Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Magnificent Chesed of God │ Msg 611

Transcript

The Magnificent Chesed of God │ Msg 611 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:01
Speaker 1: While I was enjoying a few days of vacation not
0:05
Speaker 1: too long ago, my sister and I were engaged in
0:09
Speaker 1: a conversation that proved to be very enlightening to me.
0:13
Speaker 1: She asked me a question that I don't believe I've
0:16
Speaker 1: ever been asked before. She said, what is your favorite feeling?
0:24
Speaker 1: Ever thought about that question? Anyone ever ask you? What
0:28
Speaker 1: is the feeling that gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction?
0:35
Speaker 1: I think that my answer to her was, I believe
0:39
Speaker 1: my favorite feeling is the feeling of accomplishment. Sounds like
0:44
Speaker 1: a driven person, doesn't it? I like the feeling of
0:47
Speaker 1: getting something done. I like the feeling of accomplishment. Her answer,
0:52
Speaker 1: I believe, was even more insightful than mine. She said,
0:56
Speaker 1: my favorite feeling is relief. Relief. That's a great answer,
1:06
Speaker 1: isn't it? I checked Webster's, and Webster's says the feeling
1:12
Speaker 1: of relief means the removal or lightening of something oppressive, painful,
1:17
Speaker 1: or distressing. Then I thought about several things in which
1:24
Speaker 1: relief is wonderful. When we are in physical pain, relief
1:29
Speaker 1: means that the pain subsides or something becomes more important
1:36
Speaker 1: to us than the sting of that pain. And we
1:40
Speaker 1: feel a relief. When we are emotionally distraught, maybe struggling
1:49
Speaker 1: with a self-image or with some inner uneasiness that won't
1:54
Speaker 1: go away and it It steals our appetite and it
1:59
Speaker 1: interrupts our peace. Relief calms us, gives us a sense
2:07
Speaker 1: of satisfaction. When guilt assaults us in transgression and we
2:17
Speaker 1: seek God's forgiveness, that guilt that ate like a cancer
2:21
Speaker 1: inside us goes away. as God brings relief. When a
2:29
Speaker 1: relationship is strained with someone else, someone perhaps that we
2:34
Speaker 1: were once close to, and we go through the painful,
2:38
Speaker 1: albeit essential, process of making things right with that person,
2:44
Speaker 1: we have relational relief. We feel like we can be
2:49
Speaker 1: with them and we won't have to look the other way.
2:53
Speaker 1: We won't have to keep from connecting. In fact, we
2:58
Speaker 1: are comfortable in their presence. There's been relief, relational relief.
3:05
Speaker 1: When we are under heavy financial debt and that debt
3:09
Speaker 1: weighs us down and it won't leave our minds, getting
3:15
Speaker 1: that paid off brings a sweet joy and an inner
3:19
Speaker 1: feeling of relief. We learned in my previous thoughts on
3:26
Speaker 1: God's sovereignty that the most high is ruler over our lives.
3:30
Speaker 1: So it's obvious that if we ever have the feeling
3:33
Speaker 1: of relief, God has given it to us. He's the
3:37
Speaker 1: author of relief. He is the one who grants us
3:43
Speaker 1: the peace, the satisfaction, the ease. And I think there
3:50
Speaker 1: is no better synonym for mercy than relief. Mercy provides
3:58
Speaker 1: us with relief. In fact, I thought through a definition
4:06
Speaker 1: of mercy and I would say that it is God's
4:11
Speaker 1: active compassion which he demonstrates to the miserable. When we
4:18
Speaker 1: are in a time of misery and God activates his
4:23
Speaker 1: compassion to bring about relief, we've experienced mercy. Mercy. It
4:33
Speaker 1: isn't passive pity. It isn't simply an understanding. God always
4:37
Speaker 1: has that. It isn't mere sorrow. It is a divine
4:43
Speaker 1: action on our behalf in which he brings about a
4:48
Speaker 1: sense of relief. Turn, for example, to the book of Ephesians,
4:54
Speaker 1: chapter 2, over in the New Testament. The beautiful thing
5:00
Speaker 1: about mercy is that it is demonstrated to the offender
5:05
Speaker 1: as well as to the victim. When the offender realizes
5:10
Speaker 1: his or her wrong, God brings mercy. When the victim
5:15
Speaker 1: needs help to go on, God gives mercy. Now I
5:21
Speaker 1: want to read several verses, some of which are familiar
5:23
Speaker 1: and maybe some you've not thought of recently. Ephesians 2
5:28
Speaker 1: verse 1. And you were dead in your trespasses and
5:32
Speaker 1: sins in which you formerly walked according to the course
5:39
Speaker 1: of this world, according to the prince of the power
5:43
Speaker 1: of the air, of the spirit that is now working
5:46
Speaker 1: in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all
5:53
Speaker 1: formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the
6:01
Speaker 1: desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
6:05
Speaker 1: by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God,
6:13
Speaker 1: being rich in mercy, because of his great love with
6:17
Speaker 1: which he loved us, even when we were dead, In
6:21
Speaker 1: our transgressions. Made us alive together. With Christ. By grace.
6:28
Speaker 1: You have been saved. And raised us up with him.
6:32
Speaker 1: And seated us with him. In the heavenly places in
6:37
Speaker 1: Christ Jesus. In order that in the ages to come.
6:42
Speaker 1: He might show the surpassing riches. Of his grace in kindness.
6:48
Speaker 1: Toward us. In Christ Jesus. Isn't that a great section
6:52
Speaker 1: of scripture. Look at verse 4 once again. And study. Being.
