Pardon me for just a moment I won't begin yet to be turning
to Jeremiah chapter 9 if you wish to follow along this morning
Jeremiah chapter 9 And again, let me just say that it is such
a pleasure to be here It's a real joy to be able to be with you
all you folks John keeps traveling. I'll have to get a post office
box down this way. I And that's fine with me. That's fine with me. And Penny,
my wife, says to give all of you her love. She would love
to have been here, but she had some prior engagements she had
promised to her grandbaby, so she wanted to fulfill that promise.
Let me read you this song. My fellow preacher, Joe Galusik,
usually sends me a song every Saturday or Sunday morning, and
this can be found in Gadsby's hymn book. It's number 542, if
you ever want to try to look it up. And it's actually a hymn
by Gadsby himself, and his title is Christ Our High Priest. And
he has a couple passages, Hebrews 3, 1, 7, 26, and 2, 17. And Gadsby
wrote these words in his song, and there's just five stanzas.
Jesus is my great high priest, bears my name upon his breast,
and that we may never part, I'm sealed upon his heart. All my
sins were on him thrown. He for them did once atone. He did all my debts discharge
and has set my soul at large. By his own atoning blood, he
my wounded spirit cured, washed and made me white as snow, cleansed
me well from top to toe. He the veil has rent in twain,
through his flesh I enter in, and with him forever rest in
the Lord's most holy place. He has bought me with his blood,
reconciled my soul to God, made me meet for glory too, and will
bring me safely through. Now, again before I begin, I guess everyone's probably heard
the news of the assassination attempt. Everybody heard that?
The fellow tried to kill Donald Trump yesterday in Pennsylvania.
And I thought a lot about that. This country's in a mess. It's in a mess. But let us remember
that whomever is in that office, God puts them there. Joe Biden is in that office now
because God put him in it. And whoever in 2024 either stays
or takes over, it's because God put them there. And we're to
pray for them all. We are commanded to do that.
No matter what our political affiliation or political bent
is, we're to pray for them. And they need it. Thought about
them you they played it because it was it's still on the TV Evidently
that first bullet Was right here right there That much further over Probably
blew his head all to pieces Will he learn that lesson I Hope so
I hope so now I Told Ray and Peggy I probably tell you all
this Our temperatures up our way up in Blanton County, Virginia
Have not been as near Unbearable as your temperatures down here
Our highs haven't even reached the 90s yet. And I hope they
don't where we live But What I can tell from down here compared
to the grass in the fields. It's really dry up around Blanton
County I mean dry I was asleep in the bed, three o'clock in
the morning. Of course, I keep my phone on because that's my
only source of, you know, trouble happens or, you know, somebody
gets sick or hurt and so they get a hold. Well, all of a sudden,
that beeping went off. I thought, oh, man, a tornado's
coming. Three o'clock in the morning,
Bland County Virginia was sitting out, no burning outside alarms.
I'm like, three o'clock in the morning. But you know how dry it is in
Bland County? In Blaine County, it's so dry that the Baptists
went to sprinkling and the Papists went to using
a damp cloth. Now that's dry. That's dry. All right, enough of that nonsense.
All right, Jeremiah chapter nine. I just have two verses I want
to read this morning. And may God enable me to Not
to say, not my words, but to so preach his word that it will
bless our souls. To some degree this morning,
Jeremiah chapter nine and verse 23 and 24. Now this of course
is Jeremiah writing, but this is God speaking. Thus saith the
Lord. He said, thus saith the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. Neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. Now notice that's three things
God warns against, right? Three things. You got the wise,
the mighty, the rich. Don't glory in any of these three
things. But then, then watch what God
says. But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth
and knoweth me. that I am the Lord, now here's
three things God encourages, that God gives great weight to,
you see? But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the
Lord which exercise loving kindness. There's the first one. And we
could say, and exercise judgment. And we could say, and exercise
righteousness in the earth. For in these things, I delight,
saith the Lord. So he warns against three things.
And then he gives great weight to three things. And I'm sure
there's a term for that. And I tried to Google it, but
I never found what the term was, but it doesn't matter. when the
Lord, and you notice if you're looking at your Bible, if you
at least have a decent one, the word Lord is all capitalized.
