The Manufacturer's Manual

Sermon

August 2, 2026

God’s Special Revelation:

The Manufacturer’s Manual

 

Today we continue our series in Psalm 19. Last week we looked briefly at the first four verses which speak of God’s general revelation of Himself to humanity. I mentioned also last week that verses 7-11 speak of God’s special revelation in Scripture, in which He communicates with us through the Scriptures about sin, judgement, redemption, and eternal life.

 

We saw last time how the science of astronomy, human anatomy, and biology clearly demonstrate the existence of God to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear. We also saw, but only briefly, the spiritual COSTS of refusing to hear what God says to us. Those costs have a terrible price tag. First, our refusal hurts God’s heart, He who has lavished and continues to lavish His love on each person on this planet.

 

The other cost is that we harden our own hearts, even to the point of permanent spiritual blindness. The apostle Paul after having spent considerable time declaring to the Jewish community of Rome the clear evidence that Jesus is the Messiah, said to those who continued to scoff at God’s truth: “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.”’ (Acts 28:26-27)

 

So, while “The heavens declare the glory of God,” His full revelation of Himself is not complete without His SPECIAL revelation – specifically, His revelation about Christ Jesus as He unveiled it throughout His holy Scriptures.

 

For the sake of time, we turn our attention today only to verse 7. We will leave the remainder of this section for the weeks to come. Here is the entire 19th Psalm for context:

 

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament [e.g. the skies] shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.

 

“Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”

 

God repeatedly tells us through His Word that no one can come to know Him without His first awakening in our heart the desire to know Him. St Paul tells us in that second chapter of his letter to the church at Ephesus that all humanity is dead in their trespasses and sins. And as we all know, dead people can’t do anything but lie there and slowly decompose. 

 

But Paul doesn’t stop there. He continues: “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 – by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:1-5)

 

For us to know God, He must come to us. Unless He does, we can only grope our way in spiritual darkness. As He tells us through Isaiah: “[Our] iniquities have made a separation between” us and God and our “sins have hidden His face from” us that He does not hear . . . We grope along the wall like blind men, we grope like those who have no eyes; We stumble at midday as in the twilight.” (Isaiah 59:2, 10)

But the Lord Jesus, whose mission was – and is – to save anyone who wants to be saved, He tells us: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)

 

I think it’s noteworthy that David uses the phrase “of the Lord” six times in this section of God’s special revelation. He writes: The law of the Lord . . . The testimony of the Lord . . . The precepts of the Lord . . .The commandment of the Lord . . The fear of the Lord . . .The judgments of the Lord.”

 

There is good reason for this repetition, and we are all well advised to pay close attention to that reason. Paul tells us, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

 

All Scripture, from Genesis through Revelation, is inspired by God. The word ‘inspired’ means that God directed – not dictated – God directed the human authors to write what they did under His full and infallible guidance. Listen to St Peter tell us: “No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (New English Translation)

 

So, back to our text in verse 7, the first part which tells us: “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.” Other translations render ‘restoring the soul’ as ‘converting the soul’ – which I think is a better rendering because that’s the idea of the Hebrew word, a turning of the heart to God.

 

Anyone with an open mind and who knows the history of America’s Christian origins recognize that one of the reasons our nation’s morals are swimming in a demonic sewer is because so many of us have forsaken God’s word or reinterpreted it to fit into our own desires.

 

Case in point: Seven of the eight Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, were each founded for one purpose – to train pastors to bring the word of God to their congregations and to the world. But as authors Peter Greer and Chris Horst report in their book, Mission Drift, many one-time evangelical institutions have “slowly, silently, and with little fanfare, [drifted] from their original purpose, and most will never return to their original intent.” (Decision Magazine, July-August 2026, p. 10)

What happens when pastors imbibe training in seminaries that reject the full inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible? They lead whole congregations down a very wide road to perdition. They become the blind leading the blind into the pit. Watch the filth on television for five minutes and tell me I’m wrong. Listen to the pastors who preach under the Rainbow flag and tell me I’m wrong. Take note of the multitude of pastors who remain silent about the demonic cult of abortion which slaughters more than 2,000 babies in the womb each and every day in America and tell me I’m wrong.

 

And what happens to individual men and women who reject the Bible as God’s infallible word? You’ll find many of them practicing a lifestyle closely following what Paul warned about. They become “lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” (2 Timothy 3:2-5) 

 

We must not minimize this truth inherent in verse 7 of psalm 19: The restoration or the conversion of the soul is not a one-time event done at an altar or in a baptismal. If we are not daily being restored and converted to the godly lifestyle He created us for, then we will find ourselves drifting from Truth.

