Tender Mercies

Let's take our Bibles this morning and let's turn to Genesis chapter 43. Genesis 43, as we continue the story of God's mercy to us in its very beginning stages, producing a nation from whom would come the seed that would bless all the nations of the world. You follow as I read Genesis chapter 43. Now the famine was severe in the land, and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, Go again, buy us a little food.

But Judah said to him, The man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. If you'll send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food. But if you will not send him, we will not go down. For the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. Israel said, why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?

They replied, the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred saying, is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? What we told him was an answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that we would say, that he would say, bring your brother down? And Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you, and also our little ones.

I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice. Then their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio, nuts, and almonds. take double the money with you carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks perhaps it was an oversight take also your brother and arise go again to the man may God almighty grant you mercy before the man and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.

So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them and Benjamin. They rose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, bring the men into the house and slaughter an animal and make ready for the men are to dine with me at noon the man did as joseph told him and brought the men to joseph's house and the men were afraid because they were brought to joseph's house and they said it is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us slaves and seize our donkeys so they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, oh my Lord, we came down the first time to buy food.

And when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we brought it again with us and we have brought the other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks. He replied, peace to you. Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you.

I received your money. Then he brought Simeon out to them. And when the man had brought them in to Joseph's house and given them water, and they had washed their feet, and when they had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there. When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had bought, that they had with them, and bowed down to him to the ground.

And he inquired about their welfare and said, is your father well? The old man of whom you spoke, is he still alive? They said, your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive. And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke of to me?

God be gracious to you, my son. and Joseph hurried out for his compassion grew warm for his brother and he sought a place to weep and he entered his chamber and wept there then he washed his face and came out and controlling himself he said serve the food they served him by himself and them by themselves the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement.

Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him. Let's pray. Father, now open your word to us. We are dependent upon your spirit to understand this text. And again, we pray now as we pray every week, help us to see our own hearts in this, help us to see your glory, help us to see Jesus, that we might live for you in fidelity and in love.

Help us now, Father, as we seek to understand, not just to get a story, but to understand this God who brings this to us and challenges us with it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. several years ago as we often did Beck and I were sitting in the kitchen strategizing what we were going to do about our children we had those meetings quite often and they usually occurred when the children were in bed or at least they were supposed to be in bed upstairs and I remember clearly you what she said that night.

I remember this. She said this. I read in Romans recently that God's kindness leads us to repentance. If we want our children to repent, then we need to be kind towards them. You know what? God is kind to you.

And God sends his tender mercies to you in order to accomplish his gracious purposes in your life. In this chapter, you find God's tender mercies. You find his kindness at work to accomplish his purpose. Now let's just review real quickly where we are in this story. From chapter 42 and into chapter 46 you observe Jacob fractured broken estranged family coming together 42 to 46 is the story of how God brings this fractured family together at peace with one another and at peace with God.

Now, reconciliation is necessary because the bigger picture is God has promised to Abraham and his family that from them he will produce a nation and that will produce a seed that will bless all the other nations. And in order to accomplish that, reconciliation in this family must occur. It must come together. And they must be saved from starvation. Right?

What good does it do to rescue this family from starvation if it's still at odds with one another? And the narrative over these chapters does not merely account the rescue of the family from destruction, but also the rescue of the family from their hatred. You see, both rescues are necessary for God to fulfill the promise of a seed that will bless all the nations.

Both of those are necessary or the promise will fail. How can this family and its descendants bless the nations if they starve to death? And even above that, how could it possibly bless the nations if it remains shattered by strife or if it's torn apart by hatred. The promise then could not be fulfilled. So God is working to fulfill His promise by bringing the family together, bringing about this reconciliation.

So He's doing two things. He's rescuing them from starvation, and He's putting them back together in order to fulfill His promises. Now you recall from chapter 42, where we were a few weeks ago, that God begins that work of reconciliation by means of what we call severe mercies. That is to say, they experience severe events in their life in order to accomplish God's merciful ends.

