Sermon in Minneapolis 28.01.2018

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us begin our services this morning with opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, again we thank you that we have been able to gather around your holy word. Father, we ask that you would be present through your Spirit. Bless our services. Open your word so we could be enlightened about the reason for our salvation, which is through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. So we ask that you would feed us and guide us on this narrow way of life and protect us in our begun faith until one day we can lay down our travel staff and be translated from this life to that eternal home in heaven. All this we ask in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

According to the schedule, it should have been Brian Johnson today, but I'll be gone to Florida in two weeks, so we did a swap. He'll be here on February 11th in my spot, and I'm taking his spot this morning.

Before reading the text, I was just showing a text message where Paul Risenan, within the last hour, just passed away. He was, I'm assuming, around 92 years old. If I would have received the text message minutes earlier, we would have sung in memory of him as well as we sung for Curtis Mattoa.

Today is Sexagesima Sunday, a Latin term which refers to the number 60. So we're about 60 days away from Easter. And the theme for today is Unmerited Grace.

I thought I'd read today's Old Testament text from 1 Samuel 16, verses 1-13:

And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go. And I will send thee to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have provided me a king among his sons.

And Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hear it, he will kill me.

And the Lord said, Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do, and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee.

And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably?

And he said, Peaceably, I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.

And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.

And it came to pass, when they were come, that they should be called to the sacrifice.

And the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as a man seeth. For a man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

Then Jesse said unto Samuel, I am come to sacrifice unto the sacrifice, and thou shalt not look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

And he said to Samuel, Look not on the heart, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen him.

Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by, and he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this.

Again Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these.

And Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all thy children?

And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep.

And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither.

And he sent and brought them to the house. And he brought them in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look at.

And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.

So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

So the theme for today is unmerited grace. So it's important for us to consider the term grace and what that means.

Grace is something that we receive as a gift, something that we haven't even deserved.

After Adam and Eve fell into sin, there was no one who was righteous, no, not one.

So when God looked down from heaven, there was no one worthy of salvation.

In that condition, everyone was hell's own, condemned to perdition.

But God was a God of grace and he wished to offer a gift to those who were completely undeserving.

We can think of us as individuals in the temporal sense: if we show love to someone, we expect to receive love in return.

And if we try to love that person and we never receive anything in return or nothing but disdain, eventually we as human beings will give up.

We will turn our backs and walk away.

But grace, which is the unconditional love of God, gives even though the recipient is trying to reject it.

He will give it even though there is nothing given in return.

So after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, God so loved the world that he offered to give his only Son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish but will receive everlasting life.

So there is nothing that we can offer: no work, no deed, no money.

In fact, it is not worthy of a gift. It is not something that he will accept in the place of salvation.

In fact, the Old Testament prophet says if you try to, it is like a filthy rag in the eyes of God.

So herein is love, says John the apostle of love in his letter: not in this that we as human beings have taken the first initiative and have loved God.

No, but God has taken that initiative for us toward us as unworthy, undeserving, unmerited sinners.

He has first loved us.

And how did he do it? By sending his Son to be the propitiation or the atonement for our sins.

As a Christian, we can think of an illustration of Jesus when he was hanging on the cross on the hill of Golgotha.

He was innocent. He was blameless. He was sinless.

But yet as a sinless person, he was dying the most shameful death that society could offer at that time.

And so he was doing this in our and on our behalf.

But on either side of him was a criminal, a thief.

And according to the laws of society at that time, they had committed such grievous errors against society that they were dying by means of capital punishment.

They weren't serving a life sentence in prison but they were being put to death for just cause.

There had been in question murder and adultery and thievery and who knows the nature of the grievous acts that these two individuals had committed against society.

And for just cause, they were being put to death.

It was now the eleventh hour and all of them were taking their last breaths of life here on this earth.

And one of the thieves on the cross realized perhaps his heart was awakened when Jesus cried out and he said, and this is known as the mind of Christ, "Father, forgive those who are crucifying me, for they don't realize or know what they are doing."

So this act of love for those crucifiers, those who were crucifying him, had such an impact apparently on the heart and the conscience of this thief on the cross.

One was still stone hard and was unmoved but the other's heart and conscience was pricked and opened and he turned to the one hanging on the middle cross of Golgotha and he said, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."

With his last strength, Jesus turned his head, which I'm sure was dripping with blood because of the crown of thorns on his head.

His face was bruised because he had been smacked across the face by the soldiers.

Weakly, I'm sure he turns to that thief begging for grace and he said, "Today at this moment you who are completely undeserving of anything but hell's punishment, today you will be with me in paradise."

