Come to the Cross
Gary Minnick
Midland SDA Church
December 11, 2021
· Have you wondered what God really thinks about you?
· Psalm 103:6-18 “He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14).
Our greatest barrier to knowing God better may be how much we know about how much God knows about us. We struggle with God because sometimes we feel so bad about ourselves, and if we know the truth about ourselves, think of how much more God knows us! We can’t fool him.
Sometimes we don’t want to pray or read the Bible or think about God because when we look in the mirror, James 1:23 we feel like saying, “You’re a big disappointment” or “You ought to be a lot better by now.”
We’ve all felt that way from time to time, and I imagine someone hearing these words may feel that way right now. It’s been a hard week, or a bad month, and now we’re near the end of what seems like a wasted year.
I think we run from God rather than to him because we know our own hearts all too well and his barely at all. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things. I probably don’t need to spend any time convincing you that you are a sinner. You probably know the truth about yourself all too well. But it’s the other side that we need to talk about. We may not know God’s heart very well.
You probably know the truth about yourself all too well.
That’s where Psalm 103 can help us tremendously. Perhaps no other chapter in the Bible so clearly reveals God’s compassion for his people. If you’re wondering what God thinks about you, let’s take a journey through Psalm 103 and discover seven liberating truths about God’s heart.
He Loves to Help the Needy.
“The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel” (Ps.103 6-7).
The “oppressed” are those who can’t help themselves. In the Old Testament the word especially referred to widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. When we are tempted to take advantage of others because we are strong and they are weak, God says, “Think about that first.” He takes the side of the weak. Our God keeps his eyes on the helpless, and when others hurt them, he moves to balance the scales of justice.
In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “The arm of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.” There are days and times when this is hard to believe, especially in light of events going on in this world.
But this truth stands like a solid rock for the believer. If all of history is a book, we haven’t reached the final chapter yet. We’re somewhere near the end, but we’re not sure how far away we are. But we know this much. Eventually God will bring everything to light, and he will judge with impartiality. Luke 8:17 for nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.
In that day there will be no hiding, (like Adam,) no excuse-making, no bribes, and no way of escape.
Are you needy? The answer is yes whether you know it or not. You are needy and God is on your side. That’s a great place to start.
He Shows Mercy to Those Who Don’t Deserve It.
2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love
See the four great attributes of God in this verse:
1) The Lord is compassionate-He pardons us.
2) The Lord is gracious-He gives us what we don’t deserve.
3) The Lord is slow to anger-He is patient with us when we fall.
4) The Lord abounds in love-He loves us more than we can imagine.
There’s no fishing like fishing in the sea.
There’s no eating like eating at the king’s table.
There’s no love like God’s love.
When he saves, he saves completely.
When he forgives, he forgives all my sins. 1st John 1:9 Read
When he sets us free, we are free forever?
He Tempers His Wrath.
(PS 103: 9- 10) NKJV. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
Have you ever known anyone who loved to argue? We all know people
who love to keep a quarrel going because they are so angry in their mind? God is not like that. He is willing to end the quarrel and welcome us back home. Sometimes the real problem is that we want to keep fighting him.
He’s more ready to forgive than we are to be forgiven!
When we forget to pray, he remembers to feed us.
When we forget to give thanks, he still blesses us.
When we idle in sin, he sends his Holy Spirit to convict us.
When we refuse to give, he still keeps on giving.
When we fall, he lifts us up.
God even blesses those who don’t believe in him.
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An unbeliever like Christopher Hitchens writes a book called “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” and sells a boatload of copies, along the way merrily debating every religious-type person he can find. He is clever, witty, a gifted writer, completely committed to debunking religion of every type and even more committed to the concept that God is simply not necessary.
But look at the mercy of God. Instead of crushing him like an empty eggshell, the Lord feeds him and nourishes him and gives him life, health and love. It is the longsuffering of God that allows Christopher Hitchens to deny him. And why would God show such kindness to someone utterly dedicated to eradicating his influence in the world?
Because if there is a God at all, he is not in the least intimidated by Christopher Hitchens. If you think of him as part of the atheist artillery, they shoot at God on ground he provides from him. And the fact that God withholds punishment to his enemies, that too is evidence of his mercy for “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance” (Romans 2:4).
He
Forgives All Our Sins. PS: 103: 11-13 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His
mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As
far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father pities his children, So
the Lor d pities those who fear Him.
Consider the greatness of God’s love. Astronomers tell us that the farthest known light source from the earth is ten billion light years away. That means that light starting from that source (a quasar) would take ten billion years traveling at the speed of light to arrive at the earth.
By contrast the nearest star is “only” four light years away from us. That’s four years traveling at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second. Light from the sun reaches the earth in a little over eight minutes. So even the nearest star is a vast distance from the earth. If you could reach the nearest star in a modern spaceship in “only” 81,000 years. You can turn it around any way you like, we are left with two inescapable realities. First, we live in a tiny corner of the universe,
and second, the universe is vast beyond our comprehension. But God’s love is greater, vaster, larger, deeper, longer, broader, and bigger in all dimensions then the universe itself.
Consider the magnitude of God’s love. Let’s suppose you want to go east until you finally reach the west. So, you take off from Baltimore in a hot air balloon. Finally, you make it back to Baltimore. Besides having gone around the globe, what have you proved? Among other things, you have proved that no matter how far east you go, you will never find the west.
Just like that my sins can never come back to haunt me again.
The farther east you go, the farther you are from the west.
