I'm glad salvation is free, aren't
you? If we had to pay for it, we would
never be able to come up with what it cost. The Lord Jesus
paid the full price when he laid his life down for his church. I'd like to go back to Hosea
chapter 14 tonight. Hosea chapter 14. What does God's mercy look like?
What does God's mercy look like? I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I came not for the righteous,
but for sinners. They were amazed that publican
and sinners would sit at meat with the Lord Jesus. We're so
very thankful that that's the only ones that sit at meat with
him, his publicans and sinners, those who are in need of mercy,
mercy. We have no claim on God. We have
nothing to offer him or to obligate him to save us. We're completely
dependent. upon his mercy. And he delights in showing mercy.
I'm so very thankful for that. Have mercy upon me, O God, David
said, Psalm 51, according to thy loving kindness, according
to thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Put them away. Lord, I'm going to have to have
it by mercy. The gospel of God's free grace in the glorious person
and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is only good
news to those who need mercy. But oh, what good news it is. You have your Bibles open to
Hosea chapter 14. We looked at verse 3 a few weeks
ago. For in thee, the last part of
verse 3, for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. The fatherless,
the widows and the fatherless in the Bible are those who cannot
care for themselves. They cannot provide for themselves.
They're destitute. They're beggars. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from him. Seems to me that men left to
themselves will pervert the gospel one way or the other. Either
they will become presumptuous believing that God somehow is
obligated to save them, or they will seek to do penance and believe
that somehow the depths of their sorrow and the wallowing in their
shame and guilt will somehow win them favor with God. Psalm 2, the scripture says that
we rejoice with trembling. We rejoice with trembling. We're
not presumptuous when we stand before Almighty God. We know
that he's holy and that he's right in whatever he does. And
we plead that he will be merciful to us. But at the same time, we don't
fall into the trap of becoming a mercy beggar, believing that
somehow if we just beg enough, that will turn into a work really
quick, won't it? And so we rejoice with trembling. Both are true. A paradox, yes,
but for the child of God, both are true. It's what? It's what the bride said to Solomon
in the Song of Solomon. She said, look not upon me for
I am black, yet I am comely. I am black, yet I am comely. Jeff, I think you read from this
passage recently in a call to worship. Kiss me with the kisses
of thy mouth. And then in Psalm 2, we're commanded
to kiss the son lest he be angry. and we perish in the way. This
analogy, this picture of kissing, him kissing us and us kissing
him is not some sort of sensual thing. It's the words that come
out of our mouth. He speaks to us words when the
bride says, kiss me with the kisses of my mouth. Lord, speak
to me, speak to me. and cause me to hear and to rejoice
in the words that you've spoken. Cause me to find my hope and
all my salvation in your word. You know, when it really boils
down to it, the word of God is all we've got. It's all we've
got. We can't rely upon our feelings
or our experiences or anything else. But faith is believing
God. And so we have God's word and
we hang all the hopes of our salvation on the kisses of His
mouth. And we kiss Him back in return.
We kiss the Son. We bring to Him words and we
delight in Him and worship Him and glory in Him and confess
We confess our sins before him, and we confess that he is the
savior of sinners. So this kissing goes both ways.
