seem rather demeaning to put it this way, it is like the old cartoon where the character has an angel on one shoulder encouraging him to do what is right, and a little devil on the other shoulder tempting him to do what is wrong. Yet, this battle is more real than is simply depicted in any cartoon character, for the battle that wages in our selves is a real battle and is waged on a daily basis.
 

Thanks be to God for the answer. And, as we joke about this answer in Bible class, that is that if you do not know the answer to a question then simply answer, Jesus. But in this case the answer is, of course, Jesus. I am conceived and born in sin. Jesus is conceived and born in perfection. I break the law, continually. Jesus kept the law perfectly. I sin daily. Jesus never sinned. What I cannot do, Jesus did. What I do that I should not do, Jesus never did. Where I have failed Jesus has won the victory. This does not mean that we stop trying. This does not give us an excuse to go on and sin boldly. No, rather this simply gives us confidence to go on living and even though we make mistakes, that is even though we sin, with Jesus there is forgiveness.
 

Jesus is the answer. He fulfilled the Law perfectly, all the law. Everything that I cannot do and everything that I have done that I should not have done, every sin I have committed or will commit, He has taken care of, for me, in my place. The price for sin is death and that is the price that Jesus paid. He gave His life so that I might not have to die, that is so that I will not have to die an eternal, spiritual death. He gave His life so that I might have life, eternal life.
 

So, what does this mean? This means that we recognize that our nature is to sin. Sin is what we do. We do not need any practice. It comes natural to us. Our first inclination is, always to sin. We cannot get around the fact that we are, as David tell us, conceived and born in sin, and as Paul tells us, we are captive to the law of sin. Left to ourselves we would be lost and condemned creatures. Our greatest spiritual problem is the fact that we are sinners and our greatest need is forgiveness of sins.
 

But there is hope, thanks be to God as Paul says. Our hope is in our Lord Jesus Christ. God, in Christ, has taken care of our sin. That is why Jesus came into our world. Jesus came to do for us what we are unable to do. He came to resist temptation for us, in our place. He came to live perfectly for us, in our place. He came to take our sins upon Himself and to suffer the price for our sins, that is the eternal spiritual death penalty. And He came to rise for us. He did everything He did, for us, in our place, as our substitute, because we cannot, because of His great love for us.
 

And now, even today our Lord continues to send the Holy Spirit to work in us to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. Yes, we are to strive to do what is good and just and right. And even though we fail and even though we know we will faith, time and again, with the Lord’s help we are to work to do what is good and just and right. And on those rare occasions when we do live and act in such a manner, we know it is not because of our own innate and good selves, but is it because God is working this in and through us and so we are inclined to say, “thanks be to God.”
 

When all is said and done, our lives do follow Paul’s description. We know what we are to do and what we are not to do and yet, we tend to not do what we are supposed to do, what we know we are to do and we tend to do what we know we are not supposed to do. We do not want to sin and that is exactly what we do is sin. And yet, we do not give up. We cling to Christ who is the one who did for us what we are unable to do and who did not do what we do, for us. We cling to Christ who has taken our sins, all our sins, upon Himself and paid the price for our sin, not to give us an excuse to go on sinning, but to give us the confidence that we can go on living lives of faith and He will bring them to be lives lived to His glory. Yes, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.