Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Magnificent Chesed of God │ Msg 6-11

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The Magnificent Chesed of God │ Msg 6-11 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: While I was enjoying a few days of vacation not
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Speaker 1: too long ago, my sister and I were engaged in
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Speaker 1: a conversation that proved to be very enlightening to me.
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Speaker 1: She asked me a question that I don't believe I've
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Speaker 1: ever been asked before. She said, what is your favorite feeling?
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Speaker 1: I ever thought about that question? Anyone ever asked you?
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Speaker 1: What is the feeling that gives you the greatest sense
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Speaker 1: of satisfaction? I think that My answer to her was,
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Speaker 1: I believe my favorite feeling is the feeling of accomplishment.
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Speaker 1: Sounds like a driven person, doesn't it. I like the
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Speaker 1: feeling of getting something done. I like the feeling of accomplishment.
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Speaker 1: Her answer, I believe, was even more insightful than mine.
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Speaker 1: She said, my favorite feeling is relief. Relief. That's a
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Speaker 1: great answer, isn't it. I checked Webster's and Webster says
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Speaker 1: the feeling of relief means the removal or lightening of
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Speaker 1: something oppressive, painful, or distressing. Then I thought about several
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Speaker 1: things in which relief is wonderful. When we are in
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Speaker 1: physical pain, relief means that the pain subsides, or something
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Speaker 1: becomes more important to us than the sting of that pain,
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Speaker 1: and we feel a relief. When we are emotionally distraught,
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Speaker 1: maybe struggling with a self image or with some inner
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Speaker 1: uneasiness that won't go away, and it steals our appetite
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Speaker 1: and it interrupts our peace. Relief calms us, gives us
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Speaker 1: a sense of satisfaction when guilt assaults us in transgression
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Speaker 1: and we seek God's forgiveness, that guilt that ate like
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Speaker 1: a cancer inside us, goes away as God brings relief.
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Speaker 1: When a relationship is strained with someone else, someone perhaps
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Speaker 1: that we were once close to, and we go through
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Speaker 1: the painful, albeit essential process of making things right with
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Speaker 1: that person, we have relational relief, feel like we can
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Speaker 1: be with them and we won't have to look the
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Speaker 1: other way, we won't have to keep from connecting. In fact,
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Speaker 1: we are comfortable in their press. There's been relief, relational relief.
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Speaker 1: When we are under heavy financial debt, and that debt
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Speaker 1: weighs us down and it won't leave our minds. Getting
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Speaker 1: that paid off brings a sweet joy and an inner
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Speaker 1: feeling of relief. We learned in my previous thoughts on
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Speaker 1: God's sovereignty that the Most High is ruler over our lives.
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Speaker 1: So it's obvious that if we ever have the feeling
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Speaker 1: of relief, God has given it to us. He's the
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Speaker 1: author of relief. He is the one who grants us
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Speaker 1: the peace, the satisfaction, the ease. And I think there
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Speaker 1: is no better synonym for mercy than relief. Mercy provides
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Speaker 1: us with relief. In fact, I thought through a definition
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Speaker 1: of mercy, and I would say that it is God's
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Speaker 1: active compassion which he demonstrates to the miserable. When we
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Speaker 1: are in a time of misery and God activates his
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Speaker 1: compassion to bring about relief, We've experienced mercy mercy. It
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Speaker 1: isn't passive pity. It isn't simply an understanding God always
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Speaker 1: has that. It isn't mere sorrow. It is a divine
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Speaker 1: action on our behalf in which He brings about a
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Speaker 1: sense of relief. Turn for example, to the Book of Ephesians,
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Speaker 1: chapter two. Over in the New Testament. The beautiful thing
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Speaker 1: about mercy is that it is demonstrated to the offender
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Speaker 1: as well as to the victim. When the offender realizes
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Speaker 1: his or her wrong, God brings mercy. When the victim
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Speaker 1: needs help to go on, God gives mercy now I
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Speaker 1: want to read several verses, some of which are familiar,
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Speaker 1: and maybe some you've not thought of recently. Phesians two,
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Speaker 1: verse one. And you were dead in your trespasses and
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Speaker 1: sins in which you formerly walked, according to the course
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Speaker 1: of this world, according to the Prince of the power
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Speaker 1: of the air of the Spirit that is now working
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Speaker 1: in the sons of disobedience. Among them we two all
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Speaker 1: formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, in dulling
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Speaker 1: the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and
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Speaker 1: were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.
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Speaker 1: But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great
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Speaker 1: love with which he loved us, even when we were
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Speaker 1: dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
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Speaker 1: By grace you have been saved and raised us up
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Speaker 1: with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly
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Speaker 1: places in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages
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Speaker 1: to come, He might show the surpassing riches of his
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Speaker 1: grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Isn't that
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Speaker 1: a great section scripture? Look at verse four once again
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Speaker 1: and study Being rich in mercy. You see the connecting
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Speaker 1: link between a holy God and a sinful person is
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Speaker 1: God's love, which activates his grace, which sets in motion
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Speaker 1: his mercy. They're like divine dominoes that bump up against
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Speaker 1: one another. He loves us not because of something in ourselves,
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Speaker 1: but because of something in himself. And in his love
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Speaker 1: he demonstrates his grace that brings forgiveness, and on top
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Speaker 1: of that grace prompts mercy, and we find relief. To
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Speaker 1: make it even more personal, look at Paul's own testimony
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Speaker 1: in First Timothy chapter one. We'll get over the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament for some illustrations in a few moments, but let's
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Speaker 1: study Paul's words one Timothy one, verse twelve, and then
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Speaker 1: verse thirteen. In Ephesians two, he talks about everyone. In
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Speaker 1: the one Timothy one, he talks about himself. I thank
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Speaker 1: Christ Jesus Verse twelve of one Timothy one. I think
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Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he
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Speaker 1: considered me faithful, putting me into service. Even though even
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Speaker 1: though I, Paul was formerly looked closely a blasphemer, a persecutor,
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Speaker 1: and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy
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Speaker 1: because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Look closely at those
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Speaker 1: three descriptions of Paul's former life. First, he says, I
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Speaker 1: was a blasphemer. The word means an insulter. I insulted
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Speaker 1: God's people. I was angry at Christians. I accused them
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Speaker 1: of crimes against God. I was a blasphemer. Second, I
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Speaker 1: was a persecutor. It means he took every means open
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Speaker 1: to him under Jewish law to annihilate Christians. And then
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Speaker 1: that terrible word, I was a violent aggressor. The Greek
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Speaker 1: word means a kind of arrogant Sadism describes a person
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Speaker 1: who is out to inflict pain and injury for the
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Speaker 1: sheer joy of inflicting it. I loved to make him squirm.
