If Not, Why Not?

 

My text today is from the first verse of the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome. But because context is always important when we study any subject – and especially so when we study God’s word – I will read the first several verses of the chapter:

 

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Obviously, the apostle Paul did not take a composition class in high school. I don’t know how many words there are in this run-on sentence in the Greek language, but in this English translation, there are 132 words. Yes, he used a lot of commas – but no periods to let the reader catch his breath.

 

Well, I am not here today to critique the apostle’s writing. What I AM here to do today is to focus our attention on some important points Paul makes – points directly related to our walk with Christ – and to our work for Christ.

 

Before we get there, I need to first say that I believe what I am about to say is nothing that most of you have known and believed for many years. But as the apostle Peter communicated to his readers, so I now do the same thing: “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.” (2 Peter 1:12-15)

And as an aside, no, I do not have any premonition that the Lord will soon be taking me to Himself, but – who knows what a day or a week may bring?

So, back to the first verse in Romans chapter one. I want to draw attention to three foundational points in this first verse:

 

First, we ought to remind ourselves who Paul was before his Damascus Road encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. The man – known at the time as Saul – was a religious terrorist. This is not a point to gloss over. Here is his own testimony as he spoke before King Agrippa and the Governor Festus: (Acts 26) “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. (Acts 26:9-11)

 

Why is Paul’s history important? Because God demonstrates through this man – as He has repeatedly shown us throughout Biblical history – no one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy.  No one. Not you. Not me. No one.

 

Therefore, for us to say about someone – or about ourselves! – “There is no sense in praying for him, or inviting him to Bible study, or to talk with him or her about Jesus. To say and believe such things is to deny God’s power.

 

Here is what Paul said of himself in this regard (1 Timothy 1) - It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15-15)

 

I hope you caught that last part of this section. Paul, the former violent blasphemer and persecutor of every Christian man and woman he could find, wrote: “For this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”

 

That is precisely why Paul could also write to Timothy: “I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience . . . .” (2 Timothy 1:3)

 

A clear conscience. Why do you think Paul had a clear conscience, considering all he had done to Christians? Because he knew God’s mercy took all his sins and placed them under the blood of Jesus. He knew his dark slate of sin was wiped clean, on one side and then the other, through and through. Not a stain remained.

 

The relevance to 2026? Do you have a clear conscience? Are you as certain of that YOUR sins are completely erased as the former terrorist Paul was certain that His were gone, washed by the blood of Jesus?

 

I know you’ve heard this point from me a hundred times over the years you’ve sat in those seats – and you will hear it another hundred times if the Lord continues to give me this podium. So hear it is again: You can have a clear conscience, if only you repent of whatever sin is holding you back from a close and intimate relationship with God.

 

The promise God made and fulfilled for the former blasphemer and persecutor of the Church is also offered to you and me – and to everyone at your table in the dining room, and to all the other tables in the dining room, and to everyone who works in this building. And to everyone beyond the perimeter of this building.

 

I love what Fanny Crosby wrote about this message of evangelism:

 

“Rescue the perishing, care for the dying/Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave/Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen/Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

 

Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting/Waiting the penitent child to receive/Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently/He will forgive if they only believe.”

 

Time is too short to miss this urgent call of God who said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” How many residents here died in the last 12 months? How many of them were not Christians? Do you realize where those who died without Christ are at this moment?  I didn’t ask where they ‘might be’ – but do you understand where they ARE right now if they died without Christ Jesus.

And how many in Ashwood Meadows will die in the next 12 months? Maybe someone at your table, or at the tables around your table. Listen again, God saved Paul. Don’t ever think God is not able to save anyone.

 

And let me be quick to say, sharing your faith with others does not require you or me to do anything extraordinary. For example, and we’ve talked about this before – do you bow your head before you eat your meal in the dining room?  If not, why not? Are you praying for people here? Do you have a prayer partner?  If not, why not?

 

Do you invite people at your table to the Thursday Prayer meeting, or the Friday Bible study, or Sunday church service? If not, why not? If some have told you they won’t come because I’m not of their particular church – well, they have you to vouch for what I have to say about God that transcends denominational labels. Invite them to ‘come and hear’ for themselves.

 

Brothers and sisters, I’m trying to encourage each of us to help others learn again of God’s love for them while they still have time to learn – and respond favorably – to His love.

