The Elephant in the Room

November 12, 2017                                  NOTES NOT EDITED
The Elephant in the Room

2Timothy 3:1-11

Sermon-in-a-Sentence:  As America moves closer to the edge of moral abyss and loses her standing a global superpower, Christians must know how to respond.

Let me begin today by saying without reservation or apology, “I am a Christian who loves the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart.”  Let me say, also without reservation or apology, “I am an American who deeply loves my country and all that we stand for, and have stood for, going into our third century.

I see no conflict theologically or socio-politically with espousing both Christian devotion and American patriotism. 

Christianity makes me a brother or sister of anyone of any nation, any race, or any political persuasion, who has sworn allegiance to God through Christ.  The beauty of being an American is that we are not narrowly defined by any political or social persuasion, but we come from all walks of life and all colors of the human rainbow.  So, my American nationalism is never in conflict with any race for all are represented under the banner of the Red, White, and Blue.  I am never forced to choose between my Christian devotion and American patriotism.  My Christian devotion informs my American patriotism.

From that perspective of dual citizenship as taught in Scripture, I want to speak in regard to the “Elephant in the Room.”  Since my Christian faith informs my American patriotism, I cannot escape what I see happening in this great country, and where these events and attitudes are leading us as a nation.

While the Kingdom of God, of which I am a citizen, is eternal, America is not.  With all the political discussion about “Making America Great Again,” or all the prosperity preachers proclaiming that the future is bright and full of promise, my reading of the Bible does not support this positive euphoria about our future. 

I think of what Jeremiah said, on the eve of Jerusalem being destroyed and the nation being plunged into 70 years of foreign oppression called, “the Babylonian Captivity.”  Jeremiah said,

¹³ For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. ¹⁴ They have treated My people’s brokenness superficially, claiming, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

Notice two themes in Jeremiah’s warning—prosperity and peace.  Two themes we see discussed often in the messages of T.V. preachers and Washington politicians.  Everyone making promises—but they are empty, even evil promises, because they will not be fulfilled. 

Just last week, at the very time I was stepping into the pulpit to preach the act of God’s redemption when He dove into the dumpster of our depravity to save us, a depraved man with a black mask and even blacker soul, entered a church in Texas gunning down half the congregation including an 18 months old baby.  Horrific reports of the scene detail a carnage that is hard for a normal person to even grasp.  Bodies were not just shot, but they were mutilated by the high-  powered weapon.  It was only about a month before that a deranged gunman mowed down 58 people from his hotel room in Las Vegas.  Last week a 29 years old Muslim terrorist rented a truck and ran down bikers on a New York bike path.

Add that to the growing number of accusations about the pedophilia and sexual abuse that has been common in the Hollywood scene.  Reports are mounting into the multiple hundreds.  It is clear now that the filth coming out of Hollywood onto the silver screen has been autobiographical. 

The depravity in our nation does not stop with Hollywood or mass shooters, but there’s Washington, D.C.  The scandals just keep on coming.  The Clinton’s—by there own admission—left the White House “dead broke” and have amassed millions without starting a business or producing any product.  This is true of so many politicians that enter the game broke and leave a lifetime later rolling in money, all while on the public payroll.

FBI investigations are the buzz-word in Washington, but now we have to have special prosecutors to investigate the FBI because it has been shown to be as crooked as a dog’s hind leg (to use a phrase common to hillbillies and others).

With all the chaos and depravity around us, most Americans are still holding on to the hope that we will pull out of this moral nosedive and national crisis as we always have before.  I’m going to point out the “Elephant in the Room,” and suggest something very different from Trump’s mantra, “Make America Great Again.”  The “Elephant in the room” is a common English idiom referring to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.

America is fast coming to edge of a moral cliff and will soon fall into the sink hole of global obscurity, so Christians need to prepare appropriately.

It would take some time to show you from Scripture that the global rise of the Anti-Christ and his “Evil League of Nations” will not likely take place while America is strong and continues to provide a Judeo-Christian watch over the world.  Also, I could show you Biblically that several nations are mentioned in the texts describing the Last Days, like Russia, China, and Iran (Persia) for example, but not America.  Also, notice that those three are all driven by religio-political world-views that are the antithesis of America.  They are, in fact, our enemies.  America’s days have always been numbered.

