First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

Sermon for 101021
Text: 1 John 4:7-10
Theme: “Grace Alone”

*In the Name of the Father…Amen. The sermon text for this morning come from
1 John, chapter 4, starting at verse 7: *(7) Beloved, let us love one
another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and
knows God.
(8) Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(9) In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his
only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
(10) In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

*This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. *

*Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray: *566 By Grace I’m Saved
By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless;
My soul, believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this word of promise?
Has Scripture ever falsehood taught?
No! Then this word must true remain:
By grace you too will life obtain.

By grace! None dare lay claim to merit;
Our works and conduct have no worth.
God in His love sent our Redeemer,
Christ Jesus, to this sinful earth;
His death did for our sins atone,
And we are saved by grace alone.

* Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. *

*Introduction*

§ *God is love. *

ØJust about everybody agrees that God is love, if they believe in God at
all.

ØWe as Lutherans have many slogans: *Grace Alone!*

Ø“Grace” in this case means undeserved love.

ØGod loves us even though we haven’t done a thing to earn it.

ØGod is love.

§ *It is this “grace alone” we focus on this morning.*

* However, our love is often very wimpy. *We have some false
ideas about God’s love that keep us from receiving it and responding to it.

We tend to think about God as if he were just like us.

This is natural; all of us tend to project our own
characteristics on others.

For example, if someone is dishonest, he has a tendency to
think that most people are dishonest.

If someone is selfish, he figures that everyone else is, too.

So when we think about God, we figure that his love is the same
as our love.

However, if God’s love is like the light, our own love is like
the darkness in comparison.

God’s love is deep and high. It surpasses all understanding.

We need to ditch our misconceptions about God’s love and start
to open our eyes to the reality.

•

*False Idea # 1: If I am Good, God Will Love Me, but if I am Bad, God will
Hate Me *The first misconception is one we often learn when we are
children.

We think that God’s love depends on our good behavior.

If I am good, then God will love me.

If I am bad, God will hate me.

This is a natural way of thinking.

We ourselves love people who treat us well and hate people who treat us
badly.

There’s a bumper sticker that reads, “May God give you a double portion of
what you wish me.”

If a loved one hurts us badly, in just a moment all our love can turn into
resentment and bitterness.

•

*God, however, is different. *God loves us when we are good and also when
we are bad.

Of course, God detests sin, that is, when we do wrong or hurt others.

However, even while God hates sin, he still *loves* those who have fallen
into that wrongdoing.

His deepest desire is that the sinner abandon his ways and turn back to the
Lord – back to his love.

•

*John 13:1 says, It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the
time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having
loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the last. *God’s love
has no end.

It doesn’t change.

Jesus knew that on that very evening, his disciples would all abandon him.

Peter would swear that he didn’t know Jesus.

Judas would betray him with a kiss.

Nevertheless, Jesus *loved them to the last.*

This incredible love broke Peter’s heart and when he realized what he had
done, Peter wept bitterly and later received Jesus’ forgiveness.

This incredible love should have broken Judas’ heart also. Instead, he took
his own life.

• *Jeremiah 31:3 says, I have loved you with an everlasting
love.*

God’s love never ends.

You can’t get to hell unless you run roughshod over God’s love in order to
get there.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son for us.

But many people prefer to go their own way and turn their backs to God and
to his love in Jesus Christ.

That’s why hell is such a terrible thing to think about, because it is the
absence of God’s loving presence, and you can only get there by rejecting
God and his love.

• *As you look at your life, do you sometimes wonder if God could
really love you?*

You think about all those times when you’ve messed up,

when you said things you shouldn’t have,

when your thoughts were not very Christian,

when you did something you regret,

when you failed to do something you knew you should.

Do you wonder if you’ve been good enough for God to love you?

Do you wonder if you’ve been good enough to get to heaven?

•

*If you wonder, just think about the cross for a moment. *That is the proof
that God loves you, just as you are.

God forgives you.

Because of Jesus, he wipes away whatever you have done wrong.

*Isaiah 38:17 says, You have put all my sins behind your back.*

How can anyone reach our sins if God has thrown them behind his back?