 

Let’s now look at what else Paul tells us in that first verse

 

Paul calls himself a bond-servant of Christ Jesus. A slave. Paul’s readers knew exactly what a bond-servant was. Much of their population were slaves. Paul understood he was no longer his own. He had been bought with a precious price.

 

What does it mean to be a slave of Jesus Christ?  That’s a good question, isn’t it? A reasonable question. We’ve looked at this question before. And let me add, if we know our heart is soft toward God, then we also know what it means to live under the ownership of Christ.

 

Paul often wrote about what such slavery to Christ looks like. For example, here in his what he wrote to the Christians at Galatia: (Galatians 5:19-24,26 NLT) “ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. . . .Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there . . . Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”

 

Is this easy to do, to be a slave of Jesus Christ? Of course not. Our flesh recoils at the idea of fully and unquestionably submitting ourselves to someone else – even to God. But such submission is God’s absolute requirement for spiritual growth and learning to walk by faith with the Master. Will I – will you – fully submit to God’s will in our day-by-day interactions? We have a choice, don’t we?

 

You may remember what Joshua said to the people after they’d crossed into the Promised Land – a land full of flagrant immorality and idolatry and a culture of death not too dissimilar to our culture in America today. Listen to what he said to the people then – and what God says to us here today:

 

(Joshua 24:14-15) “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 

As I prepared this message I was reminded of the hymn by Isaac Watts:

 

When I survey the wondrous cross/On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss/And pour contempt on all my pride.

 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast/Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most/I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet/Sorrow and love flow mingled down!/Did e’er such love and sorrow meet/Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

 

Were the whole realm of nature mine/That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine/Demands my soul, my life, my all.

 

Paul continues in this first verse to the third point. He tells his readers that God called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” God called him to tell others the good news of salvation.

 

And that raises an important principle related to our hearing, reading and reflecting on God’s word. You may remember this vignette in Matthew 21:

 

“When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.” And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. (Matthew 21:23-27)

 

My brothers and sisters here at Ashwood: If what the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome is NOT fully and inerrantly from God Himself through His word, then we are wasting our time trying to learn how to please and serve and follow our Lord because we have no sure word of faith and truth to guide us.

 

But, on the other hand, if what Paul and the other writers of Scripture wrote is from God Himself through His word we call the Bible, then we are responsible to obey its dictates and commandments – and that without wiggle-room. 

 

Let me now conclude my message today:

 

In those first few words of chapter one the Holy Spirit declares to us at least three points of reference which undergird the rest of the 16 chapters of this book:

 

1. Never think anyone is outside of God’s reach of mercy. If God’s mercy extended to the former terrorist Paul, God’s mercy will extend to anyone anywhere on this planet.

 

2. Being a slave of Christ means we have voluntarily chosen to go and to do and to say WHATEVER He commands. But if we choose to not be a full and complete slave of Jesus Christ, then we have also chosen to not belong to Him. That’s a very simple equation. If Jesus is not fully Lord of my life, then Jesus is not my Lord at all. And I remind us of what Jesus asked those around Him in Luke 6:46 - “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” 

 

Good question, isn’t it? A reasonable question, isn’t it? An eternally consequential question, isn’t it?

 

3. God called Paul to give the one-of-a-kind message of hope, exhortation, challenge, and warning to a world in need of hearing from God – not only those in first century Rome. The same God calls you and me to give to others the same one-of-a-kind message to our generation – including those here as Ashwood Meadows in 2026.

 

A one-of-a-kind message: God became human for one purpose – to seek and to save the lost. God became human to call sinners to repentance. God became human so that everyone who comes to Him by faith in Christ’s sacrificial atonement could live forever with Him in His eternal kingdom.

 

His command to “Go into all the world” was not consigned only to the first century. If we don’t go, if we don’t speak, if we don’t give so others can go – then why not?

He Knows our Frame

 

Last week we looked at a passage in Isaiah 46 which is representative of God’s mercy toward the penitent. I referred last week to Peter’s thrice denial of the Lord and his eventual reconciliation with Christ as one of countless examples of God’s mercy toward any penitent. Today, we look at King David’s sin with Bathsheba and the arrangement for her husband’s murder. I’ve spoken about this in the past, and I do it again because it illustrates how honest confession and repentance brings complete forgiveness and full reconciliation with God.

 

A full nine months after David’s sins with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband – nine months during which he could have gotten himself right again with God but did not, God finally sent Nathan the prophet to rebuke him.

