Sermon 11-5-23

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the First and Second Lessons for All Saints Sunday: Revelation 7:9-17 

and 1John 3:1-3

The Children of God

The children of God. This is a most interesting and complex subject raised in our texts this morning. Who are the children of God?

To answer the question, there first has to be a Creator God. For can a non-God have any children? And the existence of a Creator God has been a subject in deep controversy ever since 1859 when Charles Darwin came up with a scheme by which the origin of life on earth might be explained without a Creator God. This was later expanded into a scheme by which the origin of the universe itself might be explained without a Creator God. This was something new in Europe because at that point the Judeo-Christian explanation of the origin of everything had been the dominant explanation for fifteen hundred years.

Our very existence presents us with a unique problem. Nothing can come from nothing. If something exists, it can only have come from something. And since a lot exists, it all can’t have come from nothing. Therefore, something has to have always existed. Something has to be eternal. It has to have always been. Something has to be uncreated. Something has to be self-existing. It also has to be infinite, since finiteness demands a count from an actual beginning. Finiteness also demands an end to the count. And that’s why what is uncreated can have no beginning or end. It must be infinite.

So, who or what can fit the criteria of uncreated, eternal, self-existing and infinite? There are only two possibilities. Either the universe itself is uncreated, eternal, self-existing and infinite, or there is a Creator — a being — who fits these criteria.

In the time of Jesus, Judaism was the only remaining container for the doctrine of a Creator God. All other peoples had turned aside from the doctrine of a Creator God to the doctrine of an uncreated universe in which multiple gods and goddesses roamed around. These gods and goddesses could only manipulate the stuff in an already self-existing, uncreated universe. They couldn’t create anything new.

However, after Jesus, as Christianity erupted onto the world stage — especially after it became the religion of the Roman Empire — the whole idea of an uncreated universe with its gods and goddesses was abandoned. Instead, the Jewish doctrine of an uncreated Creator God was adopted wherever Christianity won the day.

But with the advent of the so-called Enlightenment in Europe a return to an uncreated universe began — only without the ancient gods and goddesses. In their place, there was a new false goddess in town — Reason, human reason.

The goddess Reason established a new (actually ancient) philosophy/religion in the minds of the learned people of the time. It’s called Materialism — the idea that nothing exists except physical matter. Materialism actually had its origin as one of the many competing philosophies of the ancient Greeks.

The goddess Reason had her big debut in 1789 with the French Revolution and its subsequent bloodbath of the Reign of Terror and then the Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, by the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Materialism was deeply embedded in the thinking of the universities and science. The result was the beginning of the end for what was once known as Christendom.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a perfect cataclysm of forces came together. The Christian monarchs of Europe decided to go to war with each other across the globe in what became known as World War I. This hideous, bloody war gave atheist/materialist Marxism the opportunity to rule the hitherto Christian nation of Russia for seventy years. The war also collapsed the Christian faith of many who could no longer believe in a God who would let such a catastrophe happen.

The engines of war propelled whole new industries — electronics, flight, the internal combustion engine, radio, medicine and much more. And the result was a vast increase in knowledge along with wealth, ease of living, and length of life. Progress was interrupted by the Great Depression. But New York’s Chrysler and Empire State buildings, completed at the beginning of the depression, symbolized the age. It increasingly was an age that didn’t need God because humanity was optimistic about its own chances of survival in a dangerous world.

The Russian Marxists of the 1920’s and 1930’s were deep into social experimentation. They attempted to build heaven on earth because they did not believe in God or His heaven. But because their theories depended on the violent destruction of every existing social institution, they systematically dismantled everything a thousand years of Christianity had built in Russia. The result was the monstrosity known as the Soviet Union which finally collapsed from within after 70 years of lies, evil, concentration camps, firing squads, colossal mismanagement, famines and hopelessness.

Here in the United States Reason and Materialism penetrated legal thinking and so courts and the Supreme Court began to dismantle the relationship between Christianity and government. A hitherto unknown “separation of church and state” became a principle of law as the 20th century progressed. Thus, government — including public education — was cut loose from the moral imperatives that flow from the existence of a Creator God.

On November 1st, a commentator named Mark Lewis posted an article entitled, “How Long Can A System Built on Lying, Cheating and Corruption Survive?” In it, he looks at aspects of life in Communist China where he lived for over a decade. But it’s clear from what we’re seeing in many institutions here in the U.S. — even the church — that, unfortunately, the same question now applies to us.

Actually, there’s nothing new or unexpected about such a system. It’s been the natural result of paganism since the beginning of the world. Two-thousand years ago, Lord Holy Spirit gave St. Paul revelation into the paganism that had overcome the world for thousands of years before his time. He wrote in Romans 1:18-20, “18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” 

The only reason we humans deny that this massively intricate universe has a Creator is because we delight in suppressing truth so we can indulge our appetite for immorality. Thus, without divine intervention, we humans are truly godless. Godlessness is what the term “wickedness” means in Romans.

And Saint Paul goes on in Romans 1 to describe what happens when human beings embrace paganism. Indeed, our present culture is descending on schedule into the eight or so stages of evil and depravity outlined in Romans 1:21-32. This is what happens when an uncreated, eternal, self-existing and infinite universe is preached to children from the beginning of their schooling instead of the uncreated God. A hundred plus years of such godless preaching is bringing us our current social breakdowns. 