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Speaker 1: I love to watch them cry. I love to see
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Speaker 1: them killed. Now I camp on that because you don't
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Speaker 1: usually think of Paul in those ways. But that's the
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Speaker 1: way he was without Christ. Before you cluck your tongue
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Speaker 1: at Paul and wag your finger and say shame, shame,
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Speaker 1: you know how to realize the same nature is inside
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Speaker 1: of you. It just doesn't work its way out that way.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps it comes out in other ways. But what is
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Speaker 1: true of the Apostle is true of us God showed
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Speaker 1: him mercy. I love that. Can you imagine the conscience
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Speaker 1: of Paul when the Lord found him on the way
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Speaker 1: to Damascus and said, I want you to be mine.
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Speaker 1: Can you imagine a guilt? Can you imagine what he
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Speaker 1: lived with when his life passed in review while blind
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Speaker 1: before he saw God's plan for his life. Can you
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Speaker 1: imagine how how he felt the enormity the pain of
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Speaker 1: his life as he thought about his past and to
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Speaker 1: hear God say, I want to use you in my service.
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Speaker 1: John Newton composed his own epitaph. It reads this way
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Speaker 1: on his tombstone. John Newton Clerk, once an infidel and libertine,
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Speaker 1: a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the mercy
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Speaker 1: of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned,
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Speaker 1: and appointed to preach the faith he had so long
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Speaker 1: labored to destroy. Some of you have been Christians so long.
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Speaker 1: You've forgotten what you were like before Christ. That's why
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Speaker 1: you're so proud. That's why the Lord has to spend
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Speaker 1: so much extra time getting your attention. You've forgotten how
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Speaker 1: undeserving you are of His grace. You've forgotten his mercy.
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Speaker 1: I love the letter an old Puritan Thomas Goodwin wrote
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Speaker 1: his son. He said, when I was threatening to become
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Speaker 1: cold in my ministry, and when I felt Sabbath morning
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Speaker 1: coming and my heart not filled with amazement at the
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Speaker 1: grace of God, or when I was making ready to
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Speaker 1: dispense the Lord's supper, do you know what I used
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Speaker 1: to do? I used to take a turn up and
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Speaker 1: down among the sins of my past life. And I
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Speaker 1: always came down again with a broken and a contrite heart,
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Speaker 1: ready to preach as it was preached in the beginning,
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Speaker 1: the forgiveness of sins. I do not think, he continues,
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Speaker 1: I ever went up that pulpit stare that I didn't
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Speaker 1: stop a moment at the foot of it and take
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Speaker 1: a turn up and down among the sins of my
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Speaker 1: past years. I do not think that I ever planned
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Speaker 1: a sermon that I did not take a turn around
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Speaker 1: my study table and looked back at the sins of
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Speaker 1: my youth and of all my life down to the present.
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Speaker 1: And many a Sabbath morning when my soul had been
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Speaker 1: cold and dry for the lack of prayer during the week,
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Speaker 1: a turn up and down my past life before I
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Speaker 1: went into the pulpit, always broke my hard heart and
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Speaker 1: made me close with the Gospel for my own soul
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Speaker 1: before I began to preach. The wonderful thing about the
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Speaker 1: Apostle Paul in his writings is that he frequently returned
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Speaker 1: to the sins of his past. Reminds me of great
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Speaker 1: Heart and what he said to Christian's boys. You must
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Speaker 1: know that forgetful green is the most dangerous place in
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Speaker 1: all these parts. Try hard not to forget what life
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Speaker 1: was like before Christ, and you will be a frequent
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Speaker 1: visitor the gate of mercy. Now for some Old Testament
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Speaker 1: illustrations of this wonderful old word mercy. It is, by
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Speaker 1: the way, the Hebrew term kesid c h e s ed.
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Speaker 1: It's a guttural kesid kessid, and it means often in
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Speaker 1: the scripture's loving kindness, and it is often rendered simply kindness.
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Speaker 1: It's found all the way through the Old Testament, and
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Speaker 1: I find five significant illustrations of it over here in
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Speaker 1: this book. The Old Book. Look at Genesis chapter thirty
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Speaker 1: nine for the first occasion where it seems like mercy
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Speaker 1: has something to say for our times. When I trace
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Speaker 1: tessid through the Old Testament, I find at least five
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Speaker 1: different miseries to which mercy brings relief all of a sudden.
