Finding Joy in Jesus

Death, Holiness, and Mercy: The Message of God in Calamities

Here is a sermon I preached at Kenwood Baptist Church. The main theme of the message is God's absolute holiness. This sermon's attempt was to make one fearful of the awesomeness of God's holiness and cling more closely to the cross of Christ because of what it accomplished.

Below is a manuscript for the sermon. It is not meant to be exactly like the sermon I preached and does not have the closing comments from Romans 5.

DEATH, HOLINESS, AND MERCY: THE MESSAGE OF GOD IN CALAMITIES

September 11, 2001 – a plane crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Moments later a second plane crashes into the south tower. Commotion surrounds the world. What has just happened? Moments later, the unthinkable happens: the towers collapse – 2823 people dead!
August 29, 2005 – hurricane Katrina hits the shores of Louisiana and Mississippi. The levies of New Orleans fail allowing the city to be flooded. Many people stuck to go through the storm unable to leave because of poverty and old age, some just deciding to wait it out – 1836 people dead!

September 12, 2001, August 30, 2005 – people arise and ask the question: “Where was God in all of this?” Ministers, pastors, and other religious officials attempt to give their best answers. Some rise up and say that they don’t know where God was in these. Others say God just allows these because He can’t stop freewill. Some even dare to say that God was unable to stop these. Today we will look the God’s Word to see what it says about such events.

Turn in your Bibles to Luke 13:15 and the title of my sermon is DEATH, HOLINESS, AND MERCY: THE MESSAGE OF GOD IN CALAMITIES. By looking at Jesus’ response to calamities in His time we will see 1. The Nature of Calamities, 2. The Response of Jesus, and 3. The Proper Response of Man.

Jesus, the great man of wisdom to the people, had been teaching His listeners on various topics. Then some arose and told the great teacher of some Galileans who where offering sacrifices and the Roman governor, Pilate, killed these men and mixed their blood with the blood of the sacrifices. These who spoke us wanted an answer for why this happen? They wanted an account of the Almighty in this atrocity. How is it that a good and loving God could allow something like this to happen to innocent men? Is it because they were Galileans from the north and not of Judea? Where they wicked sinners deserving of death?

Jesus resounds, “Do you suppose that these Galileans where greater sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

These men were killed by the evil deeds of another. Like those who perished in the World Trade Center, the evil deeds of men caused it to happen. But why did God allow these calamities to happen. First, we will discuss the nature of calamities.

1. We must not allow our own feeling effect our understanding of the truth of God’s Word. Jesus gives no defense of God in this. There is no defense needed.
2. Many times people ask the question, “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” These men were good guys. They were offering up their sacrifices. The men and women who worked in the World Trade Center were just ordinary people working in ordinary jobs. They were just regular people living their lives like everyone else. Why in the world would God allow such a things to happen?
3. God allows calamities to demonstrate His wrath towards sinners. In the men who were slain and the deaths of the falling towers, God reminds us that He is angry towards sinners and they are all destined to suffer their just end.

The response of Jesus must have shaken the hearts of the listeners. It could not have been what they were looking for.

1. Jesus assures them that the fate of these men was not because they were more wicked than all the others. The men and women of 9/11 did not die because they were worse sinners than all of the rest of the country.
2. Jesus demands that they repent or they will likewise parish under the wrath of God.

Before I continue to speak of God’s wrath, I must first explain what His wrath is.

God is a Holy God. When we think of God the first word that comes to mind should be Holy. Many in the world today when asked what they think of when they thing of God they give the answer of love, grace, mercy, goodness, kindness – and all of those are true. God is love. He is gracious, merciful, good, and kind. But the Scriptures are clear that above all else – He is holy.

Isaiah 6:3 says, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of host, the whole earth is full of His glory.”

When ever the Bible repeats itself, it does so to show importance and strengthen the statement. When Jesus spoke in the New Testament, many times he would say, “Truly, Truly” which means “Amen, Amen, I say unto you.” His listeners would have understood that what ever He was about to say was important and they should listen up. The only time word ever taken to the third degree is holy. God is never said to be love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, but “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of host.”

So what does it mean that God is holy? First, it speaks to His transcendence. That is that God is above all things. That He is supreme. If there is power – He is the source and completion of power. If there is wisdom – He is the source and completion of wisdom. He is dependent on nothing and everything is dependent on Him. The Lord God Almighty is awesome!

Secondly, it speaks to His complete devotion to Himself. By the nature of His holiness, He seeks to keep Himself pure from all defilement. He is completely righteous. There is no moral wickedness found in Him. Not only that, but no wickedness can come before him.

Two examples of this are found in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 10, the Word of the Lord says this,

1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.
2 And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying,
‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,
And before all the people I will be honored.’ ”
So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.
4 Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.”
5 So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said.
6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the LORD has brought about.
7 “You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the LORD’S anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses.