 

Listen to Nathan: “Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.’” 

 

“Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” (2 Samuel 12:9-14)

 

For nine months – as we will see shortly in Psalm 32 which David also wrote after the prophet’s rebuke – for nine months David resisted his guilty conscience. For nine months, David tried to avoid thinking about what he’d done.

 

Have you been there and done that? Perhaps not for nine months – maybe it was only a day or a week. Or perhaps it’s been years that you’ve been fighting that inconvenient nagging of the Holy Spirit in the back of your mind. David finally could no longer – David finally would no longer – fight the Spirit’s hand on him. Listen to his prayer recorded in Psalm 51:1-12

 

“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, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge . . . 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. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.”

 

Let’s take a few moments to examine this prayer more closely because it has deeply applicable relevance to each of us in this sanctuary.

 

First, David knew his sins of adultery and murder where first and foremost sins against God. Indeed, ALL sins – what we might call big sins, little sins, and in-between sins – all sins are ultimately sins against the Almighty and His laws. “Against you, you only have I sinned,” David confessed.

 

The Catholic Prayer of Contrition recognizes the point about all sins being sins against God Himself: 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.

 

Second, David took full responsibility for his sins. He did not try to soft-pedal them, make excuses for them, shift the blame for them. Confession is not honest confession unless we fully own up to our treachery against God’s laws.

 

Over the years I’ve heard people rationalize their sins with some ludicrous tripe prefaced with, “God understands” – as in, “God understands I did it because I’m lonely, or angry, or have bills to pay, or it’s my right, or it’s my body, or ‘all the other ‘Christians’ are doing it,’ or God wants me to be happy, or any of a dozen other self-blinding and self-hardening excuses.

 

Third, David appeals to God for His grace: “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. The word he uses for ‘grace’ can also be translated as ‘mercy.’ In other words, David asks God’s grace – that He will NOT give him what he so rightly deserves – meaning, wrath. Likewise, translated as mercy, David asks God to give him what he does not deserve, meaning full pardon.  

 

Notice, David asks for grace or mercy, not at all on his own merits – how faithful and obedient he’d been before the Bathsheba incident, or that God considered him a man after His own heart, as God had told Samuel the prophet – but David asked God for grace and mercy because of who God is: Compassionate, merciful, and gracious.

 

Do we sometimes approach God, asking for something – whether favor or forgiveness, or for anything else – thinking God will do it because of what WE’VE done? For example, how often we tithe, or attend Mass or church services, or our kindness to others, or our willingness to forgive others, or for any of dozen ‘good things’ we do and have done.

 

But listen to the Lord Jesus speak to that point: “Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’” (Luke 17:7-10)

 

Wow.  That surely cuts at a person’s pride and inclination to boast in their good works as a basis for God’s favor, doesn’t it? And so David continued: According to YOUR lovingkindness and YOUR greatness, “Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.”

 

Then David moved from confession to supplication and then to a prayer for transformation. He knew what he’d done was wrong. It was wicked. It was evil. And not only did he beg to be forgiven and cleansed of his wickedness, but more than that – he wanted a heart-change. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

 

Without a heart change, we’re just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic of our lives. And we’ve all lived long enough and dealt with our sin natures often enough that we all should readily acknowledge how utterly desperate we all are for the Holy Spirit to change our hearts to the degree that we hate even our sinful thoughts and immediately repent of them before our holy God.

 

How often do you ask God to change your heart and change your attitude toward your sins – the so-called little sins and the middle-of-the-road sins? Many of you remember another of David’s psalms – this one probably written after the Bathsheba/Uriah incident. Here is how he closed Psalm 139: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

 

I know it happens, but I’m unsure of a person’s rationalization to avoid praying this kind of prayer. Why would any Christian not ask God to show them their sins? Such revelation would not be to make them guilt-ridden, but only for lead them in a life of holiness, honesty, and integrity before Him.

 

Let’s never gloss over this eternal truth: True repentance will always lead to a transformed life; Phony repentance always leads to further ungodliness. No wonder the apostle Paul wrote: “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God . . . And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:1-2a)

 

In other words, Christian, place yourselves on the altar of God, a living sacrifice of ourselves to God that He may transform us through the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit as we study His holy Scriptures.

 

David continues his 51^st psalm with these next words “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.”

