The Lutheran Hour
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"Around the Corner"
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Text: 2 Timothy 4:3-4
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. This Sunday those seven words are God’s words of truth which offer salvation to all; they are words which guarantee eternal life to all who believe. May you, by God’s grace, be given a faith which says, “Christ is risen and I am saved.” Amen.
The election for the Presidency of the United States is still over a year away and there are some people who have decided they would like the job. There are a whole host of men and women who feel they are the single person most qualified to lead the most powerful nation this world has ever seen. You may note that my name has not yet appeared on the list of candidates from the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, or any other party. Beyond the very obvious fact that I am singularly unqualified for the position of president there are any number of reasons for this omission. For example, I don’t want to be president.
One of the biggest reasons I don’t want to be president is that I think it would be very hard to please all of the people all of the time. Pleasing people is really the name of the game, you know. If you want to get elected you have to tell as many people as possible what they want to hear; and, at the same time avoid insulting and upsetting everyone else. That’s hard to do. Understand, I’m not saying any political candidate would ever lie; I’m just suggesting it’s hard to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – to everybody all the time.
Nope, I don’t want to be President of the United States. Another job I want even less is God’s. Now I know that sounds silly, but the truth is a great many people seem to think they could, if they were given the chance, do God’s job better than He does. Listen carefully to your friends, family, and coworkers as they talk. Don’t most of them complain and criticize God? Don’t they spend a lot of time second-guessing Him? When an earthquake or hurricane strikes, the insurance companies call it “an act of God,” but a lot of regular folks simply say, “God’s got it in for me.” That’s just their way of saying they’re pretty sure they could do God’s job better than He does.
No, I don’t want to be God. I mean, when you’re God, you have to decide what prayers you’re going to answer. What are you going to do when a farmer prays for rain and a construction worker asks you to give him sunny skies? Who do you answer when a little boy or girl prays Grandma or Grandpa will live, while at the same time, Grandma or Grandpa are asking God to take them home to their eternal rest? When two people want the same job, are praying for the same position, who’s going to get what they ask for? It’s tough being God. You don’t get to slumber or sleep; You know the hairs on everybody’s head; You know when a sparrow falls to the ground; You clothe the lilies of the field better than Solomon. The list of God’s duties goes on and on. And there’s one other reason I don’t want to be God. I don’t want to be God because you have to be holy. Now being holy may not sound like such a hard thing to be unless you realize being holy means you have to tell the truth. You have to tell the truth all the time to everybody. I don’t think I can do that. I don’t think you can, either.
Now I don’t mean to insult you or get you all upset, but it’s true: we humans don’t like to tell the truth. Years ago I was friends with an editor of a small town newspaper. You know the kind of paper which comes out once a week and is read by everybody, especially the folks from the town who moved away from that town a long time ago. Everybody reads the paper to keep up on the local news, to find out who had visitors; who had a baby; who had a death in the family. It’s a big job to be the official town gossip, and my friend took his work seriously. He tried to tell the truth – sort of – most of the time. Of course, his readership didn’t see it that way. Some accused him of slanting his stories, others said he took sides. It was a rare week he didn’t get half-a-dozen letters calling him a liar.
Finally, one day the editor had had enough. He got upset with people calling him a fabricator of falsehood and he set out to create a totally honest version of his paper. I only remember one of the stories. It was a wedding announcement and it read something like: The marriage took place last Saturday afternoon at the sparsely filled Lutheran Church, at which the presiding pastor delivered a long and dry message. The bride is a local girl whose singular ability has been to drink most men under the table at the VFW. She doesn’t know how to cook, sew, or smile, and her relatives consider it a great blessing that she has found anyone who was ready to marry her. The plain bride, questionably dressed in white, walked down the aisle like a duck and met her unemployed groom at the altar. He has been living with his folks and has no prospects whatsoever. Bookies at the reception were giving 5-to-1 that the marriage wouldn’t last a year. Well, by the time the editor had finished writing it, he knew he would never be able to send his edition to the printer. Even so, he tried to be honest and his friends had quite a laugh at what the paper said.
