Do You Have a Tender Heart? II - Part 1 of 3

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

This is Lisera Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin, how shall my tongue describe it? Where shall my praise begin? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free, for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful, the master's grace for Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Wonderful, the master's grace for Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea.

Broader than the scope of my transgressions, singing, greater, God, than all my sin and shapeless aging. Oh magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise his name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching the most defiled.

By his transforming power, making him God's dear child, purchased in peace and heaven for all eternity. And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful, the master's grace for Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Broader than the scope of my transgressions, singing, greater, God, than all my sin and shame.

Oh magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise his name. We're continuing our series today with the question, do you have a tender heart? Of course, we're talking about something more than just a sentimental feeling about various issues in life. We're talking about a heart that is tender toward God's word, a heart that is receptive to his truth, a heart that is tender and submissive to his will.

I pray these messages will be a blessing to you. In contrast to the many portions of scripture which both reveal and condemn the sin of pride, we're looking at the subject tenderness of heart, more particularly, entitling our message in form of a question, do you have a tender heart? The text is 2 Chronicles 34 verse 27. Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou hurtest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and its rim thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord. This has reference to King Josiah, and as we noted earlier, it was certainly a great blessing in his life that this good king, this man who followed the example of David, who was a great king, had a tender heart toward God and therefore he was moving in an honorable way in leading the people. According to this 34th chapter of the book of 2 Chronicles, the second verse, we read that it moved him to do that which was right before the Lord. It also says that it moved him to seek after the God of David, his father.

And that was at age 16 when he was very young and of tender years. And then at age 20, he was ready to purge the entire kingdom of all of the idolatrous practices and tearing down the groves and the high places where they worshiped these false gods. At age 26, he was calling upon them to repair the house and it was there when they were cleaning up the very temple of God and removing the rubbish and rubble that had accumulated. They discovered the book of the law of the Lord. And upon finding it, the king ordered that it should be read. When he heard it read, he was immediately affected by it. He read its clothes and now the Lord is sending a word to him saying, Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself that I have heard thee.

Seeing then that he was convicted of the word, that upon hearing it, there was immediate acknowledgement of his sin, the sin of the people, there was a genuine repentant attitude, you and I should want to follow his wonderful example. We also pointed out that a tender heart is obviously an evidence of God's grace. It's not something that we generate ourselves. We're not talking about purely being sentimental. We're not talking about somebody of whom it is said, well, they're soft-hearted, they're kind of an easy touch, you know, they're ready to respond to whatever requests may be made.

We're talking about something far deeper than that. We're talking about what is revealed in the 11th chapter of the book of Ezekiel about the removal of the stony heart which depicts our condition in nature and the implantation of a new heart, a heart of flesh. A heart of flesh is living.

It can be touched and is sensitive to the touch. So it is a tender heart. And how wonderful when we read the very promises of God that the Lord himself, who is the high and holy one, actually dwells in that humble heart.

Having said all of that, we've come to consider the evidences of a tender heart. As you may look into your own life and examine your own heart, you're questioning, am I learning from such a lesson as is before us here about King Josiah? As we've so often said, the historical aspect of the Old Testament is certainly greatly valuable and of tremendous importance, but it's not there just to inform you about some specific details as to what happened in the kingdom of Judah or the kingdom of Israel. It's there for our learning. Scriptures were given and all of these things are for our benefit that we might profit by them and learn from them.

So what are we going to learn? Well, while we do recognize that this tender heart comes from God as a gift of his grace, it also behooves us to respond, if indeed God has touched our lives, that we may obediently serve him and avoid that which leads to hardness of heart, which we'll talk about in a little more depth as we go along. But as we look within, we're searching our own heart, we want to determine how can we see that our heart is that tender heart which is sensitive to the things of God. Well, first we have pointed out, the real evidence of it is that our heart would be tender toward God himself.

That means then that we would grieve when we have offended him. When we sin against God, we don't cast it off lightly. We come in confession, even as David did when we examined the 51st Psalm and he said, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this even in thy sight. It showed a sense of deep remorse. But not only that, you're grieved when you view the sin of others.