 

We ought to examine these two verses – indeed, the entire 51^st psalm, under the light of the 32^nd psalm, also written in the aftermath of the Bathsheba/Uriah incident. Psalm 51 is a psalm of repentance. Psalm 32, written after Psalm 51, is a psalm of reflection.

 

Here are the first verses of Psalm 32: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” Psalm 32:1-5 

 

As I just said, Psalm 32 is a prayer of reflection as David marvels at God’s response to his repentance. And don’t think for a moment that God’s response to OUR confessions is not equally wondrous. Oh, how glorious it is to know – to be absolutely convinced  – that our confessed sins are forever forgiven, that they are carried from us as far as east is from west and buried in the deepest ocean (see Psalm 103:12 and Micah 7:19). How comforting and encouraging it is to know God covers over with His own eternal blood even our worst sins – AND that He does not, nor will He ever, count those sins against us.  

 

One might ask how could David, who lived long before Jesus died that sacrificial death for our sins – how could David be as convinced as he was that his sins related to Bathsheba and her husband were erased? Because he believed God’s promise through the prophet Nathan, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. (2 Samuel 12:13)

 

And listen, please. That same message applies to you and me. When God says our confessed sins are eternally erased, it doesn’t matter who disagrees – whether a church or a pastor or a theologian or anyone else. God’s word is His uncompromisingly trustworthy bond. The penitent is cleansed of all sin. Yes, there may be consequences of sin in this life – sickness, broken relationships, financial loss, imprisonment, or whatever else God uses to chastise us – but there will be no consequences of those sins in the next life.

 

How do we know that? Well, let’s think this through: Jesus is God incarnate. He is Almighty God in the flesh of a man. So, what sin can ever run more deeply that the blood of God Himself cannot erase completely, spotlessly, eternally?

 

If we STILL must suffer for our sins after death in a place called purgatory where the so-called ‘stains’ of our sins must be cleansed, then we are saying that Almighty God’s blood is insufficient for full forgiveness. And that He has lied to us when He’s told us we’ve been forgiven.

 

Is THAT what we want to say?

 

Let’s return briefly to that 32^nd psalm. As David reflected on his sin, he wrote: “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. (Psalm 32:3-4)

 

We all know the emotional turmoil that ALWAYS plagues our conscience when we try to ignore our sin or rationalize it.  And every Christian also should know intuitively the spiritual DANGER we face when we’ve excused our sins for so long that we no longer experience a troubled conscience.

 

THAT is a very dangerous place to be. Many of you remember the warning Jesus gives to all of us in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

 

The important point here is that those standing at the Judgement THOUGHT they were saved. They believed heaven was their destiny. But they were SHOCKED to discover they were wrong on both counts. They were terrified to hear Jesus reject them – eternally reject them.

 

Why is it, do we think, that Christians can live their lives so self-deceptively? The answer to that question should make us uncomfortable: It happens through step-by-step, compromise by compromise, rationalization by rationalization, slowly blinding our eyes and hardening our hearts.

 

And that answer should provide us all the more reason to be diligent in seeking God to show us our sins as only He can reveal them to us. As the apostle wrote in his letter to the Christians in Rome: “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? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” (Romans 2:4-5)

 

Yes, we are all in danger of deceiving ourselves. But listen again to verse five of this 32^nd psalm and draw comfort from it: David wrote: “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)

 

The message here is clear: Confess sin. Receive God’s forgiveness. And we will not be surprised at the Judgment.

 

Listen to Proverbs 28:13 – “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”

 

Not too long ago as I spoke with the Lord in prayer, I was greatly disheartened by a recurring sin. Frustrated, I said to the Lord, “I get so tired of having to apologize for the same sin again and again.”

 

I’ll never forget what He said to me. He answered, “But I never get tired of hearing you confess it.”

 

God never tires of hearing YOU confess your own sins – even again and again. Honest confession always brings full pardon. Why? As the Psalmist reminds us: For [God] Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. (Psalm 103:14)

 

Be at peace. Trust Him to keep His promises.

Even to your Old Age

 Today’s text from the prophet Isaiah is a beautiful promise of God’s grace, of His nurture, patience, and His incomprehensible love for you – and for me. Wretched, poor, naked, and blind as we all are because of our daily – even hourly sins – yet He loves us still. And though this text was directed to His Chosen people, so also is His promise applicable to ALL who are God’s children through their faith in Jesus.

