Sunday's Sermon

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; But toward thee, goodness, if thou continues in his goodness; otherwise thou also shall be cut off” Romans 11:22

Behold the character of God. Take just a moment and imagine him in your mind. Who do you see? Is it the vision of a man with long white hair, a large beard clothed in robes of white? His face aglow in loving kindness, staring back at you, wanting you to find your way into His open and loving arms. Oftentimes in our mind’s eye, our vision of our Heavenly Father shows us a kindness we rarely encounter here on earth. A gentle disposition that we long for, but rarely find in friends or loved ones. This kindness of God’s is a wonderful thing to think on, and in itself a great comfort in times of trouble and hardships. I have often times thought on how much He loves me, when, in truth, we cannot even begin to fathom the kindness of God, who is so perfect and amazing. How great his kindness is.
But in these thoughts, so innocent as they are, there lies a trap. A certain way of thinking, which despite it’s good intentions, opens up the believer a chance for great dissapointment, and non-believers a chance for eternal damnation. For, you see, it is wrong to always behold God in his kindness, for it is not always in kindness that God beholds us. If we ever consider God in his kindness, then we must also consider him in his sternness. To do anything else is to take away what is a staple characteristic of God’s love. For, just as much as God’s love inhabits kindness, so it also inhabits sternness and severity. Why? Because, as has been spoken in this sanctuary so numerous a time; the Lord’s mercy, and His judgement go hand in hand. They are lacking if not dependant on eachother, and without one, the other would lose all viability, and God would cease to be perfect.
To behold God in such a way can leave us feeling disheartened, even lonely, and I know because when I first lost this vision of God as the everlasting cheerleader, I too was distressed. I felt as though I had lost my best friend. Every thought prior to that point that I had ever had about God seemed to go out the window, leaving a stinging pain inside, where once had lived contentment and a wavering sense of peace. Why couldn’t Paul have stopped at “Behold therefore the goodness?” and never gone ahead with, “and severity of God?” Our daily life affords us too many opportunities to face sternness and severity, that should be the last of our wants. So why then, does Paul command it? Because to behold God in a way less than what he truly is, is not only a disservice to the character of Him, but a disservice to ourselves. You can walk out of this building today content in your ideas of God, and continue to live a life apart from his will, persistently asking yourself “Why does it feel like there should be more?” Or you can throw out all of your preconceived notions about God and the eternal, and come to see Him for he who is. Love at the core of itself. Strength without compromise. A kindness and sternness that in itself is everything we should ever want or need of a savior.
Turn now to Numbers 20:7. I believe we all know the story of Moses guiding God’s people out of Israel. Most of us know Moses as a great man of God, a hero of the faith, and rightly so. For in his lifetime, Moses served God with a strength and humility that most of us could never hope to achieve, even in our wildest dreams. But it would be incomplete to leave our idea of Moses this way, for though God chose him to lead his nation Israel into a land set aside just for them, a land that the bible says was flowing with milk and honey, it was sadly never meant to be. When Moses and the people of Israel reached the land of Kadesh, there was no water for them. The people became angry at Moses and Aaron. So as we would expect from men of God, the bible tells us that Moses and Aaron looked to him for guidance. They immediately fell on their faces “and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. Look here what happened;
7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."
We see here a common theme among the bible, and a divine truth of our faith. That is, that when God’s people seek him in times of need before any other means, our God, in his Kindness, will answer them. We must never forget what our LORD Jesus said at his sermon on the mountain. Matthew 6:33 “ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
When I was just a child, I understood that when I needed something, to go to my parents first. If Mom and Dad didn’t manage to come through, then I went to my grandmother, but always Mom and Dad first. This was more than just habit. I knew that as much as my parents were able, they would give to me as I had need. And what they did for me, they did not do reluctantly or with reproach, but with Kindness. Even as an adult, I can still ask them for things (and I do often). In Kindness they will give it to me. I believe that that is God’s Holy Spirit in them that enables them to do so. But the more I know my wonderful God and savior, the more I learn to come to him first. When hard times are upon me, and there’s no fresh water to be found in this desert we call earth, all I have to do is fall on my face and ask Him, and he will answer me, in Kindness. Always in Kindness. As long as I walk in that Kindness and try to live up to His expectations, I will continue in His Kindness. But what happens when I don’t? We look at verse 9;
9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him.