I realize that's often translated as Jehovah, and there's no problem
with that, but if you took the letters in the Hebrew and just
translated them into English letters, it would be Y-H-W-H. Now there's a group called the
Servants of Yahweh. And they think because they have
the proper pronunciation that they're actually the people of
God. That's not what God said. He didn't say glory in this that
you could pronounce my name. Is that what he said? No. I'm serious. There's a group
of people that think because they use the Y-H-W-H that they
got it. But I've listened to a couple
of them. They have no idea who the Lord is. Now Lord, Yahweh,
when the Lord would express three things he delights in, notice
that he first warns us of three things to avoid, right? Now that
does not mean there's only three things that God delights in.
And it doesn't mean there's only three things that God warns against
either. It's just this play on words. If you're rich, don't
glory in your riches. Right? If you're wise, don't
glory in your wisdom. If you're strong, strength, you're
mighty, you got power, you got influence, don't glory in that. You know why we should not glory
in that? The first primary reason is any
man or woman that has any of those three things, God gave
it to them. God gave it to them. And yet
we in our sinful state, we want to brag about it if we got one
of them, don't we? Many a rich man, God has simply
said, and it's gone. Many a mighty
man has fallen and found that his influence and his prestige
is gone. And many a wise man has ended
up with Alzheimer's. and had to live in a nursing
home in his dying days. Anything you have, I don't care
how little it is or how big it is, give God the glory. I don't care if you're an unbeliever
this morning. You'd be wise to give God the glory. You remember
Herod? Oh, he bragged about who he was
and what he was doing. And that night, God killed him,
and the worms began to eat his body. Remember that great king
called Nebuchadnezzar? And I don't know that he did
this, but I picture them, you know, suspenders, boy, tons in
there. Look, is this not Babylon, which
I built? And what God did, drove him into
the field, for he was on his hands and knees for, what, what,
seven years? ate grass like a beast, and his
hair grew long, no doubt just a nasty-looking mess, fingernails
long like eagle's claws. Now, I can imagine all of his
subjects saying, what is that? Do you see that? Who is that? That's Nebuchadnezzar. What?
Nebuchadnezzar? Give God the glory. Do not play
games with God. So again, as I said, God says,
here's three things I delight in. Now, God says he delights
in three things. You can bet your last dollar,
he delights in them. God don't play games. But in
giving these three things, he warns us of three things to avoid. Do not glory in human wisdom,
do not glory in human might, and do not glory in human riches. But we know from the preponderant
testimony of Scripture, these things are not exhaustive. As
I already said, it's not just three things God delights in.
All of these three things God delights in, loving, kindness,
judgment, and righteousness, they're all found in one person,
Jesus Christ the Lord. And if all you see are the words
and not the person, you've seen nothing. Nothing. Think about this. Now this is
true. Nothing about and nothing concerning the flesh honors God. And the apostle Paul put it this
way. You don't have to turn. I'm right there at it and I just
want to read this. 1 Corinthians 1.26, for you see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. God don't even call
very many of them. He don't even call them. Somebody
says, God would do that? No, He does that. It's not God
would do that, He did do that. He does do that. God calls whom
He will. But he has even a purpose in
that calling. See it? But God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Can you take
your place there? Can you? But God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God has
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things
which are despised. Can you take your place there?
The base things of the world are things which are despised,
hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are not, nothing. By the grace of God, I can take
my place as a big zero. And that's putting me in my best
light. Do you understand that? That's
putting me in my best light. Because, in fact, I am not just
a zero. I am on the negative side of
the scale. It's not just I don't have any
merit. It's not just I don't have any merit. I have tons of
demerit. I have tons of things that are
against me that I've wrought with my own mind. heart and will
and actions. But look, the things which are
not to bring to naught the things that are. And here is the only
reason why that no flesh should glory. Oh, it does glory. Oh, your flesh and my flesh still
glories in itself today. On the way down here, I'm driving,
traffic is just horrendous in most places. And I'm thinking,
well, I hope they like what I preach tomorrow. It don't have anything
to do with me. And brother, I'm still thinking
as I'm standing right here in this place. And the flesh just
keeps on, keeps on, keeps on. And you gotta keep beating it
back, beating it back, and beating it back. But here's why God does
what he does like he does it, that no flesh should glory. And
here's where it's at, in his presence. And I'm here to say
it won't. It won't. You see, Even our brother
Isaiah tells us, even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight. And I still can't grasp that.
