He Came to His Senses

Sermon

December 29, 2024

He Came to His Senses

 

Over the last couple of months our Friday Bible study has been studying the three parables in the 15^th chapter of Luke’s gospel: The Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Coin, and in the last few weeks, the parable of the Lost Son – better known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

 

Some of what I am about to say on this last Sunday of 2024 might seem redundant to those of you who have attended the study for the last three weeks, but redundancy is often useful, and I hope it WILL be useful for you who have been with us during the last few weeks.

 

And let me say this at the outset of my message: Although the first part of this sermon might seem an uncomfortable challenge, I want to assure you that this is a message of encouragement and hope.

 

Here is the entire parable for context, but my message focuses us today on the son’s journey away from his father, and his return: (Luke 15:11-32) “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. 

 

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ 

 

So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

 

“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 

 

But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; ³⁰ but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ 

 

And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”

 

This parable has become one of my favorites. It’s rich with God's unchangeable PROMISE of hope and grace and mercy. When I think of who I’ve been and what God has done for me – this story embraces me. And it is my deep hope that today’s message will be a source of great and confident hope in God – and great challenge – for you.

 

The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son each represent us. You and me. We know this is true from the first verse of this chapter: “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.”

 

Let’s stop only a moment for some important self-examination, because the answer to my next question is key to any personal application of this parable to ourselves.

 

Are you a sinner? Do you recognize how tragically lost you truly were before Jesus found you? For unless we each – including myself – unless we each are humble and self-effacing before our impartial and holy Creator, we will gloss over these verses, foolishly thinking the category of ‘unworthy sinners’ refers to others and not ourselves.

To gloss over that question is to rob ourselves of the same rich HOPE the prodigal son found at the end of this story.

 

The story of the prodigal son – the careless son, the wasteful son – is pretty much self-explanatory. The young man told his father he was tired of living under his roof and by his rules. He wanted to leave home and live life his own way. The father reluctantly gave him his share of the estate. He knew he could – he WOULD NOT – force him to stay.

 

But within a short time, the Prodigal had squandered his wealth until he was penniless. Then a famine swept across the country and with his wealth gone, he was forced to hire himself to a local farmer who sent him out to feed pigs – a horribly degrading job for a Jew.

 

The good news to all this is ‘he came to his senses,” and although he felt utterly unworthy to still be called his father’s son, he hoped his father would at least make him one of his servants.

 

Well, I read to you the text, so you know how the story ends. We won’t take time today to explore the attitude of the older brother because we need to focus today both on what the younger son did, and then what his father did.

 

The Prodigal “squandered his estate.” Jesus tells us that in verse 13. He wasted the precious gift his father had given him. So, let’s pause again to make some important applications.

 

Have you ever thought about how YOU have squandered the gifts your Father in heaven has given you during your many years on earth?

 

Like the first question I asked a few minutes ago about our recognition of our utter ‘lostness’ without Christ, this is another important question you and I must answer to ourselves. Have you ever thought about how you have squandered the gifts the Father in heaven has given you?

 

Please hear this: It borders on self-idolatry to think that every good thing we have, and all we’ve accomplished, originate from ourselves. And may we NEVER even let the thought remain in our minds for more than a nanosecond – may we never attribute what good things we have and have done to ‘luck.’ THAT would nothing short of blasphemous.

 

It is no wonder St James warns us: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” (James 1:16-17a)

 

And for good reason God spoke through Jeremiah: “The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”

 

Oh, yes! We deceive ourselves to think to ourselves that our skills, education, experiences, employment opportunities, our promotions over the years and our social and financial acumen – all have their roots in something we alone have done.

 

The Scriptures repeatedly make is clear, as St Paul asked the Corinthians Christians: (1 Corinthians 4:7b) “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”

 

So, what gifts of God have you squandered in life? Let’s think about this question for a moment. What abilities – whether innate abilities or those honed through education and experience – what gifts including the financial rewards that you’ve garnered over the years – what did you use for your own pleasures and comforts? And what of His gifts did you use to advance HIS kingdom and for the benefit of others?

 

You might remember what the Lord said about the Judgment of the Righteous and the Unrighteous in the last part of Matthew chapter 25. To the righteous, the Judge said: ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

 

But to the unrighteous, the Judge said:  ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

 

Doesn’t that text cause you to sit up and take stock of what you’ve done with God's gifts throughout your life – up to and including this very day? I will tell you – it makes ME sit up and take notice.

