A GOD OF MANY CHANCES
1. Since I will be using a week of vacation next Sunday, this is my final a.m. sermon for this year.
2. As we close 2003 and prepare for 2004, an appropriate subject to consider is second chances.
IN
PREVIOUS WEEKS WE HAVE GIVEN CONSIDERATION TO THE BOOK OF JONAH.
a) Our study has shown that Jonah received several chances from God.
b) He was given multiple opportunities to do God’s will.
c) God said “go,” but the prophet used his opportunity to run in the opposite direction.
d) God gave Jonah another chance to repent with a stormy sea but the prophet decided to sleep.
e) Opportunity number 3 is found in Jonah 1:6.
f) The shipmaster told God’s prophet “Call upon your deity.”
g) Apparently Jonah stayed silent so the men drew lots.
h) Jonah finally got another opportunity to get right with God while in the belly of a great fish.
2) God offered this prophet at least four different occasions to be obedient.
3) Jonah was not the only person to receive multiple opportunities from God.
4) We surely remember the story Jesus told in Lk. 15; a father had two sons.
5) One son came and asked for his inheritance.
6) This son had several opportunities to reverse his course.
a) He could have immediately retracted his request.
b) After receiving the inheritance he had a chance to cancel his trip.
c) On his way into that far country he had several opportunities to come back home.
d) Each day he slopped hogs he had a chance to come back.
e) There were dozens of times when he could have returned.
7) Another well known character—Peter—one of the Lord’s apostles—was given multiple chances.
8) Jesus warned Peter about his upcoming denial. Peter said, “not me. I will not deny you.”
9) Peter was given his first opportunity to stand with the Lord but he didn’t take it.
10) A second opportunity came. He again failed to do what was right.
11) Then a third chance came to say he was associated with his Lord.
12) He struck out three times but Jesus didn’t take him off the team.
13) There was a fourth opportunity to embrace the Lord.
14) As we look at various Bible characters in both testaments we find the same truth.
15) Again and again people were given multiple opportunities.
16) Multiple chances were given because God knows human beings often fail.
17) In the book of Romans Paul touches on both of these points.
18) Romans 2:4 and Rom. 3:25 there is a word that is translated “forbearance.”
19) Aside from these two verses this term is not found anywhere else in the New Testament.
20) Writers of Classical Greek used this term to describe a “pause” or a “delay.”
21) In Romans it implies a tolerance that is based upon time.
a) As said a moment ago, God knows that mankind is weak and subject to sin.
b) He therefore is not prone to striking down people at the first sign of sin.
c) In the case of Jonah, God could have ended the prophet’s life when he said no.
d) God had other prophets who could have gone to Nineveh.
e) Since Jonah initially said “no,” God could have smitten him and sent someone else.
f) Doing this would have probably been a lot faster.
g) Jonah was given several chances to do what was right.
h) In the Bible God is frequently presented as tolerant and giving people multiple opportunities.
22) Some misapply this information and conclude God tolerates everything.
23) We can do whatever we want and there will be no consequences.
24) This is not right because of the word forbear in Rom. 2 and Rom. 3.
25) God forbears (is tolerant) in the sense of temporarily suspending judgment.
26) Judgment is not cancelled. Rather, it is delayed so people will repent.
27) I said the word forbear is first used in Rom. 2:4.
28) Listen to how Paul used this word because he explains what it means – READ.
29) God gives multiple chances so people will repent (obey heaven’s plan of salvation).
30) Heaven waits so souls will be saved.
31) This is true prior to someone’s becoming a Christian.
a) At times it is asked why God allows wicked people to live. Rom. 2:4 provides us with an answer.
b) A lot of media attention has been given to Saddam Hussein.
c) According to the reports, this man has injured and killed approximately a million people.
d) He has brutalized, in ways we cannot imagine, people made in God’s image.
e) Why didn’t God allow him to be killed in an Iraqi hole?
32) There could be several reasons. One Bible reason is expressed in Rom. 2:4.
33) God is often tolerant of people and circumstances so they will be obedient.
34) Even Jonah acknowledge this point.
35) In Jon. 4:2 the prophet said God was “slow to anger.”
36) Paul said a similar thing in Rom. 9:22; God endures “much longsuffering.”
