That's good singing. Good singing. Thank you, Jeanette. Gave our
song leader a little break tonight. Thankful for our song leader,
aren't you? Brother David Edmondson does
not have a song leader. Brother Gabe Stonifer does not
have a song leader. I'm thankful for our song leader.
Very thankful. The other men, I believe, also
do not have one. So we're very thankful. We had
a good one years ago. And the Lord took him, but gave
us another. I'm thankful. Psalm 103. Oh, I don't know. It might be
my favorite. I have so many. I have 150 favorite psalms. I
started back reading through them again, as always. You do
too, don't you? I no sooner finish reading than
I start back through them. And they're always a blessing.
This one is so full, and I knew it would happen. I got through
verse 3, and I couldn't write fast enough. And I thought, what's
the hurry? No sense in hurrying. I got to
verse 3 that says, "...who forgiveth all thine iniquity." And that's the title, Fatherly
Forgiveness. The next part will be on Fatherly
Pity. because the Father pitied his
children. We're going to devote a good
deal of time to that, his pity, how the Lord pities his people. Great mercy and pity. And fatherly forgiveness. This
is forgiveness that only a father can show. Oh, my. Look at verse 1. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, with all that is within thee. Bless his
holy name. Bless the Lord. The word bless
means bend the knee, it means bow down, it means to bow in
humble adoration and praise. As I said, the one who's been
forgiven the most should bless him the most, should sing the
loudest. David said, all that is within me. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. When you read that, you say that
to yourself. Commune with your own heart.
Do you have reason to bless The Lord bowed the knee and praised
his holy name. Bless his holy name. His holy name. Holy means unlike
any other. When the Lord told Moses, I'm
going to make all my goodness pass before you. I'm going to
proclaim the name of the Lord. He proclaimed his name. He said,
I'm the Lord. The Lord God. Merciful. Gracious. Long-suffering. That's his name. abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands," that is, reserving
it. Anybody need mercy? There's some people we know that
don't know they need mercy. Well, the Lord's reserving it.
He's reserving it. Maybe it's for them. "...forgiving
iniquity, transgression, and sin." That's his name. Verse
2. Oh my soul, and forget not all
his benefit. Forget not. I'll turn over a
couple of pages. Psalm 106. You remember we did
a message on nevertheless. Nevertheless. Psalm 106, verse
7. Our fathers, verse 6, we have
sinned with our fathers. We've committed iniquity. We've
done just what they did, done wickedly. Our fathers understood
not thy wonders, O Esau." They couldn't really understand. They
remembered not the multitude of thy mercies that provoked
him at the sea, even the Red Sea, never the less. He saved
him for his name's sake. He saved him. Verse 13. They
soon forgot his works. They waited not for his counsel.
They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness. That's us in tempted
God in the desert, and he gave them their requests, but sent
leanness into their soul." We get like that. Leanness of soul. Fat of body, but leanness of
soul. Verse 21, they forget God, their Savior, which had done
great things in Egypt. Verse 45, though, says, and he
remembered for them. His covenant. Remember this statement,
what we can't seem to remember, His covenant, His word, He can't
forget. He can't forget it. And what
we can't forget, our sin, Scripture says, He can't remember. Bless
the Lord. Oh, my soul. So the first and
greatest, back in our tape, the first foremost and greatest benefit. Our Lord is our great, blessed
benefactor. The first and greatest, he mentions,
is verse 3, he forgiveth, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. All thine iniquities. Forgiveth all thine Iniquity
means inequity, or that is what you lack, how far short you come
up. All have sinned and come short,
far short of the glory of God. Scripture says if all the nations
were laid in the balances, they wouldn't weigh anything like
a dust. Inequity or iniquity is what's
wrong with us. In fact, you can't find anything
like this. Iniquity means all that we've
done against him and all that we have not done for him. Do you come far short? I do. It says he forgives it all. He's frankly forgives it all.