7:00
Speaker 1: Rich in mercy. You see the connecting link. Between a
7:06
Speaker 1: holy God. And a sinful person. Is God's love. Which
7:14
Speaker 1: activates his grace. Which sets in motion. His mercy. They're
7:20
Speaker 1: like divine dominoes that bump up against one another. He
7:24
Speaker 1: loves us not because of something in ourselves, but because
7:27
Speaker 1: of something in himself. And in his love, he demonstrates
7:32
Speaker 1: his grace that brings forgiveness. And on top of that,
7:37
Speaker 1: grace prompts mercy. And we find relief. To make it
7:45
Speaker 1: even more personal, look at Paul's own testimony in 1 Corinthians.
7:49
Speaker 1: Timothy 1. We'll get over the Old Testament for some
7:53
Speaker 1: illustrations in a few moments, but let's study Paul's words.
7:57
Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 1, verse 12, and then verse 13. In
8:05
Speaker 1: Ephesians 2, he talks about everyone. In 1 Timothy 1,
8:09
Speaker 1: he talks about himself. I thank Christ Jesus, verse 12
8:15
Speaker 1: of 1 Timothy 1. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
8:18
Speaker 1: Who has strengthened me. Because he considered me faithful. Putting
8:24
Speaker 1: me into service. Even though. Even though I. Paul. Was formerly.
8:34
Speaker 1: Look closely. A blasphemer. A persecutor. And a violent aggressor.
8:42
Speaker 1: And yet. I was shown mercy. Mercy. Because I acted
8:49
Speaker 1: ignorantly in unbelief. Look closely at those three descriptions of
8:55
Speaker 1: Paul's former life. First, he says, I was a blasphemer.
9:02
Speaker 1: The word means an insulter. I insulted God's people. I
9:12
Speaker 1: was angry at Christians. I accused them of crimes. Against God.
9:19
Speaker 1: I was a blasphemer. Second, I was a persecutor. It
9:26
Speaker 1: means he took every means open to him under Jewish
9:30
Speaker 1: law to annihilate Christians. And then that terrible word, I
9:37
Speaker 1: was a violent aggressor. The Greek word means a kind
9:45
Speaker 1: of arrogant sadism. Describes a person who is out to
9:50
Speaker 1: inflict pain and injury for the sheer joy of inflicting it.
9:57
Speaker 1: I loved it to make him squirm. love to watch
10:01
Speaker 1: them cry. I love to see them killed. Now I
10:08
Speaker 1: camp on that. Because you don't usually think of Paul
10:11
Speaker 1: in those ways. But that's the way he was without Christ.
10:16
Speaker 1: Before you cluck your tongue at Paul. And wag your
10:19
Speaker 1: finger and. And say, shame, shame. You know how to
10:22
Speaker 1: realize the same nature is inside of you. It just
10:24
Speaker 1: doesn't work its way out that way. Perhaps it comes
10:28
Speaker 1: out in other ways. But what is true of the
10:31
Speaker 1: apostle is true of us. God showed him. Mercy. I
10:38
Speaker 1: love that. Can you imagine the conscience of Paul when
10:44
Speaker 1: the Lord found him on the way to Damascus and said,
10:46
Speaker 1: I want you to be mine. Can you imagine the guilt?
10:50
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what he lived with when his life
10:53
Speaker 1: passed in review while blind before he saw God's plan
10:57
Speaker 1: for his life? Can you imagine how he felt the enormity,
11:02
Speaker 1: the pain of his life as he thought about his past?
11:07
Speaker 1: And to hear God say, I want to use you
11:09
Speaker 1: in my service. John Newton composed his own epitaph. It
11:15
Speaker 1: reads this way on his tombstone. John Newton, clerk. Once
11:21
Speaker 1: an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa,
11:27
Speaker 1: was by the mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus
11:31
Speaker 1: Christ preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith
11:36
Speaker 1: he had so long labored to destroy. Some of you
11:44
Speaker 1: have been Christians so long you've forgotten what you were
11:47
Speaker 1: like before Christ. That's why you're so proud. That's why
11:55
Speaker 1: the Lord has to spend so much extra time getting
11:59
Speaker 1: your attention. You've forgotten how undeserving you are of his grace.
12:05
Speaker 1: You've forgotten his mercy. I love the letter an old Puritan,
12:13
Speaker 1: Thomas Goodwin, wrote his son. He said, When I was
12:20
Speaker 1: threatening to become cold in my ministry, and when I
12:25
Speaker 1: felt Sabbath morning coming and my heart not filled with
12:28
Speaker 1: amazement at the grace of God, or when I was
12:31
Speaker 1: making ready to dispense the Lord's Supper, do you know
12:35
Speaker 1: what I used to do? I used to take a
12:39
Speaker 1: turn up and down among the sins of my past life,
12:44
Speaker 1: and I always came down again with a broken and
12:47
Speaker 1: a contrite heart, ready to preach. as it was preached
12:51
Speaker 1: in the beginning, the forgiveness of sins. I do not think,
12:56
Speaker 1: he continues, I ever went up that pulpit stair that
12:59
Speaker 1: I did not stop a moment at the foot of
13:02
Speaker 1: it and take a turn up and down among the
13:05
Speaker 1: sins of my past years. I do not think that
13:10
Speaker 1: I ever planned a sermon that I did not take
13:13
Speaker 1: a turn around my study table and look back at
13:17
Speaker 1: the sins of my youth. and of all my life
13:22
Speaker 1: down to the present and many a Sabbath morning, when
13:26
Speaker 1: my soul had been cold and dry for the lack
13:29
Speaker 1: of prayer during the week, a turn up and down
13:33
Speaker 1: my past life before I went into the pulpit always
13:38
Speaker 1: broke my hard heart and made me close with the
13:43
Speaker 1: gospel for my own soul before I began to preach.
13:51
Speaker 1: The wonderful thing about the Apostle Paul in his writings
13:54
Speaker 1: is that he frequently returned to the. Sins of his past.
14:00
Speaker 1: Reminds me of great heart and what he said to
14:03
Speaker 1: Christians boys. You must know that forgetful green is the
14:08
Speaker 1: most dangerous place in all these parts. Try hard not
14:16
Speaker 1: to forget what life was like before Christ. And you will.
