A little book of James, there's
a verse near the end, James chapter 5, I mentioned in the text. It could serve as a text for
both messages. It says in the last part of verse
11, it says, the Lord is very pitiful. We use the term pitiful
wrong. This is the way it should be
used, full of pity. The Lord is full of pity, full
of pity, like merciful, pitiful, very pitiful, and of tender mercy. Then Psalm 103, that we just
read, speaks several times of His mercy. Look at verse 8. The Lord is merciful, gracious,
slow to anger, plentiful, great, great mercy. Verse 11. As the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy. for them
that fear Him, in verse 17, and the mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. And how many
times does it say His mercy endureth forever, His people? As you read
Brother Tommy Robbins' article Sunday episode, This message
hopefully will give great glory to our God. I hope it will. I'm
just going to try to say what He said. And great comfort to God's people.
Maybe cause someone to hope in His mercy. This is a favorite
verse of mine, Psalm 147, it says, I'll just read it for you.
And this was the text for Crooker Stanley's funeral. The Lord taketh
pleasure. and them that fear Him, and those
that hope in His mercy. He taketh pleasure. Another scripture
says He delights to show mercy. He gives Him great pleasure,
and He delights to show mercy. And the Lord is merciful, full
of mercy. The thing we need the most is
what He's full of, and He delights to show it. So why not you? Why not me? Mercy. We often say,
we've heard it said, defined mercy as not getting what we
deserve. Well, that's true. That's true. Grace being the Lord giving us
what we don't deserve. But mercy actually, nearly every
time, translates kindness. Not getting what we deserve is
kindness, that's for sure. But mercy is so much more than
not getting. not being condemned. Mercy is
God's kindness. Now, God is always kind. Kindness means this, tenderness.
And that's what it says, He's tender. Mercy. Gentle. Gentle. It means good. God is good. He never does anything
other than what's good, and especially His people. Everything works
together for our good, because God is good. It means gracious. It means benevolent. One who
loves to meet the needs of another. That's our benevolent Father.
It means tolerant. That's long-suffering. The long-suffering
of the Lord is our salvation. It means humane. You know what
humane means? It means sympathy for the suffering
of man and beast. A humane society. It's those
who want to relieve the suffering of beasts. Well, our Lord is kind
to man and beast. Kelly read Psalm 104. Go there,
Psalm 104. And Psalm 145, it says this. Turn to Psalm 104, okay. It's
right there, you have to turn. Turn your head. But Psalm 145
says, his tender mercies over all his worth. All his worth. And what I want to show you is
that God has a general or universal mercy for all. His tender mercies
are over all His work. Every single creature, man, beast,
fowl, fish, the Lord is merciful to all. And then I want to show
you a particular mercy, a saving mercy, the loving, saving, eternal
mercy for His people. Okay? And this would be a good
message to give those who say we're, I don't know, hard-shelled
or whatever, hyper-Calvinist, you know, babies go to hell and
all that. We don't believe that, any such
thing. But God's mercy is universal. There is a universal mercy of
God. His tender mercy is over all
His work. Turn to Psalm 145 for me. I just
quoted it, but there's a few other verses I want you to look
at. Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Look at it. This is good. You
have it? Verse 8. The Lord is gracious
and full of compassion. One time the Lord, Jesus Christ,
looked over the whole multitude, everybody. And it says he had
compassion on them. He said, they need to eat something,
remember? Let's feed them, feed them all. And he does, always
had. Read on. The Lord is good to
all, verse nine. His tender mercies are over all
his works. All thy work shall praise thee,
O Lord. You know, the birds do, don't
they? They do, they wake up every morning. It's amazing how the
Lord takes care of the animals in it, no matter how cold, no
matter how brutal the weather is. He takes care of them. You don't see dead birds laying
everywhere. You look at some of these cattle and all that,
and I worry about those two little cats. They're warmer than we
are inside our house. He's given them a fur coat. He's
taken care of all the animals. Man's the only creature born
naked. Right? We need the covering of another.
