Well, I'm sure thankful for your
pastor and thankful for Kimberly and thankful for the children
that poor Jerry gave up his bed for me so I could serve the night
and thankful for that. Before I forget or before I begin,
I wanted to say Miss Shelby sends her love to you and said you
hold a very dear place in her heart and she wanted to know
that She misses you and she's thinking about you and praying
for us here tonight. Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm
67. Psalm 67. Now this Psalm is a prayer. You might recognize this first
verse from Numbers. This is similar to what the Lord
told the high priest to bless the people with. It begins here,
verse 1, God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause His
face to shine upon us. This is a prayer. You notice
He says us. It's a public prayer. Our Lord
Jesus taught us to pray publicly saying, not I but us. Father, forgive us our trespasses. as we forgive them that trespass
against us. And this truly is the blessing
of our great High Priest. The reason these blessings are
sure to God's people, because like it was pictured with the
old covenant High Priest, Christ is our High Priest. And He's
the one who makes this intercession at God's right hand. Now here's
the longing in this prayer, verse 2, that thy way may be known
upon earth. Thy saving health among all nations. This is a prayer not just for
the psalmist, it's a prayer also for God's people everywhere. Even for God's elect Gentiles
scattered throughout the nation. The old believers in the old
day believed God had a people among the nations. And that's
what they're praying. Not just among the Jewish nation,
among all the nations. And they're praying for that
and they want God's way known and truly Christ is God's way. And we're going to behold God's
way when we behold Christ. That's what they're praying for,
for Christ to come. Now verse 3, let the people praise
Thee, O God. Let all the people praise Thee. You know that's not speaking
of everybody in the world because not everybody praises God. It's
speaking about all God's people, all God's elect. Verse 4, O let
the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge
the people righteously and govern the nations upon the earth. Selah
means think about that. Think about that. Give that some
thought. He says, verse 5, 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. You know, the earth's increase
is the seed of Christ. It's God's people. And only God
can bless us and bring forth that life and bring forth that
increase. And He does it. He brings all
His people to praise Him. To give Him all the glory. Now,
look back at verse 2. And notice the psalmist's prayer
to God is that thy way may be known upon the earth. The church
glories in God alone. We glory in God alone in the
way of God. In the way of God. We pray for
all God's elect to praise God and give Him the glory because
they know His way. They know Christ's way. Now that's
our subject tonight, the way of God. Do you know the way of
God? What is the way of God? I want
to know God's way. I want to know the way of God.
Well, mostly we're going to get our outline from verse 1. Now,
the way of God, first of all, is the way of mercy. He says,
God be merciful unto us. And then the way of God is the
way of blessing. He says, God be merciful unto
us and bless us. And then the way of God is the
way of comfort, the smile of God's countenance, God's approval
upon His people. He says, God be merciful unto
us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us. And then in verse 4 we'll see
an application of this. Once we know God's way, then
we can rest assured of this application. Verse 4, O let the nations be
glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people righteously
and govern the nations upon the earth. Now first of all, the
way of God is the way of mercy. The way of God is the way of
mercy. He says in verse 1, God be merciful unto us. This is
God's child praying for God to be merciful by sending forth
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He's asking for.
And he's asking for mercy in Christ. Mercy with Christ coming
forth. Now I want you to consider and
think about mercy. I think about mercy. I've been
thinking a lot about mercy lately. Do you need mercy? I need mercy. I need mercy. And you think about
God's way of being merciful. to guilty sinners like us. That's amazing. We read in Scripture
that in Christ God delights to show mercy. God delights to show
mercy. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. His compassions fail not. His
mercies fail not. They're new every morning. And
I need God's mercies to be new every morning. Because I'm a
sinner. You know, when I'm preaching
to you, I'm not preaching at you and I'm not preaching down
to you. I'm preaching, I'm right there with you. Because I need
mercy. I'm a sinner. I hate my sin. I mourn my sin. I don't want
to sin. And thankfully God's merciful
to make us hate our sin. Make us mourn our sin. And He
does turn you from some of your sins. The worst sin that we have
probably is pride and self-righteousness of thinking we're not that bad
a sinner. Looking on somebody else and thinking they're worse
than we are. We're full of that. We all are. And we need God's mercy to save
us from that constantly. Now, we don't deserve mercy.
