from your Spiral Gospel Hymns
Hymnbook number 28, God Has Mercy on Whom He Will. Let's all stand. God has mercy on whom he will,
and whom he will, he hardens still. To whom he will, he gives
his grace, and when he will, he hides his face. Let none despise God's sovereign
throne, He does what he will with his own. It is his right
to save or kill according to his sovereign will. Yes, God saves some and others'
lives to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made His choice, and it stands fast. Aware that I'm
a guilty man, and that I'm in God's sovereign hand, prostrate
I fall before His throne, a wretched, helpless, guilty one. Lord, if you will, you can, I
say, take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at your
throne, I beg for mercy through your Son. Now trusting Jesus
Christ, God's Son, I know that I'm His chosen one. And God's eternal sovereign grace
makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice. Please be seated. That's a hymn you can't sing
everywhere. We open your Bibles with me to
Jeremiah chapter 29. Jeremiah chapter 29. We'll begin reading in verse
10. For thus saith the Lord. Now that puts you on the edge
of your seat, doesn't it? What does God have to say? Well,
here it is, brethren. After 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon, that's where we live. The life of a man is three score
and 1070 years. After 70 years be accomplished,
the Lord has an accomplished purpose. After 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward
you in causing you to return to this place. What a promise. I'm going to come, I'm going
to visit you. When I'm, when I've accomplished
everything I'm going to accomplish in your life, I'm going to take
you home. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you say at the Lord, thoughts of peace, not
of evil, to give you an expected end, an end of expectation. Then shall you call upon me and
you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and
you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me
with all of your heart. And I will be found of you, saith
the Lord. I will turn away your captivity
and I will gather you from the nations and from all the places
where I've driven you, saith the Lord. And I will bring you
again into this place once I have caused you to be carried away
captive. In first Timothy chapter two,
I just want to read a couple of verses before we pray. the Lord speaking to us and he
says I exhort therefore I'm encouraging you that first of all supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
for kings, and for all those in authority that we may lead
a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. I want us to pray tonight for
our governing authorities, that the Lord will give them wisdom
to know how to deal with the situation that we're in the middle
of, that we might live quiet and peaceable lives. Let's pray
together. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we come into thy holy presence. Looking in faith to thy dear
son for all our acceptance, for all our righteousness, for all
the forgiveness of our sin. Thanking you that we have a successful
Savior, an advocate. A sin bearer, Jesus Christ, the
righteous one. Father, we take great hope and
comfort in knowing that. Your thoughts toward us. Are
for good. and that these years of confinement
that we have in Babylon will be brought to their end and that
you will take us home, fulfilling all your precious promises to
reveal the fullness of your glory and to deliver us from the bondage
of this world and of this sinful body that we that we live in.
Lord, the evidence of corruption is all around us. It's seen first
and foremost in our own hearts and in our own flesh and dealing
with our own sin. Lord, what? What horrible corruption
sin has caused in this world? The conflicts that that we're
observing now. We know are the result of man's
sinful nature. Lord, you are able to restrain
the wrath of man. And we know that you do, that
you use man's wrath for your glory, and what you can't use,
you restrain. Lord, we pray for your restraining
grace, your restraining mercies on the wrath of man in these
days. We pray, Lord, that you would calm the spirits that are
so disruptive and rampant right now. We pray that you would give
our governing authorities the wisdom that they need to make
good decisions and to provide an opportunity and place of peace
that we might live peaceable and quiet lives in this world. We ask that you would do it for
your glory. We ask in the name of thy dear son. Amen. Number 235 in the hardback timinal. 235, and let's stand again. ? Pass me not, O gentle Savior
? ? Hear my humble cry ? ? While on others Thou art calling ?