 

“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been borne by Me from birth and have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.” Isaiah 46:3-4)

 

The context of this passage in Isaiah is the impending brutal and bloody Babylonian invasion of Israel and the deportation of virtually its entire population from their homes. Of particular note, the Babylonian invasion followed the prophesied Assyrian invasion of Israel several generations earlier.

 

Why the invasions? Briefly, because of Israel’s persistent rebellion against God which manifested itself in their multiple and multilayered idolatries, murders, political machinations, rampant sexual immoralities – all comparable to the sins that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah – and, by the way, sins not too dissimilar to those slowly overwhelming America.

 

The northern kingdom of Israel was the first to fall under God’s wrath. And it’s not like God hadn’t warned them of His impending judgement. He did, through His prophets such as Amos, Hosea, and Micah; But no one paid heed.

 

The southern kingdom of Judah was no better. And so, the Chronicler wrote: “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; 16 but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy. Therefore, He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans [Babylonians] who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. (2 Chronicles 36:15-17)

 

Before we get much further into today’s message, I must caution us all. There’s an important lesson for everyone who has ears to hear and a heart to receive the Word of the Lord. That lesson is this: God’s patience is not limitless. As He warned Israel, He also warns us. As He warned the priests and other leaders of ancient Israel, today He warns pastors and priest and religious leaders. As He tells us through Amos: “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” Amos 3:5

 

As a nation, as a Church, are we listening to God’s warning through His godly pastors and teachers who preach God’s word and cry out to us: “Repent and obey the gospel. Turn from this perverse and godless culture and their deviant opinions of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Obey the eternal and uncompromising word of God as recorded for us between the covers of the Bible.”

And let me be clear about this: If your pastor does NOT routinely call you to repentance and a holy lifestyle, then you need to find a different pastor.

 

Now back to our text in Isaiah: “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been borne by Me from birth and have been carried from the womb.”

 

As I’ve said, the context of this expression of God’s passionate love for His own – the context is His warning to His rebellious and defiant Chosen People of the sure disaster facing them. BUT, all the while, God was also urging them back to Himself. At this time in history, most in Israel would have remembered God’s promise decades earlier through the prophet Hosea 14:1-5a --

 

“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity and receive us.”  [And God responded:] “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily.”

 

I find it very encouraging on a personal level that despite Israel’s continuing treachery, God’s covenant with them remained firm. Listen to Jeremiah, who wrote just before the Babylonian exile: “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night . . . 36 “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:35-37 

This promise in Jeremiah, coupled with the text in Isaiah that we’re looking at, has great relevance to each of us in this sanctuary who serves the Lord Jesus Christ. How is that true? Let’s make application of the principles embedded in God’s eternal word to every Christian here and around the world.

 

God says to you – insert your name here – God says to YOU: “You who have been borne by Me from birth and have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.”

It didn’t matter how far Israel had strayed; God was still wooing them back to Himself. In the same way, it doesn’t matter how far the Christian has strayed; God continues to woo us back to Himself. Listen again His plea through Hosea: “Return . . . to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity and receive us.” 

 

Christian! God’s covenant with you remains intact. All you and I need to do is believe Him when He tells us He will always, always receive the penitent back to Himself. Always.

 

But that’s the operative word, isn’t it? Penitent – being honestly sorry for our sins, turning from those sins, and asking God’s forgiveness.

 

Many of you know the promise in 1 John: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)

And this one in Psalm 145:18 “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” And this one in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord . . . is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

 

Back again to the Isaiah text: “Listen to Me . . . Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you!

 

If we believe that God loves every person on this planet, whether a Christian and not – if we believe, as the Psalmist tells us, that God Himself personally “Formed [our] inward parts; [He] wove [us] in [our] mother’s womb, (Psalm 139:13) – and if we believe the apostle John when he wrote, “God so loved the WORLD that He gave,” and not as some prefer to render it, “God so loved the ELECT’ that He gave . . .” – if we believe the Bible in context with the entire Bible, then we will also believe that God not only intimately involved Himself in our lives from the moment of our birth until this very moment, but that God was also intimately involved in our formation from our conception in the womb.

 

And – and this is also important – His intimacy with us continues through our lives. “Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you!

 

Even to our old age. That means God – our Immanuel, our God-With-Us is the great unchanging One. As He encompassed us while we were in our mother’s womb, so also He surrounded us when we were toddlers, pre-teens, teens, adults – even now to our old age and graying hair. God has carried us, and continues to carry us, in our weakness and in our declining health – even if we do not sense His ever-abiding presence.

