Thank you, Jeanette and John.
Go back to that psalm Brother John read. Thank you, John, for
reading, praying for us. I so love this psalm, don't you? So honoring to our Lord, comforting
to God's people, God's children. There are no requests in this
song. It's all just praise and honor
and glory to our Lord. David doesn't ask for anything.
It's almost like he says, I have so much, I don't need any more,
when he speaks of God's greatest blessings to him. This is written
by David to the children of Israel, but this is God's word to his
children. This is to God's people, those
that fear him. My father pointed this out when
he preached from this. He said that David was older
when he wrote this, and an older believer has a greater awareness
of God's mercy and grace, because that's all David talks about
through here, God's mercy and grace to him. An older believer
has a greater awareness and thoughtfulness and thankfulness for God's mercy
and grace. and a greater awareness of our
own weakness and sinfulness, how grateful we are that the
Lord has been merciful to us. As said, this is to those that fear
the Lord, it says that three times. We need to establish that. Look at verse 11. It says, The
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Verse 17,
the mercy of the Lord from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him. That is vital. And the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Psalm, Proverbs 9, 10,
this goes on to say, the knowledge of the holy. is understanding. Fear. What is fear? Well, it's
a profound sense, a sobering sense, a heartfelt sense of God's
holiness, of God's sovereign power, of God's omniscience. He's everywhere. He knows everything. Omnipresence. He's omnipotence. He's omniscience,
which should make us careful, respectful, reverent. And all
we do and say, especially concerning Him. Brother Ed read from Psalm
86 and in that he said, David said, Unite my heart to fear
thy name. What does that mean? It means
don't let me fear man and pretend to fear God. Unite my heart. Let me fear Him and Him only. That's what he said in Isaiah
8. Fear Him, let Him be your dread, not man. Fear Him, unite
my heart to fear Him. And this fear of the Lord regulates
all we do in the house of worship, the way we approach Him, how
we conduct ourselves here, the worship services, the singing,
the way we sing, the songs we sing, our prayers. house of worship,
and that's what we've come here to do, worship. Though joyful,
though happy, though very glad to be here, yet it's tempered
by a sense of fear and gratefulness and thankfulness
that the Lord has brought us here and whose presence we're
in. So this is for those who fear
the Lord. We never quit fearing the Lord. Never. As long as we're sinners,
we should fear the Lord. And there are many scriptures
that speak of it. It says, you that fear the Lord,
hate evil. That's what it said. You that
fear the Lord, hate evil. So this is to those that fear
the Lord. And look at all He says that the Lord doeth. Present
tense. Forgiveth. Healeth. Look at verse
3. He forgiveth all thine iniquities. First thing. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Can you bless the Lord who forgiveth
all thine iniquities? All of them. Past, present, and
many more to come. I hate that. We hate that, don't
we? But we're sinners. And He knows that. We're going
to get to that. He knows that. And he forgiveth all of them,
for Christ's sake. All of them. Forgiveth, forgiveth,
forgiveth. All thine iniquity, who healeth all thy diseases. Many of us have been sick in
many ways, spent many days in the hospital. Had one. You're
out. Aren't you, Teresa? You're out.
Why? Good doctors. And a great physician. Onslaught. He's the one that
healeth and healeth. We get sick. If He doesn't take
us to glory, He raises us up again and again and again and
again, doesn't He? He healeth all thine iniquities,
especially our spiritual diseases. We're all lepers. And He healeth
and healeth and healeth. We're all blind. Healeth, healeth. We're all deaf. He healeth, healeth.
And who redeemeth, verse 4, redeemeth thy life from destruction. He's
not going to destroy you. You're not going to destroy yourself.
Why? You're redeemed. Not with silver and gold, not
with your vain conversation and tradition, not with anything
you've ever done, but by the precious blood of the Lamb. You're
bought with a price that he's going to have what he paid for.
