As I was preparing for this message on this third Sunday of Advent, a week and a half before the celebration of the birth of our Savior, I read the story of the 64-year-old grandmother who, while looking for her lost cat, fell into a sink hole in her town in Pennsylvania. Rescue units eventually found her dead body in a long-ago abandoned mine some 30 feet underground.
That tragic story – and
oh, yes, it is a terribly tragic story – that story is in some ways an
illustration of what has happened to all of humanity. I’ll say it again – what
has happened to ALL of humanity – you, me, our beloved families, our friends
and our neighbors. Everyone.
Ever since the third
chapter of Genesis when Satan seduced Eve into sin, every person on this planet
has fallen into a sink hole the Bible calls sin. And like the rescue workers
who searched unsuccessfully to save the woman who fell into that dark cavern, God
– from the earliest moments of our own fall into the cavern of sin – God set
about to rescue us from our own death – our ETERNAL death.
He rescued some successfully.
But most, and by their own choice, unsuccessfully. And some of you might be
wondering what that all has to do with Christmas. Well, stay with me a while.
Many of you know the
text Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome: “All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). And yes, God, on His rescue mission,
found each of us. But when He found us, we were already dead – as the apostle
Paul wrote in his letter the Ephesians: And you were dead in
your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1)
But Paul continued in
that same text to Ephesians – AND to us at Ashwood Meadows: “But God,
being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved
us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ . . . and raised us up with Him, and seated
us with Him in the heavenly paces in Christ Jesus . . . For by
grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so
that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:4-9)
Unlike the woman’s
rescuers who could not revive the 64-year-old grandmother, our Majestic Rescuer
not only revived us, but placed us firmly into His eternal kingdom. Listen
again to how He tells it through the apostle Paul: (Colossians 1:13-14) “For
He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the
kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.”
Well, to clarify – God rescued
those who WANT to be rescued. He forgave and transferred into His kingdom ONLY
those who WANT to be forgiven and transferred.
Why did God to that for
us? Certainly not because of anything good within us. We were dead, after all.
But He did it because of His mercy. It was His mercy that made us alive, put
the breath of life into our dead spirits and embraced each of us in His
merciful arms.
Today is the third
Sunday of Advent. My primary text this afternoon is again a short passage from
Zachariah’s prophecy about his newborn son, John the Baptizer. Zachariah,
filled with the Holy Spirit, said: (Luke 1:76ff) “And you, child, will be
called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on before
the Lord to prepare His ways; To give to His people the knowledge of
salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy
of our God.”
Before we move much further
into this message, let me remind you of the Biblical definition of God's mercy:
It means He does not and will not give the Christian what his or her
sins deserve. Indeed, not only does God give us His undeserved forgiveness, but
He ALSO chooses to utterly forget them, to toss them into the depths of the sea
of his forgetfulness. I’ve spoken about those promises many times in the past,
so I only cite a couple of Biblical references that you can review later on for
yourselves: Psalm 103:8-14 and Micah 7:18-19.
Last week we briefly
examined the link between salvation and the forgiveness of our sins. Today, we
will look at the last clause in that text which tells us our forgiveness and
salvation is the result of “The tender mercy of our God.”
By the way, it might
interest you to know that while the word ‘mercy’ is often used in references to
God and His love, the dyad, “tender mercy” appears only once in the entire
Bible. Only once – and it is here in this prophecy of Zacharias over his infant
son, John.
The tender mercy of God.
Were it not for the
tender mercy of God, I’d be closer to eternity than I’d want to think about. At
74 ½ years old, and were it not for God's tender mercy, all I could hope for
would be that when I stand before the Awesome and Most Holy God my good works would
outweigh my bad.
But as I would become
more reflective and honest about my life, I’d have to remember – much to my own
panic – I’d have to remember the many grievous and wicked things I’ve done in
my lifetime. And I would suddenly realize, with absolute certainty, that no
amount of good works could ever, in 1000 lifetimes, outweigh the evil that I’ve
done.
And I would dig myself
deeper into depression as I reminded myself, God does not have a statute of
limitations on any sins. They are all – every last one that I committed as a
young teen, or an older adult – they are all written in bold letters on the
ledger of my life.
You might think I’m
being too hard on myself. I don’t think I am. And please – don’t allow yourself
to deceive yourself into thinking YOUR past sins – going back multiple decades
– that your past sins are not ALSO still on God's ledger.
All of them – whether
you did them or thought them – unless you have been born again by
your faith in Christ’s atonement, unless you are a new person in Christ –
they’re all there, waiting to be brought forth at your judgment.
Listen to this warning
in the Revelation: (Revelation 20:11-13) “Then I saw a great
white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth
and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the
dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books
were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of
life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the
books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were
in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and
they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.”
Oh, I hope those words
trouble everyone who is not born again through their faith in Christ’s
atonement for their sins. But it is BECAUSE of the tender mercy of God, when the
Almighty Creator clothed Himself in human flesh, whose sole purpose was to pay
the penalty for each of our sins – it is because of the tender mercy of God that
anyone can have their sins totally erased from their ledger.
How? When they call
upon Christ, repent of their sins – as many as they can remember – and determine
to follow Christ the rest of their lives. That’s how.
OH! What can wash away
my sins? Good works? Tithes and offerings? Church attendance? Receiving Holy
Communion? What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can
make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know – nothing but the blood of
Jesus.