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Speaker 1: I think of the television commercial. Isn't that crazy how
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Speaker 1: your mind flashes? I think of visine. It takes the redout,
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Speaker 1: you know, mercy. Mercy takes the redout of some anguish
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Speaker 1: of your life. And the first anguish is the suffering
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Speaker 1: of consequences because of unfair treatment. And that's what Genesis
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Speaker 1: thirty nine is all about. Here is a great man
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Speaker 1: named Joseph who is innocent of the accusation. Potiphar's wife
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Speaker 1: comes for him again and again, and Joseph again and
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Speaker 1: again rejects her. And she gets him alone in her
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Speaker 1: home and the doors are locked and the servants are gone,
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Speaker 1: and the lights are low, and she presses him and says,
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Speaker 1: lie with me. And Joseph directly looks her in the
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Speaker 1: eyes and says, I cannot do that. And she is
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Speaker 1: so infuriated she grabs a part of his garment when
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Speaker 1: he runs, and then with that piece of his robe,
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Speaker 1: as he's running away from her, she cries, rape, he
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Speaker 1: raped me. And the word gets to pot of her,
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Speaker 1: and Joseph winds up in jail, though he never laid
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Speaker 1: a hand on her. And at the end of the chapter,
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Speaker 1: there's something wonderful that appears in the passage regarding Pescid
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Speaker 1: regarding mercy. Look at thirty nine twenty one. But the
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Speaker 1: Lord was with Joseph and extended there's the word mercy.
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Speaker 1: The Lord was with Joseph where in jail, According to
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Speaker 1: verse twenty, that's where he was put in a dungeon,
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Speaker 1: in an Egyptian dungeon. The Lord visited him, and the
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Speaker 1: Lord demonstrated to him in the misery of suffering unfair consequences,
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Speaker 1: God ministered to his heart. God even gave him favor
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Speaker 1: in the sight of the chief jailer. It's a good
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Speaker 1: time for me to add, don't forget the people in prison,
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Speaker 1: some of whom are there for unjust reason, many of
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Speaker 1: whom are not, but some are. It was several months
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Speaker 1: ago that I had the joy of being with Chuck
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Speaker 1: Colson and fishing with him for an afternoon in the
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Speaker 1: little Bay in Florida near Naples, And it was great
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Speaker 1: to hear him tell one story after another of life
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Speaker 1: behind bars, and mercy welled up within me all over
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Speaker 1: again as he described one scene after another in that
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Speaker 1: awful place of loneliness. Here is Joseph in such a place,
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Speaker 1: in great need of encouragement, and God demonstrates cass it.
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Speaker 1: God gives him mercy. You may not be in jail,
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Speaker 1: you may not be suffering as Joseph suffered, but you
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Speaker 1: may be going through a time of unjust criticism. You
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Speaker 1: may be suffering in the backwash of unfair statements set
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Speaker 1: against you. You need mercy. God gives it. Men don't
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Speaker 1: men and women don't give it. Not much interesting. The
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Speaker 1: same word appears in chapter forty as Joseph asked to
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Speaker 1: be remembered when one of his prison buddies got released
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Speaker 1: forty verse fourteen. After Joseph helps him, Joseph makes a
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Speaker 1: deal with him. He says, only keep me in mind
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Speaker 1: when it goes well with you. I'm reading forty fourteen.
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Speaker 1: Keep me in mind when it goes well with you,
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Speaker 1: And please do me a there's that word, do me
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Speaker 1: a mercy, Be merciful on me by mentioning me to Pharaoh,
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Speaker 1: and get me out of this place. Does he? Let's
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Speaker 1: see verse twenty three, Well twenty one Pharaoh restored the
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Speaker 1: chief cup bearer to his office, and he put the
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Speaker 1: cup into Pharaoh's hand, But he hanged the chief baker,
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Speaker 1: just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief
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Speaker 1: cup bearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him. That's
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Speaker 1: not fair, is it? After all I've done for you,
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Speaker 1: and all I ask is that you drop a good
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Speaker 1: word in for me to get me out of this hole.
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Speaker 1: And he summarily forgot him. But even when you're forgotten,
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Speaker 1: even when someone doesn't fulfill his promise, even when you're
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Speaker 1: left alone to your thoughts and you know your heart
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Speaker 1: is jo God will give you his mercy. He'll bring
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Speaker 1: your relief. He'll meet you in your loneliness. Turn to
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Speaker 1: a book we seldom look at the Book of Ruth.
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Speaker 1: Here's the second occasion when mercy in our days seems
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Speaker 1: to come to our rescue. Not only when we're suffering
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Speaker 1: the consequences of unfair treatment, but get this, when we're
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Speaker 1: enduring the grief of our loved one's death. The Book
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Speaker 1: of Ruth begins with a touching story. It revolves around
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Speaker 1: a family of a husband and wife and two sons.
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Speaker 1: The father's name is Elimelech and the mother's name is Naomi,
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Speaker 1: and she has two boys. As the boys are growing up,
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Speaker 1: she loses her husband, Elimelech dies according to chapter one
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Speaker 1: and verse three, he dies apparently prematurely, and she's left
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Speaker 1: to rear her two sons as a single parent. She
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Speaker 1: does so, and the two boys take for themselves Moabite women.
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Speaker 1: Their names are Orpah and Ruth, the one from whom
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Speaker 1: the book is named Orpah and Ruth Mary brothers the
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Speaker 1: sons of Naomi. And would you believe it, not long
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Speaker 1: after that marriage, well, a few years both of those
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Speaker 1: boys die. We're not told how, We're just told that
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Speaker 1: they died. And so what we have in the story
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Speaker 1: suddenly is three widows, a mother in law named Naomi
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Speaker 1: and two daughters in law Ruth and Orpah, grieving the
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Speaker 1: loss of their loved ones. Naomi is trying to get
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Speaker 1: over the loss of her husband, and now she has
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Speaker 1: to face the loss of her sons, and the daughters
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Speaker 1: in law have to live with the fact that now
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Speaker 1: they've lost their husbands. There's a whole scene of death
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Speaker 1: that kind of swarms over chapter one, and the need
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Speaker 1: for Hesseth is great. People need mercy when their loved
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Speaker 1: ones die. Look at verse eight, Naomi said to her
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Speaker 1: two daughters in law, go return each of you to
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Speaker 1: your mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you
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Speaker 1: as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
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Speaker 1: And may the Lord grant that you may find rest
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Speaker 1: each in the house of her husband. And she kissed them,
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Speaker 1: and they lifted up their voices, and they wept. She
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Speaker 1: says to them, not only has God given dying grace,
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Speaker 1: but may He give you grieving mercy. May He help
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Speaker 1: you when the pain is so great and you don't
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Speaker 1: know where to turn, and the lights go out at night,
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Speaker 1: and you haven't someone near to put their arms around you.
