Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Magnificent Chesed of God │ Msg 611 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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The Magnificent Chesed of God │ Msg 611 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · 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 since there's been relief,
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Speaker 1: relational relief. When we are under heavy financial debt, and
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Speaker 1: that debt weighs us down and it won't leave our minds.
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Speaker 1: Getting that paid off brings a sweet joy and an
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Speaker 1: inner feeling of relief. We learned in my previous thoughts
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Speaker 1: on God's sovereignty that the Most High is ruler over
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Speaker 1: our lives. So it's obvious that if we ever have
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Speaker 1: the feeling of relief, God has given it to us.
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Speaker 1: He's the author of relief. He is the one who
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Speaker 1: grants us the peace, the satisfaction, the ease. And I
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Speaker 1: think there is no better synonym for mercy than relief.
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Speaker 1: Mercy provides us with relief. In fact, I thought through
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Speaker 1: a definition of mercy, and I would say that it
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Speaker 1: is God's active compassion which he demonstrates to the miserable.
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Speaker 1: When we are in a time of misery and God
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Speaker 1: activates his compassion to bring about relief, We've experienced mercy mercy.
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Speaker 1: It isn't passive pity. It isn't simply an understanding God
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Speaker 1: always has that. It isn't mere sorrow. It is a
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Speaker 1: divine action on our behalf in which He brings about
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Speaker 1: a sense of relief. Turn for example, to the Book
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Speaker 1: of Ephesians, chapter two over in the New Testament. The
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Speaker 1: beautiful thing about mercy is that it is demonstrated to
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Speaker 1: the offender as well as to the victim. When the
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Speaker 1: offender realizes his or her wrong, God brings mercy. When
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Speaker 1: the victim needs help to go on, God gives mercy.
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Speaker 1: Now I want to read several verses, some of which
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Speaker 1: are familiar and maybe some you've not thought of recently.
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Speaker 1: Phesians two, verse one. And you were dead in your
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Speaker 1: trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, according to
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Speaker 1: the course of this world, according to the Prince of
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Speaker 1: the power of the air of the Spirit that is
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Speaker 1: now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we
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Speaker 1: two all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh,
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Speaker 1: in dull jing, the desires of the flesh and of
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Speaker 1: the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even
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Speaker 1: as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because
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Speaker 1: of his great love with which he loved us, even
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Speaker 1: when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
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Speaker 1: together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and
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Speaker 1: raised us up with Him and seated us with Him
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Speaker 1: in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that
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Speaker 1: in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing
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Speaker 1: riches of his grace in kindness toward us. In Christ Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Is that a great section scripture. Look at verse four
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Speaker 1: once again and study. Being rich in mercy, You see
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Speaker 1: the connecting link between a holy God and a sinful
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Speaker 1: person is God's love, which activates his grace, which sets
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Speaker 1: in motion his mercy. They're like divine dominoes that bump
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Speaker 1: up against one another. He loves us not because of
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Speaker 1: something in ourselves, but because of something in himself. And
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Speaker 1: in his love he demonstrates his grace that brings forgiveness,
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Speaker 1: and on top of that grace prompts mercy, and we
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Speaker 1: find relief. To make it even more personal, look at
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Speaker 1: Paul's own testimony in First Timothy chapter one. We'll get
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Speaker 1: over the Old Testament for some illustrations in a few moments,
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Speaker 1: but let's study Paul's words one Timothy one, verse verse twelve,
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Speaker 1: and then verse thirteen. In Ephesians two, he talks about everyone.