 

Listen to the psalmist implore God – as should we all: “Do not let me wander from Your commandments;” (Psalm 119:9) and the hymn writer who humbly acknowledged: ‘Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” 

 

I must also say this once again: Anyone who is able to read, study, and memorize God’s word and remains lazy about doing those things is at ever-increasing risk of drifting from the Christ of the Bible. Those who ignore the history of those in the Church who slowly abandoned their faith are doomed to repeat that history for themselves.

 

Mark Twain is a tragic example of that point. Raised by devout Christian parents, in later life turned away from what he once knew to be true. It should be no surprise that he remarked: “It’s not what I don’t understand in the Bible that troubles me, It's what I do understand that troubles me.'

 

God created you and me; And the Bible His manufacturer’s manual for life. His Word works through the supernatural influence of God the Holy Spirit to convert the soul to be ‘born again’, to turn from godlessness to godliness. It is the Holy Spirit who, through our knowledge and obedience to the Word, delivers us from the domain of darkness and transfers us to the kingdom of His dear Son. (See Colossians 1:13)

 

It’s impossible – impossible – to be born again, to be transferred from Satan’s domain to God’s without paying heed to God’s voice. THAT’S why Satan works so relentlessly to impugn the full authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures. From the time he seduced Eve into doubting God’s instructions to this very day in seminaries and churches throughout the world, Satan continues to whisper: “Has God REALLY said?” And “Did God REALLY mean what He said?”

 

So, back to verse 7 of Psalm 19: The second part of that verse continues, “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” God’s testimony – His statement about Himself as found only between the pages of Scripture – tells us of His character, His faithfulness, His mighty works, His judgments, and His will for humanity – all of which is 100% reliable, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. It is the Creator’s testimony alone that imparts wisdom even to those who lack experience or discernment.

 

James tells us in his short epistle: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5). And the psalmist reminds us: “Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.” (Psalm 119:98-100)

 

Many of you have probably received Christmas cards which portray the Three Wise Men bringing their gifts to Baby Jesus in the Bethlehem manger. (Yes, I am aware that there were likely many more than three men who traveled from the East. I also know that when they arrived to give their gifts to Jesus, the Holy Family were living in a house – likely a year or perhaps two since Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:11)).

The inside cover of many of those cards reads: “Wise men still seek Him.” And that’s the whole point I want to make about this seventh verse in Psalm 19.

 

If you were here last week, you may remember I quoted from the 14th Psalm: “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1)

And what is the remedy for being a fool? Psalm 19:7 “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”

 

In other words, when people believe what God says and they obey what God says, He converts even fools into wise men and women. Listen to pastor and author R. A. Torrey: “The one who studies the Bible, if he does not study any other book, will know more of real wisdom - wisdom that counts for eternity as well as time, wisdom that this perishing world needs to know, wisdom for which hungry hearts are starving today – [will have such wisdom more] than the man who reads every other book and neglects his Bible.”

 

God’s testimony is sure, meaning it is without error. Therefore, we can be certain that the Holy Scriptures we read every day is incapable of being wrong. It is not and cannot be wrong about history, morality, or anything else it speaks of. It is without error regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is completely trustworthy when it promises an eternity in heaven for those who follow Christ, and of an eternity in torment for those who reject Christ.

 

The totality of God’s word is simple enough for a child to understand, yet it is so deep that the most brilliant minds can never plumb its depth. As one of Job’s so-called ‘friends’ recognized: Job 11:7-9 “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.”

 

There is an important reason why Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13 

 

What’s so important about that? Look again at that last clause: God’s word “performs its work in you who believe.” Faith in the Bible’s inerrancy and infallibility is the prerequisite for conversion. God’s word will not change the one who does not believe it to be always true about all things, but it DOES change and continues to change the one who DOES believe it.

 

Well, I must bring today’s message to a close, and so I will do it in this way: Just as we cannot know God unless He reveals Himself to us, neither can we love God or His word unless He enables us to do so.

 

The psalmist recognized this truth. Listen to part of his prayer in Psalm 119: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law . . . Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes . . . Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law . . . Make me walk in the path of Your commandments . . . Incline my heart to Your testimonies.” (Psalm 119:18, 33-36).

 

It’s all about what GOD does in us and for us, and not at all about our ability to love Him or to even seek Him. A genuine love for God’s Word is ultimately a supernatural work of God’s grace. And although we are commanded to read, meditate on, and obey Scripture, those same Scriptures encourage us to ask God for a supernatural longing and appetite for His Word.