God puts them through very severe experiences in order to bring this mercy to them. And His healing mercies will come, as we shall see, as we saw, but they're shaped by harsh events and harsh circumstances. So he's got an intention of mercy, but he puts them through very difficult times in order to accomplish that, in order to accomplish this reconciliation.

Now we saw last time the harsh things that God used. First of all, And foremost, at the top of the list, is a famine. The possibility of everybody starving to death. That's the first harsh and severe mercy. And in chapter 42, we saw Jacob's harsh attitude towards his sons. And again, still, that ever-present favoritism for his cherished son, Benjamin.

We see Joseph keeping his identity secret from his brothers, accusing them of spying and even imprisoning them and then finally keeping Simeon as a hostage after they leave. He sends them home with grain. But he puts the money back in their sacks so that they come off looking like thieves, as if they've stolen the grain. But in all of those harsh realities, God's work of uniting the family has begun.

And through it, we notice this. Through those severe mercies, God awakens their consciences so that they start recognizing and repenting of their sin against Joseph. So all of those severe mercies led them to the point of recognizing their sin against Joseph. But now in this chapter, God changes his tactics. And instead of using severe mercies, he uses tender mercies.

That is, now he showers kindness upon them. And uses that as a means of unifying the family. Now the scene that we saw in chapter 43 opens almost exactly like the last scene. It opens exactly like the last scene. Up here. Alright? it opens like the last scene in the sense that they're starving they've eaten all the food now they're in a bad place again there's famine they've consumed all the grain bought by the brothers on their trip to egypt but the story even though it starts out the same does not unfold the same this time it unfolds in a different way instead of god's severe mercies you see God's kindness.

He changes his tactics as it were So the first thing we need to see in the first 14 verses is this Recognize the personal kindness that fulfills God purpose Recognize the personal kindness that fulfills God's purpose. God sometimes reveals his kindness through particular people. Through particular people as he works in their lives. As we look at these first 14 verses, what you're going to see is the change in two men.

The kindness of God is expressed through these two men. Now let's remember what goes on here. The family has about run out of food, so Jacob again tells the boys to go back to Egypt and buy more food. And if you were there as one of those sons, you would probably be saying to one another, as they no doubt said, somebody needs to remind him. Somebody needs to remind him what we've got to do.

Right? Either he's forgotten or he's losing his mind, but somebody better remind him of what is necessary for us to get the food. So Judah steps up and he reminds his father of the conditions they must meet if they would get grain again. And here you see Judah, and this is important, here you see Judah taking on the mantle of leadership from this point on.

Judah becomes the spokesman for the brothers. He becomes the one that carries the burden of leadership. And so he says, remember dad, the prime minister required that we bring Benjamin back with us or it's a no-go, no deal, no grain, unless we bring Benjamin back with us. And his father replies, how could you have treated me so badly as to mention my last and implied favorite son to this guy.

Give us a break, Dad, they respond. This guy really interrogated us and got the information on Ben. We had no idea that he would make that condition. We had no idea at all that he would be doing that. And then Judah steps up and does something that you would not expect him to do. He pledges himself as a guarantee of the safety of his little brother.

And he says to his father, send the boy with me. If we don go and we could have gone twice already if we don go three generations of us are going to die You the little ones and us I pledge for the boy I will stand as pledge for his safety Look at verse 9. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.

That means that Jacob can hold him and him alone entirely responsible for Benjamin's safety. He can take his life if he chooses to. He can take his family's fortune and can do whatever he wants with it. Judah will take whatever penalty Jacob chooses to put on him for the rest of his life, if he chooses to let him live, if Benjamin is not returned safely.

Well, on that basis, Jacob relents. He tries to soften the anticipated meeting, notice, by the gifts that he sends, and the return of the money that they had found, so that at least the boys would look like honest men, which they were in this case, and then additional funds to buy more food. And then surprisingly, what does Jacob do? Don't miss this. Surprisingly, Jacob sends them off with God's blessings.

