Old Testament Reading Genesis 1:1–3, 26–31; 3:1–15

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

Epistle Romans 2:5–16

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Holy Gospel John 3:1–21

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”

Grace to you and peace in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God Cares about You. How do we know that? How do we know what we know about God? The God who saved us. The God who died for us. The God who suffered for us. Where do we learn who God is?

The Bible says:

T he heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky displays what His hands have made. One day tells a story to the next. One night shares knowledge with the next without talking, without words, without their voices being heard.¹

The Bible also says:

What can be known about God is clear because he has made it clear to them. From the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what He made. As a result, people have no excuse.²

Can we know about God without the Bible? The Bible says, “Yes.” There are some thing you can know about God even if you’ve never had the Bible to read. Look at all of creation. Look at the sun, moon and stars. Look at the plants and animals. Look at all of nature and see the wonder in all of it. From the tiniest microscopic particles to the largest galaxies God’s power and order are displayed. Is there a God? The Bible says:

The fool says in his heart
there is no God.³

Look to the furthest reaches our telescopes can peer into the depths of space. Look into the tiniest realms of atoms, electrons and quarks. Look at the meticulous detail and depth of awesome complexity. Nature tells us something about God. There is a natural knowledge of God. In fact God’s Law is written on our hearts.⁴ Not only does nature call out the truth of God’s existence but our hearts, our spirit, proclaims His truths. The Bible say:

I t is shown that some requirements found in Moses’ Teachings [God’s Law] are written on their hearts. Their consciences speak to them. Their thoughts accuse them on one occasion, and defend them on another. This happens as they face the day when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge people’s secret thoughts. He will use the Good News [the Gospel] that is being spread to make that judgment.⁵

Creation speaks of a creator. All that is around us, as well as we God’s most precious creation, all speak of a powerful Creator. That much can be seen by any rational, sane, reasonable, thinking person.

That however is not all there is to know about God. Nature cannot tell you how much God loves you. Nature cannot tell you God has forgiven you. Nature cannot tell you how God saved you. For that you must turn to one place, and one place only, God’s Holy Word.

In God’s Word, God tells us about: who God is, what we are worth to Him, how He has saved us, forgiven us and called us His own children whom He loves and cherishes.⁶ Our God, as we learned last week, is a Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We don’t learn that from nature. We learn that from God’s Word. Jesus Christ, God Himself, said (as we heard two weeks ago on Ascension Sunday) in Matthew 28

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. So wherever you go, make disciples of all nations: Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to do everything I have commanded you. And remember that I am always with you until the end of time.⁷

So we learn who God is in part from God’s creation and in part from God’s Word. Through these things we know all that we can know about God. There is no other place to go.

That is our God. We can know Him. We can have head-knowledge about God. That however is not enough. That knowledge must make the long, arduous and sometimes treacherous journey of about 18 inches from your brain’s acquisition to your heart’s possession.

What is God like? Is He a nice God, an angry God, a judgmental God, a forgiving God? Listen to a few quotations from Scripture:

O Lord, you have been our refuge throughout every generation. Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, you were God. You are God from everlasting to everlasting.⁸

“I the Lord do not change.⁹”

“I am a God who is near. I am also a God who is far away,” declares the Lord. “No one can hide so that I cannot see him,” declares the Lord. “I fill heaven and earth!” declares the Lord.¹⁰

O Lord, you have examined me, and you know me. You alone know when I sit down and when I get up. You read my thoughts from far away. You watch me when I travel and when I rest. You are familiar with all my ways. Even before there is a single word on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord. You are all around me—in front of me and in back of me. You lay your hand on me. Such knowledge is beyond my grasp. It is so high I cannot reach it.¹¹

One more…

The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and merciful God, patient, always faithful and ready to forgive. He continues to show his love to thousands of generations, forgiving wrongdoing, disobedience, and sin. He never lets the guilty go unpunished, punishing children and grandchildren for their parents’ sins to the third and fourth generation.¹²

What is our God like? God has written His Law on our hearts so we can reflect the image and likeness of God.¹³ What is our God like? He is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. We learn He is not fickle,¹⁴ with His mind always changing so that you cannot know what He thinks or says. When God speaks that is the truth and it is the truth forever. He is consistent, stable and dependable. He is everywhere all the time. There is no place you can run no place you can hide where God is not there.¹⁵

That should bring some fear to the unfaithful and unrepentant. That we, who have God’s Law written on our hearts, would harbor hate and any kind of evil should be unthinkable. Yet for us the faithful of God, that is the greatest comfort, because we can know God will never abandon us or leave us. He cannot lose us or forget us.¹⁶ He does not leave us like a cork bobbing on the waves.¹⁷

In fact not only does He know where we are, but He knows who we are. He knows our innermost and most secret thoughts. There is nothing we can hide from Him.¹⁸ There is nothing we can conceal from Him. Again that should bring fear to the unfaithful and the unrepentant, but for us the faithful that means He knows our weaknesses. He knows our regret for past sins. He knows our struggle with unbelief and doubt. He knows, and He gives us help and aid in those things as we regularly dwell in reading and hearing His Word.¹⁹

That is why we are on this journey through the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer this Summer, to use the Catechism as something more than an old dusty book for kids. Rather as a tool to walk through God’s Holy Word, and learn from Him.

Finally, although there is much more I could say, we learn God is desperate to forgive all who trust in Him.²⁰ However, for those who defiantly refuse to repent there will be a reckoning. Sadly, people really do go to Hell everyday.²¹ Just as people really do go to Heaven everyday.

So God is everywhere and God made everything. How did God make all this stuff? What power did He call on? What materials did He use? Well, God used God to create all things. In the beginning there was nothing. There was no dirt, no sky, no space, no stars, moon, no sun, no time. There was nothing. Then God said, “Let there be light.²²” What happened? There was light. Why? Because God said so.

That is how all of creation was created. God, by the power of God, called all things into existence. There is no one greater than He. He created everything perfect, flawless and pure.

…but He made us differently.

All of the plants, animals, dirt, water and everything else, were made by Him for us. When God made us He stooped down. He got His hands dirty. He formed us with His hands from the dust of the ground.²³ We were made in the image and likeness of God.²⁴ We are eternal beings. Although we have a beginning, we have no end. There will never be a time when you will not be. You will always be, forever into the future.

You have a free will. You can make up your own mind. You can choose to defy God. And that is what we the human race did. This God, perfect, holy, powerful and merciful, was ignored and defied. He said, “Don’t eat from that one tree.²⁵” Adam and Eve thought they knew better. They thought they could live without reliance on God and they took a bite. It may not have seemed like much. It might not seem like much now, but in that one act all of creation was stained. In that one act we were eternally cut off from God. We were dead to Him forever.²⁶

That should have been the end of the Bible. God said, “Don’t.” We did. We’re dead to God forever.

God, however, could not endure being separated from His children forever. So God made a promise. That promise was: One would come to make all things new.²⁷ One would come to save us and make us alive again.²⁸ Alive for all eternity again. So once again you will always be, forever into the future always with God. That is the promise to those who repent and place their trust in Him.

God cares for us as we live though this life in a sinful messed up world. He does not abandon us or expect us to find our own way. He leads us and guides us along that narrow road that leads through that narrow gate²⁹ into the glory of Heaven. For that we give Him our thanks and praise.

This is the God in whom we believe and trust for our salvation. This is the God we worship. This is the God we praise. This is the God with whom we will get better acquainted over the next few weeks as we explore God’s gracious Word as taught in a simple way, though the Catechism.

Amen.

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NOTES