 

Many of you remember the ‘Footprints’ poem. I repeat it now to emphasize the unchangeable truth of His often invisible and even unfelt support.

 

One night I dreamed a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord, across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to my Lord.

 

After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.

 

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

 

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and I never left you. Never, ever. During your trials and tests, when you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I was carrying you."

 

Listen, please. That poem is not some fanciful idea of the poet. It is deeply rooted through the entirety of God’s word, of His promises. May God help us to learn the lesson better than some of us – including myself – have learned the lesson in the past. ‘We walk by faith, not by sight.’  (2 Corinthians 5:7)

 

God continues through Isaiah: “I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.”

 

Notice the repeated promise: I will carry you, I will bear you, I will deliver you. For as long as you live. This text connects by context of the entire Bible with passages like Malachi 3:6, where God says, “I do not change,” and with Hebrews 13:8 which assures us, “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, today, forever.”

 

God underscores for us from one end of His Book to the other of His lifelong care and covenant faithfulness to every penitent child of God.

 

Peter is only one of dozens of examples of men and women in Biblical and Church history who fall badly but are lovingly and patiently restored by Christ. You remember what he did after Jesus was arrested. He denied his Lord three times, even placing himself under a curse. But then we read that

vignette in John 21 which poignantly illustrates that point of restoration.

 

Before I get there, let me first say this: The New Testament writers used two words for “love” – phileo and agape. Phileo (fil-EH-oh) carries the idea of close fraternal affection. The special friendship of David and Jonathan is an example of phileo love.

 

Agape love is often used to describe God's unconditional, merciful, and enduring love for you and me. One of the definitions of Agape is “to prize the object of that love above all other things.”

 

Now, back to John 21. Peter and the others were fishing when they saw the Lord on the shore. Peter threw himself into the water and swam to the beach as the others followed in the boat. Jesus had already prepared breakfast for them and when they finished eating, Jesus said to Peter, “Do you love [agape: Do you prize Me above all other things?”] Me more than these?” 

 

[Peter] said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love [phileo] You.”

 

 [Jesus] said to him, “Tend My lambs.” 

 

[Jesus] He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you [agape] Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love [phileo] You.” He *said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He *said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love [phileo] Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love [phileo] Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love [phileo] You.” Jesus *said to him, “Tend My sheep. (John 21:15-17)

 

A modern version of the conversation might sound something like this:
“Peter, do you love me with all your heart?”

“Lord, I have great affection for you.”
“Feed My lambs.”
“Peter, do you really love me?”
“Lord, I think you are wonderful.”
“Tend My sheep.”
“Peter, do you have great affection for me?”
“Lord, you know I do.”
“Feed My sheep.”

Two things catch my attention in this exchange between the Lord and Peter. First, Peter clearly felt miserable about his thrice denial of Christ. Miserable, and self-condemned. But then I noticed how the Savior tried to help Peter move beyond his guilt. When Peter wouldn't say – couldn’t say – he loved Jesus, the Lord came down to his level: “Okay, my friend. Do you have affection for me?”

How like Christ to be so gentle to our wounded spirits.

The second thing I noticed here – and this is equally important – after each agape/phileo exchange the Lord’s charge to Peter was essentially the same: “Feed My sheep.”

In other words, “Peter, I know you feel guilty, but your repentance restored our relationship. Your sorrow and guilt are unnecessary. Don’t let them keep you from your task to tend My flock."

How like the merciful Christ to call us out of our sorrow. How like Him to renew our relationship – vessels of clay that we are – and set us about the work He’s given us to do.

This exchange between the Lord and Peter, as well as the message of Isaiah 46 speaks volumes to me – and I hope to you, as well – of God’s continuing love and patience with us. Listen to Isaiah in chapter 40:11 – “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”

 

In closing, I say it once more for emphasis: God says to every one of His children, both here in this sanctuary, and around the world: “Listen to Me . . . you who have been borne by Me from birth and have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.” Isaiah 46:3-4)

 

God loves you. God ‘agapes’ you. He has not – nor will He ever – abandon His own. Scripture promises every penitent child of God that “The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” 1 Peter 5:10

 

Be encouraged. Be steadfast. Always abound in your work for the Lord, knowing that your labor is never in vain in the Lord.