Eric Casagrande     /         Genelyn Novabos

 

 

For God So Loved The World

  

My friends, I would like to talk with you today about the goodness of God.

He is neither a God of uncontrollable rage, nor some type of psychopathic loose cannon. He isn’t going to cause you to lose your job because you gave a swift kick to the neighbors barking dog, and you didn’t have that traffic accident because you screamed at the kids before going to work. He didn’t make you spill that cup of steaming hot coffee in your lap while leaving the McDonalds drive-thru, just because you “flipped the bird” to the guy who cut you off to get in line.

On the contrary, God is a good God. He is the God who loved all mankind so very much that, even when it was at its darkest, lowest point in history, He still insisted on paying the ultimate price to redeem them (John 3: 16).

Can you imagine just how those shepherds caring for their flocks on that lonely night almost two thousand years ago must have felt, when the heavenly host suddenly exploded with excitement on the scene before them, announcing that God’s great plan of redemption for all of mankind was now in the Earth, in the person of the baby Christ child!

My friends, He is a God of peace and good will to men (Luke 2: 13-14).

 

“And suddenly there was with the angel

a multitude of the heavenly host,

praising God, and saying:

 

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth

peace, good will toward men.“

 

This plan wasn’t something new that God just suddenly threw together on the spur of the moment. No! We read in Ephesians 1: 3-4 that God had planned this priceless act of mercy and reconciliation, long before the foundation of the world was ever laid. 

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual

blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

 

According as He has chosen us in Him before the

foundation of the world, that we should be holy

and without blame before Him in love.“

 

What the Church really needs today – more than anything else - is to have a much deeper revelation in their heart, as to how much God really loves them, both absolutely and unconditionally!

Now while that might sound a bit rhetorical and far too simplistic, the truth is that many people claiming a born-again experience in Jesus Christ, simply just don’t get it. For while they know – at least in terms of facts - that Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay their sin debt, nevertheless, it really hasn’t sunk in for them, and many are deeply entangled within the deadly roots of legalism.

They have this very troubling, and dangerous idea floating around in their mind, that, after receiving Christ as their Savior, it’s now up to them to put their shoulder to the wheel, and prove themselves worthy of what Jesus did at the cross!

My friends, that is nothing but a recipe for disaster! We will neverfind rest in the finished work of Jesus, if we delude ourselves into believing that we have some personal role to play in order to be found guiltless before God. Absolutely none of us deserved to have Jesus Christ go to the cross to pay our sin debt. It was nothing but the pure love and grace of God that even caused it to happen! There is likewise nothing we could possibly add to it in order to be found worthy. We simply rest in that which Jesus has accomplished!

We must learn to trust in what Jesus did alone, and we can only do that with all our heart when we come to a deep realization of how so very much God loves mankind — and not just on that one day when Jesus went to the cross and died, but on each and every day throughout human history.

My friends, I would submit to you that God has always been a God of peace and good will towards mankind. It didn’t just start on that night in Bethlehem almost two thousand years ago, when the angels appeared to announce the birth of Christ. God’s very nature is peace and good will.

Now it is true that, up until the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, God had been at war with human sin. God had been at war with man’s sin, but not with people. You know, there are even some Christian leaders today, holding to the silly idea that when there is wrong that God turns His back on people. They teach that God has to walk away when there is some wrong or sin, and when wrong things take place. But my friends, I am here to tell you today, that this idea is not in the Bible at all!

Some people may say: “Well, you know, God is so holy that He has to turn away from sin.” But no! This idea is completely false! I will prove it to you from the Bible, in many examples. I will show you, as a matter of fact, that when there was sin, God not only didn’t turn His back on people, but to the contrary, He came to visit the people! He wanted to be their Savior, and He wanted to show them peace and good will.

Remember back in the the Garden of Eden? What did God do when Adam sinned? Did God turn His back on Adam? No! God never turned His back on Adam after he sinned. Go back to read the second and third chapters of the book of Genesis again. God came to visit with Adam!

You know – some people tell that story as though God were some kind of a wild animal, roaring into the Garden to viciously track Adam down, the very instant he committed sin. God is gonna chase that Adam fellow down, and really give it to him good! He’s going to make Adam pay the price for what happened.

Well, I guess it just shows that some people will say anything.

But do you know what the Bible says? In Genesis 3: 8 it paints a picture that is totally different from the scenario above. It doesn’t show God giving some kind of bad reaction … it shows Adam giving the negative reaction!

 

“And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking

in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam

and his wife hid themselves from the presence

of the Lord God, among the trees of the garden.“

 

Note what the Bible very clearly says. It doesn’t say God hid Himself from Adam and Eve after they had sinned. In fact, it was the exact opposite that took place! It was Adam and Eve who hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, among the trees of the garden.

 It was Adam who gave the bad reaction after having sinned — not God.