He uses the name of God. Look, if you will, verse 14, may God Almighty El Shaddai the God of might may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin and ask for me if I am bereaved of my children I am bereaved he uses the name of God El Shaddai that is typically up to this point used in relation to the covenant that God has made with Abraham the God who made this covenant the God who made this promise, I'm going to send you with his help. And I will be willing to accept whatever God does.

Now what the point of this part of the story It this First of all you see God kindness expressed in Jacob Jacob has changed This is not the same Jacob that we read in verse 42 in chapter 42. God has been working in his life. And through the experience maybe of the famine and maybe through what his sons went through when they went to Egypt the first time, God has been at work.

Here is a man who exercises faith as he sends out his sons. A man recognizing his dependence on God. A man who says, look, we're entirely dependent on God. I'm going to send you out with God looking after you. God is kind to them all by working in this man's life. But please note, especially God's kindness expressed in Judah.

And this is what I think the narrator wants you to see. He wants you to see that Judah is a different man. and he will show that all the rest of the story. Judah is a different man. What have you learned about Judah since you saw him when we saw him in chapters 37 and 38, the last time we saw Judah? In chapter 37, he cannot stand the favored brother, Joseph.

He cannot stand him. And he's the one who proposes the idea of selling him into slavery. It is Judah who sold him into slavery. It's Judah who came up with the idea. And it's Judah who hated Joseph, the favored son. You remember chapter 37.

He left his family behind, immersing himself in the wicked Canaanite culture, forgetting the promises of God to his family. You see that he is sexually immoral. Do you remember that? Remember, he had relations with his daughter-in-law, not knowing that it was Tamar, his daughter-in-law, but thinking she was a prostitute. He's a liar. Not to be forgotten is the fact that he shirks his responsibility for taking care of a member of his household, Tamar.

You remember in chapter 38, he shirks his responsibility to provide for that member, that widow of his household. He's a hypocrite. He makes a pledge to pay a so-called prostitute, but then willingly condemns Tamar for the same sin that he condemned. committed. This is the Judah that we were left with several chapters ago. Now we come to this Judah. And what kind of Judah do you see here?

Instead of hating the favorite son, because Benjamin's the favorite son now that Joseph is gone, instead of hating the favorite son, what does he do? He puts himself up as a pledge to protect the favorite son. Can't miss that. Before he hated the favorite son. Now he's pledging himself to protect the favorite son. He lays his own life on the line as a pledge of safety for Benjamin.

Before he wanted to get rid of the favorite son. Now he's pledging himself to protect the favorite son. he is again part of the family and boldly and wisely addresses his father in order to help the family and do not miss the significance of the pledge when was the last time you saw him pledge? the last time you saw him pledge was when he gave his staff and his signet ring to what he considered as a prostitute as a pledge that he would pay her for her services It was a self-seeking, self-focused, sensual pledge. It was all about him.

In this, now as we see him, it's an entirely different pledge. Is it not? It is a pledge for somebody else. God has been working in Judah's life. we need to recognize that God's kindness finds expression in people and thus he begins fulfilling his promise by the way that is how God works for us you know we don't have to just talk about the kindness of God in the abstract look at Titus 3 look at Titus 3 let's begin reading in Titus chapter 3 verse 3 for we ourselves were once foolish disobedient led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures passing our days in malice and envy hated by others and hating one another.

That's you. That's me. That's the way we were. By the way, it's an apt description of Judah too, is it not? So, you know, before we start looking down our nose at Judah, the Judah of 37 and 38, please recall that you're all Judah's too. You're slaves to your passions.

You were at least. You're foolish, disobedient, led astray. Hating and being hated. That characterizes your life. Until what? Watch.

But when the goodness and, note, loving kindness of God our Savior appeared. He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Please note, the loving kindness of God appears in a person.

It is not abstract. God's kindness comes to us with a face and arms and legs and His name is Jesus. How do I know God's kind? Because it appeared in a person. And what does that kindness that appears in a person accomplish? Notice.

