The Lutheran Hour
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"Getting a New Start!"
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Text: Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."
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Prayer:
O Lord, with all the pressures of life, plus our frequent failures, we often feel like the Apostle Paul who said, “Wretched man that I am; who will set me free from this body of death?” But, then the apostle also rejoiced and said, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” O Lord, Jesus Christ, Light of the Word, at this hour we pray. Drive all darkness of difficulty, doubt, or despair from the hearts of all who hear and receive Your life-giving Word. In Your powerful name, we pray and believe. Amen.
Last month, when I visited the home of a friend, my eyes were suddenly drawn to a magazine lying on their table. The publisher claimed this magazine now reaches “3.6 million homes.” Stretched across the front cover of this magazine was the headline, “OUR SEARCH FOR MEANING.”
This same magazine, in a screaming red and white subtitle said: “Our nation was shaken by the unspeakable acts of September 11. Now, the country struggles to make sense of this tragedy.” The editor in chief of this magazine then stated it was her goal to help people get a new attitude for life after September 11.
This national magazine is not the only institution that has offered advice for the future. Other journals, and even prestigious think tanks, have also “weighed in” some of the most helpful advice. However, it has come not from sophisticated sources but from the “man in the street.” When they were interviewed on television, blue-collar workers, housewives, businessmen, and farmers said they have repeatedly stated September 11 was a “wake up call” for our nation and for our culture. This comment often means that it is now time for us, with a repentant attitude, to ask the question, “Are we in charge of everyday living and life and death, or is God in charge?”
Now, indeed, if we take God’s Holy Word seriously, we can see it is, indeed, time to “wake up.” For too long we have been self-satisfied, self-centered, and self-serving. For most of us, God and our neighbors have taken a back seat or even no seat at all. Instead of being a driving force within us, our lukewarm spiritual attitude has been little more than a religious decoration. And this is a very serious matter. Because, you see, the pages of history state clearly and repeatedly that no nation or culture survives long if it seeks only “fleshly” self-service and worldly self-fulfillment.
So, instead of thinking only about ourselves and our own self-interests; and, instead of searching for secular theories of self-improvement, now is the time for us to wake up and ask seriously, “What does God say about all of this?” And, when it comes to having a new and God-pleasing attitude toward life in 2002, especially after September 11, 2001, “What is God urging you and me to do?”
Well, friends, the information, this answer is found in the Word of the Lord. You see, when Jesus launched His public ministry, He wasted no time in stating exactly the type of attitude our heavenly Father fervently desires you and me to have. Jesus made this priority number ONE! In the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, we read, “Jesus said: ‘The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel.'”
Now, when anyone in the year 2002 hears the word “repentance,” one might think of some beatnik type of guy – barefooted and walking around on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, or at some public event. This unshaven beatnik would have a sign held high saying, “Repent – The end of the world is coming.” Now, this may be the stereotype many of us have regarding the concept of “repentance.” To some extent, it may be correct. However, this is not the way “repentance” is pictured or explained in the Bible. And, it is not the understanding of “repentance” God desires you to have or the life of “repentance” that God desires you to live every day.
You see, the idea of “repentance” is nothing new. “Repentance” is used over 100 times in the Old Testament. Basically, “repentance” means to “turn back,” or to “return to God.” “Repentance” means “returning to God with one’s whole being, and in all decisions of life, taking God absolutely seriously.”
Another well-known Bible scholar says, “Repentance is turning away from evil and turning unto the Lord. Repentance involves trusting absolutely in God and ceasing to rely on anything human. Repentance includes a new attitude toward everything!”
Repentance means being sincerely sorry for our past sins and, also turning to the crucified Christ and trusting in the sin-cleansing power of the blood He shed on the crucifixion cross.
Now, if you’re like me you’re probably ready to say, “Great! Great! I know I should repent. I know I should be living a better life. I know I should have a better attitude toward my spouse and my children. I know I only rarely think about my neighbor. I know I “should” have this attitude but I simply don’t. But even worse, whenever it comes to living a God-pleasing life, I feel so helpless.”
Well, friends, if this is how you feel, then you are probably ready to say with the Apostle Paul, “The good I would like to do, I don’t do, and, that which I don’t want to do I often end up doing!” How many times have you gotten up in the morning grumbling, criticizing, and angry at other members of your family? Why is it that when some of us have an extra evening without anything to do, instead of visiting the sick or the hospitalized, we much prefer to go shopping or to the mall? Aging parents and elderly grandparents go for days, weeks and sometimes even months, waiting for their loved ones to stop by, if only for a minute or two. But tragically, they often wait in vain and no one shows up! No one! These elderly people are simply destined to linger in the loneliness of an unrepentant society of which you and I are the guilty unrepentant members.