We need the robe of another. But He covers every single of
them. They didn't sin like us. Read on. It says, He's good to
all, He's tender to mercy, and in all His works, verse 10, praise
Thee, O Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall
speak of the glory of Thy kingdom and talk of Thy power to make
known to the sons of men His mighty act. All His works praise
Him, but the saints, bless His name, they tell people about
God. No, they talk about the works
of God, God's people. God's given us a mouth to show forth His praises
unlike any other creature. And that's what this mouth is
meant to do. So, now go back to Psalm 104.
But His people know and they speak of His mercy. The world has shown mercy, but
they don't know it. And they sure don't talk about
it. But we do. He won't let us forget it. Bless
God. That's mercy. Psalm 104, the Lord is merciful
to all man and beast. Verse 10 through 12, He sends
the springs into the valleys that run among the hills. They
give drink to every beast of the field. The wild asses quench
their thirst. The fowls of the heavens sing
among the branches and the trees that God's grows. Now in verse
27, they all wait upon thee. Oh, man, beast, fowl, fish, they
all wait upon God that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. and that thou givest them, they
gather. Now openest thine hand, they're filled with good. Do
you know how much food it takes to feed all the creatures on
earth? I told you one time, and he talked
about Leviathan here, that's a whale. He eats about two tons
of fish a day. One whale. I ain't gonna run
out of fish. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And so he tells us, he told us
in the Sermon on the Mount, why take ye thought what ye're going
to eat? There's not one sparrow that's
going to die and fall to the ground without your having a
thought. They eat what he gives them. And it goes on to say he
hides his face, they're troubled, he takes away their breath, they
die and return to their dust. Everything that hath breath,
He gives it breath. Everything that eats, He feeds
it and drinks. Turn to Ezekiel 18 with me. You
need to see this. So this is the universal or general
mercy of God. Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel 18. Our Lord Again, on the Sermon
on the Mount, he said in Luke 6, I don't want to misquote it,
but he said this in Luke chapter 6, the version of the Sermon
on the Mount. He said, He said, Love your enemies,
do good, lend, hoping for nothing again, your rewards will be great,
you'll be children of the Highest. For He is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil. God is kind to the evil. Be therefore merciful as your
Father also is merciful. The rain falls on the unjust
as well as the just. All these people are going to
pass by here tonight and not give God a thought and don't
care what's going on in here. The rain is the blessing. God
has given us rain. Isn't it wonderful? You can't
live without it. But it's nothing to them. They
say, it rained. We need to say, the Lord sent
rain. Give Him the glory for it. In Ezekiel 18, look at this,
verse 21. If the wicked will turn from
all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and
do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall
not die. All his transgressions he hath
committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him. His righteousness that he hath
done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that
the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he
should return from his ways and live? Are you reading that with
me? You need to remember that. Our Lord is merciful. Listen
to Ezekiel 33. Listen to what he says over here.
The same thing. He says in verse 11 of Ezekiel 33, say unto them,
tell them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his
way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
way. Why will you die? Oh, how's it
easier? That's mercy in it. The Lord
mourns everybody. Many are called. In fact, everybody's
heard the call. Called to repent. Called to believe.
Haven't they? God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. That's mercy. That's mercy. God has no pleasure
in damnation. I've heard men, I've heard great
preachers preach as if they relished God sending people to hell. One
fell in particular and the Lord took him out of ministry. As
if he relished people going to hell. Our God doesn't take pleasure
in damning people. He takes pleasure in mercy. He
just likes to show mercy. And if anybody, anybody asks
for it, that thief on the cross. There are men like Manasseh in
the scripture. Nebuchadnezzar. I believe the Lord saved that
old fellow. Manasseh was the worst man. Don't you believe
that, Melanie, that the Lord saved Manasseh? Amazing. One time Ahab, he was really
bad. Ahab repented, not completely,
but the Lord showed him some mercy. Amazing. Amazing. That's our God. Now, listen. Listen to me. I'm
talking about general mercy. Mercy is not love. Mercy is not love. Although love always is merciful. Okay? But don't mistake this,
what I'm talking about, for God's love. You can be merciful to
one you hate, and one you intend to destroy.
Right? One time, a fox was killing our
chickens. It's a beautiful animal. And
they got to eat to live, but not my chickens. And I trapped
him. I went out there and he was caught
in that trap. I took no pleasure whatsoever
in that. None. It hurt me. I didn't love that dog. I didn't
love him. I love dogs. Dogs love all dogs.
Right? Well, don't mistake this for
God's love. You know, you can feel pity. And we're going to look at that
at another time. You can feel pity, but not show
it. You understand what I'm saying? Pity is a desire to relieve suffering. You can feel pity, but not like
that fox. You can feel pity. I'm sorry.
Right? God is angry with the wicked
every day. Let there be no mistake about
that, okay? And God is holy and righteous
in all His ways. But He still feeds His enemies. He still feeds, He's still kind
to them. And what all this does is it
heaps judgment on them. those that don't recognize and
thank Him for His kind. You understand? No one can blame
God, only themselves. The Lord God, you see, is not
like man. He has no malice. No malice. Malice means with a full intent
to cause suffering and pain. to enjoy the pain and suffering
of another. Man is full of malice. He's malicious. Not God. God is not like that. You understand
that? He shows no malice. He does not
inflict pain, the scriptures talk about willingly, that is,
unnecessarily. Suffering. He doesn't do it with
pleasure. Job 33. Look at Job 33. This
is wonderful. Job 33. Preached on this message
by Elihu before. This is marvelous. Job 33. One of the best messages in the
Bible. Job 33. Look at verse 27. It
says, God looketh upon men. You have it? He looketh upon men, and if any
say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it
profited me not, he will deliver his soul from going into the
pit. I brought up that thief on the
cross. Lord, there's never been a worse fellow. Lord, remember
me. That's all he said. That's all he said. Today. Today,
I shall be remembered. Like one of the old writers said,
as soon as your sins are admitted, they're remitted. As soon as
you ask, it's granted at mercy. Done. And that woman that was
caught in the act didn't say anything. He heard her before
he said anything. Forgiven. Read on. Verse 20. Eight, he will deliver his soul
from going down in the pit, and his life shall see the light.
Lo, think about it, all these things worketh God oftentimes. He does this a lot with man. He does it a lot. I'm sure glad,
because he's plenteous in mercy. Surely his mercy has run out
by now. No, no. Hold that place there, Job 33. The sad and tragic fact is, none
will ask for mercy unless God leads them to repentance. Nobody will know they need it
and no one will ask, no one will call until He calls them by the
gospel and tells them, you're guilty. I told you about that time. See,
the Lord is ready to pardon, but we're not ready to repent.
He has to give us repentance. The goodness of God leads us
to repent. I told you about Isabella when she was a two-year-old,
something like that, three-year-old, two-year-old. And I left my Bible
open, a pen laying on the Bible. And I went downstairs and came
back up, and she was there just... Oh! Isabella, stop! She didn't know what she'd done
wrong. And I went up there and sat down in front of them. Oh,
man, she marred my Bible. And I looked and said, honey,
you don't do that to God's Word. That's Papa's Bible. You don't
do that. It killed me, Mark. It just killed
me. I said, don't ever do that again. I had to make her realize she'd
done wrong. She didn't realize she'd done
anything wrong. And our Lord, the first thing on the cross
when He's hanging on the cross, you know what He said? Father,
and this is what broke my heart. Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they're doing. And He has to make us realize.
Do you realize what you're doing? And He grants us repentance.
