In Only Four Words

 

SERMON July 22, 2018

In Only Four Words

 

You can listen to this message here: https://youtu.be/bclTtf5_R1I

 

 

 

I recently read a challenge someone placed on one of the social media sites I follow. Here was the challenge: “Tell me a sad story, using only four words.”

 

Some responses were quite humorous, like, “I’m out of chocolate,” and “We have no bacon.” For me, those are very sad stories, especially the one about being out of chocolate.

 

Some, of course, were much more serious. But one four-word story immediately resonated with me because of its sober truth:

 

“They Died Without Jesus.”

 

I want us to look at that sad story today, and my primary text comes again from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome. “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” (Romans 10:13-16)

 

Many of you will recognize part of Paul’s quotation is from Isaiah 53, which begins: “Who has believed our report?” Other translations render the verse, “Who has believed our message?”

 

And just what IS the message that the Holy Spirit told us most people would ignore? Here is a part of what Isaiah wrote in his prophecy:

 

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried . . . But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
to fall on Him.

 

Listen! This is the message St. Paul referred to when he asked the Christians in first century Rome, “Who will believe it?”  And it is this message from Isaiah’s prophecy, and many similar texts, which sits at the center of the message which God Himself commissions every Christian to tell others. It lies at the heart of the Lord’s charge to each of us, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;  (Matthew 28:19-20)

 

If the Church does not do what God commissioned us to do, then our friends, our neighbors, our families will die without Jesus.

 

But who will believe what we tell them? We know from the history of both the Old and New Testament eras, only a remnant of earth’s population have believed the report and followed the true God.

 

So, why do you think so many people choose to not believe the message? Scripture gives us several reasons. I want to address only a few because in looking at them we might learn something about ourselves AND how we might become more effective and more fruitful in our work for Christ.

 

1. Carelessness about our lifestyle and our teaching. So, how can our carelessness lead others astray? Paul talks about this in Romans 2 when he writes, beginning in verse 21:

 

“You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?  . . . . You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.”

 

In virtually every denomination, regardless of their label, you will find men and women shamelessly living together outside of marriage. You will find women who have had abortions to avoid having a child. You will find alleged Christians brazenly engaging in sexual perversions condemned by God in both the Old and New Testaments. And you will find in many church pews and pulpits alleged Christians who publicly endorse politicians who support behaviors for which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

 

In 1965 Pope Paul VI wrote an encyclical titled “Gaudium et Spes” (Joy and Hope). In it, he says something that ought to be very troubling to Catholics and Protestants alike. Here is a portion of paragraph 19, addressing atheism:

 

"Without doubt those who willfully try to drive God from their heart and to avoid all questions about religion, not following the dictates of their conscience, are not free from blame. But believers themselves often share some responsibility for this situation. For, in general, atheism is not present in people's minds from the beginning. It springs from various causes, among which must be included a critical reaction against religions and, in some places, against the Christian religion in particular. Believers can thus have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion."  (Emphasis mine) 

You will not likely read a more cogent assessment of the rise of atheism in modern day.

So, our carelessness about God’s requirement of lifestyle holiness is one reason people choose to not to believe the message.

 

2. The unholy trinity of ‘me, myself, and I’ is another reason some choose to not believe God’s message. When people live according to whatever is right in their own eyes, the result of always tragic – for themselves and for those who follow their example. If you want to know how a “me-ism” culture ALWAYS ends up, read the last five chapters in the Book of Judges. It will scare you, especially as you watch the daily news.

 

Enthroning self above God is nothing less than a well-oiled journey along that broad way through the wide gate that leads to an eternity separated from God, an eternity of torment and anguish, of abject loneliness and despair cast forever from God’s holy presence.

3. Another reason people reject Christ, a reason intimately linked to the unholy trinity of ‘me, myself, and I” is when they do not want to change their lifestyle. The Lord Jesus addressed this type of rebellious spirit head-on in the third chapter of John’s gospel. Everyone here is probably familiar with John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 

But the Lord continued in verses 19-20: [And this is God’s judgment]: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.” (NLT)

 

In other words, people reject God’s message because they CHOOSE to live according to their own way.