 

And as we continue to consider God's many gifts, what about His gift of

TIME? Everyone is born with an hourglass attached to our soul, and no one knows when the last grain of sand will fall to the bottom. But as J.R.R. Tolkien reminds us in his epic trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings”: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

 

What have you done with your time during your life, and what are you doing NOW with the time you have left?

 

When I preach a eulogy, I often speak from the seventh chapter of Ecclesiastes: “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart.”

 

And I paraphrase the last clause – “those who are WISE take it all to heart.”

 

No wonder the psalmist prayed: (Psalm 90:12) “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” And St Paul urged his readers – and us – “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17)

 

Time. Talents. Resources. Yes, how easy it is to squander away God's gifts.

 

But now, before I bring this message to an encouraging and hope-filled close, let’s look at one more gift of God that many men and women waste.

 

I speak of the gift of God's superabundant, merciful, gracious and undeserved gift of forgiveness to those who do, as the Prodigal did – who come to their senses, return home, and repent.

 

What more could God do to be utterly true to His character of Justice and Holiness, yet at the same time show mercy and grace to the penitent? What more could He do than to deliver His own Son to a malicious, bloody, cruel death in order to become our substitution, purchasing our forgiveness and salvation with His blood?

 

And yet, despite such an incomprehensible gift of forgiveness to the penitent sinner, there remain today – right now – multitudes of multitudes who puff out their chests and refuse to recognize, as St Paul wrote: “That the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of [their] stubbornness and unrepentant heart [they] are storing up wrath for [themselves] in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.” (Romans 2:4-6)

 

Yes, the young man squandered his father’s gifts. But then we learn, “He came to his senses . . ..”

 

I wonder if God is calling anyone here to their senses. And while it is true we cannot undo what we’ve done. We cannot go back in time and correct the squandering. We can’t change the past – but we CAN change our future.

 

The Prodigal son came to his senses, but he did MORE than that. He made a change. He returned to his father. And did you notice what his father did when he returned? He ran out to meet him, to embrace him. And he called for a great celebration for his return home.

 

THAT is the point in this tender parable. The Lord Jesus is telling us that our Father who art in heaven – that YOUR Father who art in heaven— He is doing the same for you and for me. He is waiting . . . and waiting . . . . and waiting for His prodigal sons and prodigal daughters to come home.

 

This parable is the Lord’s assurance to you and me and to EVERYONE who has squandered God's gifts – and even continues to waste the precious time and resources and forgiveness He has given us.

 

Listen, please! IF we return, He will not reject us. He will not chastise us. He will not find fault with what we’ve done. He will not even REMIND the penitent of what he or she has done.

 

Instead, He – and heaven itself – will celebrate.

 

Please don’t miss that point. He and heaven itself will celebrate. Please, don’t miss that point. If you’ve wasted God's gifts – come to your senses. Come home. Our Father in heaven will put proverbial sandals on our feet and rings on our fingers and robes across our shoulders. He will say to the hosts of heaven: “This son of mine, and this daughter of mine was dead, but has been found. They were lost, but now they have been found.”

 

And what about those who correctly believe they have not squandered God's gifts in the years since they came to Christ? Then please listen to this word – Do not be like the older brother who found great fault with the younger brother and hold to yourself a ‘holier than thou’ attitude.

 

All of us have sinned. All of us have fallen short of God's glory, of His perfect standard. And so rejoice when your younger brother or sister comes to their senses and repents.

 

God tells us through the prophet Joel: “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness.” (Joel 2:12-13b)

 

No, we cannot fix the past, but we can make sure our future is different from our past. With God's help we can make sure that the resources and gifts we have will be useful for God in the time we have left. We can start afresh. Today. We can start anew. Now.

 

I am not one to make New Year’s resolutions. Instead, when I realize I need to make a change, I determine to make the change starting right then and there.

 

And so, if God is telling you that you need to make changes, if you’re suddenly coming to your senses – then in a moment I will give you an opportunity to apologize to God for squandering His gifts. In other words, I am going to give you a chance to repent, and ask God to direct you back to the narrow path that pleases Him.

 

Please, don’t wait until New Year’s Eve to make those resolutions. Please, make them right now as we pray:

 

 

Fourth Sunday of Advent - Peace in the Trenches

God told us through the Hebrew prophet Amos, “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets."(Amos 3:7)

 

Now, before we move further into this message on this last Sunday of Advent, let me pause a moment and focus our attention on that point: God does NOTHING unless He first reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. And WHY is that? Why does God first reveal Himself to humanity BEFORE He acts? I would think one reason is, as the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, (John 14:29) “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.”

