I remember years ago hearing about a young child who came home from school one day and told his parents that their class made a poster of a smiley face. The caption on the poster read: "Smile - God Loves You!" The Father - a conservative Calvinist - sent his son back to school the next day with a poster of his own. It was a big circle with a frown drawn on it that said, "Mourn - God Might Hate You!" If a father did that today he might get a call from Child Protective Services!
Anyway, Pastor Reisinger's sermon The Holiness of God, shatters a major myth about God. Just like the popular TV series, Myth Busters, Pastor Reisinger takes on the idea that the Bible teaches that God is Love, and that defines who God is in his central being.
I first heard Pastor Reisinger preach an earlier version of this same sermon around 1983. I liked it so much I shared it with my mother, who in turn liked it so much she sent it to her sister, who was married to a small town pastor in Montana. He liked it so much he played it for his church one day in lieu of the regular sermon.
While I really want to encourage you to listen to the whole sermon (or watch the YouTube video) here is just a very brief synopsis of what it is about:
1. In all the Bible the phrase "God is Love" only occurs two times, both in the book of I John.
2. In the whole book of Acts, which describes the early missionary efforts of the Apostles, the word 'love' does not occur one time.
3. But from Genesis all the way through Revelation God is described over and over and over again as being 'Holy.'
So sit back and prepare to have a major Christian Myth 'Busted' by Pastor John Reisinger:
The Holiness of God (audio)
The Holiness of God (video)
One final note. As I said above, this sermon was originally preached by Pastor Reisinger many years ago. While the important elements are still there, one thing is missing that was in the original sermon - and the is the way he ended the sermon. And so, because I want you to have the benefit of both sermons, I am going to try to retell the story that Pastor Reisenger used to end his earlier version of this sermon:
There was a man who got drunk one night and as he was walking home from the bar, he tripped and fell into a lake and almost drown. And he would have drown, except someone saw him and jumped into the lake and rescued him.
The next day this same man who fell into the lake was back at the same bar getting drunk again - this time he was celebrating his being rescued from near drowning. Well, the bar he was in was selling illegal booze and it got raided by the police and this man was hauled off to jail.
The next morning as he was being escorted into the courtroom, he noticed that the judge was the same man who pulled him out of the lake the night before. The man smiled, waived his hand to the judge, and shouted, "Hey judge, remember me? I'm the guy you pulled out of the lake last night. Remember me?"
The judge didn't smile. He didn't bat an eye. He looked at the man and said, "Yesterday I was your savior. But today I'm your judge. And I'll judge you out of the book."
I think after you listen to this sermon you will see how this story makes a very fitting conclusion to this sermon.
