Everybody Wants A Savior, But Nobody Wants A Lord

Introduction

I want to begin this early morning by challenging your brains. Don’t you try to remember? Just past Wednesday. What was your morning like Wednesday morning? What did you have for breakfast? What conversations did you have around the breakfast table? Did you make plans for the day or for the week? What were the last words that you spoke to your loved ones before you left the house Wednesday? You probably don’t remember. But you know who does? At least seventeen families in Parkland, Florida will never forget. They’ll remember vividly what they ate for breakfast that morning. They’ll remember the conversations. Probably very typical. Maybe making plans, being informed that there was soccer practice or band practice that afternoon. Maybe asking for permission to go to some concert or to some play.

Some disagreements. Often the case with high schoolers and their parents. Maybe the last words spoken as they rushed out the door was, I love you. Maybe the last words ever spoken were, you’re in trouble. We’re going to have to talk about this this afternoon. But they’ll never forget. Those last moments, those last words. The raw thing about it is they didn’t know those were the last moments, did they?

What do we do? About the sadness and the evil in our world. When you heard the news Wednesday, that there had been yet another school shooting. Maybe the only thing that surprised you about that was that it was as close to home as it was.

Should we take away all the guns from everybody? That discussion is being had. That debate is going on. Should we arm all the teachers with automatic weapons? Should we put fences and walls around the schools? Should we increase police presence? Should we do something to fix our broken mental health system? Should we try to instill in our young people and in everybody a true value for life and godliness? What do we do? That debate will rage on, and the cynics among us will say that probably not a whole lot will be done. But I want us to address that issue in a more personal and more spiritual level this morning. What are we to do? What’s the response of a child of God when we live in such a broken world?

And let’s just admit it, we do. You have your Bible turn in your old testaments to Psalm 10. Griffin read Psalm 11 for us that asks the question what are we to do if the foundations be destroyed? Psalm 10 addresses the wickedness in this world as well. And this psalm that was written so many years ago could have been written this Thursday. Look in Psalm 10. At the words of the psalmist describing his broken world. Start with me in Psalm 10, verse 3. For the wickedness boasts of his heart’s desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God.

As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. Verse 8.

In the secret places.

1. Get Angry and Cry

Again, that psalm could have been written Thursday, couldn’t it? About the wickedness in our life, about this broken world in which we live. And we’re left to some degree feeling helpless and wondering, what can we do? I’ve got three suggestions that are actually six, because I cheated and I put two points in each one. Point one is what can you do? Get angry and cry. Let your emotions be your emotions. Now we would put warning labels on both of these, certainly the first, but get angry. The Bible has a lot to say about anger, and it’s not always in condemning it as being sinful. There is the such thing as righteous indignation. God, in fact, stay in the Psalms and go to Psalm 78. In fact, we have a model for this, and that model is our own righteous God.

How does God feel about the events of this past Wednesday? How does God feel about wickedness and sin that seems to be increasingly rampant? Psalm 78, look at verse 56 beginning.

But turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers. They turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their carved images. When God heard this, he was furious and greatly abhorred Israel. How does God feel about it? God is angry. That tells me it’s okay for me to be angry. To be angry at the circumstances, at the situation, at the wickedness, unrighteousness, ungodliness, the sin that’s making all of this happen. I’m angry. Do you ever feel like Nehemiah? Turn over to Nehemiah chapter 13. Nehemiah chapter 13. Greg, a couple weeks ago, Greg gave us an excellent lesson on Nehemiah as a great leader, but he left off this verse. Nehemiah, they’ve rebuilt the wall.

The people are restored into the city.

Remember what got them into captivity? The wickedness of idolatry that was brought on by intermarrying with these ungodly heathen nations around them. And guess what they’re doing now that they’re settled again? They’re finding some new wives and some new husbands from the Canaanites round about them. And what’s Nehemiah’s response to this wickedness? Look in Nehemiah 13, verse 25, and ask yourself if you’ve ever felt like Nehemiah. Nehemiah 13, verse 25 says, So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them, and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves. You ever feel like that? Did you feel like that Wednesday? Did you want to go down, drive down to Parkland and grab somebody, pull out their hair, and just give them a good old-fashioned whooping.

