Prophet's Story:

My Salvation Will Be Forever!

Circumcision & Naming of Jesus - December 31, 2005

Isaiah 51:1-6

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, the Babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ. Amen.

So, what promises are you making tonight? I have listened to lots of people make New Year’s resolutions. I have heard them on the radio. I have heard some on TV. What are you resolving to do this coming year? It is amazing how many have made resolutions to lose weight. Others have been trying to give up this or give up that. Always, they are perceived self-improvement resolutions, most of them having to do with health issues

Sometimes those resolutions have to do with self-improvement and reflect God’s will for the life of the Christian. I have even had a couple people tell me about such New Year’s resolutions: this year I’m going to love my wife better, I’m going to be there more for my children, I’m going to cut out using God’s name in vain, I’m going to... And the list goes on and on.

You know what, I applaud all of you who are going into the New Year with some sort of resolution to better yourself. It takes guts and determination to be introspective and look at yourself, especially with the task of considering what you see is less than desirable.

Don’t know if you know the song, “Glory Days”, but it talks about remembering the past and what he and his friends were able to do. I loved to play football and baseball. I cannot do the things now that I used to do then. Those talents are gone, never to return.

I was much skinnier too when I was younger. I came to realize long ago that I was too skinny. If you saw pictures, you’d agree. However, I also came to realize that I have too much weight now. There is a goal I can set to lose some of this.

When we look at some of the things in our life we’d like to change, some of them are related to our spiritual well-being. And, in some regards, we can look at ourselves and see things that are less than desirable here too.

You are a sinner, you realize your sin, promise not to do it again. So, to make it even more permanent, you make New Year’s resolutions in regard to your spiritual life. I may drink, but I won’t get drunk; I will not lust after other women; I will not lust after other men; I will stop using God’s name and the name of Jesus, in any other way, but for prayer and thanksgiving; I will stop having a potty mouth; I will love my enemies and try to reconcile with them; I will, I will, I will.

So, these New Year’s resolutions last... how long?

It is interesting how some people look at this. There are lots of Pharisees out there. They look at their outward life, and say how they are accomplishing things. I don’t often hear too many radio or TV preachers, only because most of the ones I have heard are liars and frauds. There are a couple who I have heard talk about what vile sinners they were. Now that they’ve found Jesus, they’ve asked Him into their hearts, and now they’ve turned their lives around - they don’t sin anymore. OK, they’re fooling who?

Listen to what John writes in his first Epistle. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10 ESV)

Paul, too, has comments about his life as a believer to the church at Rome. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Rom. 7:15-20 ESV)

Such an attitude, thinking we are not sinners, is a lie both to ourselves and to God. Paul, the great apostle, the incredible man of faith, struggled with sin on a daily basis. In fact, John and Paul both realized their sinfulness, even though they were believers, in fact, teachers of the faith, and knew how they should be living.

Sin is an incredible weight and burden in our lives. It can almost overwhelm. Some people, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, go into denial. They deny that they sin at all. Others, whether they hear such preachers make their outrageous and bold-faced lies, think they should be doing better. The world has told them, we’ve been born with good and bad in us, we just have to choose to do the good.

Jesus Himself explains that what is in a man, He says, “Out of the heart, proceeds all sorts of evil.”

It is in the face of failure then, where a second sin comes along - despair. I know how depressed people get when they cannot keep their resolutions. Some people are so depressed, they get so despondent, that they feel like failures. When you read a bit later in Paul’s letter to the Romans, you can almost hear the depression in Paul’s words, Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:24 ESV)

When you set resolutions, and then fail to keep them, despair and guilt can easily set in. Satan likes to kick that up a notch, he comes to you and whispers to your heart and mind, “you’re a lousy Christian - no true believer would act like that.”

Of course, then the world chimes in as well, it points a finger at you and says, “See how that Christian acts? If that’s what it means to be a Christian, I may as well just continue as I am.” And so, you sink deeper into despair, “I am so bad, God must not love me.”

Dear friends in Christ, these two sins - thinking you are no longer sinning, or thinking you are so bad you cannot be forgiven - are opposite sides of the same coin. Both of these are sin because both deny what the Babe of Bethlehem was born to purchase for you - complete forgiveness from all your sins.

If you have no sin - Jesus didn’t need to be born to die for your sins. If your sin cannot be forgiven - then His perfect life and death were the meaningless sacrifice of a good man.

When you make your resolutions and fail, then you discover the purpose of this passage from the prophet Isaiah. Through the prophet, God proclaims that the things of the earth will grow old and die, but, He says, “My salvation will be forever... My righteousness will not be abolished.”

I know of Christmas presents that are already broken. I am also sure that almost every resolution ever made finds its demise in the sands of time. God has called me here to be your pastor. He has called me, like the prophet, to be here to pick up the pieces. He has commanded me to proclaim something else to you, what God wants you to remember... “Salvation is forever.”

I want you to listen very closely now. Christ resolves to keep you as one of His children this year, as He has kept you in the past. He invites you to live in God’s grace.

Tonight, we celebrate the naming of that Babe born in Bethlehem. He is given the name, Jesus, God saves. He kept the resolve of His Father by His perfect life, lived without sin. He kept the resolve of His Father, by sacrificing His life to purchase your forgiveness. His Father resolved to raise Him from the dead, and He will never die, proclaiming to you that your salvation is forever.

He invites you, “Come and know that my salvation will be forever. Hear that salvation in the Word I would speak to you. Taste of that salvation in the Body of my Son that I give you to eat and in His blood which I give you to drink.”

When we gather together, it isn’t as perfect people, it is as Christians. We gather because we know of our great need for salvation. God does not disappoint us, for He gathers us together in order to deliver His salvation to us here. Today again, His righteousness is given to you, it will not be abolished.

Tonight, eat and drink and be merry - isn’t that what New Year’s Eve is supposed to be about? But you are hear to Eat the body of Christ, drink of His blood, and be filled with gladness of heart, this is merriment that lasts for eternity, not just till you’re too tired to stay up any later.

So tonight, let us do just that. Let us receive from God what Christ purchased and what He desires to give us in word and meal. Salvation - that will be forever. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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