Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from 1 Cor. 3. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- I suppose that our sermon title might lead us to think that this sermon is going to be somewhat philosophical – pondering the perfection of God. Rather, it is a very practical matter to contemplate the character and nature of God – essential not only to our fellowship with God, but also to our own character and how we live our lives. For you see, what a person believes about God is determinative of how he seeks to live his life – for God is our highest good.
- You don’t need anyone to tell you how important this is, or the difficulty that human beings have in grasping God’s perfection. Look at what people are doing in the world in the name of religion, in deference to what they think about God, and you’ll quickly get what I am referring to. And the church is not immune to this dynamic. Many churches teach, and many Christians act, out of ignorance and misunderstanding of God. Our text speaks of this – “taking care” as to what we build our lives upon, and how we build our lives.
- All of the practical advice in the Old Testament Lesson, and what Jesus encourages in regard to love, is based upon the “foundation” which God has laid for us in Christ Jesus. Many don’t understand the foundation – and don’t even bother building upon it. This is a tragic waste – and always yields terrible results. Others grasp the foundation, but take no thought of it when building their lives, when deciding what is important, what they are going to pursue, and how they are going to behave toward others. “UNDERSTANDING GOD’S PERFECTION” enables us to properly understand the foundation, and to build our lives in a way that is consistent with God’s foundation, to build wisely – and not with “the wisdom of this world” which is folly and foolishness to God. To begin:
I. God’s Perfection Is Grasped And Understood In His Generosity, Compassion, And Love
Gen. 1:31 “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
Psalm 145:15-18 “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open your hand; You satisfy the desire of every living thing. The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”
John 3:16,17 “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved.”
A. So All Of God’s Laws Are Based Upon His Goodness And Generosity, His Concern For The Well-Being Of All, And They Show His Love For All People
1. His laws regarding harvest, and leaving gleanings
2. His laws forbidding stealing and oppressing others financially
3. His laws regarding kind treatment of the handicapped
4. His laws regarding justice
5. His laws forbidding slander and harming the reputation of others
6. His laws forbidding evil in our heart, and vengeance, and grudges
7. His laws regarding His Name – that we represent Him correctly, His love and kindness, in all that we do and say
B. So God’s Perfection Is Also Seen In That He Calls Us To Truth, To Humbly Repent And Confess Our Sins And To Believe The Gospel
Mark 1:14,15 “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”
Acts 17:30 “These times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.”
John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”
Eph. 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
C. And God’s Perfection Is Seen In His Love That Insists That We Too Should Love Others Even As He Loves Us
Gospel: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. . . . You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Statement: We must first let the goodness of God truly sink into our hearts – His love for all, His provision for all, His ongoing care and concern for all people. We must then recognize our own imperfection – in fact, our own selfishness, pettiness, smallness, meanness, hypocrisy in judging others, our malice in cheating others, belittling others, slandering others, and even hating others. We must repent and confess – God’s perfection and truth demand it. And most importantly, we must confront seriously the greatness of His salvation, His redemption, His forgiveness, His mercy, His ongoing kindness and love for all people – whom He loved, and for whom He has provided forgiveness and salvation in the gift of His Son.
Application: Unless we understand the perfection of God we cannot begin to understand God’s will, as Jesus asserts it, that we also “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And if we cannot understand this, how will we build upon the foundation God has laid in Christ Jesus, and how will we build wisely upon this foundation in what we make of our own character, heart, behaviors, and life?
Transition: So you see the importance of “UNDERSTANDING GOD’S PERFECTION,” and really, this is what church is all about, what we are doing every time we gather together in His presence. As He shares Himself with us – in His Word and in His Sacrament – He is revealing His perfection to us, and He is creating this perfection within us, if we are receptive and attentive. And surely we understand that this is His will for us – and hopefully we have a keen sense of the blessedness of this! For:
II. This Gospel, This Revelation Of His Love For Us, Is The Foundation Of Our Life, Of Our Eternal Life
A. So Let Us Take Care To Build Properly Upon It – Building Our Lives On His Love And With His Love, In Accord With His Word
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
1 John 4:10,11 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the blood atonement for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
B. Let Us Strive For Perfection In Our Love, Knowing That God Is Jealous And Vengeful For His People
Text: “Each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
Statement: We all know the little ditty: “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” So we know that just as surely as God loves and cares for us, and will indeed protect us – His temple, just so surely He loves and protects all of His dear children of faith. And just as we properly know His love for us in Christ Jesus, so we know how we are to love one another – with the same grace, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, kindness and love. And this is a marvelous part of God’s perfection – that in His grace and mercy He holds out and expects this same perfection from us!
Application: This is possible for us on the foundation of God’s great mercy, compassion, and love – because whenever we fail we are forgiven, protected, and preserved by His gracious love. So we are renewed daily in our quest to love as we have been loved by God, and to love perfectly even as our heavenly Father’s love for us is perfect. In this way God has graced us to “take care” that we are on the foundation, and to “take care” in what we are building in our character, our hearts, and with our lives. It is all part of God’s perfection – and it is not merely philosophical, it is highly practical!
Conclusion: I hope that we can all understand properly how our life together as a genuinely Christian congregation has to do with dwelling on, learning, experiencing, and “UNDERSTANDING GOD’S PERFECTION.” The apostle John called it “knowing and believing the love that God has for us in Christ Jesus.” To know and understand is to participate, and to participate is to be renewed and reshaped – the greatest blessing God can give to us. May He grant it to us all in great abundance! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.