It was Adam who withdrew from God, not God from Adam. It was Adam who turned his back on God, and not God turning His back on Adam. God didn’t walk away from Adam – it was Adam who walked away from God. Adam hid himself … Adam withdrew from God. But God never hid himself or withdrew from Adam. So God was not at war with Adam. God had still loved Adam!

So God came down to pay a visit with Adam. It says in Genesis 3: 9 that the Lord God called out to Adam:

 

“And the LORD God called unto Adam, and

said unto him: Where are you?“

 

God is saying to Adam: “Where are you, Adam? I’m showing up here at the very same place we always meet at every day, and we have fellowship together. But you’re not here today. Why aren’t you here, Adam, so that we can spend some time together? Where are you?”

Now that’s a very tender picture!

After Adam and Eve sinned, God is already showing Himself as the Great Shepherd, who as it says in Luke 15, leaves the ninety and nine to go and seek out that which is lost! God isn’t hiding from them! God isn’t saying to them: “Look – I am never coming back down to this Garden ever again, because the two of you have really messed up.”

No! It’s they who are the ones hiding from Him!

This is in agreement with that which is written in 1 John 3: 20-21, where the apostle John has this to say:

 

“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater

than our heart, and knows all things.

 

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us,

then we have confidence towards God.“

 

My friends, what happened here is very obvious — Adam and Eve have lost their confidence. But God still ame down as usual, to visit with them. God didn’t come down to beat them up for their sin. There isn’t even a single indication of that whatsoever! Yet here is how Adam responds to God (Genesis 3: 10):

 

“And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I

was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.“

 

So then, God responds to him this way (Genesis 3: 11), saying:

 

“And God said, Who told you that you were

naked? Have you eaten of that tree that

I commanded you not to eat from?“

 

My friends, do you see how God is handling the situation? It should be rather obvious that God didn’t need to ask this question, for He already knew what had taken place! So why did God bother asking Adam this question, if He already knew everything?

The answer is simple: It’s because God is trying to have conversation with them! He wants to keep the lines of communication open!

So how does Adam respond in Genesis 3: 12, to this question? Instead of just confessing his mistake and allowing God to fix things, Adam becomes defensive, and points a wagging finger of condemnation — first towards his wife, and then at God.

 

“And the man said: The woman, whom

you gave to be with me, she gave me

of the tree, and I did eat.“

 

Can you imagine? Adam had sinned as a result of his own choice.

Nobody held a gun to his head, and forced him to eat of the fruit. But like so many people today, he refused to accept responsibility for his actions. Instead, he accused the woman for bringing him the fruit, and blames God for giving him the woman in the first place!

My friends, God has been falsely given the blame for so many things over the centuries, when all that He ever wanted was to both save mankind and restore His relationship with us. Yet God never condemned Adam for this false accusation. He never threatened Adam. Instead, we see God turning to Eve, to get her side of the story (Genesis 3: 13):

 

“And the Lord said unto the woman,

What is this that you have done?“

 

Isn’t that so beautiful, how God speaks to her?

It’s almost like the same manner in which a parent would speak to one of their kids, after they have broken something in the house: “My goodness, Johnny. How did this special cup fall off the table and break? What was it that happened?”

Can you see, my friends, how gentle God is treating her? He didn’t go balistic, then grab her by the hair and slap her face. Not in the least. But rather, he was very tender with her! He was simply trying to keep the line of communication open with Eve, because He still loved her! 

In Genesis 3: 13, we read Eve’s side of the story:

 

“And the woman said, The serpent

deceived me, and I did eat.“

 

There is absolutely nothing here said by God, which might indicate that He came to the garden to punish them!

My friends, please let me say this: If your family or relatives are far from God, don’t look at them as if God is against them or angry with them. No! For God is a loving God, and what He wants is a relationship with every single person in the whole wide world! He wants to have a relationship with every one of the members of your family, and every last one of your relatives. He is a God of peace and good will, and He came with peace and good will to the garden!

Now someone might ask: “Didn’t God throw them out of the garden? How in the world can you say that God still loved them after they sinned, and that He didn’t come to punish them, if He tossed them out of the garden?”

Well that’s a terrific question. So let’s take a look see what the Bible has to say about it. Further on, in Genesis 3: 22-23, it tells us:

 

“And the Lord God said, Behold the man

is become as one of us, to know good

and evil: and now, lest he put forth his

hand, and takes also of the tree of life

and eats, and lives for ever:

 

Therefore the Lord sent him away from

the Garden of Eden, to till the ground

from where he was taken.“

 

So now we have the answer as to why Adam and Even had to be removed from the garden. God was concerned that Adam, having sinned, might put forth his hand and take some of the fruit of the Tree of Life, eat it, and then live forever.  My friends here is the issue: A sinner cannot have eternal life! God had to remove Adam and Eve from having access to the Tree of Life, or there would have been disastrous consequences!

God was actually being very merciful to Adam, in removing him from the garden. What if Adam had eaten of the fruit of the Tree of Life, and then never died? He would have lived for thousands of years, and been forced to watch all of the devastation he personally caused, to billions of people.

