When I was lost in sin and shame
How Thou let me take the blame Blessed Lord, how beautiful Thou
was to me When I could look down deep within See the simple message
here, Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
merciful, how merciful, how heartening. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
Thou merciful, blessed Lord, Thou merciful, Thou art to be. A sinner lost and so helpless
Yet Thou say'st, I must repent Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me I wonder why should I rebel When the soul of each
hurting hell Blessed Lord, Thou merciful, Thou unto me. Oh, Thou merciful, Thou merciful,
Blessed Lord, Thou merciful, Thou unto me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful, how hard to leave. I'm not ashamed of all Thy grace. when you came and took my place. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. When this world ceases to be,
eternal love will speak for me. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. O Thou merciful, Thou merciful,
Blessed Lord, Thou merciful, Thou art to me. O how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. That was written by a man named
Ed Hale, a preacher in Louisiana. He passed away many years ago,
and I believe Gabe, you told me that he taught you your first
guitar chords. He was just a boy, and Gabe was
just a boy. I remember him singing that song in one of the Bible
conferences years and years ago. Ed Hale. How merciful. If we sing of his mercy, it will
be from the top of our lungs and the bottom of our heart,
because we will really understand then just how merciful. The word mercy means kindness,
how kind, the great kindness of our Lord, of our God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, and the
greatest kindness or mercy of God. I hope we're going to see
that this morning, that his great mercy is if we hear this gospel,
if he calls us by this gospel. The Lord has been infinitely
and eternally merciful to you, to us, if he's called us by his
gospel. It begins in Isaiah 55, hope. Hope. I thought about an introduction. I looked at this chapter for
probably two hours before writing down any words. An introduction,
you know, is an important part of a message. And I thought of
an introduction, and I was at a loss for words after nearly
two hours. A loss for words. But our Lord
gets our attention with one word. That means stop. Stand still. We're all so busy. We're all
in such a hurry. The Lord, by His mercy and by
His grace, stops us and brings us in here and sits us down before
His Word. We're here hearing the Word of
God. You're going to hear nothing but the Word of God this morning. Few do that have that. You know
that? We take that for granted. Stop. Stop. Stand still. Listen. Everyone. Everyone. Who is this to? Well, everyone, but specifically,
everyone that thirsteth. Everyone that thirsteth. That's
who this is to. Revelation 22, 17, that Brother
Gabe preached from recently. Huh? Come to the wild sphere,
and your bride say come. Let him that is a thirst come. Oh, every one that thirsteth. What a blessing it is to be thirsty. It's a sign of life. Our Lord
said that. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. What's righteousness? Well, it's
everything that has to do with God. That's what righteousness
is. Everything that has to do with
God, Christ, life, spiritual life. Blessed are they, the natural
man doesn't have this hunger and thirst. It's repulsive to
him. Oh, how blessed if you have a
thirst, a thirst. Someone walked up to me after
Wednesday night's message and said, I was reminded again just
how badly I need this. Well, that need is not of yourself. That's a gift of God. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst. People thirst after the water
of this world, don't they? Like that woman at the well.
And what the Lord is doing here, what the Lord does through His
word in this passage is, call His people. He calls, He said,
My sheep hear My voice. I know it's written words. I
know it goes forth through a man. But He said, nonetheless, that
My sheep will hear My voice. They will. They'll hear My voice,
though it's written, though it's through a man. They will hear
my voice, me speak to them. How? Through his word. And this
is how he calls his sheep out. This is how he calls his people.
This is how you know you're one of his elect. He says, give diligence
to make your calling and election. Sure. God has an elect people.
He has a sheep. Every one of them are going to
be called out by our gospel. And how you know your call, your
election. How you know your election is,
you hear the call. And you come. And the first thing
he does in this call is create a thirst. Like in John chapter
7. You know this story. Some of
you really know this story. John chapter 4, the woman at
the well. John chapter 4, the woman at
the well. The Lord, the first thing He did was create a thirst
in her. A thirst in her. She came to
get the water from that well, but the Lord said, this water
will leave you thirsty again. The water I give will be wells
of water springing up unto everlasting life. She said, sir, that sounds
good to me. Give me that water that I thirst
not, that I don't have to come to this well anymore. And he
did. And what was it? It's not a lot. It's a person. It was Him. She never did get a drop of water
out of that well. She had water put in her. The water of life. Christ Himself. But in John chapter 7, who is
calling here? Who is speaking here in Isaiah?
The same one? We heard this on the radio, didn't
we? The same one that in the beginning said this? Verse 37
of John 7, In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
me. That's who's speaking. And so
he says here in Isaiah 55, Come, he that hath no money, come to
the waters. Christ is the water of life.
He that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come. Come
without price, without money, without price, free. Salvation
is a gift. You can't earn it. We sing that
song. In my hands no price I bring. Come ye sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Come. Come without money, without price. Not the righteous, but sinners
he came for. Don't come. Don't bring anything.
