Mercy (July 26,2020, AM)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
wk 1 we saw 2 different responses to the Word of God
Zechariah - doubted and wanted a sign
got a sign - he was struck dumb
Mary - accepted with humility and submission (even though didn’t understand)
Hopefully we learned to respond like Mary when we encounter the Word of God - lk 1.38
38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
wk 2 we saw the Dignity and Personhood of the Unborn
Today we will talk about the Mercy of God.
Definition of mercy - compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.
I hope our look at God’s mercy will cause you to
love God more
appreciate your salvation more
What happens when you love God more and appreciate your salvation more?
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
God’s mercy leads to worship. 46-58
God’s mercy leads to worship. 46-58
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
We protestants rarely give Mary the credit she is due.
She is a wonderful example of faith!
If you are driving down the interstate… ((Swerve to avoid a 18-wheeler tire and end up in other ditch))
That is what we do with Mary while trying to avoid the other extreme shown by the Roman catholic church.
Many Roman Catholics worship Mary.
Many see her as co-redeemer with Christ.
Both of these are blasphemous and Mary, the humble and faithful servant of the Lord, would be horrified at these practices.
In v.47 she confesses the need for a savior.
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
God is the focus of her beautiful song of praise.
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
Praise is the response of those who have been shown great mercy.
47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
Do you love God much, little, or not at all?
Not at all? - would not be here - might be because trying to earn heaven
Do you love God as much as he deserves?
I don’t.
I love him more than I did a couple of years ago.
Why?
Because I keep learning more about him and more about me.
I keep being amazed by his grace.
I grow in the realization of how much I have been forgiven - of how much mercy I have been shown.
The more we realize and appreciate God’s mercy toward us, the more we will worship him.
This awesome song of praise is inspired by Mary’s reflection on God’s mercy.
God resists the proud but gives mercy to the humble.
God resists the proud but gives mercy to the humble.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
Are you proud or humble?
I am a strange mixture of both!
Look, here is how this works.
The new spirit-filled, obedient Steve is humble.
I am truly awestruck that God would give his love and salvation to a worm like me.
Old sin nature - “Well, if you are a worm, you must be a glow worm - you deserve God’s favor more than that nasty worm over there...”
We need to renew our minds in the truth and in the Spirit so that old sin nature gets drowned out!
Why?
Because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Humble is not our default setting.
False humility can be our default setting… ((elaborate))
True humility is produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
=====
We already talked about a definition of mercy.
If you ever think you deserve mercy, then you are not talking about mercy. ((elaborate))
You hear people say “everyone deserves a second chance”… who says?
2nd chance won’t help
neither will 50 more
God gives us something so much better than a second chance.
That is why salvation is so very different from “turning over a new leaf”
God’s mercy leads to restoration. 59-66
God’s mercy leads to restoration. 59-66
59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,
60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea,
66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
Zechariah has had time to reflect.
He is no longer questioning and skeptical.
He is immediately submissive and obedient.
God, in his mercy, looses his tongue and uses that tongue to glorify God and speak prophecy about both his son John and his savior.
The right of naming shows ownership or dominion.
Adam
Abram - Abraham
Jacob - Israel
Sarai - Sarah
Saul - Paul
God changed their names to reflect a change in their relationship to him.
your dog
your children
God reserved that right with John.
Remember how Zechariah got himself in this situation where he could not speak.
He was skeptical of God’s word delivered by the angel Gabriel.
Are you still dealing with the consequences of not listening to God on something?
repent
listen now
I have a friend who told me he thinks God called him to ministry when he was younger.
He should do ministry now.
The opportunity for seminary training and vocational ministry may have passed him by, but the opportunity to do ministry has not!
Now if you think God told you to marry Ann and instead you married Barbara you should not try to go back and redo that - but you can apply this principle of repenting and listening now by taking that area of your life - relationships - and obeying God’s will in your marriage.
The more you obey God’s will in your marriage the better spouse you will be.
God’s mercy leads to the gospel. 67-80
God’s mercy leads to the gospel. 67-80
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
a. the plan of salvation
a. the plan of salvation
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
Fallen man is at war with God.
We started this thing when we rebelled against our creator.
Our broken relationship with God is entirely our fault, yet God came in person to fix it.
horn - symbol of power
visited - other religions tell people how to get to God (wrongly) - through a list of stuff to do or not do
btw - common to every man-made religion
Christianity - the story of God coming to man.
Don’t we have a list?
Yes
1. The law teaches us the futility and hopelessness of earning salvation.
2. Then if we are saved through repentance and faith (mercy)
3. God empowers us to live in a way that glorifies him.
redeemed - purchased
*redeemed how I love to proclaim it - redeemed by the blood of the lamb*
bought by the precious blood of our savior
nothing else could have paid the price for your soul
How do we respond to that awesome truth?
by living for the glory of God
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
but I am straying into our next topic...
b. the purpose of salvation
b. the purpose of salvation
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
v. 71 salvation from physical enemies and oppressors -
Jesus will put an end to that!
He will rule with perfect peace and justice one day and no one will be persecuted or mistreated.
There is a lot of conversation these days about social justice.
Christians should certainly support social justice - justice and righteousness are characteristics of our God.
We should absolutely stand against racism.
replacing racism against blacks with racism against whites is not justice
stealing from those who are willing to work to give to those who are not willing is not justice
But we should work for actual justice and equality.
So let’s try not to let people hijack words or concepts that we should support.
Not only will the messiah deliver us from physical enemies and oppressors...
He will deliver us from the ultimate consequence of our sins if we repent and place our faith in him.
He will deliver us from the finality of death.
Instead of death being this terrifying end it is a doorway to glory for those who are in Christ.
Another purpose of salvation is...
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Only through the sacrifice of Jesus can we serve God “in holiness and righteousness”.
This is the other half of the good news of the gospel that people sometimes miss.
And I really don’t want you to miss it...
It will change the way you understand your relationship to God!
Christ’s imputed righteousness.
((Woman at McComb church - God can’t use me because of past sin))
c. the prophet of salvation
c. the prophet of salvation
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
This great prophet John was...
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
We have the very same command on our lives.
Knowledge of salvation does not save people, but people are not saved apart from knowledge.
You and I can impart that knowledge.
Not only can we, but we are commanded to.
If you are on Facebook, please share our sermons.
Invite people to church and bring them with you.
Give them gospel tracts.
Share the gospel with them.
You may think that you can’t do all of those things, but surely you think you can do some of those things.
I think you can do all of them, but I may have more confidence in you than you do.
d. the peace of salvation
d. the peace of salvation
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
The only way to have peace with God is through Christ.
((God created us
Had every right over us - ((video game avatar))
We rebelled in the midst of a perfect situation
Because of the pride of wanting to be god
We declared war
And in spite of that
He came to us to make a way of peace
I have heard people complain about the thought that there is only one way to God
One is so much more than we deserve!))
You will stand before God either as his beloved adopted child with the righteousness of Christ on your account
or
As an enemy combatant.