That is a constant need that
sinners have, always needing to be revived. Lord, breathe
new and fresh light into my heart in Christ. I want us to read
tonight from Psalm 146, if you'd like to turn there with me in
your Bible, Psalm 146. Nick and Andy, good to have you
all with us. Don and Mary's grandsons, from Cincinnati area. Got that
little taste of a tropical storm this week. I told Jeff and Megan to be sure to
read Little Chicken and The Boy That Cried Wolf to Annie while
she's little, lest she grow up and want to be a Florida meteorologist. Psalm 146. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. While I live, while I praise
the Lord, I will sing praises unto my God while I have any
being. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath
goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. In that very day,
his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein
is, which keepeth truth forever, which executeth judgment for
the oppressed, which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth
the prisoners. He executed judgment when he
poured out the full fury of his wrath on Christ as our sin-bearer
on Calvary's cross, and continues to feed us with the bread of
life. The Lord openeth the eyes of
the blind, and only he can do that. The Lord raiseth them that
are bowed down. The Lord loveth the righteous.
The Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and
widows. Those are the helpless ones. But the way of the wicked,
he turneth upside down. The Lord shall reign forever.
Even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Cyril's having a procedure done tomorrow and ask us to medical
procedure asked us to pray for him, so let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, forgive us for all the times
that we look aside and find our strength and our hope in the
arm of man, in the arm of flesh. We pray tonight that you would
revive us again that you would turn our hearts toward Christ
and that we would look to him for everything that you require
of us. And we pray, Lord, that you would
be pleased to give us hope and faith and thank you for the work
of redemption that he accomplished on Calvary's cause and for the
hope of forgiveness that we have in him. Father, that we're able
to come into thy presence and call you our Father and trust
you, Lord, to be merciful and compassionate toward us. Lord, we are a people in need
of mercy. We pray that you'd be pleased
to give us that for Christ's sake. We pray for our brother,
Cyril, and we ask, Lord, hand of mercy and strength to be upon
him and give him grace and enable him in this time of trial to
find his hope in Christ and be with the physicians and direct
their hands skillfully tomorrow. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number 352 from your hardback hymnal,
352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom glide, while the nearer waters roll, while
the tempest still is mine. Hide me, O my Savior, hide! Till the storm of life is past,
Safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, Thanks
my helpless soul, He will leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
all my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy fame. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and needy, just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness, false
and bold, of sin I am. Thou art Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me free. Thou of life, Thou fountain art,
freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Will you turn back with me in
your Bibles to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. We'll begin reading in verse
8. The Lord, notice the little verb is is in italics, which
means it's not there. God is telling us is that grace
is not just something that he shows us, grace is what he is. The Lord, gracious and full of
compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy, the Lord is good
to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy
works shall 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 acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. I want us to look tonight at
God's word, which shows us of his gracious character. I've
titled this A God for Sinners. Those who are poor and needy,
those who have nothing, they have no righteousness of their
own. They cannot lift one finger to save themselves. They cannot
satisfy in any way the justice of God for their sin. Their hands
are empty. They have no claim whatsoever
on God. And most of the time, their hearts
are cold. But here's the good news, and
this is a saying that's worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save such people. He came to save sinners. And the Lord is revealing himself
in our text tonight as a God who is gracious, a God who is
full of compassion, a God who is of great mercy, and only sinners
need a God like that. A person who has something to
bring to the table of salvation doesn't need grace, they don't
need compassion, they don't need mercy. Any person that brings
anything in their hands demanding of God justice is not a sinner. This, our God is a God for sinners,
a God for those who cannot help themselves. Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 33, verse two, oh Lord, be gracious unto us. Be our salvation
in this, our time of trouble. You and I have a problem. It's called sin. And we're in
need of a Savior, one who's able to put that sin away and reconcile
us perfectly in the presence of a holy God. And that's who
we have in Christ. He's gracious. He's full of compassion. He's merciful to those who are
in need of grace, to those who are in need of compassion and
to those who are in need of mercy. You remember in Matthew chapter
nine, there was a man who brought his son who was possessed with
a demon to the disciples and the disciples were not able to
do anything. And so he went to the Lord and he said, Lord, if
thou canst do anything, have compassion on us. Oh, we are
in need of compassion. And you remember what the Lord
said? The Lord said, if thou canst believe, all things are possible
to them that believe. And the boy was taken over with
a demonic spirit. And the Lord cast that demon
from him. The father said, Oh Lord, and scripture says, the
father said in tears, in tears, Lord, I do believe help down
mine unbelief. Oh, I'm so full of sin. I'm so
full of unbelief. That's really the root cause.