 

So that we might believe.

 

And so, some 700 years before the birth of the eternal Son of God in that little town south of Jerusalem, God told humanity through the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14). Many of you remember the name, Immanuel, means “God [is] with us.”

 

A little later in the same prophecy, the Holy Spirit told us of the Child: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 

Peace. That’s what I want to focus our attention on this fourth Sunday of Advent. Luke writes of the night Jesus was born: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace  . . .” (Luke 2:13-14)

 

Speaking of that Holy Night, millions – perhaps billions of people, even those who have never set foot in a church, know the song, Silent Night, Holy Night – if not the lyrics, then certainly the melody.

 

Silent night, holy night/All is calm and all is bright/'Round yon virgin Mother and Child/Holy infant so tender and mild/Sleep in heavenly peace/Sleep in heavenly peace

 

Silent night, holy night/Shepherds quake at the sight/Glories stream from heaven afar/Heavenly hosts sing out "Alleluia"/Christ the Savior is born/Christ the Savior is born.

 

The words of this beloved Christmas song were penned in 1816 by a young Austrian priest, not long after the Napoleonic wars had wreaked their horrific toll of death and destruction on more than five million men, women, and children. The inspiration for the song occurred to Fr. Mohr as he walked one evening along a path overlooking a quiet, snow-laden town.

 

Nearly 100 years later, in 1914, that song stirred the spirits of approximately 100,000 cold, tired, and frightened soldiers scattered across the Western Front during the first World War. And indeed, the story of that 1914 Christmas Eve reads more like a miraculous event than a chance happening.

 

That Christmas Eve was a particularly frigid, bloody, and deadly for the soldiers along the Western Front. But, inexplicably, on Christmas Eve Allied and German troops warily climbed out of their trenches and guardedly walked toward each other across ‘No Man’s Land.” The frozen corpses of soldiers from both sides littered the ghastly landscape.

 

Most accounts report the truce began when the Allied soldiers heard the Germans singing in their trenches, ‘Stille Nacht’. Although the Allies didn’t understand the words, the melody of Silent Night was unmistakable. Before long, the Allied troops joined in song from their own trenches.

 

One soldier wrote about that night this way: “First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours. [When we] started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing ­– two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”

 

Extraordinary? I call it nothing less than miraculous. To my knowledge, nothing like it ever occurred before that time, or since that time – when mortal enemies who only hours earlier were slaughtering each other, were now taken up with the Spirit of Christ on Christmas Eve. And they came out of their holes of hell, and shared peace with each other.

 

They shared photos of their families. They gave each other food they’d prepared in their trenches for Christmas. Some accounts tell of impromptu soccer games that sprang up here and there between the two armies.

 

In many places along the Western Front, ‘No Man’s Land’ was often just 30 or 40 yards wide. Allied and German troops were sometimes so close they could hear each other talking, and even smell their cooking. In other words, enemy troops could not help but recognize the common humanity of one another – which is probably why the commander of the British Second Corps wrote: “Troops in trenches in close proximity to the enemy slide very easily, if permitted to do so, into a ‘live and let live’ theory of life.”

 

Wow. Wouldn’t that have been a terrible thing – to live and let live.

 

The commander was right. Several years later a former British soldier said that if both armies had been left to themselves, “There would never have been another shot fired.”

 

Of course, not everyone felt that way. One young German corporal in one of those trenches rebuked his fellow soldiers, declaring, “Such a thing should not happen in wartime. Have you no German sense of honor?”

 

The corporal’s name was Adolf Hitler.

 

So, what is the point of my message about that Christmas Eve more than 100 years ago in a place that resembled hell more than it did earth?

 

Even today in 2024, the Holy Spirit, hovering over our homes, our apartments, our Christmas gatherings this Christmas, the Holy Spirit can infuse His supernatural presence into the hearts of those who know and love what happened under that silent night over the little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago.

 

Every year and through the year, most of us – if not all of us – live in life’s trenches where conflicts and fears swirl around us without letting up. Some face daily and desperate struggles with depression or chronic pain, or cancers, or overdue bills. Some are nearly consumed by hatred and anger and frustration. Many live with a morbid and consuming fear of death. Others live with a fear of living.