If God has made us clean, how can the devil accuse us of doing wrong?

The devil might be able to get behind *my* back, but not *God’s* back.

•

*And then there’s that little word “all” – all my sins are behind God’s
back! *Suppose someone speaks lies about me seven times; but later he
regrets what he did and he asks me to forgive him.

Suppose I were to say, “I can pass over 6 of those lies, but the seventh
was just too horrible, and I can’t forgive you that one.”

That wouldn’t help that person at all.

However, God forgives *everything*.

So God is not like us.

He doesn’t love us only when we’re good.

On the contrary, he loves us in spite of our wrongdoing.

He wants to forgive us. God loves us, simply because God is love.

*II. False Idea # 2: If God Loved Me, I Wouldn’t Have So Many Problems *In
the second place, we often falsely assume that God doesn’t love us because
we have to deal with problems and difficulties.

Again, we tend to think that God is just like us.

We ourselves tend to pay good with good and bad with bad.

So we think that if God allows something bad to happen to us, it must be
because he is mad at us for some reason.

• *That’s simply not true*.

*In John 15:9, Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love.*

God loves us with the same love that exists between the Father and Jesus
the Son.

Jesus had plenty of problems when he walked the earth – in fact, he
suffered a horrible and messy death on the cross.

That didn’t mean that the Father didn’t love Jesus.

•

*Bad things happen, not because God doesn’t love us, but because we live in
a sinful, corrupt world. *Sin has twisted just about everything around us.

Jesus willingly suffered hatred, pain, and even death because he wanted to
save people who are lost in this terrible situation.

And we, who are followers of Jesus, have been sent into this twisted world
to show Jesus’ love and to tell about Jesus’ love, so that more people can
come to trust in Jesus and have forgiveness and eternal life.

We know that we are going to have problems along the way.

But God is with us.

And even when things look terrible, God loves us so much that he even works
good out of the bad things that happen. (Romans 8:28)

•

*Sometimes, God permits bad things to happen in order to wake us up. *When
a person has good health, lots of money, and everything is going well,
often they forget about God.

Sometimes we need to be brought up short.

Even death itself can be an opportunity for God to wake someone up.

*Other times, God permits bad things to happen in order to discipline us. *As
a father, I sometimes had to discipline my children.

I didn’t like to scold them or have them suffer certain consequences.

However, I did have to set and enforce limits.

My children needed to learn good behavior.

If I didn’t love them, I wouldn’t care if they behaved well or not.

But since I do love them, I do care.

Sometimes God does the same with us.

•

*Other times, God permits bad things to happen so that we grow in faith and
show his love, and especially so that we glorify God’s name in the midst of
trouble, so that other people may come to know his love. *However, no
matter what happens in our lives, we know that God love us.

*1 Corinthians 8:3 says, The man who loves God is known by God. *God knows
everything about us.

He knows our names, our addresses, what we are like, what we are doing.

The Bible says that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God
noticing; but we are worth a lot more than sparrows!

The Bible says that God even has numbered the hairs of our heads.

There are many parents who dearly love their children, but none of them has
so much love that they have counted the hairs on their children’s heads.

God knows our situation, and he loves us.

•

*So if you are going through a hard time, if might be for different
reasons. *But it’s not because God doesn’t love you.

His love never fails.

He knows what we’re going through and he is there with us.

*III. False Idea # 3: If God is Love, I Can Do Whatever I Please *Again,
God is love.

God loves us even though we don’t deserve it, and he loves us even when we
go through hard times.

Does that mean that we can just do whatever we want?

Are there no consequences when we do what is wrong?

Sometimes we act as if that were the case.

With our lips we affirm, “Yes, God is love,” but where is that love in our
lives?

What difference does God’s love make?

If we really know that God is love, then where is our response to that love?

•

*1 John 4:11 says, Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another. *God’s love changes lives.

God’s love awakens our love.

You simply can’t really and truly open your eyes to God’s incredible love,
and then just go back to the same old sinful ways.

When you plug in a lamp, all of a sudden you have light where once there
was only darkness.

When you connect the gas line or plug the electrical cord into the outlet
of your stove, all of a sudden you’re cooking!