There are several different ways we can approach the idea that America is quickly sinking into the pit of insignificance as a world power.  We can be fatalists, hedonists, isolationists, or triumphalists.  The viewpoint we take will not change the course of God’s unfolding plan, but it will make a difference in where we position ourselves within that plan.  Let’s read what 2Timothy says about the difficult days ahead and how to respond to them.  2Timothy 3:1-17.

The first option a person has when these “difficult times” come is to take a

1.  Fatalist Approach

Fatalism is a philosophical point of view that states, “all events are fixed in advance so that human beings are powerless to change them.  A fatalist approach means one simply “does nothing because nothing can be done.”  The more overwhelming the chaos and depravity of the times, the more likely people will adopt a fatalistic view.  Look what Paul tells Timothy about the coming times (2Tim. 3:1):

But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days.

That is a very straight-forward statement packed with a done of pathos, or passion.  First, the sentence begins with the imperative mood in the sense of a command literally meaning:  “you must know this!”  It is not a suggestion, but a command.

This is followed by a word that only occurs two times in the N.T., here, and in Matthew 8:28.  The word is, chalepoi. It is an adjective which means, "hard to deal with; violent; dangerous; grievous; painful; malicious; and evil." It is a very dark and foreboding word as it describes the times in which we live--or, what the Bible calls, the "End Times."

The real significance of this word comes from the fact the only other time it is used is used to describe two demon possessed maniacs from the region of Gadara.  This is the Southeast region of the Sea of Galilee. Using a word describing demon activity and using it to describe the Last Days is extremely important. 

The force, then, of this compact, straight-forward, non-equivocating command is: “the days ahead will be demon-driven like never before.”  In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he introduced this idea:

4:1 Now the Spirit  explicitly says that in later times  some will depart from the faith,  paying attention to deceitful spirits  and the teachings of demons.

Now, the Devil and his demons have existed from before the dawn of man.  The Devil once held a place of prominence in the Eternal Kingdom, but was cast down to earth do to his rebellion and pride.  We find the Devil doing his dirty deeds in the Garden of Eden with the very first couple, Adam and Eve.  So, demon activity is nothing new in the history of man.

In the “Last Days,” demon activity will increase.  There will be events take place that will have no other explanation but, “evil.”  In Trump’s address from Japan after the slaughter in the church in Southland, Texas, he used the word, “evil,” to describe the gunman.

Others rushed to move away from that description preferring, mentally ill instead of evil.  In this way, they can hold out hope that such events can be lessened or even eliminated with “proper treatment of the mentally ill.”  With “evil,” there is not such remedy or pill, except the transforming power of Jesus Christ, which of course, American culture has almost totally rejected.

The term, “last days,” has both a general and specific application.  It can refer generally to any time after Jesus returned into heaven.  It also can refer more specifically to those days leading up to the rapture—or snatching of all believers out this present world—and the Great Tribulation period of seven years which will follow on the heels of the Rapture.  These days are described as days of “false properity and false peace” at the same time chaos and calamity increase exponentially, with heightened demon activity leading the way.

This is a very bleak picture of our future as a nation.  I can understand why many people would simply throw up their metaphorical hands and declare, “That’s just the way it is and nothing can be done about it.” 

This “fatalistic” approach can very easily lead to another approach.

2.  HEDONISM

Hedonism is the unbridled pursuit of pleasure as the highest good.

Since there’s really nothing any individual can do about the chaos and calamity that is coming, why not, “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.”  Fatalism and Hedonism are cousins that often cruise together.  I think many more people follow this world-view than would admit it.  One modern Hedonist just died recently—Hugh Hefner.  Hefner, perhaps more than any other individual, started and fed the “Sexual Revolution.”  I think Hefner can be given credit for much of the sexual abuse we see coming out of Hollywood and being expressed on Main Street. 

Hefner was a hedonist.  He did eat.  He did drink.  He did die.  Was he “merry?” Reports about how much Hefner really enjoyed life, especially his latter life, are conflicting and uncertain.  What is not uncertain is:  Hefner is dead.  In describing the “last days” the Bible seems to be describing life at the Playboy Mansion:

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud,  blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,  4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure  rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power.  Avoid these people! 6 For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions.

