You remember one time the Jews
gathered together and they tried to stone the Lord Jesus. And
he stopped them. He said, many good works have
I showed you from my father, for which of these works do you
stone me? The only works he did were good
works. So what are you stoning me for? That's why he says here,
you've hated me without a cause. I never gave you cause to hate
me. I never sinned, I never did anything wrong, I never did anything
immoral, nothing that would cause you to hate me. You've hated
me without a cause. Christ never sinned and he was
never a sinner. But oh, how he suffered for sin. Not for sin he committed, but
for sin that his people committed. And Christ suffered on Calvary's
tree because the sin of his people had been made his sin. The responsibility
of it was His. The guilt of it was His. And
when He took the sin of His people away from them, you know what
He did? He gave them His righteousness. So that they bear all the responsibility
of it, all the glory of it, because He made it theirs. He gave it
to them. And Christ suffered and died
to put away all of the sin that was laid upon Him. And he says
this for our comfort now. This is good news. If Christ
suffered for my sin, I never will. If Christ died for my sin,
I never will. If Christ was condemned for my
sin, then God will never condemn me for it because Christ satisfied
justice on my behalf. Now that's good news. And I know
we're not of the The ilk that jumps around and screams and
shouts and throws songbooks. I believe if we had a better
understanding about what that meant, that Christ suffered for
my sin. So I never will. I believe we'd smile a little
bit more. I believe we'd just fret about the things of this
life a whole lot less. I really do. The only way a sinner
can be delivered from God's wrath against our sin is if Christ
was made sin for us and delivered into the hands of justice for
us. And that's exactly what happened
at Calvary. Because this is mercy that's
gone before. It's redeeming mercy. God carrying
out His purpose of the redemption of His people through the sacrifice
of His Son. Mercy that goes before is redeeming
mercy that redeems our souls from all sin. Alright, here's
the third thing. Mercy that goes before is life-preserving
mercy. I sometimes think about this.
How God, in his mercy, kept me alive during my time of rebellion
against God. I mean to tell you, I was a rebel. A rebel. People who knew me when I was
in school kind of find that hard to believe because I wasn't all
that bad of a kid outwardly. I wasn't going in breaking in
stores and doing stuff I knew people in high school did. By
God's grace I didn't do that. But I was the worst rebel and
they were. I'm telling you the truth. I sat under the sound
of the gospel. I was taught it at home. I was
taught who Christ is. I was taught who I am. I was
taught who God is. I was taught what salvation is,
where it's found, from the time I could understand language.
And I was a rebel. I would not believe. And if God was like me, He'd
snuff me out. Just putting an end to that. But God and His mercy kept me
alive at that time. You know why? Because God's mercy
goes before. God chose a people to save in
eternity. That's His electing mercy that
went before. Christ came and died for those
people. Died for them on the cross. And that's His redeeming
mercy that went before. Went before any of us lived,
didn't it? But I was born in sin. I was born hating God. I was born an enemy of God. I
was one of those outside of Pilate's hall crying, crucify him. I'll not have this man reign
over me. Give me Brabus. I didn't know God. I didn't love
God. And I didn't believe on Christ.
And if I'd have died in that state, I'd have gone straight
to hell. That's so. And you think about
our life. Our life is a vapor. Our life
is so easily snuffed out. A molecule could be in the air
right now we can't even see that would kill us tonight. That's
how easily our life could be snuffed out. Just the slightest,
sounds to me like then, the slightest thing could have just snuffed
my life out and sent me to hell. Does that sound like that way
to you? Not if the God of my mercy has
gone before me, it's not. It's impossible. I'm immortal
until God calls me home. I'm immortal until God reveals
His Son to me and in me, and I'm immortal until God calls
me home if He elected me in electing love. See, God's electing and
God's redeeming mercy that went before also kept me alive until
the time Christ was revealed to me and in me. The Spirit came
and gave me life and repentance and faith in the new birth. You
know, God's elect are delivered from many, many life-threatening
events before they know the Lord. When I was a teenager, I walked
away. I mean walked away without a scratch from two car wrecks
that should have killed everybody in the car. I walked away without
a scratch. I wonder why that happened. God's mercy went before. Some of those things we know
about, we look and think, it's a miracle that I survived that.
