Sunday Sermon

 

The Nature of God

Isaiah 59:17

He covered himself with goodness like armor. He put the helmet of salvation on his head. He put on his clothes for punishing and wrapped himself in the coat of his strong love.

One of the struggles we have as believers in the living God is understanding what our faith is all about. It is so easy to make our faith about religious practices because we can do those and then move on but our faith is so much more then a religion. At the same time if we get our faith right religious practices can help us in our worship and service of God. So I don’t want to reject religious acts, I just want them in the right place. Faith in God is also not centered on obedience. Don’t get me wrong God teaches us about the concepts and ideas of how the universe works and when we reject those things our faith will not be what it should be but obedience is a result of our faith not the thing that makes our faith. Our hope in Jesus flows from the nature of God and so if we want faith that works we need to know God and what He is all about. Faith at its basic level is trust in the God who saves us. That trust in not in what God does but in the very character of God. To have the faith God wants us to have we need to get to know God so we can build a relationship with God. We are not saved from the death and destruction our sin brings because we obey rules or do certain activities, we are saved from our sin because the nature of God is to love and restore people and that is what we count on, all the rest is just living our faith. This is why I don’t want people to know religious ideas I want people to know and trust in the God who loves us. Getting to know the God who saves us is the starting point of faith. If we do not know God we cannot trust God and so we will not have the faith God longs for us to have. Sin is not simply doing something wrong. It is changing our relationship with God. When we ignore God’s laws and principles about how the universe works we break our relationship with the God who is the source of life. The effects of breaking that relationship are just a normal result of rejecting the source of life. It is so important that we study what God has told us so we can get to know God and when we know God we will want to be what God calls us to be. Exploring who God is will take work but God has already given us all the material we need all we have to do is dive into the work God has provided. Learning who God is will be worth the work because we will find this God who loves us and just wants us to find hope, peace and joy in Him. Building a life of faith and trust in the living, God is not without work. Jesus, in Matthew seven as He is closing out the Sermon on the Mount, says that we will have to dig down to find bedrock to build our lives on but because of it our lives will be steady when the storms of life hit us. I want us to start exploring who God is so we can fall in love with God because when we love God we will live as God calls us to.

We raise turkeys each year to provide food for our family which has been a learning experience. Turkeys are really stupid and it takes special work to make sure they stay alive. This means we have had to learn how turkeys work because having turkeys die before we process them does not produce the food we need. Leaning about turkeys has help my faith grow because just like developing an understanding of how turkeys work developing an understanding of who God is and how God works makes my faith more effective. In our verse we find something that helps us understand who God is and how God thinks that can help us build a greater trust in God. First I want us to notice that there are four statements here and each one extends our grasp of the God we worship and serve. The depth of the nature of God is one of the things that should draw us to God. We do not trust in a simple God but our faith is in a God who is complex with all kinds of levels of things going on. Each one of the things God does all work to make this the God who is worthy of knowing. The four things we have in this verse help us appreciate how God thinks and teach us what we need to know about God. All the things in the verse build on each other and each step opens our eyes to who God is. Lastly we need to see that God is a God who is active and working. Trusting in God is all about trusting a God who is at work in the world and in us. The greatest proof that God works and works to make things better is Jesus. God became human and lives with us and died to save us and then walked out of the tomb telling us God offers life. This is the God we trust in and that we build our faith on.

The setting for this verse needs to be put in place to get the full picture of what God is doing. God is upset that no one is interested in justice so God decides to take it on Himself to set things right. Seeing how God thinks is a critical thing and knowing God seeks justice helps us understand God better. In the first phrase we are told God covers Himself in goodness like it was armor. What a wonderful vision this gives us. The first thing God does is not to seek punishment of people but He covers Himself in goodness. And the idea that it is like armor for God is so great. Let’s think about the idea that the first thing God does to prepare to fix things is to cover Himself in goodness. God does not cover Himself in justice or even truth but God starts by making sure He is a good God and that tells us God wants to do things right. We have a righteous God and that means God always does the right thing even if we cannot understand what God is doing. Counting on God to be good is such a great way of thinking about God. On top of the fact that it is the first thing God does. What is even better is that God’s goodness acts like an armor. To attack God you have to defeat the fact that God is righteous and good and getting around that is going to be hard. The proof that God is good is in Jesus. God comes to live with us not to destroy us but to save us from our sin. How can we not want to know this good God. Our faith should be moved by the idea that the first thing God does when He sets out to fix the injustice of the world is cover Himself in goodness. God could justify anger and God could punish without mercy and be right in what He does but that is not how God works. I want to world to see the heart God moves not in hate but in deep care for every human. This God we are learning about wants to build not destroy and that is such a wonderful thing.

Next we need to look at the next phrase in this verse and see it connected to the first one. Before God takes any action God equips Himself with the right kind of thinking. After goodness like armor God then puts on the helmet of salvation. This explains to us that God is acting to save people not to destroy them. We learn a lot from the helmet because it goes over God’s head and it directs God’s thinking. God comes to save us from ourselves which God does not have to do. If God wanted to He could let us be wrecked by our own sin but that is not how God works. Knowing this about God also allows us to know how hard it is to attack God because God’s very nature is so caring. Like armor a helmet is defensive and it lets us see who God is and it makes things harder to dismiss God. If you have some who wants to save us from our bad choices it makes it very to then hate that God. Knowing God wants to redeem us changes how we think about all the things God does. When we encounter the Ten Commandments we have to see it as more then some set of rules we have to obey. Even God sending the people of Israel away has to be set in the idea that God uses all things to bring us back to Him. Sin has broken us and God knows the cost of sin and that is why God longs for us to come to Him and find salvation. These first two phrases tell so much about God and help us understand God in the right way. Knowing who God is and how God thinks is an important part of finding salvation in God. Trusting God comes from knowing about God. Being people of effective faith starts with knowing this God we find in this verse.

Finally we get to the third thing God does and that is that He puts on the clothing of punishment. This sequence shows us the God who calls to us and invites us to know Him and to love Him. Before God punishes God makes sure He is doing the right thing for the right reason. This means that when God moves He does so to be good and to save people. Punishment does not mean anything unless it is to teach a lesson. God wants justice and if people will not produce justice on their own God will teach the price of injustice. Humans think they can ignore justice and get away with it and that is not how the universe works. Worst of all is when people remake evil to be justice. God hates the evil that arises from that kind of thinking because it only brings pain and suffering. It needs to be made clear that God does not punish just to punish but God wants us to learn how to be the kind of people that brings peace and hope to the world instead of the evil we as humans are so capable of. Punishment from God is a blessing and that should make our faith stronger.

The final thing God does is wrap Himself in strong love and this image is so powerful. Over the clothing of punishment is the wrapping of love for those who God is dealing with. Notice that three out of the for things in this verse are things that are positive and reflect who God is and so we have to reconsider the punishment part of the verse. Also, the words used here are not love but strong love. Our faith stands on a foundation of God’s love for us and this verse proves that. All that God does is because He cares deeply about every human soul which is such a wonderful thing. God loves us enough to tell us the truth and one of the truth’s God wants us to know is there is a cost for our sin. To be loved enough to tell us the truth and then to offer grace, mercy and forgiveness speaks to us about who our God is. Being able to trust in this God is what makes our faith so different the all other religions so let us draw close to the God who works like this.