There are a few key issues in verses 2-6 that shed light on how our country arrived at this edge of destruction where we find ourselves.  The first marker on the road to ruin is “self love.”  I’ve been in ministry for over 40 years and the constant drumbeat of “enlightened church and experts on church programs” has been the cult of self-help. In the old days—10 years ago—if one went into any bookstore, one would quickly see that one of the largest, most popular sections would be “self-help books.”  Even the Darling of Prosperity preachers, Joel Olsteen, made millions by selling his book, “Your Best Life Now.”  Self-love is a cult in the Last Days.

Notice the term, “lovers of money.”  What could more aptly characterize our days than the “love of money.”  Between cultures “love of self” and “love of money,” there really isn’t much passion left to love much else—especially not God and His church.

The hedonists of the Last Days are defined by their “love of pleasure.” I remember the popular mantra and guiding principle of the 60’s, “If it feels good, do it.”  Even the great philosopher, Aristotle, pointed out that the number one driving force in a persons life is the “pursuit of pleasure” (Art of Rhetoric). 

Hedonism as a response to the chaos and uncertainty of these days has become a powerful driving force throughout all of our culture:  loving self, loving money, loving pleasure and all the other ills listed that come along with a hedonistic lifestyle.  Even the church is not exempt.  If a church does not feed the passions of self-love, the cult of success or love of money, or the love of pleasure, that church is not likely to draw large crowds.  Hedonism is the opposite of the Christian ethic:  denying one’s self, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and seeking to please God not seek our own pleasure. 

How did hedonism get such a hold on the culture and even the church?  Look in verse 6: For among them (false teachers) are those who worm their way into households.

Several translations use the idea of “worming one’s way in.”  The originally word means to “sneak in.” In Classical Greek the word, “enduno,” meant to “put on clothes,” as one would a disguise.  How did hedonism “sneak into our culture and take such a hold?” One word answers this question:  television (or movies).  Public education has bolstered this world-view, but Hollywood popularized it.  In the form of “innocent entertainment” young people consume hour upon hour of the hedonistic product of Hollywood—in the comfort of their own home—and now, the convenience of their mobile devices.  All the while, parents are clueless to the damage being done.

Just recently, on ABC News, the founding partner of FaceBook, Sean Parker, admitted that they designed Facebook—and I will quote his words—“to consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible.”  Studies are now beginning to indicate that significant use of social media alters the brain function, particularly in the area of impulse responses.

The hedonistic worldview has wormed its way into our culture through various media outlets consumed in massive quantities without much consideration for how they influence us.

Fatalism is one response to these “difficult and perilous times.” It might be called, “giving up.”  Hedonism is a close associate of fatalism and might be called, “giving in.”  Another possible response to the downward spiral of American culture might be

3.  ISOLATIONISM.  While fatalism might be seen as simply giving up and hedonism seen as giving in, isolationism might be viewed as hiding out.

The most devastating event in the lives of the Twelve Disciples was watching their Lord and Leader brutally murdered on a Roman cross while the Jewish leaders and pagan mob cheered.  John 20:19 says,

In the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because of their fear of the Jews.

And . . . many disciples have been isolating themselves from world affairs ever since.

I’ve often spoken of how churches refer to the worship center or auditorium as the “sanctuary,” or a “place of refuge or protection.”  For most people the church is God’s “hide out.”  It should be God’s “headquarters.”

If you want to be safe, don’t follow Jesus.  Yet, most people value safety much more than they value sacrifice and service.  If the Jehovah Witnesses ring the door bell, then pull the curtains, lock the door, turn out the lights, and hide until they go away.  This is the same strategy many Christians use to deal with Halloween, which I dealt with a couple of weeks ago.

Actually, our text seems to support isolationism.  Look what it says in verse 5:  Avoid these people! Seems straight-forward enough. But, does that mean we should avoid the world in general.  The key to rightly dividing the verse is to understand the demonstrative pronoun, “these.”  While “lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful people, proud people, ect.” can refer to the depraved culture in general, Paul seems to have in mind a specific group that should be avoided.  Those

“having a form of godliness but denying its power,” referring to the power of the true gospel and all it entails.  You might call these, “sinners with an agenda.” These are people who have a religion already but it is the wrong one and they are seeking converts. 

