Sermon #16                                   Series: Who Is God?

          Title:           The Lovingkindness of God

          Text:           Psalm 36:7-10

          Reading:   

          Subject:    

          Date:          Tuesday Evening - May 8, 1990

          Tape #      

 

          Introduction:

 

          I want to talk to you tonight about God’s excellent lovingkindness. Lovingkindness, like holiness, immutability, infinity, and justice is an attribute of God, a characteristic of his Being that is essential to his Being. Without lovingkindness, God would not be God. If you get a concordance and look up this word “lovingkindness,” you will see that it is a word that is used exclusiveloy with reference to God. In our English Bible it is never applied to any of his creatures. That fact arouses my curiosity. What is the meaning of this word “lovingkindness”? It is the kindness of God arising from and directed by his love for his elect. This word, “lovingkindness”, is used 30 times in the Bible. All 30 times, it is found in the Old Testament. And 23 of those 30 references are found in the Psalms of David. That fact suggests that God’s lovingkindness inspires faith, hope, prayer, and worship in the hearts of his people.

 

          Arthur Pink said that God’s lovingkindness is “His paternal favor to his people, his tender affection toward them.”

 

          The puritan, Thomas Manton, described God’s lovingkindness as, “His disposition to do good upon his own motives, or his self-inclination to do good to his creatures, especially to his people, his native willingness to employ what goodness is in him for the good of his creatures.

 

Proposition:

 

          It is the lovingkindness of God that encourages poor sinners to draw near to God, put their trust in him, and seek from him the mercy they need (v. 7).

 

          NOTE: The justice of God gives men what they deserve. The lovingkindness of God gives men what they need.

 

          let us make the prayer of David our own prayer tonight - “Show thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee” (Psa. 17:7). God’s lovingkindness is marvellous indeed. I am amazed that God, who is so infinitely above us, so inconceivably glorious, so ineffably holy, shoul not only allow such sinful worms as we are to live n his universe, but also show us such marvellous lovingkindness as to set his heart upon us, give his Son to redeem us send his Spirit to dwell within us, and patiently bear with all our infirmities and sins, promising never to remove his lovingkindness from us! May he be pleased now to show us his marvellous lovingkindness.

 

Divisions:

 

1.    God’s lovingkindness is revealed to us in all his works of grace.

2.    God’s lovingkindness revealed in Christ invites and encourages sinnes to trust in him.

3.    God’s lovingkindness is a source of constant help to his believing people.

 

I. GOD’S LOVINGKINDNESS IS REVEALED TO US IN ALL HIS WORKS OF GRACE.

 

          A. The lovingkindness of God is the source and cause of our salvation.

 

          The covenant of God’s grace runs like this - “I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and n mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the LORD” (Hos. 2:19-20).

 

1.    Predestination and election are works of God’s lovingkindness (Eph. 1:4-5).

2.    Our redemption by Christ is a manifestation of God’s lovingkindness (I John 4:9).

3.    The gracious operations of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and conversion are the results of God’s eternal lovingkindness toward his elect (Jer. 31:3).

4.    Because of his lovingkindness toward us, almighty God has entered into an everlasting marriage contract with us and caused us to enter into an indissolvable marriage contract with him (Hos. 2:16; Isa. 62:1-5).

 

          B. The Lovingkindness of our God is immutable.

 

          It never varies. It never changes. It is never removed from his children. Sometimes it appears to us that God has removed his lovingkindness, and our circumstances cause us to cry out with David, “LORD, where are thy former lovingkindness?” (Psa. 89:49). But our heavenly Father never ceases to exercise his lovingkindness toward his own elect. Neither the temptations of satan nor our many sins can make void the lovingkindness of our great God.

 

1.    God’s lovingkindness is in Christ (Psa. 40:11). Because we are in Christ nothing can ever separate us from his great lovingkindness (Rom. 8:39).

2.    God’s lovingkindness is linked to his truth, proceeding upon the promise of his Word which cannot be broken (Psa. 138:2).

3.    God’s lovingkindness is made sure to all his elect by his own holy decree in the covenant of grace (Psa. 89:31-34).

4.    And God has sworn that neither his covenant nor the kindness of his love shall ever depart from his own (Isa. 54:10).

 

          Because he promised it in the covenant from eternity, and because that covenant has been ratified by the blood of Christ, we have no cause for dispair. “The LORD will commend his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me” (Psa. 42:8).

 

II. GOD’S LOVINGKINDNESS REVEALED IN CHRIST INVITES AND ENCOURAGES SINNERS TO TRUST IN HIM (Psa. 36:7).

 

          It is true that God is holy, righteous, just, and true. But “he delighteth in mercy.” His lovingkindness is one of those “sure mercies of David” which God has promised to all who come to him by faith in Christ (Isa. 55:3-7).

 

III. GOD’S LOVINGKINDNESS IS A SOURCE OF CONSTANT HELP TO HIS BELIEVING PEOPLE.

 

          David said, “Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth” (Psa. 26:3). His meditation upon God’s lovingkindness taught David how to walk in accordance with God’s revealed truth. And God’s lovingkindness teaches us how to walk in his truth.

 

          A. God’s lovingkindness is the pattern by which we are to mold our conduct to one another (Eph. 5:1-2; Col. 3:12).

 

          B. God’s lovingkindness promotes and strengthens faith and confidence in him (Psa. 36:7).

 

          C. God’s lovingkindness inspires worship and praise (Psa. 63:3).

 

          D. God’s lovingkindness is for the comfort of his tried, troubled and afflicted children in this world (Psa. 119:76).

 

          E. God’s lovingkindness is an argument to use with him in prayer to urge our plea for his mercy (Isa. 63:7 Psa. 119:159).

 

          F. God’s lovingkindness is our hope when we have fallen into sin (Psa. 51:1).

 

          G. God’s lovingkindness is our daily guide (Psa. 143:8-10).

 

Conclusion: Psalm 36:7-10

 

Hymn - His Lovingkindness #9