My flesh says that cannot be true. And look at the world,
and you look at somebody, and I watch the TV and I watch these
commercials for the Shriners Hospital for the children with
the cancer, and my eyes sometimes well up, I think, how do you
deal with that? And I'm gonna tell you this,
there's nothing wrong with supporting the Shriners Crippled Children's
Hospital. but it doesn't give you one ounce
of merit before God. It's a good and honorable thing
to do, but it doesn't give you one ounce of merit before God,
because our best deeds are shot full of hell, because it's shot
full of us. And in us dwells no good thing. God just calls it things. Not
even no good, it's just thing, thing. Somebody says, preacher,
that's a kind of a really depressing, morbid thought. Yes, it is. But listen to me now. I'm glad
I know no more about depravity than I really know. If God let
me see what I was really like in his sight in myself, I would
probably go mad like the gathering demoniac. I could not stand to
live with myself. Because I know nothing about
how foul I really am in his sight. That's scary. That's scary. But there is a glory. You know what God said? But let
him that glorieth glory in this. Now we can say boast. It's okay,
but I like the word celebrate, and that is one of the ways it
can be used from the Hebrew. But there is a celebrating, and
there is a celebrating that the Lord encourages, but let him
that gloryeth, glory in this, glory in this, that he understandeth
and knoweth me. But just think about that thought.
This phrase, this word from the Lord, it is a, remember it's,
thus saith the Lord. Amen. Let me stop for a moment
and put in a parenthesis here. The only thing that you and I
have that is valid as absolute truth is thus saith the Lord. And if the Lord says it, it's
so whether I comprehend all the ramifications of it or not. Okay, you with me so far? If
God says it, it is absolute truth. But here's my problem. My mind,
my flesh, my old man says, since this is true, thus saith the
Lord, then naturally, it is by default, then also that must
be, if this is true, then that must be true. But if I don't
have a thus saith the Lord for the that, guess what? It means
absolutely nothing. Even if it sounds rational and
plausible to the human mind. Jacob, have I loved? Esau have
I hated. So that must mean that Jacob
must have had something in him that God adored. And Esau must
have had something in him that caused God to hate him. Isn't
that the natural flow? The mind, it's got to be something
like that. But God says exactly the opposite.
The children, not having been born, neither having done any
good or evil that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, the elder shall serve the younger as it's written. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.
That's the say of the Lord, leave it where it's at. Don't try to
venture off into figure land and figure out who God is. If
you could figure him out, he wouldn't be God. He wouldn't be God. But again,
there is a glory that the Lord himself encourages. But this
is not personal glory in self and personal ability. And I'll
show you why. Turn to Romans 3. You know, there's
one good thing about preaching the gospel. No, there's a lot of good things
about preaching. But there's one good thing about preaching the
gospel. You don't have to learn new stuff. You just keep preaching
the old stuff over and over and over and over. And somebody said,
well, people get tired of that. If they don't love it, they do.
If they don't love it, they do. But if they love God Almighty
and the person of his son, they say, tell me again. Tell me again. Tell me again. And here's what
God says about our understanding. Now look at it, Romans chapter
three, just a few verses. Verse 11, there is, what's that
next word? N-O-N-E. There is none that understandeth. So something has to change somehow
from none that understandeth to let him that glory, gloryeth,
glory in this, that he understands. You see it? Guess who makes that change? God does. God does. Because I, at one time, I was
one of these. There is none that understandeth.
And my flesh still does not understand. Most of this book, now there's
a, oh, I can love that, oh, my flesh can love that one part
of the phrase of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. Boy,
you could just say, well, then God loves me. God hates our flesh. Even the Alex flesh, God hates
it. It is a stench in his nostrils. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. So God's got to do something
to take me from Romans 3 to Jeremiah 9, doesn't he? Well, look at
a couple more verses, 17 and 18. And the way of peace. Who
is that? I didn't say, what is that? Who
is that? Christ is our peace, thus saith
the Lord. And the way of peace, have they
not? What's that phrase? No. No. So bless God. Something's got
to happen to bring me from that state in Romans 3 over here to
this. But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. You see it? Me. These come by the power of
the grace of Jesus Christ himself. The glory always goes to God. None of it goes to me. None of
it goes to you. But you know what's sad? Is most
of the so-called Christian religion in our day, let's drive up and
down the road here. I was amazed yesterday on that
three and a half hour drive down of all of the church buildings
I passed, and all of the different names on the church buildings.
