(Memory Verse) —Jeremiah 9:23-24:“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdomlet not the mighty man boast of his mightlet not the rich man boast of his riches,but let him who boasts boast about this:that he understands and knows me,that I am the LORD, who exercises loving-kindness,justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,”\
The scripture says, Come here; let’s settle this once and for all… “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. If you will only obey me…
But if you turn away and refuse to listen, you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies. (i.e., the World) –Isaiah 1:18-20
But the problem we run into is we don’t want to OBEY him. Maybe you don’t have a right relationship with him because you’re not obeying today, and you won’t obey in the future.
But here’s our hope—our “GIFT”. We know a God who is a God of GIFTS, who EXCERCISES. What does he excercise? (see above). That’s right! “Loving-kindess. And Justice. And Righteousness.”
He’s a moving, giving God, a God of GIFTS. He gave his son, that we might have eternal life, and not judgement. He came into the world not to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
God, our savior, wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. In fact, we talked about the word “salvation” and how we’ve heard that so many times, it just kind of “lays there”. So maybe we need to grab a different word. Like the word “SALVAGE”.
Salvage comes from the same root as Salvation. And it means “the act of saving anything from danger, so it’s not destroyed”. It also means “something saved from destruction, or waste, and put to further use”. hmm. That’s a good word.
SALVATION is the ongoing act of being SALVAGED.
And this “being salvaged” is a “GIFT of God, not that any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8). In fact if you boast about anything, it should be… what? (see memory verse above).