Pastor: Paul D. Nolting

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Hymns: 3; 417(1-4); 417(5-7); 401

WELCOME in the name of Jesus who reminds us that those who do the will of His Father in heaven will enter His eternal kingdom.

Pre-Service meditation: Psalm 84

Pre-Service prayer:

O Lord, as we assemble in Your presence to worship this day, please remove all hypocrisy from our hearts and lives. Move us to confess our sins frankly, to rejoice in Your love heartily, and to live our lives to you wholly. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Epistle Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Jesus in love healed the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. He did so, however, on the Sabbath which infuriated the Jews who were more concerned about compliance with their man-made laws than the fulfillment to God’s command to love. Let us heed Jesus’ warning not to sin, but rather to follow Him in love.

SERMON:

Our thoughts and prayers this week have been with those directly affected by the tragedies in New York City and in Washington DC. Each of us here today has no doubt experienced a myriad of emotions—shock, disbelief, anger, sorrow, fear, resolute patriotism. Whose heart has not been stirred by the pictures we have seen, and the visible sign of our renewed national unity—the flag displayed so prevalently on our nation’s streets? Who does not want justice to prevail and those responsible for these terrorist acts punished? Yet, this morning I do not want to rehearse the news of this past week. Rather, I want to turn your hearts and minds to the word of God, and in particular to the words of our text taken from Psalm 50. At this time we need to bear in mind the eternal perspective of our God, rather than hearing only the temporal speculations of man.

The title of Psalm 50 in my Bible is "God the Righteous Judge." Let no one doubt, that while the United States and its allies may not ultimately capture and bring to justice all those responsible for this week’s acts of terrorism, our God is aware of all who are responsible, and He will judge each man’s unbelief and evil works without exception. Rather than getting caught up in desires for revenge, however, let us seek to know and understand what God would teach us by these events. Our God controls history. Did God permit Satan to inflict this tragedy upon us, much as he once permitted Satan to afflict the pious Job? Is God perhaps chastising us, His children, with the purpose of causing us to examine our lives, to repent of our sins, and to reestablish proper priorities in our lives? Could God be punishing our nation for its pride and moral corruption, seeking thereby to bring our nation as a whole to repentance and spiritual renewal?

My dear friends, Jesus once used the collapse of another tower, the tower of Siloam, to encourage His listeners, including His very own disciples, not to look at the sins of others, but rather to repent of their own sins, lest they too perish (cf. Luke 13:2-4). When tragedy strikes, it ought to lead us to pause to evaluate our lives, to reaffirm our commitment to God, and to recognize that while we indeed have a loving Savior, our GOD is also THE LORD, THE MIGHTY ONE who STANDS IN JUDGMENT! Take heed as you see Him condemn the wicked! Take comfort as you see Him save the just!

Yes, take heed as you see Him condemn the wicked! Psalm 50 presents our LORD God setting the world up as a stage with all the nations gathered to observe the judgment of His people. The Psalmist presents God in two ways, when he says, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. Our God shall come and shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him" (Psalm 50:2-3). God is presented as shining forth both in beauty as a blessing and as a fire devouring those before Him. What was the problem? The problem was the unfaithfulness of His people. God had called the Old Testament children of Israel to be His own, special people to preserve the promise of the Savior. He had blessed them and cared for them, delivering them from their enemies and providing them with great prosperity, but they had fallen away from Him. They rejected His word and established themselves as the arbiters of their own destinies. They refused to obey His laws and attempted to shape God into an image designed by their minds, rather than conforming their minds to the truths of God’s word.

Listen to the words God addresses to the "wicked": "What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instructions and cast My words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, and tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you; but I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."

My dear friends, the scene among American Christians today is not unlike that within ancient Israel. Millions of clergy and laity alike claim to speak with divine authority, but they "hate" God’s instructions and they "cast" God’s word "behind" them. Oh yes, they will talk about the Bible being "inspired," but then they claim it is filled with errors of history and science, that it contradicts itself and should not be accepted literally. They place the Bible on the level of Shakespeare and subject it to their critical evaluations, as if the Spirit of God were incompetent and unable to breathe into the hearts of those ancient writers the words He specifically desired them to reveal. They in effect spread darkness, where the Lord would spread light, thus undermining and stealing the confidence of simple believers, while removing the solid basis of God’s word as the foundation of the Christian faith!

The "wicked" in ancient Israel gave their "mouth to evil" and were "partakers with adulterers." Do we not find American Christians and many American Christian Churches in the forefront of those defending and promoting abortion and homosexuality? It has been reported recently in the news that numerous Episcopal Churches in the United States have cut off aid to their brethren in Africa, because those brethren in Africa have taken a strong, biblical stand against homosexuality. It is a known fact that many Protestant hospitals in the United States have become the centers of the abortion trade. Woe to those who defend immoral sexual activities! Woe to those who shed innocent blood! Do we not find Christians in America following the moral treads of our day? Adultery and fornication have become commonplace. Divorce is wreaking havoc with society and within the church. Individuals divorce their husbands and wives in ever increasing numbers even when there is no Scriptural cause, and assume that God will surely understand. Yet, the Scriptures say that God "hates divorce" (Malachi 2:16). Woe to those individuals who ignore God’s commands to lead chaste and decent lives! Woe to those individuals who ignore their marital vows, and the churches which now have actually established rituals of divorce, whereby they claim to provide divine approval. God’s seeming silence does not mean His approval. God does permit man to sin in his arrogance, but rest assured man sins to his own destruction. God tells us that he will reprove us when we defy Him, and that when He determines that he will "tear us in pieces, there will be none to deliver us!" Yes, GOD, THE LORD, THE MIGHTY ONE STANDS IN JUDGMENT! Take heed as you see Him condemn the wicked!

Take comfort as you see Him save the just! Truly, we must confess that we have all sinned and deserve nothing but God’s wrath. Truly, as we observe the destruction in New York City and Washington DC we must join Jeremiah in confessing, "Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23). We deserve the judgment of our God, for we must all confess our many sins, and yet the LORD, our God, loves us. As we approach Him with humility and sincere repentance, we will not be turned away, but rather will be embraced and delivered as His children.

The Psalmist, in the midst of this great scene of judgment, reassures God’s faithful children, "Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God." Genuine repentance involves a change of mind and heart. The sinner no longer wants to sin, but rather desires sincerely to love and praise God. When God washes away our sins through the blood of Christ, as He promises to do when we humbly confess those sins before Him, the natural result will be a renewed desire to love and to serve God. When God reveals His unconditional love to us—reminding us of Jesus’ life and death on our behalf, that very love moves us to want to love in return! Thus God’s glorious plan of salvation yields our humble efforts at Christian living!

Then as our lives proceed, the Psalmist urges us to "offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High." In spite of all of the grief we have witnessed this past week, we still have so much in America for which to thank God. God has blessed us with unsurpassed freedom and material advantages. But let us not forget, lest we prove ungrateful and unworthy of His continued blessing. Let us "pay our vows"—keep our word to our God and to one another. My dear friends, let us lead lives of honor—keeping our word and abiding by our promises.

Finally, what does our God both command and promise us? In the most familiar of the verses of our text God says, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me." We have heard many stories of valor this week—individuals placing themselves at great risk to help others to safety, many individuals in fact giving up their own lives to save others. We have also heard stories of miraculous escapes, the most spectacular of which that I heard was of a man riding the collapsing World Trade Center building down from the eighty-four floor and sustaining only two broken legs. When our God commands us to "call upon Me in the day of trouble," He is issuing an open invitation to His believing children. Our God is a great God, the omnipotent and omniscient God of God, who is able to do anything. He comes to us and says, "call" and then promises to "deliver." Notice that God does not say we are to call and then perhaps He will help, or He may get around to helping, or even He might give good consideration to helping. No, He promises to deliver us and He is certain our response will be to "glorify" Him!

My dear friends, the events of September 11 have changed our lives forever. Let us make sure, however, that those changes have more to do with our lives than just greater security in airports and a more vigilant attitude towards potential terrorism. No, let us examine our own hearts and lives, recognizing that our God loves those who are "poor and of a contrite spirit, and who tremble at His word" (Isaiah 66:2). May our prayers then ascend not just for the material welfare of our fellow citizens, but also that the Spirit of God might effect a spiritual renewal among our fellow citizens. Then we will have learned an abiding lesson from the tragedies of this past week. Then we will truly stand in awe of the judgment of God and rejoice wholly in His grace! Amen.