Psalm 136. Always keep in mind as we're
reading the scripture that these verses are not just random. You
see that as we study them. There's usually a progression
of thought, and there's a pretty clear theme in this one. Every
verse has the same phrase in it, so that'll be easy to see,
but think about generally what's being said and the progression
of thought here. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks unto the God of
gods, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks to the Lord of
lords, for his mercy endureth forever.
You think he's just repeating himself? The God of gods, the
Lord of lords, what's the difference? Well, I think, I believe we'll
see that. To him who alone doeth great
wonders, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that by wisdom
made the heavens, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that
stretched out the earth above the waters, for his mercy endureth
forever. To him that made great lights,
he did all of these things for this reason, because of his mercy. His mercy endures forever. The
sun to rule by day, for his mercy endureth forever. The moon and
stars to rule by night, for his mercy endureth forever. To him
that smote Egypt in their firstborn, for his mercy endureth forever.
And brought out Israel from among them, for his mercy endureth
forever. With a strong hand and with a
stretched out arm, for his mercy endureth forever. To him which
divided the Red Sea into parts, for his mercy endureth forever.
And made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for his mercy
endureth forever. But overthrew Pharaoh and his
host in the Red Sea, for his mercy endureth forever. To him
which led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy
endureth forever. to him which smote great kings,
for his mercy endureth forever, and slew famous kings, for his
mercy endureth forever, Sihon king of the Amorites, for his
mercy endureth forever, and Og the king of Bashan, for his mercy
endureth forever, and gave their land for inheritance, for his
mercy endureth forever, even inheritance unto Israel his servant,
for His mercy endureth forever, who remembered us in our lowest
state, for His mercy endureth forever, and hath redeemed us
from our enemies, for His mercy endureth forever, who giveth
food to all flesh, for His mercy endureth forever.
O give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his mercy endeareth
forever. Let's pray. Gracious Father and mighty God,
thank you, Lord, for the privilege it is to gather in your name.
And I pray that without exception tonight, Lord, we all have gathered
in your name for your sake, to know you with a desire, a hunger
to know you and to worship you tonight. Reveal yourself to us
in the person of your blessed son, our Redeemer, our mighty
Savior. Teach us, Lord, what your mercy
is, and therefore who you are. In Christ's precious name we
pray, amen. Now when we meet together and
we study the Word of God, that's what we're here for, is to learn
who God is. And that really, it really just
boils down to being that simple. You might say, well Chris, don't
we learn about ourselves too? Yeah, but you gotta know who
He is if you're gonna know what you are. Job said, now, man,
I see it's thee, and I hate myself. Don't we learn also how God saves
a sinner? Yeah, but integral to his person
is his saving mercy towards sinners. If you wanna know who he is,
find out something about redemption. That's his glory. That's his
glory. And I believe it'll be a delight
to the people of God tonight to see again that saving his
people, having mercy on sinners, on the worst of the worst, is
essential to who he is. Notice in the very first verse
that the very goodness of God is connected to his mercy. Give
thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy. Endureth
forever. When you say God is good, people
say that a lot. You know, usually when something
happens to you that you think is good, that may or may not
be good according to God. Why, when something bad happens,
don't we say God is good? Is he not good then? But when
you say God is good, what you're saying is this, what this means
is that he does not give sinners what they deserve. That's what it is. That's what
his goodness is. That's what mercy, that's the definition
of mercy. He doesn't give us what we deserve.