? Do not pass me by ? ? Savior, Savior ? Hear my humble cry,
while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Trusting only in thy merit would
I seek thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me, Whom have I on earth beside me? whom in heaven but thee. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Please be seated. We open your Bibles with me to
Psalm 118. Psalm 118. While on others thou
art calling. There is a call. When God calls
his sheep, hear their voice and they follow him. The call of
God is effectual. The call of God is irresistible. The Lord said, I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. When God calls,
his people come. Now, with the voice, the audible
voice of man, we extend the outward call of the gospel. We call on
men everywhere to come to Christ. But in so doing, we know that
unless the Lord makes the inward call a factual, no one's going
to hear the voice of a man, but they will hear the voice of God
and they'll come, they'll come. And the evidence that God has
called us is that we call, that's the evidence. We call upon the
name of the Lord. We love him because he first
loved us and we call on him because he first called us. Look at Psalm 118. I want us
to leave here tonight calling upon the name of the Lord. I'm
in calling on him. And if that happens, it will
be because the Lord made it to be so. Not only does he have
to call us, but he has to cause us to call him. In Psalm 118
verse 5, I called upon the Lord. In distress. Or out of my distress, I called
upon the name of the Lord and the Lord answered me. And set
me. in a large place. Now turn back with me to 2 Samuel
chapter 22, because we're going to see in
2 Samuel 22, that as we've seen in every Psalm, these Psalms
speak of Christ first and foremost. And only as we're able to see
them speaking of Him, are we able to enter into the blessings
that they have for us. Because the only way we can call
upon Him is to be found in Him. And so look at me at 2 Samuel
22. Now, David, you know, is typical
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the King of Israel. He's the sweet psalmist of Israel. He's the good shepherd of Israel. He's a man after God's own heart.
The Lord Jesus Christ is called the son of David. And so David
represents the Lord in this prayer. Verse 20, 2 Samuel chapter 22. He brought me forth also into
a large place a comfortable place, a place of freedom, a place of
liberty. That's what, that's the language
here. He delivered me because he delighted
in me. Now that's the reason that the
Lord delivered David and that's the only reason the Lord's going
to deliver you or me. The only way he's going to deliver
us is if he delights in us. How's God going to delight in
a sinner like me? Well, let's read on. The Lord
rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of
my hands, hath he recompensed me. Now what man can stand before
a holy God and say, God rewarded me because of my righteousness
and because of the cleanness of my hands, he has blessed me. For I have kept the ways of the
Lord and have not wickedly departed. from my God, for all his judgments
were before me. And as for his statues, I did
not depart from them. I kept, I remembered, I kept,
I was faithful to all the law of God." This can only speak
of Christ. But I tell you what, brethren,
it speaks of all those that are in Christ. Who can stand before
God? They that have clean hands and
a pure heart. How are my hands going to be
clean? How's my heart going to be clean? How am I going to have
a righteousness before God? How's God going to look upon
me favorably? Well, if he finds me in Christ, if he puts me in
Christ, if Christ Jesus, the Lord is my substitute, if he
stands in my stead and I'm found in him, then I have his righteousness. And I can claim the blessings
of God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it
is to call upon the name of the Lord. Verse 24, I was also upright
before him and I've kept myself from my iniquity. Nothing, nothing in my life has
fallen short of his glory. That's what that, that's what
that word iniquity means. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed
me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness. Don't
miss those last four words, brethren in his eye sight. If we're found in Christ, we
have perfect righteousness before God. We've kept all the law of
God. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And as he is,
so are we in this world. And here's our hope that God
would set us in a large place that he would hear our call.
Because we're looking in faith to the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ for all of our acceptance before God. Now that is also repeated in
Psalm 18. If you want to go back and look
at that sometime, we're not going to do that now, but this, this
Psalm one 18 is. is a quote from David's words
in second Samuel 22, and it's also a quote from David's words
in Psalm 18. And what he's saying here, look
at, let's go back to our text in Psalm 118. I called upon the
Lord in my distress. The Lord Jesus Christ called
upon his father when he was bearing all the sins and all the shame
and all the guilt of all of God's people on Calvary's cross, he
called upon the name of his father. He said, father into thy hands,
I commend my spirit. And the father heard him in his
distress. We call upon the name of the
Lord. out of our distresses. David said in Psalm 86 verse
7, in the day of my trouble, in the day of my trouble, I will
call upon thee. This word distress or trouble
means to be in a tight place. You see the contrast between
being in a pinch being in a tight place, being between a rock and
a hard place, having no place to turn. I'm in trouble. I'm
in distress. And the Lord heard my cry and
he put me into a large place. He set me free from the troubles
that I was distressed over. Now, it's a sad commentary on
our own unbelief. that the Lord has to afflict
us with troubles in this life in order to cause us to call
upon him. But he does, he does. He afflicts
us with problems and with troubles. But that's a testimony of our
unbelief because the truth is that we're always in trouble. But see, we're presumptuous,
aren't we? You're in trouble right now to draw your next breath. What does it mean to be in a
pinch? What's it mean to be in a tight place? What's it mean
to be between a rock and a hard place? It means I can't help
myself. I'm in trouble. I've got to call
upon the name of the Lord in my distress that he would deliver
me. You see, if we saw things the
way they really were, Lord, I can't even, we think
about trouble as the difficult things in life, but we're in
trouble when God blesses us. In that we can't enjoy the blessings.
