If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Psalm 103, and we’ll look at verses 8-13 and 1 Cor. 13: 4-7.
A number of years ago, it became sort of a fad to have a pet pot-bellied pig, do you remember? The pigs were smart. They could be trained to walk using leashes, do tricks, and use a litter box. But they had a tendency to grow to about 150 pounds and could become quite aggressive. So what do you do with an unwanted pig? Well, I know what you’re thinking, fire up the grill, we’re having pork tonight. But it turns out their meat is tough, stringy, and marbled with fat.
In the early 90s, someone had given a man by the name of Dale Riffle one of these pigs, and he fell in love with it. The pig, Rufus, never learned to use its litter box and developed this craving for carpets, wallpaper, and drywall. Yet Riffle sold his suburban home, and he moved with Rufus to a farm in West Virginia. Then he started taking in other unwanted pigs. And before long, the guy was living, literally, in hog heaven.
Eventually, he got up to 180 residents on his farm. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, they snooze on beds of pine shavings. They wallow in mud puddles. They soak in plastic swimming pools and listen to classical music. They wait their turn for one of Dale Riffle’s belly rubs. They socialize in affinity groups. And they never need to fear that one day they’ll become bacon or pork chops. There’s actually a waiting list of unwanted pigs that are trying to get a hoof in the door at Riffle’s farm.
Dale Riffle told the reporter, “I think we’re all put on earth for some reason, and I guess pigs are my lot in life.”
The Bible often likens us to sheep, and in a few places, The Bible talks about swine–and when it does, it’s always in a negative sense.
But think about the care that Dale Riffle had for those no-good, dirty, stinky, undisciplined pot-bellied pigs that were discarded and nobody wanted. Jim Nicodem, a pastor out of St. Charles Illionois said, “An infinite, perfectly holy, majestic, awesome God is passionately in love with insignificant, sinful, sometimes openly rebellious, frequently indifferent people. God loves people like you and me. In fact, God loves us so much that he wants to adopt us into his family. The Bible never teaches that everybody becomes a child of God automatically. We are adopted into his family.”
So if one man can take care of those dirty little pigs, how much more can God, our Father take care of us.
Scripture: So, let’s take a look at how Our Father does love us, beginning with Psalms 103, and then we’ll go straight to 1 Corinthians 13.
Psalm 103:8-13 (New International Version)
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
Now let’s go to 1 Cor. 13, verses 4-7:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
If you look closely, you can see why I chose those two passages this morning. I never really noticed before, but they correlate so well. Though these Psalms were written about 1,000 years before 1 Corinthians, it’s almost as if David borrowed from Paul’s writings to pen this Psalm. But these two coincide so well with each other because God practices what he preaches. God doesn’t just love well, as the apostle John said in 1 John 4:8, God is love.
All 22 verses of Psalm 103 is a wonderful, gracious song of praise and it gives us a long list of God’s wonderful, loving attributes. But to keep today’s sermon short, sweet, and simple this morning, I chose just a few verses.
If we go back to verses 8 and 9, we read:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
You notice that it doesn’t say God can’t or won’t get angry. Yes, God is love, but the true definition of love is not the absence of anger, but the presence of patience and kindness. Some translations use the word, ‘mercy’ in verse 8 rather than love.
Charles Spurgeon once said,
“All the world tastes of his sparing mercy, those who hear the gospel partake of his inviting mercy, the saints live by his saving mercy, are preserved by his upholding mercy, are cheered by his consoling mercy, and will enter heaven through his infinite and everlasting mercy.”
I said that David’s statements sound as if he borrowed from Paul, but he most likely borrowed from God Himself when God revealed Himself to Moses.
Exodus 34:6 says, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.”
Derek Kidner, a British New Testament scholar said, “These very human terms point the contrast between God’s generosity and the heavy-handed wrath of man, who loves to keep his quarrels going and to nurse his grievances.”
How many people look at God that way? We often understand what we experience in life. As the old saying goes, “Perception is reality.” And so, we sometimes unknowingly impose on God human traits, and forget that God is way above and beyond our flawed traits. We can only love so much. God loves perfectly. Our love is impeded by sin, selfishness, pride, and holding a grudge. Those things in 1 Cor. 13–try as we might, we fall short of that. In fact, I’ve fallen short of all of it.
There are times when I have not been patient and kind. I have envied and boasted. I have dishonored others, and been self-seeking. I have been easily angered and kept a record of wrongs. Have I always protected, always trusted, always hoped, always persevered? No.
I’ve fallen short in all of those things. Unfortunately, on Father’s Day, I have to admit I’ve fallen short on these things mostly as a father and husband. I heard someone once say that fatherhood shows you that you’re not so selfish. I bought into that until I became a father, and then I realized just how selfish I was.
But God is way above and beyond who and what we ever could be. He is the ideal father. He fulfills 1 Corinthians’ love completely. He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
Going to verses 10 and 11,
10 God does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
David Guzik on Enduring Word Commentary said, “David knew the slow anger and abounding mercy of God personally. He knew that his sins (and the sins of his people) deserved much greater judgment or discipline than they had received.”
It never ceases to amaze me how someone so messed up and sinful as David, was considered a man after God’s own heart. The Book of Acts recounts 2 Samuel where God removed King Saul and replaced him with David.