Just look at this. Salvation. He saved us. By the way, not because of works we've done. Notice what he says here. It doesn't matter what you've done.

You can't do enough good works to make it with God. You can try all your life to live right and do well and say, God, look at all the good I'm doing. It's never good enough. He didn't save you because of the good things you did. He saved you because of what? His mercy.

He looked at you and saw you as a slave and foolish and disobedient and all those other things that he said in verse 3. And he looks at you and you know what? He looked at you and his heart breaks He has mercy And because of that mercy now He saves you He justifies you He gives you a new heart. He renews you. All of those things. And then He gives you eternal life.

All of those things because of the kindness of God in a person named Jesus. So you see, God's kindness is often personal. God's tender mercies are personal. And by those, he accomplishes his purpose. He's kind to you in order to accomplish his great purposes. Now, as we read the rest of the story, you need to recognize the providential kindness that fulfills God's purpose.

That is to say, God reveals oftentimes his kindness through particular actions, through events that happen. And as we go through this, unlike the last chapter, in this chapter, instead of severe harsh things, you see instead this overflowing amount of kind and good things that happen to these men. All of it intended to accomplish the purpose of God. Alright?

So the boys head for Egypt where Joseph sees them with Benjamin. He tells the steward to prepare a dinner. He's going to eat with them at noon. So the steward gathers the men and brings them to the house. Well, of course, they interpret this good providence as evil. They're saying this.

We're dead. We're done. He noticed that the reason why he singled us out from all the buyers this time is because he knows that he didn't get his money. And so he thinks we're thieves. And so by cracky, we're done. He's going to make slaves of us.

So they try to stave off disaster. And by the way, you know how frightened they are? You know how absolutely panic, in panic mode they are? Notice what they said. It's because of the money, I'm looking at verse 18, it's because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.

This is the richest man in the land. He doesn't need their donkeys. What? They got some donkeys. like, oh no, he's going to take our donkeys. They are in absolute panic mode. They are scared to death.

He going to get us now We going to be slaves We not going to go home We going to be slaves here for the rest of our lives Note the irony of that We going to be slaves We're going to be slaves here because he didn't get his money. And notice that the kindness of God comes through this steward. Instead of threatening them with imprisonment, he speaks kindly to them he says to them peace to you shalom peace to you I got the money you paid so God must have put that money in your sacks somehow now please note he says to them the God of your father your God put the treasure in your sacks.

You know how kind this is? This is a foreigner. One who trusts in their God who speaks peace to them. This is the kindness of God. He speaks peace to them. And he recognizes the providence of God.

This foreigner. He recognizes all of that. They weren't expecting that, were they? He's kind to them. by the way again one of the little things in this chapter that's interesting is he speaks peace to them and by the way when you look ahead for example in verse 27 and 28 and he inquired about their welfare their peace that's shalom and said is your father well shalom the old man of whom you spoke is he still alive they said your servant our father is well is shalom shalom looms big in this chapter you remember what what it said about these men?

It said earlier, as we looked in chapter 37, they could not even say the word peace. They could not even say the word shalom. They could not even greet their brother. They hated him so much, they could never give him the greeting, peace. They hated him that much. And here is someone pronouncing peace over them.

So instead of the expected slavery, you know what happens? They get the unexpected kindness of their brother back. Simeon is released. Then the prime minister arrives for lunch. Lunch break, I've been busy. And as he walks in, all the men of this family bow down to him.

All 11 of them. Now with that, there should be alarm bells going off in your head. Because you remember, years ago, more than 20 years earlier, Joseph had a dream in which 11 sheaves, All of them identified with his brothers bow down before his sheep. Right? Here it is. Here's the fulfillment of that dream.

All 11 now are bowing before him. He asks about the welfare of their father, another unexpected kindness. Why would he ask about our dad? And again, now they prostrate themselves before him. Once more, fulfilling that dream. all 11 of them bowing before him in gratitude for this unexpected kindness. He sees his younger brother.