That’s the magnitude of God’s love. Here is great good news for all the sinners of the world. When God forgives, he removes our sins, he lifts them up, he takes them away, and he puts them so far away from us that we could never find them if we searched for them for a thousand years. They are gone forever. Where did they go?
Cast into the depths Micah 7:19 or Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove out transgressions from us. Isn’t that great news?
Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us. And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
A long fuse - “slow to anger” Palms 103 (v. 8),
A short memory-"does not harbor his anger forever” (v. 9),
A thick skin-"does not treat us as our sins deserve” (v. 10), and
A great heart-"so great is his love, so far has he removed our sins” V’11-12.
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (v. 13).
He Remembers That We Are Dust. (vv. 14-16).
“For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more”
Also, Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and will remember their sins no more.”
I’m glad we have a God like that because that exactly the kind of God we need. He Understands Our Weakness.
Earthly fathers-however imperfect-point us upward to our Heavenly Father. When an earthly father has done his job well, he makes it easy for his children to believe in their Heavenly Father. Our children learn that we do not worship a god of stone or an empty idol We serve a Father God who knows our weakness and loves us anyway.
When my friend’s young son Mark, developed a persistent ear infection that would not go away. After trying antibiotics for a time, the family physician told us we needed to see a specialist so he referred us to Dr. Warner, a highly respected specialist in Dallas.
After examining him carefully, he announced that Mark needed to have tubes put in his ears to prevent further scarring from the infection. Even though the operation is quick and fairly simple, the doctor could see that Mark was scared. So, he picked him up and carried him piggy-back to surgery. That was the last image we saw-the great physician carrying our son on his back so he wouldn’t be afraid.
So, it is with our Heavenly Father. The Great Physician knows our weakness and understands our fears. And when we can’t go on, he carries us on his back. Remember the footsteps in the sand?
Here is a truth we all understand, especially in this season of the year. Yesterday’s green leaves soon turn brown. It’s impossible to stop. In the law of nature that the green leaves of spring end up in a pile on your lawn.
Why do the leaves lose their green? There is a scientific explanation having to do with the loss of green chlorophyll, but that simply means the leaves are slowly dying. Their beauty comes from their death.
Who remembers each leaf? Not the tree. One by one the leaves fall to the ground where they disintegrate and return to the soil from which they came. No one names them or numbers them or even thinks about them. And by the first of November most of the leaves are gone from the trees. It is the way of nature; the way God arranged the changing of the seasons.
One person wrote that every now and then I’ll run across a bit of cemetery humor that makes me chuckle. I was driving down a major thoroughfare in Chicago next to one of those cemeteries that seems to go on forever. Because it is a long stretch of road with no stop lights, people tend to break the speed limit routinely. So, I laughed when I saw a billboard sponsored by the cemetery that said, “Slow Down. We’ll save a place for you.” I’m sure they will.
If that’s all there is, if we are here today and gone, if that’s the end of the story, then there isn’t much hope. But let me share something with you. If you don’t have anything else to be thankful for this year, here’s something you can hang your hat on. Our hope is not in man or in anything man can do.
Our hope is in the everlasting God!
He Links Us with Eternity by Linking Us with Himself.
Micah 7:17,18 (NLT)
Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the
sins of his special people? You will not
stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love.
19 Once again you will have compassion on us.
“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children- with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” (vv. 17-18).
Our hope is in the everlasting God!
There is nothing we can do about our frailty. We come from the hand of our Creator stamped, “Fragile: Handle with care.” We are like the dust devils that blow across the desert. We make a big scene and then suddenly we disappear. Try as we might, we can’t cancel our humanity. Nothing can change what we are. Vitamins and exercise and clean living may slow down the process. Positive thinking may improve our mood. But for all of us, the end is the same:
Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust.
The fading flower and the everlasting God,
Our mortality and God’s eternity.
Someone has said that life without Christ is a hopeless end, but life with Christ is an endless hope. And this endless hope is not only to us but to our children’s children. What will we leave our children? A vast estate? A large inheritance? A huge life insurance policy?
Whatever we may say about earthly possessions, they are pale next to the privilege of passing down a godly heritage, and a pattern of believing that our children and grandchildren can claim as their own.
We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize.
In a passing world where everything fades away, we have the promise that we are linked to the future even after we are gone by the faithfulness of God to our children to our children’s children. This, too, is the mercy of God.
What is Psalm 103 telling us? We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize. We frail, mortal sinners are rich in the mercy of God.
And we have found that mercy–or rather, that mercy has found us in the cross of Jesus Christ. During one of his sermons Billy Graham told the story of a patrolman on night duty in a town in northern England. As he walked the streets, he heard a quivering sob. Shining his flashlight into the darkness, he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep and tears were running down his cheek. The child said, “I’m lost. Please take me home.” And the policeman began naming street after street, trying to help the boy remember where he lived. He named the shops and the hotels in the area but the little boy could give him no clue.
Then he remembered that at the center of the town there was a church with a large white cross that towered above the rest of the city. The policeman pointed to the cross and said, “Do you live anywhere near that place?” The little boy’s face immediately brightened up. He said, “Yes, sir. Take me to the cross and I can find my way home.”
Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.
All that we believe, all that we have, all that we hope for is found in the cross of Christ. Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.
Are you weak? So am I.
Are you needy? So am I.
Are you guilty? So am I.
Are you frail? So am I.
Are you like dust? So am I.
And God says to us, his weak, needy, guilty, frail, dusty children, “I know you through and through, and I love you anyway. Come to me. Rest in me. Make me your Rock.” God’s mercy in Christ is more than enough for all of us. Amen.