And she says, don't look upon me. I'm black. It's a picture
of our sin. And yet, I'm comely. I've made
you comely with my comeliness. Now, both are true at the same
time. And so we come always before
the throne of grace, the throne of grace to find mercy. That's how we come. That's what
we come for. We're looking for mercy, that we might have help
in our time of need. What is our need? Our need is
our sinfulness. That's our need before God. The gospel of God's grace, the
mercy of God, is for hell-deserving sinners. A lot of religious talk
going on in the world today as a result of what happened a couple
weeks ago. And a lot of it ought not to
be spoken because it's just not true. I heard one preacher saying
that, you know, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And then he interpreted that. He said, no one's perfect,
we're all flawed. That was his interpretation of
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that we're
flawed. Trish and I were in a store the
other day, and I picked up a piece of pottery. And we were looking
at it, and we thought, well, that's kind of nice. And then I turned it
over, and there was a chip missing out of it. Now, that's a flaw,
a crack, a chip, a minor imperfection, a blemish. No, all of sin and
falling short of the glory of God goes far beyond the fact
that we're not perfect and that we're all flawed. It speaks to
every aspect of what we are apart from Christ. Everything about
us is sinful. We're dependent upon his mercy. Heard another man on the radio
talking about hell. And he was saying that he was
glad that there was a hell because those who escaped the judgment
of man in this world would not be able to escape the judgment
of God. And then he used Adolf Hitler as an example. And that's so typical of what
we hear from men. You know, sin is just a minor
infraction. Sin is an imperfection. Sin is
just a flaw that we have. And only men like Hitler would
ever go to hell. The man I was listening to on
the radio, after he finished, I was convinced that he never,
ever had a single thought in his mind that he was worthy of
hell. That if God gave him what he
deserved, that's where he would go. But here's the gospel, brother. It's for sinners. It's for those
who have no righteousness in and of themselves, those that
can offer God nothing to persuade him or obligate him to save them. Everything about them is sinful.
They're in need of mercy. And they know, and they know
that if God judged them for the best thing they ever did, worthy
of heaven or hell, they'd go to hell for it. They need mercy. And this, the Lord tells us,
is what mercy looks like. I will heal their backsliding. I remember in religion that those of us that were faithful
in our attendance at church And those of us that weren't living
outwardly shameful lives, or at least was able to hide what
we were doing, could talk about the backsliders. We could talk
about the backsliders. And then once a year, the evangelists
would come in. We'd have a revival, and all
the backsliders would show up, the ones that hadn't been in
church and the ones that were just off living on their own. And they'd
have a revival, and he would give them an opportunity to rededicate
their lives. And they would. They'd come forward
and make a rededication. And then two weeks later, after
the evangelist is gone, everything's back to normal. But that was
our interpretation of the backslider. The child of God who has any
understanding of their sin sees themselves slipping, backsliding,
if you will, taking their eyes off of Christ and trying to find
the hope and comfort of their salvation and their life in something
other than Him. And so thankful, so thankful. Look what he says, I will heal
their backsliding. I will have mercy upon them.
Psalm 130, David says, let Israel hope in the Lord for with Him,
There is mercy. Mercy. That's what we need. We need mercy. I don't know about
those other backsliders. And I don't know about those
other sinners. But I see enough in my own life to know that I've
got to have mercy. And I've got to have it every
day. Not once a year at a revival meeting where my emotions are
moved and I rededicate. No, no. No, I will heal their
backsliding. He delights in showing mercy.
The scripture says that he's full of mercy. David said, we
come into his house for the multitude of mercy. Mercy, Lord, that's
what we need. Oh, we need your mercy. And how
precious his mercy is, David said, goodness, Psalm 23, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. The goodness of God, the revelation,
I will cause my goodness to pass before you, the revelation of
Christ. Why callest thou me good? There
is none good but God. What was the Lord saying to that
rich young ruler? Do you understand who you're talking to? I'm the
only one that's good. And David said, goodness and
mercy. So here's the rejoicing with
trembling. This is, I am black yet I am
comely. And they're both true at the
same time. And it's the, well, it's the goodness of God
that leads us to repentance. We see the beauty of Christ.
We see the beauty of Christ, the sinlessness of Christ, and
we know that there's nothing in us like him. So the revelation,
it's not the Galatians speaks of the law being a schoolmaster. And then there's a couple of
italicized words in that verse that says, to bring us. And those
are not in the text, but it's been It's been said that it's
the preaching of the law that brings us to Christ. We've got
to put the law on people and make them feel guilty. No, what
Paul's saying in Galatians is you were under the law, now you're
under Christ. It's the goodness of God that
leads to repentance. It's the revelation of Christ.
It's his mercy. It's his love. That's what he's
telling us here. Look, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. Turn with me to Jeremiah, Jeremiah
chapter eight. The last two verses of Jeremiah
chapter eight. For the hurt of the daughter
of my people am I hurt. The clearest revelation of our
sin is what we see the Lord Jesus having to suffer in order to
put it away. And for the hurt of my people
am I hurt. I am black. Astonishment hath taken hold
on me. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Oh, what astonishment the Lord
Jesus suffered when he bore our sins in his body on that tree
and experienced all the shame and sorrow of sin. He said, I'm black, here he is
again. He's saying that there's our sin. And then verse 22, is
there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
There is a balm in Gilead. Now Gilead means a rocky place. And that's where we live our
lives, in a rocky place. Between the trials and troubles
without, and the fears within, and the temptations, and all
the things of this world, there'll come a day when we will rejoice
without trembling. As long as we're in this flesh,
as long as we're in this world, as long as we're in this body,
as long as we're dealing every day with our sin, we're coming
for mercy. And that day, there'll be no
sin. There'll be no need for mercy. Faith, hope, and love, and the
greatest of these is love, there'll be no need for faith. Our faith
will be our sight. There'll be no need for hope.
Hope will be our experience. We will be swallowed up completely
in the love of Christ. We taste it now, but in that
day, we'll sit at his table and feast fully as we desire to now,
but we can't. We can't. And so the Lord is
speaking to us and he said, is there not a balm in Gilead? Yes,
there is a balm in Gilead. It's the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the healing balm. And
when the great physician heals, he heals perfectly. And what
does that mean? Does that mean that we're not
gonna sin anymore? No. It means that when the Lord
shows forth his mercy, He reveals to us what verse 21 means. I am black. Astonishment has taken hold on
me. The only time that I'm able to
rejoice in being perfect before God is when I'm able to look
to Christ and see what he did for me on Calvary's cross. Somebody. He said, you know,
the only time I'm really, really at peace and the only time that
I really feel the grace of God and the fullness of his grace
is when I'm meeting together with God's people in worship
and listening to the gospel. And certainly that is a very
special event. That's why we're here. And he
reminds us again and again that the blackness of our sin was
placed on him. And God made him who knew no
sin to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And so he healed perfectly, perfectly. When he healed the leper, he
made him clean. Naaman's skin was like a baby's skin from head
to toe. When he gave the blind sight,
they saw perfectly. When he made the lame to walk,
they leaped for joy. When he caused the deaf to hear,
he unloosed their tongue, and they rejoiced and spoke." Oh, he heals perfectly. Go back with me to our text.
There is a physician. I guess I picked up something on
the airplane. coming home from Kingsforth the other day, because
I've been battling a cold the last few days. So you don't want
to get close to me tonight. But I've been taking a lot of
medicine, just trying to lessen the symptoms. What do they say?
If you take medication for a cold, it'll go away in two weeks. And if you don't take medication,
it'll last a whole 14 days. But at least you can mitigate
the symptoms a little bit with medication. But that's not the
way the Lord heals. You know, people go to the law
in order to try to get healing for their sin. The great physician
takes them back to the law. That's what we were told. The
law takes you to Christ. Christ takes you back to the
law. And then the law becomes your healer. No. No, the law,
all it can do is condemn me. Well, then maybe it's knowledge. And all men do with knowledge
is mask the symptoms of their sin. That's what I'm doing right
now. I'm masking the symptoms with medication. But I'm not
healed of my cold. But when the great physician
heals, you're not talking about physical healing. I'd probably
deal with this a few more days. Pray the Lord will keep it from,
but you get my point. There is a balm in Gilead, and
that balm is Christ. And we don't look to masking
the symptoms of our sin by acquiring knowledge or by showing some
outward appearance of obedience. We look to Christ, the blood
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the great
physician, and he's the one Is there not a balm in Gilead? Yes. Go back to verse 21. He's
the one that was turned black and bore our sins. And when I'm
able to look at what he did and believe that he was successful
in what he did, then I can rest in knowing that I'm perfect before
God and I can come before the throne of grace with boldness. And that healing has to happen.
over and over and over and over again, doesn't it? To whom coming,
to whom coming. And the more we see of his glory,
the more we see of his beauty, the more we see of our own sin. And the more frequent, the more
frequent we hear these words, I will heal their backsliding.
Our backsliding is not just some thing that religious people talk
about, you know, of the one who's gone back into the world. He's
backslid. Listen to what Isaiah said in
Isaiah 64. We have sinned, and in those
is continuance, and we shall be saved. We have sinned. And in those is continuance,
and we shall be saved. Now, obviously, we're not advocating
some sort of lawless living. That's not what we're talking
about here. We're talking about that just unbelief is really what
it is, just unbelief. Creeps in everywhere, doesn't
it? as you received Christ Jesus,
the Lord, so walk ye in him. It's our daily walk. We walk
by faith, not by sight. We can't look at those things
that are seen. We have to look at that which
is not seen. We walk the same way we came
for our very first time. How did we come? We came needing
mercy. We came needing the physician
and his balm to heal us, to put away our sin once and for all.
And we keep coming back to him for the same thing because our sin nature just reminds us. This is what mercy looks like.
Let's go back, look at verse four again. I will heal their
backsliding. You feel like sometimes it's
two steps forward and three back and David said, oh my foot, it
almost slipped. It almost slipped. Here's the
promise of God. Here's the mercy of God. I will
heal their backsliding. backsliding, and I will love
them freely. I will love them freely. We're
just saying that, Tom, you led us in that hymn. If we had to
pay for God's love, we didn't pay anything. What's the greatest
demonstration of the love of Christ? Is it not what he did
at Calvary's cross? Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay his life down for his friends. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his son
as a propitiation of our sin. We need proof of God's love.
There it is. There it is. It's at the cross.
And he didn't wait for us to deserve it. He didn't wait for
us to do something, too. He did everything ahead of time. He loved us freely, freely. The good shepherd laid his life
down for the sheep. Romans 5, 8, God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. For a righteous man, one might.
One would not die. Let's go to, I can't quote that,
Romans chapter 8. There's another verse here I
want us to see as well. Romans 8, 20. I'm sorry, Romans 3. Romans 3,
that's not there in Romans 8. Romans 3, verse 24. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Freely, by his grace, he purchased
us with his blood. That's what redemption means,
you know that. He bought us, and we're not our own. We've
been bought with a price. We belong to him. whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness. And that's what the gospel does,
it declares his righteousness. We have no righteousness other
than that which has been imputed to us. It's his righteousness. that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now, yes, go with me
to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 5. I'm not getting
this. Romans chapter 5, verse 8. Romans
5, verse 8. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath, from wrath through
him. Look at verse seven, for scarcely,
this is the verse I was trying to remember, for scarcely for
righteous man will one die. Now, best I understand that is
this is the self-righteous. This is the man that goes around
promoting himself as being holier than thou. Scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. Someone might lay down their
life for a person whose life has value. But God. But God commended his
love toward us in the YRES centers. We weren't good. Freely. We can't purchase it. We don't deserve it. It is free. Thank God it's free. Come to
the river of life and drink. Freely. Freely. You can't buy
it. It's free. What did Isaiah say? Why do you spend money for that
which satisfyeth not? But that's what we do. We're not satisfied. The only
time we're really satisfied, I mean really at rest, content,
at peace with God, is when we're able to rest in Christ. And then
everything's OK. Everything's fine. The peace
of God is better than understanding. And the peace of God will keep
our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are good and holy and just and righteous, if there
be any virtue in them, what? Think on these things. All those
things are Christ, that's where all those things are found, in
Him. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, and this takes us back to asking
the Lord for His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus
called Him the Comforter, and it is the Holy Spirit that reveals
Christ to us. It's the Holy Spirit that opens
the word of life to us. It's the Holy Spirit that enables
us to rest in Christ. 1 Corinthians 2, look with me
at verse 12. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. It's the Holy Spirit that reminds
us of all the things that we've received freely. We didn't earn
them. We didn't do anything for them.