 

4. Yet others choose to not believe because they do not want to leave their comfort zones.  You may have heard the excuses: I’ve been a member of so-and-so denomination for 60 years. My parents were members before me, and their parents before them. I’m happy here. I see no reason to change now.

 

Listen. If THAT’S why they attend a particular church or denomination – because they’ve been doing it for decades – that’s the WRONG reason.

 

No church is going to get you or me to heaven. No pastor or priest, no parent or grandparent, no brother or sister will get anyone to heaven. Only a personal love for Jesus, only personal obedience to Jesus – only a personal relationship with Jesus will get us to heaven.

 

Of course, it is vitally important to regularly attend a church – and for those who are Catholic, to also receive the Sacraments. But attendance with only our body and not with our hearts is no attendance at all. Reception of the Sacraments with our bodies, but not also with our hearts is no reception at all. God tells us through His prophet, Amos:

 

“I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:21-24)

 

And the Lord Jesus warned His followers: “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; Depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.” (Luke 13:24-28)

 

If we habitually participate in mortal sin, we will have every reason to dread the day of Judgment, regardless of how often we attended church or Mass.

 

The gospel message is a message of good news. It is news of God’s offer to forgive ALL our sins, whatever those sins might be. It is His offer of eternal salvation on the basis of His grace alone, and not at all on the basis of our good works.

 

Listen to what St. Paul wrote to Titus: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)

 

And listen to what he wrote to the Christians in Ephesus: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” 

 

This is not to suggest that Christians are excused from doing good works. On the contrary, those who say such things clearly choose to take texts such as these in Titus and Ephesians out of context. In each case St. Paul ties good works with faith that saves. Please read those passages in context for yourselves. But I say again, we must be ever vigilant to not put the proverbial cart in front of the horse by elevating good works above the faith that saves.

 

Yes, the saddest story of all stories that can be told in only four words is this: “They died without Jesus.” Like the tragic story of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16. That’s the story AND the destiny of every man and woman you and I have ever known who died without Jesus.

 

As we have seen before, the inflexible result of unrepented sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). When Jesus died on that cross, He substituted Himself to pay the penalty of your sin and my sin. The Father took our sins and placed them on Christ’s shoulders. He then took Christ’s righteousness and applied it to our hearts. You can find that text in 2 Corinthians 5:21.

 

To die without Jesus means to die without having received by faith Jesus’ death as the substitutionary sacrifice for their sins. Jesus becomes our substitution when we receive Him gift by faith. He substituted Himself to pay our penalty because He is 100% man AND at the same time 100% God. It’s called the Mystery of the Trinity – a mystery no one should expect to be able to fully understand with our very human and finite minds.

 

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is a vital Biblical doctrine because it  explains how Jesus the God-Man could be our substitute. And BECAUSE it is a foundational doctrine of Christian faith there have been – and there are today – many people in and out of the pews, as well as a growing number of religious teachers and pastors who insist that Jesus is NOT Almighty God in the flesh of a man.

 

These false teachers do the work of Satan as they try to convince others that Jesus is NOT co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. They tell people Jesus is a created being. Some even believe Jesus was a man who lived well enough to become a god – just as anyone else can live well enough and become a god.

 

But Scripture is unambiguous about Jesus being co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. For example, St. John tells us in the opening verses of his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.”

 

When Jesus told the Pharisees that He and the Father are ‘one essence’ (John 10:30), they completely understood that Jesus was claiming to be fully equal with God the Father. That’s why they picked up stones to execute Him right there on the spot.

 

The saddest story in four words: “They died without Jesus.” Think of it a moment – to die and spend an eternity in abject hopelessness. Loneliness. Torment. Knowing you are forever abandoned by God to an existence of unending despair.

 

That is the saddest story anyone can experience. And that is why we should want to tell everyone who will listen – “Come to Jesus. Come now. While you still can.”

 

And that is why WE should always live our lives carefully, both in private and in public, so that we do not give scandal to the gospel and give unbelievers excuse to turn to their own self-idolatry, to continue in their rebellion against God, and to live life their way instead of God’s way.