You're redeemed. Redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercy, crowneth
thee. And notice these, nearly every
blessing is spiritual. That's what Paul wrote in Ephesians
1, blessed of all spiritual blessings. In heavenly things or places,
it's all in Christ, because of Christ. Crown of thee with loving kindness
and tender mercy. That's what David prayed for
in Psalm 51. That's one of our favorite. It's
pretty much whatever psalm we're studying at the time is our favorite,
isn't it? With Psalm 51 especially, oh,
have mercy on me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness and the
multitude of thy tender mercy. David never quit asking for that
and never lost sight of how loving and kind and merciful the Lord
was to him in spite of him. For Christ's sake. Who satisfied
thy mouth with good things. Satisfied. Keep satisfying thy
mouth with good things. Good thing. Keep satisfying them. He said, open your mouth wide
and I'll fill it. And this is the mouth of the
soul right here on the side of your head. So that thy youth is renewed
like the eagles. Often we come in here crawling
like worms, we go out flying on the wings of eagles. The word
of the Lord. Lord, we mount up. on the wings
of His mercy and truth, His righteousness and peace. He made known His
ways unto Moses. How merciful, how gracious the
Lord is. He made known His ways, His acts
unto the children of Israel. Not just, not everybody. These things are hid from the
wise and prudent, but revealed to His people. He made known
His ways. What are His ways? Right here.
Right here. His acts. The greatness David
wrote so much about. His acts. His acts of mercy and
love and grace and kindness to his children. The Lord is. Now
he talks about what the Lord is. The Lord is merciful. The thing we need the most. That's
what he is. Aren't you glad? The Lord is
merciful and gracious. The Lord is gracious. I need
grace. A lot of grace. He's the God
of all grace. And He is gracious. He delights
to give that grace. And He doesn't upbraid you for
what you waste, which is about everything He gives. He's gracious. He's gracious. Gracious. Slow
to anger. Read the Psalms. How often they
provoked Him. How often we provoked Him. Over
and over again. But He's so merciful. He's so
gracious. He's so kind. He's slow to anger. Plenteous in mercy. He'll never
run out. And there's plenty to go around.
He will not always chide. Here's what He will not do. That's
what He is. This is what He will not do. Chide. That means reprove, rebuke,
correct, always. No? And I've told you so many
times, you read God's Word and the reproofs and the rebukes
and the corrections just convict us so, don't they? Just convict
us, convict us, and we get feeling so bad about ourselves, oh, what's
wrong with me? And I tell you, keep reading.
Just keep reading. And then the comfort will come.
Because it's only comfort to those who are convicted. To those
he rebukes, he comforts. Those who take it, those who
repent, he won't chide forever, neither will he keep his anger
forever. We're going to feel some anger. We have to. We have
to. He's a just God and he's a wise
father and a father knows children must, they must feel something
of his anger. He hath not, here's what he hath
not done. He hath not dealt with us. according
after our sins, has he? He had not. Nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. He hasn't given us what we deserve.
He hasn't dealt with us after our sin, and he hasn't given
us what our iniquities deserve, the wages we deserve. Why? Well,
he did deal with our sins. And someone was rewarded or took
the blame for what we did, and that someone was the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's the reason it says he removed the promise.
And here it is, verse 11. Here's our Lord's mercy. As the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. How high is the heaven above
the earth? How high? It's high. Incalculable. I say it right? Incalculable. Incalculable. You try it. You can't number
it. You can't measure it. You can't
measure it. It's higher than the earth, so
great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. They should never doubt His mercy. Look at this, verse 12. As far
as the east is from the west. How far is the east from the
west? Well, start heading east. Go on. Start heading east. You
know what? You'll never quit heading east. Well, go west then. That's as far as he's removed
our transgressions from us. That's how far. If you've never,
I'm not going to take it for granted everyone's seen this.
Leviticus 16. Go over to Leviticus 16. If you've
never seen this, Get ready to leap out of your pew. Leviticus
16, scapegoat? Oh my, Christ is our scapegoat. And let me just say this, the
fear of the Lord won't let you use terms like that that only
belong to Him. You know, people do that all
the time. They made so-and-so, he was their scapegoat. Don't
do that. This is a precious, blessed term. It only belongs to our Lord.
This is a high honor. This is a type, a symbol of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who indeed was our God's people, their scapegoat,
those that fear him. This is how he separated our
sins from us. Leviticus 16. Now, one of the
goats before this was killed, two goats, just like the two
birds in Leviticus 14. You remember that? a live bird
and a dead bird. One bird was killed, the other
bird was dipped in the blood of the dead bird. And with hyssop
and wood, scarlet, and he cleansed that leopard with that. Okay?
Well, this is similar. There was a goat that was killed,
the blood was taken for the atonement. Then the live goat, look at verse
20. The live goat, when Aaron made
an end of reconciling the holy place, the tabernacle, that is,
with the blood of the congregation, the altar. He shall bring the
live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all
the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions
and all their sins, putting them upon the head, the head of the
goat. And then shall send that goat
away by the hand of a fit man, an able man, a man that's able
to do this, into the wilderness. Send him into the wilderness.