Not in a self-righteous critical way, but you're grieved deeply because you know that that sin is an affront to God. Psalm 119 conveyed the thought that my eyes flow down with rivers of tears because of the sin and disobedience that I observe around me. And then we have come to consider that a further evidence of having a tender heart is that it is tender toward the word of God.

Isaiah 66 2 speaks of that one whose spirit is broken, their heart is contrite and he says, trembles at my word. So the first thing about responding to the word of God is that we would take his warnings seriously. The second thing is, and that's where we concluded this morning, is to say that we are indeed comforted by his promises. If you have a tender heart, you don't just read the promise of God and say, well that's an interesting thought and then go on your way and derive no benefit from it. The promise of God is more than just a plaque for you to have hanging on the wall.

It's more than just an inscription for you to have maybe on a card stuck in your Bible to emphasize a particular promise. You come to rely on the promises of God. If your heart is tender, you find these promises to be sweet. Even though in those days of spiritual struggle and darkness you may have doubts and fears when you wonder, can I really claim these promises? I feel so unworthy and so undone. I sometimes feel to be so cold and so barren. I don't find the honey in the rock that I desire.

I'm not able at this exact moment to find the sweetness in those promises. But when all of that's said and done, you come back to the realization that without the help and mercy of God, you are hopeless. There's nowhere else you can go.

There's no one else to whom you can turn. It's only upon those promises that you can rest and they ultimately become extremely precious to you. Hebrews chapter 13 is one that I have relied on myself so many times and I find myself quoting it so often when I'm visiting those who are sick or bereaved or in any deep distress. Hebrews 13 verse 5. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he hath said. This is the promise of God.

Here's what he has said. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Isn't that wonderful to consider? That means that even when you may feel forsaken, even when you're in the dark, even when everything is falling apart, he says I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That means when you're sick. That means when you're suffering. That means when loved ones are claimed by death. That means when you lose your job. That means when you're having financial troubles. That means when you can't figure out how to get through the entanglement of circumstances that so distress you at the moment.

I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. You say well if that's the case why don't I immediately get better? Why don't I quit hurting? Why don't I get a job? Why doesn't my financial burden be relieved?

Why isn't it that all of these difficulties don't go away? Remember the promise we looked at earlier from Isaiah 43? He didn't say that you're going to avoid the waters but he said I'm going to go with you when you pass through them. He didn't say I'm going to keep you out of the fire but when you're in the fire I'm going to stand with you and he says here I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

And look what follows. So that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper. Now can you think of a better situation than that? If you were undertaking a particular project and you felt overwhelmed and somebody that was an expert about this particular task comes up and says let me help you that would be a great sense of relief wouldn't it? I've never been one to want to assemble anything. If something comes in a flat box I say take it back. If it's left up to me I've never yet been able to understand one of those set of instructions.

I think there are people that are particularly trained to write things in such a way that no reasonable person could understand it. So I feel in total despair but if somebody would come along that is a great putter to gatherer I'd say well this is wonderful you've come up at the right time because I certainly can't do this and I'll be happy to turn the project over to you. I would be much relieved that somebody that knew what they were doing had come to help.

But we're talking about something far beyond that. We're talking about somebody who knows every situation, every circumstance in which we're involved, knows all about us, our weaknesses, our shortcomings, our failures and he has all the power and every resource necessary to accomplish whatever's needed and he says I'm going to be your helper. The Lord is my helper. You say well I just have a hard time really claiming that because there are some days it seemed like I don't have any help. But here's the promise.

That means that you've got to claim it by faith. It seems that things are getting worse instead of better but his promise is I will not forsake you and I will be your helper. It may be that the help he gives is not solving the problem but helping you to bear it. You remember that when the apostle Paul prayed, Lord I need help. Remove the thorn in the flesh.

Three times he asked it and the Lord says I'll help you. I'm not going to remove the thorn but my grace is sufficient for thee. I'll give you the grace necessary to be able to bear up under it because the thorn's been put there for a purpose. It's going to have a humbling effect on you. Paul, you as a human being have the potential of being elevated, exalted in pride because you've been caught up into the third heaven and had that unique experience. I've given you the thorn in the flesh. It's there for a purpose. It's to humble you but I will give you the grace to bear it.