This is known as the grace of the thief on the cross.

God's love belongs to such a sinner.

And we and all human beings are undeserving of nothing better.

We in the eyes of God are no better, no worse than the thief on the cross.

Our only hope of salvation, of making it to heaven, to be acceptable before God the Heavenly Father, is because of his unmerited grace that he has loved us so much he sent his Son to suffer and die on the cross and pay that price of redemption.

And this we can own and possess without money, without price, without any merit or worthiness of ourselves, alone by grace.

By grace you are saved through faith, not of yourselves, not of works, otherwise a person would begin to boast.

So that is the theme for today: the theme of unmerited grace.

Today's Old Testament text actually speaks along the same lines and speaks the same message.

Perhaps we have heard many times when reading the newspaper or hearing news clips how maybe some person, maybe a radio reporter or a newscaster, has been fired.

Fired, as I have read many times myself, for some reason.

One female newscaster was let go because she was not good enough looking in the eyes of the employer.

"We don't want you for that position, that public position, because your looks and physique don't meet our criteria."

Sad to say, this has happened multiple times.

Here in our story that we have before us today is a story about David.

And we could say that there are more mentions and more written in the Old Testament about David than any other Old Testament figure.

Actually, he is mentioned in 66 chapters in the Old Testament.

There are actually 57 references to David in the New Testament as well.

So David is mentioned in 123 chapters.

The next person who is second most mentioned is Moses.

And he is mentioned 40 times.

We go from 123 down to 40.

Abraham is mentioned 14 times.

Joseph is mentioned 13 times.

And Jacob is mentioned 14 times.

First of all, before coming to our story, we have to step back to the previous king.

The people of Israel at that time had been ruled by judges.

And the nations around them were being led by kings.

The nation of Israel was a kingdom of kings.

We would like to have a king like the neighboring nations around us.

The leader at that time was Samuel, who was a judge.

And Samuel's sons had grown up to be wicked individuals.

If we could use the word king in the Bible, Samuel was a king of the nations.

Finally, for some reason, God then consented and was going to give them a king.

And the king that God chose was from the tribe of Benjamin.

And the Bible mentions about this king that he was a head taller than anyone else.

So his physical natural qualities and characteristics were, we could say, impeccable.

They were a perfect match for a king.

But then we don't want to get too much into the history of the life of King Saul.

We remember that he became a disobedient king.

In the previous chapter, chapter 15, it mentions that they were battling against an enemy nation called Amalek.

And God told Saul to send his troops into battle and they will be victorious in battle.

And that they weren't supposed to bring back any booty and don't spare any lives.

Well, this isn't what happened.

They spared the king's lives and they brought back possessions that they took from the fallen soldiers.

And as a result, when Samuel came to talk to Saul, that, well, how did the battle go?

We can paraphrase, it went well. We were victorious.

Did you do as the Lord told you to do, Samuel asked Saul.

Yes, I did. He lied.

Samuel says, well, I can hear sheep bleating in the background.

I thought you didn't bring back any booty from the war.

Well, I didn't do it. It's the people who told me to do it. It's their fault, not my fault.

Again, he is disobedient.

And as a result, King Saul lost his temporal crown, but much more important or faithful is he lost his eternal crown.

He lost his soul's salvation.

So at the end of the previous chapter, it says, and Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death.

But Samuel grieved over Saul and the Lord, the Lord God, had regretted that he had ever made Saul king over Israel.

But in the meantime, while Saul was still living, Saul was still a king.

And Saul was going to be two kings simultaneously before Saul takes his own life.

So, the Lord is now telling Samuel that, Samuel, I am asking you to do a service for me.

And I want to send you to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is the town where Rachel was buried after giving birth to her youngest child, whose name was Benjamin.

And Bethlehem is the town that Naomi returned to when she came back from the land of Moab.

And Bethlehem is also the town of which there were messianic prophecies that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Ephrata.

So Samuel comes to the city, the town of Bethlehem, and he comes to visit the home of Jesse, who was actually a descendant of Naomi, who had settled earlier, generations earlier, in Bethlehem.

And Jesse had seven sons.

It's interesting that number seven comes up quite frequently.

We recall that one time a dream was told to Joseph, or did Joseph see that dream himself, or was Joseph asked to interpret that dream?

There was a dream that, first, there were dreams that were told to Joseph, and then there would be seven fat cows, and then there would come seven lean cows who would eat up these seven fat cows.

And then there would be seven big healthy ears of corn, and then later, followed by seven thin ears of corn.

