If You Knew the Gift of God 1975

I'm going to read two verses from Psalm 130, verses 3 and 4. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. The problem is not that people don't believe in a God. Everybody believes in a God of some kind.

The problem is that the God most people believe in, including people who talk their Bibles, is such a distortion of the true and living God, that their lives are wrecked by this warped vision of this twisted God that they have in their minds. For instance, there are those who believe in a God who is hard and sour and critical, just like they are. They quote their Bibles from cover to cover, and yet their faith in that kind of God does nothing but bring death to them and to those that touch them, or whom they touch.

Others among these people who believe in this kind of sour God, it would appear, don't even believe in anything. All they do is go out and get drunk all the time. Their living lives are debauchery.

And yet if you actually got into some kind of conversation, you would discover that what they're actually doing is running away from a God they believe is out to get them. And they're trying to put out of their minds every vestige of a thought of this God who wants to get rid of them and dangle them into hell and do terrible things to them. On the other hand, there are those who believe in a God who is shallow and sentimental, just like they are.

Who is like the schoolteacher who can't handle his class. And he sits there behind his desk while the kids kill each other and jump up and down and break the windows and throw things. And then at the end of the year, he gives each one of them an A. How can the living God come down into a true relationship with us and speak to us, manifest himself to us, as long as we have in our minds this warped idea of who he is? For instance, if you think that your wife is a witch, you really got that in your head that she's a witch, how in the world are you going to in any way relate to her? And this isn't as far-fetched as it may sound, because many people look upon their husband or their wife as some kind of monster.

And so if you think your wife is a witch, and she really is not, but you think she is, and you come home and here she is in the kitchen stirring the soup for you. Oh, that ain't soup, that's poison. And then she comes and she wants to give you a kiss, and you jump back.

You know, you don't want her to put you under a spell. And so she can never talk to you, because everything she tries to say to you, you twist. And that's exactly what we do, not only with husbands and wives and children and friends and bosses and employees, but especially we do this with God.

A man had two sons. The one took the inheritance, everything that he had coming to him from his old man, and went off into a far country and wasted it in riotous living. And yet, while he did that, this son had a knowledge of what his father's heart was like.

He knew his father, even far away in that awful country, where there was famine, nothing to eat, he still knew what his father was like. And so, when he came to the end of his rope, he says, I'm going home. And I'm going to throw myself on my father's mercy.

And the father welcomes him with open arms. Now there's this other son who never leaves the farm. He works side by side with his father in the fields every day.

A good boy. And yet, this son, while he's that close to his father all the time, has no conception of what his father is really like. And he might just as well have been a million miles away, because to him, his father is a stranger.

If we don't know what kind of God we have, it doesn't matter how close God is, or what wonderful things he wants to do for us, or what miracles wait on the tip of his fingers for us, we are walking in darkness and in the shadow of death. There was this Samaritan woman who lived in the village of Sychar, and she had a pretty bad past, a really messed up life. One day she goes out to the well, which is outside the village, and there by the well sits this stranger, whom she discovers right off, as she looks at him, is a Jew.

And so she comes up to the well, and the Jew says to her, give me a drink. And she says, how come you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? And the Jew answers her, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. If you knew the gift of God, that's the crux of the whole thing.

And the question that you and I have to answer is, do you know the gift of God? Two men went up to the temple to pray. The one was very religious, moral, said his prayers who knows how many times a day. And he gets up to the temple and he starts saying his prayer, which he just can do so easily.

And yet it's not prayer because this man is ignorant of the gift of God, doesn't know what the gift of God is. And so nothing happens. The other man who goes up to the temple to pray is a terrible sinner, has a shameful past.

But one thing he knows, he knows the gift of God. And he goes up to the temple and beats his breast and cries out for the gift of God and it comes to him. And he goes down to his house with peace.

The time Jesus was on his way to the house of Jairus, people are pressing in on him from every side and touching him. Some are touching him to get his attention. And some just want to, you know, out of curiosity, they want to press in.

Maybe somebody else wants his autograph, who knows? But there's one touch among all the others that draws life out of Jesus. Doesn't even get to his body, just touches the fringe of his garment. And immediately it receives healing because that touch was the touch of one who knows the gift of God.

The time Jesus had dinner at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Now Simon was a wonderful man, went to church all the time. And he did the proper things, he was respected in the community.

But Simon was utterly ignorant of the gift of God. He did not know what kind of God he had. So how in the world could he understand who this is who's having dinner with him today? While they're at dinner, a well-known prostitute in this town hears that Jesus is at the house of Simon the Pharisee.

Now her life is in shambles, but she knows the gift of God. So she comes in and bends down and starts washing Jesus' feet with her tears. And wiping them with her hair.

And she goes out of that house whole. When our Lord was hanging on the cross, he was flanked on each side by a thief. Dying also on the cross.

The one thief was hard right to the end. The other thief knew the gift of God. Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Today you're going to be with me in paradise is the answer. And so today we have several hundred people gathered in this room. And God alone knows what reasons brought us here.

Some of us have come perhaps out of duty. Praise God for that. And some have come out of discipline.

Praise God for that. And some have come because they want to make a new start. Thank God for that.

And some of us are quite sure of ourselves. And some of us are quite certain that we understand scripture. But the question is not do you think you know the Bible.