You remember when God showed Moses his glory. He said, I'll
make all my goodness to pass before you. And then he said,
I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious and I'll have
mercy. David said, surely The goodness
and mercy of God will pursue me all the days of my life. Goodness and mercy go together,
don't they? This is what David tells us to
give thanks for. The mercy of God pursues us everywhere
we go all the time. making sure that we never get
what we deserve. That's what this is saying. That's what mercy is. Grace and
mercy are indistinguishable, or they are distinguishable from
one another, but they're inseparable. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what
we do deserve. So you see what David is saying
there is that God just follows me everywhere,
making sure I don't get what I deserve. They're inseparable because if
God gives us, for example, his presence, then he is not forsaking
us. We deserve to be forsaken, but
he's not giving us what we deserve. But how does he do that? By grace,
by giving us his presence. If he gives us life, he's not
giving us the wages of our sin, which is death. And so they go
together inseparably. God declared in Exodus 33, 19,
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. And Psalm 136 is our response
to that. David is speaking for all of
God's people in response to God saying, I will have mercy. What are we doing here in this
song? Well, we're giving thanks. We're acknowledging that his
mercy is our only hope. We acknowledge what God meant
by that. You see, what does God's mercy
look like? All of these things mentioned
in this song. How do we know that? We've experienced it. We've
experienced that. If God has redeemed you from
your sins with the precious blood of his son, and you can sing
with David He redeemed us from all of our enemies for his mercy
endureth forever He did that because he's determined from
eternity not to give us what we deserve And so all of these things mentioned
here in all of them we thank him and praise his name verse
2 his mercy sovereign mercy Whose mercy endureth forever? The God
of gods. Does not he sound like the God
of gods when he says, I will have mercy on whom I want to
have mercy on? That's what David's saying. He's
the God. He does whatever he pleases. Our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. If I want to be gracious to you,
I'll be gracious to you. If I don't, I won't. That's how
God talks. Remember what they said about
our Lord Jesus Christ? He speaks as one having authority. He speaks like somebody that
does what he wants to do. That's because he does what he
wants to do. This is the God of Gods. Most
people don't want a God. They want a God that can't do
that. That that's not fair, so he can't do that. But by God's
grace, I don't want that God. I want this God. How about you?
And it's a good thing because there ain't but one, and it's
this one. The definition of the word mercy tells us that God
doesn't owe it to us. If he withholds, they say that's
not fair, you know, for God not to show mercy on everybody. You
don't know what mercy is. We need to understand what mercy
is. God doesn't owe it to us. If God, if He withholds His mercy
from any sinner, and we know that He does and He shall, He's
simply giving us what we deserve. Because by definition, mercy
is not giving us what we deserve. If He punishes us in hell forever,
He's just doing what's right. He's giving you what you've earned,
what you deserve. We talk about that woman of Canaan
in Matthew chapter 15, what a beautiful story, how she cried unto the
Lord. This is what she said, have mercy
on me. Oh Lord, thou son of David, she
cried for mercy. And so when the Lord said, Does
she really want mercy? Or does she want a shot? Does
she want a chance? Does she want a fair shake from
God? Well, when the Lord said it's not right for me to take
the children's bread and give it to dogs, what you deserve
is to starve and die and go to hell. It wouldn't be right for
me to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. She said
that's the truth. She meant it when she cried for
mercy. She meant it, didn't she? She's crying for, don't give
me what I deserve. I know I deserve. I don't deserve
anything from you. I deserve for you to ignore me,
to reject me as I've rejected you my whole life. I deserve
it. She cried for mercy. If it was
right for him to give the children's bread to dogs, then it wouldn't
be mercy. Verse three, give thanks unto
God, but also unto the Lord. I looked at this for a while
and I said, I know he's not repeating himself, and then I read something
that helped me. Who is the Lord? We know who
God is. God in all of his persons, but the Lord. Being found in
fashion as a man, God humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. whereby God hath also
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord. To the glory of God, the Father. Give thanks unto the Lord Jesus
Christ because his mercy endures forever. He's never going to
give you what you deserve. The only way that God, strictly
considered as God on his throne in heaven, cannot give you what
you deserve is if he gives his son what you deserve. Somebody getting what we deserve.