And so people were confused as to what was going on, what this vision, this dream was.

And then Joseph gave the interpretation that the seven fat cows and the seven fat ears of corn are referring to the seven years of plenty.

And during the seven years of plenty, they should gather as much harvest into granaries for the seven lean years, the years of famine that would follow.

So, Samuel comes to the house of Jesse, and Jesse had seven sons.

Now, it was typical in society at that time, and it's a term, a very fancy term, which they called primogenitor.

It's a theological term, which is used to explain the concept and the idea that they had at that time, that the eldest is always the one who has all the rights and the privileges.

So, this evening, I got a sermon this evening. I'll talk a little bit more about Jacob and Esau.

So, I have a double header today, but that's all right.

Elmer used to do that all the time.

But, so Jacob and Esau were twins.

And Esau was the firstborn.

And he was the rightful primogenitor.

And as the firstborn, he would get two-thirds of the inheritance.

And Jacob, as the second one, would receive the one-third that is remaining.

Well, if you look at a family of, say, ten, if there are ten children in the family, the firstborn would get two-thirds of the inheritance.

And the other nine children would divide the remaining one-third of the inheritance.

That doesn't sound very fair, but that was how it was in those days.

That was called primogenitor.

Fancy term.

Look it up when you get home and read more about its background.

So, Samuel comes to the house of Jesse, who's got seven sons.

And Samuel says, one of your sons is going to be anointed as the next king of Israel.

And Jesse didn't know what he was going to do.

He was going to be anointed as the next king of Israel.

And Jesse didn't know what he was going to do.

He didn't know what he was going to be.

And apparently, Samuel didn't know at that moment who he was going to be.

But Jesse, the father, thinks, well, primogenitor.

Naturally, it's going to be my eldest son.

That's the way it is in our society.

He's the oldest.

He's the most privileged.

He happens to be the most handsome.

Thus, he's the wisest.

He's most qualified for this position.

So, Jesse calls in his oldest son, whose name is Eliab, and says, here he is.

He's ready to be anointed as the next king of Israel.

Samuel shakes his head.

Nope.

Nope.

Sorry.

It's not going to be him.

Surely, this is the Lord's anointed, thought the father.

But the Lord then told Samuel.

How did we tell it?

How did the Lord tell Samuel?

That we don't know, but the Bible just says the Lord told Samuel.

Was it in a dream, or did he whisper in his ear?

We don't know.

The Bible just says the Lord told Samuel somehow.

Don't look at that person's countenance or outward appearance.

He's not like that female newscaster who was fired because she wasn't good enough looking.

He was handsome.

He was strong.

He was wise.

He was the firstborn.

He had all the qualifications.

Just like the people of Israel.

Just like the previous king, Saul.

He had all of the qualifications.

Physical and mental.

And natural abilities.

But the Lord said to Samuel, Don't look at his countenance or outward appearance.

Don't look at his height, or his stature, because I have refused him.

Sorry.

That's not the one.

That's not the one.

That's not the one.

But a person, as an individual, as a human being, we have this tendency.

Someone steps before us, and we size that person, look them up and down, and we make some judgments about that person.

Whether we are going to like him or not.

Whether that's a nice person, or maybe not so nice.

We make these judgments in our own mind.

We jump to conclusions based on the person's physical outward characteristics.

That's natural.

I'm sure we do it all the time.

So, the Lord says, I have refused him, for the Lord does not see as we as a human being would see.

For man looks only at the outward appearance.

But God looks deeper.

He looks into the heart.

So, the oldest son, he would have merited this position.

We've been talking about unmerited grace.

He would have been qualified by all outward measurements and standards to be the next king.

But the Lord told Samuel, Sorry, that's not the one.

Well, we've got the second oldest.

We'll try him.

Then Jesse called the second oldest, Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel.

Samuel says, Nope, the Lord hasn't chosen this one either.

Well, that's the story.

Then, well, it's not the second oldest.

It's got to be the third oldest.

And he made Shammah pass by.

And Samuel says, Nope, the Lord hasn't chosen him either.

Then again, Jesse made all of his sons, one by one, come before Samuel.

And each time, Samuel said, The Lord says, No.

No.

No.

The Lord has not chosen any one of these.

So then, Jesse says, Well, that's it.

Samuel says, Are you sure you don't have any more children?

And he said, Well, there's still one remaining.

But I don't even want to call him before you.

He's not worthy of even calling him into the house.

He's the youngest.

Perhaps his physique isn't so good.

Maybe he's a weakling.