And some of them, there were more, say, in one little community,
there'd be two or three Methodist churches, or two or three Baptist
churches. Now, if you're all Methodists,
why don't you just all get together? You know why? Because even the
Methodists don't agree with one another. All the Baptists don't
agree with one another. But you know what? God's people
all see eye to eye. They understand and know that
I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and
righteousness, and I even do it in the earth. Not just up
yonder in glory land, but right down here. And I say this with
all reverence toward God and concern for my fellow mankind. That man who pulled that trigger
yesterday on that rifle, aiming it at the former president, God
Almighty gave him the strength and the breath to do that. And
yet God made him a bad shot. Just that far. That much difference could have
changed the world. But you know what? We're left
right where we were. Now, yes, we've got some background
now, but God left us right where we were. Oh, there is a glory,
there's a celebrating, but we never glory in ourselves. When we do, we know it's the
corruption of our evil natures. I have to tell you this, I rarely
listen to myself, you know, on a tape. And I listen to myself
and I say, man, I missed all kinds of stuff. And man, how
did I say that West Virginia dialect? How does anybody understand
that fella? You know what that is? Flesh, flesh, flesh. He that gloryeth, let him glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. But the glory,
as I said, goes to God. Thank God we do understand and
know. We don't understand much. We
may not know much, but thank God by his grace, we do know
him. You see, I know everything that
I know him, even though I do not comprehend him at all. I do not comprehend him at all. But take note of this distinguishing
and one common denominator to all these three things that the
Lord delights in. It is to understand and know
that I am the Lord which exercise these three things. Ever thought
of it? Exercise these three things.
He does not offer them. He does not make them available. The Lord, here's another way
to translate that, the Lord executes them. You see it? The Lord, here's
another one, it's translated this way, the same word, exercise,
is translated these two words. In other places in the Old Testament,
the Lord executes loving kindness. He executes judgment. He executes
righteousness, or he accomplishes it. He furnishes these things
because he delights in these things. If he were dependent
upon us, his delight would be for nothing. Nothing. So again, he doesn't
offer them. He doesn't make them available.
He executes them. He puts them into action. Now this impetus. rests on God
alone, not man. God is not depending. In other
words, God is not depending upon me. for these things to be done. He is the Lord. This is what
we're to know and understand, that he does these things, see? That he exercises these things,
that he executes these things, that he puts these things into
action. And God says it right here in
his book, and says, thus saith the Lord, right in front of it
and right after it, and man still says, well, I believe in free
will. Really? Really? The impetus again rests on God
alone, not man, not me, not you. I enjoy being here, but you can't
do it. You got no spiritual power in
yourself. Neither do I. I don't even have
the right based on what I am by nature to stand behind this
podium and have the nerve to even mention the name of God
to you. Who am I to be preaching to you? Nothing. But his son is everything. And
he deserves to be extolled and lifted up. Three things, these
three things are this, again, loving kindness, judgment, and
righteousness. So let's look at these in a little
bit of detail. Now think about that, loving
kindness. You do realize now that the love
of God is not a mere emotion. Most, I'm afraid I have to say
it this way. Most of my love is probably nothing
but mere emotion. Because the same object that
I love, if that object begins to get on my ire just a little,
my love begins to do this. Oh, I love it. And all of a sudden,
something about that thing I love offends me. And you know what
happens? Get upset. Get vexed. Maybe even lash out. But God
does what? He executes loving kinds. I wish I could. But God's taught me enough about
myself to know I cannot. We love him. What's the next
word? Because he first loved us. His love is the reason why we
love him. It does not say, though it's
true, we love him, but he first loved us. Now that's certainly
true, but it's much deeper than that. God's love is much deeper
than that, is much more power behind it. It's not just an emotion
of God, it is God in action. For God so loved the world that
he gave, do you see it? That he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever, what's the word? Believeth in him. And if you never believed in
God, never loved you. But he didn't love you because
you believed. Somebody said, I can't figure
that out. Don't matter, it's what God says. That's what God
says. Thus saith the Lord, it stops
right there. Don't try to say, well, this
is then logical. Logic plays no part in it. God
is not logical. He's God. He's God. What's logical about being the
eternal creator of all that is and deciding I'm gonna become
a man? What is logical about that? But it was absolutely essential
for our redemption. Now look at it, the Lord, and
I'm gonna use the word executes. And somebody says, why? Because
I like that word, that's why. It's the same thing. The Lord
executes loving kindness. And the word, of course, could
be said, loving kindness, you could call it merciful, gracious,
favor, and compassion. Now, again, this is the Hebrew
now. Merciful, gracious, favor, and
compassion. If God shows you mercy, by default,
you didn't earn it, or it's not mercy. Right? If I offend someone, if I come
and offended you, brother, I mean, I said something to you that
just cut you to the quick, it was not true. And then I said,
well, I'm gonna let you have mercy on me. That's the heist
of pride Wouldn't it not be that I come and hurt one of you, even
just verbally, and then I say, I will let you be merciful to
me. And yet, that is the tenor of all of this so-called Christianity
around us. We're gonna let God have mercy.