14:21
Speaker 1: be a frequent visitor, the gate of mercy. Now for
14:26
Speaker 1: some Old Testament illustrations of this wonderful old word, mercy.
14:32
Speaker 1: It is, by the way, the Hebrew term chesed, C-H-E-S-E-D.
14:37
Speaker 1: It's a guttural, chesed, chesed. And it means often in
14:42
Speaker 1: the scriptures loving kindness, and it is often rendered simply kindness.
14:48
Speaker 1: It's found all the way through the Old Testament in
14:51
Speaker 1: And I find five significant illustrations of it over here
14:55
Speaker 1: in this book, the old book. Look at Genesis chapter
14:59
Speaker 1: 39 for the first occasion where it seems like mercy
15:04
Speaker 1: has something to say for our times. When I trace
15:09
Speaker 1: Chesed through the Old Testament, I find at least five
15:13
Speaker 1: different miseries to which mercy brings relief. All of a sudden,
15:23
Speaker 1: I think of a television commercial. Isn't that crazy how
15:25
Speaker 1: your mind flashes? I think of Visine. It takes the
15:30
Speaker 1: red out, you know, mercy. Mercy takes the red out
15:35
Speaker 1: of some anguish of your life. And the first anguish
15:39
Speaker 1: is the suffering of consequences because of unfair treatment. And
15:44
Speaker 1: that's what Genesis 39 is all about. Here is a
15:48
Speaker 1: great man named Joseph who is innocent of the accusation.
15:53
Speaker 1: Potiphar's wife comes for him again and again, and Joseph
15:57
Speaker 1: again and again rejects her. And finally, she gets him
16:01
Speaker 1: alone in her home, and the doors are locked, and
16:03
Speaker 1: the servants are gone, and the lights are low, and
16:06
Speaker 1: she presses him and says, lie with me. And Joseph
16:10
Speaker 1: directly looks her in the eyes and says, I cannot
16:12
Speaker 1: do that. And she is so infuriated, she grabs a
16:15
Speaker 1: part of his garment when he runs. And then with
16:18
Speaker 1: that piece of his robe, as he's running away from her,
16:21
Speaker 1: she cries, raped! He raped me. And the word gets
16:26
Speaker 1: to Potiphar, and Joseph winds up in jail, though he
16:30
Speaker 1: never laid a hand on her. And at the end
16:35
Speaker 1: of the chapter, there's something wonderful that appears in the
16:39
Speaker 1: passage regarding chesed, regarding mercy. Look at 39.21. But the
16:47
Speaker 1: Lord was with Joseph and extended, there's the word, Mercy.
16:56
Speaker 1: The Lord was with Joseph where? In jail, according to
16:59
Speaker 1: verse 20. That's where he was put. In a dungeon.
17:04
Speaker 1: In an Egyptian dungeon, the Lord visited him and the
17:08
Speaker 1: Lord demonstrated to him in the misery of suffering, unfair consequences,
17:15
Speaker 1: God ministered to his heart. God even gave him favor
17:19
Speaker 1: in the sight of the chief jailer. It's a good
17:24
Speaker 1: time for me to add, don't forget the people in prison.
17:29
Speaker 1: Some of whom are there for unjust reason. Many of
17:33
Speaker 1: whom are not. But some are. It was several months
17:39
Speaker 1: ago that I had the joy of being with Chuck
17:41
Speaker 1: Colson and fishing with him for an afternoon in the
17:44
Speaker 1: little bay in Florida near Naples. And it was great
17:48
Speaker 1: to hear him tell one story after another of life
17:51
Speaker 1: behind bars. And mercy welled up within me all over
17:56
Speaker 1: again as he described one scene after another in that
18:00
Speaker 1: awful place of loneliness. Here is Joseph in such a
18:04
Speaker 1: place in great need of encouragement and God demonstrates chesed.
18:13
Speaker 1: God gives him mercy. You may not be in jail.
18:17
Speaker 1: You may not be suffering as Joseph suffered, but you
18:21
Speaker 1: may be going through a time of unjust Criticism. You
18:25
Speaker 1: may be suffering in the backwash of unfair statements set
18:29
Speaker 1: against you. You need mercy. God gives it. Men don't.
18:37
Speaker 1: Men and women don't give it. Not much. Interesting, the
18:40
Speaker 1: same word appears in chapter 40 as Joseph asked to
18:44
Speaker 1: be remembered when one of his prison buddies got released.
18:47
Speaker 1: 40 verse 14. After Joseph helps him, Joseph makes a
18:53
Speaker 1: deal with him. He says, only keep me in mind
18:56
Speaker 1: when it goes well with you. I'm reading 40, 14.
18:59
Speaker 1: Keep me in mind when it goes well with you.
19:01
Speaker 1: And please do me a chesed. There's that word. Do
19:04
Speaker 1: me a mercy. Be merciful on me by mentioning me
19:09
Speaker 1: to Pharaoh. And get me out of this place. Does he?
19:15
Speaker 1: Let's see. Verse 23. Well, 21. Pharaoh restored the chief
19:22
Speaker 1: cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into
19:24
Speaker 1: Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker, just as
19:28
Speaker 1: Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did
19:33
Speaker 1: not remember Joseph, but forgot him. That's not fair, is it?