The unmitigated wrath of Almighty God against my sin was poured
out upon the Lord. The Lord of Lords. It was displayed there above
his head as he shed his precious blood. This is Jesus the King. There is no mercy without his
precious blood. Give thanks. The Lord Jesus Christ
physically being crucified that day. And we know there was way
more to it than the physical aspect, the terrible horror of
physical crucifixion. But his physically being crucified
that day on the wooden cross had a direct and physical and
immediate consequence. Barabbas did not get what he
deserved. And the Lord Jesus Christ being
crucified that day also had a spiritual, eternal consequence. No sinner
for whom he died will ever get anything that they deserve as
sinners. We receive instead what he deserves. He took what we deserve, we get
what he deserves. Glory, honor, favor, and blessing
forever. to reign with Him forever. Verse
4, to Him who alone doeth great
wonders. Well, we could make an entire
message out of that, couldn't we? And never scratch the surface
of it. But the greatest wonder that God ever did was laying
down His life for sinners like us. God parting the Red Sea and
allowing his people to walk across on dry land and then drowning
all of their enemies in the Red Sea is just a Polaroid of what
he did on Calvary. It's just a snapshot. He saved my soul from hell and
defeated every enemy I have by his sin atoning sacrifice of
himself on Calvary. wonder of wonders. Verse five, to him that by wisdom
made the heavens, by wisdom made the heavens. Why
did he make the heavens? Because he's merciful. Why even
populate an earth with such as we? Why didn't he
just throw us all in hell just right at the outset. Why even
make it earth? Why even continue to sustain
this earth and let us live in it and make the heavens that
bless us every day? God blesses us every day. And
think with me here for a second. God bestows providential mercies that we take for granted every
day. When he made and established
the heavens above us that shine down upon us and rain down light
from above, These are pictures of God's covenant mercies. His covenant mercies. He illustrates to us his covenant
mercies by the heavens being established. He told Abraham,
thy seed, and remember never forget that Paul said the reason
he didn't say seeds is because that's Christ. And all who are
Christ's are Abraham's seed. Him and his people in him are
heirs according to God's covenant promise. But what did he say? Your seed shall be as what? Stars
of the heavens. We have a constant reminder of
his covenant mercies toward us. Those stars are us. That's his sheep. We are the light of the world
because he's the light of the world and we in him So he told Paul he told Abraham
that seed shall be as the stars of heaven and Paul tells us that
that seed is Christ and all who are Christ in Galatians chapter
3 if you want to read that later Christ is pictured as the day
star that arises in the hearts of men and gives them life. That's
the Sun in 2nd Peter chapter 1 The rain is said to be as the
word of God, which shall not return into him void, the book
of Jeremiah, but shall accomplish his purpose and prosper in the
thing where to he sent it. So every day we have these pictures
and the things themselves, the earthly temporal mercies of God,
the providential mercies. We'll talk about that a little
bit in a minute, I think. Providential as opposed to covenant mercies.
We enjoy also, verse 6, to him that stretched out the earth
above the waters. And again, you see a progression
here. The heavens and now the earth. The bounties of his earth
we enjoy every day. I'm going to go home and eat
good tonight. I think he's cooked up something. You can believe
me when I say it's going to be good. food and water, meat, both of
which picture Christ and how essential He is to us, to our
souls. He is the bread of life, the
water of life. He said don't seek after that
bread which just, that can't give you what you really need.
It's just gonna go in and out of you and you're still gonna
be a sinner. But there's bread that only I can give you. Ask
and you'll receive. He is the bread of life and water
of life, much more vital than the food necessary for these
bodies. And there is no question now that all creatures benefit
from these providential mercies of God. The literal sunshine
and rain and the bounties of his earth. Some, in trying to
categorize and systematically study the person of God and what
he does, call this common mercy. I'm not crazy about that term
because even, let me just simply explain why I'm not. It's just
a term, but it's not really common mercy in the sense that even
in his providential mercies, God is distinguishing. He don't
give them to everybody. He don't give them the same to
everybody. He makes it rain over here and not over here. He makes
one man's crops grow and another man's going to get eaten by grasshoppers.
So even in his providential mercy, it's not common to everybody.