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquity unto a
land not inhabited. Take that goat as far to the
east as you can take it, or west. Take it, a fit man that's able
to take that goat with the iniquities, the sins, the transgressions
confessed upon the head, and take it as far out as you can
walk. A fit man, able. And then let go that goat in
the wilderness. Deposit that goat somewhere with
the sins of God's people on its head. And fit man, you come back. Come back and leave that goat. Who is that? Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the goat and he's the man. He's the goat that died. He's
the goat that was forsaken. Why did the Lord use a goat?
He took a goat out in the wilderness, sin on it, and forsook it. Why
a goat? Because he cannot forsake a sheep. It's not possible. Christ was made sin for a goat. And he deposited the sins of
God's people. And they'll never be found. Old
Brother Jack Shanks, you know, I won't tell that. Brother Jack
Shanks preached on that. And in his low and slow Texas
straw, he said, and God ain't going goat hunting. That goat will never be found.
And neither will our sin. He said, their sin and iniquities,
I'll remember no more. They're gone. A fit man. Put him away. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Go back to our text now. That's how they were removed
from us. Now, here it is. As a father pitieth his children.
Verse 13 and 14. Oh, I love this. Don't you love
this? Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. We know with our brain. He remembers
that we are dust. As a father pitieth his children. It means sympathy. It means feeling. You have tender feelings for
it. It means to suffer with. Not
just think about, have a little, you know, some feeling, but to
enter into, to really feel the sufferings of another. Compassion
means that. You can have compassion over
someone that you've been through the same, or someone you love,
someone who you're one with, someone who is dear to you. Chapter
5, you can turn if you want, but James chapter 5, listen to
this. It says, be patient, establish
your hearts, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. And all of
this goes together. He says, grudge not one against
another, brethren, lest you be condemned. The judge stands at
the door. Now he's talking about pity.
He's going to talk about pity. If the Lord pities us, Now he says, take my brethren,
the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an
example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. We count them
happy which endure these things. I told you the story of Latimer
and Ridley going to the stake. Wasn't that one of them? Wasn't
that one of them? But they endured suffering, affliction,
and of patience. Behold, we count them happy.
You've heard of the patience of Job? You know what all the
Lord put upon Job? The Lord did. What all he went
through? Everything we could ever face
in this life. Job had it all pretty much at
the same time. Well, he goes on to say, have
you seen the end of Job? Did you read the end? Did you
read the last chapter? That's an example of keep reading.
Because it ends good, and so it will with us. And it goes
on to say, because the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Do you think the Lord took pleasure
in afflicting Job like that? Oh, no. Do you know who felt more for
Job when he was going through that than anybody? The Lord did. Have you ever, you've rebuked
your children, you've chastened your children, you've taken the
rod to your children, haven't you? And you said things like
this, this is going to hurt me worse than it hurts you. Haven't
you? I didn't believe it when my dad
was doing it. I didn't believe it for a minute. I did. I do now. I know now. One time
I came home and Mindy, you know, was home all day with Hannah
before she went to school. And I was over here studying.
Well, you know, she was disciplining her, disciplining, spanking her,
spanking her, and I walked in the door. Hey, honey, hello. And she came in and said, take
Hannah upstairs right now and spank her. I hadn't said hello yet. It just
killed me. But I had to. You think she turned
out all right? Anybody? Whom the Lord loveth,
He chastened." But it really... He doesn't even take pleasure
in the death, the affliction of the wicked. Nuh-uh. Yeah. Because He's pitiful. Pitiful. Shouldn't we be? While we're
close, look at 1 Peter 2. While we're close, 1 Peter chapter. Three. Look at this. While we're
here, look at this. Because, you know, those who
have been forgiven much ought to love much. Those who have
had great pity shown them should show great pity. Those who have
been forgiven much should be the most forgiven. How much mercy
has the Lord shown you? And you ought to be the most
merciful person. Look at verse 9, verse 8, 1 Peter 3, 8. Finally,
be of all. One mind, the mind of Christ,
having compassion one of another, love as brethren. My brothers
and I could get knocked down, drag out, fight. My parents didn't
approve of that. If we did, we both got a spanking,
no matter who was right or who was wrong. But he says, love
as brethren, be pitiful. That's the proper use of the
word. You know who we're most full
of pity for? Ourselves. And this is the last
person we should pity. We're also full of self-pity,
aren't we? And this is the last. This is
the fellow you ought to put the blame on all the time. Don't
spare him. Don't spare him a moment. Don't
have pity on him at all. Crucify him. Have pity on each
other. Be courteous or thoughtful. All
right, go back to our text. The Lord pitieth his children. Pity. I remember when my daughter was born and
granddaughters, the feelings I had for them and still do,
love. But the thing I think I felt
more than anything was pity. Pity. A little child. thinking
of what all they want to go through. Just the other day, we went to
Sophie's fifth grade graduation. And she's been in a very nice
school. It's just a very, very nice school. And the next one,
the middle school, is not so nice. It's okay. But it's, this
next one is kind of like a minimum security prison compared to Compared
to the previous one, grade school, elementary school. Wasn't it
fun? Wasn't elementary school just fun? But then there's, and
I started watching those kids, and they're all so happy. You
know, they're just, oh, just everything's good. They're smiling
for their cameras and all that. No guile and all that. And I,
I just, my heart welled up thinking what they're going to have to,
I wish they didn't have to grow. and go out in this, the Lord
called it this present-eve world. Don't you dread for them what
all they're going to see in here, what they're already seeing in
here. And get caught up in it and it's just gone, just gone.
