12^th Sunday after Pentecost – September 4, 2011

Romans 9:1-5 - I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

The following is a dialogue from the once-popular sitcom Seinfeld - a dialogue between one of the characters named Elaine and her boyfriend. Elaine asks, “Do you believe in God?” “Yes,” he replies. Elaine asks, “Is it a problem that I’m not religious?” “Not for me,” he answers. “How’s that?” she asks. Her boyfriend says, “I’m not the one going to hell.”

Is that the way we feel about those who don’t know Jesus as their Savior? Oh, we’d like to say, “Certainly not!” We’d like to imply that we never act that way or give that impression. But can we? And that brings us to our text and to our theme this morning. In the words before us we see Paul’s love and concern for the lost. We see what it means to have Christ-like love for sinners. You see, Christ-like love for sinners will lead us to constantly review Christ’s love for us; it will lead us to sorrow over the unbelief of others; and it will lead us to share the truth of the Savior with them.

Now, whenever we start talking about showing Christ-like love, it is always necessary to review what Christ’s love is all about. After all, how can we show Christ-like love if we aren’t first thoroughly familiar with his love for us. So, the first place we must go is to his Word. Here, our Lord magnificently conveys his love for us with words that have the power of the Holy Spirit working behind them. Words we’ve come to love! Words like, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Words that bring tears to our eyes when we contemplate and meditate on their significance and meaning, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And we could go on.

We could fill up the hour this morning using words and adjectives to describe Christ’s love for us. But sometimes it is difficult to do justice to the love of God shown to us through Christ with simple language. So sometimes images help – like a picture of Jesus’ head, crowned with thorns, dripping with blood, agonizing in pain, yet looking longing and lovingly at the sinner . Or maybe it’s a story. Think of how the love of Christ is beautifully demonstrated in the parable of the Lost Son. Or think of how the forgiveness that Christ’s love won for us cost us nothing is demonstrated in this illustration: One day a mother found under her plate at breakfast a bill made out by her eight year old son, Bradley—Mother owes Bradley: for running errands, 25 cents; for being good, 10 cents; for taking music lessons, 15 cents; for extras, 5 cents. Total, 55 cents. Mother smiled but made no comment. At lunch Bradley found the bill under his plate with 55 cents and another piece of paper neatly folded like the first. Opening it he read—Bradley owes Mother: for nursing him through scarlet fever, nothing; for being good to him, nothing; for clothes, shoes and playthings, nothing; for his playroom, nothing; for his meals, nothing. Total: nothing. Christ has done it all and it cost us nothing!

However we want to paint it, the truth gets across; his love is amazing, awesome, tremendous, spectacular, and marvelous. And his love reaches even greater heights when we stop to consider who he did it for – a world of rebellious, disobedient, wayward, and wicked sinners including you and me. No matter how you want to fancy yourself, you are nothing more than a sinner. God demands perfection; one sin stains us for life. Heaven can only receive righteous individuals; no one who sins is righteous. Therefore hell is our rightful lot!

But Jesus came from heaven, his rightful home and that perfect place to take on human flesh. He came to this ball of mud where we live and he put up with traitors, feeble minded disciples, revenge driven leaders, and blood thirsty countrymen. But worst of all, he carried a burden so heavy that it could not have been carried by anyone other than the very Son of God. That burden was our sin and guilt. And carry it he did, right to cross on Calvary’s mountain where he stained it’s dirt with his precious blood. With that blood spilled on the cross he removed our sin and provided the righteousness we need. Simply amazing!

But how do we feel about those who don’t know that? For the Apostle Paul, he was deeply troubled. “I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race.”

The Apostle Paul was of Jewish decent, but because the Jews had largely rejected the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, the Lord sent him to the Gentiles. This did not mean, however, that Paul was not concerned about his own race. In fact, the very opposite is true. Far from simply forgetting about his fellow race, Paul suffered great sorrow and unceasing anguish because of their rejection of the Promised Messiah.

Do we have that same kind of sorrow and unceasing anguish for lost souls? Do we really care that people are going to die and go to hell? Or have we slowly slid into the mindset that tends to think that pretty much all people will go to heaven unless they are “really bad.” The Bible is very clear concerning what happens to those who die outside of Christ. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36). What are we doing to let them know that Jesus died for them and wants to have a relationship with them? Who do we exist for? Do we meet each week to do what we want? Do we meet just to keep the traditions of the past? Or do we meet each week to grow as Christians to bring a message of hope and salvation to a lost and dying world?

Sad to say, as much as I’d like to think we share that sorrow and unceasing anguish for the lost, I think we have to admit that there are many times we do not. But a Christ-like love for sinners will lead us to that very attitude. Consider how every thought, word and action of our God was directed toward the happiness and well-being of those he loves. Yet anguish and sorrow filled his heart when he permitted his Son to be nailed to the cross for sinners. When true Christ-like love gives wholly and completely as only true love can, it will experience sorrow and anguish at the thought of anyone going to hell.

And it wasn’t only a broken heart that Paul had! He also says that he would give up his salvation if it meant salvation for others. That is how earnestly Paul longed for their salvation. How earnest is our longing for the salvation of the lost? If Paul’s attitude at first seems unthinkable, remember these are divinely inspired words, and then remember that this was the attitude of Christ. He willingly left his home in heaven in order to be separated from God and suffer the torments of hell to save sinners. His words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” tell us he did just that. That’s how much we are to care for the souls of the lost!

What would you give up? Are we ready and willing to give up our money so missionaries can go to places where the message of the gospel needs to be shared? Are we ready to stop thinking only about ourselves and take an extra 30 minutes to talk to that person who needs to hear about Jesus? Are we willing to give up some of the activities and extra-curriculars so we can devote more time to the evangelism efforts of our congregation? Sad to say, Paul’s love for lost sinners puts us to shame.

The problem is, sometimes we can be too much like that race Paul was anguishing over. They had every privilege, every blessing. They were a nation hand selected by God. God repeatedly made his presence known among the Israelites and gave them promise after promise. He prescribed their worship for them so they wouldn’t follow after false gods. Greatest of all, the very Savior of the world would pass through their descendants, a Savior who would not only be a man, but true God. But many spoiled it as they rejected it.

We too have received tremendous blessings and privileges. We know Christ’s love! By faith in Jesus as our Savior we have been adopted as sons and daughters into God’s family. In Scripture we have seen his glory – his transfiguration, his death for our salvation, his resurrection, the ascension. While the ancestry of the Savior cannot be traced to us, the fact that our names are written in heaven is directly traced to him. But if we demonstrate a woeful lack of Christ-like love for sinners, are we in danger of spoiling these blessings? What does it say about how we regard the forgiveness we have? What does it say about how much we appreciate what Christ has done? What does it say about how highly we regard our salvation? You make the call.

So we come full circle. We must bow on bended need and confess how we have specifically sinned against the command of the Great Commission. For this sin too stains us for life and ruins any righteousness we might think we had. That is why we first review Christ’s love for us when talking about Christ-like love – so we can be filled again with the forgiveness we so desperately need. For these sins too, our Savior willingly came down from heaven. For these sins too he willingly went to the cross. For these sins too he willing was forsaken by the Father. All so you and I could be forgiven and so we could be filled with Christ-like love. That’s the message we need to hear. It’s the message we need to share! Amen.