Notice verse 6, in the context of verse 5.  The thought continues like this, “avoid these . . . who worm their way into households.”  These are sheep in wolves clothing.  We should have nothing to do with them.  We can be “friendly,” but “never friends.”  If we “associate” with them we are giving our tacit approval to their false teachings.

The heart and soul of the gospel is found in The Great Commission.  We are to engage the world to spread the Light into every dark corner.  We are not to be ISOLATIONISTS, who “hide our light under a basket” (Mt. 5:16). 

So, in the face of our decaying and declining culture drifting closer to the edge of global significance every day, we should not be fatalists and give up.  We should not be hedonist and give in to culture.  We cannot be isolationists and hide out from culture.  We must be

4.  TRIUMPHALISTS seek victory over culture.  Look at vss 10-1l.

10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose,  faith, patience, love,  and endurance, 11 along with the persecutions and sufferings  that came to me in Antioch,  Iconium,  and Lystra.  What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

Christianity is a militaristic movement where the battle is spiritual and our weapons are spiritual and our goal is spiritual.  We are not called to “save culture” but to “seek and to save souls!”  Political victories are never the goal of the Christian life, but a means to our goal of seeking the lost. 

America is like a sinking ship and the Church is like the life boats.  Just as Paul endured great persecutions, tribulations, hardships, and every manner of spiritual attack, he was never overcome.  He always “triumphed,” because his goal was not to save himself, or to save culture, but to save souls.  That is God’s goal, and when we join Him, we have the most Powerful Partner in the Universe. 

The Bible tells us (2Cor. 2:14) But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

So, even as the ship of this great nation rocks upon the sea of our own rebellion, we do not have to give up, give in, or hide out.  Our world-view should be TRIUMPHALISM, as we seek, not to save culture, but to OVERCOME it.

The one who is victorious and keeps My works to the end: I will give him authority over the nations (Rev. 2:26)

The Bible knows nothing about giving up, giving in, or hiding out.  The Bible only talks about overcoming.  We must work until Jesus comes.  When we are out working for Jesus, Jesus will be working things out.  Darkness is already beginning to fall.  We must work.

4 We  must do the works  of Him who sent Me  while it is day.  Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (Jn. 9:4-5)

Those that know me know my patriotism runs deep.  It pains me to watch my great nation drift into global insignificance.  My Christian devotion does not diminish my love for my Country, but it embellishes and informs it. 

But, I cannot deny the Elephant in the Room.  I cannot see how a nation that kills a baby every 2.5 minutes, or a nation that fully embraces homosexuality and nearly any sexual perversion, or a nation that can no longer even acknowledge the difference between male and female—I do not see how such a nation can long survive.

Then, with the lenses of Holy Scripture I read the table of nations involved in the global issues of the Last Days, and I see clearly Russia, China, Persia and others, but I see no America, then I must conclude the days of our glory have past.  I do not say this with any sense of fatalism, but with a sense of triumphalism and an unshakable hope in Christ.

As long as the American flag flies I will stand in respect and salute It with honor.  As long as freedom allows, I will use my freedom as an American to bring about the most just and kind and godly society as such participation can create.

But, when the American flag no longer flies over a nation that is a global super power, or when an anti-Christian, antagonistic, oppressive culture squeezes out my political freedoms and silences my political voice as a Christian, I will still fight on as a Christian soldier knowing that triumph is promised and victory assured!

The tragedy unfolding, the Elephant in the Room that nobody wants to talk about is the fact the God can, and will, exist without America, but America cannot exist without God.

Dumpster Diving God

November 5, 2017                            NOTES NOT EDITED
Dumpster Diving God

Psalm 107

Sermon-in-a-Sentence:  God dove from the indescribable glories of heaven into the disgusting dumpster of our sinful lives in order to redeem us from our sin.

That statement is not profound in any sense.  It is simple and to the point.  Yet, very few people really comprehend what it meant for God to enter into the disgusting environment of our sinful lives.  It is unfathomable that Jesus would leave the glories of heaven to willingly endure the gore of human existence.  He left the throne of heaven to die on a cross at Calvary.  Our sin nailed Jesus to the cross.  Our sin plucked the beard from His face.  Our sin tortured and twisted his body on the cross to such an extent that the Psalmist prophesied centuries earlier that Jesus would be “barely recognizable as a man.”