But then, once a year, somehow and very mysteriously, a supernatural peace tries to make its way across the wasteland of our lives. We come out of our trenches for a short time, and we try to let Christmas peace into our lives. Twinkling lights adorn our homes. We listen to Christmas carols on radio. We lovingly wrap brightly colored gifts to place under trees. We even smile at strangers and wish them a ‘Merry Christmas.’

But then, as it always happens, the enemy of our souls, like little Adolf Hitlers, calls us back to those trenches. The so-called ‘Spirit of Christmas’ fades from our faces and our hearts, and for the next 364 days life remains stuck in the frigid, bloody, and incessant battle in our personal trenches.

 

During the terrible decade of the 1960s, America was embroiled in a bloody no-win war in Vietnam. Young people, and likely a few older ones – especially parents who lost their child in the rice paddies of those Vietnamese jungles – they asked, “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”

As I researched that 1914 Christmas Eve Truce, I read reports of soldiers in those trenches who wondered that same thing. “What if we stop fighting? What if we stop doing what the politicians and the generals tell us to do? What if they gave us a war and nobody came?”

And we can – and SHOULD – ask the same question during the 364 days after Christmas: What if we don’t participate in the hatred and the violence and the anger and the fear? What if we extend the Christmas truce to our individual trenches beyond Christmas day and into the new year – and then into Easter, and then into the summer – and back around into the fall and then Christmas next year?

But how can we do that? How can we permit the Holy Spirit, who gave us Christmas in the first place, how can we keep Him in our own hearts, and then in our homes, and then bring that peace to our relationships with our neighbors and with strangers?

 

At the risk of sounding wearingly trite and boringly redundant, let me remind you what is God’s answer to that question, “How can we do it?” God’s answer is this: “WE can’t. But He CAN.”

 

Why do we think King David prayed: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. . . . Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:10-12)?  David knew, as we need to know, that in our own strength and abilities, we are as unable to let peace reign in our hearts as we are unable to lift this building with our pinky. The Lord Jesus was not joking when He said: “[A]part from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15)

 

Although we are born again and the Holy Spirit lives in each believer, our Old Nature is still active. And anyone who thinks it is not a moment-by-moment battle to keep that old nature under wraps is fooling only himself or herself.

 

You remember what the godly St. Paul lamented in the latter part of Romans 7: “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate . . . For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want . . .I find then the  principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

 

Hear me, please. Our old nature is alive and well, and it wants to drag us back into our hellish trenches from which Jesus rescued us. For good reason, the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to tell us “[God] will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on [Him].” (Isaiah 26:3).

 

Did you catch that? “[God] will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on [Him]”

 

In other words, peace of heart reigns when Christ reigns in our hearts. And just as we cannot expect health to reign in our bodies if we drink a daily dose of poison, we cannot expect God’s peace to reign in our hearts if we let our minds imbibe the worldly spirit of anger and frustration and hatred and deceit that is all around us – and especially in the media.

 

Some of you may be familiar with the old Cherokee legend. I’ve referred to it in the past. An old Cherokee, teaching his grandson about life, tells him, “A fight is going on inside us. It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

 

“The other wolf is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

 

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

 

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

 

God tells us that the peace of Christ is available to us, but we have to LET that peace of Christ rule in our hearts. And to do that, along with prayer and reflecting on God’s word, it is also most helpful if we starve the bad wolf within us and FEED our spirits with things that are godly.

 

Do we really need to spend 30 minutes or more every day with CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, or other media sites? Wouldn’t our time be better spent listening to a sermon on television or radio; Or reading the Bible or a spiritually nourishing book? Wouldn’t our time be better spend memorizing a Bible verse from time to time?

 

We are now in the middle of the Christmas season. For some, this year in particular was a difficult one, shrouded by illness, by the death of loved ones, by financial difficulties . . .  the list is long for some of us.

 

But the Holy Spirit can still draw us from our trenches to experience what life can truly be like – if only for a day – what life in Christ can really be like if we refuse to bite and devour one another. And if we can do it for a day, then why not extend it to the next day? And the next? And the next?

 

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next to please, by His much-needed mercy, help us to determine every day to NOT go back into the trenches of anger and fear and hatred and depression. Let us pray each day for His utterly essential help that we not feed the bad wolf, but instead to every day strive with His supernatural help to feed the good one. Only then, and only with His help, will anyone be able to extend the peace of Christmas throughout 2025.

 

Third Sunday of Advent -- The Tender Mercy of God

 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.