No, it would be hard being God: God isn’t allowed to lie. Of course, many of my listeners are saying, “Nobody is supposed to lie.” I know we’re not supposed to lie, just as I know that we all do. When a young girl asks her father, “Daddy, what do you think of my boyfriend?” Daddy is going to pick his words very carefully. He dare not tell his daughter what he really thinks about the pipsqueak who is chasing his little girl. When a bride asks her groom, “What kind of flowers do you think we should have at the wedding?” he’s going to lie and pretend he can tell the difference between a petunia and poison ivy. When a husband asks his wife, “Does it bother you that I’ve put on 72 pounds since we got married?” she’s going to say, “Have you really, dear? I never noticed.” When she catches him looking at a girl who is walking down the street and asks, “Do you think she’s pretty?” a wise man is going to lie and say, “Compared to you, dear, she’s plain as a penny.” When your boss comes up with an idea which he thinks is brilliant, what are you going to tell him when he asks for your honest opinion? The truth is, we lie; we tell white lies, black lies, little lies, big lies, innocent lies, vicious lies. We lie about that which is important and that which is inconsequential. Lying is a luxury God doesn’t have, not even if that lie might make people like Him or love Him.
God always tells the truth, and because He does, people almost always decide to take their appreciation, their devotion, their salvation business to somebody else. Look at how it was in the Garden of Eden. God set Adam and Eve up in a place of perfection. He said, “Here, this is for you. Enjoy it. Live in it. Reflect the love I’ve given to you in all that you do. In return, all I ask is this one little thing: don’t eat from this tree. Show your appreciation by not eating from this tree. Eat anything else you want, but don’t eat from this tree.” And then God added, “If you do eat from this tree, there are going to be some serous consequences. The perfect place I’ve given you won’t be perfect anymore. The limitless life I’ve given you will end and there will be an eternal punishment for you and all who come after you.” You see, God was honest.
Now, I know some of you who really don’t understand Christianity are asking, “Why didn’t God get rid of that tree? If He hadn’t put that tree there, Adam and Even would never have sinned and our world wouldn’t be messed up.” Well, just in case nobody has ever explained why God put that tree there, I’d like to tell you. God was honest with Adam and Eve and He wanted them to be equally honest with Him. He wanted their love to be genuine, sincere, heartfelt. Look, if you kidnap somebody, lock that person up, and force them to say, “I love you,” their words are meaningless. To be genuine, love has to be given the opportunity, the freedom, to pick an option. An option is what God gave His first children when He asked them to express their love to Him. That’s what that tree was.
You know what they did. They chose to break the one commandment God had asked them to keep; the one rule He had asked them to follow. They didn’t like the honesty of God’s Words and they preferred to listen to the lies of Satan. When the devil slithered up to them and suggested God wasn’t telling the truth, Adam and Eve took the bait hook, line, and sinker. They sinned and found out that God, even if they didn’t like it, had been telling them the truth all along.
God always tells the truth, and because He does, people almost always go somewhere else with their devotion and dedication. After the fall into sin, God reached out to lost humanity. He told them, “I’m going to send My Son into the world to take your place. He will be born of a virgin so He can be one of you; He will be conceived by the Spirit, so He can be perfect. He will carry your sins; He will lead a holy life; He will resist temptation, and He will die the death your disobedience deserves. Then, when all this has been done, My Son will rise from the dead so you and all the world may know He has successfully done all I have asked of Him. Once again God had told the truth, and, once again the people didn’t like it.
The entire Old Testament is filled with God telling the truth and asking His people to believe Him. The entire Old Testament is filled with God’s people ignoring and rejecting the Lord’s honesty and turning to someone else. Read through it and you will see the people of promise following this ruler or religion, this false deity or fake deliverer. If God sent a prophet to tell the truth and call His people to repentance and devotion, they preferred to listen to a prophet who told them what they wanted to hear. If God’s ambassadors spoke boldly, His people denied, disregarded, and discounted everything they said.
God always tells the truth and because He does, people almost always reject and rebuff Him. Even so, the day did come when God kept His promises. According to prophecy Jesus was born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. It was a wondrous night as angels were sent to tell the world God’s good news of great joy. It was a blessed night as some shepherds came and saw this thing which had come to pass which was just as the messengers of the Lord had told them it would be. It was a Gospel night as those shepherds went and told their friends and family members that God had, at long last, sent His Son into this world to seek and save lost sinners; to give Himself as a ransom for our redemption.