37) Later in 1 Tim. 1:16 Paul said he was a personal example of God’s longsuffering.
38) Another apostle—Peter—spoke about this same matter in 1 Pet. 3.
a) We all know the story about Noah and the ark.
b) A lot of facts are taught about Noah and what was done.
c) What is not often emphasized is God’s longsuffering.
d) 1 Pet. 3:20 says God “waited” and He was “longsuffering” in the “days of Noah.”
THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE WE ARE INFORMED ABOUT GOD’S PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE. WE ALSO FIND NUMEROUS EXAMPLES WHERE GOD GAVE PEOPLE CHANCE AFTER CHANCE.
a) Some have taken the additional chances offered by God.
b) Others have not.
c) We know that almost all the people in Noah’s day rejected every chance given by God.
d) Other Biblical characters literally jumped at the opportunities presented to them.
e) Another popular Bible story is that of Zacchaeus (Lk. 19).
f) According to Lk. 19:5, Jesus told this tax collector to come out of a tree.
g) Jesus said He wanted to go to this man’s house.
2) Zacchaeus was given another chance.
3) As a tax collector he had been given previous opportunities to be honest but he had failed.
4) We know beyond any doubt that Zacchaeus had cheated people.
5) The construction of the original text in Lk. 19 has the sense of “since I have taken.”
6) Here was a man who had previously been given chances to be good and honest but he had been evil.
7) Jesus gave him another chance.
8) The Lord offered him the opportunity to be forgiven and go in a new way and this man didn’t hesitate.
9) The Lord was pleased and thus said salvation had come to his house.
10) God is patient for a long time but His patience is not without limits.
11) It does finally give way to punishment.
12) Many times we have mentioned Lk. 13:3; Jesus said repent or perish.
13) Right after making this point Jesus presented a parable (Lk. 13:6).
a) He spoke of a man who had a vineyard with a fig tree.
b) One day this fellow inspected his tree. He was looking for fruit.
c) None was found so he talked with the groundskeeper.
d) The landowner said he had checked his tree three different years.
e) Each time he looked for fruit he had been disappointed.
14) The tree had an opportunity to produce fruit but it did not bear.
15) The attendant asked that the tree be allowed to live for one more year.
16) If no fruit was produced, the tree would be destroyed.
17) We have almost come to the end of another year.
18) Each one of us has had some opportunities to serve God.
19) God has given us several chances to demonstrate our faithfulness and work for Him.
20) Perhaps some had their second chance a long time ago but still nothing has been done.
21) What have we done with our opportunities from God?
22) Are we like the fig tree?
23) If so, God’s word warns us to become fruitful or be cut down.
24) As in the case and time Noah, chances to do end.
25) Sometimes they come to a sudden end.
26) Have we made up our mind to take advantage of opportunities for the rest of this year and 2004?
27) I recently came across a little story entitled “Gold wrapping paper.”
28) I will read it verbatim:
A father punished his
5-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight,
and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under
the tree.
Nevertheless,
the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said,
"This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier
overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty.
He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present,
there's supposed to be something inside of it?"
The
little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy
it's not empty. I blew kisses
into the box. All for you, Daddy."
The father was crushed. He put
his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness.
A
short time later the daughter died.
Supposedly the father kept that box for the rest of his life.
Opportunities were missed for a time in the
man’s life but they were taken before it was too late.
What about us?
If we missed important spiritual opportunities in 2003, when we will get on
board?
We never know when our last chance will be.
This morning we know we have at least one more opportunity. Will we take it?
ANOTHER POSSIBLE ENDING:
Like
racers running, we mark time
As past us whisk days sad and sublime
Ordinary moments, all compounded
Rush past. In contemplation we're confounded
As we relive the year now fleeted
And pray for another. 'Twill soon be greeted.
Review this annum, how do you remember
The way you lived, January to December?
Do regrets crowd around you, the marks you missed,
The goals you squelched, the opportunities dismissed?
Or, despite human errors that all must yield
Are you satisfied with your effort, how your time you filled?
Next year, this time, again you will come
To the end of all months, then you'll add the sum.
Live well, serve true, give the Lord daily best,
So that next year you can call it your very best!