Sin did all of that and more.  Yet, do we really comprehend what Jesus did when He left heaven to join humanity?  I’m not sure we do.  I am sure of what He did:  He turned the trash of my life into treasure.

Yahweh is a Dumpster Diving God.  His “steadfast love” drove Him to dive into the disgusting dumpster of our lives to find the treasure hidden beneath the stinking rot of our sin.

I am sure you have heard the phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  Nothing particularly earthshaking or disturbing about that statement.  But, what if you change it a little by saying, “One man’s dumpster is another man’s dining room?”  Two words that definitely don’t seem to fit together in my mind are, “dumpster and dining.”  Of course, we know of homeless people so starved in their circumstance that they pick through garbage just to find a morsel to ease the pangs of hunger.  That is as sad as it is disgusting, but it is a reality for homeless people—a matter of survival.

But, there are others that see great value in “dumpster diving.”  Maximus Thaler is a Ph.D. student at Binghamton University in New York.  He is a “freegan” who relishes what many call, rubbish.  He said in a recent interview online, “I eat like a king and I spend almost nothing.”  Dumpsters are his diner.  He turns bruised bananas into breakfast.  He also said, “I can go to the grocery store and I can spend $100. Or I can go to the dumpster and not spend anything and I can throw a banquet for all my friends.”

Another dumpster diver is Matt Malone, an Austin, Texas, security consultant.  He dives part time but estimates he could make an easy $250000 a year if he dove dumpsters full time!

I know what I have thrown into dumpsters, and it is disgusting thinking about eating anything that has passed that way.  It may be that some are comfortable turning trash into treasure, but I’m not one of them. 

But, I’m glad Yahweh is a “Dumpster Diving God.” God dove from the indescribable glories of heaven into the disgusting dumpster of our sinful lives in order to redeem us from our sin.

Dumpster Diving is what they call the practice of reclaiming useful stuff from discarded trash in modern language.  Redemption is how the Bible describes a similar process when God reclaimed us from sin.  Redemption is a very important word in the Bible.  This morning, we will seek to more fully understand, and more honestly appreciate the redemption we receive because of God’s “faithful love that endures forever.”

Psalm 107 describes how God dove into the dumpster of our lives to turn the trash of our life into a treasure.  I’m not sure we can truly appreciate just how horrible sin really is in the eyes of a Holy God, but this Psalm may help us at least try.  Let’s read from this Psalm.

READ Psalm 107:1-3 as an introduction to Psalm 107.

This Psalm explains four important aspects of redemption.  What we are redeemed FROM.  What we are redeemed BY.  What we are redeemed FOR, and what we are redeemed TO.  Each of these aspects taken together show us just how great the gap is between holiness and sinfulness, and what it took for God to bridge that gap.

1.  First, what are we saved FROM. 

In a word, “sin.”  Sin is impossible to fully describe in terms available to us in our languages.  We’ve worn the edge off of sin by calling it a “mistake in judgement or a faux pas.  In 1973 a Christian psychiatrist, Carl Menniger, wrote a book, “Whatever Happened to Sin.”  Forty-four years ago, it was acknowledged that the idea of “sin” had nearly disappeared from the human conscience.  All these years later, it has only become worse.  Another writer observes, “Drunkeness is now chemical dependency, pride is a superiority complex, living in sin has now become living together, adultery has become an affair, and perversion has become an alternative lifestyle” (Peter Hammond).

The reason people—even people sitting in church pews on a regular basis—do not appreciate the redemption of God in Christ is because they do not understand the depth of the depravity of their sin.  We cannot get excited about where we are going in regard to heaven, if we don’t fully appreciate where we were—that is, hell.

Here in our text, the Psalmist speaks of what we are redeemed FROM, using four “word pictures.”  First the condition we find our sinful selves in is compared to an AIMLESS WANDERER LOST IN A DESERT, hungering and thirsty for more out of life but never being satisfied. 

⁴ Some wandered in the desolate wilderness, finding no way to a city where they could live. ⁵ They were hungry and thirsty; 

their spirits failed within them.