So far so good. God has told Moses to do something, and Moses is doing it. Just as he had done in the land of Egypt. But look at verse 10;
10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
Notice, the Lord said,
"Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water.
And then notice what happens in verse 11.
“Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.”
The Lord told Moses one thing and Moses decided to do something else. Now I want you to think about everything we already know about Moses. About how God set him apart to lead his people out of Egypt. How the Lord used Moses for miracle after miracle. Now look at this in verse 12.
12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
Behold his goodness. Behold his sternness. Behold his kindness. Behold his severity.
There are current trends in our faith that portray a God that does nothing but bless us, and if we would only walk around with a persistently big smile on our face, than this God will continue to poor out his love. This same God will show the world what good Christians we are by providing us with gigantic houses and fancy new cars. He’ll give us beautiful wives and children, who all look like they’ve been taken from a television commercial. We walk in ignorance of the true God if we walk this way. Behold his sternness.
It is this same type of believer who wonders where God is when something bad happens to them. Charles C. West said “We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.” I would say to that type of believer. Behold his severity.
But should his severity deter us from knowing him? Of course not. It’s in his severity that we find his perfection. It’s this eloquent co-existence of his kindness and severity that paints the picture of God in his wholeness, lacking nothing. Should I want a God who only knows how to hold me and provide me joy? At one point, yes, but no longer. Should I want a savior who says he loves me but pours out his discipline on me without ceasing? Of course not. Do I want a LORD who would show me kindness, but not at the price of leaving me unchanged? Yes I would, and do, and he has made himself known to us through his holy word, we must only look and he is there.
When God took from Moses the opportunity to take his people into the promised land, did Moses abandon his faith? No, he did not. Turn to Deuteronomy 32:4 Look at the song of Moses written at the end of his life. Even though God would stand by his word and not allow Moses to enter the promised land, Moses would still “ascribe greatness to our God”;
He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he.
When God doesn’t give us all that we ask of him, or if we face trials and tribulations in our daily walk, do we say He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he?
Or do we speak the words of Cain when the Lord revealed his sternness to him in Genesis 4:13?
Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear.
What Moses realized that Cain did not, was that what God does, he does in his love and in his perfection. What God does, he does is in his justice, “and all his ways are just.”
I will give you another example of God’s kindness and sternness. For that we turn to John 3:16. I’m sure most of us know it by heart, but we’ll be reading more than just that so please turn with me;
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
We see here that God loves us, and the bible tells to what extent he loves us. That he should be willing to give up his own son, and that that son would be subjected to the most horrible suffering any on earth has ever known. Not just his horrific death on the cross, but to take on the fullness of God’s wrath as payment for our sins. We can’t even begin to comprehend the completeness of what is being said in this verse. Not just the definition of sacrifice, but of kindness, of goodness. For those here who have accepted Jesus Christ, and live their lives for him, this message is a message of hope. But for those who have not accepted him, the scripture carries a different meaning altogether. For as we read on, we discover that;
18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
Within these words, spoken at night by Jesus Christ to Nicodemus the Pharisee we find the fullness of God’s love. Contained within these few short verses we behold God’s kindness, and in the same sweet breath, his severity. God’s severity is this. Condemnation for those who do not believe in the name of his one and only Son. This Son, Jesus Christ, is the only way by which we can be saved. Aside from him, all hope is lost. John 14:6 tells us Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” and it’s true. Not only will we not be able to stand before God without first believing his son, we will find it increasingly difficult to face this sad and empty world apart from Him. I have lived a thousand lives already on this earth, and have tried to be everything from A-Z. And I can tell you without flinching that outside of a life devoted to Christ and Christ alone I have found nothing of worth. I have found no real joy, I have found no real purpose, I have found no real goodness and I could search a million more years and never find one of these. God makes it this way because He loves me, and that’s why I can stand before you today and say with naught but truth that I am forever grateful for the Lord’s sternness, if not for this I would never have known his kindness.