All of it. Our Lord said all manner of sin. And by the way, that's what he
said, Amen. He says, you'll be justified
from all things by the blood of Jesus Christ. Bless the Lord.
You've got any iniquities? Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. All that is within you, heart,
mind, soul, body, tongue, tonight, give your mind by now, give your
heart, give your all for the blessing of the Lord. forgiven
by the Christ crucified. Give it your all right now. Don't
draw near where he lives. Bless the Lord, O my soul, all
that is within me. He forgiveth all thine iniquities. Now, if you're guilty of a crime,
anybody in here ever been guilty of an actual crime and you feared
for your future? Well, to hear of pardon to stand
before a judge and hear, not guilty. Oh, my. That's great
mercy. What if you're guilty of many
crimes and you see no hope? And to hear that same judge say,
I frankly forgive you. Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you.
That's cause for rejoicing. Bless the Lord. Anybody guilty?
Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. If the Lord should
mark iniquity, who shall stand, but there is forgiveness at the
end. Blessed are you. Forgiveness
means much more than pardon. Forgiveness here means a complete
remission, a completely erasing all charges against you, never
to be brought up again. That means the slate is wiped
clean. The definition in the dictionary
is this, forgiveness is to cease to feel any resentment, to cancel
all debt, all liability, and be no longer guilty, not even
on probation. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And to truly forgive. And this
is God-like. This is only a father can do
this. To truly forgive means the offense is completely and
utterly forgotten. And it won't be wrote up again.
I think only a father's love can do that, a mother's. Oh,
but God's greater than that. He said, their sins and their
iniquities I will remember no more. No more. The iniquity of
Israel shall be sought, he said, and it won't be found. Why? Because
they're gone. Because Jesus Christ, God laid
on Him the iniquity of us all, all of these people. God laid
on Him the iniquity of us all. And down in verse 12 says, He
removed our transgressions from us, separated them as far as
is east from the west. Our Lord Jesus Christ paid it
all, and we're not on probation. They're gone. They're gone. He put them away. Verse 3 says,
Bless the Lord who healeth all thy diseases. Jehovah Rapha. The Lord that healeth thee. I'm
the Lord that healeth thee. We're born with leprosy. We're
born blind, aren't we? Blindness. Deafness. We all are
born with a hearing problem. We can't hear the Word of God.
We're all born lame. We can't walk by faith. Our feet
are swift to run to mischief. We're all born dumb. Our mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness. We can't praise the Lord. We
can't thank the Lord. We can talk with words of pride
about ourselves and not give God one word of thanks. That's
where we're born. God has to heal all these diseases.
The Lord is healing. Healing. Notice these verbs are
all present tense. Do you notice that? It doesn't
say He forgave. It says He forgiveth. No. Forgiveth and forgiveth and forgiveth. We're going to need forgiveness
tomorrow. Well, He forgiveth. His mercy is anew evermore. His
compassion is at bay. He forgiveth. He forgiveth. He
forgiveth. He healeth. He healeth. He healeth. Just when we think a sin is gone, Just when we think a certain
sin, sins of our youth are in remission, and the symptoms come
up. Some of you have had cancer,
and several of you have had cancer. And I don't know how long, five,
six, seven years, they say maybe after that, you know, it's in
total remission, it won't come back. Well, that's not what sin
is. No sooner you think it's gone,
I'm over that. And you start feeling the symptoms,
and it seems to come back stronger than ever. Oh my, we heal it. We heal it. We heal it. We're going to heal it tomorrow.
What heals? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son. That's why this preacher stands up and preaches Christ
crucified all the time. It's like a serpent on a pole.
The medical association, that's their emblem. A serpent on a
pole. How significant is that? We keep
preaching Christ because we need healing all the time. Verse 4, who redeemeth thy life
from destruction. Go to Isaiah 52 with me. The
only other place in the Psalms I'll have you turn. We'll look
at several Psalms. I asked this question a few weeks
back. Can a wasted life be redeemed? Someone has completely wasted
their life, their substance. Can it be redeemed? Can it start
all over again with a clean slate as if nothing ever happened? Maybe not with man, but with
God. Oh yeah. Isaiah 52, look at verse
3. Thus saith the Lord, you have
sold yourselves for naught. Pleasure, things, you shall be
redeemed with that money." Come, with that money, with that practice.