We can't acknowledge where the blessings came from. We can't
rejoice and worship in the one who gave us the blessings. That's
how much trouble we're in. You see, trouble is not just
the hard times that we face. We're always in trouble. We're
always in a hard place. We're not able to do anything
for ourselves. We just don't know it. Like I
said, you can't draw your next breath if God doesn't give it
to you. We go about our lives and making our plans thinking,
well, I'm not in trouble now. I'm in a good place. Isn't that
a testimony of our unbelief? You see, the truth is well to
be calling upon the Lord for everything. And every time I
get up here to preach, I'm in trouble, I'm gonna tell you that.
Anybody that's ever tried to do this knows what I'm talking
about. Lord, I can't do this without you. But the truth is,
when I come out of this pulpit, I can't walk out of this building
without the Lord. That's why the scripture admonishes
us to pray without ceasing. acknowledging our dependence
upon the Lord for everything because that's where we are. We don't see it that way, but
that's where we are. If we, if the Lord, if we, if
we could walk in faith instead of walking by sight, like we
often do, you know, we, well, I see where I need to go. I can
get from here to that door without any problem walking, you know, You see that in your own experience,
don't you? I called upon the Lord in my
distress. In the time of my trouble. When I was the another word that's
used in the scriptures is to be in straights. To be in straights
to. To not have any place to turn
if the Lord doesn't. What does Scripture, without
Christ, I can do what? What's the next word in that
verse? No thing. We know that's true. We know
that we're dependent upon him for everything. I called upon the Lord in my
distress, in the time of my trouble. But there's no trouble like the
trouble of our sin. And really, what I'm trying to
say right now is that our sinfulness is what makes us not acknowledge
the distress and trouble that we're always in. It's our sin that does that.
Our sin is ever before us, isn't it? Bert, you read from that
Psalm 51 Sunday morning. It's ever before us, it affects
everything in our lives. Lord, if you don't deliver me
from my sin, I won't be delivered. Turn to me to Psalm 116, just
while you may not have to turn, it's right there, isn't it? It's
on the same page with my Bible. Look at verse one. I love the
Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications because
he has inclined his ear unto me Therefore, while I call upon
him, as long as I live, the sorrows of death come past me and the
pains of hell get hold upon me and I found trouble and sorrow. When God makes you to be a sinner,
when he makes you to acknowledge your sinfulness before him, then
you know, Lord, if you, if you don't deliver me from my sin,
I'm going to go to hell. There's no hope for me. I'm deserving
of that. I'm worthy of that. That's the
only end that I can have if you don't deliver me. And the evidence
of my sinfulness is not just in the The bad things that my
conscience convicts me of, but it's in the fact that I can't
even worship you. I can't even acknowledge the
good things that you do for me and, and, and, and enjoy you
as I ought because of my sinfulness. It's got hold of me or I'm in
trouble. I'm in distress. You see, that's
why calling upon the Lord is something that the believer does
all the time. He does it all the time. Like I said, it's a
sad testimony of our sinfulness that the Lord has to afflict
us with hard troubles before we acknowledge the fact that
we're always in trouble. The sorrows of death can pass
me about. When the Lord causes us to see
something of our sin, we come to acknowledge the fact that
without him we can do nothing. And we're always in trouble.
Always in trouble. Well, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners. Here's the hope, brethren, that
we have. They that call upon the Lord
shall be saved because the natural man is not calling upon the Lord.
