Dear Christian friends:
On the First Epiphany God called the wise men to
faith in the new-born Savior. The wise man were Gentiles.
So God showed that His Son, the Savior was for all people.
That's one thing we easily forget. Sometimes I act as if
God loves only me and not all other people.
Another thing we easily forget: God invites men to
believe in His Son. If He doesn't, they can't. And the
story of the wise men helps us to remember that also. God
Himself called the wise men to faith in Jesus and He did this
in a very wonderful way, by a strange star. God does not
call men by a star anymore, but He calls them by the Gospel.
This we easily forget.
Our interest in missions and our support of missions
clearly shows that we are not sure about that. Our text
this morning will help to sharpen our understanding and
faith in these things it shows:
Why We Must Proclaim God's Word Of Salvation To All
The first reason is simple: All men need it! Our
text says: "All have sinned." (Read verses 10-18,
especially verse 18) And this sin is not a little wrong
that we can ourselves make right. Almost everyone agrees
that they sin. But they think they can make up for it or
make it right in the future. Like if they get behind in
paying their rent. The say, "I can catchup. I will make
good later on."
So people think about sin. They think, "I will
stop next year or when I am old, and then I will make
right my wrongs." Some even begin when they are young
and try to make themselves right by strictly following
God's law, or by following their own laws, as the nuns
and monks do, or the lodges.
But Paul here clearly shows that no person can make
right past wrongs. True he may make good before men partly,
but not before God. And usually you can't make right all
the wrong you have done even before your neighbor. And
surely you can't make right all the wrong you've done to God.
God demands 100% of our time and strength for His
glory. He does not give us extra days in which to catch up.
So Paul says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory
of God." Trying to obey the Law does not make us righteous.
The strict law only shows how crooked we are. It is like a
carpenter's square. The square shows the carpenter how
crooked his cut is. If the carpenter tried to make the cut
right with the square you would say, "he is crazy." He
must use another tool to make the cut straight.
So we, by trying to obey the law only measure how
crooked we are as Paul says in verse 19. Jesus told the
story of the Good Samaritan to show us how crooked we really
are. Some people think they are perfect like the Good
Samaritan, but they are only deceiving themselves. They are
proud and self-righteous. We saw that all men are helpless
in themselves to make right their wrongs. But thank God
there is a way out of our hopelessness.
God has with great mercy and kindness prepared a
way of salvation for us. He has a certain person who has
made right all our wrongs. Paul calls Him "a propitiation."
Pitiate means to make right someone else's wrongs and our
Propitiation is Jesus, God's own holy Son. Listen again as
Paul explains God's wonderful salvation. (Read verses 23-26)
So you see everyman can have God's righteousness.
It doesn't make any difference if he has no money. Jesus'
has suffered and paid. We sometimes seem to think that
Jesus is only for the "respectable" people or the successful
people. We try hard to get the rich, the popular and the
nice deaf to join our church. And we seem to be more happy
if they do. The poor, the ignorant, the dirty, and not
respectable we avoid. We don't visit them and try to win
them. Yes, we must confess with shame that we often think
Jesus is only for the proud. But listen what Paul says
about man's pride: (Read verses 27-28)
So don't despise anyone whether nice or not-nice,
rich or poor, popular or unpopular. Where the sin is
multiplied to that place bring God's Word of salvation, too.
Rev. Burce in New Guinea tells of the ignorance and
filth of the natives to whom he brings God's precious Word.
Jesus shed His precious Word. Jesus shed His precious
blood for them. He loves them so I must love them. If I
don't, I am proud and self-righteous and lose God's grace
myself.
God is God of all people and He gave His son to die
for all people not only for the deaf. The Jews thought
that God loved only them and that they only could be in His
Kingdom. That is church pride. They were surprised and
many confused when they began to learn that God's Savior is
for all both Jews and Gentiles. So Paul says to them: "Is
God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too?
Yes, of Gentiles too." (verse 29)
So we, too, like the Jews may think that Jesus loves
only our people. We are glad to support our home church,
but don't care about missions in other parts of the town or
in other cities and states and countries. This narrow group
pride we must confess shamefully. God does not love one
group more than another, or one group is not better than
another. True, He may show more mercy and kindness to one
group than to another, but that should not make them proud
or self righteous and despise others. Rather it should make
them humble and kind and loving, willing to share their
blessings with others who have not the same.
So God has blessed our deaf, with Gospel preaching.
And He has blessed us much more than the deaf of other
nations. This should humble and cause us to eagerly share
our joy in Jesus with other deaf in other countries of the
world.
If we don't get that right humble spirit we may
quickly lose God's grace ourselves and be lost forever.
Yes we should carefully search our hearts and see why we
have been so indifferent about missions. Ask yourself:
"Why do I not do more to help preach Jesus?" Be honest
and answer honestly. There must be some reasons which
are not good reasons before God.
And if our reasons are not good we must confess our
shame and sin to God. And beg His mercy and forgiveness in
Jesus our Savior. Ask Him to give us another year of grace
to obey His Gospel humbly.
God help you to do this.
Amen.