THAT’S what Christmas
is all about – The tender mercy of God.
And please pardon me
for asking this next question, but I must ask it because I am responsible to
God to ask it: Where do you fit in this message of God's mercy? Are you covered
with the blood of Christ by repentance and faith in His sacrifice?
Some of you . . . perhaps
many of you . . . perhaps even most of you have done things in your past
that you choose not to think of because they’re so horrible, so shameful, so embarrassing.
And for those of you
who don’t think you’ve done anything as to deserve God's fullest wrath, I
challenge you to get quiet with the Lord – I mean really quiet – and honestly
and with a spirit of humility – ask Him to show you the things that you’ve done
in your life, things that even you would call horrible.
And listen, please: When
He does show you your terrible sins, then remember the tender mercy of God that
will wipe them ALL from your ledger; Cleanse them all with the blood of Christ
when you come to Him for mercy.
As the Scripture
reminds us: (Romans 10:9-11) “If you confess with your mouth
Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised
Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person
believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he
confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever
believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
But what of those who
think they’ve been too deep in sin, done too many horrible things in their
lives, for them to hope for God's tender mercy?
Well, let’s look at a
few examples from both the Bible and from modern history to answer that
objection:
Manasseh was one of the
most wicked kings the people of Judah ever had the misfortune to reign over
them. You’ll find his story in 2 Kings 21. Not only did Manasseh lead his
nation into horrid and deadly idolatries, not only did he erect idols in the
Holy Temple itself, but he practiced the occult and sacrificed his son to the
fires of one of his false gods.
But God's tender mercy
extended even to Manasseh. When the wicked king found himself ruthlessly
punished by God for his sins . . . well,
here is how the Chronicler recorded it in 2 Chronicles 33:11-13: “Therefore
the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria . . . and
they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to
Babylon. When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled
himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to Him, [God] was
moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication and brought him again to
Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.” (2
Chronicles 33:11-13)
Oh, the tender mercy of
God.
And then there’s David.
I’ve mentioned him many times in the past and as recently as a week or so ago.
The king was guilty of adultery and murder, but when he cried to the Lord for
mercy, God did not disappoint him.
And then there is Saul
the religious terrorist. Listen to his own words as he stood before the Roman
king and governor: (Acts 26:9-11) “I thought to myself that I had to do many
things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this
is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of
the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief
priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote
against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried
to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept
pursuing them even to foreign cities.
I think it is fair to
assume Saul actually tortured men and women to force them to blaspheme.
And finally, for my
point, in modern times there’s Bernard Nathanson. I’ll be surprised if any of
you recognize his name. Nathanson was a cofounder of the National Abortion Rights
League in the 60s. Nathanson performed or oversaw the cold-blooded murder of
more than 60,000 babies in the womb by elective abortions. How can we even wrap
our minds around that number? Sixty-thousand babies.
But here’s an even
greater number: The spinoffs from the National Abortion Rights League have
resulted in more than 65 million babies in America murdered in their
mother’s womb by elective abortions. Who can wrap their mind around THAT number?
But in 1996 Nathanson became a Christian and until his death 15 years later was
a powerful voice for the unborn.
Certainly, what Paul wrote
to the Christians at Rome AND at Ashwood Meadows has proven true for all of us
who are born again: (Romans 2:4) “Or do you think lightly of the riches of
His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God
leads you to repentance?”
Yes, who can understand
the tender mercy of God? I cannot. But I am overwhelmingly grateful for the
tender mercy of God for his forgiveness and for eternal salvation.
As I bring this message
to a close, I want to return us to the story of the woman lost in that sinkhole
and help us make some personal application on this third Sunday of Advent.
Every time you sit in
that dining room, every time you shop in the local stores, or rub shoulders in
crowds, you’re in the midst of men and women who have fallen into the sinkhole
of sin. They’ve been there for decades. They don’t know it, but they’re all “dead
in their trespasses and sins.”
Christian, please hear
this: Each of us has the privilege to search and rescue them. The Christian has
the privilege AND the responsibility to do what we can do for the King of
kings. What is it Jesus commanded us: (Matthew 28:19-20) “Go therefore
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.”
How can you go to them?
The ways and the methods are varied and are not difficult. Here are a few
suggestions (and not in any particular order):
1. Pray over your
meals. Let people know you are thankful to your God for your food and your health
to enjoy it.
2. Invite them to our
church services and Bible studies.
3. Ask God to help you
live a more holy life. Don’t give people a reason to mock your faith and think
of you as a hypocrite.
4. Stop gossiping. The
Lord Jesus warned us (Matthew 12:37) “I tell you, on the day of judgment
people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words
you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” And James
added: (James 1:26) “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle
his tongue . . . . this person’s religion is worthless.”
5. Open your Bibles and
reflect on God‘s word.
6. To the best of your
financial ability, support Christian missionary work and other Christian
organizations around the country and the world.
7. Do as the Lord asks
of us in Matthew 9:37-39: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are
few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into
His harvest.”
When that grandmother
woke up that morning, she of course could not have known – no one could have
known – that it would be her last morning of life.
Are you ready to meet
the Lord? Have you sought His tender mercy as the thief of the cross sought it?
Nothing can erase a lifetime of sin – no good works, no church attendance, not
receiving Holy Communion – nothing but your repentance and your faith in the sacrificial
atonement of our Savior, Jesus the Christ – given to us because of the tender
mercy of God.
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