The very essence of what mercy is means that we can't marry
mercy. It's for the guilty. Mercy is
for the guilty. So you can't earn mercy. You
can't merit mercy. And God told Moses it's His prerogative
as God, it's His glory, to show mercy to whom He will show mercy. Moses said, Lord show me Your
glory. He said, I'm going to make all
my goodness pass before You. And I'm going to proclaim the
name of the Lord. And this is what he said, I will be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. God said that. I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. That's what the Apostle Paul,
I said that's God's glory. That's what he showed. And he
first said to Moses, as soon as Moses said, show me thy glory.
And when Paul was in Romans 9, And he said, the reason God elects
a people, the purpose of God according to election is so that
salvation will be of God and not of us. And he asked a question. He said, does that mean God's
unrighteous? And he said, God forbid. For
he said to Moses, and what Paul is saying is, God forbid it's
unrighteous. That's God's very glory. Because
he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
So far from it. It's not unrighteous at all for
God to just choose whom He will and be merciful to whom He will.
That's God's glory. That's His prerogative. God made
us man after His glory. And you have freedom to choose
and pass by others. You can choose one thing and
not choose another thing. God made everything. And God
owns everything. Cannot God choose whom He will
and pass by whom He will? We don't earn it, we don't deserve
it, and it's God's prerogative to do it as He will. As He will. Now consider God's mercy in this. He sent His only begotten Son. God wouldn't just have mercy
to a sinner and not deal with our sins. If He's going to withhold
your sin from you, your sin's got to go somewhere and it's
got to be dealt with by somebody. Because God's holy. We're just
saying it. Holy, holy, holy. God's holy. And that means God will by no
means clear the guilty. He's going to deal with sin.
When He has mercy, it doesn't mean He just forgets about the
person's sin. No, that sin's got to be dealt
with. Because God's holy. And we're guilty. Turn to Romans
5. And hold your place in Romans
5. We'll come back here. But look at Romans 5 right here.
And listen to this now. Do you know you're a vile wretch? That you're a vile sinner before
God? We can't describe sin in terms
to make it as despicable and as horrid as God sees us. Listen, we just can't do it. But listen to what God says here.
Verse 6, when we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yea, perventure for a good man
some would even dare to die. But God commended His love to
us. We weren't righteous and we weren't
even good. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now He chose a people and He
gave them to His Son and His Son came forth. His Son willingly agreed to redeem
these people knowing what we were, knowing what we would become,
knowing we would fall into sin and there would be a work to
be done and He knew what we were going to be. There's three words
here that describe us. That meant we were dead in sins
and there was nothing we could do to get ourselves out of sins,
to make ourselves righteous, or to commend ourselves to God.
We had no strength with God. And then there's a word here
describing us saying ungodly. Ungodly. We are unlike God. Even you sitting here who are
believers, in you there is a nature that you got from your father
Adam, that is everything God hates. It's totally unlike God. We have to walk around with it
all the time. It's with us all the time. We're,
in our nature, we're idolaters. We worshiped other gods, gods
of our imagination, the Jesus we had in our mind. And this
is how I think God is. And we had no idea how God is.
And the fact of the matter is, because we have that sin nature
with us, even as believers, we have way too many idols now.
We're murderers in our nature. That's what causes you to become
angry, unjustly, and say things that are mean and that you wouldn't
let anybody else hear you say. Whether it's just in your heart
or you actually say it. Murderers. Liars. Thieves. Covetous for everything
God hates. Covetous for things God hasn't
given us and is not going to give us. You could go on and on and on.