Look at Isaiah 54, verse 4. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed, neither be thou confounded. For thou shalt not be put to
shame, thou shalt forget the shame about you. shall not remember
the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy maker is thy
husband, the Lord of hosts." Remember one place he said, I'll
never give you a bill of divorce, like Hosea with Gomer. She left
him and played the harlot, and he never left her. And he kept
feeding her and taking care of her, and he wooed her back then. Verse 5, thy maker is thy husband.
The Lord of hosts is his name, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of the whole earth. shall he be called. For
the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and grieved
in spirit, and a wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith
thy God. For a small moment hath I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer."
who redeemeth thy life from destruction." You know what? Every one of us
are one sin away from destroying ourselves. Every one of us are one sin away
from destroying ourselves, our family, our testimony, this church, but God. Oh my, I thank God for restraining
grace as well as keeping grace. He crowneth thee, verse 5 in
our text, with loving kindness and tender mercy. He crowneth
thee. I was going to have you turn to Ezekiel 16, and I'll
turn for you. Many of you know this story and
love it well. If you've never heard it, I need
to preach it again. The story of a child thrown out
in the field for the loathing of its person. Nobody wanted
it. It was in the field in its blood. And the Lord said, When
I passed by, I saw thee polluted in thine own blood. I said unto
thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
When thou wast in thy blood, live. He went on to say, I passed
by thee, and looked upon thee, and behold, thy time, it was
your time, and it was the time of none. See, I spread my skirt
over him. I covered your nakedness, I swore
unto thee, I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God,
and you became mine. He said, I washed you, I washed
you thoroughly from thy blood, I anointed thee with oil, I clothed
thee with broidered work. shod thee with badger skin, I
girded thee with fine linen, I covered thee with silk, I decked
thee with ornaments, I put bracelets upon thy hand, a chain on thy
neck, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thy
ear, and a beautiful crown upon thy hand." He crowned thee with
loving kindness. And when it's all over, our Zerubbabel,
who laid the foundation, is going to lay the topmost stone. for
this temple when all the children are brought into the fold, with
shouts of grace, grace unto him. He's going to crown it all with
love and kindness and tender mercy. Don't you like the sound
of that word? Tender. Tender mercies. Oh, my. James said the Lord is
of great mercy and tender. Tender mercy and very pitiful. Tender mercy. Tender means he's
touched. He's touched for the feeling
of our heart. Tender means he's touchable. Tender means soft-hearted. Soft-hearted. Bless the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. And again,
I say, rejoice. Great and tender mercy. Verse
5, he says, he's satisfied thy mouth with good things. Satisfied
thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagle. Psalm 119. Psalm 119. This is much more than food that
we bless the Lord for. We do it. Aren't you ashamed
how you go through the motions of giving thanks before a meal?
Aren't you ashamed? We do it as a ritual. Too often. We do it because we have to.
Too often. No. The Lord daily gives us our
daily bread. And we've got cupboards full. Frigerators full enough. Enough
to last us all night. And daily loatheth us with these
things. Satisfeth our mouth with good
things. And I do bless the Lord for all
His provisions. Everything declares His glory.
Nothing more so than the food that He gives us. Fruit. Beautiful fruit. All the varieties
of it. Vegetables, nuts, and grains.
You ladies prepared a veritable feast on Sunday night. I told someone that Solomon may
have had more food, but it sure wasn't better. Solomon didn't
have ham on his table. It was good. It was very good. Our Lord is talking about something
other than, David is talking about something other than just
food. Look at Psalm 119, 103. 119,
103. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste. Yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. He said one time, he said, open
your mouth wide. I'll feel it. You come hungry
and thirsty, he says, open up. I'll feel it. Ezekiel, he told
this to Ezekiel. Son of man, take this robe. Speak
another word. So I opened my mouth. And he
caused me to eat the roll. And he said, son of man, it costs
thy belly to eat. Take it down deep. Fill your
bowels with this roll that I give thee. He said, I did. I ate it.
And he said, it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. Sweet as honey. Do you not read this word sometimes,
hear this word? I hope you're hearing it now
with a sweet savor. I hope so. If not, you're probably
not hungry. Hunger is the thing that makes
food taste so good. My wife has been preparing the
same food for me for years. Same food for you. I never get
tired of it. She's a good cook. But the thing
that makes it so good is hunger. And she apologized, like all
you women there. Well, she quit doing that. We're
not worthy of cardboard, burnt toast. We're not worthy of it.
But these women, they complain. Oh, I should have burnt the beans. They need salt or something like
that. But if you're hungry, that's the best I've ever eaten. If you're a sinner, and you're
hungry for mercy and grace, and a man just stands up and says,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleansed us, you'll say it's
the best message I've ever heard. When you first heard this, and
the Lord first gave you a hunger and a thirst for it, every message
was the best. Every message succeeds in the
next. It can't get any better than this. The next one is. Well,
it might not be, but it is to you because you're hungry and
it tastes good. He satisfied my mouth, your mouth,
our mouths with good things, so that thy youth is removed
like the eagle. How often do you come in here
dragging, come in here feeling old? Old and tired. Anybody come in here feeling
old and tired? I know you do on Sundays. I mean, on Wednesday,
come in here feeling old and tired, and if the Lord blesses
you, you go away feeling young. Young and lively. Come in here
dragging, fly out of here sometimes, if the Lord blesses you. You
and I standing out there with Brother Kelly on the porch after
Sunday morning message, and Bonnie standing there floating out the
door. She was floating. Kelly was there, she leaped off
the stoop, just leaped. Who thought she was going to
leap into our arms? Leaped, like a young cheerleader. The Word blessed her. David one
time said, by thee, by my God, I've run through a troop and
leaped over a wall. I told her, I said, one of these
days you're going to leap, we're going to have a revival. Oh, the Lord satisfied us with
good things, His good word, His good truth, His goodness, His
mercy, His grace. Look at this, verse 6. The Lord
executed righteousness, worked it out, righteousness and judgment
for all that are oppressed. All that are oppressed come every
soul by sin oppressed. There's mercy with the Lord. And He will surely give you rest
now, trusting in His Word. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now. He executed righteous and judgment
for all that are oppressed. Oppressed by sin. Oppressed by
Satan. Oppressed by the world. He executed. He worked with that. Our Lord
Jesus Christ came to this earth to save guilty sinners. He came
to this earth to redeem, to pardon, to marry guilty, forlorn women. That's who he came for. This is for the oppressed. This
gospel is for the oppressed by sin and Satan at work. There's
an inscription below the Statue of Liberty. When this nation,
its independence was formed, not too long afterward, France
gave this statue, someone made a statue, and called it the Statue
of Liberty, entering into the harbor there in New York. And
there's an inscription at the base of that statue which better
fits the Lord Jesus Christ, not some idol standing there. It
says that, and incidentally, ironically, it was written, the
poem was written by a woman whose last name was Lazarus. But it
says that, here's what the plaque said. Give me your tired, give
me your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The
wretched refuge of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,
the tempest-tossed, send them to me. Oh, that idol can't do anything
for anyone, neither can this nation. But Christ said, come
unto me and I'll give you rest. I'll give you liberty. Executed
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed with liberty
and justice for all. I pledge allegiance not to a
flag, but to Jehovah. the Lord our banner, don't you? And to his kingdom for which
he stood, one nation, indivisible, under God indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all. Yes, the Lord executed this.
He did this. He wrought this, didn't he? Our
independence, our freedom. He says he made known his ways
unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. You go to
Psalm 147, and I'll read to you Psalm 19. It says in Psalm 19,
I love this, Nancy loves this. The heavens declare the glory
of God, the firmament shows his handiwork, day unto day others
speak, night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech
or language where the voice of his marvelous creation is heard."
