That was outstanding. That exalted
my Redeemer and that was good. I lost track of the fact that
I was supposed to get up and preach next until right at the
end and I remembered, oh yeah, now I'm going to preach. That
was really good. Well, John, Kathy, thank y'all. Thank you to the whole church.
I know it's some work involved and appreciate your labors and
your hospitality and your fellowship and accommodations you provided
me. Thank you. Let's go to Psalm 67. Let's read this psalm together.
Psalm 67 verse 1. God, be merciful unto us and
bless us and cause His face to shine upon us, that Thy way may be known upon
earth, Thy saving health Thy salvation among all nations. Let the people praise Thee, O
God. Let all the people praise Thee. Oh, let the nations be glad and
sing for joy, for Thou shalt judge the people righteously
and govern the nations upon the earth. Let the people praise
Thee, O God, let all the people praise Thee. Then shall the earth
yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless
us. God shall bless us, and all the
ends of the earth shall fear Him. Now in verse 2, the psalmist
asked God, that thy way may be known upon the earth, that thy
way may be known." God's way is the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way.
There's no other way but Christ. He said, no man comes to the
Father but by me. And that's what the psalmist
is asking for, asking for God to send forth His promised Messiah
that mercy might be given and blessing might be given and God's
face might shine upon the earth. That all God's elect scattered
amongst the nations might be brought to praise Him, to know
His way and praise Him. That's how the earth yields her
increase. God blesses his people, teaches
us the way, and life springs up and we praise God for it. We give him all the glory for
it. The church glories in God's way of salvation. We glory in
Christ. He gets all the glory in the
salvation of sinners like us. And God the Father purposed it
to be that way. He said He shall have all preeminence. The Son shall have all preeminence.
And so today I want to show you God's way. Now we're going to
get our outline mainly from verse 1. God's way in Christ is the
way of mercy. He says, God be merciful unto
us. And then secondly, God's way
in Christ is the way of blessing. He said, God be merciful unto
us and bless us. And thirdly, God's way in Christ
is the way of comfort. It's comfort from God accepting
His people. From God smiling upon us with
His shining face of approval. He says, God be merciful unto
us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us with approval. And then God's way in Christ
is the way of righteously governing His church throughout our days
in this earth. He said in verse 4, Oh, let the
nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the
people righteously and govern the nations upon the earth. So
first of all, God's way in Christ is the way of mercy. God, be
merciful to us. Do you find that that's your
prayer continually? Do you find that you pray to
God continually asking for mercy? Mercy is God withholding from
us what we deserve. And it's the only way God receives
sinners. It's only by mercy that He can
receive a sinner. Now do we know how exceedingly
sinful we are? I know we know the doctrine of
depravity, total ruin and fall of man in Adam, but do we know
that about ourselves? Really and truly about ourselves. Not only did we sin in Adam,
there's not one commandment that we have not broken all the time
continually. Sin's not just in what we do,
it's in our heart, it's our very fabric, it's the very being of
what we are by nature is sin. God himself is who we've sinned
against. This thing of sin, not just sinning
and it not affecting anyone or not being against anyone, all
our sin is against God. Go back to Psalm 51. Listen to
David. Can we say this with David? Verse
1, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I
acknowledge my transgression and my sin as ever before me
against Thee, The only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear
when thou judgest." In everything that we've ever done, the only
thing we have ever done is sin against God. I'm talking about
you take the very best thing you've ever done Things that
men will pat you on the back for, things that mama will praise
you for, things that folks would call you a mighty fine fellow. It's sin against God. Because
sin's mixed with everything we do. Whenever God speaks this
word, He speaks it of me. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart is only evil continually. That's true of me standing right
here where I'm at. From the sole of the foot even
to the head there's no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. Now you think of somebody who's
offended you, somebody who's hurt you deeply. If someone had murdered your
child, they've not offended you like
you and I have offended God. And yet God's way is to show
mercy. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy." It's the Lord's mercies that
were not consumed. His compassions fail not. They're
new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. I
need new mercies every morning because every morning I sin. Well, the very essence of mercy
means we cannot merit it. We have no cause in us for God
to show us mercy. It's God's glory to give mercy
to whom he will. When Moses asked to see his glory,
God said, I'll make my goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord and will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Paul said, then, it's not of
him that willeth. I can talk about my free will
all I want to. My will's bound to this sinful
nature. It's not of him that runneth,
it's not of man's works. It's God's glory to choose whom
He will have mercy on. Turn over to Romans 5. I want
you to look at this in light of the fact of what horrible,
evil, wicked, vile, wretched sinners that we are. I just think
we hear the word sin so much that we don't really Consider how bad it is before
God. Now look at Romans 5 verse 6. Now here's mercy. When we were
yet without strength, we were dead in sins, we had no way of
commending ourselves to God. Nothing about us commendable.