How would you like to live that way?

Imagine if you made just one mistake, and for the next several thousand years you are forced into watching how your mistake ruins and destroys the lives of everyone who ever lived on the planet? My friend, you couldn’t live with that kind of guilt! It would be so very devastating to your mind and heart.

So you see, God didn’t remove Adam from the Garden of Eden because He didn’t want to have a relationship with him anymore. For He still loved Adam and his wife. God removed Adam from the garden out of love and mercy!

But that’s just one example of God’s love. Let me give you another.

In the very next chapter (Genesis 4), we read the story which leads up to the very first murder on planet earth. The Bible tells us that, after they left the garden, Eve bore Adam two children — Cain and Abel. The oldest son, Cain, was a tiller of the ground. He grew crops. His younger brother, Abel, was a herder of sheep and cattle.

The story goes that both of them brought offerings before God. But as it turned out, God accepted Abel’s offerings, yet for some reason He didn’t accept Cain’s offering. Why is that? Some people say that it might be due to the fact that Cain’s offering had no blood in it. But that couldn’t be the reason, because later on we read how Israel offered many sacrifices to God without blood in them, and God accepted them.

The answer, I believe, is found in Hebrews 11: 4, where it tells us Abel, by faith, offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. It was because of his act of faith, that God declared Abel righteous. But it turns out that Cain was not living in faith. He was a man driven by anger, and we know that faith and anger simply don’t mix well together!

But God still loved Cain. He didn’t reject Cain. In Genesis 4: 6, it tells us that God came down to talk with Cain. He loved Cain, and wanted to help him with his anger problem. But Cain rejected all of God’s fatherly advice. Then, one day not long after, Cain and his brother Abel just happened to be out in the field together. And the Bible tells us Cain rose up against his brother, Abel, and murdered him in cold blood.

So how did God react to what Cain had just done? Did God fly down in His mighty wrath, and beat Cain senseless? No! As mentioned previously, in Genesis 4: 9, we read that God came down to the Earth and talked with Cain. God never came down to threaten Cain. He never came to destroy Cain. God came down to talk with Cain. You see, my friends, similar to Adam and Eve, God wanted to keep the lines of communication open, and because God still loved Cain, despite all that he had done!

God never responded negatively after the sin. For just as in the case of Adam, it was Cain who reacted very badly. For we read in Genesis 4: 9 that, in spite of the great love God was extending to him, Cain not only responded in some very bold anger … but he also lied to God’s face.

God asked Cain: “Where is your brother, Abel?”  Well, Cain looked God in the eye, and said: “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s keeper?” Oh my my my … what boldness, and what a lie! Cain knew exactly where his brother’s body was located.

Yet despite Cain’s boldness … despite his anger … and despite the lie … we see God continuing to show love and mercy towards him. Just take a look at how the story ends. In Genesis 4: 15, it says that God gave Cain a special mark of protection, so that nobody would recognize him and kill him!

Why would God do such a thing after all that Cain had done? My friends, it’s because at the end of the day, God still loved Cain. He still loved him! God never turned His back on Cain. God never condemned Cain for his action. God never walked away from Cain. But we see in Genesis 4: 16 that it was Cain who departed from the presence of the Lord!

God never departed from Cain — it was Cain who departed from God!

My friends, I could spend all month long going through the rest of the Old Testament, showing you example after example of how God, in His infinite goodness, reached out to mankind in love and mercy, in spite of their sin.

What about Noah? The Bible says that God came down and looked at the generation of Noah, to see if their sin was really as wicked as He had been hearing. It was almost as if God was hesitant to punish their sin. Just read what it says in Genesis 6: 3 – for it tells us that God had patiently waited for one hundred and twenty years,  before finally taking some action!

For more than a century, God had appeared to be dragging His feet, and almost begging the people to repent, via Noah’s preaching of a message of righteousness. Everyone had the opportunity to believe God, and to come on board the ark that God commanded Noah to build. But in the end, only eight – Noah and those of his immediate family – believed God.

Yet even then, God only sent the flood at the last possible moment, when it was absolutely critical to do so, because mankind in its violence was on the brink of destroying itself, and there would be no one left through whom God could send the Messiah, the Savior of the world … Jesus Christ!

 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only

begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him

would not perish, but have everlasting life.“

- John 3: 16

 

All through the ages, God was constantly showing the world over and over again, how much He really loved it. My friends, the greatest sign of all was in the person of Jesus Christ! We read in 2 Corinthians 5: 19, where it tells us that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Note that He wasn’t in Christ condemning the world. Nor was God in Christ, shaking a threatening finger at the world. No! He was reconciling the world to Himself!

Can you see how God is a good God, my friends? Can you see how God is a loving God? Every last sin of all mankind has been fully paid for, once and for all – through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ! Just rest in Him!

Oh Hallelujah!

 

 

  

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