The Lord was not about to let His holiness be defiled by the sinfulness of these sons of Aaron. The Lord gave specific instructions on how He was to be ministered to and there was no room for error. He is a holy God.

A second example of God’s holiness and complete devotion to Himself by keeping Himself pure from the defiled flesh of man is seen in 1 Chronicles 13

5 So David assembled all Israel together, from the Shihor of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.
6 David and all Israel went up to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim, which belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, the LORD who is enthroned above the cherubim, where His name is called.
7 They carried the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.
8 David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, even with songs and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals and with trumpets.
9 When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, because the oxen nearly upset it.
10 The anger of the LORD burned against Uzza, so He struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark; and he died there before God.
11 Then David became angry because of the LORD’S outburst against Uzza; and he called that place Perez-uzza to this day.
12 David was afraid of God that day

Here are to Old Testament references to God’s absolute demand for His holiness. When His holiness is attacked by the foolish sin of men He is angered against them. For many in the modern church the holiness of God is swept under the mat. No one wants to speak to the holiness of God. People are afraid if you call them to serve a God who is holy and wrathful towards sinners you will loose them.

Unfortunately the opposite is happening. Instead of people being scared away by the absolute power of the holy God, they leave the church out of boredom. They fail to see the excitement in serving a God who is betrayed as a baby in a manger instead of the Holy Mountain King who strikes fear into the hearts of those who sin against Him. Remember the words of Isaiah 6, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of host.” The word host means army and in this case is referring to the angelic army at God’s disposal. When one sins they are merely breaking a little command of God like we do if we run a red light. When we sin against God we are making an overt and aggressive attack on God. We are acting in rebellion to the creator of heaven and earth in an attempt to set up our own glory and take away from His. God’s wrath towards sinners is not the anger of a judge towards someone who gets a traffic violation, but the fury of a king towards someone who tries to setup his own throne.

God will not be mocked and do not be confused to think that this is the God of the Old Testament while the God of the New Testament is different. Remember Jesus’ calming the storm in Mark 4:

35 On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.”
36 Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.
37 And there *arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
39 And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
40 And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”
41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Or those who lied to God about what they had given in Acts 5:

1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,
2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?
4 “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it.
6 The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.
7 Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 And Peter responded to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?” And she said, “Yes, that was the price.”
9 Then Peter said to her, “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.”
10 And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.

So don’t be confused. God is holy and He will keep His name holy. Next time you debate whether or not you should sin – the fear of a holy and awesome God should remind you of what is demanded of you.

So what is the proper response of man to calamities? Jesus said, “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Repentance should not be confused penitence, which is simply sorrow for one’s wrongdoing. Nor should it be confused with penance where one imposes punishment on himself for sin. Rather, true repentance is seeing sin for what it is and turning away from it.

Now this seems like a good place to stop. The Lord has spoken well to the calamity that has happened and has answered the questions with divine fullness. But the Lord brings up another calamity, the tower of Siloam that fell on eighteen men. Here were truly innocent bystanders when all of a sudden the tower fell on them. Unlike the slaughter of Pilate or the attack of terrorist on 9/11, this event had no cause by evil men. Like hurricane Katrina it was an event completely removed from the hands of evil men. No other explanation can be given to this event outside the sovereign hand of God. Why in the world did God let this happen?

Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Jesus’ response is exact in every way, but with it comes new insight. The question we are asking is the wrong question. The question should not be, “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?”, but rather, “Why didn’t the tower of Siloam fall on me? Why didn’t hurricane Katrina kill me? Why didn’t I die in a car accident on the way here? With all the men and women who have died in Iraq, why didn’t I die? Why wasn’t I in the World Trade Center the day if fell and killed thousands of people? WHY?!”

Do you understand how merciful God is in letting you have life today? Some attest and say hell isn’t a real place because God is to merciful to make people suffer. WRONG! God is so merciful to allow them the pleasures of this life and for them to take it and then stick it in His face and mock Him…my God, the God of this Bible is a HOLY GOD and He will not be mocked by sinners. Jesus resounds again, “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

But what is repentance? We have already defined it as a turning away from sin…but oh hear me now, repentance is more than just turning away from sin – it is turning towards God by faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is not just a being saved from the wrath of God towards sinners, but a saving to God in Christ Jesus.

Look at Romans 5:6-11. Paul, the great apostle, knew the holiness of God. A Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He knew the Law and the righteous demand of God’s holiness. For Paul the great struggle was not why does God let bad things happen to good people, but how does a holy God allow sinners into His fellowship. Read the book of Romans and just feel the agony that Paul goes through as He struggles with this great mystery. I say it again, “How does a holy God allow sinners into His fellowship?”

In Romans 5, starting in verse 6 the word of the Lord says,

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Why Christians Need the Church and the Church Needs Christians

Why Christians Need the Church and the Church Needs Christians
Michael Naaktgeboren
Kenwood Baptist Church: Louisville, KY