Don't bring your works. Don't bring your worths. Don't
bring your deeds. Don't bring anything. Come without
money, without price. Buy and eat. Buy these wonderful
things. Wine. Scripture talks about wine
that makeeth glad the heart of man. That's not talking about just a physical liquid, but that's
talking about the wine of Christ's blood that makes glad the heart
of a guilty sinner. That's the only thing that will
give peace. The wine of His blood. And milk.
Milk. Milk. Those things will go out
in a draft, won't they? Milk. But he's talking about
the sincere milk of the Word. Sincere milk of the Word. As
newborn babes, if you desire the sincere milk of the Word,
oh, blessed are you. Come. Come. It's free. It's free. Without money. Without price.
Verse 2, he says, Why do you spend? Wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread? Our Lord said in His prayer,
He told us to Pray this way, give us this day our daily bread. The two things that we need to
live are food and raiment, right? Food and raiment. Bread and raiment. Bread. He tells us to ask the
Father to give us these things. Bread and raiment. Give us this day our daily bread. But it's talking about something
much more than bread. Did not Christ say, I am the
bread? I am the bread. He says, why do you spend money?
Why do you spend your substance and everything for that which
is not bread? Not bread. Surely he's talking
about how that we spend on so much frivolous and superfluous
things, but not on the things just that we need. But he's talking
about much more than that. He's talking about how we spend
our substance on that which is not the one thing needful. That's Christ, the bread. Why? Verse 2, he says, "...and your
labor for that which satisfieth not." Labor, work hard, don't
we? We work hard for what? Solomon
said everything. Everything in this world, he
tried it. The Lord had him experiment with everything. The Lord had
him do that in order to write it down for us from experience. Anything and everything that
a person could go through and have in this life, he had it
and tried it, Solomon. What did he conclude? What did
the Lord have him write down about everything? Vanity of vanities. All flesh is vanity. That means it doesn't satisfy. That's what that means. We need
to write that down on everything. Write it on everything. Satisfy
not. Satisfy not. There's a passage in Ecclesiastes
that says the eye is never satisfied with seeing. It's never enough.
The ear with hearing and so forth. It's satisfied not. Nothing is
as good as it looks. Nothing is as good as it sounds. Nothing is as good as it tastes. Nothing is as good as it feels. Satisfied not. Why? That's it. The labor. And that's
especially true of religion. It satisfies not. How many in here were in religion
without Christ? Religion without Christ. It satisfies
not. It's the husks. How many were
under the sound of false doctrine or just doctrine. It's satisfied not. He says this
in verse 2, hearken diligently unto me. Hearken diligently unto
me. Our Lord and our God says, listen
to me. Listen carefully to me. There's
so many voices out there today. So many talkers. We're living
in an age of talkers. Everybody's got something to
say. And few have anything worth hearing. The Lord says, hearken
diligently unto Me. Me. Unto Him. Many books aren't there. The
making of books, there's no end. There's a book on every subject. And when it comes right down
to it, there is one book. You know what this book is called? Biblia. That's the book. The book. We could effectively
throw away every book, but this one. If any book has anything
worth reading in it, it came from the book. Mark that down. Mark that down. Read verse 2.
He says, eat hearken diligently unto me. Don't listen to these
other boys. Unto me. And eat that which is
good. This is good. Let your soul delight
itself in fatness. Soul delight. This is what's
good for you. This is for your soul. People,
listen to me. Stop buying those books on chickens,
something or other for the soul. Stop it. Don't buy those anymore.
This is for the soul. Our Lord said, all souls are
mine. And He says, listen to me carefully. This is for your soul. You want
to call it chicken soup? Fine, but it's much more than
that. This is the Word of God. And this and this only will do
your soul good. There may be some moral lessons.
There may be some good things in those books. But like I said,
if it has any good in it, it came from here. It came from
here. This is, this is, Moses, the
Lord told Moses to say this, these are not vain words. This is your life. These are
words of life. We will not only live by them,
Be made alive by Him, quickened by Him, born again by the incorruptible
seed, the Word of Life, that we'll live on Him, we'll feed
on Him, we'll be able to walk by faith. This is God's Word.
Hearken diligently unto me. Brethren, suffer the Word of
Exaltation, and your soul will live. Nothing else is going to
live. Everything dies, but the soul
goes to the God who made it. How will it live forever? Well,
listen. Oh, and the hearing ear is of
the Lord, isn't it? If we do, how blessed we are.
Verse 3, incline your ear and come unto me. I know something
about what it means to incline your ear. What's the word? I inherited
an affliction called loss of hearing. That and rock and roll
as a teenager. and the locomotive as an engineer
on a railroad. But anyway, I inherited this
loss of hearing, and it's getting worse and worse. And I know it ain't hearing aids,
and I know you bought me them. Someday I'll get around to wearing
them. But until then, if I really want to hear something, and I
really want to hear it, this is what I do. I have to do that.