If the Lord doesn't have mercy, it's just gone. Consumer. Pity. Pity. Pity. Our Lord wept at His friend Lazarus'
tomb. I can't help but think He wept
over what sin had done to us and sickness and sorrow and death. And He wept, I believe, at the
thought of bringing Lazarus back. Hebrews 2. Look at this. Hebrews
2. Here's how the Lord can have
such pity upon us. Here's how He knows our frame.
Hebrews 2. Don't you love this? Hebrews
2. He pities, He feels compassion, He knows our frame because He
took part of the same. Hebrews 2 verse 14, as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same. Read on. Through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death are all their lifetime subject
to bondage. The Lord knows our fear. fear
of death, not only for our loved ones, but for ourselves. He took
not on him the nature of angels, he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, and
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins
of the people. And in that he himself hath suffered
being tempted. You see, brethren, he was able
to resist Satan. That's why God sent him. He's
the second Adam. He's not going to fail. He's
the one that Satan had to report to in Job 1 and 2. He's the one. And he knew he
was going to defeat Satan. That's why he came. But Satan
tried him anyway. He had to. In all points, like
as we are. He knew. that there was nothing
in him for Satan to tempt. Nothing. And he handled him like a dog.
But we're not like that. We're not able. He knows that. He knows we're
no match for the God of this world. None. Not one of his assaults. And that's why he said, without
me, You can't do nothing. But if you call on Him, He said,
He's a very present help. He's able to succor them that
are tempted. Look at chapter 4. Chapter 4,
verse 12. Or verse, I've got to hurry,
verse 15. We have not a high priest that
cannot be touched for the field, but our infirmities was in all
points tempted, like as we are yet without sin. So come, bold
men. You see the connection? Come
boldly to the throne of God. Ask, you will see. Have not,
because you ask. Ask, Lord, help me. You'll help
you. Maintain mercy and grace to help
in time of need. Chapter 5, verse 2, one more.
He can have compassion on the ignorant, them that are out of
the way, for he himself was compassed with infirmity. He never did
anything to meet his own needs. He could have. You remember Satan
said, you're hungry, you've been hungry, you've gone without food
40 days, make these stones into bread. No, he didn't do that.
Why? Because we can't. Because the Lord, so he limited
himself. He's not going to do that. Why?
Because we can't. He's going to depend on somebody
else to feed him. And the angels came right after that and ministered
unto him. So, always touched. Back to our
text. The Lord pitieth them that fear
Him. Look at verse 14. He knoweth
our frame, because He had one. Flesh. What
is it? Flesh. What did our Lord say
about flesh? That which is flesh is what?
Flesh. It will never be anything but
flesh. He said the spirit is willing,
but flesh is willing. Paul wrote it in Romans 7. In
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. To dwell is present with me in
this new man, but I've got this old man of flesh that I can't
get rid of. And he's just a constant source
of trouble. He's tempted by everything. He
wants everything that is flesh. The Lord knows that. He had flesh. That's how He pities us. He knows. He remembers. He knows
our frank. He remembers where dust and ash
is. He knows our sinfulness. He knows that. He knows that
old man. And 2 Corinthians 4, 16 says the new man is restored,
David, but the old man is perishing. The new man. The new man is growing. The old man is He said this for
our comfort. He said, sin, that old man is
not going to have dominion over you. You're not under the law. Grace. His grace is sufficient. But what? But God said that. He will not have dominion over
you. No, no, no, no. Isn't that good news? He pities
them. He pities us. He knows our frame.
