Y'all will let's turn to Psalm
59 Psalm 59 I want to thank y'all for the
generous gift y'all gave me and the raise. I appreciate that.
That's much needed. Lord knows right when, right
when to send what's needed. I'm thankful for that, for the
heart he's put in you. Psalm 59. Let's pray together
before we read this Psalm. Father, as you're pleased to
be with us. Give us ears to hear, Lord. If there is mercy to be
found and grace to be found and comfort, it's prepared already. Lord, but we still ask, be with
us this morning. Be with every soul here, give
them ears to hear and make us rejoice in our Redeemer. Be with
those that aren't with us, Lord, there's so many in here and throughout. It's a heavy trial in the body
or in the mind and comfort them as only you can. Forgive us our
sin. It's because of Christ we ask
it. Amen. All right, brethren, Psalm 59,
this is a Psalm of David. Saul had sent out a bunch of
people and they surrounded the house and they're gonna wait
him out. They're waiting to kill him. And he cries out, but this
is David crying, and that's what I wanna look at this morning.
This is us. There's one verse I wanna hone in on. This is our
experience. It's my experience and many of
your experiences. But this is a messianic song. This is our Lord crying from
Calvary. Let's see that first, and then we'll see how it affects
us, okay? Verse one, deliver me from my enemies, oh my God. Defend me from them that rise
up against me. Deliver me from the workers of
iniquity and save me from bloody men. For lo, they lie in wait
for my soul. The mighty are gathered against
me, not for my transgressions, nor my sin, O Lord. Our Lord
hung on that cross. He knew no sin. He was made sin
for us, but that wasn't his sin. It was made his sin, but that's
our acts. He was without blame, that's
the Holy Lamb of God. They run and prepare themselves
without my fault, awake to help me. And behold, thou therefore,
O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all
the heathen. Be not merciful to any wicked
transgressors, Selah. I need mercy. Are you a wicked
transgressor? Mercy's what I need. They return
at evening, and they make a noise like a dog, and go around 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. Because of his strength, Will I wait upon thee? For God
is my defense. And here's our text. The God
of my mercy shall prevent me. The God of my mercy shall prevent
me. God shall let me see my desire
upon my enemies. The God of my mercy shall prevent
me. There's grace and mercy. Do you know what those are? We
remember those things, but we need reminded, don't we? Grace
is getting something we did not earn, we did not deserve. It
ain't in the cards for you to have it, however you cut it.
We didn't earn it, we didn't merit it, and that's to be given
something that we had no part in because of what we are. Mercy
is not getting what we do deserve. All that wrath, all that punishment,
being forsaken of God is exactly what I've earned. Mercy's not
getting that. Grace is getting eternal life
and peace and comfort and Christ, right? That's the good news.
But it's like two sides of a coin. We'll see at the end also, but
you can't have one without the other. They go together. For the Lord to be gracious to
me, he must be merciful. And if he's merciful to me, let
me tell you something, that's gracious. That's gracious. They go hand in hand, don't they?
And he says here in verse 10, the God of my mercy, my mercy,
the Lord has to do that in somebody. Well, he's a God of mercy and
he has to bless us. I heard a man say, well, everybody
seemed pretty blessed by the mess. What was you? Was I, was
I blessed? It has to be, I need mercy. And
it has to be a God of my mercy. This isn't just generalized.
Mercy is not something you can go get off a shelf. And we happened
to get a can of it. It's not a prefab thing. This
is specific. And that's what I need. This
has to be individual. Because we esteem our brethren
higher than ourselves, right? Well, the mercy you need, I need
more. We just go back and forth saying
that, I know. And you don't know the thoughts I have. You don't
know the actions I've taken. About to come upon our anniversary
20 years ago, some things happened on the other side of the world
in November. I had a part in it. That's bad stuff. Well, you don't know 20 milliseconds
ago. I need mercy, and it's gotta
be from me. Now, other people, yes, as soon
as the Lord saves somebody, that saved person wants others to
be saved. If you don't, God ain't saved
you yet. If it ain't just driven in you to have a conscience for
other mankind because we ain't no different than them, and those
that we care about and love, and even our enemies, right?
Well, they won't be an enemy as soon as the Lord saves them.
Not somebody else's mercy, but this starts with my mercy, the
God of my mercy. God, my Lord and my God, he was
merciful to me way ahead of time when he knew full well what I
was. While I was in my sin, while
I was an enemy with him, while I was a rebel, And he said, I
love that one and I'm gonna be merciful to it. That just melts ya. Don't that
just, don't that make you fall in love? Doesn't it? He was merciful and he was gracious
to me long time ago. Look here in verse 10 again.