Then in verse 7 it says, "...the law of the Lord, the word of
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the
Lord, the gospel is sure and certain, making wise the The
statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment
of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eye. The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. Yea, more to be desired than
gold, and much fine gold, sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb." Yes, the Lord made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts, unto the Children of Israel, look
at Psalm 147, verse 1. It says, Praise ye the Lord. It's good to sing praises unto
our gods. Pleasant. Praises comely. us, the Lord doth build up Jerusalem,
he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel, he healeth the broken
in heart, bindeth up their wounds." Look at verse 11, "...the Lord
taketh pleasure in them that fear him, and those that hope
in his mercy." That was Curtis Hooker Stanley's funeral text. "...the Lord taketh pleasure
and those that fear him, and those that hope in his mercy,
and he saith the best for last, verse 19, he showeth his word
unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgment unto Israel. He
hath not dealt so with any nation. As for his judgment, they have
not done it. But we do, don't we? Praise the Lord. Do you understand the truth?
Do you have the truth? Do you believe the truth? Do
you understand the truth? Bless the Lord. That's his greatest
blessing in forgiveness of sin. Back in our text, here's his
ways. He's made known his ways, his
acts. Here he is, verse 8, the Lord's
ways. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is merciful,
full of mercy. The thing I need the most is
for life. I will never run out. It endureth
forever. He's gracious. He giveth and
giveth and giveth again. More grace. He giveth. He said,
open your mouth. Now feel it. How much mercy do
you need? How much grace? Slow to anger. Here's his ways. Brethren, let
me tell you this. His way, he's setting his ways.
We say that about somebody on earth and we usually mean it
the bad way. But I'm here to tell you in a good way. The Lord
is set in his way. He's merciful. He's gracious.
He's slow to anger. Slow to anger. I was going to
have you turn to Psalm 106, 107. You've read it. Read it again.
It talks about how many times they did provoke him. How many
times we did provoke him. And he said he was angry. He
did get angry. He had a right to be angry. He
ought to be angry. He ought to be more angry than he is. Shouldn't
he? But he's slow to anger. Slow
to anger. I do want to read you this. Psalm
78. This is wonderful. Psalm 78. Listen to this. Psalm 78, verse
37. Their heart was not right with
him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant. But he, being
full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not.
Yet many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir
up all his wrath, for he remembered they were just flesh, a wind
that passeth away and cometh not again." Oh, he's plenteous in mercy,
slow to anger. David in Psalm 77, and he reads
this, you don't have to turn. I had a good time turning to
this song. Listen to this message again,
okay? And turn to the Scripture. David said, In the day of my
trouble I sought the Lord, and my soul ran in the night and
ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God when I was troubled. I complained. You have my eyes
waking. I'm so troubled I can't speak.
I consider the days of old. I call remembrance my song of
the night. I commune with my heart. And he says, will the
Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more?
David was thinking of his own sinfulness. He said, is his mercy clean,
gone forever? You ever felt that way? No more
mercy. Well, here it says he's plenteous
in mercy. You go to the ocean. We just came back from there.
You go to the ocean, you take your glass of water. I mean a
glass, an empty glass. And you go down there and you
dip it. Okay? Every day you go down there and
dip a glass of water. For a hundred years. A thousand
years. Ten thousand years. Ten thousand
lifetimes. You don't even know you've taken
any water out of that ocean. It's so full. That's just mercy. That's his mercy. Can you empty
the ocean? No. Is his mercy clean gone? David said, there surely is no
more left for me. David. Wake up in the morning
and you'll find it. Oh, the Lord is plenteous in
mercy, great of mercy. Verse 9, he will not always try
it, neither will it keep his anger forever. I do want you
to turn to Hebrews 12. A little bit longer, okay? This
is good. Hebrews 12. This is real good. He will not always chide or keep
his anger forever, but he does chide or chasten. And he does
get angry with his people. And they're going to feel it.
