An attorney, after meditating on several Scriptures, decided to cancel the debts of all his clients that had owed him money for more than 6 months. He drafted a letter explaining his decision and its Biblical basis and sent 17 debt canceling letters via certified mail. One by one, the letters were returned by the Postal Service, unsigned and undelivered. Perhaps a couple people had moved away though not likely. Sixteen of the seventeen letters came back to him because the clients refused to sign for and open the envelopes fearing that this attorney was suing them for their debts. How profound! We owe a debt for our sin and God is willing to cancel it but too many people will not even open the letter that explains how.
Beloved there are people that are so overwhelmed with their self inflicted sin that forgiveness is a confusing element in their lives. They find it impossible to understand the extreme merciful hand of God that forgives all sin, see beloved when you decide to turn from sin and walk toward righteousness and repent of your sin God truly forgives and hope is now in plan view, see the truth is without forgiveness there is no hope, no redemption, no joy, no future. You need to know that we serve a forgiving God.
“Bow down Your ear, O LORD, hear me; For I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am holy; You are my God; Save Your servant who trusts in You! Be merciful to me, O Lord, For I cry to You all day long. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.”
??Psalms? ?86:1-5? ?NKJV??????????????
Beloved in order for you to begin to fully understand the mercy of God through Jesus Christ you are going to need to open the letters he left for you in this precious word. There are many people that have missed the enjoyment of salvation, the relief of forgiveness because they have not opened this wonderful book that is full of truth and hope, life and redemption.
1st Point “The heart cries for mercy”
Have you ever cried for mercy? Have you ever been so overwhelmed with your situation all you can do is ask for help and start crying asking for answers and ask God if he is even listening? I have been there and I’m pretty sure many others have been in that same position as well.
In our opening text David is crying out to God for help in time of need. David used expressive language to speak of his need. God in heaven bows His head to earth to hear David's plea for help - David's cry, "Hear me."
Here is David crying out to God in heaven asking with a desperation for him to be heard he said, Lord “Hear me”. He says, “For I am poor and needy: David gives the first of several reasons why God should answer. David here appealed to God's sympathy, to His compassion. A hard-hearted God wouldn't care for a poor and needy man, or worse yet might even despise him. Yet David knew that God was full of love and compassion and would be moved by the fact that David was, and knew himself to be, poor and needy.
It is significant that David began his plea with this. His understanding of the love and compassion of God was foundational. There are many people that question God’s love for them but rest assure God is a loving Father and proved it when he gave us His only begotten son Jesus. David based His whole life, his hope on the basis of the love of God and the joy of knowing that God is a forgiving, loving and a redemptive God.
God hears the cry of His children, listen to me He is a good father that takes delight of helping his children and protecting and blessing His children.
Preserve my life: David's problem was desperate; he felt that without God's help he could perish. Considering the many people that were set against him, he had reason to be this concerned, sometimes in life we are so oppressed we need relief we need help. Look with me for a moment there are many people that have problems that make them desperate and sometimes those desperation’s are because there are people that want to do harm to them, there are situations that are way out of their control that the only one that has the power to change the course of these issues is God. But let me quickly remind you that your issues or situations are never an issue for God.
Beyond this, we aren't told the nature of David's need. We know it was severe, just as our needs at times are severe, and he felt it to be life threatening. Yet we don't know if it was danger from Saul, or the Philistines, or from assassins, or from a dozen other things. This is good, because it allows us to see our need in David's need. It allows us to know that we can approach God on the same basis for whatever our need is. Those needs may seem minuscule or they may seem far too big, but God is the handler of all things nothing is too small or too big for God, everything is important to God and you need to understand that. And the reason everything is important to God because you are important to God.
2nd Point “God the good father”
Help me because You are a gracious God. Many people see God today as a God of merciless judgement a God that allows bad things to happen to good people. Unfortunately the Bible says that no one is good no not one. The only one that is good is God, yet because of our misunderstanding of God is being bad and harmful so is our view of God. God is a good Father and a good father loves his children and loves them endlessly. A good father forgives them for their mistakes and helps them through. And I am telling you this morning that God is a good God and a good father, forgives the child that would come in open confession and repent, he says I can work with that.
David based this plea on the graciousness of God; knowing that He is good and ready to forgive. Far too many people who should know better doubt both the goodness of God and His readiness to forgive. Let me tell you something you probably never heard before, your never too far in to your sin that God can’t help you out. God is powerful and holy God and blesses His people.
"We are blinded by sin, and cannot believe that God is ready to forgive. We think that we must induce Him to forgive, by tears, promises of amendment, religious observances … Oh, clasp this word to your heart! Say it over and over again - 'Ready to forgive, ready to forgive!'"
Many wait to repent and ask forgiveness because they think that time might make God more forgiving. That isn't possible. He is ready to forgive now.
"You have fallen a hundred times, and are ashamed to come to God again; it seems to much to expect that He will receive you again. But He will, for He is ready to forgive."
“Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.””
??Luke? ?23:39-43? ?NKJV??????????
This was no surprise to Jesus to hear this man ask for forgiveness, here is a criminal in the same position as Jesus condemned, crucified for a crime he knows he committed, this is the only time in scripture that someone has stared at God in the face during their judgment and found hope through words of promise and forgiveness.