That's the sin that does so easily beset us. It's our unbelief and
that's our trouble. Oh, if we could believe God perfectly,
but we can't. And that's why we need one. We
need one who was able to believe his father perfectly. He had
perfect faith. And he stands in our stead, presents
himself as our substitute before God Almighty, justifying us and
satisfying everything that God requires. And so we look for
a God, sinners, sinners, those who left to themselves can do
nothing but sin. That's what a sinner is. A sinner
is not capable of doing anything but sin. Scripture says all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God. Everything in us falls
short of God's glory. And we're in need of a righteousness
outside of ourselves. If he doesn't show us compassion
and if he's not gracious and show us mercy, we'll be without
hope. We will be without hope altogether.
The first mention of grace in the Bible is found in Genesis
chapter 6, after the Lord had said that he looked down from
heaven And he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of
the heart of man was only evil and that continually. Now that's
what God saw. He looks down our throats into an empty sepulcher. He sees that every thought and
every imagination that we have left ourselves is sinful in his
sight. And he had determined to destroy
the earth and start over. And then the scripture says,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was just as
much a sinner as everybody else was a sinner. The next verse
after that says that he was a just man, perfect in his generation,
and that he walked with God. But that was after he found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. He didn't find grace in the eyes
of the Lord because he was a just man and because he walked with
God. He walked with God in faith because he found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. And the very last verse in the
Bible, Revelation chapter 22 verse 21 says, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you always. Oh, How much we are in need of a
God who is gracious, a God who is full of compassion, a God
who is full of mercy. Those who have been made to see
themselves for what they are, sinful in the presence of God,
are always mercy beggars. They're always looking for compassion,
and they're always in need of grace. Turn with me to the book
of Hosea, chapter 14. Hosea chapter 14. Here's what sinners do in their
need to be made right with God, in their need to be saved, in
their need for their sins to be put away, in their need to
have Acceptance in the presence of God and to have a righteousness.
Here's what here's what the Lord says Look at Hosea chapter 14
verse 1 Israel Israel God always just speaks to Israel. I Love
that our God's not He's not wringing his hands. He's not He's not
raising his voice in the streets. He's not begging men to let him
have his way and He just speaks, and when he speaks to Israel,
he gives them ears to hear. Let them who have ears to hear,
hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. Israel, the Prince
of God, Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen
by thine iniquity. Do we ever, do we ever get beyond
this? It's just like we revive us again,
Lord. My sin is ever before me. And
the Lord is always saying, return, return, just keep coming. Peter put it like that, didn't
he? He said, to whom coming. We're always coming to Christ,
always in need of his salvation. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord, saying to him, take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. The Lord's telling us how to
pray. He's telling us what to say when
we come into the presence of God. Take away my sin and receive
me graciously. Lord, I've got nothing that would
obligate you to receive me. I'm completely dependent upon
your grace, your unmerited favor. So will we render the calves
of our lips. There's the sacrifices that we
make. We lift our voices in praise and thanksgiving to our God.
That's the calves of our lips. Asher, do you remember what the
word Asher means? It means steps. Steps. And the false gospel has lots
of steps in it, doesn't it? And the Lord said, when you build
an altar, don't put steps on it. You know, we look at these
pagan altars where they would walk up the ziggurats and make
their sacrifices at the top of the altar. And God said, if you
make steps, all you're going to do is expose your nakedness
as you go up those steps. And that's what men do. They
fashion altars of sacrifice. And they think that, well, if
I just do this, and I do that, and I make this step and that
step, I can achieve. I can achieve salvation. And
God says, all you're doing is showing your nakedness. Asher
can't save you. Nothing that you do is sufficient
to save you. We will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, you
are our gods, for in thee, the fatherless find mercy. Lord,
be gracious to me, be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Isn't that what Bartimaeus said? Lord, son of David, have mercy
upon me. The lepers, when they came to
the Lord, master, have mercy on us. We're completely helpless and
dependent upon you. And no work of our hand is sufficient
to satisfy your holy justice or to put away my sin. Look at
verse four. And God says, I will heal their
backsliding. I will love them freely for my
anger is turned away from them. Oh, God views us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. No fear of his anger. No fear
of his wrath. That fire has been put out. It's
been put out. And the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished. It's finished. Everything that
God required of us, the Lord Jesus accomplished it. He quenched
the fire. The grace of God is free and
it's sovereign. The grace of God is sort of like
the sunlight. We hadn't seen much over the
last day or two, but we don't do anything to make the sun shine. And we don't do anything to receive
it. It's just there, it's just there. And just like sunlight, is from
the Son and it gives glory back to the Son, so the grace of God
is from God and it gives glory back to God. It's free. It's not something that we merit
because of our worthiness or because of our power. It's completely
free. It is its own cause and acts
towards its own glory. You remember in Genesis chapter
33, when Moses went before the Lord and said, Lord, show me
your glory. All these great miracles that we've observed, we've not
yet seen your glory. Show us your glory. Turn with
me back to that passage of scripture, Genesis chapter 33. I'm sorry, I said Genesis, Exodus
33, excuse me. Exodus chapter 33. Moses wasn't
even around in Genesis, was he? Exodus 33, look at verse 18. And he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. In verse 19, and he said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. and will show mercy to whom I
will show mercy. God's grace is sovereign. It's
his to give. That's why we're always coming
before him for mercy because it's not in anything that we
have to merit it or to deserve it. It's his mercy. It belongs
to him. And the Lord said, I'm gonna
show you my glory by being compassionate, by being merciful, by being gracious. And so the
scripture says, it is not of him that willeth. It's not by
man's free will or any other kind of will. And it's not by
him that worketh. It's not of him that runneth.