The God of my mercy shall, shall, not might, not probably will,
shall prevent me. The God of my mercy. He's the
only one that can be merciful. He's the authority. He potentate,
the only authority. The God of my mercy shall Prevent
me. Prevent me. Now, if we read that
at face value, we go home and we got a reading schedule and
we got 86 verses we gotta get through today to make it through
an year. We'll read it and say, Lord's gonna keep me from doing
something, right? Is that true? Does the Lord keep his hand on
me and keep me from doing what I would do? You better believe
it. It does mean that. It does. But that word prevent
there means to proceed. It means to anticipate ahead
of time in a hasty manner, with vigor, with might. To come before and to go before,
to prevent. That's where we get that anticipated
immediately and proceeded before me. That's where we get that
word the old writers used, provenient grace. Grace that goes before
grace. Prevenient mercy. Mercy that
was there before mercy was ever known to be needed. Had been
there a long time. That's where we get that word.
Anticipatory grace and mercy. It's a whole lot easier to say
prevenient. Mercy before mercy. Turn over to Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah Lamentations in Ezekiel.
Stay right there. We'll be kind of bouncing back
forth and in the middle on this one. Jeremiah 29. This mercy that the Lord has,
the God of my mercy, and he shall, this mercy was before time, long
ago. Before I ever was, this mercy
was, and that everlasting covenant of grace and mercy. And then
it was at this present moment, back when yesterday was right
now, and when right now is right now, the Lord sends his spirit,
and that mercy's new every morning. It's right now. It's right now. But as long as the Lord keeps
me here on this earth, I'm gonna need grace and mercy tomorrow.
And that prevenient mercy that goes before, it went before,
before time, it went before right now, and it's gonna come before.
It's already there where I'm gonna need it. Where am I gonna
be? I don't know, but I'm gonna need it. I want us to see that. Look here in Jeremiah 29. Here's
where it was before. He said in verse 11, Jeremiah
29, 11. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith
the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected
end. He thought on us. He saw his
people before time, and he said, that's the ones I love. And he
loved Jacob, and he hated Esau. And he loved the sons of Jacob,
and he hated the sons of Egypt. And that's just how it was, because
he wanted to. And he's got him to do what he
wants. But before time, he had thoughts towards us. And not
to destroy us, but thoughts of peace for his chosen elect people,
and to give them an expected end. That's what happened way
back when. Now look at verse 12. Then, does it say then in
your Bible? It doesn't mind. That's what
already took place. Then shall ye call upon me. Well, we hadn't
called on him yet. Exactly. That mercy was already
there. He purposed it beforehand. And
ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me
with all your heart. Now is that contingent on us
searching for him? That's just an outcome of a heart
that he gave us because he had thoughts towards us. Thoughts
of peace, not of evil. We had an expected end. What's
our predestination? What's that? To be conformed
to the image of Christ. I'm gonna make you just like
my son. Now, because of my mercy to do that, my grace to do that
to an undeserving people, now you're gonna call on me. Now
you're gonna pray unto me. And I'm gonna hear you. I'm gonna
hear you. Turn two books to the right there to Ezekiel. Ezekiel
16, verse one. Ezekiel 16, one. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. Ezekiel, you'll cry all flesh
is grass. Bring them down. And say, Thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan, and thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a
Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day that thou wast born,
thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with water to
supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all,
nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee. to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast
out into an open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee," that's
where we were, we were just an aborted baby, cast out into a
field where a failed abortion layin' out there, bloody, disgusting,
and you can't provide for yourself. We can't, that's us, isn't it?
But when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live,
live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply.
We'll see this next time. It's beautiful. Remember this.
I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and
thou hast increased and waxen great. and thou art come to excellent
ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned, thine
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I have
passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the
time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Then washed I thee with water.
Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also." And it
goes through that wonderful raiment and clothing that he went through. What happened? The Lord went
walking. He came to his people. We weren't
nothing to look at. But God, but God, mercy was there. There was an everlasting covenant
of love. This love was before time, and
it is now as the Lord comes to his people, and it is now as
he comforts his people that he's already come to before he comes
to us again, and it shall be. It'll never change. Charity never
fails. It doesn't. That mercy and that
grace was before us, and it was in Christ. Revelation 13, eight
says, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose
names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Not before from, he's speaking
to the people that aren't, they're gonna worship him. How do I know
if I'm written in that lamb's book? How do I know? Are we sons of
Jacob? Is that our name? Are we supplanters, deceivers,
rebels against God? Do we need a lamb? Do we need
a substitute because my lamb ain't going to cut it? Do I need
him? Has that been revealed to you?