We're slanderers. We're just sinners is all we
are. We're ungodly by nature. And then he says here, sinners.
We think too lightly of that word. We say it all the time.
We hear it all the time. And we really think too lightly
of this word sinner. But that's what we are, especially
in reference to God. We're sinners. You and I eat,
sleep, dream, and breathe sin. I want you to understand this.
Every believer here, you've never done anything but sin. That's all. What I'm doing right
now, sitting here standing in front of you, I'm not cussing,
I'm not I'm not cheating anybody, I'm not lying, I'm not doing
anything that would outweigh a pure sin, and I'm sinning right
here in front of you. Enough to send me to hell if
it wasn't for God's mercy. Mercy. Now you think about your
worst enemy. Maybe there's somebody in the
past that just really, really, you remember a time when somebody
really offended you. They were just so offensive.
Now you would just try to imagine, now I'm trying to get you to
understand mercy. What would it take to send your
only child to die for that person? The mercy of God towards strengthless,
ungodly sinners like us, that's the way of God. That's the way
of God. To take somebody that despicable
and show them mercy. That's the way of God. He sent
His Son to bear God's wrath for worms like us. Now next time
you're offended, and I was preaching Sunday on that verse in 1 Peter
5 where Peter said, be sober, be vigilant, be steadfast in
the faith. And a lot of brethren and I have
been talking lately about how you hear the gospel preached
and your heart's on fire and you're comforted and you're strengthened.
And we've been saying, well, I wish I could just keep that
in the forefront all the time and remember that so that the
next time somebody crosses me and says something offensive,
whatever, I could just remember that and deal with them accordingly. That's what he means by be sober.
Be vigilant. It takes some effort. Be always
in the Word. Always hearing Christ speak in
the Word and in the Gospel. Have your mind set on Christ.
But now you think about this. Next time you come across somebody,
they don't do something quite like you like, or it's offending
you because of how they did this or that. Think this though. However it
offends you, I don't care if it's a brother, sister, or an
enemy. Think, I have offended God a
million times worse than this is offending me. And God had mercy on me. If I
can think that thought when I come across somebody that's offending
me and still go ahead and say whatever mean thing I'm about
to say or do whatever mean thing I'm about to do, that's a hard
heart. Because what this'll do is it'll
melt your heart. See, God's people should be... No, actually God's people are. They're
the most merciful, only merciful people on this earth. Because
we might fall into our flesh and we might say something we
shouldn't say, but God is going to make you hear this message.
And He's going to remind you of what He's done for you in
Christ. And He's going to melt that heart. He's going to subdue
that flesh. And He's going to make you. He's
going to bring to mind, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have
done that. And He'll make you want to be
merciful to that person. Think about what Christ said.
He said, if we won't show mercy to those that offend us, God
the Father won't show mercy to us. Now the only way he could
say that statement, and what that statement means is, God's
child's going to be merciful. They're going to be merciful.
Now there'll be times when we might not be merciful, but God's
going to bring you to yourself and remind you of what He's done
for you in Christ and the mercy He's shown you. And He's going
to make you be merciful. And all His people are going
to be forgiven by God. Because that's how He's going
to keep you being merciful. He's reminding you what Christ
did for you. That's the way of God's mercy.
Now secondly, look here at Psalm 67. Not only is God's way the
way of mercy. And when I think about that,
I think how could I not be merciful? There's been times I've not been
merciful. There's been times I got in my
flesh said things that, oh, I hate that I said, and did things I
hate I did to believers, to my brethren. And I hear the message
of God's way of mercy, and I think, how can I be anything but merciful? Nobody's ever offended me like
I've offended God. I'm so ashamed when I'm not merciful. But here's God's way as well,
it's the way of blessing. It's the way of blessing. Now
listen, He says, God be merciful to us and bless us. Now I want
you to, if you've ever been in a courtroom or ever been before
a judge, you know an earthly judge, they can be really strict
and really stern and they don't care anything but about the law.