It's not of our hands, but it's of the Lord to show mercy. He's
the one. Romans 3, verse 24, we are justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ redeemed
his people when he shed his precious blood. He paid the price that
God required. And so we're always coming. Oh,
be merciful to me, Lord. for Christ's sake. Look to what
the Lord Jesus has done for me on Calvary's cross for all my
salvation. Lord, I can't merit anything.
I can't, I can't obligate you in any way. But you said that
you were a God of grace, of mercy and of compassion. And I'm a
sinner who needs grace and mercy and compassion. Only sinners
come to God for that. Only sinners, no one else. We
are saved by pure, free, sovereign grace. We can't add anything
to it. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that is a gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. The faith that we have
is a gift of God. The grace that he shows us is
his gift, it's all his gift. In Romans chapter 11, turn to
me there if you will, Romans chapter 11. Look at verse, verse five. Now prior to verse
five, the Lord's talking about when Elijah actually went up
to the mountain of the law, and you remember he was complaining,
he said, Lord, I'm the only one, no one else is faithful, and
the Lord said, oh no, Elijah, I've got 7,000, not bow their
knee to Baal. And so he says in verse five,
even so then at this present time also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. A remnant according to the election
of grace. It is by grace that God elected
a people. God didn't look down through
the quarters of time and see who would choose them or see
who would choose him or see something of virtue in them and therefore
choose. No, by grace, this is the election
of grace. And the redemption is of grace,
and the regeneration is of grace, and the sanctification is of
grace, and the glorification, it's all of grace. Look at the
next verse, look at verse six. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. You can't mix works and grace.
And that's what people in religion try to do, don't they? They talk
about grace, they say it's all of grace, and then they take
you back to the law and make it a work. And it's kind of like
putting oil and water together in a glass and shaking it up. And that's why there's so much
activity in religion, because that's what they're doing. They're
trying to blend oil and water. But you set that glass down for
just a few minutes, and what happens? Yeah, the oil goes to
the top, doesn't it? You take a drink of that water,
see what it does. That's what men do. They're trying
to mix works and grace. If it is of grace, it is no longer
of works. Otherwise grace is not grace.
And the sinner says, oh, I'm so thankful for that. I'm so
thankful that the Lord is not looking to something that I do
in order to be merciful to me. Have you ever met someone who used grace to justify licentious
living? Have you ever met someone who
said, well, you know, we're saved by grace, therefore we can live
any way we want. I've never met anybody like that. I really haven't. Let me show you a passage of
scripture. Turn with me to Jude 1. Jude 1. Now, I've met people that have done
that, but I've never heard anyone say that grace excuses licentious
living. I've never heard anyone say that,
whether they're on the works in a works gospel or whether
in the gospel of, I've never heard anyone say, you know, we're
saved purely by grace. Therefore we can live any way
we want. So what did the Lord mean when
he said in Jude chapter one or Jude verse four, For there are certain
men crept in unaware who were before of old ordained to this
condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I've heard plenty of people say
that grace will lead to lawlessness. This word, turning, is the word
translating. What the Lord is saying here
is that these are not men coming in. Nobody going into any church
of people who have any sense of morality would get a hearing
if they took that stand, if they said, you know, we're saved completely
by grace and you can live unrestrained in your licentious life. No one would get a hearing saying
that. But I have heard people say,
if I believed what you believed, I'd live any way I wanted. You
can't tell people that you're saved by pure grace. It'll lead
to licentiousness. It'll lead to sinful living.