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Speaker 1: In the One Timothy one, he talks about himself. I
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Speaker 1: thank Christ Jesus verse twelve a First Timothy one. I
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Speaker 1: think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because
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Speaker 1: he considered me faithful, putting me into service. Even though
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Speaker 1: even though I, Paul was formerly looked closely a blasphemer,
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Speaker 1: a persecutor, and a violent aggressor. And yet I was
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Speaker 1: shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Look closely
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Speaker 1: at those three descriptions of Paul's former life. First, he says,
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Speaker 1: I was a blasphemer. The word means an insulter. I
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Speaker 1: insulted God's people. I was angry at Christians. I accused
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Speaker 1: them of crimes against God. I was a blasphemer. Second,
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Speaker 1: I was a persecutor. It means he took every means
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Speaker 1: open to him under Jewish law to annihilate Christians. And
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Speaker 1: then that terrible word, I was a violent aggressor. The
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Speaker 1: Greek word means a kind of arrogant Sadism describes a
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Speaker 1: person who is out to inflict pain and injury for
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Speaker 1: the sheer joy of inflicting it. I loved to make
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Speaker 1: him squirm. I love to watch them cry. I love
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Speaker 1: to see them killed. Now I camp on that because
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Speaker 1: you don't usually think of Paul in those ways. But
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Speaker 1: that's the way he was without Christ. Before you cluck
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Speaker 1: your tongue 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 the 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
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Speaker 1: long you've forgotten what you were like before Christ. That's
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Speaker 1: why you're so proud. That's why the Lord has to
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Speaker 1: spend so much extra time getting your attention. You've forgotten
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Speaker 1: how 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 in 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 did
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Speaker 1: not stop a moment at the foot of it and
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Speaker 1: take a turn up and down among the sins of
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Speaker 1: my past years. I do not think that I ever
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Speaker 1: planned a sermon that I did not take a turn
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Speaker 1: around my study table and looked back at the sins
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Speaker 1: of my youth and of all my life down to
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Speaker 1: the present. And many a Sabbath morning when my soul
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Speaker 1: had been cold and dry for the lack of prayer
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Speaker 1: during the week, a turn up and down my past life.
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Speaker 1: Before I went into the pulpit always broke my hard
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Speaker 1: heart and made me close with the Gospel for my
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Speaker 1: own soul before I began to preach. The wonderful thing
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Speaker 1: about the Apostle Paul in his writings is that he
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Speaker 1: frequently returned to the sins of his past. Reminds me
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Speaker 1: of great Heart and what he said to Christian's boys.
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Speaker 1: You must know that forgetful green is the most dangerous
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Speaker 1: place in all these parts. Try hard not to forget
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Speaker 1: what life was like before Christ, and you will be
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Speaker 1: a frequent visitor the gate of mercy. Now for some
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Speaker 1: Old Testament illustrations of this wonderful old word mercy. It is,
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Speaker 1: by the way, the Hebrew term kesid c h e
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Speaker 1: s e ed. It's a guttural kessid kessid, and it
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Speaker 1: means often in the scripture's loving kindness, and it is
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Speaker 1: often rendered simply kindness. It's found all the way through
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Speaker 1: the Old Testament, and I find five significant illustrations of
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Speaker 1: it over here in this book. The Old Book. Look
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Speaker 1: at Genesis chapter thirty nine for the first occasion where
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Speaker 1: it seems like mercy has something to say for our times.
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Speaker 1: When I trace tessid through the Old testament. I find
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Speaker 1: at least five different miseries to which mercy brings relief
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden. I think of a television commercial.
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Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy how your mind flashes? I think a vizine.
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Speaker 1: It takes the redout, you know, mercy. Mercy takes the
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Speaker 1: redout of some anguish of your life. And the first
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Speaker 1: anguish is the suffering of consequences because of unfair treatment.
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Speaker 1: And that's what Genesis thirty nine is all about. Here
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Speaker 1: is a great man named Joseph, who is innocent of
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Speaker 1: the accusation. Potiphar's wife comes for him again and again,
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Speaker 1: and Joseph again and again rejects her, and finally she
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Speaker 1: gets him alone in her home and the doors are locked,
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Speaker 1: and the servants are gone, and the lights are low,
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Speaker 1: and she presses him and says, lie with me. And
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Speaker 1: Joseph directly looks her in the eyes and says, I
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Speaker 1: cannot do that. And she is so infuriated she grabs
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Speaker 1: a part of his garment when he runs, and then
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Speaker 1: with that piece of his robe, as he's running away
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Speaker 1: from her, she cries, rape, he raped me. And the
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Speaker 1: word gets to pot of her, and Joseph winds up
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Speaker 1: in jail, though he never laid a hand on her.
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Speaker 1: And at the end of the chapter, there's something wonderful
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Speaker 1: that appears in the passage regarding Pescid regarding mercy. Look
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Speaker 1: at thirty nine twenty one. But the Lord was with
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Speaker 1: Joseph and extended there's the word mercy. The Lord was
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Speaker 1: with Joseph where in jail, According to verse twenty, that's
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Speaker 1: where he was put in a dungeon, in an Egyptian dungeon.
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Speaker 1: The Lord visited him, and the Lord demonstrated to him
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Speaker 1: in the misery of suffering unfair consequences, God ministered to
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Speaker 1: his heart. God even gave him favor in the sight
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Speaker 1: of the chief jailer. It's a good time for me
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Speaker 1: to add, don't forget the people in prison, some of
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Speaker 1: whom are there for unjust reason, many of whom are not,
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Speaker 1: but some are. It was several months ago that I
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Speaker 1: had the joy of being with Chuck Colson and fishing
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Speaker 1: with him for an afternoon in the little Bay in
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Speaker 1: Florida near Naples. And it was great to hear him
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Speaker 1: tell one story after another of life behind bars, and
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Speaker 1: mercy welled up within me all over again. As he
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Speaker 1: described one scene after another in that awful place of loneliness.
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Speaker 1: Here is Joseph in such a place, in great need
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Speaker 1: of encouragement. In God demonstrates cass it. God gives him mercy.
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Speaker 1: You may not be in jail, You may not be
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Speaker 1: suffering as Joseph suffered, but you may be going through
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Speaker 1: a time of unjust criticism. You may be suffering in
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Speaker 1: the backwash of unfair statements set against you. You need mercy.
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Speaker 1: God gives it. Men don't men and women don't give it.
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Speaker 1: Not much interesting. The same word appears in chapter forty
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Speaker 1: as Joseph asked to be remembered when one of his
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Speaker 1: prison buddies got released forty verse fourteen. After Joseph helps him,
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Speaker 1: Joseph makes a deal with him. He says, only keep
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Speaker 1: me in mind when it goes well with you. I'm
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Speaker 1: reading forty fourteen. Keep me in mind when it goes
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Speaker 1: well with you, and please do me aith. There's that word,
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Speaker 1: do me a mercy, Be merciful on me by mentioning
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Speaker 1: me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this place.
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Speaker 1: Does he? Let's see verse twenty three. Well twenty one.
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh restored the chief cup bearer to his office, and
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Speaker 1: he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, But he hanged
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Speaker 1: the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.
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Speaker 1: Yet the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph but
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Speaker 1: forgot him. That's not fair, is it? After all I've
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Speaker 1: done for you, and all I ask is that you
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Speaker 1: drop a good word in for me to get me
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Speaker 1: out of this hole. And he summarily forgot him. But
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Speaker 1: even when you're forgotten, even when someone doesn't fulfill his promise,
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Speaker 1: even when you're left alone to your thoughts and you
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Speaker 1: know your heart is just, God will give you his mercy.
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Speaker 1: He'll bring you relief. He'll meet you in your loneliness.
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Speaker 1: Turn to a book. We seldom look at the Book
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Speaker 1: of Ruth. Here's the second occasion when mercy in our
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Speaker 1: days seems to come to our rescue. Not only when
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Speaker 1: we're suffering the consequences of unfair treatment, but get this,
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Speaker 1: when we're enduring the grief of our loved one's death.
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Speaker 1: The Book of Ruth begins with a touching story. It
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Speaker 1: revolves around a family of a husband and wife and
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Speaker 1: two sons. The father's name is Elimelech and the mother's
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Speaker 1: name is Naomi. And she has two boys. As the
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Speaker 1: boys are growing up, she loses her husband, Elimelech dies
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Speaker 1: According to chapter one and verse three, he dies apparently prematurely,
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Speaker 1: and she's left to rear her two sons as a
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Speaker 1: single parent. She does so, and the two boys take
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Speaker 1: for themselves Moabite women. Their names are or Pah and Ruth,
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Speaker 1: the one from whom the book is named or Pah
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Speaker 1: and Ruth Mary brothers, the sons of Naomi. And would
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Speaker 1: you believe it, not long after that marriage, well a
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Speaker 1: few years, both of those boys die. We're not told how,
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Speaker 1: We're just told that they died. And so what we
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Speaker 1: have in the story suddenly is three widows, a mother
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Speaker 1: in law named Naomi and two daughters in law, Ruth
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Speaker 1: and Orpah, grieving the loss of their loved ones. Naomi
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Speaker 1: is trying to get over the loss of her husband,
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Speaker 1: and now she has to face the loss of her sons,
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Speaker 1: and the daughters in law have to live with the
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Speaker 1: fact that now they've lost their husbands. There's a whole
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Speaker 1: scene of death that kind of swarms over chapter one,
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Speaker 1: and the need for hesse is great. People need mercy
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Speaker 1: when their loved ones die. Look at verse eight, Naomi
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Speaker 1: said to her two daughters in law, go return each
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Speaker 1: of you to your mother's house. May the Lord deal
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Speaker 1: kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead
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Speaker 1: and with me. And may the Lord grant that you
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Speaker 1: may find rest each in the house of her husband.
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Speaker 1: And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices,
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Speaker 1: and they wept. She says to them, not only has
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Speaker 1: God given dying grace, but may he give you grieving mercy.
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Speaker 1: May He help you when the pain is so great
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Speaker 1: and you don't know where to turn, and the lights
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Speaker 1: go out at night, and you haven't someone near to
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Speaker 1: put their arms around you. It's easy to pass over this,
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Speaker 1: especially if we haven't gone through a time of grief recently.
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Speaker 1: But we will. And when you do the next time,
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Speaker 1: remember that God has a special mercy for those who
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Speaker 1: are left as widows and widowers, those who were left
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Speaker 1: as grieving parents or grieving children. I don't know if
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Speaker 1: you watched the late news last evening, but it was
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Speaker 1: a touching scene. There was a mother who was walking
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Speaker 1: over the rubble. It was awful. In fact, rain was
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Speaker 1: still falling lightly, and someone was trying to get her
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Speaker 1: and to hold her and sort of clutching at her,
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Speaker 1: and she almost in a wail, said, I think she said,
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Speaker 1: four months ago, maybe seven months ago, I lost my
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Speaker 1: and now I'm here trying to find my other one.
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Speaker 1: I thought. She needs mercy, she needs relief. God may
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Speaker 1: be pleased to use you as a naomi. You may
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Speaker 1: be the one to put your arms around the grieving
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Speaker 1: and to bring relief. It's not that they need a
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Speaker 1: lot of words. As a matter of fact, I don't
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Speaker 1: need a lot of words. The less words the better.
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Speaker 1: They need compassion, they need your presence. They need time.
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Speaker 1: So during times of grief, God gives a special mercy
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Speaker 1: to help us through the anger of it and the
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Speaker 1: denial of it. In Second Samuel, chapter nine, there's a
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Speaker 1: third scene, I'm on purpose, not spending a great deal
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Speaker 1: of time in each one. We don't need a lot
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Speaker 1: of time on each scene. We just need the reminder,
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Speaker 1: and the reminder needs only to be brief. It's a
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Speaker 1: wonderful chapter. It's one of my favorite chapters in the
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Speaker 1: Old Testament, and to my surprise, many people have never
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Speaker 1: even read. It revolves around a man whose name looks
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Speaker 1: like a misprint, mephibisheth it takes a while to practice
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Speaker 1: that you can say it without its being a tongue twister.
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Speaker 1: Mephibischef Memphibischef was a little boy. He was a descendant
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Speaker 1: of the king whose name was Saul, who's now dead.
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Speaker 1: And in the Old Eastern dynasty, when a new king
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Speaker 1: came in, all of the descendants of the old king
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Speaker 1: were annihilated. Fearing that David, the new king, would annihilate
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Speaker 1: all of Saul's descendants, which he would not have done,
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Speaker 1: the nurse quickly picked up Mamphibischef and ran for her life.
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Speaker 1: And he fell, and he was crippled both his feet.
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Speaker 1: He was a crippled for the rest of his life.
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Speaker 1: And he's living his life out in a place called
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Speaker 1: load de bar It means no pasture land. It's a
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Speaker 1: place of barrenness, in forgotten obscurity. Maphibuschev is living out
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Speaker 1: his life out of the blue. One day, in all
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Speaker 1: of his pomp and prosperity, David muses on the throne
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Speaker 1: over Israel, and he thinks, Verse one, is there yet
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Speaker 1: anyone left of the house of Saul that I may
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Speaker 1: show him cassid mercy for Jonathan's sake. Now there was
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Speaker 1: a servant of the House of Saul, whose name was Zeba.
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Speaker 1: And they called him to David. And the King said
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Speaker 1: to Zebra, are you Zeba? He says, I am. The
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Speaker 1: King said, is there not yet anyone of the House
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Speaker 1: of Saul to whom I may show the mercy of God?
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Speaker 1: And Zeba said to the King, there's still a son
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Speaker 1: of Jonathan who's crippled in both his feet. I like
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Speaker 1: the way Zeba says that. Don't forget David. He's a cripple.
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Speaker 1: I think Zeba's mind was, I'm not sure you want
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Speaker 1: to carry this out. If you could see the boy,
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Speaker 1: you might rethink your request. But he doesn't know David,
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Speaker 1: and probably doesn't know very well. David's God, who has
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Speaker 1: a special place in his heart for the handicap. The
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Speaker 1: King said, look, he never even pauses verse four. I
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Speaker 1: love that, you know. Oh really, how bad is the
27:27
Speaker 1: crippling problem? He doesn't say that is the boy on crutches?
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Speaker 1: Can he walk? It all? Doesn't say that he is
27:34
Speaker 1: Where is he? Where is he? Ziba said, behold, he's
27:38
Speaker 1: in the house of Maker, the son of Amiel in
27:40
Speaker 1: load de Bar And David sent and brought from the
27:43
Speaker 1: brought him from the house of Maker, the son of Amieale,
27:45
Speaker 1: from load to bar, and in Mamphibischeff, this is where
27:48
Speaker 1: it gets real good. Mamphibus Cheff's son of Jonathan, the
27:51
Speaker 1: son of Saul, came to David, and he fell on
27:53
Speaker 1: his face and prostrated himself. Now, what do you think,
27:57
Speaker 1: Mamphibischef expected, what man, He's gonna kill me. He's gonna
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Speaker 1: cut my throat so quick I won't know it till
28:07
Speaker 1: a sneeze. I mean, he is gonna finish my life.
28:10
Speaker 1: He is gonna finish me off. And so he bounced
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Speaker 1: down before the king as if to say, do whatever
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Speaker 1: you wish and get it done quickly. But that's not
28:18
Speaker 1: on David's mind. The Phibi cheth, he said, here's your servant.
28:22
Speaker 1: David said, don't fear. I will surely show cass it.
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Speaker 1: There's that word again that will show mercy to you
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Speaker 1: for the sake of your father Jonathan. And I will
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Speaker 1: restore to you all the land of your grandfather's Saul.
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Speaker 1: And you shall eat at my table regularly. We need
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Speaker 1: you at this table. We need the reminder of the
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Speaker 1: mercy of God. Come join my family. And again he
28:43
Speaker 1: prostrated himself and said, what is your servant that you
28:46
Speaker 1: should regard a dead dog like me? By the way,
28:50
Speaker 1: that's often the feeling of the handicap. Self image is
28:55
Speaker 1: enormously difficult for those who are handicapped. My heart was
29:01
Speaker 1: grieved some time ago when one of our own friends
29:05
Speaker 1: in the church, who happens to be in a wheelchair
29:08
Speaker 1: all the rest of his life, was wheeled in by
29:11
Speaker 1: his wife. And I'm sure well meaning, but someone who
29:16
Speaker 1: was handing out bulletins said to her at the door
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Speaker 1: of our church, does he want one of these? Yeah,
29:24
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
29:36
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
29:49
Speaker 1: they're human, almost like their subhuman, to kind of pat
29:54
Speaker 1: them on their head or sort of look down on
29:57
Speaker 1: them with a pity content ascending. Let's watch that, David
30:06
Speaker 1: said to him, you have nothing to fear. As a
30:08
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
30:20
Speaker 1: all of this is just becoming believable to Mamphibischeff, David
30:24
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, Mamphibischeff, 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. Mamphibis Chef ate at
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Speaker 1: David's table as one of the king's son. And Maphibischeff
30:55
Speaker 1: had a young son whose name was Mika. And all
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Speaker 1: who lived in the land in the house Zeba were
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Speaker 1: servants to Maphibishet. 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
31:12
Speaker 1: love the man who preached this passage, and then he
31:14
Speaker 1: said as he concluded his sermon, and the tablecloth covered
31:18
Speaker 1: his feet. Every evening when David called him to supper,
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Speaker 1: here was Joe Abb with all of his pomp and
31:26
Speaker 1: military prowess. Here was why Solomon. Here was handsome, handsome Absalom.
31:35
Speaker 1: And they waited a few moments as they heard the crutches,
31:38
Speaker 1: and they heard the shuffling of feet until Mamphibischad 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
32:07
Speaker 1: and I saw a personalized license. I don't know about you,
32:10
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 cassid.
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 struggled 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,
33:23
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
34:29
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 all together. In case
34:41
Speaker 1: you wonder if there's life before birth, Job refers to
34:44
Speaker 1: that right here, just as in Psom one thirty nine.
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, me with skin and flesh,
35:01
Speaker 1: and knit me together with bones and sinews. He's referring
35:04
Speaker 1: to when he was in the mother's womb. You put
35:06
Speaker 1: me together as you wanted me to be. Thou hast
35:10
Speaker 1: granted me life and loving kindness, and thy care has
35:13
Speaker 1: preserved my spirit. Yet these things thou hast concealed in
35:16
Speaker 1: thy heart. I know that this is within thee. If
35:19
Speaker 1: I sin, then thou would hast taken note of me,
35:21
Speaker 1: and wouldst not equip me of my guilt. If I
35:23
Speaker 1: am wicked, woe to me, for I am for if
35:26
Speaker 1: I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.
35:29
Speaker 1: I'm Satian with disgrace and conscious of my misery. And
35:33
Speaker 1: shouldn't my head be lifted up? Thou would hast hunt
35:35
Speaker 1: me like a lion. And again thou wouldst show thy
35:38
Speaker 1: power against me. Thou hast renew thy witness against me,
35:41
Speaker 1: and increase thine anger toward me. Hardship after hardship is
35:45
Speaker 1: with me. Why then, hast thou brought me out of
35:47
Speaker 1: the womb? Why was I even born? Lord? Would that
35:51
Speaker 1: I had died and know eye had seen me? I
35:53
Speaker 1: should have been It should have been, I should have
35:55
Speaker 1: been as though I had not been born, carried from
35:58
Speaker 1: womb to tomb, ever seen that the scripture from womb
36:01
Speaker 1: to tomb. I had never seen that before. Why wasn't
36:04
Speaker 1: I simply still born so that the doctor who or
36:07
Speaker 1: the midwife who assisted in my birth simply said to
36:10
Speaker 1: my mother, he's dead and they buried me. Why do
36:15
Speaker 1: I have to live in this physical anguish from womb
36:20
Speaker 1: to tomb? How much better that would have been Verse twelve. Again,
36:26
Speaker 1: maybe you missed it. Thou hast granted me life and
36:33
Speaker 1: tess it, and I care has preserved my spirit. There
36:41
Speaker 1: is a divine mercy for the physically afflicted. If you
36:47
Speaker 1: serve alongside someone who is suffering, suffering significantly, or if
36:52
Speaker 1: you have been through such suffering, you know that there
36:54
Speaker 1: are brief breaks in the pain where God's mercy comes
36:58
Speaker 1: in like a flood and washes over them. This is
37:03
Speaker 1: not a handicap. This is a physical affliction that job
37:06
Speaker 1: is going through. And here he says, in this anguish,
37:11
Speaker 1: you have granted me life, and you've given me mercy
37:16
Speaker 1: to continue to endure. Okay, you with me so far,
37:22
Speaker 1: We're almost there. When we're suffering the consequences of unfair treatment.
37:27
Speaker 1: As Joseph, there's mercy when we're enduring the grief, the grief,
37:31
Speaker 1: the loss of a Ludmin. As with Ruth, there is mercy.
37:35
Speaker 1: When we struggle with the limitations of a handicap. There
37:37
Speaker 1: is mercy, as with Maphibishet. When we're hurting and in
37:41
Speaker 1: physical pain, there is mercy, as with job, when we're
37:45
Speaker 1: under the guilt of transgression Psalm thirty two, As with David,
37:50
Speaker 1: there's mercy. Perhaps the most descriptive section in all scripture,
37:58
Speaker 1: the misery of those who keep their sin a secret,
38:02
Speaker 1: is found in Psalm thirty two and Psalm fifty one,
38:08
Speaker 1: just a few moments in each one of these. How
38:11
Speaker 1: blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
38:15
Speaker 1: How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does
38:17
Speaker 1: not impute iniquity, in whose spirit there's no deceit. When
38:21
Speaker 1: I kept silent about my sin, my body waste it
38:25
Speaker 1: away through my groaning all day long, for day and night.
38:33
Speaker 1: Thy hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away,
38:37
Speaker 1: as with the fever heat of summer. That's a description
38:41
Speaker 1: of life when sin is kept a secret, When you
38:44
Speaker 1: go on deceiving the public, when you don't let others
38:47
Speaker 1: know that you're wrong, and you're living Aliah, you keep
38:51
Speaker 1: it to yourself. There is a day and night heavy
38:53
Speaker 1: hand of God upon us, and the child of God
38:57
Speaker 1: suffers miserably. Verse five. I acknowledged my sin to THEE,
39:04
Speaker 1: and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I
39:07
Speaker 1: will confess my transgressions to the Lord, And thou didst
39:11
Speaker 1: forgive the guilt of my sin Selah verse ten. Many
39:22
Speaker 1: are the sorrows of the wicked. But he who trusts
39:26
Speaker 1: in the Lord, there's our word Kessith shall surround him.
39:34
Speaker 1: Even when you have kept your sin a secret, and
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 ten surrounds you with his loving kindness.
39:56
Speaker 1: He gives you his mercy. We see it again in
39:59
Speaker 1: Psal fifty one, same context, same man, same set of sins.
40:08
Speaker 1: In fact, you'll notice in the sub superscription just below
40:12
Speaker 1: the title Psalm fifty one, this is a psalm for
40:16
Speaker 1: the choir director. It is a psalm of David when
40:19
Speaker 1: Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone
40:22
Speaker 1: in to Bathsheba. So this is months after the adultery,
40:27
Speaker 1: while David kept it all a sin, and Nathan finally
40:30
Speaker 1: looked him in the eye and said, thou art the man.
40:33
Speaker 1: David's response in a Psalm, be gracious to me, o God,
40:41
Speaker 1: according to thy casid 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 twenty three? You know Psalm twenty three, The
41:12
Speaker 1: Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. You'll not
41:16
Speaker 1: appreciate Psalm twenty three if you don't put wool on
41:20
Speaker 1: because Psalm twenty three is written from the viewpoint of sheep,
41:25
Speaker 1: and some quaint commentator has suggested that that last verse
41:30
Speaker 1: represents God's sheep dogs. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
41:38
Speaker 1: me all the days of my life, sheep of God.
41:43
Speaker 1: Do you realize that there are two sheep dogs that
41:47
Speaker 1: watch you, watch over you, and care for you. Goodness
41:55
Speaker 1: and mercy. That's enough from the scriptures. Let's put it
42:02
Speaker 1: into our lives. And I can do that in just
42:04
Speaker 1: a brief period of time. Maybe you've tracked these five
42:06
Speaker 1: occasions with me, but you wonder still, how does it
42:11
Speaker 1: directly relate? May I go back to each one and
42:15
Speaker 1: give you a tagline for each one. When I am
42:19
Speaker 1: treated unfairly, God's mercy relieves my bitterness. That's what happens
42:25
Speaker 1: when Kessid comes into my cell. I have been in
42:30
Speaker 1: a dungeon of unfair treatment. Bitterness becomes my enemy, but
42:36
Speaker 1: Mercy relieves it. That great feeling of mercy relief. Mercy
42:45
Speaker 1: 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 greed 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 will never be a tomorrow
44:00
Speaker 1: when 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. Don'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, 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
45:37
Speaker 1: bed quoting a 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 raging 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 cherubim, 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 All Incorporated.
51:01
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
51:06
Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited,