The Simple Truth

Sermon By Rev. Matthew S. Blau

2-17-08

 

Why is it so hard to save some people? Why do they refuse to believe?  It baffles me. When I was a counselor at church camp, there was one little girl she was about 8 years old.  She thought it would be fun to run backwards down the hill. This would normally be fine except on this particular hill there is a retaining wall just before the lodge and a small 3-foot drop-off onto concrete. And if you are looking, it is very easy to see, given the very large building. But of course, if you are running backwards… In any case, she ran right by me. Laughing! I called out to her! Stop! You are going to hurt yourself! My pleas are ignored.  She is already at full speed and has maybe 30 feet until the hill runs out. I drop what is in my hands and I run after her. But she is now about 15 feet away and she is so please that now it’s a chase! So she runs just a bit faster!  At the top of my lungs, I shout stop! You are going to fall off the wall! But No she is having too much fun! Ha Ha Ha!

 

Sure enough in about two seconds she runs out of hill and she falls backward, full speed onto the concrete!  She bangs her head scrapes her back, arms and legs and the impact knocks the wind out of her.  The drop is not far or she could have been hurt much worse.

When I get to her and see that she isn’t badly hurt, I ask, Why didn’t you stop! She replied I don’t know! I was having fun! Well, are you having fun now?  “No!”, she states with tears coming to her eyes.

 

Ok, it is a weakness of mine. I don’t have great compassion for stupid!  You don’t check to see if there’s power by sticking your tongue in the light socket. If you do, well…

 

The little girl didn’t believe me. With all the sincerity in my heart I cried out to her to stop! But no! She knew better than I did. She would do what she pleased.  Now did her lack of belief change the reality of the situation? No! The danger was real whether or not she chose to believe.

 

12 If you have no belief when my words are about the things of earth, how will you have belief if my words are about the things of heaven?

 

I’m sorry to say that there will always be people who will refuse to believe. They will run backwards in arrogant defiance of the heartfelt warnings we give. And it is an unfortunate truth that these people will be lost.   Folks the danger is real! It exists no matter what is considered politically correct. But for every soul that refuses to be saved there is one who is willing to hear! And as long as we are breathing God continues to offer us salvation!

 

13 And no one has ever gone up to heaven but he who came down from heaven, the Son of man. 14 As the snake was lifted up by Moses in the wasteland, even so it is necessary for the Son of man to be lifted up:

 

I have told you that for the past several years I have been praying that my older brother would find salvation. And whenever we discuss salvation he continues to come up with the same old arguments. He would say, “ If I sacrificed my child for others it would be the worst form of child abuse!”   Wow!  At face value that sounds bad! But of course, it totally denies the deity of Christ.  Jesus being God, decided to take the punishment himself. In other words, God did not throw his Son to the wolves, but rather threw himself on a hand grenade in order to save the loved ones around Him.  You and I are the adopted sons and daughters of God. And God sacrificed Himself so that we may choose salvation. And it is a choice.

 

15 So that whoever has faith may have in him eternal life. 16 For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life.

17 God did not send his Son into the world to be judge of the world; he sent him so that the world might have salvation through him.

 

The simple truth is that God sent Christ to save us all. But it is a choice. And those who refuse to have faith choose hell over heaven.  From the moment God took the punishment himself, we became responsible for our own travel plans. Heaven or hell, Smoking or nonsmoking!  The choice is ours.  The bible tells us that the danger of hell is real! And the Holy Spirit confirms it in our hearts. If we refuse to believe we cast aside the lifeline that God himself suffered and died on the cross to provide us.

 

I know it sounds too simple.  Too easy! It is indeed the simplest part of being the Christian.  It’s not what we are used to. You know, we get what we pay for? We think we need to earn our way into heaven. But that just isn’t true.

 

To begin a life of faith is simple. To live a life of faith, we find that takes work. And an important part of living faith is sharing faith. And that means standing up for your faith even though there are those who would reject God’s love. It means standing up for your faith even though it might offend others. Other who are so caught up in sin that they refuse to recognize or acknowledge the danger they are in.

 

Folks, the world is full of people who are running backward toward a cliff. And from their point of view, there is no danger at all. And they will even make fun of you and laugh at your face while you try your very best to save them!  But as Christians we must value them enough to try.  God loved them enough to die sacrifice his earthly body and die on the cross for them. We must love them enough to try and save them by letting them know what Christ has done for them. Even though they may very well reject what we say and even make fun of us for trying. But God Loves them enough to take their punishment. We need to love them enough to try to save them and risk their rejection.  

 

16 For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life.  We must love the world enough to tell people about it! Amen.