And so we have to give them some restraints of the law in order
to keep them in check. So there again, we try to mix
law and grace, works and grace. Where does licentiousness mean? It means unbridled lust. Unbridled lust. You see, those
who have a gospel of grace and works mixed together, they have
those works in there because they don't believe in grace.
And the man who says to the believer, if I believe what you believe
I'd live any way I want, how do we respond to that? The believer
would say, oh I wish I could live like I wanted to. I wish
I could live like I want. But the The unbeliever is in
need of the law in order to give him
some guidelines. We've got Christ to guide us.
Look with me, you're there in 1 Peter. Turn with me to 1 Peter
chapter two. 1 Peter chapter two. These ungodly men, are those
who accuse those of us who believe in pure sovereign grace for salvation
of being licentious. Because that's where pure grace
would lead for them. They've translated the gospel
of God's grace into a life of licentiousness. I've heard plenty
of people say that. You can't preach pure grace.
You've got to give people some rules and regulations. Look at
1 Peter 2 at verse 11. I beseech you, as strangers and
pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your
soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that
whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your
good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day
of visitation. The self-righteous religionist
hears what we believe, and they come to the conclusion that we
must be living lawlessly. And the Lord's saying, that's
just the conclusion that they've come to. They've translated the
grace of God into lasciviousness. They've changed the grace of
God into a life of lasciviousness. They have no evidence of that.
But for them, that's what grace would do because they're under
the law. Go back to the first part of
that chapter. And let me ask you this question, so where does
grace lead? If grace does not lead to a life
of lawlessness, where does grace lead? Wherefore laying aside
all malice, it's 1 Peter 2, verse one, wherefore laying aside all
malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may
grow thereby. That's where grace leads. If
so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. If you've
tasted that he's gracious, then you want more of him. You want
more of him. To whom coming as unto a living
stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious
you also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. That's where grace leads. It
leads to Christ. The more We see how gracious
our God is. The more we see our need for
grace and the more we grow in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where grace leads. You
can't make grace free enough. You really can't. The freer it
becomes, the freer you become. And the more you rely upon the
Lord Jesus, and the more he delivers you from all the strength of
sin is the law. You put a man under the law and
all you're going to do is be aggravating his sinful nature.
And the only restraint to sin is grace. And the freer the grace
is, this is our God who's gracious. Our God is gracious. Is this
your experience? I know it is. I know it is. So we're falsely accused of being
antinomian by those who are under the law because we know that
all of our salvation is of grace and that our God is a gracious
God. Go back with me to Exodus chapter
34. Exodus chapter 34. So the Lord has taken Moses and
he's put him into a cleft of the rock, which is Christ. And he's caused his goodness
to pass before him, which is Christ. And he's put his hand
over him to protect him, which is Christ. And now Moses, is
about to hear the meaning of God's name. Look at verse five of chapter
34. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in mercy and truth. He's showing
Moses his glory. He's showing us his glory. His
glory is seen in the fact that he's gracious and merciful. That's his glory. And that's
his saving glory. Look, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. You see how the Lord
divides that up, iniquity, transgression, and sin? Iniquity, that's the
things that men try to offer up to God to earn His favor. And God says it's iniquity. Those
are the things that men are proud of, the things that men think
are good that God will be pleased with and somehow he will merit
them some favor for them. God says that's iniquity, it
doesn't measure up. Transgression, that's a direct
violation of God's law. And sin, that's what we are by
nature. And so iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Iniquity is the good stuff we
do, transgression is the bad stuff we do, and sin is what
we are. There we are, all wrapped up together. And Moses says,
show me your glory. And the Lord says, I'm going
to show you my glory by forgiving your iniquity, your transgression,
and your sin. And I'm going to make you perfect
in Christ so that as he is, so are you in this world. Look at
He will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, unto
the third and fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed
down his head towards the earth and worshiped. And he said, I
know if I now have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my
Lord, I pray thee, go among us. For it is a stiff neck people,
pardon our iniquity and our sin and take away from us. and take us for thine inheritance. Take us to thyself. Lord, we're
in need of mercy. And here's the good news. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. God's elect aren't guilty. They're
not guilty. All their sins have been put
away. They have the Lord Jesus Christ as their advocate, their
righteous advocate, standing in their stead before God, presenting
himself on their behalf. This is our hope. This is our salvation. Peter put it like this. He said,
it's the long suffering of God that is your salvation. the mercy
and the compassion and the grace of God. Aren't you glad our God's
long suffering? Turn with me to Genesis chapter
43. Here's the first mention of the word gracious in God's
word. This is a God for sinners, isn't
it? A God for sinners. Sinners don't want a God who's
anything less than gracious. Genesis chapter 43, you remember
Joseph is in Egypt now and he's got the keys to the storehouse
and he's a type of Christ, a glorious type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now his brothers have come and he's become their savior.
and he sent them back to get Benjamin. And so Benjamin here
is a picture of the church and Joseph's a picture of Christ.