It's just not. God is distinguishing in everything
that he does. He does what he pleases. Not
what we think is fair or what's equal. So he's discriminating even in
the dispensing of what I would prefer to call his providential
mercies. Isn't he? Isn't that the truth? He just
is. And that's his prerogative. There he is. And none of us deserve
any of them. So he gives me one thing. I'm
not worthy of the least of his mercies. And neither are you. We must also thank God for all
the good things that he provides, but also acknowledge that these
are just pictures and types and illustrations of God's true mercy,
which is his covenant mercy in Christ Jesus. Everybody and every
creature to some extent or another at one time or another enjoys
the providential mercies of God, but only his elect are included
in his covenant mercies in Christ. That's just clear from the scripture
now. Look at verses 7 through 9. To him that made great lights,
for his mercy endureth forever. The sun to rule by day, for his
mercy endureth forever. The moon and stars to rule by
night, for his mercy endureth forever. He made great lights
from which we benefit again in a physical, temporal, earthly
sense every day and night that we live in this world. But sinners
need more light than that. We can look to the sun and the
moon and the stars and say there's a God. We can know something
of His eternal power and Godhead so that we're without excuse
for not acknowledging Him as God and giving Him glory as God,
Romans chapter 1. We're without excuse. But you're
not going to know anything about mercy by the light of the sun
and the moon. We need another light. We need
that light which only shines in the face of Jesus Christ and
gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God there. 2
Corinthians 4, 6. That's necessary light that not
all will ever see or see by. Verse 10. Here's a picture of those. Another
picture. of his covenant mercies, to him
that smote Egypt in their firstborn, for his mercy endureth forever,
and brought out Israel from among them, for his mercy endureth
forever, with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm, for
his mercy endureth forever, to him which divided the Red Sea
and departs, for his mercy endureth forever, and made Israel to pass
through the midst of it, for his mercy endureth forever, and
overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his mercy
endureth forever." This is salvation. All of this picture salvation.
I'm the water of life. I'm the bread of life. He's the
light of the world, the sun. He's the day star that must arise
in your hearts or you'll be in darkness, eternal darkness. And this story is the story of
redemption. This is deliverance by the blood
of the Lamb. We have so many lessons in this
brief passage. We see in that story of the Exodus
that God saves by death. He saves by blood. That's how
we're saved. When you have light from heaven,
you see that only by the precious blood of Christ can we be delivered
from bondage, the bondage of sin. The Passover lamb must shed
his precious blood. The night of the Passover, which
is in verse 10 there, He smoked Egypt in their firstborn. There
was a death in every household in the land of Egypt. You say,
well, no, in the Israelites had nobody died. Yeah, they did.
There was a death in every house. In the Egyptians' houses, there
was a sinner that died. And in the houses of the people
of God, a lamb died, a substitute. God's justice and wrath against
sin will be satisfied. And God said, when I see the
blood of the lamb, I'm satisfied. I'll pass over you. But where
he does not see the blood of the substitute, there's punishment,
eternal punishment, because there's never satisfaction. He finds
no pleasure in the death of the wicked, no satisfaction, no fulfillment.
It'll never be enough. It'll never be enough. Verse
11. We read verses 10 through 15
together, but let's look at them one at a time now. And brought
out Israel from among them for his mercy endureth forever. When
God does see the blood shed for you and there's atonement for
your sin, then you're out. You're free. When the Son makes
you free, you're free indeed. He didn't take a shot at it.
You're saved. You're safe. No enemy can approach
you. No enemy can harm you. They're
not bringing you back. You're done with the Egyptians,
your bondage is over. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul, not a decision, not man's will, not obedience
to the law. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. It's not when I see your obedience
I'll pass over you, it's when I see the blood. It is not of
him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy, Romans 9 16. And when he shows mercy, you've
got mercy. When he comes to not give you
what you deserve, you ain't getting what you deserve. You're gone,
you're free, delivered. Verse 12, with a mighty arm and
a strong hand, with a stretched out arm. God don't try to save,
he saves. When he unleashed all of the
other plagues upon Egypt, he told Moses in advance, he's not
going to let you go. This is not what this is. He's not going to let you go.
But when he got ready for the Passover, he said, here's what
you do. He told him exactly what to do.
Take a lamb without blemish, without spine, roast it, and
eat all of it, and put the blood on the door. And when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you, and Pharaoh's going to let you go. God saves whom he will, when
he will. When it pleases him. Why didn't
God just do the last plague first and just get it over with? I
don't know. But I know that when he gets good and ready, he saves.
He sets sinners free when he wants to. Why did God wrestle
with Jacob all night? I don't know. But I know this. When he gets ready to bless,
you're blessed. Paul said, when it pleased God. He revealed His Son in me. Isaiah 59, 1, Behold, the Lord's
hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither His ear
heavy that it cannot hear. His ear is not heavy. He told
Moses in the beginning of that exodus story, I've heard the
cry of my people, and I've come down here to save them. I'm going
to use you to do it. And he didn't have any problem
getting it done, did he? He chose the most worth with.