Without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He died for those that were unlike
God. Everything God hates, that's
who He died for. Scarcely for a righteous man
would one die, perventure for a good man some would even dare
to die, but God commended His love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God's way of mercy was
to send his son. You know, you take somebody who's
committed great offenses against you and just dealt spitefully
with you and blasphemed and cursed your name. Would you send your son to die
for them? Think about that. Think about
that. Sending your child to take their
place. And that's what God did. He couldn't
overlook our sin. If he's going to have mercy,
his justice has got to be honored. Mercy and truth have got to be
made to kiss. They've got to be in harmony.
No court can do that. No law of this land can do that.
Anytime a judge is lenient and shows mercy to somebody, he's
not upholding the justice of the law. And if he holds up the
justice of the law, he can't show mercy. How can God do both? In the Lord Jesus Christ. He
came forth and He's God in Christ and He comes forth and because
He went and took the place of His people and God poured out
all the wrath of His offended justice upon His own Son, God
has honored His law. He is just. The soul that sinneth
must die. I'm not going to die for your
sin. Somebody else is not going to die for your sin. You're not
going to die for your daddy's sin. You're going to die for
your sin. And Christ, when he died, Paul said, I was crucified
with Christ. I died. My body of sin was taken
and it was buried in that tomb over there and put away. And that's how real God sees
it. That man died. The only man we talk about that
died over 2,000 years ago is Christ. We don't even know really
any men that died. So why talk about that man of
sin? He died. He's dead before God. God's not going to bring him
up again to his people. And because He is the justifier,
mercy, mercy. As He justified us, He showed
us mercy. As He satisfied justice, He justified
us. Mercy and truth together, right
there. We come out of that grave and
we sat down at the right hand of God. Paul says, your life
is hid with Christ in God. Right there, God's right hand.
Don't seek these things below. Set your affection on things
above. That's where your life is. God's mercy is how we're saved. You know, we get in our flesh.
And we say things that are unmerciful, we do things that are unmerciful
because we get offended. Like we're somebody to get offended.
Who am I to get offended at anybody when I consider how much and
how continually I offend God constantly? Why should I get
offended about anything? If the worst anybody says about
me, they haven't even scratched the surface. The next time we're offended,
we ought to look at the person, and before we speak a word, if
God helped us to do that, before we say a word, we ought to think,
I've offended God a million times worse than this person's offended
me. And God showed me mercy. If it's God's power working,
that'll make you merciful. That'll make you merciful. Secondly,
not only is God's way the way of mercy, God's way is the way
of blessing. He says, God be merciful unto
us and bless us. Now, in a court of law in our
land, if you go before a judge, most judges are not lenient.
Most judges are concerned with the law, and that's all they're
concerned with, and the facts, and they're going to deal justice. They're not in the lenient business.
They're not in the mercy business. And you imagine you stand there
guilty before one of these judges, and you owe a million dollars.
And you're guilty. There's no doubt you're guilty.
And you've asked the judge for mercy. And the judge decided
he'd give you mercy. Just going to wipe this off the
book. Now, he's not upholding justice
when he does that, but let's just say, for illustration's
sake, he wipes it off the book. You don't owe the million dollars
anymore. Now imagine turning around and asking that same judge,
would you put a million dollars in my account? Now that you've
shown me mercy and cleared my debt of a million, will you give
me a million? Most of us, we wouldn't push
it. We'd say, well, he cleared the million. I'll get on out
of here. But you can come to God, and God not only has shown
us mercy and cleared our debt, He's blessed us with infinitely
more than a million dollars. Christ Jesus, by one offering,
made us the righteousness of God in Him. He had made Him sin
for us who knew no sin. Why? That we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. I can't even, I've been studying
this book for 30, 35 years. I can't even scratch the surface
of what the righteousness of God is. I can't imagine. I'm like a fish swimming in water
trying to tell you what it's like to be dry. I don't know.
I can't tell you what righteousness is. But He's made us the righteousness
of God. No sin, nothing, just perfect
perfection. Christ did it. In the Lord shall
all the seed of Israel be justified, and in the Lord shall they glory.
He said, no weapon that's formed against you shall prosper. Now listen to that, none and
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the inheritance of the
servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith
the Lord. He not only blessed us by showing
us mercy or gave us mercy, he blessed us by making us perfectly
righteous in him. The only way we know about it,
how do we know this? Go to Ephesians 2. The only way
we know He did this is because of His mercy and this blessing
of grace. Ephesians 2 verse 4, God who
is rich in mercy, even for His great love when He loved us,
even when we were dead in sin. quickened us together with Christ
by grace are you saved and raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages
to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. We're going to be learning about
the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus for eternity. That's a lot of grace and kindness
to learn about. Because there's a lot of it to
learn about. Exceeding greatness. Exceeding greatness. Now, when
He brings you to behold Christ and He brings you to see what
Christ has done for you, God shines the light of His countenance
upon us. It says there, verse 1, God be
merciful unto us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon
us. God turned His face, His smile
of approval from Christ our substitute. And when God takes away the light
of His countenance from you, everything is darkness. And bearing the frown of God's
infinite justice, Christ Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? And he said, because you're holy.
Because you're holy. But brethren, because he bore
that frown, God calls you to Himself. And He shines upon His
child the light of His countenance. And that is the smiling approval
and acceptance of God. And we'll never experience that
forever. We'll never experience that darkness from His face being
turned from it. He'll always shine the light
of His countenance because He always accepts us in the Beloved.
The psalmist said, people say, who will show us any kindness?
Lord, shed the light of your countenance upon us. And then
when he did it, the next verse says, you've made me to rejoice
more than the time when their corn and their wine increases.
Doesn't this give you more rejoicing? You know, when there's somebody
that you want their smile of approval. When they're frowning
on you, that just tears your heart out. It just hurts you. But when they smile with approval,
that rejoices your heart. And when God smiles with approval
and makes us know we're accepted and we have peace with God, that's
better than anything this world can give you. Everything this
world's rejoicing in, this is better. This is rejoicing, true
joy. Why? Because if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more than being reconciled, we shall be saved from wrath
by His life. He won't let us go. And He did
all of this to the praise of the glory of His grace. And He's made us accepted in
the Beloved. See, the question's not, do you
accept Jesus? The question is, does God accept
you? And He only accepts His people
in the Beloved. I pray God would shine that face
of approval in the heart of somebody today, make them to know the
warfare's over. You're accepted in the Beloved.
Now, lastly, knowing all that, knowing that He has satisfied
justice for us, look at this next thing, verse 4. The way
of God is justice. in the way He governs everything
for His people. Verse 4, Oh, let the nations
be glad and sing for joy. And this is every reason to be
glad and sing for joy right here. For thou shalt judge the people
righteously and govern the nations upon the earth. When you read
about God judging the people righteously, He's speaking of
His people. And on Calvary's cross, He judged
us righteously. But when you look at that word
judge, don't think that being a bad thing. Because what God
is doing right now is He's judging for you and me in this earth
righteously. And He's governing everything
justly for His people. That's what He's doing. Go over
to Ephesians 1 one more time. I want to show you this. Look who this is that's doing
it. The Lord Jesus Christ who laid down His life for us is
now risen to God's right hand and has all power over all things
in the universe. Verse 20. This is what He wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, set Him at His
own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and every name that's named,
not only in this world but also in that which is to come. and
has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all." Christ is filling all in all. He's the one who's the head of
the church, the church is His body, as Brother Norm said, if
He doesn't call in every single one, His body wouldn't be complete.