Oh, they call upon him when they, when they get in, you know, what
they consider to be real trouble. But then as soon as he's delivered
out of that trouble, they've got no more need for God. And
the believer acknowledges the fact that Lord, I'm a sinner
and I'm this, this trouble is always with me. And so we just
keep calling, don't we? What's the evidence that he's
called us that we can't quit calling on him. That's the evidence
that we acknowledge that we're sinful and we're dependent upon
him for everything. And then we can't even enjoy
his blessings like we ought because of our sin. So my first question. The light
of this passage of scripture is when do we call upon the name
of the Lord? And the answer to that question
is when we're in distress. When we're in distress, we're
in a pinch, we're between a rock and a hard place, we got no place
else to go. We can't do for ourselves, we can't care for ourselves,
we can't provide for ourselves. We acknowledge the fact that
we're completely dependent upon him for breath and for eternal
life. We're dependent upon him for
the forgiveness of our sin. And we're looking to his accomplished
work on Calvary's cross for the only hope of our acceptance before
God. We're calling upon the name of the Lord. Now this next question is important. The next question is, why do
we call upon the name of the Lord? Now, a lot of people would
read the first few verses of this, of this Psalm and ask this
question, who calls upon the name of the Lord? But that's
not the question. Why do we call upon the name of the Lord? Why
do we call upon him? Look at verse one of Psalm 118. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord.
for he is good. That's the first reason we call
upon him. Paul asked this question in the
book of Romans. He said, do you not know Romans chapter two,
that it's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance? How many times the Lord told
the children of Israel, he said, you know, I punished you. I can
punish you again, but you're not, it's not going to change
your heart. I could, you know, I could make things very difficult
for you, but that's not gonna change your heart. It might change
your behavior for a little while, but it's not gonna change your
heart. What changes our hearts? It's the goodness of God that
changes our hearts. It brings us to repentance, which
is a changed heart and a changed mind. It's when we see his blessings
toward us. His goodness toward us. We, we,
we say like Moses at Mount Sinai, Lord, show me thy glory. And
the Lord says, I'll show you my glory. I'll cause my goodness
to pass before you. David said, surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Remember that. And that man had came to the
Lord and said, Lord, what good thing master, good master, what,
what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? Well, the
Lord said to him, why are you calling me good? Why call us
now me good for there's none good, but God. And that's true. There's Paul said in me, that
is in my flesh dwelleth, no good thing. We're not good people.
Not standing in the presence of a Holy God, we're not. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that's good. And it's his
goodness that leads us to repentance. It's his righteousness that causes
us to bow and to call upon him. The question is, why do we call
upon the name of the Lord? And the reason is because he
is good. Psalm 107, three times. Oh, that
men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works to the children of men. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness. Oh, he's so good to us. Every
time we draw a breath, it's the goodness of God. The health that
we enjoy is the goodness of God, the fellowship that we have.
So sweet in Christ is the goodness of God, the families that we
have. It's all the goodness of God, the world, the created world
in which we live. We see his glory and creation. It's a goodness of God. And in Providence, so, so many
good things, all things work together. You know that. all thing we that birth starts
out romans a twenty-eight we know all things work together
for good for them that love god and those of the call according
to his purpose and i'm not saying you know there's a silver lining
every cloud you know just just hang in there everything's gonna
be good for you not for the unbeliever it's not as a matter of fact
what they call good is going to end up becoming part of their
judgment because they did not acknowledge where that came from. So the, the, the pleasures that
they enjoy in this world from the hand of God are, are going
to add judgment to them. Well, that's not going to work
to their good, but for the child of God, we know that all things
work together for good. William Calper had it right.
when he wrote in 1774, God moves in mysterious ways. Judge not
the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind
a frowning providence hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen
fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. That's God's good providence
toward his children. I know the thought. We just read
that in Jeremiah 21. I know the thoughts that I have
for you. Thoughts of good, thoughts of peace, not of evil. I'm going to bring you to your
expected end. So why do we call upon the name
of the Lord first and foremost because of his Goodness and the
greatest demonstration of his goodness as a Calvary's cross
for no man. No man loves his brother more than
laid his life down. Does he, the Lord Jesus Christ
laid his life down for, for his friends. Greater love have no
man than this. They lay his life down for his
friends. And here in his love, not that we love God, but that
he loved us and gave his son as a propitiation for our sins.