Moses said, I can't even talk right. How am I even going to
deliver the message to your people? I said, don't worry about that.
I'm going with you. I'm going with you. He didn't have any, God didn't
have any problem getting it done. And he still don't. He still
don't. He has laid help upon one who
is mighty, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has power right now to
forgive sins. I don't think we realize that
all the time. Our Lord Jesus Christ has power tonight on this
earth to forgive sins if he wants to. That's who we pray to. That's who we trust. That's who
is our hope and our salvation. That's who we cry to when we
see those that we love hopeless and helpless in their depravity. power on earth to forgive sins.
He told that lame man, your sins are forgiven. Why didn't he say
that to him years before? It would have been nice to know
that earlier, huh? Why didn't he say it to everybody
there? I don't know, but I know that he has mercy on whom he
will have mercy. And I know that he's plenteous
in mercy. And I know that his mercy endureth forever. When
he gives it, he don't take it back. Verse 16, to him which led his
people through the wilderness, for his mercy endureth forever. He saved them, and he still didn't
leave them now. He didn't just set them free
and then say, have a nice life. He's still saving us, isn't he?
All through the wilderness. He don't have to be with us,
we're goners. We're goners. God. He led his people. He is mighty
in his mercy. He's sovereign in the purposing
of it. And you notice I skipped a couple of verses. We're going
to look at them together here now. He's mighty in his mercy. He's sovereign in the purposing
of it. He said, I'll have mercy on whom I will. He is invincible
in the execution of it. And he's faithful in that he
never lets us go. Verses 13 through 15, look at
it. To him which divided the Red
Sea into parts, for his mercy endureth forever, and made Israel
to pass through the midst of it, for his mercy endureth forever,
but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. What's he
doing there? Well, the blood was shed, and
out they go. But what's going to happen? Are
they going to be pursued? Maybe Pharaoh will still catch
up with them. What did God say when these events
took place? Stand right there, quit murmuring, shut up, stand
still, and watch me save you. That's where a sinner has to
come to now. You need to quit making your decisions and quit
exercising your will. That's the problem. Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. He is invincible in the
execution of it. He's the one that saves. He does
it miraculously. There is no natural power that
can save you. If there had been a law whereby
you could have been saved, then salvation possibly would have
been by the law. But you can't get it done. You can't obey enough
to get it done. It is of faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ that it might be by grace. And then he's faithful in that
he never lets us go. He never leaves us nor forsakes
us. His mercy and goodness, indeed, follow us all through the wilderness. That's verse 16. All the days
of our life. We're still in the wilderness.
But he prayed, don't take them out of the world, but keep them
from the evil. And he said, lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of this wretched world. All through the wilderness, he
still would. He doesn't lead us around the wilderness. He
leads us through it. He led them, you see that in
the book? He led them through the wilderness. But yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I won't
be afraid. That's my resolve anyway. A little
fear might creep in every once in a while, but what am I gonna
say? I'm not gonna be afraid. Why? Because he's with me. Thou
art with me. My rod and my staff, they comfort
me. I will fear no evil. Listen to
Nehemiah. I want to read something to you.
You can certainly turn there if you'd like to. Nehemiah's
a little bit tough to find. It's just a few pages really
back from where we were in the Psalms there, though. Nehemiah
chapter 9. Let me read you a passage of Scripture beginning in verse
11 of Nehemiah 9. Nehemiah 9 11. Thou didst divide the sea before
them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry
land. This is what we just talked about. And their persecutors
thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
Moreover, thou leadest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, And
in the night by a pillar of fire to give them light in the way
wherein they should go. This is our journey now. We've
passed through the Red Sea. We stood there and watched God
save us. And now we see he's still saving us by his light,
by the cloud. He comforts us. He keeps us.
He protects us. He follows us as we follow him. Thou camest down, verse 13, upon
Mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven. and gave us
them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
and made us known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandest
them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses thy
servant. Again, he shows us Christ in
the Passover. He saves us by the precious blood
of his son, and then he points us to him all the way, doesn't
he? What's the law? The law's our schoolmaster. What's it teach
us? It brings us to Christ. It teaches
us to flee to Christ. Gave us them bread from heaven
for their hunger. I'm that bread that came down
from heaven. And brought us forth water from them out of the rock.