They were freely given to us. I will love you freely, freely. In man's relationship with man,
love is pretty much always reciprocal at some point in a relationship. And we do love him. but because he first loved us.
He loved us freely. A man's not gonna commit himself
to a woman until he's sure that she loves him back and vice versa. And so we play these games trying
to figure out, you know, who's, but no, he loved us freely. He loved us at the cross freely
knowing that it was the love of Christ that would constrain
us. Knowing that it was the love
of God that would move our hearts to faith and repentance. Knowing
that like with Peter on that night when our Lord was was was
flogged and he came out a bloody mess, a
bloody mess. He had already told Peter before
the cock crows You're going to deny me three times. And King
Peter denied him with cursing. And the Lord Jesus looked at
him. It wasn't a look of disappointment or disdain. It wasn't a rolling
of the eyes, look, I told you so. No, it was a look of pure
compassion and pure love. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. It's what breaks the heart. It's
the love of God. I will love them freely, freely. We didn't do anything to merit
it. We don't deserve it. He loved us freely. Nothing in my hand I bring, only
to the cross I cling." All right. Back with me to our
text here real quickly. What does God's mercy look like?
I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for mine
anger is turned away from him. We just read in Romans chapter
three that the Lord Jesus is our propitiation. He is our propitiation. The other way this word is translated
in the Bible is the word mercy seat. Mercy seat. And you know that was the seat
that was between the cherubim on top of the Ark of the Covenant,
where once a year the priest would put the blood on the mercy
seat. And God told Moses, here I will
meet with you. And the Shekinah glory of God
came down. And when the scripture speaks
of us hiding under the wings, that's where we're hiding, at
the mercy seat. Those wings of the seraphim touched
each other over the mercy seat. We are hiding under his wings.
Here, I will meet with you. Because it's here, it's here
that my justice has been satisfied. It's in the shedding of blood
that my then my anger has been abated. That's what propitiation
means. It's been put away. Been put
away. We can't say indiscriminately,
like the church in town with the big billboard on the highway
that says God is not angry. We can't say that indiscriminately
to men, but we can say it to God's people. We say it to God's
people. And here it is right here. for
mine anger is turned away from him." The full fury of God's
justice and God's wrath was poured out on Christ at Calvary's cross.
There's the anger of God. There's the fiery wrath of God,
taking the very sword of his justice and sheathing it into
the heart of his own son. Now, now, My anger has been put
away. What caused Adam to hide from
the Lord in the garden? What caused him to try to cover
his nakedness with fig leaves? Same thing that causes us to
hide from God. Same thing that causes us to
try to cover our nakedness with the works of our hands. But it doesn't work. It doesn't
work. It's fear. Well, God's mad at
me, God's angry, God's, no, no. No, here's what you see, here's
my mercy. I will heal all their backsliding. I will love them
freely, for mine anger is turned away, is turned away. Oh, we have a, our old man, our
flesh, our unbelief, Lord, Lord, I do believe. Here's the believers
cry, Lord, I believe. Help thy mine unbelief. How oftentimes
I try to atone for my own sins and think that I can do this
and that and make things better and fix this problem or that
problem. No, look to the one who is black,
yet comely. Look to the balm of Gilead. Look
to Christ, the great physician, who heals by himself all of our
sin. And then, and only then, can
we come not afraid, though we rejoice with trembling. That's
always the case. Rejoice with trembling. But nevertheless,
we rejoice. And we come to the throne of
grace boldly, confident, Confident that what the Lord Jesus accomplished
in loving us freely, that God's pleased with him. And I can approach
almighty God on the basis of who he is and what he's done. Tom, what are we going to sing? 232. 232. Let's stand together.
232. We sing this a cappella, it's
not in the music box.