19:39
Speaker 1: After all I've done for you, and all I ask
19:43
Speaker 1: is that you drop a good word in for me
19:44
Speaker 1: to get me out of this hole. And he summarily
19:48
Speaker 1: forgot him. but even when you're forgotten even when someone
19:53
Speaker 1: doesn't fulfill his promise even when you're left alone to
19:57
Speaker 1: your thoughts and you know your heart is just God
20:00
Speaker 1: will give you his mercy he'll bring you relief he'll
20:05
Speaker 1: meet you in your loneliness Turn to a book we
20:10
Speaker 1: seldom look at, the book of Ruth. Here's the second
20:14
Speaker 1: occasion when mercy in our day seems to come to
20:18
Speaker 1: our rescue. Not only when we're suffering the consequences of
20:22
Speaker 1: unfair treatment, but get this, when we're enduring the grief
20:30
Speaker 1: of our loved one's death. The book of Ruth begins
20:34
Speaker 1: with a touching story. It revolves around a family of
20:40
Speaker 1: a husband and wife and two sons. The father's name
20:45
Speaker 1: is Elimelech, and the mother's name is Naomi, and she
20:48
Speaker 1: has two boys. As the boys are growing up, she
20:54
Speaker 1: loses her husband. Elimelech dies, according to chapter 1 and
20:58
Speaker 1: verse 3. He dies, apparently prematurely, and she's left to
21:03
Speaker 1: rear her two sons as a single parent. She does so.
21:09
Speaker 1: And the two boys take for themselves Moabite women. Their
21:14
Speaker 1: names are Orpah and Ruth, the one from whom the
21:19
Speaker 1: book is named. Orpah and Ruth marry brothers, the sons
21:24
Speaker 1: of Naomi. And would you believe it? Not long after
21:28
Speaker 1: that marriage, well, a few years, both of those boys die.
21:31
Speaker 1: We're not told how. We're just told that they died.
21:35
Speaker 1: And so what we have in the story suddenly is
21:37
Speaker 1: three widows, a mother-in-law named Naomi and two daughters-in-law, Ruth
21:44
Speaker 1: and Orpah, grieving the loss of their loved ones. Naomi
21:51
Speaker 1: is trying to get over the loss of her husband,
21:53
Speaker 1: and now she has to face the loss of her sons.
21:56
Speaker 1: And the daughters-in-law have to live with the fact that
21:59
Speaker 1: now they've lost their husbands. There's a whole scene of death.
22:03
Speaker 1: That kind of swarms over chapter 1. And the need
22:08
Speaker 1: for chesed is great. People need mercy when their loved
22:12
Speaker 1: ones die. Look at verse 8. Naomi said to her
22:18
Speaker 1: two daughters-in-law. Go return each of you to her mother's house.
22:25
Speaker 1: May the Lord deal kindly with you. As you have
22:32
Speaker 1: dealt with the dead. and with me. And may the
22:37
Speaker 1: Lord grant that you may find rest each in the
22:42
Speaker 1: house of her husband. And she kissed them and they
22:47
Speaker 1: lifted up their voices and they wept. She says to them,
22:53
Speaker 1: not only has God given dying grace, but may he
22:56
Speaker 1: give you grieving mercy. May he help you when the
23:00
Speaker 1: pain is so great and you don't know where to
23:03
Speaker 1: turn and the lights go out at night, and you
23:07
Speaker 1: haven't someone near to put their arms around you. It's
23:11
Speaker 1: easy to pass over this, especially if we haven't gone
23:15
Speaker 1: through a time of grief recently, but we will. And
23:19
Speaker 1: when you do, the next time remember that God has
23:22
Speaker 1: a special mercy for those who are left as widows
23:27
Speaker 1: and widowers, those who are left as grieving parents or
23:32
Speaker 1: grieving children. I don't know if you watched the late
23:35
Speaker 1: news last evening, but it was a touching scene. There
23:40
Speaker 1: was a mother who was walking over the rubble. It
23:43
Speaker 1: was awful. In fact, rain was still falling lightly and
23:47
Speaker 1: someone was trying to get her and to hold her
23:50
Speaker 1: and sort of clutching at her. And she almost in
23:53
Speaker 1: a wail said, I think she said four months ago,
23:57
Speaker 1: maybe seven months ago, I lost my son. And now
24:01
Speaker 1: I'm here trying to find my other one. I thought,
24:08
Speaker 1: she needs mercy. She needs relief. God may be pleased
24:16
Speaker 1: to use you as a Naomi. You may be the
24:20
Speaker 1: one to put your arms around the grieving and to
24:23
Speaker 1: bring relief. It's not that they need a lot of words.
24:27
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, they don't need a lot
24:29
Speaker 1: of words. The less words, the better. They need compassion.
24:36
Speaker 1: They need your presence. They need time. So during times
24:45
Speaker 1: of grief, God gives a special mercy to help us
24:49
Speaker 1: through the anger of it and the denial of it.
24:55
Speaker 1: In 2 Samuel chapter 9, there's a third scene. I'm
24:58
Speaker 1: on purpose not spending a great deal of time in
25:00
Speaker 1: each one. We don't need a lot of time on
25:03
Speaker 1: each scene. We just need the reminder, and the reminder
25:06
Speaker 1: needs only to be brief. It's a wonderful chapter. It's
25:10
Speaker 1: one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament, and
25:12
Speaker 1: to my surprise, many people have never even read it.
25:14
Speaker 1: It revolves around a man whose name looks like a misprint, Mephibosheth.
25:18
Speaker 1: It takes a while to practice that so you can
25:21
Speaker 1: say it without it being a tongue twister. Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth
25:25
Speaker 1: was a little boy. He was a descendant of the
25:27
Speaker 1: king whose name was Saul, who's now dead. And in
25:31
Speaker 1: the old eastern dynasty, when a new king came in,
25:34
Speaker 1: all of the descendants of the old king were annihilated.
25:38
Speaker 1: Fearing that David, the new king, would annihilate all of
25:42
Speaker 1: Saul's descendants, which he would not have done, the nurse
25:45
Speaker 1: quickly picked up Mephibosheth and ran for her life. And
25:49
Speaker 1: he fell and he was crippled in both his feet.
25:53
Speaker 1: He was a cripple for the rest of his life.
25:56
Speaker 1: And he's living his life out in a place called Lod-de-Bar.
26:00
Speaker 1: It means no pasture land. It's a place of barrenness.
