A Sermon for the last Sunday of the year

Looking Back

 

a)       Psalm 77 has a note of realism about it. Sometimes it seems as if today we are given a picture of Christian experience which is pure fantasy, but this Psalm as God’s Word is real. Have you ever felt your soul refused to be comforted? Have you ever remembered God and yet were troubled, so troubled perhaps that you could scarcely speak? Have you ever felt like asking some of the questions the Psalmist did? I think it almost certain that most of us can identify only too well with what the Psalmist says here.

b)       My real reason for turning to this Psalm, however, is because of the remedy that the Psalmist found – he remembered, v.10,11. The answer to all his questioning, the remedy for his anguish was to remember, to look back, to look away from what the present seemed like, to what God had done in the past.

1         Look back with thankfulness

a)       There is always something to thank God for and generally speaking Christians don’t have to look very far or hard to see it. We should be thankful that we are here tonight – not only that we have the health and strength to do so, but that we have the desire in our hearts. We are here to worship God; we are here to listen to his Word; we are here because – at least to some extent – we want to know him better, we desire his grace and blessing at the end of the year and look forward to the New. God has kept us through 2012 and we can look to the future trusting to him. We are here to thank him and to worship him

b)       We should be thankful for the coming of Jesus Christ. These past few days have been days of celebration and holiday, but at the heart of it all we remember that Christ Jesus came into the world to save us from our sins. We have been reminded of the way he humbled himself, of the astonishing incarnation, of the miracle and mystery of the Son of God made flesh. We cannot estimate the love and grace displayed in this – we can worship and rejoice and entrust ourselves in humility and gratitude to him.

c)       We should be thankful for our homes and families and family life. For most of us, at least, these past days have been days when we have met with family members; when we have heard from relatives and friends who live at a distance, when we have received cards, letters and gifts. It is God who ordained the family; all the blessings and joys of family life are his gift to us. Even those who now have few family members, or who find most of them far away, are reminded of old times. Those who are rather lonely at Christmas – and there are numbers of people who are – can generally look back and can be thankful for the past.

2         Look back with repentance

a)       I think we sometimes forget that repentance is a lifetime requirement. We know we start the Christian life by faith in Jesus Christ and we recognise our need to continue trusting in him through all the changing scenes of life. Somehow, however, we are inclined to think that repentance goes along with faith at the beginning but gradually becomes less important. But that is not true. An honest look back will remind us of many failures, many sins, much that spoilt our relationship with the Lord and grieved him, much of which we are ashamed and are glad that others don’t know about. I am not sure that in our worship and in our walk with the Lord we give the place to repentance that it ought to have. Let each one examine himself or herself.

b)       Part of our problem may be the attitudes in society around us. How often do we hear someone who has done wrong owning up to having made a mistake? Not committed a sin, not done or said something that ought never to have been done or said, but made a mistake. Sin is sin; it is wrong and evil in the sight of God. A mistake is when I misspell a word in my notes; but when I lose my temper and say hurtful things to a brother or sister in Christ that is sin. It must be acknowledged as sin and repented of as sin – otherwise it cannot be properly forgiven. We also hear people say after they have done something wrong that they deserve a second chance. You can’t deserve a second chance. Love, understanding, kindness may give you a second chance but it is not anything someone can deserve. God gives us second chances, not because we deserve them, but because he is gracious and merciful.

c)       The sins which we commit now as Christians are much more serious than the sins we committed before we trusted in Christ. I was reading a very honest and remarkable book and was startled by this sentence: ‘I believe that the Lord is more grieved by my current sins than by my past life as a lesbian.’ The Christian woman who wrote this is right. The sins I commit now are much worse than those committed when I was a teenager; it is much more grievous for me to sin after all these years and my repentance needs to be real and deep – and so it is for you. You are now a year older than this time last year – you have attended church, read the Bible, heard sermons over the year. The further we go in the Christian life the more grievous are our sins and the more seriously we should take repentance.

d)       Repentance can be acknowledged together, but it usually needs to be carried out privately. It will sometimes involve apology and asking for forgiveness; perhaps within the family, perhaps within the church. And that is hard, but it is needful.

3         Look back with thoughtfulness

a)       Looking back takes our eyes off the present problems to focus on what God has done in the past. There is an unprofitable way of looking back, just wishing we could have the old times back, seeing the past through rose-coloured spectacles; there is also a wise way of looking back, a thoughtful way. Asaph continues in vv.12-15. Then his soul is lifted up and he sings out a sort of poetic and dramatic retelling of the crossing of the Red Sea, finishing with v.20. The God who is Lord over the sea and all the elements is also the One who led his people by his servants Moses and Aaron. The same sovereign Lord leads his people today by ordinary men and women, pastors, teachers, brothers and sisters. And he will lead us.

b)       The past often shows us that God has been at work when we haven’t been able to see it. Has God forgotten…? vv.8,9. There are times when it looks as if he has. The situation Israel found itself in, in Egypt, was a very grievous one and they cried out to God year after year. But they did not know that for forty years God had been preparing Moses to lead them out and across the desert to the promised land. The answer was already being prepared.

c)       Reviewing the past leads to personal encouragement and then to encouraging others, cf. 2 Cor. 1:3,4; 8-10. Would Paul have been able to comfort others as he did, if he had not himself first of all gone through hard experiences? No, surely not. That’s one reason why pastors so often have to go through difficult experiences; they have to learn to trust, they have to know what it is to receive comfort and strength from the Lord so that they can then comfort and encourage others. That is what is so wonderful about the Lord Jesus, Heb. 2:17,18; 4:15,16.

d)       Considering what God has done in the past can bring quietness and peace into the soul. Ps.116, v.3 I found trouble and sorrow; v.6,7. What a beautiful phrase: Return to your rest, O my soul. That’s why we sang the last hymn – ‘Be still, my soul, the Lord is on your side’. How do we know the Lord is on our side? We can know for various reasons, but going back over his goodness and mercy in the past demonstrates to us that he is on our side. ‘Be still my soul: the Lord will undertake, to guide the future as he has the past’. This leads to our final heading – 

4         Look back with anticipation

a)       This doesn’t seem to make sense – how can you look back with anticipation? Well it is almost a reflex action and this leads me to a verse from our last hymn: ‘His love in time past forbids me to think, he’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink; and can he have taught me to trust in his name and this far have brought me to put me to shame?’ The logic is inescapable, isn’t it? Does God string us along for a while and then drop us? Does he draw us with his love and bring us to trust him only to show us we can’t trust him to carry us on and see us through? No! His goodness and mercy in time past toward us assure us that whatever we go through he will not let us go. What can we anticipate?

b)       We can anticipate conversions. God saves, but he does it in his own way and in his own time. I know that conversions sometimes seem few and far between, I know that we cannot compel anyone to believe, but God does and will save. There are times of sowing and then sometimes times of reaping, times when there is a harvest. We can’t control that, it’s in God’s hands. Our labour is never in vain in the Lord.

c)       We can anticipate surprises; I know that there are different sorts of surprises and of course you never know when a surprise is going to take place. They can take many different shapes and forms. There are little surprises and sometimes big surprises. I don’t want to define them any more, we simply can’t tell in what way the Lord might surprise us.

d)       We can anticipate answers to prayer. God hasn’t given us prayer in order to mock us. Of course, prayer can’t force God to do something that is not his will. We must always have the attitude that Jesus showed, ‘Not my will, but yours be done’. God does answer prayer; not always in the way we expect, not always at the time we hoped, but every Christian knows that God answers prayer –  as we look back we can see that he has in the past and so we know that he will do so in the future as well.

e)       We can anticipate guidance. Guidance is not an easy matter, and we must be guided supremely by the Word of God, and we are to use the minds he has given to us – but in subjection to the Word. He guides individuals, he guides families, he guides churches – he has done so in the past so we know he will do it in the future. Ps. 32:8 says: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. But it also goes on to say: Do not be like the horse or like the mule which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. We mustn’t just rush ahead without thinking as animals might, be must be humble and teachable and be willing to be led step by step.

f)         We can anticipate forgiveness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is scarcely a more wonderful verse in the whole Bible. The past teaches us that we shall go on failing and falling in the future, the battle against sin is never over while we are in this world. We must seek to grow in holiness, but progress is often slow. We must never use the promise of forgiveness as an excuse for slackness and for easing off. John’s words are so true and important: My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

g)       We can anticipate glory. Whatever happens, however long or short the rest of our lives might be, for every Christian the final outcome is not death, it is glory. Moreover whom he predestined, these he also called; whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified. But how does looking back enable us to anticipate glory? God has already raised up Jesus Christ and glorified him and Jesus Christ while he was here on earth prayed for all who believe in him, including these words: And the glory which you gave me I have given them.