Hunger and thirst are here used to express the deepest sense of “dissatisfaction.”  What better describes our world today than the picture of men and women stumbling through life with no real sense of purpose and no real feeling of satisfaction. We get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch T.V., get up and do it all over again all week long hoping for that sweet release we call the “weekend.”  Then we simply shift to a whole new regimen of mindless activities.  We think if we can buy enough “toys” and watch enough mindless T.V., we somehow can escape the aimlessness of our lives.  But not so.  Life that is not rooted in Christian devotion is aimless and unsatisfying.

Second, the Psalmist describes the plight of man living in sin as people in a dark DUNGEON chained by the burdens and cares of life, with their spirits utterly broken, as they sit useless in a dank corner of sorrow.

¹⁰ Others  sat in darkness and gloom — prisoners in cruel chains — 

¹¹ because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the counsel of the Most High. ¹² He broke their spirits with hard labor; 

they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

The overriding issue of “imprisonment” is that one’s life is not one’s own—a prisoner’s life is completely controlled by the jailer.  The jailer in this case is “sin and rebellion.”  Our minds are fettered by sinful thoughts and our spirits are broken by the constant beating of our life against the anvil of our circumstances.  Without Christ, the anvil always wins in that battle.  A blacksmith will go through many hammers in pursuit of his career, but the anvil is passed down from generation to generation.  In a similar way, the “sins of the fathers are visited unto their children unto the third and fourth generation” (*****).  Generation after generation remain locked in the cage of sin and oppression, with lives controlled and consumed by circumstances.

Third, the Psalmist pictures the terrible plight of the life of an unrepentant fool languishing on his DEATH BED.  Even food has become detestable.  The gnarled claw of the devil is scraping at his door, biding his time until he can enter and drag his sorry soul into the bottomless pit of hell.

¹⁷ Fools suffered affliction because of their rebellious ways and their sins. ¹⁸ They loathed all food and came near the gates of death.

Those who foolish disregard the offer of forgiveness from God because of his faithful love that endures forever has the stink of death’s decay upon their life.

Fourth, the Psalmist pictures the sinful soul as a ship on DANGEROUS seas.

²³ Others went to sea in ships, conducting trade on the vast waters.

²⁴ They saw the Lord’s works, His wonderful works in the deep. ²⁵ He spoke and raised a tempest that stirred up the waves of the sea. ²⁶ Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths, their courage melting away in anguish, ²⁷ they reeled and staggered like drunken men, and all their skill was useless.

People who have never gone to sea in ships find it hard to fathom the vastness, power, and menace that a large body of water poses.  In a tempest, even the largest vessels are at the mercy of the waves.  Going to sea, even in calm weather is a very, very dangerous undertaking.  Add a tempest, and it becomes deadly dangerous.

In each of these examples, you will notice a pattern.  It could be called the “pattern of redemption.”  First is problem.  Second is the realization of the problem.  Third is the resolution.  Many, perhaps most people never get out of the first phase.  Their problems have so consumed them they don’t even know they have a problem.  That problem is sin.  It has devastated their lives like termites devastate a home all the while going unnoticed by the inhabitants until the damage is irreparable.  Sin is insidious—it destroys from the inside, out.  Like necrotizing bacteria destroys tissue, sin causes the rot of one’s soul until our soul becomes a stinking mass of decomposed potential, fit for nothing but the dumpster of hell.

It is into that rot and stench God dives in to rescue us—but, only when our eyes have been opened by the conviction of the Holy Spirit and we “realize” the rotting state of our being apart from God.

This is where God has redeemed us FROM—a horrible, painful, purposeless existence.  It is also helpful, necessary actually, to answer the question, what are we saved BY? BY what means does God bring about the restoration of souls that have been consigned to the dumpster of sin headed for eternal deposit on the trash heap of hell, “where the fire never goes out and the death worm never dies.” (*****). True redemption comes BY only one means.

2.  What are we redeemed BY?  Look again at verse 2:

² Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim that He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

The key is to understand the word, “redeemed, or redeemer.”  In English, it means “to buy back.”  In Hebrew it means that, but also had two very specific applications.