And his occupation is, all he is, is one who tends to sheep out in the field.

He's got such a lowly occupation that he would never be worthy of this position to be the next king of Israel.

I didn't even bother even mentioning his name or want to call him into the house.

So Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your children?

Jesse says, The father says, They're still the youngest.

But he is one who, if I could paraphrase, he only is tending the sheep.

Samuel said to Jesse, Go and fetch him.

Go and get him.

For we will not sit down until he is standing here in the house before us.

So Jesse, I'm sure, kind of shrugged his shoulders and, Okay, if that's what you wish, if that's what you desire.

And he sent and he brought the youngest in.

And who do you think the youngest was?

What was his name?

David.

We all know the name David.

As I said, his name was mentioned in 66 chapters in the Old Testament, 57 references to David in the New Testament.

So, Jesse sent and brought him in.

And now he was ruddy.

What's ruddy?

Kind of doesn't have the best looks in human eyes and so forth.

And the Lord said, Everyone stand up.

We're going to have a festive moment.

And I am going to anoint him, for he is God's chosen.

God's chosen one to be the king of Israel.

Where were David's qualifications?

What were his qualities to be the next king of Israel?

Humanly thinking, he had none of them.

Absolutely none of them.

We as human beings look at the outward direction.

The outward countenance and looks of a human being.

But God looks into the heart.

And the unmerited individual was the one whom God chose to be the next king of Israel.

So, why did God choose David?

He says, He chose David to be the next king of Israel.

David was going to seek out a man after his own heart.

Those are the words of God himself.

David is a man after his own heart.

And so, He was anointed as king.

And then the people began to shout, Long live the king.

Long live the king.

So, God's ways are not our ways.

And we could think of this and look at this in many different ways.

We remember when, was it Elizabeth or was it Mary who sang that famous song which was mentioned in Luke chapter 1.

And in that song it says in this way, which is actually put to music in a very famous song in our society.

And one of the verses in that song is this: But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

Remember when Hannah in the Old Testament was, Hannah actually the wife of the king of Israel.

The wife of Samuel.

And they were barren for a long time.

Or was Hannah the mother of Samuel?

I can't remember my history right off the top of my head.

But anyways, Hannah was barren.

And finally at an elderly age, then God opened up her womb.

And they were able to receive their promised child.

And I think the promised child was Samuel.

But anyways, Hannah when she became pregnant and was expecting a child and soon to give birth, then she breaks out into a song.

And she breaks out into a song of praise.

And one of the verses in that song is this: That God raises up the poor from the dust.

And he lifts the needy from the ash heap.

To make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.

So basically, God's ways are not our ways.

God works in ways that seem many times contrary to human reason and understanding.

So, likewise, Paul writes to the Corinthians in this way: But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

So basically, God's ways are not our ways.

So, David was the youngest.

And he was the youngest.

And he was the youngest.

And David was the youngest.

And, as in the story of Jacob and Esau, it was Jacob, the youngest, who was then in the end God's chosen.

And there's another interesting story.

Joseph's sons, two of his younger sons were Ephraim and Manasseh.

He was asked to put the hands of blessing on one and not the other.

So one was to be blessed and one was to not receive the blessing.

And so he was wanting to put them in one way, but the Lord kept on telling him that that's not the way.

You're going to have to switch your hands because that isn't God's choosing and that isn't how my blessing is going to go.

So I'm not sure of all those details in that story.

But anyways, the bottom line is, Jacob wanted to bless one versus the other, but the Lord was instructing Jacob that not as you are looking at things, but it's completely the other way around.

But in the end, it says in this way, I know my son, says Jacob, I know.

He also shall become a people and he shall also be great.

Nevertheless, so Jacob was thinking that it should be the older one.

But then God said, nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.

So when thinking of David, I'm sure that he wasn't perhaps, humanly thinking, so receptive to this idea.

The Bible doesn't say that, but there are many examples in the Bible where people are asked to serve a calling, but they are, because of their human nature, not quite receptive to this idea.

We remember when Moses was asked to be the leader of the nation of Israel, to lead them out of bondage, the bondage of Egypt.

He had rebuttals.

He said that, I'm a poor orator.

I must have a stiff tongue and I'm slow of speech.

But God had nothing to do with this alibi.

He says, well, just use Aaron as your mouthpiece.

And likewise, remember Jeremiah, when he was asked to go to be a prophet, he said, well, I am just a young person.

I'm only a child.

I'm not really capable.

I'm not capable.

And God said, you go and you do what I tell you to do, or I will actually put words in your mouth.