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Speaker 1: It's easy to pass over this, especially if we haven't
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Speaker 1: gone through a time of grief recently. But we will.
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Speaker 1: And when you do the next time, remember that God
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Speaker 1: has a special mercy for those who are left as
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Speaker 1: widows and widowers, those who were left as grieving parents
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Speaker 1: or grieving children. I don't know if you watched the
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Speaker 1: late news last evening, but it was a touching scene.
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Speaker 1: There was a mother who was walking over the rubble.
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Speaker 1: It was awful. In fact, rain was still falling lightly,
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Speaker 1: and someone was trying to get her and to hold
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Speaker 1: her and sort of clutching at her, and she almost
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Speaker 1: in a wail said. I think she said four months ago,
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Speaker 1: maybe seven months ago, I lost my and now I'm
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Speaker 1: here trying to find my other one. I thought she
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Speaker 1: needs mercy, she needs relief. God may be pleased to
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Speaker 1: use you as a Naomi. You may be the one
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Speaker 1: to put your arms around the grieving and to bring relief.
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Speaker 1: It's not that they need a lot of words. As
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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I don't need a lot of words.
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Speaker 1: The less words the better. They need compassion, they need
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Speaker 1: your presence. They need time. So during times of grief,
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Speaker 1: God gives a special mercy to help us through the
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Speaker 1: anger of it and the denial of it. In Second Samuel,
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Speaker 1: chapter nine, there's a third scene. I'm on purpose not
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Speaker 1: spending a great deal of time in each one. We
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Speaker 1: don't need a lot of time on each scene. We
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Speaker 1: just need the reminder, and the reminder needs only to
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Speaker 1: be brief. It's a wonderful chapter. It's one of my
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Speaker 1: favorite chapters in the Old Testament, and to my surprise,
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Speaker 1: many people have never even read. It revolves around a
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Speaker 1: man whose name looks like a misprint, Mephibischef. Takes a
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Speaker 1: while to practice that you can say it without its
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Speaker 1: being a tongue twister. Mephibischef. Mephibischef was a little boy.
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Speaker 1: He was a descendant of the king whose name was Saul,
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Speaker 1: who's now dead. And in the Old Eastern dynasty, when
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Speaker 1: a new king came in, all of the descendants of
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Speaker 1: the old king were annihilated. Fearing that David, the new king,
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Speaker 1: would annihilate all of Saul's descendants, which he would not
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Speaker 1: have done, the nurse quickly picked up Mamphibischef and ran
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Speaker 1: for her life. And he fell, and he was crippled
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Speaker 1: both his feet. He was a crippled for the rest
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Speaker 1: of his life. And he's living his life out in
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Speaker 1: a place called load dubar. It means no pasture land.
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Speaker 1: It's a place of barrenness, in forgotten obscurity. Maphibuschev is
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Speaker 1: living out his life out of the blue. One day,
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Speaker 1: in all of his pomp and prosperity, David muses on
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Speaker 1: the throne over Israel, and he thinks, Verse one, is
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Speaker 1: there yet anyone left of the House of Saul that
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Speaker 1: I may show him cassid mercy for Jonathan's sake. Now,
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Speaker 1: there was a servant of the House of Saul whose
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Speaker 1: name was Zeba and they called him to David. And
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Speaker 1: the king said to Zebra, are you Zeba? He says,
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Speaker 1: I am. The King said, is there not yet anyone
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Speaker 1: of the house of Saul to whom I may show
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Speaker 1: the mercy of God? And Zeba said to the King,
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Speaker 1: there's still a son of Jonathan who's crippled in both
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Speaker 1: his feet. I like the way Zeba says that. Don't
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Speaker 1: forget David a cripple. I think Zeeba's mind was, I'm
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Speaker 1: not sure you want to carry this out. If you
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Speaker 1: could see the boy, you might rethink your request. But
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Speaker 1: he doesn't know David, and probably doesn't know very well.
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Speaker 1: David's God, who has a special place in his heart
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Speaker 1: for the handicap. The king said, look, he never even
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Speaker 1: pauses verse four. I love that, you know. Oh really,
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Speaker 1: how bad is the crippling problem? He doesn't say that
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Speaker 1: is the boy on crutches? Can he walk? It all?
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Speaker 1: Doesn't say that he's just where is he? Where is he?
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Speaker 1: Ziba said, behold, he's in the house of Maker, the
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Speaker 1: son of Amiel in lod de Bar. And David sent
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Speaker 1: and brought from the brought him from the house of Maker,
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Speaker 1: the son of Amieale from load de bar and in Mamphibischeff,
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Speaker 1: this is where it gets really good. Mamphibus Cheff's son
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Speaker 1: of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, and
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Speaker 1: he fell on his face and prostrated himself. Now, what
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Speaker 1: do you think, Mamphibischeff expected, what man, He's gonna kill me.