What a blessed chapter in human history it would have been if everyone had believed the angels’ message. What a wonderful thing it would be if I could tell you everyone followed those shepherds and paid their respects to the Redeemer. God had told the truth, but few bothered to listen. When the people of Jerusalem heard the King of Heaven had been born, they did… well, they pretty much did nothing. When the political king of the country heard of Jesus’ birth, He sent His soldiers to eliminate the imagined usurper. People didn’t want to hear it, but with Jesus’ coming God gave His Son so that all who believe on Him might be given eternal life.
God told the truth and people didn’t listen. The people of Jesus’ boyhood home of Nazareth refused to listen and tried to murder Him. The crowds which heard Him call them away from hell and into heaven refused to listen. They deserted Him when He spoke of giving Himself as a sacrifice to win their salvation. Jesus told the truth and people didn’t want to hear Him. The proud and pompous Pharisees preferred to rely on their own laws rather than trusting themselves to the Savior. The priests shut their ears and minds to the many God-given prophecies, which had been clearly written to help them identify their Lord. When Jesus warned His disciples of the dangers which were before them, they ignored Him; when He asked them to pray with Him, they slept the night away.
Through the words, the miracles, the life, and the suffering of His Son, God was telling us that He cared and wanted to save us. God told the truth, but the world didn’t listen. Because they didn’t listen, according to prophecy, Jesus was arrested and tried. Amazingly, not even paid liars could produce any evidence against Him. Their failure made no difference; the leaders of the religious community were bent on Jesus’ death and nothing less than His elimination would satisfy them.
And so Jesus was crucified and died. Little can be said about that dark day. Jesus was crucified and He died. Forget those lies which say He escaped; He revived; they crucified the wrong fellow. Roman execution squads got it right. They were willing to crucify 100 innocent people so a single guilty guy couldn’t get away. The soldiers there that day didn’t mess up. When they said, “Jesus is dead,” you can be sure He was. When Jesus’ friends and family laid His body in the tomb, you can be sure that it was Christ’s corpse they placed there. And you can be equally sure of what happened three days later. You can be sure God is telling the truth when His angels announced Jesus had defeated death. You can be sure that Jesus’ victorious appearing has won eternal life for all who will be given forgiveness and faith in Him. God tells the truth when He says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). You can be sure Jesus is telling the truth when He said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). You can be sure the Holy Spirit is telling the truth when He inspired Paul to write: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
All of these things which I have shared can be found in God’s Book, the Holy Bible. Inspired by God who always tells the truth and can never tell a lie, Scripture truthfully tells how you, me, anyone, everyone, can be saved by faith in the sacrifice of the Lord’s Son. Now my question, God’s question, is this: “What will you do with this truth of God?” Would you like to know what the Bible says many will do with Jesus’ sacrifice and the salvation the Father so freely gives? By inspiration the apostle Paul wrote: “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
Centuries ago the Lord knew the lies others would tell you. He knew some would say, “You’re no sinner, you’re OK just the way you are.” God knew you would be encouraged to “Be good and that will be enough.” God knew some would say, “Every religion is the same.” God knew some would tell you that God is too nice a guy to send anyone to hell. Dear listener, if there has ever been a time in your life when it was necessary for you to be given the gift of discernment, it is now. Today God calls you to His Son, your Savior. Today God offers you His Truth, the only Truth which can calm your conscience, erase your sins, and guarantee eternal life. God wants you to be saved. He wants you to trust Him and believe on His Son. God wants this for you, but He will not force it upon you. Even though He might lose you; even though you might lose the salvation Jesus lived and died to give you; God still offers you the opportunity to say “no” to His Son, His sacrifice, and the salvation He wishes to give. By God’s grace, do not say “no.”
Years ago I heard of a minister who saw a bunch of boys standing around a small, stray dog. “Boys, what are you doing?” he asked. “Telling lies,” said one of the boys. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets the dog.” The minister drew himself up to his full height and began to deliver an impromptu sermon which began: “Why, boys, I’m shocked. When I was your age I never ever thought of telling a lie.” There was no argument when one of the boys said, “Here, Preacher, you win the dog. None of us could ever come up with a lie that big.”
By God’s grace may you know there are no lies in this message. May you see the love of your Lord, the sacrifice of your Savior. May you see and believe in the Christ who has taken away the sins of the world and your sins as well. If you want to learn more about God’s Truth which is Jesus Christ, please call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for October 21, 2007
TOPIC: Calling down cursesANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to a listener’s concerns. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: A good day to you, Mark, and all of our Lutheran Hour listeners. So, my friend, what do we have before us today?