But now, here is the Good News of God! Repentance is not something God is demanding you “come up with,” or that you “generate” from within yourself, or you “conjure up” through some religious effort or mystic approach. The Good News from your gracious Heavenly Father is that the “repentance” you need in order to please God is something He wants to give you as a totally free gift! Yes, real repentance is available only from God and only as a gift! In his letter to Timothy, St. Paul explains that God “grants repentance that leads to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25). This means God gives repentance as a gift. And, this is the only way anyone can have genuine repentance. In the book of Acts in the Bible, chapter five, we read that through Jesus Christ, God grants repentance and forgiveness of sins.” And, in Acts 11, many early Jewish Christians learned from Peter that God had “granted also to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18).
Struggle no more. Strive no more to please God by trying, by your own power, to develop some type of an attitude of repentance. This is not possible for you to accomplish. More important, God is now offering repentance to you as a gift. It is totally free. And, now listen to this: God gives you His gift of repentance through His holy cleansing and His life giving Word. Repentance comes to you wrapped in the box of His Word with a ribbon of grace, mercy and peace wrapped all around it.
Think of it like this. Every day in order to exist, even at the minimum physical level, you need to eat. You and I often eat out of habit. But even more important, we eat because God has given us the gift of hunger. You see, if God had not built into you His gift of hunger, you would not eat and you would then quickly starve to death. Not long ago, I had an uncle who was afflicted with cancer; and, one of the things cancer sometimes does is take away your appetite and you starve to death. Cancer had also destroyed my uncle’s appetite.
In somewhat the same way, unless God prompts us – unless He enables us – we are totally unable to be repentant. However, through the power of His Law, God graciously leads us to repentance. Romans 7:7, St. Paul says, “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law of God” (Romans 7:7).
Here again is the Good News through the power of His Gospel. God enables you to believe to be forgiven and to be saved. In the Bible, Romans 10:17, the Apostle Paul writes, “Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.” This may sound highly unusual. But, in His grace and mercy, God gives us everything He demands of us; everything He asks of us. This is like an earthly father who says to his four-year-old son, “Son, go get your shoes.” The little boy gets his shoes. However, they are the very shoes his father had previously given to him.
My friends, in the same way God is now asking you to seek from Him a life of daily repentance. However, God is also offering to give you precisely that which He is asking of you.
Through His Gospel Word, the Spirit of God comes to you to assure your heart that no matter what sin you might have committed and no matter how far you have strayed from your loving heavenly Father, God still loves you. It was your heavenly Father who sent not just “a son” but “His only Son,” Jesus Christ to die on the bloody cross to pay the supreme penalty for all of your terrible sins. This is the same heavenly Father who, after seeing the suffering of His Son on the bloody cross, was satisfied. God your heavenly Father has been satisfied with the offering Jesus made for all your sins. “In Jesus,” the Bible says, “you have redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of your trespasses according to the richness of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
Don’t delay. Now with the empowerment your gracious and merciful God promises you through His spirit, make a covenant with God, to the best of your ability, to attend a church each week where God’s sin-cleansing and life-giving Word is preached and taught. Also, if you don’t have family or personal devotions, start today. You see, when you are exposed – when you read and hear this living Word – it is the power that prompts you and enables you to have a God-pleasing life of daily repentance.
Now, permit me also to help you get started in a very simple and practical way. Take the Bible and turn to Psalm 51 in the Old Testament. Read every day in a sincere and prayerful way verses 1-17 of Psalm 51. In fact, this would be a great thing to do for the rest of your life. Each day read and meditate verses 1-17 of Psalm 51.
Let me read it now so you can see the new relationship you can have with God, and with your family and friends in the year 2002, just as King David also had a new and blessed relationship with God by praying this Psalm.
“Be gracious to me O God, according to Thy loving kindness; according to the greatness of Thy compassion. Blot out all my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly, O Lord, from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgression. My sin is ever before me. Against Thee, [O Lord] I have sinned. I have done what is evil in Thy sight.
The psalmist continues by saying, “Purify me [O Lord] with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Hide Thy face from my sins. Blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, O Lord. Do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. And restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.”
You can have a new and a better life in this New Year of 2002. There is no need for you to live burdened with guilt or regret over mistakes of your past. There is no need to live in the emptiness that so inevitably follows self-centered, selfish, and self-serving living. Reject completely the devilish illusion of finding happiness through ego-centered living. Look, instead, to the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” This kingdom is not something that God first entices you to desire, then restrains or frustrates you from receiving. Through His sin-cleansing and life-giving Word and Spirit, God is near you. He wants you to be part of His Kingdom now! Like a parent draws a son or daughter close, so also, through His gracious gift of repentance, God now desires to draw you close unto Himself.