The question is do you know the gift of God? Do you know who it is who offers you this gift as his spirit hovers over us? Did you come here today to receive God's gift? And what is God's gift? God's gift is mercy. That's all it is. And that's everything.

If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Now let's suppose that this chancelor just disappeared and we found ourselves looking out over the camp of the Israelites three millennia away, back in the past, in the wilderness. And we see tents stretched out on the desert floor as far as the eye can see.

In the center of all those tents is the tabernacle, the tent of witness. And in the central room, the most important room, is the most holy place, the Holy of Holies, where God has promised to dwell with the people. Over the tent is that cloud of glory protecting it and guarding it.

And in the center of this most holy place, covered over by the outstretched wings of the cherubim, is the mercy seat. And the mercy seat, notice, is even above the tables of the wall, which are down underneath. And at that mercy seat, on Yom Kippur, the blood is sprinkled once a year.

And that mercy seat, being the central location of the whole camp, is also the clearest revelation of the heart of the true and living God, mercy. And if we could see the whole human race of all time as it spirals its way through time and space, we would discover that all people who were ever or will ever be born, and all events that have ever taken place or ever will, are revolving around a single center. And what is that? Jesus of Nazareth dying on the cross.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.

And as we see Him dying on the cross, we are looking straight into the heart of our heavenly Father, who is dealing with sin, our sin, in the only way it can be dealt with without utterly destroying us, laying it on His own heart, and suffering. Mercy. If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.

Now that's exactly what that woman did. She said, give me this water. And the thief on the cross said, remember me.

He asked. And the prostitute asked. And the woman who touched the hem of his garment asked.

What about you? Oh, I don't need mercy. I'm okay. Now maybe we don't say that, but we sure think it.

And my friend, if that's the way you feel right now, that you're all pain, you don't really need God's mercy, it's just those other people who need it, then, my friend, you're wasting your time in this place. Because the only thing that is offered to you in this place, today or any day, is God's mercy. And the forgiveness, and the healing, and the peace, and the life, which flow from it.

If you knew the gift of God, you would ask. Now if you admit that you need that mercy, then that's all you have to do. You ask for it.

God won't ram it down your throat. He won't push it in on you. You ask for it.

And the minute you do, it begins to come. It just starts to flow. You know how many times we hear these complaints about our liturgy, which isn't our liturgy, it's the liturgy, a form of worship that's been used by brothers and sisters in the Lord for centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries.

But I'm going to tell you something. When you begin to know the gift of God, and when you begin to have some sense of your utter and desperate need of God's mercy, that liturgy will come alive. Because every line of it has to do with God have mercy on me.

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. That's the whole thing from beginning to end.

And let that be a real cry in your heart, and see what begins to happen to you. Now we've asked for blessings and healing and solutions to problems and all these things which are all aspects of God's goodness and mercy. But also we need to see how above all that we need to taste today the clear, pure, holy mercy and forgiveness that he wants us to have now.

If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I don't fear God because he's going to burn me. I fear God because he's so good.

So good it scares me. Now if I, by resisting that goodness, get burned by it, that's not God's fault. That's mine.

Now, he said to the woman, if you would ask, you'd receive that mercy. But there's another aspect to this. Ask and you shall receive that mercy.

But if you want to keep it, there's something you have to do. We step into the kingdom of God day by day, hour by hour, by asking for mercy which we desperately need day by day and hour by hour. But to stay in the kingdom, we then have to turn around and live that mercy day by day and hour by hour.

The parable that Mike read this morning from Matthew 18 is so clear that God's mercy to us is not just something that we take. It's rather something that we dwell in. If I don't live it, I lose it.

And so in addition to saying to the woman at the well, if you would ask, you'd receive, he now says to Peter and to you and me, if you knew the gift of God, you would forgive. And you would show mercy to everybody. And if there's one soul in my life or in your life against whom I've raised a barrier where I won't allow mercy to go out, then I've blocked myself off.

Just one soul, that's all it takes. How in the world can I have that mercy flowing in if I refuse to show mercy to that person that God has shown to me? If you're having trouble getting a vision of God's goodness to you, it's very likely because that vision is clouded by an attitude that you may be holding in your heart towards some person or some group of people or some kind of people, whatever it is, that's just blocked it off. And if you truly want God's mercy today, then ask God to help you right now to make up your mind before Him that you're going to forgive that soul in your heart before Him.

And you're going to begin in whatever way He shows to live mercy and pray down blessings of mercy and live mercy for that person. In a few moments, we're going to eat God's mercy food to us, which is the body and blood of His Son, given for us. And we're going to be filled to the extent that we are thirsty for it with the living water of the Holy Spirit, afresh today.

God help us also to dwell in that mercy which we receive and to yield to whatever we have to do to practice that mercy toward each other and toward all men. Let's pray. First of all, O God, if only we could, by Your grace, have some glimpse of how desperately we need this day, right now, Your forgiveness for what we are.

Help us, O Lord God, help us to behold that wonderful, wonderful mercy flowing as a river of blood for our cleansing. And help us, Lord God, to enter into that river and become mercy and light and forgiveness toward everyone around us. And if this means writing a letter or making a phone call, if it means making some kind of commitment to You, Lord God, right now, about what we're going to do about this problem, whatever it is, help us to do it before we leave this place.

And we thank You and we praise You. How good You are. Amen.