That was Nehemiah’s response when he saw the wickedness of his brethren. He got mad. Now I’m not advocating that that should exactly be our response. But there’s a long history of both God and God’s people getting angry at the wickedness and the sin that’s round about us. And it’s okay to get angry. Now we would add to this the warning label that Peter gave, in your anger do not sin. But it’s okay to be upset. It’s okay to cry over these things. Look with me in the prophet Ezekiel. And take comfort in this fact that we learned from the prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 9. When you’re raging at the wickedness, when you’re shaking your fist, wanting to do what Nehemiah did, wanting to find somebody that you can pull out their hair and punch them when you’re angry at sin, when you’re crying your eyes out at the sin that’s all around you and the wickedness.

Remember Ezekiel 9 and verse 4 that says this. And the Lord said to them, go through the midst of the city. God’s about to destroy this city. And he says, but first, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within you. You see what God is saying? God said, I’m about to wipe this city out, but wait a minute, before I do. You go and mark those who are crying over its wickedness. Because I’m going to protect them. God’s angry. God’s weeping over this wickedness. But I want you to remember that when you’re angry and when that you’re weeping, God sees that.

And he knows. We’ve added one warning label to this, and that is, in your anger do not sin, Peter would say. The second warning is to what James would say when James in James chapter 4 said, lament and mourn and weep. James was talking about not for the conditions round about us when he said, lament and mourn and weep. He was talking about our own sinfulness. And so save some tears for your own sin. Save some anger for your own unrighteousness. But what are we to do? We do what good Godly people ought to do. We rage at the wickedness that’s in our world. And we weep. Well, is that all? Well, there’s something else we can do. What do we do in this wicked, broken world in which we live?

2. Remember and Hope

The next two things, after we’ve got our anger out, not sinning in that anger, but got our anger out, we’ve cried over the wickedness, both in our own lives and in the world round about us. Then it’s time to look up and remember and hope. What should we remember? Turn with me to Romans chapter 11. In Romans chapter 11, Paul is talking about his brethren in the flesh, Israelites, and he’s wishing that they could come to the saving knowledge of the truth. He’s frustrated that they’re not. But he says this, Romans 11, begin with me in verse 1. I say then, has God cast away his people, that is the people of Israel? Certainly not. For I am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? Now let’s pause there. Paul, in his frustration and maybe sharing and projecting frustration on some of his other Jewish Christian brethren, who were sitting there saying, Why aren’t my family members coming to the gospel? Don’t they know, don’t they understand those Old Testament prophecies? Why aren’t they coming? Why can’t they understand the truth? Is God just rejecting everything? In the midst of that, Paul to himself and to those others who felt that same frustration said, You remember Elijah? And he says this about Elijah. Continue reading, Romans 11. The end of verse 2. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.

What does the divine response say to him? I’ve reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Everybody lost? Paul said, No. Just like in Elijah’s day. There are people out there who are serving God. And so remember that. That remember that when you were angry and you were crying over the wickedness, that you weren’t the only one. There were other people just as angry at the wickedness and the sinfulness in this world.

That you didn’t weep alone. Remember that. And remember that even in a dark day such as Wednesday, they were even in that school building. They were glimmers of hope. There was the coach. Who did what a man does. He shielded the innocent. There were acts of heroism. And I’m going to tell you, if Wednesday proved anything, it proved this. Regardless of what the legislator and the Supreme Court says, they’ll never remove prayer from school. Remember, there’s good people. It’s easy to focus on the negative. It’s easy to throw our hands up in disgust while we’re angry and crying and say, like Elijah, God just ended all. I’m the only one left. And the divine response would be, no, you’re not. There’s always been a fateful remnant.

And remember that.