They need to feel it. Don't they? Don't we? We need
to feel it. He will not always chide. The
word chide has something to do with laying hold of, seeking. Grabbing hold of... Has your
father ever grabbed hold of you when you were doing something
wrong? Did he, Mike? He scared you, didn't he? I had a good father. It didn't
happen very often, but buddy, when he did, I knew I had done
something bad. And he meant business. But I
knew he wasn't going to kill me. He wasn't going to kill me. While
he was whipping me or spanking me, I thought he was. But no,
he wasn't even close. Never drew blood. I haven't been striving under
blood against sin, have you? Oh, no. But listen to this. Hebrews
12, verse 5. You've forgotten verse 4, what
I just You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
truth. My son, despise not thou the chastening, the chiding of
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth." Every son. If you endure chastening, if
the Lord chastens you, God dealeth with you as with sons if he lays
hold of you. What son is he whom the Lord
and the Father chastened, if not?" Huh? If you be without it, you're
bastards. Not son, verse 9. Furthermore, we had fathers of
our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence, didn't
we? We knew that they loved us. How shall we not much rather
be in subjection to the Father of Spirits, at least? They barely
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. has seen
good to them, and maybe they were wrong. If you had more than
one sibling, I mean, if your father and mother had more than
one, often when one did something and nobody would take the blame,
did they ever say to you, all right, line up all of them, we'll
spank all of them. Did they ever do that? Well, that's wrong,
isn't it? But believe me, the other three had it coming. They
were guilty of something. Right? Right, John? Guilty of
something. Well, the Lord doesn't do that.
No, no. It's perfect. Perfect judgment. Did you ever do that, Stephen?
Line them all up. How do you do it? Quack, quack,
quack, quack, quack. Somebody's guilty of something,
especially if they're for us. Well, the Lord doesn't do that. He chastens after his wisdom. And in verse 10 it says, he for
our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness, no chastening
joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yields a peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised therewith. So lift up your hand and hang
down the feeble day. The Lord is chastening me. Oh,
the Lord is chastening me. Good. Good. He wasn't, and then you're
leaving him alone. And you don't want to leave him
alone. All right, our text says, verse
10, he hath not dealt with us after our sin. Oh my, we've read some chastening
all right, but nothing like we deserve. He hath not dealt with
us after our sin. I'll tell you why. Because he
did deal with somebody after our sin. He laid on Christ, the
only obedient son, the good son, like Joseph, remember, thrown
in the pit? Our Lord was crucified. Innocence
of any transgression, but God laid on him the iniquity of us
all by his stripes, the chastisement, the chastening necessary for
our peace with God, the punishment our sins deserve. God laid on
him, and by his stripes. Not one stripe laid across our
back, but all of them laid on him. And the rod of correction,
of wrath, broke. He took our weapon. He hath not
dealt with us after our sin, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. In fact, he's rewarded us according
to Christ's righteousness. Christ took the blame, we got
the credit. Verse 11, as the heaven is high
above the earth. So great is His mercy toward
them that fear Him. I used to quote Isaiah 55 wrongly,
or didn't really understand it, when it talked about, My thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith
the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
My ways higher than your ways. My thoughts and your thoughts.
I always just applied that to His greatness. superior being and person that's
talking about is mercy. That is mercy. We show a little
mercy. Thank God He's made us somewhat
merciful. But, I cose you read, God's not a man, and His mercy
is higher than the heavens. He shows mercy to people. We
wouldn't show mercy to Him. I wouldn't show mercy to me. He did. Mercy is higher than
the heavens. It's great toward them that fear
Him. Did you notice when we read this
how many times it said that? They fear Him. That's why God's
love and God's forgiveness and God's mercy and God's grace and
God's salvation is not for everybody. It's not for everybody. But everybody
doesn't fear Him. Few people fear Him. The transgression
of the wicked everywhere, it says, within my heart there's
no fear of God. The way people take his name
in vain, the way they give him no thought, give him no thanks,
curse his name, tells me they don't fear God. Religion is the
worst. It tells me they don't fear God.
