His Lovingkindness

Introduction

Morning.

Turn your Bibles, if you will, to the one hundred and third Psalm. Psalm one hundred and three. Today is Father’s Day. Or as Stone told me yesterday, he said tomorrow is Happy Father’s Day. So happy, happy Father’s Day. To all of you fathers. I’m not going to preach today about fathers, but I’m going to talk to you about our Father in heaven. And I want to talk to you about his loving kindness from this hundred and third Psalm. Starting in verse eight through verse eighteen. And I would ask you to read this with me, and when I say that, I mean literally, if you will, read out loud with me as we go through this. It’s the New American Standard. I’m going to have the verses up on the screen.

Slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.

Nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame.

For man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember his precepts to do them. Amen. This is a sublime passage. And it is one which praises God for his loving kindness. Really, the entire psalm is a psalm of praise. It begins and ends with the statement, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And so everything in between those two bookends matches that idea. And certainly this, the very heart of this psalm about the loving kindness of God, causes us to bless the Lord with our soul.

The word loving kindness is kind of an old-fashioned word. It’s a word we don’t use every day. You know, you don’t tell your spouse, oh, I just have you know so much loving kindness for you. We don’t use that kind of terminology today. But it’s a very powerful word. It’s a word that the Hebrew word was kind of hard to render into an English word, and some translations just have mercy, which is somewhat limited for this broad meaning of the Hebrew word that’s there. Some have the uh royal love of God or such phrases, but loving kindness, that word was kind of created in the Coverdale’s translation of the Bible to render that particular Hebrew word. If you didn’t notice, it’s a combination of loving and kindness.

So what do you think it means? Well, it means to be loving and to be kind. It’s a tender word. If you looked it up in the New American Oxford Dictionary, the definition of the word is tenderness and consideration toward others. I think that some of us fathers might use a good dose of tenderness once in a while. You know, we sometimes might have this idea that if we tell our kids what to do and they don’t do it, then the solution must be that we have to say it louder. And if we say it louder and they didn’t do it, then the solution must be that we need to shout it at the top of our lungs. And if that didn’t fix it, then let the beatings commence.

And yes, I do believe that we need to spank our children, but also believe that us fathers sometimes lack some tenderness. I think it’s no accident that Ephesians 6 and verse 4 says fathers. Do not provoke your children to anger or wrath. Notice it doesn’t say mothers. And it doesn’t say fathers and mothers. It says fathers, and it says the same thing in the parallel in Colossians. Why fathers do not uh how does the verse go? Fathers do not. That’s it. Why does it signify fathers? Well, because fathers tend to provoke their children to wrath. I think that’s why. At least one reason why fathers are pointed out there. We tend to deal with everything with this an iron hand. And we don’t listen. We don’t stop.

You know, I know that’s been my mistake through the years. You just come in and there’s a situation with the kids and it’s chaos, and oh, I just start beating them. Not really beating them. I just, I don’t, I don’t even stop to see what the situation is. Well, you just must all need a spanking. That’s not tenderness. But mothers, and Holly has helped me. You know, they know how to listen and analyze the reality of the situation. And they care and they show that consideration and compassion when their children are hurting, whereas father’s just like, oh, it’ll be fine. Go on. Well, we need to make sure that that’s not us, but I tell you what, that’s not our God. Because our love our God is a God of loving kindness.

1. His Loving Kindness Is Undeserved

He is a God of tenderness. He is a God of consideration. And it’s not just a little bit, it’s a tremendous amount. God exercises tremendous loving kindness toward those who fear him. And so in this Psalm, we’re not talking just about God’s love for mankind, like John 3.16, for God to love the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. Well, yes, God does love the world. But this particular psalm is pointing out God’s love for his people. And that’s a special love. It’s a saving love that God has for his people. And he wants to save the world, but if they do not come to him, he will not. In this Psalm, we see three aspects of God’s loving kindness. And the first one is that his loving kindness is uneserved.

It is uneserved. It cannot be earned. There is nothing we can do to deserve it. He gives it to us as a gift when we do what he says, which is to fear him. In verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness. Slow to anger. My father, he’s got a very long fuse. But when he was a teenager, he was not that way. He tells me of a time when he was at school and someone came up to him at his desk in class and said, Tony Willingham, I want to fight you. And my dad just punched him in the nose. There was no discussing. Why do you want to fight? No, we don’t need to fight. Very little short fuse.

In fact, no fuse at all. And as he grew and matured, he grew out of that. So that by the time I knew him as my father, he had a very, very long fuse. And he told me that. He said, son, I have a very long fuse. It takes a lot to get me angry. But once I get angry, I’m angry. And I’m thankful that I never saw my dad angry. I I can never recall one time in my life that I saw my dad angry. Frustrated, yes. In fact, I can’t even remember seeing my dad be grouchy. My dad’s a wonderful man. Our God is a wonderful God. You talk about a long fuse. Now don’t get me wrong. Our God is also a consuming fire who hates wickedness.

But we need not forget that if we are his people, he has compassion with us. He is compassionate and gracious. He is slow to anger. We almost get this idea of God that he just gets mad at everything all the time. Just the tiniest thing. Man, God’s mad. He’s ready to destroy everybody. Like he’s this great big cosmic cop that’s just out looking for somebody to condemn. That is not our God. Our God wants to save. He longs to save. He finds favor in saving and in forgiving. He is slow to anger. He is abounding in loving kindness. Do we sometimes feel his love’s just going to kind of run out one day? I mean, it’s not going to run out. It’s not going to run out for you, and it’s not going to run out for me.

This statement of verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. Is one of the most significant statements in all of Scripture. Definitely in the Old Testament. And one reason I know that is surely by the number of times the statement is found. And you have a few passages in your notes there. The first time we read this statement, first time we find it is in Exodus chapter 34. This is after God wanted to wipe out the Israelites because of the golden calf. He wanted to wipe them off the face of the planet, which, by the way, they deserved. And Moses pleads with God, don’t do that. Then God said, Okay, I’m not going to do that, but I will not let my presence go with the people.

And Moses again pleads with God, go with us. We can’t do this without you. And God again agrees. And in verse 18 of chapter 33, then Moses said, I pray you, show me your glory. He wanted to see something. And he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I’ll be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. And the idea is that God is saying, Yes, I will show you my glory, but the greater glory that is to be realized is that I am a compassionate God. And so we see in chapter 34 and verse 6. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.

Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. This statement we find again in Numbers chapter 14, after the Israelites sent the twelve spies into the land who came back with a fearful report, and the people were afraid to enter the land, and God says, I’m gonna wipe them out, Moses. And Moses again says, Remember what you told me back there on the mountain? Remember how you said, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Don’t kill these people. And God again has mercy on these people that they deserve to die. The prophets love this statement. They would often use it in times of rebellion of the Israelites to tell them, You need to repent.

And here’s the motivation. Our God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. Instead of, here’s the motivation. He’s going to destroy you if you don’t. Well, yeah, that one’s added on at the end of the quote. But you want motivation to repent? How about this? Our God will forgive you abundantly. He will receive you if you but come to him. Even Jonah quotes this. Remember the first sermon I preached here as your preacher after my tryout sermons.

This is the capital city of Assyria. And God tells them to go and tell these people to repent. And he goes and he finally ends up going after trying to run from God. And when he tells them to repent, lo and behold, they repented. And then God did not punish them, which he wanted them, Jonah wanted God to do to them. And then Jonah complained to God about his mercy. He said, I knew that you’re a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. Where did he get that? Well, from Numbers 14 and from Exodus 34. They didn’t have the chapter numbers back then, but that’s where he got it from. He knew that if God would have mercy on those Israelites who deserve to be wiped off the face of the planet, then he would also have mercy on these the most wicked people on the planet who repented for their wickedness.

And so, you know, I made the point that Jonah sure was thankful for the grace and mercy of God because it saved him in the belly of the fish. But he begrudged that mercy being shown to somebody else. And so we need to remember that we need not begrudge God’s compassion upon somebody else and God’s grace, because we rely upon it desperately. God cares deeply. He angers slowly, and he blesses abundantly. Verses 9 and 10, he will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Sometimes we get hung up on, well, that’s not fair. And we we even think God’s being unfair to me. As if we were really wanting fairness.

Because if we really wanted fairness, you know what we get, don’t you? We’d be gone. There’d be none of us left. And not only would we have physical death, we’d have spiritual death. And we’d have it in the afterlife. That’s what we deserve for our sin. No, our God is not a God of exacting justice, nor a God of relentless wrath towards those who fear him. Well, yes, he is. He’s a God of justice. Yes, but Paul in Romans 3, verse 26 says that God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And the two aspects of God hold God’s holiness are justice and love. And it is a perfect blend of these two that makes up the characteristic of our perfect God.

He says, Better than I deserve. Some of y’all know who I’m talking about.

Better than I deserve. And you know, we might try that on for sides sometimes. What do we normally say? How are you? Fine. Fine. Well, what does that mean? I’m not dead.

Fine. We don’t ever use that word unless somebody asks us how we’re doing. Fine. How about I’m better than I deserve? It’s a statement of grace, isn’t it? It’s a statement of faith. It’s a sermon in a few words that make somebody stop and think. I don’t do it. I need to do it. And not only just say those words, but brethren, we need to think that and realize that and pray that and give thanks for that every day of our lives. That God has not given us what we deserve. We don’t have death, we don’t have hell because he has forgiven us through the blood of his son. And we have salvation before us, which we could never earn or deserve. Praise be unto our beautiful God.

2. His Loving Kindness Is Unreserved

Well, the second aspect of God’s loving kindness, now that we have looked at the fact that his loving kindness is undeserved, now we see that it is unreserved. My original word until last night when I was going through this was unlimited, until I realized unreserved matched it better, and it rhymes. And I like that because it makes it stick in your head better. And I’m really serious about that. So try to actually remember this. God’s love is undeserved towards those who fear him, and it is unreserved towards those who fear him. This is, I think, my favorite part of the whole psalm. We see three comparisons made. First in verse 11, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.

As high as the heavens are above the earth. I remember when my boys were little, this is before June came, and I don’t even know if Stone was really old enough to talk, so I mainly remember this with Ty. We used to have this routine where I think it was mainly at bedtime or whatever. I love you, buddy. Well, I love you too, Daddy. I love you more. I love you more. I love you this much. Well, I love you this much. I love you from that wall to that wall. And eventually it would come down to one of us saying, I love you to the moon and back. What does that mean? I mean, we could figure out how many miles it is. You could get your little iPhones out and tablets and figure it out.

Don’t do that right now. But you could tell me exactly how many miles it is to there and back. But that’s not the point when we say to the moon and back. The point is I can’t quantify this. Kind of like when Jesus said, Don’t forgive somebody up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. It’s a it’s a it’s a you can’t quantify it. It’s unlimited. So this kind of this love that God has for us, it is unreserved. And so we see that this is a vertical comparison. How high are the heavens above the earth? You want to try to get a tape measure and measure that one? You see? It’s unlimited. We sometimes almost doubt the love of God in our lives.

We just feel these out to get us, like I said before. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit and the inner might. And that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses comprehension. Now to him who is able to do far more exceeding abundantly than we are able to ask or think. To him be the glory in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

Amen. That’s at the end of Ephesians 3, a beautiful prayer that Paul prays. And what he says there is, I pray that you can comprehend the love of God, which, by the way, is incomprehensible. Comprehend it, but you can’t comprehend it all. The breadth, the length, the height, and the depth, and we have just now talked about the height. Now let’s talk about the width. In verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. This is not a vertical comparison, it is a horizontal comparison. How far is the east from the west?

Far. Who said that? It is far. Again, unlimited. God’s love is unreserved toward those who fear him. And notice this doesn’t just say, it doesn’t just say, like verse 11 says, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him. This says, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. So it’s more specific than the former statement. We really struggle. Do you struggle with this idea sometimes? That you’re going to heaven? Do you struggle with the confidence of heaven? I think too many Christians struggle with that, particularly the brethren that I have come in contact with through my life in churches of Christ. I don’t know if it’s because we put so much emphasis on works and obedience to the neglect of grace and mercy.

Maybe we do that. But people are left with this feeling, I just can’t really feel that I know I’m going to heaven. We need to know we’re going to heaven and have that living hope, as Peter talked about. And I tell you, if you don’t believe that you’re going to heaven, and you are a Christian who fears God, then you are doubting that God will do what he said he will do when he said he will separate our sins as far as the East is from the West. It’s a faith issue. It’s a trust issue. Now, if you doubt you’re going to heaven because you’re not living right, or because you’re not a Christian, then you need to doubt your salvation. But if you’re a baptized believer who fears the Lord, and you’re not perfect, but you are committing your life to him to whom you serve, then you need to have the utmost confidence that your sins have been separated as far as the east is from the West.

Or as Micah said in Micah chapter 7, that God has cast our sins into the depth of the sea, or as Hezekiah said, that God has cast my sins behind my back. As if I’m not going to see them anymore. They’re gone. Because if we don’t do that, if we don’t believe that, then we’re not going to be able to do what Paul said to do when Paul said, one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. What Paul is saying is quit looking in the past. And sometimes it’s our hang ups of our sins that we’ve committed that we can’t forgive ourselves from.

And we can’t think, well, they’re gone. Well, guess what? They’re gone. If you have asked forgiveness from our Lord, and if you are one of his children who fears him. When you ask for forgiveness, those sins are gone. G-O-N-E. Gone. Do you have the faith to believe that? Because if we don’t have the confidence of heaven, we’re not going to live like we’re going to heaven. We’re not going to free ourselves to do that. And the gospel is about freedom. After we see this vertical comparison and this horizontal comparison in verses 11 and 12, thirdly, we see a relational comparison. Just as the Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. I tell you, I like kids. Some more than others.

But I do like, and I love kids. I care about the foster children in this foster place right up the road. I think we all love children and we don’t want bad things to happen to them, but I tell you what, I don’t love any children as much as I love my children. I don’t want bad things to happen to any children in the world, and it breaks my heart of what’s going on in Syria and Iraq and other places of the world, and what’s going on to children in North Korea. It’s terrible. But as much as I don’t want anything bad to happen to any children in the world, I really don’t want anything bad to happen to my children. Why? Because they’re my children.

I care about them more than any other children on the face of the planet. I have compassion for them. I would do anything for them, give my life for them. I might or might not for somebody else. That’s how our God feels about us. Because we are his children. He has a special affinity for us. Yes, he loves the whole world because he gave his own son to die for the whole world. But he has a special love for his children, a special compassion. The word compassion means that you feel sorry. You sympathize. And if Jesus showed us the Father in His life, Jesus wept, which means God weeps when we weep. He cares for us. And sometimes we feel that he doesn’t. We feel all alone.

The only way that we can know and feel that is through faith. To know that he cares and has compassion on his children. Verse 14, for he himself knows our frame.

What does that mean? He knows our frame. That means he knows that some of us are tall and lanky and some are short and stout. He knows our frame. Means he knows what we are.

He knows that we are human. He knows that we are frail. He knows that we are dust. And therefore, as a result of the fact that he knows what we are, he has compassion on us. In my house, we have two boys and one girl. Well, we have two girls. But one daughter. And the daughter is Juni Lee, and she’s almost three. Having had two boys before her, I was not prepared for a girl in this sense. Girls are sensitive. Little girls are sensitive. They cry a lot. They cry a lot more than boys do. And my boys did. And I just look at her with a look of disapproval and she breaks down. In fact, I could even just tell her something like, honey, don’t touch that as hot.

Oh, Daddy told me not to do something. No. The drama and the tears. And what do I do when I see her in her fragile state? Do I just tell her, stop? No, I pick her up. And I say, it’s okay, honey. Now, would I do that for a 10-year-old? No, but I do for the two year old because I know her frame. I don’t expect her to be something that she cannot be. Our God does not expect us to be something we cannot be. He cannot expect us to be perfect. He cannot expect us to be superhuman because we’re not. What God expects us to be is what He created us to be and to be the best we can in what He created us to be.

3. His Loving Kindness Is Unending

Which is to be made in the image of His Son. He has compassion on us because He knows our frame. He knows that we are frail. He knows that we are dust. We sometimes just omit this idea of God’s grace from our lives. And all we’re left with is a list of rules. Well, after seeing that God’s love is undeserved and unreserved, third and finally, we see that his loving kindness is unending. It is unending. I couldn’t think of a word to rhyme with undeserved and unreserved that had the same meaning. But let’s see if we can’t kind of log that away and remember those three things. God’s love is undeserved, it is unreserved, and it is unending toward those who fear him. Verse 15 says, as for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

When the wind has passed over it, it is no more. And his place acknowledges it no longer. But the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. And his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember his precepts to do them. Whereas in the former verses, we saw three great comparisons. In this passage, in this set of verses, we see a great contrast instead of a comparison. And the contrast is this man’s existence is temporal. Man is temporal, but God’s loving kindness is not that way. We are like grass. We are like a flower, and the wind blows, and we’re just gone. But God’s loving kindness is not that way. It is from everlasting to everlasting.

And it’s hard living on this earth as a human. Which is all we’ve ever known. Why? Because this earth and our life is subject to decay, it is subject to corruption, and death mars every happy moment. Because one day those moments will come to an end because death will inevitably come. And the people that you think that you can rely upon and that you can hang on to, the people that you think are your anchor and your stay, they are going to be gone one day. And when they’re taken away from you, then all hope is lost if you don’t have your anchor set in something that is sure and steadfast. The only thing that is sure and steadfast is the everlasting love of our God.

It has always been and it always will be from everlasting to everlasting. It is as trustworthy and we can count on it just as much as we count on the eternality of our God Himself. As Jesus said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The one who is and who was, and when who is to come, the Almighty. So if we can rely upon our God to be that and our Savior, then we can rely upon their love to be that. And in all eternity. I believe that it is God’s love that will sustain us. To dwell in perfection and in holiness for all eternity with Him. We see also that this loving kindness is extended only to those who fear Him.

And in verse 18, to those who keep His covenant and remember his precepts. Now listen, you know why I preach feel-good lessons sometimes? Because we need to feel good. But we don’t need to feel so good that we forget about the condition. And the condition is fear God. Sin is serious business. We need to hate sin. And we need to take a stand for righteousness. And we need to serve God when the day is long and when the hours are tough, and when the temptation is right before us.

Conclusion

And if we do not do that, then we will be without his loving kindness, and we will have no hope. And so God’s loving kindness. It is undeserved, it is unreserved, and it is unending.

As we read in Romans, the fifth chapter. In verse 6, it says, For while we were helpless, while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Notice that this passage doesn’t extol the love of Christ, but the love of God. Yes, it’s the love of Christ on the cross, but it’s also the love of God because he gave his own son. And you might have heard the illustration. I don’t think it’s a true story, and I’ll probably tell it a lot different than you heard it.

A man who worked, this would have been back years ago with a different type of uh movable bridge, perhaps with the larger gears and so on. And uh his son was there with him, his young son, had gone and fallen into the place where the gears were, and was actually stuck between the gears. So his father found out. Hold on, son, I’ll come and get you. But it was at that time that he saw the train coming. And what his job as the bridge tender was to do was to see that that bridge lowers whenever the train comes through and then it goes up whenever the ships go through. And so he had a he had to make a decision right at the moment. What am I going to do?

Because if I pull this lever, it’ll save everybody who’s on that train, but my son is caught in the gears. It will inevitably kill my son. I tell you what I think I might have done. Save my son. Even if the rest had to die. But what God did is he pulled the lever. Can you, as a father, imagine that? Letting your own son die? And to make the illustration more powerful, realize that the people on the train were enemies of the bridge tender. And they were the filth of the world. And he chose to give up his own son for their salvation. We are the people on the train. And the Son is Jesus Christ, and the Father is our God in heaven. That’s where we see the loving kindness of God.

And not only do we see it in God giving up his son, but we see it in Jesus Christ Himself. What held Jesus to the cross? You might say the nails held him to the cross. Well, I’m going to tell you. There are no nails, there is no rope, there is no gorilla glue that could have held Jesus to the cross. The thing that held Jesus to the cross is his love for mankind and for the church. And that’s why he gave himself to die for every one of us. So that we too might die with him and therefore live. If you’d like to become a Christian, you can die with Christ today. By repenting of your sins, believing in his name, confessing his name, and being buried in the waters of baptism, and then rising from that grave to walk in a new life, committed to walking in the light.

If you would like to become a Christian and have the hope of eternal life and have security of God’s loving kindness, why don’t you do that today? As we stand and sing the song of invitation.