When you connect with God’s love, all of a sudden you yourself are loving!

• *There’s an old movie around titled, From Fury to Freedom. It
tells the true story of a young man named Raul who went around nursing
bitterness in his heart.*

In Raul’s home, his father drank and would hit his mother.

Raul hated his father for hurting his mother, and he hated his mother for
accepting that situation.

In turn, Raul went around picking fights with everyone.

After he got married, he himself began to beat up his wife and his
children.

In the end, full of hate, Raul sat down at home with a shotgun to wait for
his family, planning to kill them all and then kill himself.

However, while he waited, he happened to turn on the television and tune in
to a TV preacher.

The preacher happened to be speaking about God’s love.

•
*That is how God’s love works. *
The love of God changes our lives.

If you feel far from God or if you are nursing resentment towards someone
else, then focus on God’s love.

Grab your Bible and read about Jesus’ love and forgiveness.

If you try to do it yourself, if you say, “I’ll try real hard,” you
probably won’t succeed in changing your ways very much.

But when we focus on the incredible, undeserved love that God has for us,
loving others suddenly becomes much easier.

To err is human; to forgive is divine.

The more divine love you have in your life, the more you will be able to
forgive.

*Conclusion*

*During the time of Luther, most people in Europe thought about God as a
grumpy old guy up in heaven, angry, quick to punish people if they got out
of line.*

Luther himself despaired because he felt that God was angry with him.

He tried to do good to pay for his sins, but he never felt that he was good
enough.

However, as Luther prepared Bible classes at the university, he discovered
God’s incredible love.

He came to understand that God wanted to forgive him through Jesus Christ.

This love of God transformed Luther’s life and the lives of multitudes of
people in the Reformation.

This love can change our lives as well.

•

*The truth is that God’s love is not like our love. *God loves us in spite
of the sins we have committed.

He loves us even when bad things happen.

His love can warm our hearts so that we love others – even others who have
hurt us.

God *is* love and love is of God and comes from God!

God help us to see how wide and long and high and deep his love is, so that
we can say from the heart, with all Lutherans: *Grace alone!*

Amen.
Let us pray:
By grace to timid hearts that tremble,
In tribulation’s furnace tried,
By grace, in spite of fear and trouble,
The Father’s heart is open wide.
Where could I help and strength secure
If grace were not my anchor sure?

By grace! On this I’ll rest when dying;
In Jesus’ promise I rejoice;
For though I know my heart’s condition,
I also know my Savior’s voice.
My heart is glad, all grief has flown
Since I am saved by grace alone. Amen.

– *Sermon for 10.03.21*
– *Text: Romans 4:1-8*
– *Theme: Faith alone*
– Sermon for 10.03.21
Text: Romans 4:1-8
Theme: Faith alone
– *In the Name of the Father…Amen.*
– *The sermon text for this morning comes from Paul’s letter to the
Romans, chapter 4, starting at verse 1, where we hear these words:*

o What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according
to the flesh? (2) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something
to boast about, but not before God. (*3) For what does the Scripture say?
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” *(4)
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his
due. (5) And to the one who does not work but believes in him who
justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, (6) just as
David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts
righteousness apart from works: (7) “Blessed are those whose lawless
deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; (8) blessed is the man
against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

– *Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:*
– Gracious God, grant us hearts that have faith like that of Abraham,
who trusted in You alone. Thank You for declaring us righteous before You.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

– *Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.*

– *This sermon is the first in a series of sermons focusing on the SOLAS
of the Lutheran Reformation: Sola Fide (Faith Alone)*
– *Introduction*
– *There is no such thing as a free lunch. *

– Every day emails are sent out, promising something “free” but almost
always you have to buy something or do something in order to get it.

– You always have to pay somehow.

– *Well, how much do we have to “pay” to go to heaven? *
– $25?
– What about $50 or $100?
– Frances, Aunt Harriet, Ian, Derek, and I went to a concert a couple of
months ago where the tickets were $50 a piece.