When you get through reading those depressing and angering headlines, can I offer a suggestion? That when you turn off the news channel that is 24-7 talking about these tragedies and these things that anger us and sadden us so much. Can I give you a tip to what might help? Turn those things off. And get out your church directory. And just flip through it. And remind yourself that it’s not all bad. That not everybody is wicked. Not everybody’s given up. Remember. And have some hope. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, look at verse 24. We don’t do things out of order in this text. Romans 8, verse 24 says, but we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Two of the most beautiful passages having to do with the hope for the child of God. And what that hope does for us in concrete ways in helping us to persevere. Hope. We were saved in this hope, Paul says. And in this hope we persevere. But now let’s think about what verses led up to this. Back up into Romans 8, verse 20. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors in birth pains until now.

Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. Paul says, This whole world is groaning because of the sin and the wickedness. We’re groaning because of the futility that this human existence under the sun affords us. But right after that he said, But we’re saved in this hope. And in this hope we persevere. Maybe these horrible tragedies remind us of the groaning of this creation. And they cause us. And Lord, I pray, cause others to want to look for something else. Something better. Something more long-lasting. Something more precious than what this groaning existence offers us. So what do we do when living in a broken world?

We hope.

3. Pray and Believe

And lastly, how do we live in a broken world? We pray. And we believe. Are you still in Romans 8? Starting in verse 20, he talks about the groaning of this creation because of the curse, the sin that exists here. This world groans, we groan with it, but he says we’re saved in this hope, and this hope causes us to persevere. And then what does he say right after that? Verse 26 of Romans 8, he says, likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for saints according to the will of God.

Paul says we live in a broken world, a world that’s groaning, and we groan with it. But Paul says we’re saved in hope that causes us to persevere. And Paul says to pray. Even when you don’t know what to say. Pray. What a wonder wonderful and humbling and comforting thought to know. That on days like Wednesday and all of the other Wednesdays of our life, that God wants to hear from us.

It is he who said, Cast your cares upon me. Because I care for you.

What a wonderful and comforting thought that God is saying when you’re at your lowest, when you want to find somebody and pull their hair out and punch them, when you’re weeping your eyes out, come to me. All ye that are heavy hearted and broken hearted and beat down by the travails of this life. God say, Come to me. And what’s even more comforting still is that sometimes he says to us, It’s okay. I know what you’re trying to say. That the Holy Spirit is making utterances for us when we don’t have the words. Sometimes that’s words of praise, words of thanksgiving, but sometimes we’re at loss for the words of sorrow. He still listens, even when we can’t speak. Pray.

Don’t listen to the mocking and the jeering.

Get on your knees and pray. But that prayer, James would have us to know, must be mixed with faith. And so there are certain things that we have to believe. Number one is that we believe that this is a wicked and broken world. We accept that as a fact. That we believe that this is not the best of all possible worlds. It’s just the best way to the best of all possible worlds. We believe that death is not the end for the child of God. We believe that God is as brokenhearted and as grieved by the wickedness of this world as we are. We believe that we’re not the only ones who haven’t bowed the knee to Baal. And we believe this. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor cry. There shall be no more pain. For the former things shall be passed away. Every day reminds us that we do indeed live in a broken world.

Conclusion

But don’t forget there’s things that we can do to survive. And don’t forget that we’re saved in this hope. And this hope should cause us to persevere. And don’t forget to pray. Dear God. We know that you’re a righteous and loving and compassionate God, and we know, Father, that you look down upon this world. And that you’re angry. You’re angry that people do not turn to you and honor you. You’re angry that we hate one another and hurt one another and cause so much pain. Father, we’re sorry for the grief that we have caused you. We’re sorry for your anger. But we’re so thankful for your love. And for your son who became the appeasement of your wrath.

And the opportunity that we can have in such a dark, broken world to let our light shine. May you be glorified by the good things that we can do. Hear our prayer. Heal the brokenhearted. Be with those families that have been so devastated through their loss. Be with those that are searching and seeking for answers. May they grope until they find you. Bless us with the opportunities and the eyes to see those opportunities that we might lead others to you.

All that we have, but all that we need in a broken world. Save us in this hope. Love us in this despair. Protect us from the evil. This is our prayer in Christ’s name. Amen.

We’ll now be dismissed to our classes.