When the Lord Jesus Christ willingly offered himself, not to us, he
offered himself to the father as the sin bearer of his people. He was showing to us the greatest
glory of His goodness and putting away our sins once and for all
by the sacrifice of Himself, satisfying God's holy justice. There's goodness of God. Why
do we call upon the name of the Lord? First and foremost, we
call upon Him because of His goodness. Secondly, look at Psalm 118,
our text. Look at verse 1. Oh, give thanks
unto the Lord, for he is good, because his mercy. Now, the word endureth in our
language, we would interpret that as meaning lasts forever,
endures forever. But notice in our text, it's
in italics. It doesn't belong there. It's not in the, it's not in
the original language. The mercy of God is forever. It doesn't just endure forever.
It never had a beginning. There's never been a time when
God almighty did not see his people in Christ. There's never
been a time. He didn't love them in Christ.
I've loved you with an everlasting love. There's never been a time
when he didn't have good thoughts and purposes for them. There's
never been a time that they've been under his wrath or judgment. His mercy is forever. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
19. Genesis chapter 19. Here's a picture of salvation.
You remember the story. Abraham and Lot divided up the
land and Lot went to Sodom. The wicked city of Sodom. And
the Lord came to Abraham and told Abraham he was going to
destroy Sodom. And Abraham, you remember, pleaded with the Lord
until the Lord finally said, if I find ten righteous men in
Sodom, I won't destroy it. Well, there wasn't. And the Lord went into Sodom
and Lot lingered. Isn't that the way we are? Lot
was a righteous man. Lot was a believer. Scripture
is clear on that. And, but Lot was living in a,
in a world of debauchery. And so were we, you know, we
live in Babylon, don't we? We live in, we live in Sodom.
And, and the Lord took him by the hand and brought him out.
And look at, look at Genesis chapter 19 at, at verse 19. Behold, now thy
servant hath found grace in thy sight. And thou hast magnified
thy mercy, which thou hast shown unto me in saving my life. And
I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I
die." Now, the angel was going to take Lot and his daughters
to the mountain. And Lot said, no, I can't go
there. I can't go to the mountain. Now, what are those mountains
a picture of? Remember the unbeliever? calls upon the mountains to fall
upon him, to hide him from the wrath of the lamb. And, uh, the
Lord said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you say unto
this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea. That mountain
is a barrier, isn't it? It's a picture of our, of our
righteousness and it has to be taken away. And lots that I can't
go to the mountain. If I go to my righteousness,
I'll die. You've, you've shown your grace
and mercy towards me by delivering me before you destroy the city,
but don't take me to the mountain. What does he say? Behold, now this city is near
to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape thither,
for it is, is it not a little one? And my soul shall live.
And he said unto him, see, I have accepted thee concerning this
thing also, and I will not overthrow the city for that which thou
hast spoken. What city? Zohar. Haste thee,
escape thither, for I cannot do anything till thou come thither.
Therefore, the name of the city was called Zoar. Zoar translated means insignificant. You know what the people of this
city believe? That what's happening in this little building with
this little group of people is insignificant. They have no idea
that the only hope of life that any of them have is to be found
here. among God's people where the
gospel of God's grace is preached, where Christ is lifted up, they
have no idea. They call this Zohar. It's an insignificant
little gathering of people. They don't mean much. They don't
matter for much. And the fire of God's wrath is
going to fall on this world. And only those that have been
taken not to the mountain of their own righteousness but to
the little insignificant city called Zohar are going to be
saved. And what did Lot say? Behold
now thy servant has found grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified
thy mercy by taking me out of Sodom and putting me in Zohar. That's the magnifying of our
God's mercy. Now I'm asking, I'm trying to
answer the question, why do we call upon the name of the Lord? We call upon him because of his
goodness and his goodness has caused him to be merciful to
us. He has withheld from us the judgment
of wrath that we deserve and he's poured out the full fury
of his justice on his son, our substitute, satisfying His holy
justice. He's called mercy. Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. That's why I call upon the name
of the Lord, because He's good. And because He's merciful and
He delights in being merciful. And I need mercy. And I need
the goodness of God. Why? Because I'm in distress. I can't do for myself. I can't
take care of my sin problem. And usually unbeknownst to me,
I can't even draw my next breath without him. I'm in a tight place. We're at public and in the temple
praying with the, with the Pharisee, what he smote himself upon his
breasts would not so much as even look up and cried. Have
mercy upon me, oh God, the sinner. We're mercy beggars, aren't we?