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Speaker 1: He's gonna cut my throat so quick I won't know
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Speaker 1: it till a sneeze. I mean, he is gonna finish
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Speaker 1: my life. He is gonna finish me off. And so
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Speaker 1: he bounced down before the king as if to say,
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Speaker 1: do whatever you wish and get it done quickly. But
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Speaker 1: that's not on David's mind. The Phibi chef, he said,
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Speaker 1: here's your servant. David said, don't fear. I will surely
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Speaker 1: show cass it. There's that word again, that will show
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Speaker 1: mercy to you for the sake of your father Jonathan,
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Speaker 1: and I will restore to you all the land of
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Speaker 1: your grandfather's Saul, and you shall eat at my table regularly.
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Speaker 1: We need you at this table. We need the reminder
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Speaker 1: of the mercy of God. Come join my family. And
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Speaker 1: again he prostrated himself and said, what is your servant
28:45
Speaker 1: that you should regard a dead dog like me. By
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Speaker 1: the way, that's often the feeling of the handicap. Self
28:54
Speaker 1: image is enormously difficult for those who are handicapped. My
29:00
Speaker 1: heart was grieved some time ago when one of our
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Speaker 1: own friends in the church, who happens to be in
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Speaker 1: a wheelchair all the rest of his life, was wheeled
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Speaker 1: in by his wife. And I'm sure well meaning, but
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Speaker 1: someone who was handing out bulletins said to her at
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Speaker 1: the door of our church, does he want one of these? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: he wants one of those. He can read. He may
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Speaker 1: be crippled, but he can read, he can worship. It's
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Speaker 1: easy for us, in an unguarded moment to treat those
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Speaker 1: who are not well, whole physically or whole emotionally, unlike
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Speaker 1: they're human, almost like their subhuman, to kind of pat
29:54
Speaker 1: them on their head, or sort of looked down on
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Speaker 1: them with a pity CONDI sending let's watch that, David
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Speaker 1: said to him, you have nothing to fear. As a
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Speaker 1: matter of fact, you're going to be a guest for
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Speaker 1: the rest of your life in my home. We're going
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Speaker 1: to put a plate at the table, and you're going
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Speaker 1: to sit with us at this meal. Regularly. Now, while
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Speaker 1: all of this is just becoming believable to Maphibischeff, David
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Speaker 1: goes on all that belonged to Saul and to all
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Speaker 1: his house. I've given to your master's grandson. You and
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Speaker 1: your sons and your servants shall cultivate the land for him.
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Speaker 1: You shall bring in the produce so that your master's
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Speaker 1: grandson may have food. Nevertheless, Mamphibischef, your master's grandson, shall
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Speaker 1: eat at my table regularly. Verse ten says now Zeba
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Speaker 1: had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Zeba said to the king,
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Speaker 1: according to all that my lord, the king commands his servants,
30:49
Speaker 1: So your servant will do so. Mamphibischef ate at David's
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Speaker 1: table as one of the king's son. And Maphibischeff had
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Speaker 1: a young son whose name was Mika. And all who'd
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Speaker 1: lived in the land in the house of Zeba were
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Speaker 1: servants to Mamphibischad. So Mamphibischef lived in Jerusalem for he
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Speaker 1: ate at the king's table. Now he was lame in
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Speaker 1: both his feet. Isn't that good? Isn't that mercy? I
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Speaker 1: love the man who preached this passage. And then he said,
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Speaker 1: as he concluded his sermon, and the tablecloth covered his
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Speaker 1: feet every evening when David called him to supper. Here
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Speaker 1: was Joe Abb with all of his pomp and military prowess.
31:28
Speaker 1: Here was why Solomon. Here was handsome, handsome Absalom. And
31:35
Speaker 1: they waited a few moments as they heard the crutches,
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Speaker 1: and they heard the shuffling of feet, until Mamphibischath sat
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Speaker 1: down and the tablecloth covered his feet. God is a
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Speaker 1: special mercy to help those who were handicapped, and I
31:52
Speaker 1: might add to help those who minister to the handicap.
31:57
Speaker 1: There's a special mercy that that takes, a special mercy
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Speaker 1: that's needed. Several weeks ago, I was driving the freeway
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Speaker 1: and I saw a personalized license. I don't know about you,
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Speaker 1: but I always read personalized licenses. I even get so
32:13
Speaker 1: close I read the borders around licenses, sometime dangerously close.
32:19
Speaker 1: Not long ago, I did that. In the little license
32:21
Speaker 1: label around it said what are you doing so close?
32:24
Speaker 1: And I back way off. But this license read cassith.
32:28
Speaker 1: It caught my eye, the Hebrew word for mercy. And
32:32
Speaker 1: then I noticed because we both took the same exit
32:35
Speaker 1: and in fact went almost to the same place that
32:38
Speaker 1: on the dashboard of his car was a handicap sign.
32:43
Speaker 1: There's a lot of wisdom in that license plate. I
32:46
Speaker 1: need mercy. Take it easy, Cassi. There's a special mercy
32:55
Speaker 1: for those who who struggle with handicap Job Chapter ten.
33:01
Speaker 1: Moving right along here. Good thing to remember when studying
33:06
Speaker 1: Job is that the is to check the first part
33:09
Speaker 1: of every chapter, and you'll know who's doing the talking.
33:12
Speaker 1: Sometime you'll think it's Job and it isn't Job at all.
33:15
Speaker 1: You have to go back a chapter on occasion. For example,
33:18
Speaker 1: chapter ten is spoken by Job because chapter nine begins,
33:22
Speaker 1: then Job answered, and there's no break all the way
33:26
Speaker 1: through chapter ten. Chapter eleven begins. Then so far the
33:30
Speaker 1: Namathite answered, and he speaks of what he says. But
33:33
Speaker 1: these are Job's words. Chapter ten, Verse one. I loathe
33:40
Speaker 1: my own life. I will give full vent to my complaint.
