Church Sermon - September 18, 2005

LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US

Rev. Bernt P. Tweit

Epistle Lesson; Philippians 1:1-27
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon Text; Isaiah 55:6-9

Back in the 1850’s there was a steam liner that ran the Atlanta coast between New York and Panama. The name of the ship was the Central America. What the ship basically did was take people from New York to Panama, so they could cross over the little land bridge there, and get a boat to take them up to California for the great Gold Rush.

In 1857, the steam liner, the Central America, (which ran not only on steam power, but also sailing power), left Panama on its way back to New York. There were 578 people on board - men, women, children, the crew, and the captain. There were 38,000 pieces of mail on board, and there was a whole lot of gold that people had found in California. They were heading to New York City, where a lot of that gold was going to go into the banks and the treasury.

When it was just off of the Carolina Coast, they were caught in the winds of a hurricane. The mast and the sails were snapped and broken. And, the Central America sprung a leak. The boilers could not keep up with pumping and bilging out the water. It also could not keep up with propelling the boat, so that it would be headed straight into the wind. And, it started taking on a whole lot of water.

A plea went out to boats in the area. And, two boats came. All the women and children safely got onto those rescue boats. But, the men stayed behind, desiring to save all of that gold that was onboard the ship. So, they formed a bucket brigade. They were trying to get that water out of the ship as quickly as they could. But, the water was coming in too fast. By the evening of September 12^th, 1857 all the men and all the gold had sunk to the bottom of the Carolina Coast.

There was a time for those people to be saved. The women and children were saved, as they knew their boat was going down. But the men, sticking behind, clinging to that gold, perished, even though those rescue boats were right there.

There was a limited time for those men to be saved, and they perished.

In our scripture readings for today, our text is laying before us that same limited time offer. That limited time offer is salvation through faith in Jesus as our Savior.

Now, we know that God wants all of us to be saved. And yet, we know too that in His Word, sometimes that offer is limited. Isaiah, in our text for today, gives a great invitation. As we look at those first two verses of our text, we see some wonderful verbs, in which Isaiah is pleading with the people of his day, to seek the LORD while He may be found, call on Him while He is near, and to turn to Him.

You see the people that Isaiah was speaking to were in captivity. Isaiah’s people, the Children of Israel, had disobeyed God, and instead of calling upon the name of the one and only true God, they had worshipped false gods. And so, to discipline them, God sent the world power, at the time, the Assyrians and their king Tiglath-Pileser. Tiglath-Pileser carried the Israelites off into captivity where they were going to be for seventy years. And some of the Israelites were thinking, "That’s not fair. How is it that God would turn His back on us, who are the people of promise?"

But instead of thinking, "That’s not fair," Isaiah was calling the people to repentance.

The scriptures are filled with examples of prophets and/or apostles calling us to repentance. Take the example of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Every time Paul went to a new city, the first thing that he would do was to go into the synagogue and share with the people that salvation is through Christ. In every example, we know people who came to faith. And in every example, we know people who rejected that faith. One example is when Paul went to Thessalonica. In Acts 17, it says Paul went to Thessalonica where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This person I am proclaiming to is the Christ," he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul. But others were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the market place, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. There would be an example of God’s Word going forth, here, from the mouth of Paul. Salvation is for all people, Jews and Gentiles. There were some who believed that message while others rejected. God’s salvation was a limited time offer.

Or, to think of an Old Testament example, the best is that of Pharaoh. On ten separate occasions, God asked Pharaoh to release His people. Pharaoh said he would, and the plague was taken away (early on in those plagues it says Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart). By the time we get to the end of those plagues, it says, "And God hardened Pharaoh’s heart." His time of grace was over.

How many of us, maybe, have received an invitation in the mail, for a limited time offer, only to let it expire? When our lives were just like the Children of Israel, it is we who have turned our backs against God, it is we who have taken our trust away from God and put our trust in various things – ourselves, maybe our money, our fame, maybe our fortune. Are there those who are not in our midst this morning who once were; brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters whom that invitation of salvation through Christ has been received, only to set it aside?

Well, today as we listen to Isaiah’s invitation, may we seek the LORD while He may be found, may we call upon His name, and may we turn to the LORD while there is time, because we know from our text this morning, that God will have mercy upon us. Today is the day of salvation!

And as Isaiah extends that wonderful invitation to us, we know what God’s answer is. From the two verses of our text it may seem a little ambiguous because God says,

"My thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways."

If it was left up to us, and we were left to wonder, "How is it that God is going to have mercy upon us," we may begin to think that we need to do something for our salvation. "What is it that I can do? What is it that I can do to win salvation and get that reward of eternal life in Heaven?" But, God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. What are God’s ways and what are God’s thoughts, as far as His coming to show mercy to us?

The wonderful book of Isaiah gives us many examples that remind us time and time again of how God was willing to grant His mercy on to us. And mercy simply means, willing to forgive. In Isaiah, chapter one, we hear God saying to us,

"Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be white like snow.

Though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool."

To think that God has taken our sin stained lives and He has covered it with Christ’s white robe of righteousness! He has shown us His mercy, and He has pardoned us of all our sin.

Take Isaiah, chapter forty, where God says,

"Proclaim to her,

proclaim to Jerusalem and the church

that her hard service has been completed,

that her sin has been paid for."

There, God is showing His mercy onto us, that He wants to pardon and forgive us. Maybe the clearest one, in the whole book of Isaiah, is from chapter 53, where we say,

"We, all like sheep, have gone astray.

Each one of us has turned his own way,

but the LORD has laid on Him

(the LORD has laid on Jesus)

the iniquity of us all."

What a wonderful invitation that God extends to us throughout His Word - that wonderful invitation to seek the LORD while He may be found, knowing what God’s answer is. God’s answer is not to deal with us in fair manner. If God were to deal with us in a fair manner, we would be sent to Hell for all eternity. But rather, God deals with us according to His thoughts, and God deals with us according to His ways so that He can show mercy upon us and grant us pardon and forgiveness.

May we, (just like I did with our children this morning), all the days of our life, come before God, our Heavenly Father, asking Him,

"Oh LORD, have mercy upon us."

And, may we do that this morning, as a congregation, as we repeat together, if you would with me.

"LORD

have mercy upon us."

God grant this unto all of you for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

Top of Page || Church Sermons || Return to Home Page