Paul said that rock was Christ. for their thirst and promised
them that they should go in to possess the land which thou had
sworn to give them. I'm going to keep you all the
way. I'm going to bring you all the
way home. Has he promised us that? What a wonderful promise.
We can't fall. We can't get lost. He won't let
us wander too far. We're coming home. He's bringing
us home. And we're going to get there. But they and our fathers dealt
proudly and hardened their necks and hearkened not to that commandment.
Uh oh, we're not living up to our end of the bargain. We never
have and we never will. It's not up to us, is it? Thank
God that he fulfilled the covenant of grace. It's not contingent
upon us and what we do, our performance, our obedience. And refuse to obey, verse 17,
neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them. We
just take for granted. God's doing miracles in our midst
all the time, isn't he? No big deal to us. That hardened
their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return
to their bondage, but thou art a God ready to pardon. Gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest
them not. How many times have we forsaken
Him? Yea, when they had made them
a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee
up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations, yet thou
in thy manifold, I had to look that one up, I'm glad I did,
it means abundant, abounding, exceeding, and great, thy manifold
mercies, forsooketh them not in the wilderness. That's what
we're talking about, we're in the wilderness. And we're not
any better than we were the day that he saved us. But he's better. He's faithful. The pillar of cloud departed
not from them by day to lead them in the way, neither the
pillar of fire by night to show them light, And the way wherein
they should go. It's going to be all right, y'all.
Isn't that good to know? It's going to be fine. Verse 17, back in
our text. 17 through 22, to him which smote
great kings. You'll see why we're taking these
all together. For his mercy endureth forever and slew famous kings.
For his mercy endureth forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his mercy endureth forever. And Og, the king of Bashan, for
his mercy endureth forever, and gave their land for inheritance.
For his mercy endureth forever, even inheritance unto Israel
his servant, for his mercy endureth forever. You see what God did,
and what a clear picture. It's just plain, isn't it? God
slew kings. He sets up one and puts down
another. And he said, I'll give people for you and men for thy
life. These kings, God killed them, destroyed them, put them
down, and gave their land to his people. This is a picture
of how his spiritual Israel will inherit this earth. I bet you hadn't thought about
this in a while. When you see how the sinners
use God's earth to do their evil, We observe this every day, how
that they deny and curse the one that made this earth and
put them in it and gave them everything that they have. They
pursue their wicked ambitions and they make fun of anybody
that honors God. And they're having a big party,
aren't they? They're like Belshazzar and his cohorts who took the
vessels of the house of the Lord and drank wine and got drunk
and had a big party with them until God wrote on the wall.
That's what's going on in this world. When you see what goes on, remember
our text and how that God has revealed that the meek, the meek
shall inherit the earth. His poor and spirit ones, his
merciful ones who have obtained mercy, blessed are they, he said. They shall inherit this earth. Not the way it is, not the version
that sinners have ruined and defiled. And I'm not calling
them sinners to suggest that we're anything different. But
there is a difference, you see, because we're his sinners. And
everything good about this earth, everything good that there is,
you know why God made it? He made it for us. They're just
using it for now. His reign falls on the just and
the unjust, but He sent it for the just. You might say, well
what difference does it really make if both benefit from it?
All the difference in the world, He sent it for you. And remember now that it's for
you. Remember that. Not to be lifted up in pride
and to think that it's true because of anything in us. Mercy. It's for us. They benefit from
it for a time. But it's for you. You see, God who spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for you. Also freely gives you all things. He gives him to you. Those who
he delivered his son up for. All things are yours. He gives men people. Things nations. Thank God for every mercy. Even
the temporal ones, even the little ones, you know. Is it a little
thing that God feeds us? When you're talking about redemption,
it kind of makes it a little thing, doesn't it? But not because
it is a little thing. And see in every mercy His sovereign
covenant mercy in Christ Jesus. The benefits, the promises, the
mercies of that covenant are ours by the blood of that covenant,
shed by the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 23, who remembered us in
our lowest state. Oh, I couldn't help but think
of that thief, you know, but he's just a picture of us, isn't
he? Who has ever been lower? A wasted life of of the most horrible of crime. And just a few breaths away from
dying and going straight to hell where he belonged. But the Lord turned the light
on. And he said, Lord, remember me. He will. He does. He does. Remember what Zacharias, John
the Baptist's father, said about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ
in Luke 168. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited and redeemed his people. The Lord's just born,
he ain't redeemed him yet. Oh yeah, it's done. It's done. It's done. That baby is the lamb
slain from the foundation of his world. His blood is eternal,
the blood of the everlasting, without beginning or end, covenant. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up
in horn of salvation for us, the power of God unto salvation.