33:44
Speaker 1: I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I
33:46
Speaker 1: will say to God, do not condemn me. Let me
33:49
Speaker 1: know why thou dost contend with me? Is it right
33:53
Speaker 1: for thee indeed to oppress or to reject the labor
33:56
Speaker 1: of thy hands? To look favorably on the schemes of
33:58
Speaker 1: the wicked Thou eyes of flesh, or dost thou see
34:02
Speaker 1: as a man sees, or thy days as the days
34:06
Speaker 1: of immortal, or thy years as man's years, that thou
34:09
Speaker 1: shouldst seek for my guilt and search after my sin.
34:13
Speaker 1: Here's a man in tremendous physical anguish. Just imagine yourself
34:17
Speaker 1: in a hospital in the cancer ward, and a person
34:20
Speaker 1: is dying in intense pain, perhaps hemorrhaging, and in the
34:25
Speaker 1: enormity of his physical pain, outcome words like this, and
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Speaker 1: you'll appreciate Chapter ten. According to thy knowledge, I am
34:33
Speaker 1: indeed not guilty. Yet there is no deliverance from thy hand.
34:37
Speaker 1: Thy hands fashioned and made me altogether. In case you
34:41
Speaker 1: wonder if there's life before birth, Job refers to that
34:44
Speaker 1: right here, just as in Psalm one thirty nine. You're
34:46
Speaker 1: the one that made me as I am, And would
34:48
Speaker 1: you now destroy me? Remember now that thou hast made
34:52
Speaker 1: me as clay, and wouldst thou turn me into dust again?
34:55
Speaker 1: This Thou not pour me out like milk and curdle
34:58
Speaker 1: me like cheese, me with skin and flesh, and knit
35:01
Speaker 1: me together with bones and sinews. He's referring to when
35:04
Speaker 1: he was in the mother's womb. You put me together
35:07
Speaker 1: as you wanted me to be. Thou hast granted me
35:10
Speaker 1: life and loving kindness, and thy care has preserved my spirit.
35:14
Speaker 1: Yet these things thou hast concealed in thy heart. I
35:17
Speaker 1: know that this is within thee. If I sin, then
35:20
Speaker 1: thou wouldst taken note of me, and wouldst not equip
35:22
Speaker 1: me of my guilt. If I am wicked, woe to me?
35:25
Speaker 1: For I am for if I am righteous, I dare
35:27
Speaker 1: not lift up my head. I'm Satian with disgrace and
35:31
Speaker 1: conscious of my misery. And shouldn't my head be lifted up?
35:35
Speaker 1: Thou wouldst hunt me like a lion. And again thou
35:37
Speaker 1: would show thy power against me. Thou hast renew thy
35:40
Speaker 1: witness against me, and increase thine anger toward me. Hardship
35:43
Speaker 1: after hardship is with me. Why then, hast thou brought
35:47
Speaker 1: me out of the womb? Why was I even born? Lord?
35:50
Speaker 1: Would that I had died and know eye had seen me?
35:53
Speaker 1: I should have been It should have been, I should
35:55
Speaker 1: have been as though I had not been born, carried
35:58
Speaker 1: from womb to tomb. Ever seen that the scripture from
36:01
Speaker 1: womb to tomb? I had never seen that before. Why
36:04
Speaker 1: wasn't I simply still born, so that the doctor who
36:07
Speaker 1: or the midwife who assisted in my birth simply said
36:10
Speaker 1: to my mother, he's dead and they buried me. Why
36:14
Speaker 1: do I have to live in this physical anguish from
36:19
Speaker 1: womb to tomb? How much better that would have been
36:25
Speaker 1: Verse twelve. Again, maybe you missed it. Thou hast granted
36:30
Speaker 1: me life and tess it, and I care has preserved
36:38
Speaker 1: my spirit. There is a divine mercy for the physically afflicted.
36:47
Speaker 1: If you serve alongside someone who is suffering, suffering significantly,
36:52
Speaker 1: or if you have been through such suffering, you know
36:54
Speaker 1: that there are brief breaks in the pain where God's
36:58
Speaker 1: mercy comes in like a flood and washes over them.
37:02
Speaker 1: This is not a handicap. This is a physical affliction
37:05
Speaker 1: that job is going through. And here he says, in
37:09
Speaker 1: this anguish, you have granted me life, and you've given
37:15
Speaker 1: me mercy to continue to endure. Okay, you with me
37:21
Speaker 1: so far, We're almost there. When we're suffering the consequences
37:26
Speaker 1: of unfair treatment. As Joseph, there's mercy when we're enduring
37:30
Speaker 1: the grief, the grief the loss of a ludmin As
37:33
Speaker 1: with Ruth, there is mercy when we struggle with the
37:36
Speaker 1: limitations of a handicap, there is mercy, as with Maphibus.
37:39
Speaker 1: Yet when we're hurting and in physical pain, there is mercy,
37:43
Speaker 1: as with job. When we're under the guilt of transgression
37:47
Speaker 1: Psalm thirty two, as with David, there's mercy. Perhaps the
37:55
Speaker 1: most descriptive section in all scripture, the misery of those
38:00
Speaker 1: who keep their sin a secret, is found in Psalm
38:03
Speaker 1: thirty two and Psalm fifty one, just a few moments
38:08
Speaker 1: in each one of these. How blessed is he whose
38:12
Speaker 1: transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is
38:16
Speaker 1: the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
38:18
Speaker 1: in whose spirit there's no deceit. When I kept silent
38:22
Speaker 1: about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning
38:29
Speaker 1: all day long, for day and night. Thy hand was
38:33
Speaker 1: heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away, as with
38:37
Speaker 1: the fever heat of summer. That's a description of life
38:42
Speaker 1: when sin is kept a secret, when you go on
38:45
Speaker 1: deceiving the public, when you don't let others know that
38:47
Speaker 1: you're wrong, and you're living a liah, you keep it
38:51
Speaker 1: to yourself, there is a day and night heavy hand
38:54
Speaker 1: of God upon us, and the child of God suffers miserably.