You don't let God do anything. I don't let God do anything.
Mercy is that which God sovereignly executes. Think about it, he executed loving
kindness before the world was. Isn't that what Ephesians chapter
one, mainly verses three through five say? It says, in love, and
you know, I used to be there, that's why I get tickled about
it. Now, people argued about, well, does that go with verse
three, or does that go with in love, or does that go with verse four?
It's all together, brothers and sisters. God didn't, now here's
the order of it. God predestinated his people
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Having
predestinated them, he chose them in Christ, because that's
the only one that they could be chosen in. There was nothing
in them for him to choose. And he chose us in Christ before
the world began, and he did all of it in love. Now we think of
that, and there is a divine order, but it's not God predestinated,
there's an elect too. Oh, and I love too. With God, it's all an eternal
one. There never was a time he hadn't
predestinated and chose us in Christ and loved us. My mind cannot wrap around that. Even when he placed that tree
that was forbidden to Adam and Eve in the garden. God could
have just left it out. But he had some mercy and grace
to show. And he was pleased to show it. But mercy and grace
can only be shown to fallen corrupt creatures. And you say, preacher,
God purposed the fall? It happened, didn't it? And he
works all things after the counsel of his own will. Somebody says, that God's a monster. Well, get ready to meet a monster. Because that's who God is. That's
who he is. He executed loving kindness before
the world was. Even to Jeremiah, he told Jeremiah,
we'll read it, but Jeremiah 31 verse three, God executes loving
kindness in drawing men and women to himself. I've loved you with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you. You see, if God loves you, he
gonna have you. That's right, he gonna have you.
That's just the way it is. And I think about old Blind.
You remember Blind Bartimaeus? One fella called him Blind Bartimaeus.
Well, that's okay. I'm sure Blind Bartimaeus didn't
care if you called him Blind Bartimaeus. He just needed his
sight. Call me whatever you will. I
just need to see. But I love this one phrase. It
says, Christ stood still. He heard this cries of this blind
man. I don't know where he was. And
I'm sure that blind man, all he could hear was the crowd.
It's Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth. And this man had
evidently heard some things. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. And they said, shut up. He cried,
the more the great deal. And it says, Jesus stood But you know what else it says?
And he commanded him to be called. He executes loving kindness,
brothers and sisters. And he executes loving kindness
even when he has to chastise us and correct us, doesn't he? Turn, read this one. I know you're
familiar with it, but turn to Hebrews if you're following along.
This is just astounding. It's sad, I have to confess this.
It's sad, often when I corrected my children when they were younger,
I did so in anger. And it done more harm than good.
You hear me? It done more harm to them than
it did them good when I did it in anger. But look, look at what
Hebrews 12 says for the sake of time, verse five. And have
you forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children? Do you see it? Children, my son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of him for whom the Lord, what, is angry with. Is that what it says? Mm-mm.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges. You know what that means? It
hurts. It hurts. And scourges every
son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
if God don't correct you when you fall, when you see, and when
you do wrong, but if ye be without chastisement, where of all, that's
all children, are partakers, then you are illegitimate. You are bastards. You know, I
looked that word up in the Greek. I'm not trying to be brash. It's
what the book says. It's the way the KGB translated
it, because you know what the word in the Greek means? Bastards. You're illegitimate. Your profession
is illegitimate. Any faith you may have, it came
from you, not from God. Any religious zeal you have,
it's of the flesh. It's not of the spirit of God
in the new man. You're not real. God corrects
every one of his people. He will not let us go. Now, he
may let us go a long ways, but he will not let us go. And I've
used this illustration. The book says, this will be a
paraphrase, the book says he keeps us in the palm of his hand,
and even if we fall seven times, we'll not be utterly cast down.