In the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophet, he's been telling us since the world began, and
he was going to do it, that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the mercy
promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. I will have mercy. And Zacharias on the birth of
Christ said, here it is, here it is. God promised and God has
delivered. His son is born into this world.
Verse 24 now. And hath redeemed us from our
enemies. For his mercy endured. Zechariah
said that, didn't he? All of our enemies. He's redeemed
us. It's done. He hath done it. Redemption is the price of freedom.
the price of God's mercy extending to us was nothing less than his
only begotten well-beloved son. Verse 25, who giveth food to
all flesh for his mercy endureth forever. This was interesting because you see we have seen
a progression of thought here in this psalm. He began talking
about providential mercies the lights in the heavens that he
created, the heavens themselves, the earth that's above the seas.
He began talking about those providential mercies that all
creatures benefit from at one time or another to one degree
or another. And then he began to talk about covenant mercy,
pictured in the Passover lamb. Christ is our Passover. And now
here he's back to this. Is this anticlimactic? He's been
talking about great deliverance from bondage and freedom from
enslavement, 400 years of bondage. God redeeming us from all of
our enemies and now He gives food to everybody. Why? Why did He go back to that? Here,
I believe, is a warning and an exhortation. Think about this
very carefully. This is the final thought tonight. I know that God's mercy in Christ
is distinguishing, saving, covenant mercy. And not everyone is in
on that. Only those whom he loved. He said, I've loved Jacob and
I've hated Esau. Jacob's in on the covenant. Esau's
not. But we are reminded here that
God is good in a sense to everybody. And why is that? Why is that
important? Read Romans chapter one at your
leisure. and see why that's important.
If you hate God tonight, if you despise the God who saves whom
he will, when he will, you hate the one who made you,
who gave you everything you have, who, if you're gonna eat tonight,
will have to give you the food to eat. You think about that. What he's saying there in Romans
chapter one is that even in the basic providential mercies of God,
when these reprobates enjoyed them, they weren't thankful and
they refused to glorify him as God. That's where it starts.
You may never, those, you can't say this tonight, because I pray
that you've heard a gospel message tonight, but some will never
hear a gospel message. They'll still be without excuse. Why?
Because God feeds them. You see how important this verse
is? You think this is a warning? He feeds every one of you in
this world. And you think about that now.
He feeds you. When you're shaking your fist
in his face, when you're despising his eternal mercy, think about
that. He's got to feed you. You're
cursing him with the breath that he put in your lungs. Those in chapter one in Romans
are described as knowing God, as owing everything to him, and
yet refusing to glorify him as God. Is that you? If he feeds you, you're without
excuse. If he feeds you, bow. If He feeds
you, you need to know who it is that feeds you. And here is
the plain, simple lesson of verse 25. You are without excuse. You are without excuse. If you
don't have the mercy, if you haven't experienced the mercy
of God, you don't have any excuse. He feeds you, and yet you still
say in your heart tonight, no God for me. No excuse. Verse 26, O give thanks. What does it say there in Romans
chapter one? Though God had given them and brought them into this
world and put them into his beautiful world, still wonderful even though
we've wrecked it to a great degree, and given us everything in his
providence preserved, even the reprobate now, And it says in
verse 21, because when they knew God, they glorified him not as
God, neither were thankful. And so David says, oh, don't
let that be you. Give thanks unto the Lord. You
see that in this verse? Give thanks unto the God of heaven. And they became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened, because they weren't thankful.
God fed them. and they weren't thankful. Oh, give thanks unto the God
of heaven. Don't refuse to give him glory,
the glory that's due under his name, the one who has given you
all his good things to enjoy in this world. Kiss the sun,
lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, and his wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. Amen. Let's pray.