God's Hesed (part 1)

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Enemies Within The Walls: The Terrible Tongue (part 2)

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Our Father in Heaven, we want to take the time to just stop and to be still and to come to your throne of grace, thanking you and praising you that it is a throne of grace.
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Lord, it's not a throne of justice, it's not a throne of wrath that we come before, but because you've called us to be your people, because you've set your love upon us, we in this room that name the name of Christ, the church of God, the elect of God, those children of your dear love, we want to thank you.
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And we want to ask this morning that you'd be merciful to us, to forgive us our sins, to remember us in your mercy, and to favor us and to smile upon us this morning.
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Even as we teach here this morning, as we listen, as we hear the preaching, as the singing that will take place, with all the different ministries of the church this morning, we pray that Jesus would be magnified in it all.
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We pray as we look at this study this morning that we would be encouraged, that we would be gripped by this subject, that we would be in awe of our great
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God and King, and we would love you and love your word more, and love your Son, the
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Lord Jesus. We thank you and praise you in his precious name. Amen. I want to give a couple of words of recognition for this study this morning, because I had heard a message when
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Deb and I were living in Texas. Pastor Tom Pennington at Countryside Bible Church in South Lake, Texas, preached a message, and he dealt with a word, and I kind of hung on to that, and I said, that would be really, really a good
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Sunday school class someday. And I took some of his information, and then I found there was an Ian Duguid of Ligonier Ministries.
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I'm sure I didn't pronounce that right. But I found an article by him that kind of also helped frame some thoughts, and I'll be quoting from them, and I'll try to give recognition where they are as we go through this study.
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Your sheet is different than my sheet, so it's going to be different. If you think we're going to go through that sheet, it may not exactly flow, but we'll get to some of those things.
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Just a piece of paper mainly for you to take notes on, and then also to be able to take it home with you and do further study, because we're not going to be able to look at all the verses that are on the sheet that I had given you.
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Does anybody not have one? Raise your hand. You don't have a sheet? You'd like one? Okay. We're going to study a subject this morning, and really it's going to do two things,
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I hope. It's going to have us to understand God's Word and what this subject is, so that we ourselves will act in a different way.
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We'll be encouraged to good behavior in a different way. But more importantly, we come to church on Sunday not to check out each other's new apparel, per se.
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We don't come to have the inner talkings to find out who's doing what or whatever in the world.
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But don't we try to get away from those things and come to learn of our great God? We're going to come this morning before His Word to learn something so special about the
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God who loves us, the God who has saved us, and that's His Chesed. And that's a
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Hebrew word that we're going to look at, and we're going to see what it's defined as, how it's used in the
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Bible, the obligation that we have as far as to live this way. But more than anything, we're going to see something about God's Chesed.
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And you might be thinking, well, Brother David, I don't think I heard you right, but you said Chesed. And I did. I said
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Chesed. I don't pronounce it probably the proper way. It's supposed to have that Chesed in front of it.
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And yet it is a Hebrew term that we're going to look at. And I wonder, raise your hand if you've heard a message on God's Chesed.
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Oh, two, three, four, five, maybe four or five. Great. Super. You'll be able to maybe give some comments from the things that you have heard.
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But look at Psalm 107, and we have an admonition here for us concerning this topic.
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And I just wanted to start there. Verse 43, I'm sorry, the last verse.
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Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the
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Lord. And that steadfast love there, translated in the English as the Hebrew word, Chesed.
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And what are we to do? It says here we are to consider. We are to ponder this subject. We're being admonished to think about this, to give some deep thought and some meditation upon this subject.
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Because not only will it tell us about God and who he is and how he acts, but it will also help us as far as for us to see how it is that we're to act towards others.
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It's very interesting that this kind of follows on the teachings of Pastor Steve on forgiveness.
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Because when we understand this subject of how God has dealt with us, and we know that we'll be able to put all kinds of verses together from the
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New Testament, but how God has dealt with his people, that's how we ought to deal with each other.
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And if this is demonstrated in the church of God, forgiveness is going to flow. And kindness is going to flow.
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And the issues between brother and sister in Christ is going to diminish in the light of this great truth of how
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God has dealt with us and how we ought to deal with each other. But we should consider the steadfast love of the
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Lord. But let me give you a little background on this word. It's an Old Testament Hebrew word.
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It occurs about 250 times. And we're not going to get through all of those in this class, of course.
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And it is a central theological term. And over time in the Bible translations, it's proved hard for the
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Bible translators to pick one English word for this based upon how it's in its context and how it's used.
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But we find, and I have on your notes there, some of the ways it's been translated in your Bibles.
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You'll see the word kindness, faithfulness, mercy, loving kindness, goodness, loyalty, and particularly in the
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ESV, is steadfast love. In Chesed, the word itself contains the idea of love and loyalty.
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Love and loyalty. God's Chesed is His persistent, steadfast, unconditional tenderness and kindness and mercy towards His people.
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And there's one verse in particular that speaks of God's Chesed and that relationship with God and His people.
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And it says that God delights in it. You came to church this morning and maybe you might have had the grumbles this morning.
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Or maybe you had the rumbles at home or in the car with somebody who didn't quite have it together this morning and you weren't on, you weren't where you should be as far as you're thinking.
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And you're thinking, oh man, I'm just a basket case today. Or maybe that was your week last week.
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But really when it comes to the Lord, He delights in you as His people. And you sometimes, and I can sometimes just step back and think, how could
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He ever do that? And we're going to see it's because of His Chesed. It's something He has committed
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Himself to do. It is something that He has determined to do towards His people.
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It's God's persistent and steadfast tenderness, kindness and mercy.
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It's God's affection that has committed itself to do good to His people regardless of whether it's reciprocated.
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It goes from the people back to God whether it's reciprocated or not or whether it's deserved.
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And we're going to find, and I think we're all at the place where we are in our Christian life, if you're a believer here this morning and you have repented of your sins, called upon the name of the
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Lord Jesus and you are saved, you understand that anything that you deserve, anything that you receive in your life is undeserved.
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It's grace, isn't it? It's the favor of God. It's unmerited, undeserved favor.
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And that's the meaning when you take this word Chesed and you look at it, you see that it is the way that God deals with us contrary to the way that we behave at times.
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We're going to see that. But one of the best phrases that I found to capture the meaning of God's Chesed, putting it all together, and I believe
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I have that on your sheet at the end of one of the first paragraphs, is God's steadfast loving kindness.
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God's steadfast loving kindness. Tom Pennington, pastor there in Texas, said,
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Chesed sometimes speaks of the relationship between two humans. And we want to go there too, because I want you to see that.
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Turn in 1 Samuel chapter 20. 1 Samuel, and I might be a little slow here today.
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I'm using a new Bible, so it's like not broken in. You know how that is. You've got to try to... The pages are all sticking together, so it's harder for me to get there.
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But we'll get there. In 1 Samuel chapter 20, we have
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Chesed showing itself between two people, two humans. And Chesed is something that occurs between humans in the horizontal relationship, but it also, more importantly, where we're going to get to, and the one that really blesses us and grips us is the vertical, where it is the
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Lord with his people. But we have an instance in here, a record, an account of two folks, two people who had purposed to demonstrate
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Chesed, or this steadfast loving kindness towards each other.
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And that's Jonathan and David. And David is in a place right here where he is fleeing from Saul. Saul is
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Jonathan's father. Saul is king, and he's fleeing from Saul. And Jonathan, the son of the king who's trying to get
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David, has a relationship, a friendship, a close, close friendship with David.
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And so they meet, and they're talking. And if you look in verse 12, 1
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Samuel 20, verse 12, Jonathan says to David, The Lord God of Israel be witness.
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When I have sounded out my father about the time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall
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I not then send and disclose it to you? So Jonathan's going to find out if Saul is really still going to be after David.
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And he said, But should it please my father, verse 13, to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan more also, if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety.
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So he's agreeing, if my father is against you still, he's going to do you harm, I'm going to come and tell you. And then he says, in verse, let's see.
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Well, we'll just keep reading. In verse 14, if I am still alive, and we're going to come across the word now.
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If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord. That steadfast love right there is the word has said.
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He said, if I'm still alive, show me the has said, the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die.
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And do not cut off your steadfast love. There it is again, from my house forever, when the
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Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. Jonathan knows David is going to be king.
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Typically, when a king comes into reign, what happens to the to the previous regime?
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Many of it in this time were just they were wiped out. They were they were all killed. So there would be no uprising.
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And Jonathan is saying to David, his friend, if when you are king, if I'm still alive, show me has said.
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And basically, I believe what he's saying here is if I'm cut off and I die, please show has said or steadfast love to my descendants.
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And notice what it says as we go on. Do not cut off your steadfast love from my house. Verse 15, when the
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Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. Verse 16, and Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, may the
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Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him.
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David was not entering into a contract because he's going to get money here. He wasn't going to do this because he was going to receive some type of remuneration.
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He's going to receive some type of power. David was going to do this because he what,
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Jonathan, he that's good, loved. He loved Jonathan.
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He was going to he he wanted to enter into this promise or this covenant that he would take care of him if he was alive or his descendants because of his love, this covenant promise that he made to him.
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Jonathan made David swear verse 17 again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
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So what what David and Jonathan is what's happening here is because Jonathan is saying because of your love for me, preserve me.
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If I'm not alive because of your love for me, preserve my descendants. And what's really interesting is we see this fulfilled in Scripture.
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Turn with me to the next book, 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 9.
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Of course, we know what happens at the beginning of 2 Samuel. Jonathan and David in battle and John, I mean, not
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Jonathan, David, Saul and Jonathan are in battle and they are killed. David is come has come into reign and he's and he is the new he is the king.
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And it says so you can see this in chapter 8 and verse 15. So David reigned over all
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Israel. David is reigning there. It lists his officials there at the end of verse of chapter 8.
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And now we come to chapter 9. David said, is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?
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Which word do you believe in that verse is hesed? Which one?
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Say it loud. Kindness, right? So David comes to this place. He's in reign. He's considering what he has made a covenant with as far as with Jonathan in the past.
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And he comes to this point where he says, he remembered that he had made this promise to Jonathan that when he became king, he wouldn't obliterate
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Jonathan's family or the house of Saul. And he's going to do this because he is going to get more tick marks as far as in the polls, right?
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He's going to be a better king. They're going to really like him a whole lot more than people, right? That's why he's going to do this? He's going to get some money?
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No. Why is he going to do this? It says here, he said, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake.
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Because of his love for Jonathan. Because of his commitment to Jonathan. Because this friend that he had, he loved him as he loved his own soul.
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And he promised to him that he would do this and show him this kindness. You see, it's not just a gooey affection, this has said.
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It's not just, because we can have affection and people say, oh, I love you, but they don't show it, right?
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I mean, we've kind of experienced that probably in life, if you've been around the block a few times. People say, oh,
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I love you, but then they don't act that way towards you. Or it's not a legal, just a legal thing.
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Jonathan and David, he pulls out the contract and he says, oh yeah, I'm supposed to do this to Jonathan, check it off. It's all done,
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I did it. It's not the goo of affection and it's not just legal transaction that's taking place.
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It's both of them together in such a way that you're going to act out this way that you promised that you would because of your great love for this person.
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And that's what David is doing to Jonathan. Let's just read this because I always love this record of what happens next and what
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David finds. Now, there was a servant, verse 2, of the house of Saul whose name was Zeba, and they called him to David.
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And the king said to him, are you Zeba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I might show him chesed, kindness of God to him?
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Zeba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, where is he?
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Finds out that he lives in Lodibar. And the king said in verse 5, then the king David sent and brought him from the house of Maker, the son of Emiel from Lodibar.
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And Mephibosheth, that's his name, the son of Jonathan. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul came to David and fell on his face and paid homage.
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And David said, Mephibosheth. Then he answered, behold, I am your servant. And David said unto him, get these words now, do not fear for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father,
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Jonathan. There it is, human to human. This has said, this is how we are to act and are supposed to act.
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I'm going to show you a verse how we're obligated to act in this way when it comes to horizontal relationships between people.
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He said, I'll show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. I will restore you all the land of Saul, your father, and you shall eat at my table always.
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And he paid homage, it said, Mephibosheth did. And he said, what is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?
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Then the king called Ziba his servant. He made arrangements with this servant Ziba so that Mephibosheth was taken care of.
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He had food to eat. And look in verse 11.
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Then Ziba said to the king, according to all that my lord the king commanded his servant, so will your servant do.
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So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son.
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His name was Micah. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table.
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And he was lame on his feet. Now, isn't that a wonderful description of how a relationship ought to be if you truly say that you love someone?
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This steadfast, tenacious commitment. It's an affection that has a commitment and it shows itself.
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And we as the people of God, and I'm just going to kind of, maybe just kind of go along with Pastor Steve's Sunday school classes about the perils of what can tear a church apart and affect unity.
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And one of the things is, is if we truly won't forgive, if we do not show love towards each other.
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And did not our Lord Jesus say that you will know them? You will know that the people, the world will know that you are my disciples because you have big churches with big signs out front, right?
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And you've got all kinds of goodies in the church, right? Big pizazz.
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No, he said they will know, the world will know that you are my disciples because of the love that you have one for another.
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And I cannot stress this more, any more than humanly possible.
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It's just, it's something that we as a people of God need to understand.
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And that's why I think it's good to go back where you see these first mentions. I mean, Adam and Eve sinning in the garden.
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And blame shifting when they're caught. The man says, the woman you gave me,
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God, made me do this. Eve says, the serpent made me do this.
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And God comes and there isn't the blast, is there? I mean, yes, there's consequences for their sin.
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But God comes and rather than saying, okay, I just started, the
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Son and the Father and the Spirit, we just started this creation, there's the first two, wipe them out, let's start over again.
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Let's just do this again. No, he said, he comes, he's purposed to set his love upon his people.
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And he's committed to do them good. I always think of when Jesus came on the scene in Acts chapter 10,
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I believe it is. It says that he went about doing good. When God has put his fingers in things, he's doing good unto his people.
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And he comes and he kills an animal and clothes them and takes care, makes provision for them, doesn't he?
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And we see this over and over and over again. We see it between God and man, but we also see it between people.
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We also see it horizontally. And I just want to encourage you that that's another aspect of this.
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But now what I'm going to do is move on more towards the vertical, God and us. Tom Pennington, like I said, he went on and he said, but most frequently has said refers to the relationship between God and his people.
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It contains two equal ideas. Most frequently has said refers to the relationship.
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Most frequently has said refers to the relationship between God and his people. It has these ideas, a profound love found in the deepest of relationships and a tenacious, stubborn commitment to loving the person in that relationship.
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You ever heard of somebody saying, they're talking to you and telling you too much, and it's
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TMI, right? Too much information? Around the house, sometimes I pour it on too much and Deb says,
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TML, it's just too much love, you know, around the house. No, I kid you.
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But that's what it ought to be, right? Oh, just hold on, you know, just too much, right?
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But the problem sometimes isn't it that we're yearning for people to truly love us as we desire to love other people.
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And yet when it comes to not only the human relationship, when it comes to the Lord, we enter into this truth of God's has said towards us.
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And it ought to humble us and it ought to thrill us and it ought to so grip us and it ought to so change us.
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What's the sense in coming to scripture and just reading it and just for knowledge sake and for it not to radically change us?
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And that's our desire. You're here in Sunday school this morning, I'm sure maybe for various different reasons, but more than anything,
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I would trust that you might be gripped by truth so that it changes your behavior and it makes your
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God bigger. And God is to be more glorified and it prepares us. I kind of sometimes
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I feel like the old day preparing, priming the pump, you know, just getting us ready for the worship service so that we're ready to lift up our voices in praise.
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There was a commentator Davis, he said, has said is not merely love, but loyal love, not merely kindness, but dependable kindness, not merely affection, but affection that is committed itself.
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Has said ultimately flows not from a formal covenant promise, but from and get this the very nature of the covenant keeping
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God. It's God at his nature. We're going to see this in his nature.
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Yahweh who is rich in has said and fidelity. On your sheet, you will see under the section.
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I think it's on the first page. It has a bunch of verses and it says in the Old Testament, you will find that God's has said is described as abounding great.
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It extends to the heavens. It's precious. It's good and it's better than life. And some of those verses we're going to look at, but some in some of those you will see like in in Psalm 13 verse 22.
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There is one of the references. It talks about the greatness of God's steadfast love in Psalm 5 verse 7.
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God is a but the abundance of God's steadfast love or is has said in Psalm 33 5 that verse says the earth is full of the has said of the
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Lord. The earth is full of his steadfast love Psalm 119 verse 64.
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The earth O Lord is full of your steadfast love Psalm 36.
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The word precious there on the second bullet. Psalm 36 7 how precious is your steadfast love?
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Oh God, I put that one in there for Pastor Cooley because he's been talking about the word precious. Let me be people overdoing it, but you can't overdo the word precious the value the worth of God's has said and we're going to see something about that as we continue.
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Let me read you out of Vines Dictionary. I'm just kind of setting the ground the ground here as far as defining this and then we'll go but we'll go on and we'll look at some actual some more verses in general.
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Vines quoted said one may identify three basic meanings of has said and these three meanings always interact strength steadfastness and love any understanding of has said that fails to suggest all three of these inevitably loses some of its richness.
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I was mentioning this before love by itself easily becomes sentiment.
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Sentimentalized or universalized apart from the government so we can get love by itself all by itself can become just sentiment but strength and steadfastness by themselves only suggest a fulfillment of a legal or similar obligation but has said with the combination refers primarily to the mutual and reciprocal rights and obligations between parties of a relationship, especially
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Jehovah in Israel. It implies mercy. It implies personal involvement and commitment in a relationship beyond the rule of the law.
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It goes beyond just the commitment beyond what what what the obligation is. It is because maybe you haven't thought about this today, but God has set his love upon you his people and because he has said his love upon you as the people of God as the elect of God.
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He has purposed to act in a way where he shows his has said his steadfast loving kindness and it comes out in acts of kindness and mercy towards us.
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So why study this word? Well turn with me in Micah to Micah one of the minor prophets
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Micah near the end of the Old Testament Micah chapter 6 and it would be after Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel Hosea after Hosea after Amos after Jonah and right after Jonah and right before the book of Nahum come to Micah chapter 6.
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And we're going to see an obligation that the Lord that the Lord gives us and this is kind of like the horizontal
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Micah 6 verse 8. He God has told you old man.
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What is good? And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your
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God an encapsulation a summary of how it is that we're to behave ourselves and how we're where to act in right in the middle of there.
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It says that the second part of that verse where to do justice and we are to love kindness.
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And if you've got the ESV and you look at the footnote, what do you see in the footnote steadfast? Love has said to love it.
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That's interesting. Isn't it to love steadfast love? And if we love it,
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I believe that it that it means that we want to incorporate that as part of our behavior the way that we're going to act towards others.
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So one of the first reasons that we're to study this and I think it's good for us to study this is because we are obligated to act this way and treat our brothers and sisters in Christ with has said in this way.
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But let me give you another reason. I think I believe has said this word here is one of those word studies where we find a precious jewel.
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Sometimes I think I've told you this before but I have if you wake me if I wake up in the morning and you talk to me within the first minute of me waking up.
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I can usually remember the dreams that I've had Deb and I talked about this once in a while. She doesn't remember all of hers.
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I can remember mine but she's starting to remember more of hers. And sometimes I have this dream where I'm going down the street and I'm sure
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I don't know what has caused it but I'm going down the street and I see a nickel and I pick it up.
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And then I walk a little further and I see a bunch of nickels or dimes or quarters and I'm picking them all up.
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And the more I walk, the more I keep picking them up. And of course that's earthly value, right?
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But this word here is of a heavenly value, a spiritual value.
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It's a, this is a treasure. This is something that if we understand this,
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I believe that it will not only change us as we've talked about how we're going to act towards others but we're going to know more about our great
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God who loved us and saved us. We're going to know how it is that he acts towards us and how that ought to cause us to be thrilled in our souls and to worship him as we ought to worship and just to be in awe that this is how he would deal with us.
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But I want to also study this because I believe that people in the world in which we live today, the people that we work with, the people that we rub shoulders with, the people at the store, people walking down the sidewalk, the people at the mall, maybe our families, relatives, friends are absolutely confused who
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God is. They do not understand the God of the Bible and isn't it our responsibility as Pastor Pat last week was talking to us about how
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I'm preaching about how it is that we are to evangelize and to make God known. Well, how can we make
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God known or make God known clearly or to handle the questions that might come up if we don't understand
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God? And so it's good for us to study scripture, to understand him better, to understand how he has shown himself in scripture so that we can better communicate who it is that we love and serve.
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Mainly though, this is a chief attribute, one of the chief attributes of our
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Lord God that is used in his self -description. And we've all heard people describe themselves.
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You ever had anybody say, talk about maybe you've given, you've conducted interviews and people are describing themselves to you or you've contracted with somebody to come to your house to do a job for you and they're describing, you know, the bells and whistles of their company and the tools and the capabilities and all that they have.
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And then after the fact, you hire the person and it's like, oh, that was a bad hire.
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We missed it there, so we missed something. Or they don't fulfill their promise when they come as far as the contract, they don't show up.
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They don't have the expertise. They don't have the capabilities. They commit to something. They say they're going to act in a certain way, but they don't.
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Well, let me assure you that when the God of the Bible describes himself, when he puts it down on paper, when he records it in his sacred word, this is how
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I am. Let me show you or proclaim to you the name of the
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Lord. When God does that, you can mark it down that for time and for all eternity, it will be according to his word, exactly how he said it.
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There's a place in Scripture that I want you to turn, Exodus 34. Exodus 34, as you're turning there,
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I don't know if many of us have ever really given thought about how God describes himself on the pages of Scripture.
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But have you ever run into people who think that the God of the Old Testament is different than the
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God of the New Testament? Have you ever run into that? I have. They think that the God of the
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Old Testament acts and has characteristics and attributes one way. And then when
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Jesus comes on the scene in the New Testament, it's full of grace and truth. It's just all grace.
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It's different. It's a different God. But that's not true. Because what we'll see,
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I mean, if you look in the Septuagint, those that know that that's the Greek translation of the
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Hebrew Old Testament, if you look in there, the word has said, when it's translated into English in there, it's mercy.
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And as you see this truth develop, the big picture, remember we've been learning this, Pastor Pat said you've got to look back at the big picture.
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We see from the beginning of creation till the end, God demonstrates
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His His head, His steadfast love. And some people think that, no,
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He's, you know, give me some words, if you've run into this, give me some words or just characteristics of how they think
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God, the God of the Old Testament is. Somebody tell me some. Judgmental. Judgment.
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Judgment in the Old Testament, love in the New Testament. Any other words? Harsh. Vengeful.
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I was even thinking today about one of the parables the Lord said about the guy who got some money, put it, you know, and he was supposed to do business with it.
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And when the Lord comes back, what's His reply to him? I knew you were an austere man.
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Right? That's what people think about God. He's an ogre. He's a party buster.
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A life crusher. Right? He just wants to make life miserable for us.
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Any other words that you thought of? Yes. Okay, wrong context about God being a jealous
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God. Couldn't serve. Yeah, and you've heard that. God is like this, and therefore
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I can't serve Him. I can't love Him. I think it's important for us if God describes
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Himself in a certain way, then we ought to know what that is.
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And we're going to see here in Exodus 34. Look in verse 1 with me.
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This is Exodus, of course, is the Exodus out of Egypt to the
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Promised Land eventually. And Moses has already gone up on the mountain. He's come back down.
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And we're going to look at that just a little bit. But Moses has gone back up.
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He's going back up on the mountain. He's going to need to. And the Lord said to Moses, Exodus 34, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first.
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Like the first set because when he went up, Israel sinned, he came down, Moses threw the stones down, you remember, and they broke.
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So God is saying, bring some two more tablets up and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
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Verse 2, be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.
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So Moses is going to go up to the top of the mountain. No one is to come with you. Verse 3 and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain.
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Let no flocks or herds graze upon them opposite that mountain. So Moses cut the two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning.
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This is in verse 4 and went up on Mount Sinai and the Lord commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone.
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Verse 5, get this, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
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Lord. Just stop just a moment here. Is there any significance to names in the
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Bible, especially the Old Testament? Can anybody tell me a person's name and what it means in the
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Bible? Maybe you named one of your children because of that. Okay, I'll prime the prompt.
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Naomi, our daughter Naomi. Naomi means pleasant. That's and yes, another one.
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Isaac, laughter. Yeah, because of Sarah's because of her laughter in the tent. Won't happen, can't happen.
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Another one. All right. Well, we won't waste a lot of time there. Significance. There's a significance in the name, right?
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And God is going to declare his name. God is going to say this is my name and it's going to tell you about me.
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I'm going to describe myself to you. It's a self -description of the Lord. Okay. Now, don't look.
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You probably look. You cheated. You looked ahead. There's the mountain and there's the people who are in fear.
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There's the lightning and the thunder and the law and the tablets and the shaking so much that the people can't stand it.
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As they come to one point, the people don't even want to go up, go near to the mountain. Moses, you go. You go.
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This God is just too much for us. And if the people of Israel in the camp, if they were to say, okay,
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God is going to self -describe himself, what are the words they're going to come up with? They would come up with a far different description than what we're going to see here.
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This is God at his core. This is the nature of God that we're going to see here. God is going to proclaim his name.
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So when you think of Yahweh, this is who Yahweh is. This is who God is. Notice with me.
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This is wonderful. This was worth your ticket that you paid for to come to Sunday school this morning if you had to.
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I'm just kidding. The Lord is going to proclaim his name. Verse 6, The Lord passed before him, before Moses, and proclaimed,
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The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children and children's children to the third and fourth generation.
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And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. And he said, But if I now have found favor in your sight,
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O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff -necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.
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Isn't that wonderful? I mean, really. This is key. This is important. Out of all the verses to get this morning, this is the one to focus in on.
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This is the one to walk away with an understanding. What has taken place here? What took place two chapters previous?
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That's key. What took place in chapter 32? Moses is up on the mount.
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The people are down. Where's Moses? He's gone up. We don't know what happened to him.
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Days have gone by. And I think I may have put this in your notes. I mean, think about it.
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It's important to note how Israel was behaving before Yahweh made this declaration of Himself.
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Were they obedient? No. Were they spiritually with it? No. Were they in sweet, close fellowship with God, just waiting there at the bottom of the mountain, soft -hearted, set on doing good, and that's why
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God revealed Himself in the way that He did? No. What we see in chapter 32, we don't have time to go back there and read it, but you see in verse 4 there was idolatry.
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These are words right out of the Scripture. I pulled these words out. Verse 6, they were eating and drinking and playing.
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Verse 7, they had corrupted themselves. Verse 8, they had turned aside.
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Verse 9, they were stiff -necked. Verse 21, there was great sin there in the camp.
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Verse 22, the people were set on evil. And then verse 24, I mean, you thought you've heard them all.
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When Moses comes back down, he says, Aaron, what did you do? What's going on? Well, we took the gold from the people and we threw it in the fire and out came this calf.
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I mean, you thought you heard whoppers, right? That's, I mean, lying.
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And then Moses is dealing with God and Moses goes up on the mount. And yes, there's going to be consequences for the sin.
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I'm not saying that God, because of His steadfast love, overlooks and there's no consequence. There are consequences.
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But God has come to the place where He's ready to do what with the people? What's He thinking of doing?
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Just destroy them. Just wipe them out and wipe the slate clean and start over again.
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But Moses comes up and you see Moses pleading with God. God, if You do this, what will the world think about Your name and You've brought us up out of Egypt?
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And Moses' plea is for God to be God and for God to act in the way that He has described Himself.
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And God, please be merciful. Moses is always pleading that way. And God says, okay, in chapter 34 that we just looked at,
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I'm going to come before you and I'm going to proclaim My name.
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And when I proclaim My name, that is going to be the meaning of who I am. It's My self -description.
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Have you ever thought of that? God describing Himself. We do a poor job of it. We sometimes say we'll commit to things and we're like this and I'm going to treat you like this and we fail, but God never does.
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We say that we're going to persevere with people. I'm going to be with you forever. I'm going to do this for you.
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You may have had a friend that said that they would do that. But because they did not have that tenacious commitment and steadfast love in that relationship, they didn't persevere.
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But God loves us when we don't deserve it. Israel didn't deserve it. We don't deserve it. Israel acted in a way opposite of how
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God should have acted towards them. And we see in chapter 34, and if you missed it, look in verse 6, "...the
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Lord passed before him and proclaimed..." Exodus 34, verse 6, "...the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love."
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There's the chesed. He abounds in it. Not only that, it says here, "...abounding
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in steadfast love and faithfulness." Verse 7, "...keeping steadfast love for thousands."
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That means God is going to persevere. God has committed Himself to act in this way to keep steadfast love towards His people.
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Does that not just thrill your heart this morning? You think that's how the Lord deals with you?
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Look back on your last week. Look back on the last month. Look back on the year so far, the last decade.
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Go back and think about how the Lord has treated you in a way that is opposite of what we deserved.
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And His steadfast love is, not only does He keep it, and it's abounding. It's not just a little, it's abounding, but it lasts forever.
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There's a psalm that says, His steadfast love endures forever. And that means go back in the past as far as you can think that you can go, eternity past, and God purposed to act in a way steadfast love towards His people.
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Go as far as you can in the future and think about the Lord doing what? Continuing in His steadfast love towards you and me.
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I have to admit this morning that this self -description of God recorded in this passage probably was one of the most profound things that hit me this year.
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I mean, just to go back and to think about this, because I know Dave Jeffries. I know where I've been.
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I know what I've thought. I know what I've done. I know how I've failed. I know the sins that I've committed. And yet,
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I know that the God who called me and called you into His family to make you one of His dear children through faith in Christ, Jesus, His Son, has purposed for time and for eternity to deal with you and me opposite than what we deserve and to show
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His steadfast love towards us. This is just an introduction. I've got eight pages. I only did two.
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Maybe if I have another opportunity, we'll do this again. But before we close, any question that anybody has about what we covered?
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Are you at least in some measure, I know it's tough in the morning, but are you at least stirred by the truth of God's Word here, how
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God deals with us? Wonderful, wonderful truth. Any question? Any question or anybody have a comment about how the
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Lord's dealt with you in this way? I'll give you a homework assignment, Psalm 136. We've kind of done this before, but the whole
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Psalm 136 has a refrain in it that the steadfast love of the
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Lord endures forever on each verse. And it goes through. And when you go down through that chapter, you'll see
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God's dealing, the writer's saying, God's dealing with us historically. He created. He saved us from Egypt.
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He's dealt with them this way. And then He brings Himself into it in verse 23. He says the Lord has shown
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His steadfast mercy to us too. He enters into it. He can see that that's His God that He loves and serves and who loves and keeps
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Him. Amen? Okay, let's pray and we'll have a break and then there'll be a second service.
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Father, thank You for Your great truth that You reveal to us. And it is a wonder to us, maybe we've not considered it before, but You have described
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Yourself not in just Exodus 34, Joel 2, verse 13, the same, that You are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love towards us.
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And oh, our response should be that we should thank You for this steadfast love. We should rejoice in this steadfast love.
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We should meditate upon this steadfast love of the Lord. And as it says in Psalm 107, oh, that men would praise
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Him for His wonderful works to the children of men and for Your steadfast love,
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You have said, towards us. We praise You and we worship and adore You in Jesus' name. Amen.