26:05
Speaker 1: In forgotten obscurity, Mephibosheth is living out his life. Out
26:11
Speaker 1: of the blue, one day, in all of his pomp
26:13
Speaker 1: and prosperity, David muses on the throne over Israel, and
26:19
Speaker 1: he thinks, verse 1, Is there yet anyone left of
26:25
Speaker 1: the house of Saul that I may show him Chesed? Mercy.
26:32
Speaker 1: For Jonathan's sake. Now there was a servant of the
26:36
Speaker 1: house of Saul whose name was Ziba. And they called
26:40
Speaker 1: him to David. And the king said to Ziba, are
26:42
Speaker 1: you Ziba? He says, I am. The king said, is
26:45
Speaker 1: there not yet anyone of the house of Saul to
26:49
Speaker 1: whom I may show the mercy of God? And Ziba
26:53
Speaker 1: said to the king, there's still a son of Jonathan
26:55
Speaker 1: who's crippled in both his feet. I like the way
26:58
Speaker 1: Ziba says that. Don't forget, David, he's a cripple. I
27:02
Speaker 1: think Ziba's mind was, I'm not sure you want to
27:05
Speaker 1: carry this out. If you could see the boy, you
27:07
Speaker 1: might rethink your request. But he doesn't know David. And
27:11
Speaker 1: probably doesn't know very well David's God. Who has a
27:15
Speaker 1: special place in his heart for the handicap. The king said, look,
27:21
Speaker 1: he never even pauses. Verse 4. I love that. Oh, really?
27:26
Speaker 1: How bad is the crippling problem? He doesn't say that.
27:30
Speaker 1: Is the boy on crutches? Can he walk at all?
27:32
Speaker 1: Doesn't say that. He says, where is he? Where is he?
27:37
Speaker 1: Ziba said, behold, he's in the house of Maker, the
27:39
Speaker 1: son of Amiel in Lodibar. And David sent and brought
27:43
Speaker 1: him from the house of Maker, the son of Amiel
27:45
Speaker 1: from Lodibar. And in Mephibosheth, this is where it gets
27:48
Speaker 1: real good. Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
27:52
Speaker 1: came to David and he fell on his face and
27:54
Speaker 1: prostrated himself. Now, what do you think Mephibosheth expected? man,
28:01
Speaker 1: he's going to kill me. He's going to cut my
28:05
Speaker 1: throat so quick. I won't know it till I sneeze.
28:08
Speaker 1: I mean, he is going to finish my life. He
28:10
Speaker 1: is going to finish me off. And so he bows
28:13
Speaker 1: down before the king as if to say, do whatever
28:16
Speaker 1: you wish and get it done quickly. But that's not
28:18
Speaker 1: on David's mind. Mephibosheth, he said, here's your servant. David said,
28:23
Speaker 1: don't fear. I will surely show There's that word again.
28:27
Speaker 1: I'll show mercy to you for the sake of your father, Jonathan,
28:30
Speaker 1: and I will restore to you all the land of
28:32
Speaker 1: your grandfather, Saul, and you shall eat at my table regularly.
28:36
Speaker 1: We need you at this table. We need the reminder
28:39
Speaker 1: of the mercy of God. Come join my family. And again,
28:43
Speaker 1: he prostrated himself and said, what is your servant that
28:46
Speaker 1: you should regard a dead dog like me? By the way,
28:50
Speaker 1: that's often the feeling of the handicapped. Self-image is enormously
28:55
Speaker 1: difficult for those who are handicapped. My heart was grieved
29:01
Speaker 1: some time ago when one of our own friends in
29:05
Speaker 1: the church, who happens to be in a wheelchair all
29:08
Speaker 1: the rest of his life, was wheeled in by his wife.
29:11
Speaker 1: And I'm sure well-meaning, but someone who was handing out
29:16
Speaker 1: bulletins said to her at the door of our church,
29:20
Speaker 1: does he want one of these? Huh. Yeah, he wants
29:25
Speaker 1: one of those. He can read. He may be crippled,
29:31
Speaker 1: but he can read. He can worship. It's easy for
29:36
Speaker 1: us in an unguarded moment to treat those who are
29:40
Speaker 1: not well whole physically or whole emotionally unlike their human
29:51
Speaker 1: almost like their subhuman to kind of pat them on
29:54
Speaker 1: their head or sort of look down on them with
29:58
Speaker 1: a pity Let's watch that. David said to him, you
30:07
Speaker 1: have nothing to fear. As a matter of fact, you're
30:09
Speaker 1: going to be a guest for the rest of your
30:11
Speaker 1: life in my home. We're going to put a plate
30:14
Speaker 1: at the table and you're going to sit with us
30:16
Speaker 1: at this meal regularly. Now, while all of this is
30:21
Speaker 1: just becoming believable to Mephibosheth, David goes on. All that
30:25
Speaker 1: belong to Saul and to all his house I've given
30:28
Speaker 1: to your master's grandson. You and your sons and your
30:31
Speaker 1: servants shall cultivate the land for him. You shall bring
30:34
Speaker 1: in the produce so that your master's grandson may have food. Nevertheless, Mephibosheth,
30:38
Speaker 1: your master's grandson shall eat at my table regularly, verse
30:42
Speaker 1: 10 says. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants.
30:45
Speaker 1: Ziba said to the king, according to all that my
30:47
Speaker 1: lord the king commands his servants, so your servant will do.
30:50
Speaker 1: So Mephibosheth ate at David's table as one of the
30:53
Speaker 1: king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name
30:56
Speaker 1: was Micah. And all who lived in the house of
31:00
Speaker 1: Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem,
31:04
Speaker 1: for he ate at the king's table. Now he was
31:07
Speaker 1: lame in both his feet. Isn't that good? Isn't that mercy?