They're not in the mercy business, they're in the law business.
But you imagine if you went before a judge and you owe the fine. You're guilty, you know you're
guilty. You owe a million dollars. Imagine going before this judge
and saying, your honor, I can't pay you. I have to just throw
myself on the mercy of the court. I have to have mercy. And lo
and behold, this judge says, okay, I'm gonna give you mercy. I'm not gonna charge you what
you owe. And then imagine asking that
same judge, and judge, while I'm at it, Would you put a million
dollars in my bank account? That's what they're asking. They're
saying, would you be merciful to me and not charge me with
my sin and forgive me of my sin and at the same time bless me
and make me righteous? That's what we ask God to do. And God did infinitely, eternally
more for His people than He put a million dollars in our account.
In Christ, God withheld from us the wrath that we deserve. That's mercy, withholding from
you what you deserve. He withheld that because He made
His Son to bear our sin and poured out that wrath on His Son in
our place. So He answered His justice. He's
satisfying His justice when He did that. But God not only showed
us mercy and withheld from us what we deserve, He gave us what
we didn't deserve. He gave us what we didn't earn.
Christ Jesus hung there on the cross loving God perfectly and
loving His people perfectly by bearing our sin and answering
God's justice for us and being forsaken by both. That's love. Man wants to fulfill
the law. Man wants to brag about his law
obedience. That's all you've got to do.
You've got to love God so supremely, and love your brethren so supremely,
that you lay down your life for God and your brethren, willing
to be forsaken by them. That's righteousness. That's
the love of the law. That's the righteousness of the
law. And that's what Christ did. Brethren, He's worth far more
than a million dollars, what He did for us. This is eternal,
never-ending righteousness that He gave us. And He's not just
treating you like that. When the Scripture says God was
in Christ reconciling us to Himself, not imputing our sins to us,
not imputing our trespasses to us. How could He not impute them
to us? He had to charge them to somebody. He had made Him sin for us. He made the spotless Lord Jesus
who knew no sin, sin for His people so that God could justly
charge Him with our sin and make Him a curse in place of us and
pour out that wrath on Him. And He did it that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. And He didn't just try
to do it, He did it. Imputation, by definition, is
the accounting of fact. That's what it means. If I said
to Kevin, I'm charging you with standing there looking at me
and frowning at me this whole time. I could charge him with
that all day, but that don't mean he's standing. I don't make
him stand by charging him with it. That's not what imputation
is. Imputation is accounting what
is a fact. about something that's already
happened. Christ made His people righteous by His obedience. And
for that reason, God says, I count you perfectly righteous. Because
it's a fact. It really happened. And He really
did it. And that's what His people are.
Oh, brethren, that's so much more. And more better than a
million dollars. That's everything. That's everything. Here's something else. This is
God's way. God's way is to smile upon you
who believe Him. When He brings His child to believe,
and it's God's smile of approval that brings us to believe. But
when He does this, He makes you know His smile of approval. The
countenance of His face that He approves of you in Christ
and for Christ's sake. Look at this, verse 1, God be
merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon
us. You know, if you've ever had
a father you respected, a grandfather, or a mentor that you had a lot
of respect for, and you always wanted to please them, it just
broke your heart if they frowned at you. But if they give you
that smile, then they've proven you. Man, that just, that's everything
to you. Listen to the psalmist over here
in Psalm 4. He says, there's many that say,
who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. And then he says in verse 7,
thou hast put gladness in my heart more than the time that
their corn and their wine increased. He's saying, Lord, the smile
of your approval, the smile of your countenance, the light of
your countenance has made me more joyful. and rejoice more
in my heart than this world's everything they rejoice in. And
isn't that so, believer? There is no peace like knowing
you have peace with God. Look back over there with me
at Romans 5 and look at this. As long as Christ sits at God's
right hand, and as long as God is pleased with His Son, Always. We are reconciled friends
to God. His people. So that now justice
is satisfied. We've been made the righteousness
of God. Our sins put away as far as the east is from the west.
