"First and foremost I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for the Holy Spirit; I thank Him for my outstanding wife without whom I could not have met my time and work obligations-- she's my so beautiful, so faithful song; I thank Him for my five healthy children, all undeniable proof that God loves that which is lovely and that He is love personified; for my parents who have always been there for me making innumerable things possible, even before I was born. Saints, ladies, gentlemen, I could go on thanking the Lord for His blessings and grace, but whether saved or unsaved, there's one thing we can all thank Him for above all else--His mercy.
If we just momentarily dwell on the past, and if we're completely honest, all of us have been in places where we ought not to have been, thinking, saying, doing things that we knew from childhood that ought not to have been done. Most, if not all of the times when we flirted with disaster, we never even thought twice about why we were allowed to see another day. I've seen horrible automobile accidents and have even been in a pretty bad one myself, but there's only one obvious reason why I'm still here, why we're all still breathing and gathered for this joyous occasion, and that reason is because God is merciful. We can all take immense comfort in Psalm 103, verse 8 which says,
"Jehovah is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in mercy."
In this short amount of time I would just like to dwell on the famous (or, depending how you look at him, infamous) nephew of the revered patriarch Abraham, Lot in Genesis chapter 19.
Lot knew the power of God, but one night as his uncle Abraham was in prayer for him, as well as the incomprehensibly wicked city of Sodom, he truly experienced the awesome, unfathomable magnitude of God's mercy. The following morning, Jehovah was to destroy the entire city along with all of its neighboring cities and had sent two of his angels to evacuate Lot and his family. One might ask why Lot, whom the Bible calls a righteous man in 2 Peter 2:7-8, was not only in Sodom, but in a very prominent place in the city (see Remember Lot's Wife! about the importance of the gate)? Why did Lot choose to remain there and enjoy its comforts--? Simple: he compromised.
Some of us in this room are right now, living compromised lives, but thanks be to God that even though our hearts, just like Lot's, can get so far from God, that He is merciful and provides a way of escape from judgment. The angels not only came for Lot and his family but for anyone--anyone--else he knew or befriended in that city--yes, even Sodom!
Saints, ladies, gentlemen, Sodom and Gomorrah (and the surrounding cities) are known for evil and perversion that have become legendary, but for the compromisers- God's mercy provided a way of escape; for the violent homosexual--God's mercy made available a way out; for the insatiable rapists--God's mercy presented even them with an escape. Time does not permit me to dig much any deeper into the earth of the Truths of this Scripture, but as I take my seat, I wish to just leave you with this: God's mercy is still providing a way of escape from eternal separation from that mercy, here in these fleeting, final hours of Man's Day. That escape has a name, saints, ladies and gentlemen, and His Name is Jesus Christ, and it is He who said in the third chapter of John verse three, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.""
Thank you for boldly speaking out for our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep up the good work! Bless You!
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