And when they bring Benjamin before Joseph, look what Joseph
says in Genesis chapter 43 at verse 20, Nine, and he lifted up his eyes
and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, is
this your younger brother of whom you spake unto me? And he
said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. This is your mother's
son. And Joseph is saying to Benjamin,
God be gracious unto thee. And look at verse 30. And Joseph
made haste for his bowels did yearn upon his brother and he
sought where to weep and he entered into his chamber and wept there
and he washed his face and went out and refrained himself and
said, set on bread, bring out the meal. Oh, the compassion
that Joseph had, the mercy that he had for Benjamin. There's a picture of Christ weeping
on the cross and laying down his life for his sheep. Luke chapter 4. when our Lord
begins his public ministry in his hometown of Bethlehem and
he goes, somebody help me out, Bethlehem. But anyway, he goes into the
synagogue and he takes the scroll. And he, Nazareth, and he opens
the scroll from Isaiah chapter 61 and he reads that prophecy
of the coming of the Messiah. And he closes up the scroll and
he says to the congregation there in Nazareth, he said, this day, this prophecy has been
fulfilled in my sight, this very day. And they wondered at the
gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. They said,
could this be the Christ? They all knew that that passage
that he just read was a prophecy of the coming of Christ. Could
this be? No, we know him. He's the son of Mary and Joseph. We know his brothers. It couldn't
be. But they marveled and wondered
at the grace that came out of his mouth. And then he interprets
the passage. And he says to them, he says,
in the day of Elijah, the prophet, there were many widows in Israel,
but God showed mercy upon none of them except for the widow
of Sarepta, who was a Gentile. And in the days of Elisha, there
were many lepers in Israel, but God showed mercy on none of them
except for Nahum and the Syrian. And they went from wondering
of the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth to being enraged
at him. What was the Lord Jesus saying?
That God who revealed himself to Moses back there on Mount
Sinai and said, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I
will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion. I will
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. He's declaring his grace
and his compassion and his mercy as being his and being sovereign
and they wouldn't have it. Why? They wanted, they had a
works gospel. They wanted to obligate God to
save them by their birthright or by their law keeping. When they heard these things,
they were filled with wrath and wanted to put him to death. Nothing's
changed. Nothing's changed. Only sinners
need a God who's full of grace and compassion and mercy. The
self-righteous, the freewheeler, the legalist, they don't need
a God like that. No. And they're offended at the
preaching of a God like that because it robs them of the hope
of their salvation. That's exactly what it does.
It's exactly what the Lord Jesus did to those people in Nazareth.
He stripped from them their righteousness. He left them naked before God
and they hated him for it. And the sinner says, oh Lord. Just like you can't preach grace
free enough, you can't preach the sinner low enough, can you?
No, sinners want to hear about their need for a savior. They
want to hear about their about their sinfulness before God,
about their unrighteousness before God, because it's what causes
them to flee to Christ and trust Him for their salvation. Go back with me to our text in
Psalm 145. A God for sinners. Verse eight, the Lord is gracious. He's gracious, that's his nature.
He's full of compassion. Just like Joseph wept over his
brothers, oh, the weeping that the Lord Jesus Christ did for
his church cannot be compared to what Joseph went through. He's full of mercy, he's great
in mercy. He delights in showing mercy
towards sinful men and women. The Lord is good. I'm gonna cause
my goodness to pass before thee. Oh, good master, what must I
do to inherit eternal life? Why callest thou me good? There's
nothing good but God. You know the law, go back and
keep the law. Well, these things I've done
since my youth. that rich young ruler, he was
still looking for something that he could do to earn that which
can only be given by grace. He's good to all. His tender
mercies, his tender mercies are over all his works. We have a
God whose heart is full of nothing but tender mercy and grace, compassion,
mercy for his children. And he does it for Christ's sake,
because the Lord Jesus Christ put the fire of his wrath out.
He fulfilled God's righteousness and God's law. He kept the law
perfectly. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would keep us looking to Christ for all the hope of our
salvation. We thank you for the revelation
that you've made of yourself in your word. Give us eyes to
see and hearts to believe. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 199, let's stand together.