– *Tickets to heaven have got to be more expensive than that. *
– You certainly can’t get them on Ticketmaster.
– Perhaps you have seen the TV ads for the VISA credit card: “Two movie
tickets: $20. Popcorn and movie snacks: $30. Spending time with your son:
priceless.”
– Heaven is also priceless. It is worth much more than money can buy.
– Money won’t get you into heaven. What will?

– *Getting to Heaven by Being Good*
– *Many years ago, George Barna did a survey and asked, “How do you
think a person can get to heaven?” *

– Almost everyone answered, “By being a good person.”

– Well, then the question is: “Are you a good person?”

– Many people would think that Abraham was a good person.

– Abraham was one of the heroes of the Bible.

· Jesus himself said that Abraham was already in heaven.

– *However, Abraham worshipped idols before he came to follow the true
God. *
– And even after he started trusting in God, Abraham on several
occasions:
– lied,
– committed adultery,
– put his own wife in danger,
– permitted his slave girl Hagar to be abused, l
– eft Hagar and his son Ishmael out in the desert,
– and perhaps did other things that we don’t know about.

· *B. Romans 4 says that Abraham was not justified by his good
works. (v. 2)*

– *In that sense we are all just like Abraham. *
– We want to be good people, but we still fall short all too often.
– When doctors operate on a patient, they thoroughly wash their hands,
put on gloves and a surgical gown, and sterilize their instruments and the
operating room.
– The doctors are extremely careful because they know that even a little
infection can threaten not only the patient’s health but even their very
life.
– And yet, in spite of all the precautions, there are still some
patients who come down with a secondary infection after their surgery.

– *Well, we too, in spite of all our efforts, fall short all too often. *

– Even without bad intentions, we always:

– let nasty words slip out,

– or unkind thoughts take root,

– or we do something we shouldn’t

– or fail to do what we should.

– *Illustration*
– *Going to the office one day, I saw it: a squirrel.*

– He was halfway across the street when he noticed me

– I didn’t have room to stop

– He froze in the middle, he started across, started back, totally
freaked out

– And didn’t know which way to go

– He doesn’t have a clue which way is best or safest

– *Have you ever felt like that Squirrel?*

– You don’t know which way to turn, you feel confused, scared, in danger

– We have something the squirrel doesn’t – the Word of GOD

– We have God’s word that tells us to take the road less traveled

– *We have God’s word that tells us that the law cannot save us,*

– That we will never be able to live up to the standard of perfection
required by the law

– We have the Word of God that tells us that the way to gain acceptance
from GOD

– The way to have a right standing before God – to gain righteousness

– Is by Faith alone, in Jesus alone, by the grace of God alone – He has
marked out the path for us with his blood, with the cross point us to HIM

– *Wow, God is sure picky, isn’t he?*
– Well, actually, no,
– God isn’t really picky.
– He just wants us to do what is right.
– He wants us to be like Jesus.
– That’s not too much to ask.

– *The problem is that we are so immersed in sin, in doing wrong, that
we just can’t accomplish what God asks. *
– We are like a kid who is playing outdoors and comes to the house after
stepping in mud and on wads of used chewing gum and dog poop and who knows
what else.
– Then he gets annoyed at his mother for insisting that he take off his
shoes before walking all over her clean.
– “Aw, Mom, you’re so picky!”
– No, she’s not, it’s just that her son is not very considerate.

– *Jesus said that no one is truly good except God himself (Mark 10:18).
*

– Romans 3:10 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one… There is
no one who does good.”
– *II. Getting to Heaven by Being Religious*
– *So we can’t get to heaven by being good, because we are not good
enough. *

– We also can’t get to heaven by being “religious.”

– *By nature we feel that we should be able to go to heaven if we pay
for our wrongdoing. *
– If we can’t pay with good deeds, perhaps we can pay by fulfilling our
religious duties.
– Perhaps if someone prays a lot, that will pay for their sins (at least
partially).
– If that person is very faithful in their church attendance, perhaps
that will count toward at least a few of lapses in judgment.
– Or if someone gives generously to the church, surely God will take
that into account.
– If we do enough “religious stuff”, that ought to balance the times we
have done wrong, shouldn’t it?

– *Well, Abraham fulfilled his religious duties. *
– Wherever he went, he built altars and worshipped God.
– Abraham also gave a tithe, that is, an offering of 10 % to the priest
Melchizedek.
– Abraham also prayed more than anyone else.