And we feel sorry. You know, I knew what I was going
to do before I faced her. I'm not going to kick her out
of the family. I'm not going to beat her unmercifully. I'm
going to pardon her. And our Lord is ready to pardon
her. And He prayed that prayer for
those that He has to give repentance to. He didn't pray that for every
single person. Because whoever, he said, I pray not for the world,
but whoever Christ prayed that for, they were forgiven before
they even asked for it. And then he makes us feel our
guilt. And we say, Lord, I'm sorry.
Forgive me. Done. You don't have to do anything. Just ask. Isn't that wonderful? Where am I? No one will call
unless God calls us and leads us to repentance. See, this magnifies
the sovereign mercy of God then. This magnifies His sovereign,
effectual, saving mercy. Hmm. All right, now let me dwell
on that. That was general mercy. Now let
me dwell on particular, loving, eternal, saving mercy to God's
people. All right? You ready for this?
No, you're not. That wasn't... I couldn't get
the pity so much to think on. Look at Joe 33 again. It says
in verse 23, if there be a messenger with him. This man that's down
and out and his soul near the grave, if there's a messenger
with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand to show unto
man his uprightness, then he's gracious unto him and say, deliver
him from going down to the pit, I've found a ransom. Who is that
messenger? one among a thousand to show
unto this man who's down and out his righteousness, his uprightness. That's Jesus Christ. He is the
messenger of the covenant to show us his righteousness, to
deliver us by a ransom. What ransom is that? His own
precious blood. Do you remember when the Lord
sent those messengers? I'm going to put this up right
on my mind. When the Lord sent those messengers to Rahab, a
harlot, lived her whole life in harlotry. He sent two messengers
to tell her who God is and who Joshua is and God's going to
destroy that decadent city, Jericho. He sent two messengers to her. to tell her of God's holiness
and justice and righteousness and how God's going to destroy
the wicked. But God is merciful and gracious and Joshua is his
deliverer and all who ask for mercy will receive it. So Rahab
asked for mercy for her house and herself. What did Joshua
do? She sent a messenger with a message and Christ is that
messenger. Christ is the messenger of the
covenant. Christ is the ransom. And the messenger is also a preacher
of the gospel, who preaches this gospel of Christ's righteousness. It tells sinners there's a ransom. Brother John and I sing old Ed
Hale's song. We haven't sung that in a while,
John. We didn't sing it, though. Think about it all the time.
A ransom was found. Turn him loose. Verse 25 says,
when he hears this, his flesh is going to be fresher than a
child. He's going to be born again. Return to the days of
his youth. He'll pray unto God and God will
be favorable unto him. He'll see His face with joy.
He'll render unto man His righteousness. Just gotta ask. Isn't He merciful? And once He shows that right
at mercy, it's forever. He'll never take it back. The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Doesn't take
it back. So many are called, that's the
mercy of God, isn't it? General mercy. Have they not
all heard? Yeah, barely. The sound's gone throughout the
world. But few are chosen to repent, to believe, to lay hold. Oh, now that's mercy. That's
kindness. Jacob came to old Jacob. This is what I purpose to do
for you. You're no better than Esau. But
I've loved you." How do you know? He revealed Himself to him. Psalm 103 is for all whom the
Lord has chosen and called by the Gospel. All that God sovereignly
loves and graciously shows His saving mercy for Christ's sake.
Psalm 103. Go there. Let's just look through
here real quickly. Go home and hope that you want
to cut. Psalm 103, verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul. All
is within me. Bless His holy name. Do you... You know that most people curse
His name. Men, women, and little children,
take his name in vain and don't give it a thought. You don't,
do you? You bless his name, don't you?
Oh, my. Why? Because it's mercy. The Lord's shown mercy to you. He's revealed himself to you.
You who make mention of the Lord. I'm one of the Lord's remembrances. Isaiah 62.6. The Lord's remembrance
to remind you. The Lord has sent me to remind
you of His mercy. To bless His holy name. Don't
curse. Bless. That's what James said.