The noun and verb forms translated redeemed and redemption occurring this Psalm are related to the Hebrew, גָּאַל gaal.  It occurs in slightly different spellings in various places in the O.T.  Since the entire theme of the Bible is God’s story of redemption, it is important to understand this word.  The basic English definition simply means to “buy back.”  Even dictionaries, however, will include the idea of “atoning for a fault or mistake, or deliverance from sin.”  The Hebrew is broader.  Ga’al (go’el), referred to the specific practice of a “kinsmen redeemer,” as with Boaz, who was a relative that would marry a deceased relative’s wife in order to preserve his property and lineage.  Ga’al also referred to the “blood avenger” which acted as the “Family Executioner” responsible for bringing the murderer of a relative to justice, as in, capital punishment (Num. 35:19). 

This is the force and foundation for Paul’s declaration in Heb. 9:22:

²² According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

So, our text is concerned with God, “redeeming” His children, or “rescuing” them from various calamities which reached its ultimate expression when God redeemed us from our sins, once for all, through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The key component in God’s plan of redemption is “blood.”  “⁵ He saved us — 

not by works of righteousness that we had done, but . . . ⁶ He poured out this Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior

Sin cost God the very blood of His only Son.  Jesus experienced all the horrors of hell when He hung as the God-Man upon the cross.  Though I can’t explain “how,” God the Father had to watch what the sins of the world would do to His beloved Son—and it wasn’t pretty!

This is why failing to accept the gift provided by God at such a terrible price is the “unpardonable sin.”  Callously ignoring or viewing with contempt God’s holy sacrifice is like spitting in the face of Yahweh, Himself.  This God hates, and hates eternally.  This sin can never be pardoned—such a soul can never be redeemed.  God “despises and rejects those that despise and reject His son by failing to comprehend what it cost God to redeem us.”

Jesus is our kinsman redeemer Who redeemed us by His own blood.  The Bible describes Jesus “diving into the dumpster of our lives” 

Redemption is about what we have been rescued FROM—that is sin; and what we have been rescued BY—that is the blood of Jesus; but also,

3.  What we have been redeemed FOR.

If one examines the common apathy that has such a hold on church-goers in America, one must conclude that they did God a favor by allowing Him to save them.  This callous, cold, emotionally atrophied approach to Christ and His Church is nothing less than abominable in God’s eyes.  Treating God and the Church like a giant buffet laid out to satisfy our every whim and pleasure is beyond disgusting in God’s eyes.  Loving God means loving and loving others as God has loved us. 

If we call ourselves “followers of Christ,” then we need to do what God in Christ did for us. He found us wandering aimlessly and gave us purpose and meaning in life (4-9).  He found us locked up in the prison of “gloom and darkness,” bound by the chains of rebellion and He “broke our chains apart” setting us free (10-16).  God found us on out “death bed without any hope beyond the grave” and He “rescued us from the pit” of our despair turning our cries of despair into “shouts of joy” (17-22).  Finally, the Psalmist declared that God discovered us tossed about and tormented by the tempestuous seas of life “sinking down into the depths” of sure destruction and He “stilled the storm . . . guiding us into a safe harbor” (23-30).  This is the God we say we follow if we are redeemed, so what God did for us, we should be doing for others.

This is the time of year we think about “thanksgiving,” or being grateful for the bounty in our life.  How can we truly say, “thank you” to a God who dove into the disgusting dumpster of our sinful lives to “redeem” from the hell we were in?  Jesus tells us what we can do, and should do, in response to what God has done for us.  Jesus said to His disciples in regard to God’s final evaluation of our lives at His Second Coming (Mat. 25:35-36).

³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you took care of Me; I was in prison and you visited Me.’

The disciples were confused because they never remembered doing any this for the Lord.  He had always been ministering to them and meeting their needs.  Jesus understood the confusion and clarified what it means to minister to God.  In Mat. 25:40 Jesus said,

I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.