That's why we call. We call upon the name of the
Lord in our distress. Number one, because he's good.
Number two, because he is merciful. And number three, because he's
given us a new nature. You remember the story. Jacob
deceived his brother Esau and stole the birthright and had
to flee to Laban's house, his uncle. And at Laban's, Laban
gave him his two daughters, Rachel and Leah, but Laban did to Jacob,
what Jacob did to Esau, he deceived him. And Jacob ended up spending
20 years at Laban's house, paying the debt back for the two daughters,
for his two wives. And now he's going back. And
he gets to the river Jabbok. Jabbok translated means emptying,
emptying. And Jacob takes his wives and
his children and his herds and he sends them over the Ford Jabbok
and he remains on the other side, the scripture says, alone. Alone. And Jacob was alone. And there wrestled a man with
him until daylight. And at the end of the Night,
Jacob said, I will not let thee go, lest thou bless me. And that man was the Lord Jesus
Christ. You ever wrestle with the Lord
all night long. You left all by yourself, nobody to help you,
nobody to comfort you. You've got to have God or, or
you've got no hope. That's what it is to call upon
the name of the Lord. You see, Jacob represents every one of
us. Jacob was the, that's his old man. That's his, that's his
sinful nature. He's the deceiver. He's the supplanter. He's the liar. And all men are
liars. And he wrestles with God. He wrestles with the Lord Jesus
Christ all night long. And then when morning comes,
he says, I'm not going to let you go unless you bless me. And
the Lord says, what's your name? And Jacob says, Jacob, don't
you know, he was ashamed of his name. When the Lord said, tell
me your name, the Lord knew his name, Jacob. And while the Lord say now has
prevailed with God and now shall be called Israel, a Prince. That's why we call
upon the name of the Lord because of his goodness, because of his
mercy, and because he's given us a new nature. He's given us
a new name. He's made us to be kings in his
family, princes. You're going to have a new nature. Your name now is no longer Jacob. Your name now is Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Prince. He's the Prince of peace, isn't
he? He is the King. And when he adopts us and gives
us a new nature, he puts us in Christ and makes us to be Kings
and priests. The Lord, Peter said, and you
shall be a royal priesthood, royal priesthood. We have a,
we have a high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has gone into
the heavens, but we don't look to a man for our access into
God. Every religion of the world practices
priestcraft, whether it be Islam with their Imams or whether it
be Judaism with their, with their, their rabbis or, you know, whether
it be some monk and, you know, everybody's got their priest,
don't they? Or whether it be an elder in a reformed Baptist
church, everybody's got their priest. I got to go through that
man in order for me to get to God. And God says, I hate it. I hate it. There's one mediator. One God, one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He's the only one, only
one I need to get in the access of God. And that's the next point. Look
at verse three. Let the house of Aaron now say
that his mercy endureth forever. Just leave out the word endure.
His mercy is forever. Let Israel say, he's given me
a new nature. He's made me a priest. You remember
Aaron? Aaron is representative of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's got a linen ephod. Representing the perfect righteousness
of Christ. He's got a breastplate with the
12 stones and the 12 tribes of Israel's names on them near his
heart, interceding on behalf of the children of Israel, the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got a, he's got a headdress. It's called a miter. And on the
front of it, it says holiness unto the Lord. And he bears the
iniquity of the holy things before God. So before anybody can worship
God, Aaron had to go in and offer up sacrifices for the, for the
sinfulness of their worship. You and I need the Lord Jesus
Christ as our high priest to bear the iniquity of our holy
things. If God judges us for what we're
doing right now, outside of Christ, I mean, here we are in church,
preaching the gospel, asking God to speak, thinking on the
things of God, praying in our hearts. If God judges us for
what we're doing right now, outside of Christ, we'll go to hell for
what we're doing right now. We need the Lord Jesus Christ
to bear the iniquity of the holy things. Why do we call upon the
name of the Lord? Well, because of his goodness,
because of his mercy, because he's given us a new nature and
because we have a high priest who has gone into the heavens.