And when God gives you an understanding in your heart, the Spirit of
God reveals Christ in you. And He brings you to cast all
your care on Christ. It's like God the Father pulling
you near and making that light shine in your heart to give you
that smile of approval so that you know, I have acceptance from
God. God doesn't consider me His enemy.
I'm His friend. Look here, if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His blood. And that's
the state for every believer here right now. As long as Christ
is seated at God's right hand, our living Redeemer, God's pleased
with Him. And God says of every one of
His believing children, well done, my good and faithful servant.
Because Christ brought that approval on us. Christ made God to have
that approval toward us. Now, the reason we enjoy that
smile of God's countenance And don't ever forget this. It's
because for three hours on the cross, our Redeemer, our substitute
bore the frown of God's face. That's what the darkness was
telling us. We don't know what took place
then, but it made Him cry out, My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? That was the frown. of God upon
sin. But because He bore that, and
He bore the hell that we deserve on that cross, that living death,
He bore that. He bore that frown of God's disapproval
so that now we're friends with God and we always have God's
smiling approval. Isn't that good news? Isn't that wonderful? He says,
Go tell my people, he says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth
your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her that
her warfare is accomplished. You know what our warfare was
against? It was against God. And God settled the warfare. He accomplished it. Our warfare
against the devil is accomplished. Our warfare against sin is accomplished.
Our warfare against our own sinful nature is accomplished for you
who believe. He's accomplished it, and He
says, now tell her that, and tell her that her iniquity's
pardoned. And she'll receive of the Lord's
hand double, or has received double for all her sins. We have
life eternal with God, perfect righteousness with God, a total
removal of our sins, holiness with God, acceptance with God,
that smiling approval of God. and it will never go away because
of Christ, our living Redeemer. He lived. Now, knowing all that,
the application ought to be real easy for us to understand. He
says here in verse 4, Oh, let the nations be glad and sing
for joy. Now here's why. Listen carefully. Because thou shalt judge the
people righteously and govern the nations upon the earth. Now
listen, knowing Christ satisfied justice for us on the cross.
He satisfied God's justice for us on the cross. We can't be
separated from Christ because justice is satisfied. And knowing
that, brethren, knowing Christ is risen and seated at God's
right hand and is governing everything in this world for His people. For His people. He's governing
everything in this world. Brethren, you can just rest easy
that He's doing it justly and He's doing it just for us. So
what that means, let me help you walk around with this. What
that means is, we were talking about offending and being offended. So let's use that. Let's say
that I have a brother or sister who's offended me. brother and
sister in Christ, or sister in Christ that's offended you. Before
I speak against them, this is one of those things we need to
try to keep, be sober, be vigilant, steadfast, keep this in the forefront. Remember that. Before I speak
against them, before I murmur against them, I need to remember,
that's God's child for whom He died. And you know what God's
doing for Him? You know what Christ is doing
for that child right now? He's governing everything in
this world. justly for that brother and that
sister. That one that's offending me
right now. He's governing everything for them. And so that ought to
make me think this. The same is true of you. If I'm
sitting there and I'm the one that's being offended, God's
in that brother, that sister, God's governing everything in
this world for them. And He's governing everything
in the world for me too. And before I say any ill word,
Before I murmur, before I do anything, I need to remember
Christ said this. He said, as much as you've done
it unto these, the least of my brethren, you have done it to
me. He's governing everything for
that brother. You know, I like to think about
this that he's doing it for me. And I'm going to talk about that
in just a minute. But first, I need to remember he's doing
that for this brother that's offended. And He will govern everything
for both of us. Even if I'm offended by what
He's doing or I think what He's doing is wrong, God's going to
govern both of us. He got the ability to do it.
I don't have to complain about Him. I don't have to complain
to Him. I don't have to try to be harsh
with Him and deal unjustly with Him. Because God's governing
everything that's happening in this world for that brother.