And Jonah, we remember as well, was asked to go to the city of Nineveh to preach that sermon of repentance.

And Jonah decided that he's not going to go with the Easterly direction toward Nineveh, but he boarded the ship and was going west towards Spain.

But God had a way of stopping Jonah and preparing Jonah to become a willing worker and preacher.

And after he was swallowed up by the whale and spit up on shore, then Jonah was finally ready to go preach that difficult sermon of repentance there in the large city of Nineveh.

So we have been talking about the unmerited grace.

And so David was God's chosen for this task, even though in the human sense he was not worthy.

He didn't have the human qualifications for this position in the human sense.

But yet he was God's chosen one.

He was totally receiving unmerited grace.

Well, if we could think of another example, how apostle Paul, he was actually a persecutor of the Christians, the followers of Christ.

He was a zealous Pharisee, and he was actually on a mission to capture the followers of Christ, put them into prison and then put them to death one by one until God stopped him in his tracks on the way to Damascus, struck him blind physically, and of course he was already spiritually blind.

But then he was led into Damascus where Ananias came in, preached that gospel to him, scales fell from his eyes, and he was translated from darkness to light.

He received the grace of God.

Was he worthy of God's grace and forgiveness?

He who was a persecutor of Christ and the followers of Christ?

Far from it.

He wasn't worthy of one iota of God's grace and merits.

But yet, in the end, he was a recipient and was able to receive his sins forgiven and become a child of God.

In fact, Paul laments later, that I was the least of the apostles and not even worthy because I persecuted the Christians.

But yet, all occurred and happened because of God's unmerited grace and mercy.

So Christ has died on our behalf, unmeriting sinners, unworthy of God's, and unworthy of salvation.

But by grace, we are his own through faith.

A friend that I knew in Finland received the grace of repentance and was from an unbelieving home.

And when he went home to tell the news to his parents that he became a believer, a Lestadian believer, he thought his parents would become happy and also want to hear the gospel.

Well, the father became angry.

And he said, because there was an awakening spreading around the communities where they were living.

And it was quite well known about that revival, especially among the kids of teenage years and maybe in their early twenties.

And the father tells his son who came home to tell about his revival that he was a believer.

And he goes home to tell about his repentance.

And he says, that's foolishness.

Give up that crazy doctrine.

And the boy said, I can't.

This is the treasure of my life.

The father says, if you give up that faith, I will educate you.

You can stay at home.

And I will give you a good life.

But he said, if you do not give up that foolish faith and doctrine, he said, you will not stay in my home.

There's a door.

You can leave.

You've got a choice to make.

The boy said to his friends later, I left.

I could not give up my faith.

He was homeless.

A teenage boy still in school.

Neighboring Christian family said, you can come stay with me.

You can come stay with me.

You can spend nights with us.

So he was taken care of outwardly.

He was able to get an education.

He got married, had a nice large family.

God blessed him outwardly, temporally.

He had a home.

He had a cabin.

All that he needed for this body and life.

Tens of years later, he hears that his father was in an accident.

He hadn't seen his father since he left home.

But he wanted to come see his father one last time.

His father is in the hospital.

He can't speak anymore.

He's got tubes coming out of his mouth.

He's being fed intravenously.

The son comes to the father and he said, Father, I'm not bitter.

God has blessed me outwardly.

But more importantly, he has blessed me spiritually.

But Father, I wanted to come see you one last time.

Father, you're leaving on a long journey.

You're soon going to see your Creator.

Are you ready to come back?

Are you ready to come back?

Are you ready to come back?

Are you ready to go on that trip?

Are you ready to go meet your Creator?

Do you have provisions for that long journey?

Father, I came to offer you the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

Father, I know you can't speak.

But I'm going to grab you by the hand.

Squeeze my hand if you would want to.

I want to hear that gospel and receive it.

Tears begin to flow from the father's eyes as an indication, yes, I want to believe.

The son blessed his father.

You can believe your sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

Not long later, the father was translated from this life to that eternal home in the glory of heaven.

He received the grace of the thief on the cross.

As an unmerited sinner, he was brought to his heavenly home.

Brother and sister, we will make it home with no lesser grace than the grace of the thief on the cross.

Even now, you can uplift your hearts to believe.

Sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

Through the power of the gospel, through the merits of Christ Jesus, in his wound and through his resurrection victory, we will one day make it to that destination.

You can believe.

Sins forgiven unto peace, freedom and joy.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Lord, bless us and keep us.

Lord, make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

Lord, lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen.