The Biblical Path of Life

Tag: Mercy

  • Confess, Do not Cover

    “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.“

    Proverbs 28:13

    In most people’s eyes, King David was a much bigger sinner than King Saul was. Saul chose to disobey God’s Word. David took another man’s wife and ordered the death of her husband in battle – premeditated murder. That sounds much worse to most people. However, according to God’s Word, both men were sinners before a Holy God. “2. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 53:2-3). The penalty has not changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. “For the wages of sin is death …” (Romans 6:23a).

    Why then was David considered the best king that Israel ever had when he was such a sinner? He understood the way a sinner must come before a Holy God; in true repentance.

    Remember when King Saul was confronted with his sin by Samuel. “Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?” (1 Samuel 15:19). What was Saul’s reply? “20. And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me … 21. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal” (1 Samuel 15:20-21). Notice he did not admit his sin. Instead, he justified his sin with his own words. Samuel reminded Saul what God requires, not what man thinks God requires. “22. And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Samuel 15:22-23). Saul thought God expected a sacrifice. Samuel declared God required obedience to His Word, not rebellion. Saul stubbornly fulfilled his own will, not God’s. When Samuel declared God rejected Saul from being king, Saul admitted he had sinned. Nevertheless, Saul still refused to submit to God and repent. Instead, he asked Samuel to “keep up appearances.” “Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God” (1 Samuel 15:30). Saul declared he would worship “the LORD thy God.” Saul revealed his attitude toward God.

    Recall what Samuel told King Saul, even before his kinship ended. “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee” (1 Samuel 13:14). God had chosen a young shepherd named David. Before Samuel anointed David, God told him “… for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7b).

    After David’s “great” sin, Nathan the prophet came to him and confronted him with, “Thou art the man” (see 2 Samuel 12:7). Immediately, “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die” (2 Samuel 12:13). When David was rebuked because of sin, he immediatly repented. Psalm 51 is a heartfelt prayer from David’s heart revealing this repentance. “2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight …” (Psalm 51:2-4a). David understood what God expected. “16. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:16-17). David recognized that God sees the heart.

    In light of these things, David was the greatest king that Israel had, not because he was sinless, but because he understood how a sinful man must approach a Holy God – with complete repentance and a change of heart. He wanted his heart cleansed. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

    One can clearly see through King Saul and King David the following verse revealed: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

    Are you like King Saul who covered his sin and did not prosper?

    Or,

    Are you like King David who forsook his sin, and God showed mercy upon him?

  • Mercy, Grace, Faith, and Love

    “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
    1 Timothy 1:15

    Paul wrote to Timothy, who was a leader at the church in Ephesus, giving him instructions and warnings. Some people had already begun not only to turn from God’s Word, but were leading others away from God’s Word as well. Those people were talking foolishly, babbling (called “vain jangling”), and yet they wanted to be teachers of God’s Law (see 1 Timothy 1:6-7). They had no idea what God’s Law was, what it meant, or what they really believed themselves. Paul warned that it was wrong to let people such as this become teachers. Because they did not know or understand God’s Law, they could not possibly convey the importance of why God had given the Law. “8. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 9. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, 10. … and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; 11. According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust” (1 Timothy 1:8-11). We are to understand that the Law was given to reveal the sin in mankind so that they could recognize the glorious Gospel message (see Romans 3:20). Gospel means “the Gospel plan of salvation, its doctrines, declarations, precepts, promises; the Gospel of God of which God is the Author through Christ.” People who did not understand that God’s Law was given to reveal sin, thereby making known the need for salvation, could not be trusted as teachers of something they not only did not understand, but also had not experienced for themselves. These people have not received the gift of salvation offered, by grace, which frees one from the confines of the Law.  

    Paul never forgot from whence he had come. He understood and remembered that he was a sinful man whose sin was revealed by that Law. He was thankful that he had been forgiven and placed into the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel message. “12. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 13. Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:12-14). Just because one breaks God’s Law does not mean they will be condemned. Paul had once done it “ignorantly in unbelief.” Understand what he recognized.

    • Paul understood that he had obtained mercy. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us” (Ephesians 2:4).
    • He recognized the abundant grace that God bestowed upon him. “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).
    • God then extended the gift of faith, which must be received. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
    • Finally, Paul understood the love with which God loved him. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

    Read what Paul then understood: “15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Timothy 1:15-16). There was a specific time in Paul’s life when he recognized that Jesus had come “to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” Note that Paul recognized that he was a sinner, but that he had obtained mercy from Jesus. After Paul received the gift of salvation by faith, he then understood that he was to be a “pattern.” Pattern means “a pattern or example.” Paul believed that if Jesus could save him, a chief sinner (remember he was complicit with murder; see Acts 7:58), Jesus could save anyone who would believe in Him by faith. It is this kind of person who can be entrusted to teach God’s Word. Teachers of God’s Word must remember they have been entrusted with the truth of the Gospel message. The salvation message cannot change. “10. Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead. … 12. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” Acts 4:10, 12).  

    Has your life become a pattern, revealing the mercy, grace, faith, and love bestowed upon you through salvation by Jesus?

  • The Heart of the Matter

    “6. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
    Isaiah 55:6-7

    Hezekiah was the greatest king Judah ever had (see 2 Kings 18:5). He was compared back to King David, the man after God’s own heart. Hezekiah made great reformations in Judah, eliminated idols and reinstated worship of the one true God. His heart was right before God. “And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered” (2 Chronicles 31:21). Hezekiah led the people to follow God.

    Hezekiah had a great sickness, and Isaiah told him that God said Hezekiah would die of that sickness. Hezekiah prayed. God healed. God did a great sign to show Hezekiah he would live. The Babylonians came when they heard Hezekiah was sick. He showed them all of the treasures of Judah. We can read that his heart was lifted up (2 Chronicles 32:25). He was prideful of all he had. He should have given God the credit for all of the treasures of Judah. He should have been a vocal witness to the Babylonians. “Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart” (2 Chronicles 32:31). God knew what was in Hezekiah’s heart, but now all knew what was really in Hezekiah’s heart: Pride. “Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah” (2 Chronicles 32:26). Hezekiah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem humbled themselves before the Lord, and God’s wrath was delayed.

    Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, became the worst king Judah had. “But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:2). One can read a listing of his wickedness in 2 Chronicles 33:3-9. One terrible thing he did was “to cause his children to pass through the fire,” which is child sacrifice. God went on to declare that Manasseh did worse than the heathen whom the Lord had removed before the children of Israel. God sent men to warn Manasseh and the people, but they would not listen. Isaiah was a prophet of God during Hezekiah’s reign and even into Manasseh’s reign. Read something recorded in Isaiah that we can still read today: “6. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).

    Because of the wickedness of Manasseh, God allowed the enemy to take him captive into Babylon. “And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (2 Chronicles 33:12). While in Babylon, Manasseh sought the Lord and humbled himself before Him. After calling upon the Lord, Manasseh forsook his way, and turned unto the Lord. God heard his supplication and had mercy on this wicked king. God pardoned him, allowed him to return to Judah, and even sit upon the throne once again. “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

    Manasseh proceeded to do much good: he reinforced the city, took away the strange gods, idols, and altars he built in the house of the Lord, and cast them out of the city. He repaired the altar of the Lord and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. “Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places …” (2 Chronicles 33:17a). In Hezekiah’s day, the people humbled themselves before the Lord with Hezekiah. In Manasseh’s day, the people continued in their false worship even after Manasseh turned his heart to God. God’s wrath would come.  

    Remember, God sees the heart. “20. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; 21. Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:20-21).

    Do you understand God knows the secrets of the heart?