Remember O Lord, Your Great Mercy
Text: Psalm 25
Psalm 25:1-10 Of David. To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. (2) O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. (3) Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. (4) Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. (5) Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. (6) Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. (7) Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD! (8) Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. (9) He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. (10) All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
"Voltaire once stood watching a funeral procession. As a high crucifix, carried by four men, passed by, Voltaire was seen to raise his hat and hold it aloft in the air until the crucifix had passed. A friend of his noticing this, said, "Well are you at last a believer in God?" "No," replied the atheist. "We salute, but we do not speak". (Hyman J. Appleman. Pointed Sermon Outlines And Illustrations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1953,p. 82). How many are there like Voltaire who salute God, but do not speak to Him?
Psalm 55:19 says “Men who never change their ways have no fear of God” . How can we ever be willing to want to know God’s ways or be taught His paths to instruct us in God’s ways and learn the truth of God’s call on our lives if we do not want change?
Isn’t Advent a time of expectation and preparation? Doesn’t Advent challenge us to make changes in our lives? Obviously, Voltaire seems to be a poster boy for someone who does not want to have to prepare because he doesn’t want to make any changes. Didn’t David write this Psalm expressing remorse as well as the hunger for righteousness that only God could give him? Do we have that yearning in common with David?
The world is full of two kinds of people, the shameful and the ashamed.
THE SHAMEFUL
Have you ever known anyone who was shameless?
Don’t we often think of an enemy who refused to apologize? What could be more shameless than a hit and run? Years ago I went to visit a man in the hospital who was involved in a hit and run accident. I don’t think I saw him when he was conscience except one time before I moved to my next appointment. They finally caught the person. It was over four months before they caught the culprit. That poor gentleman was crippled for life after that hit and run accident.
How many hit and run behaviors do we see in the world today? How many times have we seen incidents in the news where people have committed crimes for which they did not seem to feel any remorse? How many times have we seen people shamelessly loot stores without being arrested? What about recent looting in California where criminals were allowed to loot $900 of stuff during store hours without penalty? What is more shameful the fact that they looted the stores or the fact that they were caught on camera and were dismissed by the legal system that should have arrested and charged them?
How about our own values and principles? Have we ever done anything shameful? One of the notions about sin is the more one sins the less one feels remorse about it. The danger is that behavior like that can lead to making one someone feel bulletproof. What if someone offered you a million dollars to compromise your values and your principles, would you do it? How can anyone prepare for changes if they live with an illusion of having an immunity to sin?
Do you think that the shameless are ill-prepared for the future? The story is told of a man who neglected to take care of a spare tire after he had a second flat tire within five days. He had neglected the necessity of getting the bad tire fixed and then he was stranded. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.(source of origin: J.U., August, 1982). How many are so busy shamelessly living as if tomorrow never comes? How can we make changes if we live in denial about our negligence and sin?
How many of us were young and stupid once? David recognized the error of his ways---his young and stupid ways and asked God to forget about the sins of his youth (Psalm 25:7). Have you ever hoped that God would forget about when you were young and stupid? How can we ever be prepared without repentance? There is hope for change if we felt remorse and those times we were young, naive, careless and stupid.
Years ago, there was a fellow who was young and stupid. His mother was in the hospital after having a cancer treatment; his girlfriend gave him the cold shoulder; he just wanted to avoid things that he had no control over. He and his friends went “camping” one Friday night. There was beer and rebellion involved.
He and his friends got drunk, went for a walk and got more alcohol---a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20. They continued to walk to a park down the road sing along with a Tom Petty song (Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee). By the time they got to the park an angry resident approached them at his front door and told them he had already called the law.
Three of the four went to sleep in the park until the law showed up. A county police man showed up and asked for identification. By that time, the loudest one hesitantly showed him his license. Defiantly, he said to his friend, “Wesley, I wouldn’t show the ociffer …#@&% ” now the rest of that sentence is not something one says in church! He sad some things that can’t be said in church sassing the cop. Then, he told them to go to the squad car. He as he placed the loud one in the car, he slid over to the other side, opened the car door came up to his one of his friends who was supposed to be the next one in the squad car as he said “Hey, let’s make a run for it”.
The county police officer then called for back up.
Next, came the town Police man who notices a local preacher’s son. “Hey aren’t you preacher’s boy?”
Last but not least, came a highway patrol officer. If the highway patrol man had not shown up, then all four boys would have gone to jail that night. It just so happens that he was a cousin to one of the two minor boys that was present.
The parents were all notified as one of the fathers who was the cousin of the highway patrol man came in his pick up truck to get the boys back home. Three of them lived next to one another. The preacher came to pick up his son and threw him in the shower with his clothes on when he got home. I am that preacher’s son.
The next morning the preacher took his son to for breakfast at a local restaurant and made him sweat the whole time as they ate breakfast thinking his father might tell the embarrassing tale to a church member who was having breakfast with them. The preacher’s son got all the way through Sunday until someone at the youth group said, “I heard you got in trouble this weekend. Is that true?” So yes, I was young and stupid preacher’s kid once some 38 yeas ago.
Aren’t we glad for the love of Jesus Christ--- God’s only begotten Son who went to the cross to save us? This Psalm reminds us of how God deals with us out of His loving mercy rather than what we actually deserve! I deserved jail but received mercy that day!
Who wants “Here lies so and so who was once young and stupid and never learned any better” for an epitaph on his tombstone?
We serve an awesome God who forgives us if we will repent and return to Him. When we honestly repent, our sins will be covered and washed away only by the blood of Jesus Christ! Only God can help us take out the trash of how we were young and stupid if we know Jesus as our Savior!
THE ASHAMED
How many “spin doctors” put a spin on things to distort the truth?
1) Redactional spin doctors: Have you ever noticed when people conspire together to get their stories straight? These are the kind of people who want to rewrite history and edit the things that go along with their narrative by “spinning things”. In his book 1984, George Orwell said, “Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/156107-those-who-control-the-present-control-the-past-and-those How can we honestly hide our sin from God?
2) The truth: Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually re-write our story and leave out the sins? Have you ever known someone who played golf and recorded only the strokes they liked on their score card? Did you ever know someone who tried to make an “F” look like an “A” or a “B” on a report card? Or, try to intercept their report card in the mail box? Or, tried erase incriminating evidence? How can we hide about getting in the cookie jar if the evidence the chocolate chips is on our face? How can prepared for the Lord’s coming without repentance?
3) Ashamed: We can run but we cannot hide! Aren’t we ashamed when we know that God already knows the truth about what it is that we tried to hide?
4) Two books: Revelation 20:12 - 15 mentions two books. Everything we have ever done is written in the Book of Deeds which one of the two books mentioned in the book of Revelation. Everyone has an entry in the Book of Deeds. If we have been saved then God takes our sins and cast them as far as the East is away from the West (Psalm 103:12)! The second book mentioned in the book of Revelation is the Lamb’s Book of Life. Only the saved have an entry in that Lamb’s Book of Life because they have repented of their sins which have been washed clean by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
How can God lead us and guide us in what is true if God is not the God of our salvation (Psalm 25:5)? How can we prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ without His help? Remember the questions we asked at the beginning? Isn’t Advent a time of expectation and preparation? Doesn’t Advent challenge us to make changes in our lives?
Let me share with you a story about a changed man who wanted to be prepared.
“A fundraiser letter from the Prison Fellowship Ministry told about an inmate named Ruffino Fernandez, who was in the Delaware Correctional Center. There Ruffino attended a Prison Fellowship seminar and committed his life to Christ. That changed his whole attitude, and when Prison Fellowship later offered another seminar, Ruffino was among the attendees. He said, “The teaching and love in these seminars has meant so much to me. I wanted to learn more before I left [prison].
Eventually, Prison Fellowship announced a third seminar, but it happened that the day it was set to begin was also the day that Ruffino was to be released from prison. He had a job waiting on the outside and a place to live all ready. Yet when he found out that his release date coincided with the first day of the seminar, he went straight to his parole officer, and asked that his release be delayed until after the seminar. That’s hungering for righteousness, and Jesus says that a person with that kind burning thirst for reconciliation with God will receive it”. https://www.proclaimsermons.com/illustration.asp (Source: Prison Fellowship fundraiser letter dated July 24, 1984, signed by Charles W. Colson.) Have you been reconciled with God? Have you received His gift of righteousness that comes only through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ?
Here was a man was lifting his soul up to God! He wanted to be prepared! How many would be willing to stay in prison to be able to be closer to the Lord Jesus Christ? He had a hunger and thirst for reconciliation and righteousness like David!
How many wander, lost without even realizing that they are even lost? How many never change because they do not fear God or even know God? How are we helping others to prepare? Can we honestly expect to change without humility? Is it enough to just expect change without our preparation? One day we will complete our time on earth and on our tombstones there will be a birth date and a death date and a dash between them. How can we prepare without accepting the help of the Lord Jesus Christ? Don’t take that dash between our birthday and the day of our death lightly. God doesn’t want us to salute Him, like French Philosopher Voltaire once did. God wants us to know Him as our Savior. God wants our name in the Lamb’s Book of life which can happen through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ!
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