And He's going to continue sending the gospel forth and calling
out His people until we reach the fullness of the measure of
the stature of Christ. In other words, until His body
is complete. Every last member has been called
into the body and the body is full. And so right now, the reason
that this world's held in store, as Brother Norm read, by the
power of His Word, He's holding this world in store. And that
one who's doing this now, that is Christ Jesus, the God-man. When you read, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, He doeth according to His will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou?
That's talking about my sovereign Savior. You see wicked things coming
to pass in this world right now? Surely the wrath of man shall
praise Him, and the remainder thereof He won't let it happen. Shall there be evil in a city
and the Lord hath not done it? He's in full control of everything
that's taken place. And He's doing it righteously
and justly. This has been some kind of year,
hasn't it? Some are in the middle of some
hard, perplexing trials that you just never thought you'd
ever face. We have this pandemic. God's
in control of pestilence. We have this, some brethren we
love who've gone to be with the Lord. We would change that, but
we miss them. Breaks your heart. The riots,
the crooked politics, and we're fixing to go into another presidential
race. Another season of that. But remember
this in all of it. All is under the direct control
of God our Savior. And He's ruling righteously and
justly for His people in this earth. Let's don't murmur against God's
providence. He's doing it justly. He's doing
a much better job than we can comprehend. He's faithfully protecting
us and He's faithfully correcting us. And he's doing it right. We know that all things work
together for good to them who are called, to them that love
God, to them who are called according to his purpose. So turn to 2
Samuel 16. And I do pray God to help us
remember this. I've failed at this, and I've
failed so many times at this. But I wish God, I pray God would
help us to remember this. We get in our flesh and we speak
too soon. We don't give it time, we just
pop off. We say the wrong thing, do the
wrong thing. Sooner or later God's going to
bring us down and make us be merciful. He's going to remind
us what Christ did for us. And I pray God will subdue our
flesh and help us to deal with folks like this right here. If
he permits the devil to roar upon you like we saw last night
and he uses some man to do it, look here at verse 5. Listen
to this. Shimei came to David and he came forth, cursed and
cursed still as he came. And he cast stones at David and
at all the servants of King David and all the people and all the
mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And thus
said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloodied
man, thou art man of Bilial. He's calling David a devil. The
Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of
Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned. The Lord hath delivered
the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son. Behold, thou
art taken in thy mischief because you're a bloody man. It's all
your fault, David. Then said Abishah, the son of
Zeruiah, unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the
king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take his head off.
And that's usually our response right there. Now listen to David. And the king said, What have
I to do with you, you son of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because
the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. The Lord has said
unto him, curse David. Who shall then say, wherefore
hast thou done so? I can't say, why are you cursing
me? The Lord told him to curse me, David said. When David said
to Basha and to all his servants, behold, my son, which came forth
of my bow, seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamin
do it? Let him alone. Let him curse,
for the Lord hath bidden him." The Lord sent him. It may be that the Lord will
look on my affliction and the Lord will requite me good for
his cursing this day. I pray we could remember that. If a person comes against you
and they're railing on you and they're pointing out every fault
you got, rather than defending ourselves, And it takes God's
grace to do this. It's not our first response is
to take his head off. But when God gives you grace,
hear what that person is saying as God's speaking to you. Because
he's using that, that's what David said, he's using Shimei
to curse me and remind me of what I have done. Everything Shimei said was true. Hear that and be chastened by
that and know this is God correcting me. And I'll tell you what God will
do. He'll deal with us and correct us and remind us that He showed
us mercy. And He'll make you be merciful.
He'll remind you that He blessed you above and beyond making you
righteous. And He'll make you want to bless
even your enemies. And He'll remind you that you're
approved of God. He's accepted you. If I'm not
accepted by somebody and somebody rails on me and somebody points
out every fault I've got and they separate themselves and
they won't have anything to do with me, I don't want that to
happen. but it hasn't changed the fact
God accepted me. And if they came back, I would
accept them. God's accepted me. And we can
be this way because in everything that's happening in our lives,
every second of every day, God, our Savior, is ruling everything
justly, just for you, believer. Just for you. And that means
I'm persuaded neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature should be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. I thank you so much. I thank
you for your hospitality, for your graciousness, your food,
your fellowship, everything. Thank you for the messages, Brother
Norm, Brother John. It's been a delight. I look forward
to doing it again soon. So God be with you.