God doesn't love them. No, no. But he loves those that
fear him. Do you fear God? We don't fear God as we should.
No, I do fear Him. There was a time when I didn't
fear Him. To fear God is to hear Him. The fear of God is to hear Him
and to obey Him. I heard you, Lord. Habakkuk in
his prayer, Habakkuk said, Lord, I heard you speak. I was afraid.
Revive your world in the midst of the earth. And wrath, remember,
mercy. Didn't it? Habakkuk said, I heard
you. I was afraid. When we hear this
Word and we know we're guilty, it makes us afraid. The fear of Him is to hear Him
and to obey Him. Have you heard His voice? There's
an old Western. I've got to tell you this, because
it makes an impression on me. I like old Westerns. Some of
you do, too. One of my favorites is probably the big country.
Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Chuck Connor, all
in this one Western. 1958, big country. Well, Burl
Ives was a big land baron, OK? Was it Joseph Cotton, the other
man? He was a big land baron. And Gregory Peck fell in love
with this woman that Burl Ives' son fell in love with. Chuck
Connors, Burl's son. And they both fell in love with
the same woman. Well, they want to have a duel. Okay? They want to have a duel. And Burl Ives, Chuck Connors
was a bad son. He was a bad son. And he said,
I said, my son, I'm telling you right now, five-third. You remember? He said, I'm telling you right
now, five-third. Okay, so they lined up at this
duel. And they started pacing. Well, Chuck Conner, that bad
son, turned around and was going to shoot Gregory Peck in the
back. And his father took a gun and nailed him. Shot him dead. Shot his own son dead. And he
went down there and gathered his body and his arms, his dead
body and his arms. He said, I told you, and you
wouldn't listen. I told you, and you just wouldn't
listen. The mercy of the Lord. There
is forgiveness with thee. Can anybody quote the rest of
it? That Thou mightest be feared. When the Lord told that woman
caught In adultery, he said, where are thine accusers? Doth
no man condemn thee? No man, Lord. He said, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Don't do it again. What happens if you do? There is forgiveness at hand.
We repent. Does it fear the Lord? Come back
again. Come again. He brings us back. And there is forgiveness. As
the heaven is high above the earth, verse 12, as far as the
east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. One more scripture. I'll save
the best for last. Leviticus 16. Anybody know what's
there? Leviticus 16. People use this term, he's a
scapegoat. Don't ever let that come out
of your mouth. Okay? Don't ever call anybody a scapegoat,
because that's a blessed term reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in Him, principle. All
right? So far as the East is from the
West, so far hath He removed our sins from us. Leviticus 16,
the Lord told Moses to get two goats. Two goats. Kill one of those goats, take
the blood offered on the altar, and take the other goat, the
live goat, verse 20, when he's made an end of reconciling the
holy place, that is, with the blood of the other, and the tabernacle
and the congregation and the altar, bring the live goats.
Now, Jesus Christ is all these things. He's the priest, he's
the live goat, he's the goat, and he's the man. Verse 21, 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 in all their sins, putting them
upon the head of the goat, and send him away, send that goat
away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the
goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land
not inhabited, and he shall let go of the goats in the wilderness."
with the sins of all of God's people, get a fit man, a man
that's able to go a long ways with that goat so that that goat
will never return again. Take him out of the wilderness
and turn him loose and have that man come back and tell us, is
he coming back? No, sir. He's gone for good. That's what the Lord has done
with our sins. When he by himself purged our sins, How far did
he go? Went through hell and deposited
our sin. He's coming back again without
sin. Without sin. Coming back the second time without
sin. Because, see, that fit man that
took it away. And old brother Jack Shanks,
one of the last messages I ever heard him preach was on here.
He said, in that old, slow Texas drawl, he said, And God ain't
going to doubt it. Amen.