38:59
Speaker 1: Verse five. I acknowledged my sin to THEE, and my
39:04
Speaker 1: iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess
39:08
Speaker 1: my transgressions to the Lord, And thou didst forgive the
39:12
Speaker 1: guilt of my sin Selah Verse ten. Many are the
39:22
Speaker 1: sorrows of the wicked. But he who trusts in the Lord,
39:28
Speaker 1: there's our word, cass It shall surround him. Even when
39:35
Speaker 1: you have kept your sin a secret, even when you
39:38
Speaker 1: have lived a lie, even when you have continued in deceit.
39:43
Speaker 1: When you finally do come to terms with it, and
39:46
Speaker 1: you make your confession, you declare yourself guilty. God verse
39:51
Speaker 1: ten surrounds you with his loving kindness. He gives you
39:57
Speaker 1: his mercy. We see it again in p. One, same context,
40:04
Speaker 1: same man, same set of sins. In fact, you'll notice
40:10
Speaker 1: in the su superscription just below the title Psalm fifty one,
40:15
Speaker 1: this is a psalm for the choir director. It is
40:17
Speaker 1: a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to
40:21
Speaker 1: him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. So this
40:24
Speaker 1: is months after the adultery, while David kept it all
40:28
Speaker 1: a sin and Nathan finally looked him in the eye
40:31
Speaker 1: and said thou art the man. David's response in a Psalm,
40:36
Speaker 1: be gracious to me, o God, according to thy hesid.
40:43
Speaker 1: There it is again, I need mercy. I need mercy
40:50
Speaker 1: according to the greatness of thy compassion. Blot out my transgressions. Lord,
40:57
Speaker 1: I am at your mercy. Lord, I need your mercy.
41:02
Speaker 1: I plead your mercy, and God granted it to him.
41:07
Speaker 1: Do you remember the last part of Psalm twenty three?
41:11
Speaker 1: You know Psalm twenty three. The Lord is my shepherd.
41:14
Speaker 1: I shall not want. You'll not appreciate Psalm twenty three
41:18
Speaker 1: if you don't put wool on because Psalm twenty three
41:22
Speaker 1: is written from the viewpoint of a sheep, and some
41:26
Speaker 1: quaint commentator has suggested that that last verse represents God's
41:31
Speaker 1: sheep dogs. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
41:39
Speaker 1: the days of my life, sheep of God. Do you
41:43
Speaker 1: realize that there are two sheep dogs that watch you,
41:48
Speaker 1: watch over you, and care for you. Goodness and mercy.
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Speaker 1: That's enough from the scriptures. Let's put it into our lives.
42:02
Speaker 1: And I can do that in just a brief period
42:04
Speaker 1: of time. Maybe you've tracked these five occasions with me,
42:08
Speaker 1: but you wonder still, how does it directly relate? May
42:14
Speaker 1: I go back to each one and give you a
42:15
Speaker 1: tagline for each one. When I am treated unfairly, God's
42:20
Speaker 1: mercy relieves my bitterness. That's what happens when Kesid comes
42:27
Speaker 1: into my cell. I have been in a dungeon of
42:31
Speaker 1: unfair treatment. Bitterness becomes my enemy, but mercy relieves it.
42:40
Speaker 1: That great feeling of mercy relief. Mercy relieves my heart
42:46
Speaker 1: of bitterness and I can endure it. Second, when I
42:52
Speaker 1: grieve over the loss, God's mercy relieves my anger. It's
42:58
Speaker 1: that part of grief that we don't want to admit.
43:01
Speaker 1: There's an enormous amount of anger, specially anger against God
43:06
Speaker 1: for taking our loved one. Mercy relieves our anger, not instantly,
43:12
Speaker 1: but ultimately. Third, when I struggle with a handicap, God's
43:17
Speaker 1: mercy relieves self pity. That is the enemy of the handicap,
43:24
Speaker 1: self pity. When they finally come to terms with it,
43:28
Speaker 1: in God's mercy, they're ready to roll up their sleeves
43:31
Speaker 1: and carry on. In fact, continue to do great things
43:34
Speaker 1: for God. But it takes mercy to get them over
43:37
Speaker 1: the hurdle of handy. The hurdle of self pity. Mercy
43:42
Speaker 1: relieves me of self pity. A fourth, when I endure
43:47
Speaker 1: physical pain, mercy relieves my hopelessness. The great fear of
43:52
Speaker 1: those in unending physical pain is hopelessness, that feeling I
43:57
Speaker 1: cannot ever go on. There'll never be a tomorrow when
44:00
Speaker 1: I deal with sinful actions. God's mercy relieves my guilt.
44:06
Speaker 1: Grace brings me forgiveness, but it doesn't do anything to
44:09
Speaker 1: my guilt. Mercy relieves my guilt. Wh't you see the
44:14
Speaker 1: value of mercy? Now you see how important it is.
44:19
Speaker 1: I love that old song. There's a line in it
44:21
Speaker 1: that's very important. Every day the Lord himself is near
44:24
Speaker 1: me with a special mercy. For each hour all my cares,
44:30
Speaker 1: he fain would bear and cheer me. He whose name
44:33
Speaker 1: is counselor in power. There's a movie that I have
44:39
Speaker 1: looked at on more than one occasion. It's called Tender Mercies.