Both Matthew and Mark indicate that both criminals mocked Jesus. Though at first they both mocked Jesus, in the hours spent on the cross, one of the criminals came to see things differently, and to actually put his trust in Jesus.
· This second criminal respected God (Do you not even fear God).
· He knew his own sin (under the same condemnation... we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds).
· He knew Jesus (this Man has done nothing wrong).
· He called out to Jesus (he said to Jesus).
· He called out to Jesus as Lord (he said to Jesus, “Lord...”).
· He believed Jesus was who Jesus said He was (remember me when You come into Your kingdom).
· He believed the promise of everlasting life from Jesus.
Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise: Jesus answered the trust of the second criminal, assuring him that his life after death would be with Jesus, and be in Paradise, not torment.
Here is something truly remarkable: a deathbed conversion, and may fairly be said to be the only Biblical example of a last-minute salvation. There is one deathbed conversion in the Bible, so that no one would despair; but only one, so that no one would presume.
Significantly, this thief who trusted in Jesus at the last moment goes to the same heaven anyone else does. This may not seem fair, but in the larger picture it gives glory to the grace of God, not to human merit in salvation. In heaven, we will all be filled to the full with joy and reward; but the degree of our faithfulness now determines how big our container for joy and reward will be in heaven, though all will be filled to the fullest they can hold.
In Paradise: It then became a type of the future bliss for God’s people in Isaiah 51:3…In the present passage is represents the state of bliss which Jesus promised to the criminal directly after death.”
This assurance was so important to Jesus that it cost Him something. It hurt Jesus to even say these words. “Since speech occurs during exhalation, these short, terse utterances must have been particularly difficult and painful.”
v. Jesus answered the second criminal far beyond his expectation.
· The thief on the cross had some distant time in mind; Jesus told him today.
· The thief on the cross asked only to be remembered; Jesus said “you will be with Me.”
· The thief on the cross looked only for a kingdom; Jesus promised him Paradise.
My question this morning to you is this, here we have a loving merciful God who is ready to forgive, what is keeping you from grabbing on to this forgiveness?
3rd Point “Come home my child I’m waiting”
“Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. ’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘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 fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” Luke? ?15:11-24? ?NKJV????
We should fully understand that prodigal living is just enjoyment for a season then reality sets in and when we see our state we will quickly realize this is not my life, and so was the situation of this prodigal who came to himself as the Bible had wrote, yet he thought his situation has determined or rather lessened the love of his father. Beloved many believe God doesn’t love them because of their sinful lives, yet on the contrary God does love you but hates the sin you do, see he loves you so much He gave His only begotten son Jesus to die for you.
The son left the area to become independent of the father and lived a prodigal (reckless, foolish, extravagant) life. No doubt it was fun while it lasted.
When he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land: The son was completely to blame for the wasteful, foolish living and spending. He was not to blame for the severe famine, but was afflicted by it nevertheless.
He began to be in want…he sent him into his fields to feed swine: Driven by hunger and need, the son accepted work that was unacceptable and offensive to any righteous Jewish person because swine were unclean under the law (Leviticus 11:7).
No one gave him anything: The misery of the prodigal son moves our sympathy. Yet his misery drove him to the good resolution. The lost son’s decision to return to his father.
In his misery the prodigal son was finally able to think clearly. Before it might be said that he wasn’t really himself and thought as another man; then he came to himself.
In his rebellion and disobedience, he wasn’t himself. “In his years of riot he was not himself. It was not the prodigal who was the real man. The real man was the repentant, not the prodigal.”
In his clear thinking he didn’t think of how to improve conditions in the pigpen. He didn’t blame his father, his brother, his friends, his boss, or the pigs. He recognized his misery without focusing on it, and instead focused on his father.
I will arise and go to my father: Jesus didn’t say that the man thought of his village or his home, but of his father. When the son returned to the father, he also came back to the village and to the house; but his focus was on returning to his father.
That is how we need to come back to God – to come back to Him first and foremost, before coming back to church or coming back to Christian friends.
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants: In his prepared speech to his father, the son showed his complete sense of unworthiness and an honest confession of sin. He would not even ask to be treated as a son, but as a hired servant.
“I have sinned against heaven and before you” shows a complete change of thinking. He didn’t think like this before; now he made no attempt to justify or excuse his sin.
“The ordinary slave was in some sense a member of the family, but the hired servant could be dismissed at a day’s notice. He was not one of the family at all.” (Barclay)
The lost son demonstrated the repentance Jesus specifically spoke of in the previous parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. After his misery, he thought completely differently about his father, himself, and his home. The son asked for two things: First, “Father, give me;” then, “Father, make me.” Only the second request brought joy. The father joyfully receives the lost son.
“The depth of the son’s repentance is matched only by the depth of the father’s love.”
Ran and fell on his son’s neck and kissed him: The intensity of the father’s reception was indicated by the fact that he ran (unusual for grown men in those cultures) and that he repeatedly kissed him. Beloved Jesus is at the window waiting for you to make a decision to come home to Him first. He is ready and able to forgive and accept you into His forgiveness if you would make your sin known and repent. He is a loving father forgiving the sins of those who repent.
“keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
??Exodus? ?34:7? ?NKJV??????
God is a forgiving God and wants you to know that this morning will you come to yourself and receive this free gift of salvation and turn from your sin and repent come into God’s grace and mercy and leave here renewed knowing you have a good father that loves you.