 

It would be good for us to imitate the apostle Paul’s cry for God to work in his heart: “[Oh!] That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Philippians 3:10

 

I quoted earlier from the epistle of James: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5). Don’t think for a moment that God is not well pleased to do the same for us when we ask Him to increase our love for Him and His word. “Call to me,” God invites us through Jeremiah, “and I will answer you.” (Jeremiah 33:3)

 

The heavens declare God’s general revelation of Himself to humanity. The section of Psalm 19 we began to look at today declares God’s special revelation of Himself through the book best known as the Holy Bible.

We will delve further into this psalm next Sunday. 

God is not Silent

Our text today comes from the first four verse of the19th Psalm, but for context, here is the entire short psalm: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament [e.g. the skies] shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

 

So, to those first four verses: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

 

Not very often in my life have I been far enough away from the light pollution of nearby cities to stand amazed by the countless stars glittering across the blackness of space. But when I DO get to see them, I usually stare in amazement. It’s only because I’ve read cosmological trivia that I even know not only of the majesty of the heavens but ALSO the unfathomable precision with which the heavens function.

For example, according to Scienceabc.com, “If Earth’s orbit changed, the climate consequences would be enormous. Moving closer to the Sun would push surface temperatures past survivable limits . . . moving farther would freeze the planet. A drastic enough change in Earth’s orbital speed could even slow it into the Sun or fling it out of the solar system altogether. Earth stays in its current orbit because its orbital velocity is precisely balanced against the Sun’s gravity.”

 

I could share with you other fascinating trivia about the intricacies and inter-relatedness of God’s heavens, but in the time we have today, I want to draw our attention from God’s handiwork on the macro level and focus on God’s miraculous creation on the micro-level – the ‘universe’ we call the human body.

 

Listen to the Psalmist speak of that universe: “You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:13-14)

 

Physiologists, biologists, geneticists, embryologists, and all the other disciplines within the sphere of science focused on the human body – they all – if their minds are teachable – will admit there is absolutely no room in evolutionary theory for human development. Our bodies are simply too complex to be explained away by such a provably false theory.

 

For the sake of time, let’s look only at the eye: Our eyes contain a fluid – more like a gel – that gives the eye its shape and holds the retina in place. Without that gel – called the vitreous humor – the eyeball would collapse.

Now, about that vitreous humor – our body continually forms that gel. That means that unless there were some way for the gel to drain, the fluid pressure would build to the point that the person would be blind.   

 

Well, of course, there IS a drain, a specialized tube in the eye through which the vitreous fluid continuously drains, even as it is continually produced by the eye. Which means, if evolution is true, then both the liquid in the eyeball AND the drainage canal had to evolve simultaneously, or our species would each have quickly become blind.

 

And of note, Charles Darwin wrote about the eye this way: “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration,[to suppose that the eye] could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” (Darwin and Evolution of the Eye)

 

Yet, despite his acknowledgment about the eye’s complexity, Darwin held tenaciously to his opinion that the human body was formed by chance.

 

Now, then, this is not the time for a deeper discussion of the eye, or, for that matter, to demonstrate the utter impossibility – statistically or logically – of the eons-long development of the lungs, the kidneys, the liver, the pancreas, the brain, or any other of the body organs. Without the SIMULTANEOUS creation of the various and necessary elements within each organ to enable it to do what it was designed to do – humanity would never have lived 24 hours.

 

As John Heywood noted in the 16^th century: “There is none so blind as those who will not see.” In other words, those who CHOOSE to ignore evidence are more blind than those without physical sight.

 

Nevertheless, it’s a matter of routine in our culture for scoffers to mock Biblical truth. Most people prefer to parrot what they’ve heard from others, instead of bothering to study such things in detail. The prefer to recite without thinking the opinions of atheists who declare that belief in God is irrational foolishness, something believed only old women and children.

 

Irrational foolishness. Oh, really? In the years between 1900 and 2000, 64% of the Nobel prizes in physics, 65% of the prizes in medicine, and 74% of Nobel prizes in Chemistry went to Christians? And the statistics since the year 2000 remain essentially unchanged. And yet, scoffers still say belief in God is only for old women and children.