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and he's made us to be priests.
He's given us access into the very presence of God by bearing
all our iniquity. That's why we call. Aaron was of the house of, Aaron's
descendants were called the Levites. And the Levite was the priestly
tribe, weren't they? When the children of Israel came
into the promised land, the Levites were the ones that conducted
all the worship among the people. Now look at our text. Let the
house of Aaron, Aaron is Christ and we are the house of Aaron.
We are the Levites. That's why we call upon the name
of the Lord. Let the house of Aaron now say
that his mercy endureth forever. Why do we call? Look at verse
four. Let them now that fear the Lord. Now this is not a slavish fear. It's not a cringe, this is a
reverential worship. This is bowing before an almighty
God. Asking him for his mercy, acknowledging
our complete dependence upon him for the very next breath
that we draw. And for the putting away of our
sin. That's what the fear of God is. It's the fear of standing
in the presence of a holy God without the Lord Jesus Christ
as our advocate and our sin bearer. Now the scripture says of the
world there is no fear of God before their eyes. One day there will be. Every single time in scriptures
when the Lord just peaked open the window of heaven and revealed
just a glimmer of his glory. Men fell on their face before
him. What's it going to be like when
the Eastern sky splits and the Trump of God sounds and the dead
in Christ are raised and the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the
fullness of his glory symbolically riding on that white horse with
a tongue like fire. A tongue like a sword and eyes
like fire. What's going, what are men going to do? They're
going to run to the mountains and call on the mountains to
fall on them, to hide them from the wrath of the lamb. If God
almighty revealed himself in the fullness of his glory, what
do you think is going to happen? I'll tell you what's going to
happen. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that
Jesus He's God, he's a Lord to the glory of God, the father,
everybody's going to, there's going to come a day when all
men are going to fear God. Kiss the son less to be angry
when his wrath is kindled, but a little, little finger of God. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for
our God is a consuming fire. Why do we call upon him? Because
we acknowledge right now in faith who he is, his power, his glory,
his goodness, his mercy, what he's done and given us a new
nature. What he's done in making us to be priests and giving us
an intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest. That's
why we call upon him and we fear him as God. I told you all that
Sunday, when I heard our president say, you know, we Americans are
the captains of our own fate. Well, the fear of God gripped
my heart. I said, God, forgive him. He doesn't know what he's
saying. Forgive him, don't hold that against us. Our God's a consuming fire and
we've just experienced a little bit of his wrath. That's why we call, isn't it? And what's the result of our
calling? Well, here it is. Look, I called upon the Lord
in my distress, which we're always in, and the Lord answered me,
and he set me in a large place. He took me out of this tight
squeeze that I was in. He took me out of this place
where I had no place to turn, and he gave me liberty, freedom. Put me in a large place. He put
me in a place where the, where the goodness of God cannot be
measured. The depth and the, and the, and
the height of his, of his love and his mercy is, is infinite. That's how large it is. a term made to the book of Ephesians. The goodness of God. Cannot be measured. His. His love and his mercy. I'm looking
for this passage of Scripture in the Book of Ephesians. I'm
sorry. I can't hear you brother. Ephesians 3. Here we go. Thank you. Verse
17 of Ephesians chapter 3, that Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able
to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length
and the depth and the height and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end.
Now that's a pretty broad place. That's a broad place. that we
may be able to comprehend with all the Saints. What is the depth
and the height and the breadth of his love toward us? I called
upon the Lord in my distress. And he heard my cry and he put
me in a large place. Let's pray our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful. For causing us. to see a little
something of the distress that we're in, and then giving us
the grace and mercy to call upon the name of thy dear son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Number 452, let's stand together. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me A sinner
condemned unclean. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be. How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior's love for me. for me it was in the garden he
prayed not my will but thine he had no tears for his own griefs
but sweat drops of blood for mine How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. In pity angels beheld him and
came from the world of light. To comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be. How marvelous! How wonderful! is my Savior's love for me. When with a ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see, will be my joy through the ages
to sing of his love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's
love for me. We'll miss you, Joy.