When God's people fall, do you know where they fall? Yeah, here they are. They're
walking, walking their life. They fall. Where do they fall?
They fall in his hand. They do not do this. Yeah, they
do not do this. They can only do this. God will
not let you go. Somebody says, well, that gives
them a license to sin. You don't need a license to sin.
I don't need, I sin without a license every day. You don't even have
to give me permission to sin. My flesh eats it up like a thirsty
man drinks up water. giving someone license to sin.
I've thought, I've never done it. I've thought about sometimes
getting me one printed up and I'll let you have it, you know,
a little plastic, hard plastic, and just have four or five of
them and just hand it to people when they say that. Here's your
license to sin, just to see what their face will look like. It's
nonsense. We sin willingly, lovingly all
the time. And we like it. We like it. Now, if you're lost,
if you're unregenerate, the main thing is I just don't want to
get caught. And if you're a believer, it's
all the shame that I brought upon my Lord. But think about it. He executes
loving kindness, and he did it before the world began. God never
loved anyone new. God never decides to love someone. He's just always eternally loved
those he loves. And he executes loving kindness
in drawing men to himself. And he executes loving kindness
when he corrects us. But there's another one here.
The Lord executes judgment. Now, this word is a general word,
and what I mean by that is it's called, a literal rendering of
the word judgment in the Hebrew means this, to render verdicts. Verdict rendering. It can be
favorable, a favorable verdict, or it can be a unfavorable, though
just, verdict. So you follow along now? Judgment
doesn't always mean damnation or condemnation. Sometimes judgment
may mean justification. You see, God will reward what's
truly right. The problem is there's none that
do us good. No, not one. That's the problem
with us. The Lord executes judgment. He
executes verdict rendering. Now, there is no doubt, according
to the Apostle Paul, I think it's recorded by Luke in Acts
17, mainly verse 30 and 31, if you want to look at it later,
but there is no doubt that the Lord executes or will execute
final judgment one day. And Paul put it this way, he's
given assurance unto all men, and that's not assurance of salvation,
but he has assured all men that he will judge the world in righteousness,
but he's gonna do it by that one man that he's ordained, Jesus
Christ the righteous. But I want you to think about
this. Turn to John chapter five. Turn to John five, and I'll make
a statement, then we'll read what our Lord himself said. John chapter five. The thing about this, the Lord,
there's no doubt, the Lord executes. He will bring to pass final judgment,
even condemnation. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you. That's a verdict rendering, is
it not? And that's an unfavorable one for the ones who will hear
that. But he also, God, that is the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh,
He executes spiritual judgment. He renders verdicts spiritually
as well. He renders the verdict as to
who will live spiritually. It's not up to man, it is the
Lord. Know this about me, I exercise
loving kindness and judgment. Both of them. Why? Because these three things, Loving
kindness, judgment, and righteousness, the Lord executes all three. Now listen to our Lord's words
in John 5, 25. We read it in our Bible lesson this
morning. Verily, verily, that is truly, truly I say unto you,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. They have no choice. It's not dependent upon them,
it's dependent upon his voice. Now look, you say, but preacher,
that's your opinion. No, that was Christ's opinion. See it? For, verse 26, for as
the father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to
have life in himself. and hath given him authority
to execute judgment also because he is the son of man. What's
the context? The verdict rendering of live. Live. Live. There's a dead one. There's a
dead one. It's his business. It's his verdict
rendering. He executes this verdict rendering,
live, stay where you are. Live, stay where you are. God has not insulted man at all. Those who perish under the final
verdict rendering will do so at the justice and righteousness
of God, he himself. If I go to hell, I deserve it. I deserve it. Even after years
of preaching, I still deserve it because my preaching has no
merit. It's not my preaching, it's the
word of God that makes the difference. I'm at best, I'm at best a clay
pot. And again, my late pastor Earl
Cochran used to put it this way. Years ago, I don't know that,
well, I'm sure they still make them. You know what this clay
pot really was? A bed pan. Do you know what a
bed pan is? Especially years ago when they
did not have outside or inside toilets, and at best, at best,
maybe had an outside one, and instead of having to go it out
in the night or in the cold, you had a little old pan under
your bed. This is clay pots, clay pots,
nothings. But let me tell you something,
the one I'm preaching is everything. Why? Because he executes loving
kindness, because he executes judgment. But there's a third
one. Here's this third thing. The
Lord executes righteousness. What is that? It's 15, almost
15 to 12. You all want me to tell you all
the things? No, you don't. You don't have
time. We'd starve to death before I,
and I don't have the capacity to tell you all about all of
it. I probably, I'm sure I don't even know them all. But you think
about this. Our brother Abraham said this,
shall not the judge, that's the verdict renderer, Shall not the