 

So, why is it that otherwise smart men and women reject belief in God? The answer to that question is not as complex as it might at first seem. The answer is quite simple. Listen to Jesus who is God-made-flesh explain the reason: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:19-21, NIV)

 

So, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.”  The Psalmist continues, “Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

 

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. In other words, God speaks. All the time. To anyone and to everyone who cares to listen AND even to those who refuse to listen. He speaks through nature itself – sun, wind, rain, thunder, lightning . . .

 

What? We think because we can explain things of nature – such as the hydrologic cycle, also called the ‘water cycle’ – we think because we can explain such thing through science that we don’t need to believe in God to understand such phenomena?

 

Oh, really? Isn’t it reasonable to believe the Creator of the universe and of all things in it – including earth – isn’t it reasonable to believe the Creator initiated such things as the hydrologic cycle as early as Genesis chapter one? Why else did the Creator God create the various laws of science except to make the earth inhabitable for the plant and animal life that He would create on the third, fifth, and sixth days of creation?

 

“Science” merely explains the processes God established in His laws of science to provide for the needs of the various life-forms He created? No wonder He warns us in His word: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)

 

And no wonder He warns through the Psalmist: “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1)

 

Listen: It’s a fearful thing when God calls someone a fool. It’s a fearful thing when He directs the words of the second psalm to the fool: “He who sits in the heavens [derisively] laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.” (Psalm 2:4)

 

Yes, God speaks. He speaks through nature. He also speaks through the written word we call the Bible. And He speaks through His servants who faithfully preach and teach the Bible. He even speaks through the wicked as He instructs those with eyes to see and ears to hear what we should NOT do and how we should NOT live.

 

God uses all means, measures, and manners to speak – including silence. And He speaks also through silence. Listen to Charles Spurgeon: “There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labor in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. . . . Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat but they do not [take time to] grind it . . . From such folly deliver us, O Lord.”

 

And just as we sometimes have difficulty hearing each other downstairs with all the ambient noise, we also have difficulty hearing God with all the ambient noise of our lives. TV, radio, chitchats around game tables, trips to here and there – all of which are fine and good. But when we want to hear specifically from God – we hear best from Him in silence. Why? Because He wants our ATTENTION. He wants us focused on what He is saying to us. We cannot focus while surrounded by noise.

 

“Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while” (Mark 6:30-32) the Lord Jesus said to His disciples. And He says the same thing to us in 2026.

 

I’ve mentioned the 15-minute challenge in the past, and I do so again for emphasis. I urge you to get alone with God every day for 15 minutes – by the clock. The silence might be uncomfortable at first, but as you practice it day after day spending time talking to Him and reading His word – and listen for Him to talk with you – with practice, you WILL find it getting easier and even enjoyable. 

For example, open your Bible to the psalms. Skim the pages until a verse or two or three catch your attention. Then meditate on what God is saying to you at that moment through the text. Pray the verses back to Him. At times, do the same thing with the New Testament. You could also pray the lyrics of hymns you know, or the hymns I hand out each week.

God is intimately involved with the universe, and He longs to be intimate with you and me. He loves you. And me. He loves those whom He has adopted by our faith in Christ. He loves us just as much as He loves Jesus. It can’t get any better than that. Listen to what the Lord prayed in that 17th chapter of John: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:22-23)

I need to bring this message to a close and I will do so with this: Many students of the Bible recognize this 19th psalm is divided into three clear sections. The verses we looked at today speak of God’s general revelation to humanity through creation itself. He tells us creation itself reveals His existence, His power, and His glory. And because His power and glory are accessible to all humanity, they have – as Paul said to those in Rome – no excuse for disbelief.

Next Sunday we will examine verses 7-11 which speak of God’s special revelation which displays God's character as revealed through the Bible and through the life of Jesus the Christ. His special revelation constitutes His redemptive work through Christ for a fallen humanity. Finally, the last section of this psalm – verses 12-14 – reveals what should be our personal RESPONSE to God’s general and special revelations.

I close with this final word: There are serious and significant costs to ignoring God’s revelations. The first cost is what our rejection does to God.

It breaks His heart.

Some of you here have already caught a glimpse of that heartbreak in your own life because your child or children on whom you lavished your love –grew up and now want no part of you.

And your heart aches whenever you think about it. Maybe it aches even now as I bring up the subject. So, yes, some of you can begin to catch a glimpse of God’s broken heart over the estrangement of those whom He brought into this world to lavish on them His own love.

“God so loved the world” means what it says. God passionately loves every man, woman, and child on this planet. Even those who dismiss Him as irrelevant, like many of our families dismiss Him and like many of those downstairs in the dining room dismiss Him.

