Maranatha Tabernacle Church of God
381 Manton Avenue Providence RI 02909
Sunday April 6th 2008 11:00am
I knew you would come
There were two childhood buddies who went through school and college and even joined the army together. War broke out and they were fighting in the same unit. One night they were ambushed.
Bullets were flying all over and out of the darkness came a voice, "Harry, please come and help me."
Harry immediately recognized the voice of his childhood buddy, Bill. He asked the captain if he could go.
The captain said, "No, I can’t let you go, I am already short-handed and I cannot afford to lose one more person. Besides, the way Bill sounds he is not going to make it." Harry kept quiet.
Again the voice came, "Harry, please come and help me." Harry sat quietly because the captain had refused earlier.
Again and again the voice came.
Harry couldn’t contain himself any longer and told the captain, "Captain, this is my childhood buddy. I have to go and help."
The captain reluctantly let him go. Harry crawled through the darkness and dragged Bill back into the trench. They found that Bill was dead.
Now the captain got angry and shouted at Harry, "Didn’t I tell you he was not going to make it? He is dead, you could have been killed and I could have lost a hand. That was a mistake."
Harry replied, "Captain, I did the right thing. When I reached Bill he was still alive and his last words were ’Harry, I knew you would come."’ I believe that the reason Harry went back was because he loved Bill.
The Bible says “God made man in His image and after His likeness”. The human being is a spirit who lives in a body and has a soul. It was God’s plan for humanity to live in full fellowship with Him. When God made humankind we were perfect. We had perfect bodies, perfect souls and perfect spirits. The man Adam and the woman Eve were more intellectually brilliant than all the intellectuals and scholars that ever lived combined. They were physically healthy and never got sick and were not subject to death.
Their spirits were openly alert to God and they fellowshipped freely and happily with their Creator. Then like Harry in the story man got hit. Satan and sin ruined humanity’s relationship with God and the human race was plunged into a state of eternal death or separation from God and into unity with the devil.
The human condition became so deplorable, despicable, disgraceful and dreadful that like an infection from a wound every form of sin and vice, evil and unrighteousness, immorality and iniquity became humanity’s lifestyle. Mankind groaned in agony slipping perilously closer and closer to the second death that state or condition of eternal separation from God and everlasting torment in the fires of hell.
God the Father and Maker of humankind saw the situation and knew that there was only way to rescue helpless humanity who lay dying on battlefield of life.
Isaiah says it like this in Chp1 verses 5 and 6.
5 The whole head is sick And the whole heart is faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head
There is nothing sound in it,
Only bruises, welts and raw wounds,
Not pressed out or bandaged,
Nor softened with oil. (NASB)
Ezekiel says it like this:
Ezekiel 16:3 ...‘Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. 5 “No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.
6 “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’
God saw mankind on the battlefield of life dying from being mortally wounded by a despotic evil enemy and God said “I will not leave you to die. I have a relationship with you. You came from Me and I will not just sit by and watch you die in your blood.
I will not be indifferent, I will not be uncaring, I will not be unconcerned, I will not be unsympathetic, I will not be unmoved. I will do something about your situation. I will get involved. I will intervene for you. I will find a way to rescue you, I will give My Son for you, yes, My only begotten Son, the Darling of my holy bosom, the Apple of My divine eye, the jewel of My glorious crown, I will give My Son, in effect I will give My very life that you might live. I refuse to let you die so Live! I refuse, I refuse, I refuse to let you die so Live, Live, live, live….”
Like Harry on that Battlefield humanity kept groaning and crying for help until “… when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son…” (Galatians 4:5) There are two words for the word time in Greek one is kairos, that refers to opportunity and the other is chronos that means order.
In this verse the word used is chronos from which we get our English word chronology. It means God had a set time, an assigned time, a pre-arranged date, a preplanned, ordered, expected moment, an appointed time, like you put down an appointment in your day-timer, God planned it and one day, one day, one day, one day He said “ Today my child is getting off that battlefield. I’m sending his Brother to get him.”
“… So, on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. And I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. So I’ll cherish the Old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it some day for a crown.”
So today to the young man strung out on drugs bound by the power of narcotics dying on the battlefield of life Jesus came to get you.
To the woman trapped in a cycle of domestic violence dying on this battlefield we call life. Jesus came to get you.
To the man broken and despondent because he feels he has failed and cannot take care of his family and you just want to run away because you are dying on this battlefield called life, I came by to say Jesus came to get you.
To the woman who guzzles down bottle after bottle of alcohol trying to get so drunk that you forget your troubles, Jesus came to get you.
To the child who feels unhappy in your family and you have cried and cried when no one was looking, you feel hopeless and helpless, let me tell you right now that Jesus came to get you.
To the man who bought a gun or the woman who has been watching a bottle of pills and you have planned to end it all Jesus came to get you.
To the young mother who feels overwhelmed with the stress of raising children without the benefit of a husband and you cry yourself to sleep and wish that you did not wake up in the morning, Today is your day I just knew that Jesus would come to get you.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on would not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