Is that true? Not just an idea or what somebody
said 200 years ago. My, is that my only hope instead? Sounds like there's a name written
there. Before we were thirsty, that's always from Donnie Bell. Before we were thirsty, that
rock was smitten. Before we were hungry, that bread
of life was broken. Before we even was here on this
earth to be thirsty or hungry. Before we ever knew. That electing
love did something, didn't it? Love does something. Love don't
sit around talking about how much love loves. Love does something,
and that love did something. Before a sinner walked on this
earth, a savior went before. Turn back one book to Lamentations.
This all happened before. Here's what happens while we're
here. Lamentations chapter three. Verse 18, Lamentations 3, 18. And I said, my strength and my
hope is perished. from the Lord. Remembering my
affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul
hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I
recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail
not. They are new every morning. That mercy that was already there,
I wake up and there it is. Brand new, waiting on us like
a Christmas present. Is that because I'm so diligent?
The word says great is thy faithfulness. Thy faithfulness. Is your name
written in that book? Is it your faithfulness or is
it his? Are you walking by faith or is he walking in you by his
faith? It's his faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
him. He went before from ancient times
and he goes before us each and every day before that day even
shows up. How? How? He sends that gospel to
us. He knows our frame. He has pity on us. He knows his
children. He knows that we have no faith
in and of ourselves. He knows that. He knows that
we have no sorrow over what we are, our nature, sin, not sins. I did a couple of bad things.
I'm a heathen and a criminal. I'm a rebel against God. He knows
that. And I have no faith. And I wasn't
looking for him. I might've been reading a Bible
17 hours a day and I wasn't looking for God. I was looking for a
God that suited me. He knows that. Where are we going to get
this faith? He's going to give it to us.
Where are we going to get this strength? He's going to give
it to us. Where are we going to get this wisdom? He's going to give it
to us. It's believing on Him and His
Word. God went before and it's already waiting there. We don't
have life, He has to give it. We don't have faith, He has to
give it. And how's that going to happen? He sends His gospel.
Faith cometh By hearing. That word was added there in
Romans 10, and I like it. It's in italics. Faith cometh. That's how we got faith, that's
how we're getting faith, and that's how we're gonna have faith
tomorrow. Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Not by reading, not by listening to some songs and stuff like
that, or you singing the songs and all this. It comes by hearing.
Hearing. Making that too simple, Kevin.
God made it that simple. Faith comes by hearing. How shall
they call on him who they've not believed? And how shall they
believe on him who they've not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? Are they something special? No, I'm not. None of the other
ones are anything. How shall they preach that they be sent?
Well, how could they be sent? Hey, you think about that. The
whole lineage of a preacher. God sent a man to preach to me.
And from Adam till the day he spoke, that whole lineage was
preserved. Every meal they had, every hair
on their head, nothing could happen to them. They could not
die until this poor nitty sinner that needed mercy had mercy preached
to them. Did you know that? Brother Henry
was there in the Pacific, World War II, the boat on the left
sank, the boat on the right sank, in front of him, behind him sank.
That boat couldn't sink. Why? He had a bunch of people
he had to preach to. God was gonna use him. That goes before, doesn't
it? That makes me a bad fisherman.
I just throw the line out and I was like, well, if there's
a fish gonna be on that hook, the Lord's preserved that lineage of fish from people
I like fishing with. I'm pretty comfortable with it.
That was that hour a long time ago. I needed him and I need
him this hour too. And no one will ever live without
the gospel coming in power to them. They'll never have spiritual
life unless a preacher comes and God sends it in his doing
and he sends it in power. And no one will ever sorrow over
sin and they will never beg for mercy unless the God in his gospel
preaching sends it in power. Unless he does that work. And
what we will find when this takes place is we're gonna cry for
mercy. That's what's going to happen.
And what's going to happen when we do cry for mercy? It's already there. It's already there. Remember
those four lepers we looked at last week? And they went to those
Syrians, and they said, we're going to die if we go in that
city. We're going to die if we stay here. And if those Syrians
kill us, and they're right to do so, but maybe, just maybe,
they'll have mercy on us and we can have something to eat.
What did they find when they showed up? Nothing but tents
full, no enemies, nothing but tents full of every provision
they needed. And they ate and they drank, didn't they? It was
already there. Provenient mercy. The God of
my mercy shall prevent me. Shall, shall. Our great king
is so faithful. This grace and this mercy goes
before us and to us, and he makes us call out, and he answers before
we even finish talking to him. When we cry, not when we ask
for stuff. I'm like, I would really like
to have this job. You ever start praying, and you pray something,
you get halfway through, and you go, ugh. Lord, your will be done, right?
I've done that, maybe you have. He said, it shall come to pass
that before they call, I will answer. Before they even call,
before you even say it, I've already answered. And while they
are yet speaking, I will hear. Does that mean he's just a fortune
teller? No, he put that prayer in us.
It's of the Lord. Is that your experience? Do you
look back on your life? I thought there's a husband and
wife on the East Coast that has just a, what we would call a
terrible trial. It just consumes their life.