 When God wept for His wayward nation, He spoke through the prophet Hosea: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? . . . . My heart is turned over within Me; All My compassions are kindled.” (Hosea 11:8) And speaking through Ezekiel, God mourned: “How I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me.” (Ezekiel 6:9)

I know most people could not care less that their rejection of God so deeply hurts Him. I only bring it up because His heartache is but one of the costs – the cost He Himself endures – when we ignore His revelations.

Another serious and significant cost for ignoring God is what it does to us. There inevitably comes a time when a person consciously and persistently rejects God’s love that the person forms within himself a permanent spiritual hardness; And God them gives them over to their rebellions and lusts and hatreds (see the context of Romans 1:18-32). He hardens their hearts so that they are unable, for the rest of their lives, to turn back to God and receive eternal life (see the context of 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

Yes, there are some terrible and serious consequences of ignoring God’s revelation of Himself – whether His general revelation through nature, or His specific revelation through Scripture and through the life and work or the Lord Jesus Christ.  We will continue this short series through Psalm 19 next week as we look in greater detail at His specific self-revelation to humanity through the Bible.

Daddy, Daddy, Wait for Me

 

Our text for today is from St Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia, in which he wrote: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7)

 

He wrote similarly to the Christians in Rome: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:14-16)

 

And so, what does this all have to do with you and me in 2026 – and with all others who live for Jesus as their Lord? And that is the limitation: Those who live for Jesus as their Lord.

 

The texts do not apply to any who reject Jesus’ lordship, or to those who give only lip service to Him,  Only those who obey Christ have the right to call God, ‘Father;’  Or ‘Daddy.’

 

As Scripture tells us: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:10-13)

 

Several years ago, Nancy and I were vacationing in Orlando, Florida. During my morning time with the Lord in our hotel suite, I heard a young child outside our door call anxiously to her father, “Daddy, wait for me. Please.” 

 

I assumed her father stopped, and I heard a muffled response, “Come on, we need to go.” A moment later, small feet pattered past the door and down the hall. But her plea interrupted my prayer time, and I replayed her plaintive cry in my mind, “Daddy, wait for me, please.”

 

Although I couldn’t see him on the other side of my door, I sensed he was in a hurry to get wherever it was they needed to get to.

 

“Come on,” he said. “We need to go.”

 

Did he sound a little impatient? I can’t know for sure. As I said, his voice sounded muffled.  But I suddenly remembered myself several decades earlier in similar situations.

 

Countless times, I’m sure, our children called out to me as I raced to get wherever it was I needed to get to. “Daddy, wait for me, please.” And I know I must have called behind me – probably – and I am sorry to admit – most often impatiently, “Come on, we need to go.”

 

And then, as I thought about the little voice outside the door, and my memories of our children, the Holy Spirit changed my focus. It is that change of focus that I want to now draw our attention.

 

You remember the story of the two men hung between heaven and earth, nailed to crosses on either side of the One in the middle. Two men, thieves, struggling against death, knowing it was only a matter of time before death finally sank its talons into their flesh.  And all the while, they watched the Stranger in the middle.

Here is how St. Luke records this scene in his gospel: When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:33-43)

 

I want to draw our attention to the three responses in this short section – and how they relate to the plaintive cry of all who know they are lost without the Savior – Daddy, Daddy, wait for me, please. Here are the

three responses: The response of the sinner to his sin; The response of the sinner to his savior; and the response of the Savior to the sinner.

 

First: One thief knew he deserved to die. He’d broken the law, and now was paying the penalty. The other, even while dying, joined the mob at the foot of the cross in mocking, cursing, and blaspheming the Stranger in the middle.

But the penitent thief would have none of it. And here we see the sinner’s response to his own sin. He acknowledged it. He confessed that he was wrong in what he had done. And he rebuked the other: “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”

 

When was the last time you confessed to God that you were wrong and that God is right to demand of us righteousness?

 

Well, that was the sinner’s response to his own sin. Acknowledgment. We must all, every one of us, first do that. It’s called making a good confession – not a casual confession of sin to God, but honestly being SORRY for having sinned.

 

It’s like saying, “Daddy, wait for me, please. I’ve stumbled. I’ve fallen. I want to go with you, but I’ve allowed myself to be distracted. I’ve allowed myself to be tempted away from You. Daddy, please wait for me. I’m coming to you now.”

 

Have you ever in your life felt that way? Stumbled into sin? Fallen deeply into sin? But you woke up, took stock of where you were and where Daddy was . . . and you called out to Him – “Daddy, wait for me. I’m coming”?