So we can say the Lord is my helper and look at the rest of it. And I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Many people have become slaves to human opinion. In fact when we were talking in a recent message about some of the evidences of pride, one of those was that you become controlled by what other people think. See that means that you're concerned about self, about how you appear in somebody else's eyes and you're more concerned about pleasing men than you're about pleasing God. But when you come to be satisfied in your heart that this promise is one that you can rely upon because it's the promise of God and that he will never leave you nor forsake you, so you can boldly say, not timidly, not reluctantly, not with still apprehension, but to boldly say the Lord is my helper, then you can further say I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

That's a tremendous relief. Because many times people are enslaved with a deep concern about what's somebody going to do to me? What's somebody going to say about me? How is somebody going to harm me? Put me down? Reject me?

I can't stand rejection. But if your hope is in the Lord and he's your helper, then you're not going to fear what man does. Oh, you see, a tender heart is indeed tender toward the Word of God. That means that you take his warnings seriously.

It means that you find his promises to be comforting. And the third thing in this connection is if your heart is tender toward the Word of God, you yield to its direction. That is, if God's Word commands something, if you are bidding specifically in the Scriptures to do this particular thing, move in that direction, have this outlook or this attitude, you respond to it. You yield to the direction that's given in the Word of God.

We've referred frequently to the experience of King Uzziah when he saw the Lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. But after he had fallen down before the Lord confessing, I am undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. He then says in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 8, after he had been purged, that coal from off the altar had been laid upon his lips and it is said, thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged. Now verse 8, also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I sin and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, sin me. When the Lord speaks, when the Lord asks the question, who will go for us? What's Isaiah's response? Here am I, sin me. He was attentive to the Word of God.

He made an immediate response. You know, it's difficult for me to understand how some people can sit under the Gospel for years, seemingly have an appreciation for it to some degree and never really take up their cross to follow the Master. Oh, that we might see more today with the response that is displayed here by the prophet Isaiah, that when the Gospel call is given, when the message is declared, that we may all say, here am I, sin me. What about you, having been in the church perhaps for many years, having confessed your faith in Christ and followed him in baptism, how many times when the practical lessons of Scripture are taught, when the instruction is given as to how you ought to live and how you ought to commit yourself to Christ, how many times are you saying in your heart, here am I, sin me? To the contrary, how many times are you making excuses? How many times are you literally saying, well I know that's right and I certainly hope that we have some people in our church who can do those things, but I can't for this reason or the other.

Excuses are made. Oh, may we respond positively to the Word of God, yielding to its direction. Let's see another reference in this same connection in the 27th Psalm. Psalm 27 and verse 8, When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. The Lord said, Seek my face, and what is David's response? Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

Just give me the message, give me the instruction, I'll follow it, whatever it is. It may mean sacrifice, it may mean great inconvenience as far as my own plans and purposes are concerned, but if it's to the glory of God, if it's something that he commands, then I'd like to do it because I love him. I'm grateful to him for all that he's done for me and out of gratitude I want to commit my life in every detail to serve and honor him. You remember when Samuel was with Eli and heard a voice speaking to him and assumed that it was Eli and goes in and responds saying, Did you call me? And Eli said finally that, No, it must have been the Lord who had spoken to you. And in 1 Samuel 3 9, says, Therefore, Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.

So Samuel went and lay down in his place. What an attitude is that your response? Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Now the Lord was speaking audibly to young Samuel. The Lord speaks to you today through his word.

A tender heart means you are sensitive to his word. I have sworn and will perform it. I will keep thy judgments bright. I'm afflicted, Lord, in torment.

Strengthen me or lift my might. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Lord, accept the offerings of my mouth. Teach me, Lord, thy judgment so. Oh, my soul's continually in my hand, yet I'll not forget thy law. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. They have laid a stair to bind my feet, yet I'll falter not for strain. Let thy heritage, my heart rejoice.

I've inclined to perform always. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

If you would like to help keep this broadcast on the air, you can go to our website to make a donation. That's baptistbiblehour.org. Now, until we greet you next time, this is LeSaire Bradley, Jr., bidding you goodbye, and may God bless you. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a poor taste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God.

Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending, great from above. There comes a mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, all is at rest. I am my Savior, I'm happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above.

Filled with his goodness, lost in his love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.