ANNOUNCER: Well, this is based on an e-mail you responded to some time ago, but we’re just now using it on the air.
KLAUS: We should tell our listeners that we do answer their questions… either personally, or on the air, or, as happens to be the case in this situation, both places.
ANNOUNCER: And here is the situation: Our listener’s next-door neighbor showed up at the door one day, unexpectedly, asking for help. And we’re not told what kind of help this was. At any rate, our listener declined the request.
KLAUS: Yes, and we also weren’t told why she declined. We don’t know whether it was because of inability to help, or fear of helping, or because of some bad experience in the past.
ANNOUNCER: For whatever reason, our listener didn’t or couldn’t help. This apparently didn’t sit too well with the neighbor. As she turned to leave, she said, “The Lord is going to remember what you didn’t do for me. I curse you and God is going to punish you.”
KLAUS: With friends like that, who needs enemies? And now we’re finally getting to the question.
ANNOUNCER: Right. Our listener wants to know, will God listen to this curse and punish her?
KLAUS: I remember that situation. And I ended up writing back to that listener the same day because she was very upset thinking that God was going to do something really nasty to her because the neighbor had asked for it.
ANNOUNCER: Understandable. And would you share with us what you told her?
KLAUS: I’d be glad to… and lest anyone think I’m breaking a confidence, people should know I told our listener that I would be putting her question on the air.
The long and short of it is, I told her she didn’t have anything to worry about.
ANNOUNCER: No doubt you also told her a little bit more than that.
KLAUS: I did. You know, Mark, this story reminds me of that great 19th century atheist, Robert Ingersoll. One day, while giving a speech, he said, “I’ll show you there’s no God. I’m going to give God 15 minutes to strike me dead.” And with that, he took out his watch and waited. Those who were there said you could hear the timepiece tick all over the large auditorium. The silence became almost unbearable. Some people left, one lady fainted. Finally, after 15 minutes, Ingersoll announced, “See, I’m still alive. This proves there is no God.” Some people were impressed. But one lady got up and said, “Sir, you didn’t prove there is no God. You just proved God isn’t taking orders from atheists today.”
ANNOUNCER: And how does that story apply?
KLAUS: This way. God is in control of things. He most certainly listens to our prayers. But that doesn’t mean that He is going to do things which are contrary to His will and the way He works.
ANNOUNCER: Could you give another example?
KLAUS: Certainly. Back when the Cold War was going on, I remember, just once, and not in church, hearing someone ask God to smite and strike down all heathen Communists.
ANNOUNCER: And God had another way of dealing with that situation.
KLAUS: Exactly. When it comes time for Super Bowl or the World Series, I imagine there are more than a few gamblers praying God would let those events turn out the way they want, with the proper point-spread that they bet on.
ANNOUNCER: Which shows that God doesn’t take orders from gamblers, either.
KLAUS: Not from anything I’ve ever read in the Scriptures.
ANNOUNCER: And you’re saying the same thing holds true in this case?
KLAUS: I am, for a number of reasons. First, this curse came from a heart that wasn’t right with the Lord. It asked something of the Lord that the Lord is disinclined to do. It was meant for the recipient’s detriment, not benefit. The list could go on.
ANNOUNCER: And was that of some comfort to our listener?
KLAUS: It ought to be of comfort to her and all of our listeners. We need to remember God is in control. While He gives us permission and encourages us to come to Him, it’s right that we do so, recognizing His sovereignty. That’s what even the Savior did in the Garden of Gethsemane. You remember that.
ANNOUNCER: Right. After praying that He might somehow avoid the suffering He was about to undergo in our place, He said, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.”
KLAUS: And that really is the prayer of every Christian.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage” arranged by Henry Gerike. From Jubilee by the Concordia Seminary Lutheran Hour Chorus (© 2000 International Lutheran Laymen’s League)
“How Firm a Foundation” arranged by Henry Gerike. From Jubilee by the Concordia Seminary Lutheran Hour Chorus (© 2000 International Lutheran Laymen’s League)
“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” by Timothy Albrecht. From Grace Notes by Timothy Albrecht (© 1997 ACA Digital Recording, Inc.) Augsburg-Fortress/SESAC
“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” traditional, arr. Dan Marvin. From Hymns by Dan Miller (© 1991 DSDS Enterprises)