 

If you’re like me, you’ve done that dozens and dozens of times in your walk with Christ. And if you have not – you need to get alone with yourself and ask yourself, “Why not?”  Maybe – and I suggest this very cautiously and kindly, but also firmly and with great earnestness – if you have not daily confessed your daily sins, then maybe God is not really your Father. Maybe He is for you just a nice idea.

 

Now let’s look at the sinner’s response to what He hoped would be the Savior’s mercy: “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” (Luke 23:40-42)

 

In that moment he did what everyone must do – not just once, but repeatedly in their life. The broken and contrite thief recognized Jesus had a kingdom. He recognized Jesus was Lord in His kingdom. And the thief wanted to be with Him forever in that kingdom.

 

If we think about it, the thief’s response to his own sin and to what he hoped would be the Savior’s response was not too dissimilar to King David’s response to the Savior after his sin with Bathsheba:

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight . . . . . Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow ^{. . . .} Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. . . . . (Psalm 51).

 

If you’re Catholic, you recognize how close David’s prayer is to the Act of Contrition often said in the confessional: O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

Or another way of saying it: “Daddy. Daddy. Wait for me, please. I’m coming to You.”

The thief’s response was first to acknowledge his sins. To own up to them. His second response was to turn to the Savior in repentance, to ask for mercy and forgiveness.

 

Repentance does amazing things in and for our soul. It lifts us to where Jesus hangs on the cross, face to face with His nailed and bloodied body – brutalized because of our sins. Repentance frees us from ourselves, from our arrogance that binds us to eternal death. It teaches us humility and unveils for us our fleeting mortality and our desperate need for an eternal savior. Repentance brings us into an intimate relationship with the King of Glory reserved only for the penitent.

Here again is what the penitent thief said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” He spoke less than a dozen words. Short prayers from the heart are as efficacious as long soliloquies.

And finally, for today, the third response – this one is the Savior’s response to the penitent sinner who pleaded: Jesus, remember me. And Jesus responded: “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

 

How often did the Lord Jesus say to others, “Come, follow Me”?  Lots of times. His offer is embedded from one end of the Gospels to the other. And oh, how I want to follow Him. And I believe you do, too.

 

But how is it so often the case that you and I get sidetracked from following Him? Like little children distracted by a bug crawling in the grass, or the breeze blowing though leaves, or the cat cowering by the tree trunk – or even a piece of trash crumpled along the sidewalk – we so often get preoccupied by life events, and we take our eyes off the Shepherd and dally in the distractions – until we suddenly notice we’re not as close to Daddy as we were at the first.

 

“Daddy, wait for me, please.”

 

What causes a child to so easily lose focus? Whatever it is, and I know there are many things responsible for catching a toddler’s eye – whatever it is should not be what causes me or you to lose focus. St. Paul wrote something to this point in his letter to the church at Corinth: When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. (1 Corinthians 13).

 

Oh, may God almighty help us to mature into spiritual maturity and to better fix our eyes on Jesus as we follow Him wherever it is He wants us to go.

 

Daddy, wait for me please.

 

The good news this 19^th day of July in 2026 is this: Unlike human fathers who sometimes turn back and call impatiently to the lagging child, “Hurry up. We need to get going;” Unlike the human father, our heavenly Father never once, never ever once, has He ever turned back and said with impatience: “Come on. Hurry up. We need to get going.”

 

Instead, He always turns back and says to us – as we find in the great love story of the Old Testament, the Song of Songs, chapter 2:

 

‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. ‘For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. ‘The flowers have already appeared in the land; The time has arrived for singing. The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. ‘The fig tree has ripened its figs,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!’”

 

And so, on this Sunday, I’d like us each to remember the three men on Calvary’s hill and the responses of the men on either side of Jesus. One responded to his sin with a hardened heart. The other responded with a broken heart – broken enough to bring his sins and himself to the Man in the middle.

 

Almighty God’s promise threads its way throughout Scripture. Listen to the Psalmist: “The Lord redeems the souls of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.” (Psalm 34:22); And now to the apostle Paul: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

 

The story of the thief on the cross holds a critically important lesson for us in 2026. As often as we do what he did – humbly acknowledge our sin, our rebellion, the times we have turned our backs on His commandments – and then plead for Christ’s forgiveness – Jesus always responds: “Truly I say to you, you will be with Me in Paradise.” 

 

Another way of saying it: “Come along, my child. I’m waiting for you to return. Come home. All ye that labor and are heavily laden, come, and I will give you rest.