judge of the earth do right? The answer is rhetorical. Yes. Yes. But listen, when God does
it, it's right because God does it. The right For God is not a set
of rules that God must follow to be right. God is intrinsic
right. And when he does it, he does
it righteously, no matter what it is. A few of us talked, or
a couple of us, we talked about this morning. When he passed
through Egypt, you remember that 10th plague? And I was always,
when I was in Sunday school as a little fella, they always really
liked to soften the death angel. You ever hear that? Anybody ever
hear it? Any of your Sunday school teachers ever tell you? When
the death angel, it wasn't the death angel. God said, I'm gonna
pass through the land of Egypt. And where there's no blood of
the lamb on the doorpost and the lintel, the firstborn in
every house that has no blood, the firstborn I will slay." And I told that brother this
morning, even if that firstborn was that big, wrapped up in a
little diaper and holding him or her in your arms, Yeah, that's God. And again, someone says, but
that's a monstrosity. That's right. To human reason
it is, but this is strict righteousness. This is absolute holiness. So holy that the elect angels,
the angels who have never fallen, who always, since their creation,
have willingly, lovingly did what God designed them to do,
even if it's the ones around the throne, or the ones that
have to come down here and watch over us. You know, if you're
a believer, you got angels that watch over you. They're right
here, right now, we just don't see them. And somebody said,
preacher, you're whistling in the dark. Well, so be it, it's
still true, because thus saith the Lord, those angels that they've
never, ever sinned. And they don't complain about
what they have to do, even if it's ministering to the glory
and holiness of God in glory, or coming down here and watching
over us. But even those ones in glory, remember them? They got three wings on this
side, three wings on this side. Two, they cover their feet. Two,
they kind of cover their body. But you know what they do with
the third pair? They cover their face before the thrice holy God. Now, what about you? Sister, I don't have enough wings
to cover myself enough. Adam and Eve tried it with fig
leaves. How well did that work for them? Huh? Huh? And God said, Adam, where art
thou? Not because God didn't know, but he was going to force
Adam to confess exactly where he was. And you know what? That was a good thing. Now, I
want you to think about this. I'm not, I'm just going to start
reading it again. I know it will be familiar when
I begin to read it. People say, I can't believe in a God like
that, like that Egypt. I just can't believe that's who
God really is. That's who he says he is. And
I'll put it, you either take it or leave it. You either take
it or leave it. You either believe it or you
don't. You reject it or you bow down to it. One or the other.
Here's what, here's the way God puts it. And he put it through
the Apostle Paul. And not only this, But Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the
children be not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. And now, I didn't always, No
one would understand this. I thought, how could God hate
Esau? Now you know what the marvel
is. How could God love Jacob? Because I can relate to Jacob.
Jacob swindled his brother out of the birthright. It was Jacob
that did the real bad, the true bad, the real nasty, and God
loved him but did not Love Esau. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is God
unrighteous? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. And even the free willer Baptist
says, Amen. Huh? But when you read on and
you get down to this one, verse 18, therefore hath he mercy on
whom he will have mercy and whom he will he harden. That's God. Somebody says, I don't like that.
I don't either in my flesh. I don't either. But I know it's who God really
is. And I don't comprehend it, but
I do understand that it's true because God says this is who
I am. Now, as I said, there's much
more, but I want to sum it up this way. This is me closing
this down. The Lord executed all three of
these things at the same time, at one time, on one person. That's the glory and marvel of
these three things in which God's delights. Granted, he may and
does and can, when he wills, do them separately. Okay? He can execute loving kindness. He can execute judgment, a verdict
rendering. He can execute righteousness. And they may be related, but
not necessarily connected. But God Almighty, He, what? He delights in these three things. And He carried them all out upon
and in the person of His Son. when God the Father judged the
son on the tree, and that's what he did. He rendered a verdict
against the son because he seen the sins of his people in the
body of his son. Not the son's sins, but his people's
sins. The book says, thus saith the
Lord, he bore in his body our sins on the tree. I can't comprehend
it, but God says it's so. When God seen our sins on his
son, he turned his back on the son. He executed judgment against
the son. But in executing that judgment
against the son, he was executing loving kindness toward us for
righteousness sake. Even Peter puts it this way,
who've obtained like precious faith, through the righteousness
of God our Father. You see, it's right for God to
give his people faith. You know why? Because Christ
purchased it. He purchased it. Think about this. When God the
Son committed himself, I mean, he committed himself to the Father's
judgment, he did so willingly, knowingly. He said, what shall
I say? Father, save me from this hour.
No, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Somebody says, I'd
like to experience what that was like for him. No, you do
not. People might, I hear a phrase,
I've probably even said it myself. I'm so ignorant. Well, what about
my Gethsemane? You never had a Gethsemane. You never sweat, as it were,
great drops of blood. When God the Son committed himself
to the Father's judgment, he did so in righteousness. Now listen, turn with me if you
would. I think it's Psalm 22. Let's see if I'm correct. I didn't
have this one in my notes. Think of it. Psalm 22, just the
first few verses. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? We know our Lord cried those
very words on the tree, did he not? And Psalm 22 is the cry
of Christ's own soul. I mean, this is a prayer that
he prayed and felt and knew when he hung, while he hung on that
tree. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He wasn't asking because he lacked
information. He's showing his submission to
the Father and letting us know it was real. Martin Luther famously
coined the phrase, God forsaking God, I cannot understand it,
but I can believe it. I couldn't believe it. My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from
helping me, helping me from the words of my roaring? Isaiah put
it this way. God made his soul an offering
for sin. He knew what it was to experience
the guilt and the shame of your sins. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not. And in the night season, how
can that both be? Remember at that certain hour
of the day, the sun went dark. Right in the middle of the day,
the sun went dark. And in the night season, and
am not silent, but thou art silent. Huh? He did not cause, he did
not cry against the Father as unrighteous. He says, what you're
doing to me is holy. You know why he did that? For
me. For you, if you believe me. But
thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Now let me just read you this
in closing. I don't know how long I've been
preaching. I hope it's not been a couple hours. I don't think
it is. Look at first, just turn to first John with me and we'll
read this. Make a couple comments. First John chapter four. I'm glad the Lord executes loving
kindness, aren't you? I'm glad he executes judgment. And if he leaves me out, I deserve
to be left out. But if he takes me in, bless
God, I cannot but enter in one day with him. And I'm glad he
executes righteousness. Look at what John said. Our brother
John said, 1 John chapter four, verse nine in particular, in
this was manifested. Do you see that? Manifested the
love of God. How do we manifest our love for
someone? It don't even compare with this
here, does it? And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son, notice to be is in italics, so
I'm gonna leave it out here, sent his, he didn't come to be,
he has always been. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son, the propitiation
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us his spirit. I ask you this and don't answer
it. And I have to ask myself this
question. Do I, and it's not just here,
do I really enjoy being here? And do I really enjoy being around
these people? Do I really love them to where
I would rather spend time with them than even some of my own
blood? That's how serious this is. Most
people out there, you know, what is it? God, mama, and country,
right? Is that the good patriot? God,
mama, and country. No, it's God, and Christ, and
the Spirit. That's where our love resides.
And if you truly love God, you can't help but love God's people.
You just can't help it. I've tried to get angry at some
of them before. Can't last long. You know why? Because the shame
and the guilt just eat your conscience alive. I've never understood
these people who claim to know the Christ of God and get mad
and leave the assembly. That is not only asinine, that's
called apostasy. And Hebrew 6 has some strong
language for those. They've ever tasted of the glory
of this? And they turn their back on it, they fall away. The
book puts it this way, it is impossible to renew them again
unto repentance, seeing that they crucify the son of God afresh
and put him to an open shame. They're saying that what Christ
did one time wasn't good enough. They dishonor God's Son. And God's Son is the only person
wherein God exercised all three things he delights in at one
time. Heavenly Father, may this time
we've spent together, may you be pleased to bless it, to encourage
us, to edify us, even to rebuke us if necessary. Lord, forgive
us of our sins. shortcomings, our missing the
mark, our poor, miserable choices. Thank you, God, for your mercy
and compassion and even your overriding providence that negates
our poor choices. Lord, we thank you for your grace
and mercy in Christ in his name. Amen.