Finally – remember that great Psalm I read only a few moments ago, Psalm 51? These were the words of the psalmist David. In the midst of his confession, in the middle of pouring out his heart to God, and in acknowledging God’s gracious and undeserved forgiveness, King David then says, “I will teach transgressors Thy ways and sinners will be converted unto Thee.”
David was so happy, so thrilled, and so filled with thanksgiving that he had been fully forgiven through God’s gift of repentance, he promised God he would tell others of God’s grace and mercy. And as a result of hearing this message, others would be converted and brought into the joy of God’s Gospel.
Friends, do like the psalmist David did. Tell your family members God wants to give them the gift of repentance. This is the gift that leads to a meaningful life here on earth in 2002. It is also the gift of repentance that leads to life everlasting in paradise. Discuss the mercy of God with your spouse. Take the time to tell your children what great blessing God wants to graciously give them. Then, with your spouse and your family, pray Psalm 51 always expecting in faith to receive God’s gifts of mercy, His gift of forgiveness and His gift of eternal life. This is the Good News for you today from your gracious Heavenly Father.
Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.” Through His life-giving Word, God is now promising you His gift of repentance. And, when there is repentance, there is forgiveness. And where there is forgiveness, there is life and salvation for you today. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for January 13, 2002
ANNOUNCER: I’m Mark Eischer for Lutheran Hour Ministries. Dr. Wallace Schulz is here with me in the studio. Dr. Schulz, in today’s message you touched upon a subject that challenges many of our listeners. We often hear from people who say they are frustrated because they would like to have a more meaningful faith or a better relationship with their Lord and they don’t know what to do about it.
SCHULZ: Well, Mark, this is not only what our listeners are saying. According to secular surveys and studies dealing with spirituality in our society, we know there are a lot of concerned people. They have a very strong desire to be more spiritual but they simply don’t know what steps to take.
ANNOUNCER: Today you talked about repentance. Is that something people can do? You said repentance is itself a gift from God. That seems really unusual.
SCHULZ: Well, the general thinking in our culture today is that we meet God at a bargaining table. He, at the table, demands that we bring or show a certain amount of sorrow for our sins, a certain amount of tears for what we’ve done wrong. When He decides we have demonstrated enough sorrow or tears, then he forgives us.
ANNOUNCER: There might be some religions that work that way. But you’re saying this is not what the Bible teaches?
SCHULZ: Absolutely not, Mark. There is no bargaining table or any other kind of dealing that goes on between God and each one of us. You see, the Bible says our heavenly Father is the One who takes the initiative. He makes the first step. The Apostle Paul says that while we are sinners, Christ died for us. By offering up His own Son on the altar of the cross, God satisfied His own wrath – the wrath that should have come upon our own h eads.
ANNOUNCER: That’s an incredible message, Dr. Schulz. It is hard to believe.
SCHULZ: Well, indeed it is. But, of course, there’s more. You see, now that God has completely prepared His gift for us, He also enables us, through His gift of repentance, to receive that gift.
ANNOUNCER: This certainly is a very different way of understanding the Gospel.
SCHULZ: Yes, it is. This is also the reason God’s Good News is so misunderstood today. You see, we always want to do our part, even in religion. We always think we have to have a part to play in our salvation. This isn’t true. God prepares our salvation. We simply, through His gift of faith, receive it. And this is why the analogy of the banquet is so powerful and so vivid in the Bible. The banquet of God’s Gospel is prepared and all we have to do is receive it with joy. Now, to have it any other way would be like saying we go to a taco stand or some other fast food place. When we get inside, we demand to do at least something; maybe wash the dishes or run the cash register or clean up. We’ve got to do something. We feel we have to do our part.
ANNOUNCER: That’s a good analogy. But even there, someone does pay for the food, right? So who pays?
SCHULZ: Indeed. Christ has paid through His blood, hasn’t He, on the cross? That’s the way it is when it comes to salvation. Instead of accepting the fact that God, in Jesus Christ, has accomplished our entire salvation and has given us the gift of repentance, in order to enable us to receive salvation by grace, we nevertheless, always want it the other way around. We want to be part of it. We want credit. We want to feel we’ve done our part. The Apostle Paul sums it all up very well in his letter to the Philippians when he writes, “It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” It is the will of God to draw all people back unto Himself through His gifts of repentance and faith, and to save them forever in paradise. This includes all of our audience today. Now, there are many that still don’t believe God’s incredible message. However, all those who believe, those who do receive God’s gift of repentance and salvation, are the ones who will be saved forever and will be in the presence of God in paradise eternally.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Dr. Schulz. The next message of The Lutheran Hour is titled, “Thou Shalt Not Murder.”