He's identified as his mother's son in his thinking. This is my full brother. This is the one that I knew years ago. He asks about him, but he cannot restrain his emotions and he has to leave for a few minutes under this powerful exterior. Beats the heart of a man who has compassion on his family, but he cannot reveal his identity yet because there's still things he needs to know about his family.

So he doesn't reveal his identity yet. There's still something more to know. And that's where the feast comes in. Again, another kindness. Instead of slavery, they get their brother. Instead of slavery, they get a feast.

Kindness to them. Now they're a bit frightened by the seating arrangement. By chance, they're all seated in birth order from the oldest to the youngest. And they're a little bit, they're a little bit, what's the word I want? They're like freaked out about that. They really are.

They're going, wait a minute. Does this guy know something? What's going on here? We're seated in exactly the right order. He doesn't know us. What?

It's happening. Alright? But they have a great dinner. Now the Egyptians won't eat with him. Joseph won't eat with him, probably because of his exalted position and because he still looks like an Egyptian The Egyptians don eat with them because of their perceived superiority The Egyptians were a lot like Americans at this point They think they're the best in the whole world.

They have this notion of superiority. Our culture is better than yours, you filthy shepherds. And our race is better than yours, you funny-looking Semites. They're the shaggy guys with the beards. The Egyptians would never have a beard. The beards you see that they wear are fake beards.

Did you know that? When you see the... I'm getting off track here. But when you see the pictures from ancient Egypt, you see Pharaoh has a little beard. That's fake. That was a fake beard.

They tied those babies on. They didn't grow beards. Beards to them were filthy. and they look down on these Semitic shepherds as second class, as kind of dirty people. And so they're not going to eat with them. Okay, we'll, you know, the top guy said you can eat here, but we aren't going to eat with you. All right?

But then one more kindness appears, and don't miss it. What happens here? Benjamin gets five times more than anybody else on his plate. five times more. A particular kindness shown Benjamin. But the point that you have to see here is this. The favorite son gets favored treatment from this powerful man.

They've grown up with their dad showing this guy favor. He's the favorite son since Joseph disappeared. But, now this guy is showing favor to him. Wow. What is that all about? Well, let's go through this.

Let's think about the kindnesses of God in this chapter. See, God had revealed these men's heart before in the previous chapter through harsh treatment so that they repented. They recognized their sin against Joseph. So Joseph had treated them harshly and this revealed their hearts. But this time, he reveals their hearts through kind things. Notice the invitation to Joseph house reveals a fidelity to their brother They brought the money back And that the reason why Simeon is released Notice, it's not because Benjamin was there.

The steward says, I received your money. Then he brought Simeon out to them. So they came back. They had the money. They get Simeon. now notice this and this is very important the kindness of the feast is key here in understanding what god is doing through joseph joseph treated the favorite son with favor he did that on purpose what was he looking for can you think about that for a moment this is the son who since joseph left has been the favorite son at home.

He's got favored treatment. He's treated differently. His dad has held him up. Suddenly they're in this situation. They're in a feast with this powerful man. They don't know it's his brother.

And he treats him with favor. He singles him out for favor, just like at home. What do you think Joseph is after here? He is watching the response of his brothers. As the favored son receives favored treatment again. You see?

How are they going to respond when he's treated with favor? And that's the very last verse of this chapter. You know what it says? It says this. And they drank and were merry with him. Who's the him?

It's Benjamin. they have a good time with their brother, even though he's treated with special favor. That is to say, in this test of loyalty and love, they do not respond with envy. They respond with love. They emerge as a family. they don't show hatred toward benjamin they rejoice with him even though he's been treated better than they have god has revealed their hearts through this kindness now just a very quick note here God is still at work in the cultural differences between these Semitic shepherds and the Egyptians.

It's interesting. The refusal of the Egyptians to eat with them because they think they're superior to them is going to work toward God building a nation. Now think about that with me. How is that so? The land where they're living in Canaan, the Canaanites were willing to absorb the sons of Israel. Have we not seen that?

