Dakota Community Church
March 27, 2011
The Gospel of His Great Mercy - 1
Ephesians 2:4-6
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
Ephesians 2:12
REMEMBER that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
All of the five previous messages in this series are about REMEMBERING!
Do you remember the movie Hook? It's about Peter Pan revisiting Neverland to rescue his kids after he's grown up.
Hook is trying to turn Peter’s children against him, trying to win their devotion for himself.
Do you remember this line from the movie?
"Neverland makes you forget! Never forget mommy and daddy. Run home, Jack, run home!"
This is Neverland - this fallen planet makes you forget and the enemy of God is trying to hurt Him by stealing your devotion, by turning you against Him.
I am not trying to entertain you or tickle your ears; we are not playing religious games here, toying with optional matters. This is not “Build-A-God - this is essential soul saving truth.
If I do not treasure Jesus as my Savior, if I forget my need of Him, I may wander from the truth and fall prey to deception.
Romans 11:17-23
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
We need to remember these things because the consequence of forgetting them is real!
The reward for keeping them in focus is also real.
We remember our need of a Savior and that remembrance leads to a growing love for Him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”
2 Timothy 4:8
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
The gospel of His great mercy becomes a side note on our spiritual journey:
When we forget we were spiritually dead!
The gospel of His great mercy becomes a side note on our spiritual journey:
When we forget about slavery to the ways of this world!
The gospel of His great mercy becomes a side note on our spiritual journey:
When we forget what a wicked father Satan was!
The gospel of His great mercy becomes a side note on our spiritual journey:
When we forget we deserved the wrath of a Just and Holy God!
Hebrews 1:9 tells us that God loves righteousness and hates wickedness but we don’t want to believe it.
We don’t even like to think of God has having wrath or anger or hatred – even of sin!
Psalm 2:1-6
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
We deserved His righteous anger and Holy wrath.
We wanted to throw off His fetters and break His chains.
However – BECAUSE OF THE GOSPEL OF HIS GREAT MERCY – we do not have to get what we deserve!
God’s mercy is seen in us not getting what we deserve / withheld punishment
God’s grace is seen in us getting what we don't deserve / unmerited favor
Mercy is like a judge finding you guilty, but then withholding any punishment.
Grace is getting something you could never have imagined. An inexplicable gift; as though you were found guilty and then awarded a million dollars.
Why must punishment for sin go on forever?
“First, the revolt against God is more serious than we think it is. An insurrection against an infinitely worthy Creator is an infinitely heinous offense. We know something of this intuitively. This is why, in our human sentences of justice, we sentence a man to one punishment for threatening to kill his co-worker and another man to a much more severe punishment for threatening to kill the nation’s president.
Second, and more important, is the nature of the punishment itself. The sinner in hell does not become morally neutral upon his sentence to hell. We must not imagine the damned displaying gospel repentance and longing for the presence of Christ. They do indeed, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, seek for an escape from punishment, but they are not new creations. They do not in hell love the Lord their God with heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Instead, in hell, one is now handed over to the full display of his nature apart from grace. And this nature is seen to be satanic (Jn. 8:44). The condemnation continues forever and ever, because the sin does too. Hell is the final “handing over” (Rom. 1) of the rebel to who he wants to be, and it’s awful.” – Russell D. Moore (http://www.christianpost.com/news/why-is-hell-forever-49561/)
The more I study this topic, the more I am forced to believe two things:
Human thinking cannot comprehend the seriousness of sin
We do not get it; in our fallen state we just do not see the horror of sin in the eyes of a Holy God. This inability to see is what allows us to declare ourselves, “Not that bad” or someone else a “good person”. These are blind fallacies.
Human thinking cannot grasp God’s definition of justice
I have mentioned a couple of examples of God’s wrath numerous times over the last couple of months as I have been trying to enlighten us as to what we have been saved from.
The man caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath:
Numbers 15:32-36
32 While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” 36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Uzzah the priest reaching out to keep the ark from falling:
1 Chronicles 13:7-11
They moved the ark of God from Abinadab’s house on a new cart, with Uzzah and Ahio guiding it. 8 David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals and trumpets.
9 When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. 10 The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.
11 Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.
Even the fate of humanity for Adam’s transgression, but these are only a few amoung many examples I could use that would stagger the mind:
Joshua 7:24-26
Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today.”
Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. 26 Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his fierce anger.
One person took what was forbidden - 36 people die in battle, - Achan himself is stoned to death and his whole family and all his livestock are stoned to death and burned. Now this:
1 Chronicles 21:1, 13-14
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
14 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
Human thinking cannot comprehend the seriousness of sin
Human thinking cannot grasp God’s definition of justice
How does any of this reconcile with:
Numbers 14:18
‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…
And with this:
John 14:9
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Continued in April – “The Gospel of His Great Mercy – 2”
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