It says, “God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”
Was God wrong? Does God not have the ability to see into the future? No, this is a testament to God’s amazing grace. God does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
This is the blessing and promise not just for David because David was someone more special than we are–no, this is reserved for all of God’s children. If we go to 2 Cor. 6, Paul says, “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Notice that caveat in the middle there? “Come out from them and be separate,” says the Lord. “Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
Even though God loves us unconditionally, there are conditions by which we become children of God. We are not all automatically children of God just because we are made in God’s image. We become adopted sons and daughters into his kingdom by our faith and His grace.
I was talking with someone on social media about how I believe the Rapture will occur before The Great Tribulation. Some believe that we will have to go through the Tribulation. But the reason why I believe in a pre-trib rapture is because God needs to get His people out of the way before His wrath hits the earth. God’s children will not endure His wrath. Our wrath was placed on Jesus on the cross, and whosoever believes in Him–or places their faith in the finished work of the cross–will not perish or experience God’s wrath but have everlasting life.
We might discipline our children, but they shouldn’t experience our wrath. God disciplines us but doesn’t place his wrath upon us. A loving father is not going to do that to His children.
In relation to that, the final two verses–12 and 13 say:
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
Notice verse 12 is in the past tense? He has removed our transgressions from us. In the Book of Romans, Paul talks about how God’s wonderful grace abounds–not to give license to sin, but to help us be removed from our sinful nature–so that we can put the past behind us and move forward in this new life in and through Christ.
Those attributes about love that I said I failed at–I did as a Christian. I’ve sinned more as an adult Christian than before. But, thank God, His grace never runs out. Romans 8:1 for the umpteenth time, says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t go a few verses down to Romans 8:14-17 which reads, 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Did you catch verse 16 which says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children?”
Have you ever had a hard time trying to describe to someone how you know that God exists? It’s difficult to put into words, isn’t it? We’ve been studying apologetics in Sunday School, and it helps us to put some tangible evidence to why we know the Bible is true, and it helps answer questions that people have about the Christian faith, but there’s nothing like knowing you are God’s child because God himself literally lives within us and testifies that we are His.
How do you describe that? How do you put that into words? I think the hymn, “I Serve a Risen Savior” says it well. We’ll get to that in a few minutes, but first, let me say that we, as my father has said before, don’t have a ‘hope so’ religion; we have a ‘know so’ religion. We have the deposit of God in our hearts. God is not some being that’s ‘out there.’ God is within us, we have a relationship with God, as we have a relationship with our earthly father. Now, I know, it isn’t quite the same. It’s much easier to have a relationship with a physical human being than with a spiritual being, but we don’t just call God our father as a religious nicety; we have God as our father because we have the ability to have that kind of relationship with him.
I was referencing David a few moments ago, and I quoted from 2 Corinthians 6;16-18. I can’t help but think once again about the Ark of the Covenant. Let me read to you once again from 2 Corinthians 6:16.
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
In that last verse, Paul is quoting the prophet Nathan who was saying to David that the Messiah will come from his lineage. And that comes just after David returns the ark to Jerusalem. The previous chapter begins with, “David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark.”
Did you catch that last part? God dwelt on the ark, which was placed in the temple. But where does God dwell now? In our hearts. Paul said that we are the Temple of God. But as we carry God’s presence, we too, are in essence arks of God’s presence. He lives and dwells within us. If the God of the universe is going to dwell somewhere, you’re gonna know it. Like the Newsboys sang, “He’s living on the inside, roaring like a lion.”
And that mighty, holy, righteous, amazing God, which is beyond all we could imagine, not only dwells in our spirit but also wants us to call him Father. Isn’t that amazing? Let me go back to that quote from Pastor Jim Nicodem,
An infinite, perfectly holy, majestic, awesome God is passionately in love with insignificant, sinful, sometimes openly rebellious, frequently indifferent people. God loves people like you and me. In fact, God loves us so much that he wants to adopt us into his family. And even beyond that, he wants us to call him “Father.”
We who are parents all know how much we love and have compassion for our children. How much more does a perfectly loving God–a God who is the perfect epitome of 1 Cor. 13 love–have compassion on us?
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;”
The Biblical word ‘fear’ is like the Biblical word for ‘slave.’ Or the word, “inconceivable.” I do not think it means what you think it means. One of my commentaries puts it this way:
But what is the fear of the Lord? It is that affectionate reverence; by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law (enabled by His Spirit giving us the desire and the power – Php 2:13 NLT-note). His wrath is so bitter, and His love so sweet; that hence springs an earnest desire to please Him, and—because of the danger of coming short from his own weakness and temptations—a holy watchfulness and fear, “that he might not sin against him” (Heb 12:28, 29).
Fear in this sense is a fear of failure. A fear of not loving someone. A fear of not pleasing our heavenly father. It is a healthy and sensible fear that we should have for one another, really.
If we go back to 1 Cor. 13 and reread it, but instead of reading ‘Love is,’ we read ‘God is,’ it hits differently. It goes from being an instruction and goal to attain to becoming a promise from a loving father to His children.
To His children:
God is Patient. God is kind. God does not envy [what does he have to envy?] God does not boast [though he could], God is not proud [though he has every right to be]. 5 God does not dishonor others [though he does laugh from Heaven, yet he calls all to repentance], nor is self-seeking [but gave up all for us]. He is not easily angered, and once we are forgiven, [He keeps no record of wrongs but as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us]. 6 God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 God always protects, always trusts, always hopes [that means he isn’t afraid of what may come], and always perseveres [because as we read a few weeks ago from Psalm 121–
He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over [you] will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore].
This is not just our God, but also our Father who art in Heaven.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by Mariya from Pixabay
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