Above all, don't swear. Not by anything. Give thanks. Verse 2. Bless the Lord, O my
soul. Forget not all His benefits. Forget not. You know, most people
never give God a thought. Most people never thank God one
time in their entire life for anything, and He's given them
everything. Do you, listen? Do you remember
or think on some of His benefits? Try to? That's mercy. That's the sovereign, saving
mercy of God to show you His benefits to you, your great benefactor. Hmm, that's great mercy. Psalm
10 verse 4 says, The wicked God is not in all his thoughts. Romans 1 verse 3, Who forgiveth
all that iniquities? Most people don't believe they
have any. Oh, we do, don't we? This is
mercy. It's mercy to know you're a sinner
through and through. It's mercy for you to say with
Paul, O wretched man that I am, in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. We sing that song, what is it?
Faults and full of sin I am, thou art full of truth and grace. The world doesn't know anything
about that. You do, don't you? That's mercy. God's mercy is
for sinners. God's mercy is for guilty sinners. And it's great kindness to show
you're a sinner. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. My people don't believe they
have any. We feel like we're full of them.
You know what iniquity means? Iniquity means You're unequal. You're unequal.
You just come short of the glory of God. You're not like God.
So iniquities is every way that you're not like God. And God
forgives you for everything's wrong with you. Everything's wrong with you.
Forget it. He knows you're right. Forgiveth all thy iniquity, who
healeth all thy diseases. Who healeth all thy diseases. Have you ever stopped and thought
about all the diseases you've had since you were a child? I
did. I had measles. Covered all over. From head to
toe. Like Job. Awful. You ever had measles? I was in
the hospital with poison ivy one time. From the top of my
head. Five days. My sister heard I was in the
hospital, didn't know what was wrong with me. They wrapped me
up in bandages soaked with something, alcohol or whatever, my head
munched. She came in and thought I'd been in a car wreck. I looked
like the mummy. I had mumps. You ever had mumps? Chicken pox? Keep naming them. Flu? How many
times? How many times? Did you get COVID?
Who gave you COVID? That's mercy. You're not afraid of COVID anymore,
are you? I had it twice. My mother, 100 years old, the
Lord gave her COVID. She didn't know she had it. She
says, well, why do I have to stay in this room? Everybody's worried about it
now. It's mercy. It was mercy. He's healed every
disease I've ever had. Okay? Every disease I've ever
had. I told somebody recently, no
matter what he heals, we're going to die from something. All these people he healed, they
died from something. Elisha, arguably the greatest
prophet in the Old Testament, died of sickness. What did he
have? Cancer? Maybe. Maybe the Lord didn't heal him.
Or did He? I kept reminding you, you know,
when God sent the plague, what's the worst thing that could happen
to you? Somebody would think, well, they'd die. No! That's
the best! So, if He healed you, that's
mercy. If He gave it to you, that's
mercy. You see, God wanted you to say, anything this side of
hell is mercy. Everything the Lord does for
His people is kind. If He makes you sick, it's kindness. If He heals you from that sickness,
it's kindness. We don't understand that. Naomi said, the Lord's dealt
very bitterly with me. Dealt very hardly with, no Naomi,
no a thousand times. You brought all this on yourself.
But God who's rich in mercy is bringing you back and this is
the way He brings you back to Himself. Or else you would not
have left Moab. Her losing her husband was mercy. For now who's she got? You understand? Lost both their
boys. Mercy. Everything God does for His people
is mercy. Tender mercy. There's nothing
you'll go through, God's people, that He won't give you the mercy
to undo it. You know it's so, don't you?
You know it's so. Because He's true. He, what about,
you know what? I was once blind. Now I see. I was once deaf. I mean, I couldn't hear anything.