31:11
Speaker 1: I love the man who preached this passage. And then
31:14
Speaker 1: he said, as he concluded his sermon, and the tablecloth
31:17
Speaker 1: covered his feet. Every evening when David called him to supper,
31:23
Speaker 1: here was Joab with all of his pomp and military prowess.
31:28
Speaker 1: Here was wise Solomon. Here was handsome, handsome Absalom. And
31:35
Speaker 1: they waited a few moments as they heard the crutches
31:38
Speaker 1: and they heard the shuffling of feet until Mephibosheth sat down.
31:43
Speaker 1: The tablecloth covered his feet. God has a special mercy.
31:50
Speaker 1: to help those who are handicapped, and I might add,
31:53
Speaker 1: to help those who minister to the handicapped. There's a
31:57
Speaker 1: special mercy that that takes, a special mercy that's needed.
32:05
Speaker 1: Several weeks ago, I was driving the freeway and I
32:07
Speaker 1: saw a personalized license. I don't know about you, but
32:10
Speaker 1: I always read personalized licenses. I even get so close,
32:14
Speaker 1: I read the borders around licenses, sometimes dangerously close. Not
32:19
Speaker 1: long ago, I did that and a little license label
32:22
Speaker 1: around it said, what are you doing so close? And
32:24
Speaker 1: I backed way off. But this license read chesed. It
32:28
Speaker 1: caught my eye. The Hebrew word for mercy. And then
32:32
Speaker 1: I noticed because we both took the same exit and
32:36
Speaker 1: in fact went almost to the same place that on
32:38
Speaker 1: the dashboard of his car was a handicap sign. There's
32:43
Speaker 1: a lot of wisdom in that license plate. I need mercy.
32:49
Speaker 1: Take it easy. There's a special mercy for those who
32:57
Speaker 1: struggle with handicap. Job chapter 10. Moving right along here.
33:04
Speaker 1: Good thing to remember when studying Job is to check
33:08
Speaker 1: the first part of every chapter and you'll know who's
33:11
Speaker 1: doing the talking. Sometimes you'll think it's Job and it
33:14
Speaker 1: isn't Job at all. You have to go back a
33:16
Speaker 1: chapter on occasion. For example... Chapter 10 is spoken by
33:20
Speaker 1: Job because chapter 9 begins, then Job answered. And there's
33:24
Speaker 1: no break all the way through chapter 10. Chapter 11 begins,
33:28
Speaker 1: then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered. And it speaks of what
33:32
Speaker 1: he says. But these are Job's words. Chapter 10, verse 1,
33:38
Speaker 1: I loathe my own life. I will give full vent
33:43
Speaker 1: to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of
33:45
Speaker 1: my soul. I will say to God, do not condemn me.
33:49
Speaker 1: Let me know why thou dost contend with me. Is
33:52
Speaker 1: it right for thee indeed to oppress, to reject the
33:55
Speaker 1: labor of thy hands, to look favorably on the schemes
33:58
Speaker 1: of the wicked? Hest thou eyes of flesh, or dost
34:01
Speaker 1: thou see as a man sees? Are thy days as
34:05
Speaker 1: the days of a mortal, or thy years as man's years?
34:09
Speaker 1: that thou shouldest seek for my guilt and search after
34:11
Speaker 1: my sin. Here's a man in tremendous physical anguish. Just
34:16
Speaker 1: imagine yourself in a hospital, in the cancer ward, and
34:20
Speaker 1: a person is dying in intense pain, perhaps hemorrhaging. And
34:25
Speaker 1: in the enormity of his physical pain, out come words
34:28
Speaker 1: like this. And you'll appreciate chapter 10. According to thy knowledge,
34:33
Speaker 1: I am indeed not guilty, yet there is no deliverance
34:36
Speaker 1: from thy hand. Thy hands fashioned and made me altogether.
34:40
Speaker 1: In case you wonder if there's life before birth, Job
34:43
Speaker 1: refers to that right here, just as in Psalm 139.
34:46
Speaker 1: You're the one that made me as I am, and
34:48
Speaker 1: would you now destroy me? Remember now that thou hast
34:51
Speaker 1: made me as clay, and wouldst thou turn me into
34:54
Speaker 1: dust again? This thou not pour me out like milk
34:57
Speaker 1: and curdle me like cheese? Clothe me with skin and
35:00
Speaker 1: flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. He's
35:03
Speaker 1: referring to when he was in the mother's womb. You
35:06
Speaker 1: put me together as you wanted me to be. Thou
35:09
Speaker 1: has granted me life and loving kindness and thy care
35:12
Speaker 1: has preserved my spirit. Yet these things thou has concealed
35:16
Speaker 1: in thy heart. I know that this is within thee.
35:19
Speaker 1: If I sin, then thou wouldest take note of me
35:21
Speaker 1: and would not acquit me of my guilt. If I
35:23
Speaker 1: am wicked, woe to me, for if I am righteous,
35:27
Speaker 1: I dare not lift up my head. I'm satiated with
35:30
Speaker 1: disgrace and conscious of my misery. And should my head
35:34
Speaker 1: be lifted up, thou wouldst hunt me like a lion.
35:36
Speaker 1: And again, thou wouldst show thy power against me. Thou
35:39
Speaker 1: dost renew thy witness against me and increase thine anger
35:42
Speaker 1: toward me. Hardship after hardship is with me. Why then
35:46
Speaker 1: hast thou brought me out of the womb? Why was
35:48
Speaker 1: I even born, Lord? Would that I had died and
35:52
Speaker 1: no eye had seen me. I should have been as
35:55
Speaker 1: though I had not been born. Carried from womb to tomb.
35:59
Speaker 1: Ever seen that in the scripture? From womb to tomb.
36:01
Speaker 1: I had never seen that before. Why wasn't I simply stillborn?
36:06
Speaker 1: So that the doctor or the midwife who assisted in
36:09
Speaker 1: my birth simply said to my mother, he's dead. And
36:12
Speaker 1: they buried me. Why do I have to live in
36:16
Speaker 1: this physical anguish? From womb to tomb, how much better
36:21
Speaker 1: that would have been. Look at verse 12 again. Maybe
36:26
Speaker 1: you missed it. Thou hast granted me life and chesed.
36:35
Speaker 1: And thy care has preserved my spirit. There is a
36:41
Speaker 1: divine mercy for the physically afflicted. If you serve alongside
36:48
Speaker 1: someone who is suffering, suffering significantly, or if you have
36:52
Speaker 1: been through such suffering, you know that there are brief
36:55
Speaker 1: breaks in the pain where God's mercy comes in like
36:59
Speaker 1: a flood and washes over them. This is not a handicap.
37:04
Speaker 1: This is a physical affliction that Job is going through.
37:06
Speaker 1: And here he says in this anguish, you have granted
37:12
Speaker 1: me life. and you've given me mercy to continue to endure. Okay,
37:21
Speaker 1: you with me so far? We're almost there. When we're
37:24
Speaker 1: suffering the consequences of unfair treatment, as Joseph, there's mercy.
37:29
Speaker 1: When we're enduring the grief, the loss of Ludwin, 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 Mephibosheth.
37:40
Speaker 1: 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 32, as with David, there's mercy. Perhaps the most
37:55
Speaker 1: descriptive section in all scripture, the misery of those who
38:00
Speaker 1: keep their sin a secret, is found in Psalm 32
38:04
Speaker 1: and Psalm 51. Just a few moments in each one
38:09
Speaker 1: of these. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
38:13
Speaker 1: whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to
38:16
Speaker 1: whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, in whose spirit
38:19
Speaker 1: there's no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin,
38:24
Speaker 1: my body wasted away. Through my groaning all day long,
38:32
Speaker 1: for day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me.
38:35
Speaker 1: My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat
38:37
Speaker 1: of summer. That's a description of life when sin is
38:42
Speaker 1: kept a secret. When you go on deceiving the public.
38:46
Speaker 1: When you don't let others know that you're wrong. You're
38:48
Speaker 1: living a lie. You keep it to yourself. There is
38:52
Speaker 1: a day and night heavy hand of God upon us.
38:55
Speaker 1: And the child of God suffers miserably. Verse 5. I
39:00
Speaker 1: acknowledged my sin to thee. And my iniquity I did
39:05
Speaker 1: not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to
39:09
Speaker 1: the Lord. And thou didst forgive the guilt. Of my sin. Selah.
39:18
Speaker 1: Verse 10. Many are the sorrows of the wicked. But
39:25
Speaker 1: he who trusts in the Lord. There's our word. shall
39:32
Speaker 1: surround him. Even when you have kept your sin a secret,
39:37
Speaker 1: even when you have lived a lie, even when you
39:40
Speaker 1: have continued in deceit, when you finally do come to
39:45
Speaker 1: terms with it and you make your confession, you declare
39:48
Speaker 1: yourself guilty. God, verse 10, surrounds you with his loving kindness.
39:56
Speaker 1: He gives you his mercy. We see it again in
39:59
Speaker 1: Psalm 51. Same context, same man, same set of sins.
40:08
Speaker 1: In fact, you'll notice in the superscription just below the
40:12
Speaker 1: title Psalm 51. This is a psalm for the choir director.
40:17
Speaker 1: It is a psalm of David. when Nathan the prophet
40:20
Speaker 1: came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
40:24
Speaker 1: So this is months after the adultery, while David kept
40:28
Speaker 1: it all a sin, and Nathan finally looked him in
40:30
Speaker 1: the eye and said, thou art the man. David's response
40:34
Speaker 1: in a psalm, be gracious to me, O God, according
40:42
Speaker 1: to thy chesed. There it is again. I need mercy.
40:48
Speaker 1: I need mercy according to the greatness of thy compassion,
40:53
Speaker 1: blot out my transgressions. Lord, I am at your mercy. Lord,
41:00
Speaker 1: I need your mercy. I plead your mercy. And God
41:05
Speaker 1: granted it to him. Do you remember the last part
41:09
Speaker 1: of Psalm 23? You know Psalm 23, the Lord is
41:13
Speaker 1: my shepherd, I shall not want. You'll not appreciate Psalm
41:18
Speaker 1: 23 if you don't put wool on Because Psalm 23
41:21
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 sheepdogs. Surely,
41:34
Speaker 1: goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
41:40
Speaker 1: my life. Sheep of God, do you realize that there
41:44
Speaker 1: are two sheepdogs that watch you? Watch over you. And
41:50
Speaker 1: care for you. Goodness. And mercy. That's enough from the scriptures.
42:01
Speaker 1: Let's put it into our lives. And I can do
42:03
Speaker 1: that in just a brief period of time. Maybe you've
42:05
Speaker 1: tracked these five occasions with me. But you wonder still.
42:11
Speaker 1: How does it directly relate? May I go back to
42:14
Speaker 1: each one and give you a tagline for each one?
42:18
Speaker 1: When I am treated unfairly, God's mercy relieves my bitterness.
42:25
Speaker 1: That's what happens when Chesed comes into my cell. I
42:29
Speaker 1: have been in a dungeon of unfair treatment. Bitterness becomes
42:34
Speaker 1: my enemy, but mercy relieves it. That great feeling of mercy, relief.
42:44
Speaker 1: Mercy relieves my heart of bitterness. and I can endure it. Second,
42:51
Speaker 1: when I grieve over the loss, God's mercy relieves my anger.
42:58
Speaker 1: It's that part of grief that we don't want to admit.
43:01
Speaker 1: There's an enormous amount of anger, especially 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. Self-pity.
43:26
Speaker 1: When they finally come to terms with it in God's mercy,
43:29
Speaker 1: they're ready to roll up their sleeves and carry on.