44:46
Speaker 1: It's the quaint story of two opposites who marry. He
44:50
Speaker 1: is a man who's lost the battle with the bottle,
44:53
Speaker 1: and she's a widow whose young husband was killed in
44:56
Speaker 1: Vietnam while she was pregnant with their first and only child,
45:02
Speaker 1: a little boy Mac, whom she marries, battles with drink.
45:09
Speaker 1: She never makes enormous demands on Mac, she never threatens him.
45:16
Speaker 1: She quietly, graciously and patiently, with tender mercy, trust God
45:22
Speaker 1: to deal with her husband. The story comes to a
45:25
Speaker 1: climax where Mick, in a fit of depression, goes out,
45:29
Speaker 1: buys a bottle and takes a drive in his pickup,
45:32
Speaker 1: and you're sure he's going on a binge. But he
45:35
Speaker 1: comes in late at night and she is in the
45:37
Speaker 1: bed quoting the verses of Scripture to encourage herself while
45:41
Speaker 1: he's gone, and he walks in, and he said, I
45:44
Speaker 1: bought a bottle, but I poured it out. I didn't
45:48
Speaker 1: drink anything. And his life seems to turn the corner
45:52
Speaker 1: at that point, and he goes back into the work
45:54
Speaker 1: that he was once in, of writing country western songs.
45:58
Speaker 1: Tender Mercies. The thing that is so moving about it.
46:01
Speaker 1: Not only is it a very simple story with slow
46:05
Speaker 1: moving lines to give you time to think. I like
46:08
Speaker 1: it because there are no car chases. I get so
46:11
Speaker 1: weary of movies revolving around car chases and people falling
46:17
Speaker 1: twelve stories and landing in a swimming pool and running
46:20
Speaker 1: off with somebody else's wife, and on and on and on,
46:23
Speaker 1: and just a simple storyline of a woman who loves
46:27
Speaker 1: God and loves her husband into loving God, and through
46:30
Speaker 1: tender mercies, wins him and he finally winds up standing
46:34
Speaker 1: in the waters of baptism, and along with the little boy,
46:38
Speaker 1: his step son, they're both baptized. It's a great story
46:42
Speaker 1: tender mercies, tender mercies. Mercy is always wrapped in tenderness.
46:54
Speaker 1: Did you know that Over in the Old Testament, when
46:56
Speaker 1: the Tabernacle was built, God or rings for there to
47:00
Speaker 1: be a little piece of furniture that would go in
47:03
Speaker 1: the holiest place of all, not simply the holy place,
47:07
Speaker 1: but the holiest of all, behind the thick veiled curtain,
47:10
Speaker 1: where God's presence rested. And it was in a little box,
47:15
Speaker 1: just a little box called an arc, in which there
47:19
Speaker 1: were placed the law and aaron's rod that budded. And
47:25
Speaker 1: over the law there was a little lid that was
47:27
Speaker 1: exactly the shape of the altar. And over this lid
47:33
Speaker 1: and altar there were two angels called cherubin a cherub
47:38
Speaker 1: on one side with solid gold wings beaten out and
47:42
Speaker 1: reaching out across, and a cherub on the other side,
47:45
Speaker 1: reaching out from the other side, and on both sides,
47:48
Speaker 1: these cherub look into this mercy seat. The most intimate
47:56
Speaker 1: place in all of the Tabernacle was the lid over
47:59
Speaker 1: the altar where the blood was poured out century after century,
48:05
Speaker 1: and it's called the mercy seat. Luther gave it that name.
48:13
Speaker 1: You know that the Hebrew word is not the word
48:17
Speaker 1: for mercy. It is the word for satisfaction propitiation, Because
48:24
Speaker 1: when the blood is poured out into the altar while
48:27
Speaker 1: the cherub watch these golden Cherubim, God is satisfied and
48:36
Speaker 1: his anger is abated. Francis Schaeffer writes it was Luther,
48:44
Speaker 1: when translating the Old Testament into German, who first used
48:48
Speaker 1: the term mercy seat. It is a beautiful poetic phrase,
48:54
Speaker 1: but it also accurately communicates what the lid on the
48:58
Speaker 1: ark really was a place of mercy. Verse twenty two
49:05
Speaker 1: of Exodus twenty five contains an important clause, and there
49:09
Speaker 1: I will meet with thee. How symbolic that God would
49:16
Speaker 1: choose a small lid over an arc watched by silent
49:22
Speaker 1: golden cherubim as the place where he would commune with
49:28
Speaker 1: his people. It wasn't a place of law, it was
49:33
Speaker 1: a place of mercy. My message in all of this
49:42
Speaker 1: is that we become people like God, people of mercy
49:48
Speaker 1: when we see those who are in need, when we
49:51
Speaker 1: ourselves find ourselves in need, that we become people of
49:56
Speaker 1: mercy like the widow in the movie. That we lessen
50:02
Speaker 1: our demands, that we increase our compassion, just as our
50:07
Speaker 1: God does with us. Thank you, Father for mercy, tender
50:17
Speaker 1: mercy from heaven. How beautifully it balances your sovereignty and
50:22
Speaker 1: your justice and holiness. How greatly we need it. And
50:27
Speaker 1: all through this week we shall commune with you, and
50:31
Speaker 1: we shall worship you between those wings. In the name
50:39
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ, we pray Amen.
50:45
Speaker 2: The preceding message, The Magnificent Hesset of God was copyrighted
50:49
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty seven, nineteen eighty eight, nineteen ninety four,
50:53
Speaker 2: two thousand and twenty twenty four, and the sound recording
50:56
Speaker 2: was copyrighted in twenty twenty four by Charles Rswind Incorporated.
51:01
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
51:06
Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.