And now I hear. I was once dumb. I could not speak of God, of
God's glory. Now I do. I was once lame. I couldn't walk by faith. Now
I do. You know what, Carol? I was dead. And now I'm alive. He healed all that disease. Is
that you? Oh my, that's mercy. Read on,
verse 5, he satisfies thy mouth with good things. Sister Nancy
and I like the verse that says, open your mouth wide and I'll
fill it. This is the mouth of the soul. Open it wide, I'll fill it. You
come hungry and thirsty, I'll fill you full of mercy and grace,
peace, comfort. Open your mouth wide and I'll
fill it. I was going to read Ezekiel 3, where the Lord said,
Ezekiel, take this roll and eat it. Eat it, Ezekiel. He said,
and I did. I ate it. He said, you know what?
It's just so sweet. There was a time you had no,
you, there was a time we would We ain't having one of these
sitting around the house, around the apartment. Are you kidding? Isn't this the most wonderful
thing? Because it speaks of Him who is wonderful. The Lord had
to give you a hunger for that day. The Lord had to give you
a taste for His grace. And when you ate it, He said,
open your mouth. And He fills it. And once your mouth was full
of cursing and bitterness, now it's full of praise. Good things. Your youth is renewed, born again,
like the eagles. How many times have you come
in here dragging, feeling like a lower than a worm, and go out
mounting on wings of eagles? Has that ever happened to you,
Teresa? I know it. I see your face. The Lord executed, verse 6, righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. Come every soul by
sin oppressed, there's mercy with the Lord, and He will surely
give you rest by trusting in His Word. Come every soul by
sin oppressed, the Lord executes, He performs this righteousness
and this judgment for you. He went through the judgment
for you. All that are oppressed. And this
is verse seven, he made known his ways. He said, this is great
mercy. Fitting is verse seven in it.
Here's the climax. He made known his ways. Made known his ways like to Rahab. His law, His holiness, His righteousness,
His justice, His mercy, His grace, His love, His perpetuatory sacrifice,
His reconciliation, His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption. Things that you don't hear today in modern religion
that nobody cares, that they think there's no need in us bringing
up this Word when the Word is full of it. Righteousness 500
times. Psalm 71, John, over and over
and over, doesn't it? And you can't produce it. The
only one that has it is God, and He has to give it. Put it
on. And that righteousness is not
a doctrine. It's a person. He made known His ways to His
people. He made known His ways. Over
in Psalm 147, it talks about the Lord's mercy. And the last
thing it talks about, it says He showed His word to Jacob. That's the last thing he said.
He said he hadn't done that with any nation. He revealed himself
to his chosen people. He didn't do that with anybody
yet. Why is it? Well, let me go on. So it says
in verse 8, the Lord is merciful. You see? He's full of mercy. And gracious. Slow to anger. Plenteous in mercy. Plenteous
in mercy. And His mercy is for His people,
this saving mercy. And once He shows mercy, saving
mercy, verse 17, it says, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting
to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His righteousness
unto children's children. And you know what God's greatest
mercy is I've been talking about. It's Christ crucified. Christ crucified. There was a
man in prison. Let me close with this illustration. There's a man in prison. He was
guilty of murder, insurrection, and he's waiting to die. He's guilty and he knows it.
And he's scheduled to die the very next day. And he's sitting
in his cell and he hears the guards coming, prison guards
coming. He has no hope. And they called
his name. Barabbas, you're free to go. They opened
the jail cell. You're free to go. What do you
mean? You're free to go. Go on. And
they walk out and he walks out. Wait a minute, I don't understand.
I'm guilty. I was scheduled to be killed.
I don't understand. Why are you setting me free?
And one of those guards, centurion, points up there on Golgotha's
Hill. You see that man hanging on that cross in the middle,
dying, covered in his own blood? He took your place. You go. You're free. All charges
dropped. Go home. substitution. That's mercy. Now that's mercy. What kind? He might do that,
you might do that for a good person or a righteous person.
God did it for sinners, like old Barabbas. What should this do for us? What should this producing us, shouldn't it make
us merciful? Stand with me.