– *Everything Abraham did in this sense was good. *
– It was what God wanted him to do.
– Jesus said that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and
with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength. (Matthew
22:37)
– When someone goes around saying, “I don’t have to go to church to be a
Christian,” that just shows that his love and faith are all too weak.

– *That’s like a lover saying, “I can love my fiancé without spending
time with her.” *
– Or again, when someone says, “I think it doesn’t matter if you are a
Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist or a Christian,” that just shows that he
doesn’t take God very seriously.
– That’s like a lover saying, “I think it doesn’t matter which girl I’m
with, they’re all the same.”
– No, they are not the same.
– Our commitment to the one true God is important.

– *However, Romans 4 says that it was not through keeping religious laws
that Abraham received God’s promise. (v. 13) *
– In fact, verse 15 says that the law just brings wrath, condemnation.
– Why?
– Because everything Abraham did – pray, worship, give, help, encourage
others – was just the minimum that he ought to have done, and Abraham –
like all of us – didn’t even do that as well as he should have.
– Romans 3:20 says, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in
[God’s] sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become
conscious of sin.”

– *III. Getting to Heaven by Being Forgiven *
– *So, we can’t get to heaven by being good nor by being religious.*
– The Bible tells us that we have failed all too often in doing what is
good as well as in our dedication to the Lord.
– So how can we get to heaven?
– Only through faith in Jesus Christ.
– We can’t begin to pay for all of our wrongdoing, but Jesus already
paid that debt for us.
– On the cross, Jesus took our sins upon himself and paid the penalty in
our place.

– *Yes, there are things in this world that are free because someone
else has paid for it. *
– Jesus has given us free tickets to heaven.
– Now, don’t go thinking that this didn’t cost anything.
– On the contrary, Jesus suffered incredible torments in order to get
these tickets for us.
– Jesus paid, not with gold or silver or with VISA or Mastercard, but
with his blood and with his life.
– What that means is that we don’t have to pay anything, because Jesus
has got us covered.
– We have a place in heaven, not because we’ve been good or been
religious, but because we’ve been forgiven through Jesus.

– *Abraham also was forgiven and saved through faith. *
– The Bible says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as
righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3)
– Martin Luther said that justification by faith is the article upon
which the church stands or falls.
– That is, there is no other Bible teaching that is as important as
this.
– We have eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
– Most if not all of you know this already.
– But it is important now and then to go back to the basics.
– “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
– Faith in Jesus is the main thing.

– *This needs to be made clear. *
– This “faith” that I’m talking about is not simply knowing that God
exists.
– Even the demons know that much.
– But this “faith” is trusting that Jesus died for me and rose from the
dead for me.
– Through Jesus, I (just like Abraham) am forgiven, saved – and I am
going to heaven.

– *Now, again, let’s be clear. *
– When we believe in Jesus, the Lord also starts to change our lives.
– He pushes us to do good works.
– He moves us to love him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength
and make him our top priority.
– This is important!

– *If you are not growing day by day in God’s love, something is not
right in your life.*
– However, do not depend on these good works, nor on your love and
dedication, to be able to get into heaven.
– It won’t work.
– Because just like with Abraham, we may get better but we still stumble
and mess up.
– The last thing I want you to be unsure of your salvation!
– Jesus did everything!
– We are saved through faith in Jesus.

– *Conclusion*
– *Throughout the years of ministry, I have gone to many conferences and
conventions.*
– One of the things to do at these events is to stop and visit the
different booths that are there.
– Whether it is Lutheran Hour Ministries, Trinity: Hope, or Lutheran
Women’s Missionary League, there are plenty of materials given out that are
free.
– There are still some things that are free in this world, because
someone else has paid for them.
– Just remember the main thing: through faith in Jesus, heaven is free.
It is free indeed!
– Amen.

– *Prayer*
– *Let us pray:*

– Lord I believe!

– Assure me when I doubt, and strengthen my faith in You.

– Amen.

– *2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love
of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.*

– *The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. *

– *In the Name of the Father…Amen.*