I really want to do it. It's the same sense in which
our Lord says, incline your ear. You know, in doing that, what
you're doing is you're blocking out everything else. You're blocking out everything
else and you're cupping your ears to hear one thing. He says,
incline your ear to Me, the Lord said. What I have to say. These
are not man's words. And I'm just commenting on it.
Not man's words. Hear, he says, and you'll live.
And I've got news for you. If you do hear, it's because
you are alive. A dead man can't hear. Isn't
that what our Lord said? He said, Oh, he that heareth
my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. If you hear, it's because you
already have life. What comes first? Hearing or
life? Life. Of course it does. You wouldn't
hear without it. If you do hear, many people turn
away their ears from the truth, Scripture says, don't they? We
will not hear that. They said these are hard sayings.
Talk of a sovereign God, a choosing of people, a sovereign Christ
and all His need for mercy and blood and all that. We will not
hear that. Oh, blessed is He that sayeth,
I want to hear that. Yeah, I need to hear that, like
Peter, Simon Peter. These aren't hard things. This
is life. Say it again. Tell me again. Climb your ear unto me. Come
unto me. Here in your soul shall live.
And I'll make, read it, verse 3, I will make with you. Who? Everyone that thirsteth. I'll
make with you. God says this, Brother John Davis,
with you an everlasting covenant, even the sheer mercies of David.
Do you remember that? What he made with David, that
covenant? David, the king, man after God's
own heart. David, the sweet psalmist of
Israel. David, the king of Israel. David, God came to him and spoke
to him and made this wonderful covenant with him of the Lord's
mercy. Now, he would not take his mercy
from him. Reminding him, Brother Mack, of where he found him.
where he found him, watching the backside of sheep, a nothing
and a nobody, a young lad, a stripling, sitting on the mountainside.
Okay? God says, I found you there.
I bought you. I brought you. I taught you.
I brought you all the way to the throne of Israel. I've watched
over you. I've kept you. I've kept your
enemies from you. I've provided for you. I've put
you where you are. I've chosen you, I've loved you,
I've ordered all things concerning you and they're sure forever
and nobody can change it. I'm your God and you're my sheep." He said, I will not leave you
without a man on the throne to reign and rule. That was the
covenant that God made with David. And he says to everyone that
hear it, Everyone that hears it, that's
thirsty, that wants to hear this. Covenant is a big word. It's
just a word that people like to put on their name of their
church building. Covenant this, covenant that. What does it mean?
It means salvation, that's what it means. This everlasting covenant,
the blood, and that's where it's a nice message. The blood of
the everlasting covenant. David's dying words. You quoted
it this morning, David's dying words on his deathbed. He said,
I'm going to live forever because of this covenant God made with
me, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my salvation
and all my hope and all my desire, that God love me, that God chose
me, that God gave me to Christ in that covenant, that Christ
poured out His blood on the mercy, that He sent His Holy Spirit
to watch over me and care for me and will bring me all the
way to glory, that He ordered all these things, and they're
sure, the sure mercies of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
David, but the Son of David. He said, I'll make this with
you. Did you hear that? Who heard
this? Who does that sound good to? Who thirsts for that? Huh? I'll make it with you. Oh, my. Who? Me. Yes, you. You. This is yours. This is for
you. This is your gospel. That's why
Paul called it my gospel. This is my gospel. My gospel. All my hope is with you. With
your mercy. of the Son of David. I've given
him, the Lord said, for a witness to the people. When Christ came
to this earth, he was not a mere witness. He's the faithful witness
that Revelation 1 says of him. He's the faithful witness, the
firstborn among many brethren, the only begotten from the dead,
the faithful one. Oh, that's him, the prince of
the kings and the him that loved him. He's the witness. What Jesus
Christ said. Everything he said is the Word
of God, straight from God Himself. That means no man has seen God
in any man, no man has heard His voice, but the only begotten
Son, He hath declared it. When He came and said, I'm here
to show you the Father, to tell you what God has to say, witness.
He's the witness to the people. That's the reason we look to
Him, don't we? We listen to Him. He's the leader.
Oh, my! The captain of our salvation.
Who went before His people then and does it now. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He's always before us. Commander
to the people. We take our orders from Him.
Whatever He says, that's what we do. People say, aren't you
keeping the Law of Moses? Because Christ said, We don't
have to, that He kept it for us. He says, you listen to me,
we're not under that law, we're under law to Him. Whatever He
says, we do. Whatever He says. And it's good,
it's right, it's just, it's true. He's the commander to His people.
And verse 5, Behold, He shall call a nation that thou knowest
not, nations that knew not, they shall run unto thee. Shall run. Oh my, they shall run. He'll call and they'll come running.