They're willing to absorb them. Yeah. And what would happen? The family would be gone. God would not fulfill His promise if they're absorbed in the Canaanite culture. And you remember, Judah was right that close to it.

If not in it. He was living with Canaanites. He was immersed in their culture. His best friend was a Canaanite. The Canaanites were all about whoever's here, we just absorb them. Yeah, you can marry our daughters, and all those sorts of things.

But here, the Egyptians' attitude of contempt guarantees that the embryonic nation will not get absorbed into Egyptian culture or Egyptian people. It will grow from an embryonic nation into a great nation. Why? Because they will remain Semitic shepherds, and the Egyptians, for the next 400 years, will think of them with contempt. There will not be any intermarrying with the Egyptians.

They won't have it. You see? God is still at work in fulfilling His promise, even with the horrible treatment that they'll receive from the Egyptians. what you have to see is that God remains at work to fulfill his promise with a variety of means he uses severe mercies to accomplish his promises and he uses tender mercies he uses kindness to accomplish the same purposes severity and kindness, God uses both in order to keep his promise and you know what, God remains the same some of you here today have never submitted to Jesus And what I mean by that is this.

You have never seen your life the way God sees it. As nothing more than a pile of filthy rags. Not worth anything to God. You've not come to that point. You've not seen that before a holy God, you are sinful. And you have no standing with Him.

He cannot accept you because of your sin. You refuse to repent of your unbelief. You refuse to say, God have mercy on me, and I will take Jesus alone as my sacrifice and my righteousness, and I will depend on Him, not on what I've done. Some of you are here. But you know what? God showers you with good things.

You have food. You have family. You have jobs. You have a nice house. You live in a great country. All of these things are yours.

And God has given to them. Why do you think He does that? Because you're so good? No, He doesn't do that because of that. He does that so that you will see the goodness and the grace of God and you will turn to Him in repentance. Remember what the book of Romans said.

You heard it this morning. Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God righteous judgment will be revealed Right now, there's kindness. There's more kindness than you know what to do with.

God has showered you with good things. And He does that so that you will say, God, You're good, and I see Your kindness and Your goodness in all the things You've given me, but I see it especially in Jesus. You're kind all the way through. Oh God. But you know what? Your heart's impenitent.

And those good gifts you take for granted. And you don't see a good God. And you don't see a God who's a Savior. And you're storing up wrath for yourselves for the day of judgment because you're ignoring the greatest gift of His goodness. You know what I would say to you today? If you have come to the point of recognizing what your life is before the very eyes of God and that His kindness is shown to you in His Son who came to die for sinners, you will be set free from every bit of His wrath.

There won't be any left if you cast yourself on the merciful Savior Jesus. Don't spurn His goodness anymore. And what about you who have submitted to Jesus is the kindness of God to you just like well I got that Okay thanks No not at all You serve God because of His kindness, do you not? You serve Him because of your kindness. Again, the book of Romans, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable God, which is your spiritual worship.

Why do you do what you do for God? There's only one reason. He's kind. And you know it. And you say, I will serve this Master, this kind and gracious and merciful Master, just because He's been so kind to me. You see, God uses both severe mercies and kindness, severity and grace, both work together.

And I would implore you today, look at the kindness of God. Thank you. Thank you, Father, for your great kindness to us in Jesus. The very expression of all your kindness and tender mercies we thank you that He is the one who willingly gave Himself up that we sinners filthy in Your sight, might be cleansed completely. That Father, because of Jesus, You have taken our sins.

All those who have believed in Him, who have entrusted themselves to Him, I thank You that because of Jesus, You take our sins and trample them underfoot. That You take our sins and throw them in the depths of the sea, never to be found again. That You clean the slate completely on heaven's records books so that there is not one accusation against us.

Thank You for such kindness to us. Father, I pray for those who are here today that do not know that kindness, that they would flee to Christ. that would see your kindness in that person. And Father, for those who have embraced him, help us to look into the face of our Lord and see kindness there. Thank you for your mercy and kindness to us in Jesus. We pray this in his name.

Amen. Thank you.