But God

"But God"

Romans 5:8 (KJV) - But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Through the years I have heard many people say "Where was God." Let me tell you where God was. While you were living a life of complete disregard for God, He was dying to pay for the vilest of sins you committed. If God was there in your sinful life He most certainly will be there in your storm.

This passage reminds me of one of my favorite Scriptures, Ephesians 2:4 it starts out with the same two words "But God". No matter what the Devil brings against us! No matter what the accusation! No matter how bleak the circumstance! God is on the throne and He is rich in mercy, His love endures forever, and He has called us, anointed us, and raised us to sit in heavenly places with Jesus!

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" Ephesians 2:4-6 (KJV)

Think about the main point of this Scripture "God demonstrates His love toward us". Through out the ages God has demonstrated His love to a world bent on denying Him, abandoning Him, cursing Him, and ignoring Him. His love kept on longing, desiring, reaching, holding, He never let go and He will never let go. As the song says,

 "Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky."

Man was created in the image of God and made to fellowship with Him. It was our sin that separated us from God. “The wages of sin is death!” If we got what we deserved all hope would be lost, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. It not about how sinful you have been it is about God’s love and grace. The amazing thing about grace Is that God "looks beyond our faults and sees our need".

Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' I like that. Greater love! I want to be like Jesus. I want to be like Him. So my prayer is Lord give me a greater love. A love that brings me to my cross. A love that empties me. A love that makes me just like Jesus.

Jesus said in John 13:34-35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Loving like Christ loves cannot be accomplished without sacrifice. Laying down our lives for others is as much part of the Christian life as kneeling at the altar or picking up a Bible. It really is the essence of following Christ.

The Quickened and the Dead

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,..   Ephesians 2:4 (KJV)

The story of Lazarus has always fascinated me.  Lazarus was sick and Jesus delayed going to him.  He could have made it to the bedside of His friend and simply healed him but Jesus waited two days before leaving and by the time that He had arrived Lazarus had been dead four days.  Twice John tells us that Jesus loved Lazarus. This wasn’t just another resident of the city this was a dear friend.  Why did Jesus delay?  He could have simply spoken the word and Lazarus would have been healed as He did for the Centurion’s servant.  There has to be more to this story.  God is pulling back the cover and revealing hidden truth.

Lazarus had two sisters and John makes sure to tell us that Jesus loved them too.  These were special people.  Mary was the woman that came to Jesus and anointed His feet with costly perfume and wiped them with her hair.  They both met Jesus before He came to the house and they both told Jesus that if He had been there my brother would not have died.  They believed that Jesus could heal.  They had seen him heal the sick.  Martha told Jesus that she still believed that whatever He asked God would do it but her faith was not complete because when it came to her dead brother her hope was that her brother would rise again in the resurrection at the last day.  That is like many today who believe that Jesus can do all things but when it come to their circumstance they limit the power of God.

Finally, Jesus is taken to the grave where the body of Lazarus had laid for four days.  They had wrapped him up, laid him in the grave and rolled a stone in front of the entrance.  Lazarus, while mourned, was placed in a dark, cold tomb.  Death had won!  Life was gone. 

But God! 

There are those two words again.  God had a different plan!   Jesus wasn’t winging it and hoping for the best.  He had planned to arrive exactly when He did.  He knew Lazarus was dead before He ever started His journey and you can rest assured that He didn’t come there to mourn.  He came there to help us believe.  Consider John 11:15

“Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.”

In the midst of the darkest night God is still in control.  When the storm is raging and the ship is tossed, God is still in control.  When life has been crushed beneath the weight of deaths call, God is still in control.  That is the message Jesus was teaching us.  There is never a time when God cannot step onto the stage of human affairs and change everything.  Our faith may be incomplete.  Our understanding may fail but none of that hinders God’s mighty plan.

Lazarus was dead, buried for four days, his body rotting, his life gone.  Mary and Martha had given up hope, their tear stained faces had lost their glow as they stood outside the tomb.  They had watched him die, they had wrapped him in the cloth, they had lain in the grave, and they knew he was dead.

But God! 

In the darkness of the tomb a light began to shine.  A voice began to rise and hope began to stir.  A quickening was taking place.  That which was dead heard the call of a voice so kind and tender.  A voice of love and grace that was calling,

“Lazarus, come forth”

There in the darkness of the tomb where death had reigned morning had broken!

But God

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,  Ephesians 2:4 (KJV)

Sandwiched between the past and the future are the two most important words that you will ever read.  This changes everything!  In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul peels back the veneer of this world and reveals the core of an apple that went bad with just one bite of sin. 
We were dead in trespasses and sins.  God had told Adam "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."  Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)  Because we were the seed of Adam, his sin was passed down to us through the bloodline.  Every man, woman, and child is born in sin and shaped in iniquity.  We walked in lock step with this world, Satan had a hold of our hearts and the spirit of disobedience drove us farther away from God. Our lives were defined by the lusts of the flesh and our days spent fulfilling whatever sin the mind could conceive.  We were by nature the children of wrath. 
That is an ominous description written by Paul of the lost.  It was our nature that compelled us to sin and it was the same nature that brought us to judgment before the throne of God.  There is a side of God that responds to the unholy, rebellious sin of man.  When His righteous wrath is compelled by His Just nature to answer the call of His Holy indignation there is nothing that can save us.  There is nothing worse, as the preacher repined, than to be “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”  We were without doubt headed for an appointment with an angry God and there was nothing we could do about it.  In fact there was nothing we wanted to do about it.  We were on a collision course with the words that would fashion our eternity  “Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.”

But God!  There they are the two words that changed everything.  When we were without hope and justice demanded payment God stepped onto the courtroom floor and begin to speak.  When it seemed that there was no way, God made a way.  Changing the future of all mankind the Spirit came upon Mary and she conceived.  How could this be?  Unthinkable!  Unknowable!  Unsearchable!  That Holy God would offer Himself so that unholy man might be saved.  Not just saved but changed!  The sinful heart washed by the perfect sacrifice. 

This week we will look at the two words that made Christmas possible, two words that are still just as powerful and life changing as they were when first spoken.  “But God!”