I was driving up here today. in the worst traffic I believe
I've ever seen in my life. In the rain, you just wouldn't
believe. And I pulled in and I thought
to myself, that's God's mercy that went before. It's a miracle
that I made it here. But you know, there's many things
we never knew about. Never even knew about them. You know why we didn't know about
them? God's mercy went before and preserved us and protect
us from danger. because of God's pervenient mercy,
his life-giving, life-preserving mercy. And that brings me to
the fourth thing. Mercy that goes before is regenerating,
life-giving mercy. God's mercy gives life in the
new birth. Now God elected a people in eternity,
and his son came and died for those people in time. But there
is no salvation without faith in Christ. If you would be saved,
you must believe on the name of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You must believe. But here's
our problem. Our problem is we have a dead
sin nature. It's a nature that I just described to you. It's
my nature, it's your nature. It's a nature that will not come
to Christ. A nature that will not believe
Christ. It's a nature that cannot believe
Christ. It's both a willful decision
not to believe Christ, but it's also the lack of ability. I cannot believe Christ. I cannot
come to Christ because I'm dead. And dead men can't do anything
but stink. Well, God anticipated our problem.
And he sent regenerating mercy on ahead to hasten to meet us,
to give us life and faith in Christ and the new birth. And
that mercy came hurrying to help. before it was too late. And it
will arrive on time. It will arrive before it's too
late 100% of the time to everyone that God chose to save. See,
this is mercy that goes before. This is mercy that comes before
we even ask for it. Now, make no mistake, we do ask
for it. We're mercy beggars. We do beg God for mercy, but
only after. God's prevenient mercy comes
before, and hastens to meet us to show us our need, to show
us who and what we are. Then we'll beg for mercy, but
not before. Not before. See, we were dead,
and we didn't even know there was a problem. When you're dead,
you don't know anything going around you, do you? We didn't
even know there was a problem. But God knew we'd be dead, and
he anticipated the problem, and he sent life-giving mercy in
the new birth, The only time we know we have an old dead nature
is after God gives us a new living one. Only the new man can see
that old dead man. It's God's mercy that went before
and met us at the point that God determined to meet us to
give life. Now let me ask you, what other explanation is there
for the woman at the well? Can you think of one? Here this
poor woman was. She waited to the heat of the
day when everybody else with any sense was inside in the shade
somewhere, you know. And she went when she was confident. There'd be nobody outside. She
wouldn't see anybody. She didn't want to see anybody
because of the shame. Everybody knew her. Everybody would look
down their nose at her. She felt their looks and the
shame. She didn't want to deal with it. So she just came to
the well at a time nobody would be there. I'm sure she did this
every day for years. And one day she comes out when
nobody's going to be at the well, and there sits a man on the well.
Oh, she says, can you believe that? Oh, I'm going to have to
deal with this shame. And when she left that well, she
left her water pot there. And she ran and found the man
of the city. Now, here she'd been trying to avoid these people.
And she ran and found him. And she grabbed a hold of him
and said, come with me. I found him. I met a man who
told me all things ever I did, is not this the Christ? Come
with me and see Him. What happened? What happened
to this great change? God's life giving mercy hastened
before and met her before it was too late. And she met the
Savior, and she knew who He was. She had eyes to see. She had
faith to believe He'd given her life. It's the only explanation.
God's mercy went before and met her at the well that day. Same
thing is true of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Wonder
why he was on that road. God's mercy was there already
waiting for him, wasn't it? Lydia went down there by the
water side one day. Here's some preaching. And mercy
had gone before. It was there waiting for him.
Peter one day, he was just fishing. He was just cleaning his nets.
He wasn't paying attention to nothing but cleaning his nets.
And mercy went before. And the master came by and said,
Peter, follow me. And Peter left his nets and left
his boats and followed the master. Same thing with Matthew, collecting
his taxes. Matthew, follow me. And he left
it all there. And that has to include his skim,
doesn't it? He left it. Just follow the Master. Now what
would cause a man to leave his livelihood and just follow this
man? Mercy went before. Mercy met him. And the same thing
is true of you and me. If we believe on Christ. If you
believe on Him tonight, you know why that is? There came a day,
mercy went before and was there to meet you. And met you before
it was too late. And revealed Christ to you and
in you. Gave you life. Oh, don't you
love God's mercy? Well then here's the last thing.
Mercy that has gone before is going to keep going before to
preserve and protect and defend against every enemy. Now David
knew God's mercy had gone before him. He knew that. and he was
confident it would keep going before him. This is the man that
wrote earlier, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. He'd been merciful to me and he'll keep being merciful
to me. And when David got to the end
and laid on his deathbed, what did he talk about? God's mercy. God's mercy. God's mercy is a
powerful mercy. Look at verse 9. Because of his
strength will I wait upon thee, for God is my defense. Now first,
God's mercy is powerful. It will defeat every enemy. It will defend us from every
enemy. Look at verse 6. They return
at evening. They make a noise like a dog.