It's a physical condition, one of the spouses, and you just
feel so sorry for them, you can't stand it. You cannot be around
them people without them telling you what wonderful things the
Lord did to them, did for them. Like, no, this is good. I'm thankful
the Lord put this on me. I'm thankful the Lord did this
to my body. This is right. Oh, he's generous. Oh, I'd have
never done this or never done that. He's guided my steps. This
is all his mercy. They can't talk about nothing
else. It ain't bellyaching. It's rough and it's tough and
I hate it. No, this is right. You look back over your life.
I look back over my life from my grandfather before my dad
was born. the Lord using that and Henry and everything in a
position to save my father and my mother. And then I was born
and the parents I was given, the preacher I was given, the
life I had, the mistakes that I willfully ran away and did
horrible things. And I said, boy, I was right.
All the bad was my doing and all the good was the Lord's doing.
Oh, he meant it for good. It's like Joseph was saying to
his brothers, wasn't it? We've done, I've done wrong,
but the Lord's been merciful. This is just right. I wouldn't
have it any other way. I wouldn't have it any other way. Hmm. He's got at our feet every
step, hasn't he? Why? The God of my mercy shall
prevent. He's going to go before hastily,
hastily. He's going to anticipate all
things, not that things are changing. He's reactive, just like a faithful
father. I know what's going to happen.
Go ahead and get the things ready. And that's for mercy to come.
Mercy has always been there in time past. Mercy's here today. That's what I said the other
night. I don't know how long the door of this ark is going to be open.
People's talking about calendars and what year it's really the
1700s or I don't know the nonsense Crazy bean counters what they
are. They're delusional they are But I hope lord comes today,
I don't know how long this door the ark's gonna be open, but
I know it's open right now We're on this ball floating around
anyway, come Come you and your whole household come But we have
mercy to come, too. The Lord told Peter what bad
things was going to happen. He said, you're going to deny
me. It's going to be bad, Peter. You've needed mercy from time,
from everlasting. You've been shown mercy. The
Lord's been merciful to you, and he's been merciful to you
right now. But something's going to happen, Peter. The future,
we're still on this earth. You've got some days coming,
and you're going to deny me three times. Never do. Before the cock crows, you will,
wouldn't it? But right before that, he said, Simon, Satan's
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I've
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. It ain't come to pass
yet, Peter. It's going to be a little bit.
But I've already prayed for that. That in the future, your faith
fail not. What's our faith? Believe in
God, right? Who's our faith? Christ. You
go through Hebrews 11 and read every one of those by faith,
Abraham, go read that as by Christ, Abraham, by Christ, Joseph. That's
truth. He said, Peter, I prayed that
your Christ fail not, your savior fail not. And when thou art converted,
when you go through that, wasn't he already converted? Of course
he was, he's an apostle. Now when this happens again for
that day, he said, strengthen thy brethren. Go tell your brethren
what good things the Lord's done for you. Not definitional mercy
and theological positions. Go tell them what God did for
you. And I turn over Psalm 23 and
we'll close. Psalm 23. I enjoy going through Psalm 23. I was preparing this and I thought
of what Brother Spurgeon said about the Lord's watchdogs, goodness
and mercy, grace going before and mercy following, covering
all of our sin. Here in Psalm 23 verse 4. Oh,
we got time. We'll read the whole thing. Verse
1. The Lord is my shepherd. Who's shepherd? My shepherd.
I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, and we do, I will fear no evil,
for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Surely this shall happen. Goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Forever. That mercy
that was, always was, that is, and shall be, That's in our Lord. That's in our shepherd. And Jesus
Christ, he's the same yesterday and today and forever. And I wouldn't have it any other
way. He said, I'm the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Isn't that precious? He shall,
the God of my mercy, he shall prevent me. He shall go before,
because he already has, he is, and he shall. It ain't gonna
stop. That's a good thing, isn't it? Does that, that'll get us
through a, we'll look, there's some midwives next hour that's
got a hard week of work ahead of them. They were reminded of these things,
weren't they? The Lord revealed himself. All right, let's pray
together. Father, as you promised, be merciful
to your people. Be merciful to bring us low,
to break us and make us bow. That's a merciful thing. Be merciful
to put hearts in us that cries out to you for mercy. Lord, and
give us the peace of understanding that mercy's found when we seek
it. It's already there, and you shall
be merciful. You delight to show mercy. What
an amazing thing, Lord. What a humbling thing for sinners
that you delight to show mercy, and that mercy's in your son
because of him, because of who he is, what he did for us while
we were enemies with him. What great love. Oh, thank you
for this hour and be with us. Be with us next hour too. It's
because of Christ we ask it. Amen. All right, we'll take about
15 minutes and meet back at 10 30.