The way we “repay God for His love to us” (and of course we could never truly “repay” God for what He has done for us), is to “love and serve others.”  That’s the essence of the Great Commandment,

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  ^{t 38} This is the greatest and most important command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

God redeems us to “love Him and to love others” and we love others by serving them as God has served us.  God saved us to serve Him, not sit and soak up His blessings until we die and go to heaven.  If all God cared about was getting us into heaven, He’d yank us out the moment we were saved.  We are left behind for a reason—and that reason is to serve.  Service is what we are redeemed FOR.
We’ve considered God’s redemption from several angles:  what we are saved FROM—which is sin; what we are saved BY—the blood of Jesus; what we are saved FOR—service.  Our understanding of God’s redemption and His “steadfast love” also involves,

4.  What we are saved TO. 

Perhaps the most exciting word in this Psalm could easily be overlooked.  It is not the noun, “love,” as modified by the adjective “faithful.”  These are important words to be sure.  It is not the verb, “redeemed,” even though it is the very foundation for this Psalm.  The most exciting word is a noun in Hebrew that functions like and adverb in the English translations.  That word is, “forever!” Literally, the text says, “forever is His love.”  It could read, “eternal is His love.”  A paraphrase would be, “because of God’s goodness, heaven is the endgame of His love.”

Every undertaking in life involves a desired consequence or outcome, though most people don’t give much thought to the outcome and consequences.  Another term for the outcome of a series of events (life) is “endgame.”  In business, the endgame is to “dominate the market amassing large returns on investments.”  In football or other sports, the endgame is to end the game with more points than the other team.  For a doctor, the endgame is to relieve suffering and bring health.  A simple definition of an endgame is, “the ultimate agenda or desired consequence of a planned series of events.” 

What was God’s endgame when He created the universe?  God created the end when He created the beginning.  God sees the end and beginning as one.  It is too complicated to unwrap all of God’s purposes in creation but central to the story as God has revealed it from Genesis through to Revelation it can be summed up in one word, “REDEMPTION.” Go back the first three verses:

¹ Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. ² Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim that He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe ³ and has gathered them from the lands— from the east and the west, from the north and the south. 

Whatever is gathered “from” something is at the same time gathered “to something.”  Redemption not only gathers us from the disgusting, despairing, dissatisfied, decaying death of our sin, but it gathers us TO God Himself.  And . . . where does God reside.  In Psalm 107 we see a great multitude “gathered from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and the south.”  In the Book of Revelation, we see a glimpse of where these “redeemed” are gathered to:

I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number,  standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands (Rev. 7:9).

Psalm 107:1-3 specifically details God gathering His chosen people, the Nation of Israel, from the vast Kingdom of Babylon after 70 years in bondage (actually Persia by the end of the Babylonian Captivity).  That is the immediate context of Psalm 107, but the ultimate expression of God’s redemptive love, God’s endgame, was to gather all the redeemed to His throne in heaven.

Redemption brings about a glorious, eternal “turn-about.”  What really took place when God “dove into the dumpster of humanity?”  Think about this:  Jesus came to experience our hell so we could experience His heaven!  That’s what we are saved “TO.”  Heaven.
So few people really comprehend fully the depth of God’s “faithful love that endures forever.”  For most church-goers redemption is just a story we read about in a book or hear about in a Sunday School class.  If we are even somewhat devoted, we think about God’s “faithful love that endures forever” perhaps once a week. 

But, do we really, truly comprehend the extreme nature of God’s redemptive act in Christ?  Do we really live as if we comprehend what it meant for Christ to dive into the dumpster of humanity to turn our trash into treasure?  I don’t think it is even possible for any human being to fully comprehend the words, “faithful love that endures forever.”

What is truly sad, however, is not that man CANNOT fully comprehend the depth of God’s love, but that we WILL NOT even try.  We take God’s faithful love for granted—a HUGE SIN AGAINST THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST.

This Psalm does not merely describe the condition of man’s sinful soul, and the salvation brought to that soul by God.  This Psalm outlines the full panorama of the act of redemption, from repentance and rebirth, through sanctification, and on to glorification—the three expressions of the idea of salvation:  was saved, is being saved, and will be saved.  Once we understand, and fully comprehend what we have been saved FROM, and what we are saved BY, we can more fully understand the broader scope of our redemption and explore what we are saved FOR, and what we are saved TO.

And . . . if we will contemplate the distance between a Holy God and a ungodly sinner; or, if we meditate on the distance between hell’s dungeon and heaven’s throne, at least we are attempting to truly appreciate what God did when He dove into the dumpster of our lives.
Let’s not pass over this message without setting aside some time this week to reflect upon the full panorama of God’s redemptive work in Christ.