What the World Needs Now

The old song by Dionne Warwick goes like this What the world needs now is love, sweet love It's the only thing that there's just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love No, not just for some but for everyone Lord, we don't need another mountain

There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb There are oceans and rivers enough to cross Enough to last until the end of time. That song calls us to a deeper love, the love of God which is the pure source of love. How does God show that love to all who will receive it? By taking the lives of sinners who are lost and redeeming by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. We have not opportunity to be good enough to change our eternal destination because our righteousness is like filthy rags. In the midst of our sin God sent His Son to die for our sins and He offers this "real love" to whosoever. Paul writes in Romans 5:6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

If we inject our theology into the mix we write a different Bible that is filled with humanistic, faulted truth and it minimizes the "experience" of receiving the grace of God. The result of this flawed thinking is judging, hedging, rewriting, and poisoning the great truth of God's righteousness. Paul speaks to this righteousness of God that has nothing to do with us "being good" or "being right",which is where the truth takes on a very worldly position and that will not work. Martin Luther, was of the Catholic religion and in that religion he alwasy felt so inadequate in being who God wanted him to be. It wasn't until he was born again that he found the real truth and the real love of God. He could not be stopped from righting the wrongs in teachings of the Catholic church and wrote a list of 95 falsehoods in their religiuos beliefs. All of this was the result of a relationship with Jesus and he presented that list and nailed it to the Wittenburg Door for all to see and the stood by the Bible when standing before a very powerful group of philosophers, Arcbishops, and priest. He must have felt Paul when he stood for the gospel on Mars Hill and argued with the religious leaders of the day.

So when Paul writes this in Romans 1:20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Scripture says that God has always been offering grace for man's sin because of His love for His creation. The ultimate thing He did with Jesus is He offered His Son's sacrifice to pay for that sin for all time. And He gave us His righteousness and we live in the love and truth when we are born again. Like Luther, everything changes at the point of salvation and we are made "whole" before God because of the blood of Jesus.

It is not surprising to see what God did in the following verses in Romans 5:6 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. What is the power of the gospel or the Good New of Jesus Christ? Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.[g] 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

What the World needs now is Jesus!!!! Jesus made us ambassadors of said message and gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us into that deeper place where we find God's eternal truths. We get to that place of understanding when we surrender our will to the love of God that we experience when we are born again and receive the Holy Spirt, which in turn gives us God's righteousness. Paul wrote this in the letter to the church in Galatia in Galatians 3:26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Today's Message,

David Warren