He's going to take care of him. He sent his son to die for him. And I tell you this, if you can
remember that about your brother or your sister, you'll remember
it about yourself. He's doing the same thing for
me. I don't have anything to be worried about. He's doing
the same thing for me. He's justly protecting and he's
justly correcting all his people in this world. Can God correct
you? If you're a believer and you've
been around very long, you know God can correct you. I mean, you get to thinking too
highly, and God can bring you down. He can govern providence,
He can use the Word together, and He can bring you into the
dust. And when He gets done, He always
makes you thank Him, don't He? It's the best thing that could
happen to you. Because when He turns us, He's turning us from
something that would destroy us and He's turning us to Christ
our salvation. And it's always good. It's always
good. I don't have to complain about
the weather. I don't have to complain about
the government. I don't have to complain about
the rioting in the street. God is governing everybody in
this world. And what's so amazing to this
worm is He's doing it for me. Brethren, He's doing that for
you. He's doing that for you. That devil walks about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. And God sometimes will use a
man to be that roaring lion to roar at you and to just say things
to you and use you spitefully and all of that. But we just
need to remember, that lion couldn't roar. if my just Redeemer wasn't governing
everything in the world to bring Him right here to roar at me.
I must need it. I must need Him to be roaring
at me. And we hear the things that people say to us when we
have a tendency to defend ourselves. That's not the way I am, this,
that, and the other. You know what we ought to do?
We ought to say, let me hear God talking to me. Maybe God
sent them to tell me, you think too much of yourself. And if we really start thinking
about whatever they said to us, we have to admit, they don't
know the worst of it. They can't see and hear. They
really hadn't said what they could say. But what I'm getting
at is, if that happens to us, that lion can't roar unless God
gives him permission. And he's governing that lion
just for me, and when he's accomplished his purpose with that lion, he
can put a hook in that lion's nose and turn him wherever so
ever he will. and deliver me from it. And that line is not
going to hurt me. Brother Bob just read it. We
know all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. And so therefore,
nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of
God in Christ. Nothing. And whatever is coming
our way, whatever is happening, I'm talking about if a leaf falls
off that tree out there. It didn't fall without God making
it fall. To the President of the United
States or whoever else you want to look at to be powerful, they
can't matter, I, without my governing judge governing it. And every bit of it somehow is
working together. He's working it together for
my good and for your good. But that brother did so-and-so.
Yeah. Yeah. You'll be doing it next. Isn't that right? Today, that
brother did so and I can't believe it. And tomorrow, we'll be a
whole lot more lenient with ourselves when we do the same thing. But God had mercy on him. God
blessed him in Christ. God smiles upon him with approval. And God's ruling everything justly
for him. And God's doing the same thing
for him. Has done the same thing and is doing the same thing.
Remember that. Like I said, I'm sitting right
there with you saying, Clay, remember this. The next time
I'm crossed and I feel that old sinful nature try to rear his
ugly head, God's doing everything. He's ruling this. And He's doing
it justly. He's doing it rightfully. He's
satisfied justice for me. He's not going to let me go.
But what He's going to end up doing is He works everything
in each trial. And by the Spirit of God, He
makes His child merciful because He's shown us mercy. He makes
us bless our enemy because He's blessed us when we were His enemy.
He makes us smile upon those that ordinarily we would have
frowned upon because God smiles upon us. And when He's done all
that, brethren, it's because He makes you remember God's ruling. All this happened for me. I try
to remember that. I got a friend down in North
Carolina. He had some terrible trials come his way. And he was
really down about it. And his brother reminded him.
He said, you know, the Scriptures only said God chastens those
he loves. And the next day he saw him and he said, how you
doing today? And he said, I'm just thinking about how much
God loves me. That's the way you face things
hard now. Just remember, oh, look at how much I'm suffering. God loves me. Look how much God
loves me. I pray that's a blessing. I hope
God will use it.