He knows our sinfulness. He knows our weakness. He knows
our weakness. He knows our inability. When
your children were real little, you didn't expect too much of
them, did you? Grandchildren? You think they
would try so hard? They'd just come up so short?
You didn't expect too much of them. Well, our Lord called His
disciples all the time. They were grown men. He called
them little children. Little children. He knew. He
knew. We shouldn't excuse ourselves
like that, should we? The older we get, shouldn't we
have more faith and more trust and be more merciful? Shouldn't
we? The older we get, shouldn't we? Their father's into faith,
they're young men, strong, ought to be strong to more export. When it's all said and done to
our Lord, we're nothing but His children. And he really doesn't expect
much out of flesh. He knows. Isn't that good news? He knows. And God accepts Christ
on our behalf. And he says he remembers our
frame. He knows our weakness. He knows,
he knows, he knows. He knows our mind, our heart.
He knows we're easily tempted, troubled, influenced. He knows
our fears, our doubts. He knows our worries. He knows
our bodily weaknesses. And some are more so than others.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, comfort
the feeble-minded and support the weak. Be patient toward all
men. That's what he tells us to do. Well, that's what he does.
The feeble-minded, who's that? Well, there's some people that
are feeble-minded from birth. They're never going to be any
way but that. Right? Psalm 116. He preserved it the
simple. Feeble-minded. I can comfort
people with those that have children down center and whatever. They're
going to be with the Lord. I'm just certain of that. Feeble-minded. Well, all right. But if we live
long enough, we're going to get feeble-minded. You know that?
We're going to forget. We're going to remember things
100 years ago but forget something that happened five minutes ago. Feeble-minded. We revert right
back to childhood, don't we? What do we get? Support the weak. Some weaken the faith. You know,
weakness in the faith is our fault. You know that? Desire the sincere
milk of the word, you may grow thereby. Right? Have not because
you have not. It's just such. Reap what you
sow. Sow to the flesh, you're going
to get flesh. Sow to the spirit, well you got it. Stronger faith. It's our fault. But he knows. He knows. Some people have been
under the gospel for years and still act like at times they
didn't, haven't heard a word. Oh yeah, he says, support the
weak. Keep supporting them. Keep telling
them. The Lord forgives. The Lord forgives. The Lord pities. My, my. Support the weak. He knows. He knows our ups, our downs,
our ins, our outs, our follies, our falls, our failures. He knows
our good intentions. He knows our bad intentions.
He knows our sins. And he pities them. He never forgets. We're just
dust. Let me close with these verses, because this follows.
As for man, his days are grass, flower of the field he flourisheth,
the wind passeth over it, and it's gone. And the place thereof
shall know it no more. This life is so fleeting. It's
like sleep. You wake up and it's over. We're
born to die, and it goes by that fast. Waiting to die. Sad existence,
except when we're worshiping the Lord, when we're thinking
about it. But it's sad, isn't it? And he knows our frame. He
knows there's things here that we enjoy, the relationships we
enjoy, the things we enjoy. He giveth us all things richly
to enjoy. And we enjoy these things. And
like little children, we say, and we enjoy people. We love
people. We want to hang on to them. We say, oh, can't I have
it just a little while longer? Can't I stay just a little while
longer? We're just like that, like little children. Why do
I have to go? Passed away. Yep. It's time. Everything is a time. But the
mercy of the Lord. Mercy. You just wait. We're all
going to be together in glory. And faith is going to give way
to sight. And hope is going to give way
to reality. And it's going to be so good. We're all going to
be at a loss for words for about 30 minutes. That's what the scriptures
say. For 30 minutes, everybody's just going to be... Just amazed. We see him, amazed
that we're there, and amazed that... What? Stupidity or something?
Oh, man. The Lord is so good. He's full
of pity. All right, stand with me. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your exceeding,
great, precious promises. Thank You for all You've done.
Thank You for all that You are. Thank You for all that You have
not done. Oh Lord, thank You. Thank You for dealing with Christ
on our behalf, sending Christ on our behalf. Thank You for
giving Him a body preparing him a body that he could live amongst
us and feel our infirmities and most of all to take our sins
like our scapegoat and take them away so we can be with you someday
forever. Thank you for Christ's sake.
Amen. You're dismissed.