The universe is no god. It doesn’t care whether we live or die. Most importantly, it doesn’t care what we do. Therefore, how long can a system built on godless lying, cheating and corruption survive? More importantly, are human beings meant to live this way? Certainly, life is not good if we do. It’s full of fear, despair and anger.

On the other hand, if there is an uncreated, eternal, self-existing, infinite and very righteous Creator God who judges all human behavior with impeccable justice and truly punishes the wicked, then a society that fears and worships such a God will live differently. Life is much better when most people live in the fear of God. And that’s just one indication that a Creator God exists. However, the strongest evidence for a Creator God is the remarkable complexity and integration of all the pieces of this universe at every level, from smallest to greatest. As Paul wrote, God’s existence can be clearly seen. The only reason we don’t want this to be so is so we can do what we want.

Since everything that exists points to the existence of a Creator God, are we His “children,” so to speak? Our lessons this morning indicate that there’s some kind of relationship. There’s also a genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke that works backward from Jesus. It ends this way in Luke 3:38, “the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” So, Scripture calls the original Adam a son of God. In what way was Adam a son?

Certainly, no other being than God can be uncreated, eternal, self-existing and infinite. Therefore, as a created, finite and dependent being, Adam could not be a being like God Himself. However, in one attribute Adam was meant to be the equal of His Creator: Righteousness. Righteousness —  perfect goodness — is what the Image of God spoken of in Genesis 1:26 and 27 is all about. Adam and Eve were created in the Image of God — the righteousness of God — and in that way they were His children.

However, there’s another attribute that comes into play here. As is said twice in the 4th chapter of first John, 1 John 4:16, “God is love.” Love is the perfect, uncompromised commitment of one being to another. And since God is love, He’s the only source of perfect commitment, just as He’s the only source of perfect righteousness.

When Yahweh created Adam and Eve, He also created them to love in perfect, uncompromised commitment. That this is so can be seen in the two commandments that fulfill the Law. Love God and love your neighbor.

There is an issue with love, however. True love cannot be externally compelled. If it is compelled, it’s slavery, not love. Since Yahweh created Adam and Eve to be His children, not His slaves, He had to give them the opportunity to freely express their loving commitment to Him. And this is where freedom comes into the picture.

Amongst other things, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that God planted in the Garden of Eden was a tree of Love and a tree of Freedom. Adam and Eve could freely express their love for Yahweh by obeying the one and only negative commandment He gave them — don’t eat the fruit of that one tree. On the other hand, they were free to break perfect commitment and compromise their love by eating of it.

We know from Genesis that a creature of God — the Serpent — who had already broken perfect commitment with Yahweh successfully tempted Adam and Eve to do the same. In the moment that Eve, then Adam, succumbed to the temptation, their perfect commitment to Yahweh and each other was fatally compromised. And all succeeding generations have inherited their fatally compromised love. It’s why we really just have no use for God. It’s also why we abuse each other.

Now, in the course of time, Yahweh called the descendants of Abraham to be His people on earth. Yahweh and Israel would be in a loving covenant. But what happened? We read Yahweh’s complaint in Isaiah 1:2-4, “2 Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ 4 Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.”

The prophet Hosea had a son and this is what Yahweh told him to name the child. Hosea 1:9, “Then the LORD said, ‘Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.’” Yet in the very next verse Yahweh says, Hosea 1:10, “‘Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” they will be called “sons of the living God.”’” How will this happen?

Listen carefully to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:3-8, “3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

Did you see it? It was the word, “adopted.” Here it is again in Romans 8:22-24, “22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Our resurrection in glorious, immortal human bodies will be the final stage of our adoption as God’s children. But resurrection is made possible by the glorious grace given to us now in Jesus — redemption through Jesus’ blood; His atonement for our sin and Jesus’ powerful forgiveness of sins. This is why we sound like a scratched record. Forgiveness of sins, click, forgiveness of sins, click, forgiveness of sins. (I hope you young people have seen a vinyl record and know what I’m talking about.) Nevertheless, you and I cannot be adopted as righteous children of God without our sins — our very real unrighteousness — being forgiven and washed away.

In the verses just before this morning’s first lesson, 144,000 are sealed unto the Lord — 12,000 from each of Israel’s 12 tribes. Now, Jehovah’s Witnesses, you who think only 144,000 make it into the Kingdom of God, take note of the very next verse. Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

In this revelation, the Apostle John is told in Revelation 7:14, “. . . ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” Of course, that Lamb is Jesus. White robes are a symbol of righteousness.

And then we read in Revelation 7:15-17, “15 Therefore, ‘they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” Does this sound like the ones in white robes have been adopted by Yahweh as His children? Do they stand in His presence? Washed in the blood of the Lamb are they now as righteous as their Creator? Has true loving commitment to their Creator and each other been restored to them as they serve their Creator in His temple day and night?

And we are assured in 1 John 3:1, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” The love the Father has lavished on the entire world is the forgiveness of sins through Jesus and His cross. Jesus is Yahweh’s uncompromised commitment to the entire human race. All humanity is called to Jesus unequivocally. However, only some will be given the faith to believe Jesus is Messiah and that His Word is true. These will know Jesus and be called children of God. 

We quote these verses every Sunday in the absolution from sins. John 1:12-13, “12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” Being born of God is God’s work. And this birth into righteousness is His Agape Love to us. It has definite results here.

But it’s greatest result will be in the world to come that is not yet visible. 1 John 3:2-3, “2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” Believers in Jesus will be like Jesus in His human nature, restored to the Image of God. All those who by faith have been given great desire to be restored to the Image of God are the children of God. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the NIV.