They go round about the city. Behold, they belch out with their
mouth. Swords are in their lips. For who say they doth hear? But
thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them. Thou shalt have all the
heathen in derision. They return at evening, because
they do what they do under the cover of darkness. They're like
dogs that just bark at everything. We've got a little old Yorkie,
10 years old, 10 or 11 years old, the most annoying dog you've
ever met in your life. Isn't he, Marvin? He is. He gets up on the we've got a
couch and there's a window there he gets up in the back of that
couch and just every hair every nerve on that dog's body is on
high alert and Let me tell you we know if some mother is walking
by pushing her baby in a stroller Oh, we know we know he's barking
barking barking barking and the mother just keeps on going on
a wall And he's so proud of himself when she leaves, he's scared
her away. That's these dogs. They think just because they're
barking, they scared everybody away. And God just laughs. He just laughs. They're easily
defeated by his power. And they're going to be destroyed
by their own traps, judged by their own words. Verse 12, he
says, for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
let them even be taken in their pride. and for cursing and lying
which they speak. They belched out slander against
the Lord Jesus. They said, we don't want him.
Let his blood be on our head and our children's head. And
the sword of their own lips killed them. God said, all right, I'll
give you what you want. You can't have him. His blood's
on your head. By the words of their own mouth,
Look at verse 13, he says, consume them in wrath. Consume them that
they may not be. And let them know that God ruleth
in Jacob under the ends of the earth. And at evening, let them
return and let them make a noise like a dog and go around about
the city. Let them wander up and down for meat and grudge
if they be not satisfied. See, every enemy of God is just
gonna bark like a dog. They're gonna go around the city
constantly looking, constantly looking, But they're never going
to find anything that satisfies because they're always looking
outside of Christ. And in his time, God's going
to destroy every enemy. But God's people will be preserved
and protected by that very same power. The same power God uses
to destroy every enemy is the same power that he uses to preserve
his people. And here's the second thing about
God's powerful mercy. God's mercy is powerful because
it depends upon God's strength, not mine. It depends upon God's
purpose, not mine. It depends upon God's will, not
mine. And that's the only kind of mercy
that will bring me all the way to glory. Mercy that never depends
upon me. Look at verse 11. This is an
interesting verse. Now this is our Savior speaking. He says,
slay them not, lest my people forget. scatter them by thy power,
and bring them down, O Lord, our shield." Now this is Christ
speaking. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. Now I don't know who it was exactly
that the Lord's praying for right there, but whoever it is he prayed
that the Father forgive them, they're forgiven. They are forgiven. He's saying here in our psalm,
Father, I know they're all wicked now, but don't destroy them immediately. Give them space for repentance.
Give them space. Father, if you destroy them all
now, you're going to destroy one of my people who will believe
on me later on. So don't destroy them now. Don't
destroy them now. Maybe there's children still
in their loins you elected to save. Well, don't destroy them
now. At least wait till that child's born. lest you destroy
one of my people." They're an enemy now, yes. Yes, they're
an enemy now. And this could apply to the very
people at the cross who crucified our Savior, who spit in His face,
who mocked Him as He suffered there on the tree. And He prayed,
Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And
the Father didn't destroy them at that moment because His mercy
was hasting ahead to meet them and conquer them before it's
too late. And I promise you this. That
happened to everyone for whom the Lord prayed. And this is
what he's saying that applies to everybody, all his people.
Let justice wait. Now justice is going to happen,
but let justice wait until all of God's mercy has been fulfilled.
And that's going to happen. And here's the third thing about
God's powerful mercy. God's mercy is powerful enough
to make his people praising, even when the enemy is still
all around him. Verse 16. But I will sing of
thy power. Yea, I will sing aloud of thy
mercy in the morning. For thou hast been my defense
and refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will
I sing. For God is my defense. And he
is the God of my mercy. The wicked, they howl and bark
like dogs. But God's people sing. We sing
of God's power. We sing of his mercy. The mercies
of David. are sure mercies because they're
sure, because of the power of God to carry out his purpose
of mercy for his people. The power of God, the sovereign
power of God, guarantees the salvation and protection of his
people, his objects of mercy. I know God's elected a number
that no man can number. Christ, by His blood, by His
sacrifice, by His righteousness, saved those people, redeemed
those people. A number no man can number. I know God is the
God of mercy to His people. But oh, how I want this God,
this God, the God of all power, to be the God of my mercy. If
He's the God of my mercy, if He's the God of your mercy, We
can go home rejoicing, can't we? I pray the Lord bless that
to you. I appreciate you inviting me
and I look forward to it every year and how much I think of
you and thank God for you. I appreciate you.