43:32
Speaker 1: In fact, continue to do great things for God. But
43:35
Speaker 1: it takes mercy to get them over the hurdle of self-pity.
43:38
Speaker 1: Mercy relieves me of self-pity. Fourth, when I endure physical pain,
43:48
Speaker 1: mercy relieves my hopelessness. The great fear of those in
43:53
Speaker 1: unending physical pain is hopelessness, that feeling I cannot ever
43:57
Speaker 1: go on, there will never be a tomorrow. When I
44:01
Speaker 1: deal with sinful actions, God's mercy relieves my guilt. Grace
44:06
Speaker 1: brings me forgiveness, but it doesn't do anything to my guilt.
44:10
Speaker 1: Mercy relieves my guilt. Don't you see the value of
44:14
Speaker 1: mercy now? Do you see how important it is? I
44:19
Speaker 1: love that old song. There's a line in it that's
44:21
Speaker 1: very important. Every day the Lord himself is near me
44:25
Speaker 1: 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 and 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.
45:15
Speaker 1: She quietly, graciously, and patiently, with tender mercy, trusts God
45:22
Speaker 1: to deal with her husband. The story comes to a
45:25
Speaker 1: climax where Mac, 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 bed,
45:38
Speaker 1: quoting the verses of scripture to encourage herself while he's gone.
45:42
Speaker 1: And he walks in, and he said, I bought a bottle.
45:46
Speaker 1: but I poured it out. I didn't drink anything. And
45:50
Speaker 1: his life seems to turn the corner at that point
45:52
Speaker 1: and he goes back into the work that he was
45:54
Speaker 1: once in of writing country western songs. Tender Mercies. The
46:00
Speaker 1: thing that is so moving about it, not only is
46:02
Speaker 1: it a very simple story with slow moving lines to
46:06
Speaker 1: give you time to think. I like it because there
46:08
Speaker 1: are no car chases. I get so weary of movies
46:12
Speaker 1: revolving around car chases and And people falling 12 stories
46:18
Speaker 1: and landing in a swimming pool and running off with
46:20
Speaker 1: somebody else's wife and on and on and on. Just
46:24
Speaker 1: a simple storyline of a woman who loves God and
46:27
Speaker 1: loves her husband into loving God. And through tender mercies
46:31
Speaker 1: wins him. And he finally winds up standing in the
46:34
Speaker 1: waters of baptism. And along with the little boy, his stepson,
46:38
Speaker 1: they're both baptized. It's a great story. Tender mercies. Tender mercies.
46:46
Speaker 1: Mercy is always wrapped in tenderness. Did you know that
46:55
Speaker 1: over in the Old Testament when the tabernacle was built,
46:59
Speaker 1: God arranged for there to be a little piece of
47:02
Speaker 1: furniture that would go in the holiest place of all.
47:05
Speaker 1: Not simply the holy place, but the holiest of all
47:08
Speaker 1: behind the thick veil curtain where God's presence rested. And
47:13
Speaker 1: it was in a little box. just a little box
47:16
Speaker 1: called an ark, in which there were placed the law
47:22
Speaker 1: and Aaron's rod that budded. And over the law, there
47:26
Speaker 1: was a little lid that was exactly the shape of
47:29
Speaker 1: the altar. And over this lid and altar, there were
47:34
Speaker 1: two angels called cherubim. A cherub on one side with
47:39
Speaker 1: solid gold wings beaten out and reaching out across. And
47:44
Speaker 1: a cherub on the other side reaching out from the
47:46
Speaker 1: other side. And on both sides, these cherub look into
47:50
Speaker 1: this mercy seat. The most intimate place in all of
47:57
Speaker 1: the tabernacle was the lid over the altar where the
48:01
Speaker 1: blood was poured out century after century. And it's called mercy.
48:07
Speaker 1: The mercy seat. Luther gave it that name. You know that.
48:15
Speaker 1: The Hebrew word. Is not the word for mercy. It
48:19
Speaker 1: is the word for satisfaction. Propitiation. Because when the blood
48:25
Speaker 1: is poured out. Into the altar. While the cherub watch.
48:29
Speaker 1: These golden cherubim. God. Is satisfied. And his anger. Francis
48:41
Speaker 1: Schaeffer writes, It was Luther, when translating the Old Testament
48:46
Speaker 1: into German, who first used the term mercy seat. It
48:52
Speaker 1: is a beautiful poetic phrase, but it also accurately communicates
48:56
Speaker 1: what the lid on the ark really was, a place
49:01
Speaker 1: of mercy. Verse 22 of Exodus 25 contains an important clause,
49:08
Speaker 1: and there I will meet with thee. How symbolic that
49:16
Speaker 1: God would choose a small lid over an ark watched
49:21
Speaker 1: by silent golden cherubim as the place where he would
49:27
Speaker 1: commune with his people. It wasn't a place of law.
49:32
Speaker 1: It was a place of mercy. My message in all
49:41
Speaker 1: of this is that we become people like God, people
49:45
Speaker 1: of mercy. When we see those who are in need,
49:50
Speaker 1: when we ourselves find ourselves in need, that we become
49:56
Speaker 1: people of mercy, like the widow in the movie, that
50:01
Speaker 1: we lessen our demands, that we increase our compassion, just
50:06
Speaker 1: as our God does with us. Thank you, Father, for mercy.
50:15
Speaker 1: Tender mercy from heaven. How beautifully it balances your sovereignty
50:22
Speaker 1: and your justice and holiness. How greatly we need it.
50:27
Speaker 1: And all through this week, we shall commune with you
50:31
Speaker 1: and we shall worship you between those wings. In the
50:39
Speaker 1: name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
50:42
Speaker 2: Amen. The preceding message, The Magnificent Chesed of God, was
50:48
Speaker 2: copyrighted in 1987, 1988, 1994, 2000, and 2024, and the
50:55
Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
51:01
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
51:06
Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.