As to a city of refuge. As a thirsty man to water. As
a hungry man to food. They'll come running. As a guilty
man to his advocate. They'll come running. Because
he's the one that's glorified in God. Oh my. Look at verse
6. All eyes. Young people. Seek
ye the Lord. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him. Look at it. Every eye now. Look
at it. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Now, the Lord Christ,
when he came, the Lord Jesus came and said, I am come to seek
and to save that which is lost. He said, I'm not come to call
the righteous, but sinners. He came to call sinners to repent. He came to seek and to say. He
came to call. He tells us to seek. He tells
us to call. Well, how we know that the Lord
is seeking us is if we seek Him. That's how you know the Lord
is working. Somebody is seeking Him. Somebody is seeking mercy. Somebody is going through conviction
of sin and seeking the Lord's mercy, looking into His Word.
I love to see that happen. Oh my. And calling, how you know
the Lord is calling his people. They'll all be called by his
word, by his gospel. How you know the Lord is calling
them? They start calling on him. They start calling on him like
Saul of Tarsus. He told Ananias, the Lord told
Ananias, he said, go down there, Saul of Tarsus is a chosen vessel
unto me. And Ananias said, oh no, he's
an enemy and all that. No, the Lord said, behold, he
prayeth. He's calling on me now. He's
calling on me. How you know the Lord is seeking
is if they seek him. How you know the Lord is calling
is if they start calling on him. The story of Samuel is a young
boy. I love that story. Samuel, you know, he was lying
in bed outside in the temple area there. And the Lord called
him, Samuel. Just a young boy. And Samuel
went in to Eli and said, did you call me? Mr. Eli, did you
call me? Eli said, no, I didn't call you. Go lie down. I can
enter into that. You know, the Lord begins to
call His people. He's calling them and they don't
know it. But others see it. Others see it. Preachers, I've
often said that I wish you could see at times what I see from
up here. I wish you couldn't see at times
what I do see. But there are times Not infallibly,
mind you. No, no, no, no. But there are
times that it's very clear when the light comes on. When the
ears are pricked. When the heart begins, oh, and
I long to see that again. But Eli said the same thing.
Go lie down. He knew who was calling. He saw. He knew who was calling. Well,
he went and laid down. And he came back, and the Lord
said, Samuel. And he came back, Mr. Eli, did you call me? He said, no, son. It's the Lord. He said, now, here's what you
do. And listen to me, you young people. Here's what you do. You
go lie down. And when the Lord speaks again,
you say, speak, Lord. I'm listening. And he did. And he did. He lay down. Oh, my, my. Speak, Lord. And he did. And he kept speaking
to him from that day forward. How do you know? How do you know?
It's when they call upon him, it's because he called them.
He said that in Isaiah 65. He said, I am sought of them
that ask not for me. I'm found of them that sought
me not. Oh, how many messages, message after message after message
I heard. I'm a preacher's kid. I was forced
to listen to, thankfully. Thankfully. I didn't think so
then. But I was forced to listen to message after message after
message. And how many I listened to but didn't hear a word. Didn't
hear a word. But God. It should have passed me by,
shouldn't it? For all those messages I didn't care a thing for. Can't wait until it gets over.
Oh, God, how merciful. How merciful Thou art to me. To me. Can we sing that song
personally? To me. Blessed Lord, how merciful
Thou art to me. How's that? I heard you, boy. I heard you, boy. My, my. He says, seek while he may be
found. When the Lord, right before the Lord, destroyed the world.
This is no fairy tale, no cunningly devised fable. It's a fact. The
flood was a fact, and so is the coming of our Lord. Destruction
by fire. Who said that? Jesus Christ. Not some wild itinerant on the
street corner with a sign in his hand. Jesus Christ said that. Alright? Alright? No fable. No fable. When the
Lord destroyed the world the first time by flood, He built
this ark. He made this ark of safety, of
salvation. And Noah found grace. The Lord
chose Noah. And it says, put him in that
ark and seven people, his family, with him in that ark. Oh, what mercy, what grace when
the rest of the world perished. Do you know how Noah and his
family must have been singing, Seth? Japheth was singing in
that ark while the rain was pouring down and the wave lashing against
that side of that ark. Do you know how they must have
been singing? We will. Before the Lord sent that rain,
He left the door of that ark open. Big door. And anybody that
wanted to could come in that ark. What mercy. What mercy. Nobody deserved it.
Even Noah didn't deserve it. Certainly Shem, Ham, and Japheth
didn't deserve it. Huh? But the Lord put them in
there. Come down, He said. Come down.
The Lord was in that ark. And he left the door of that
ark open seven days, seven days, my, my, seven days longer than
the world deserved. He left it open. And while this
gospel is being preached, the gospel of the ark of Christ who
is salvation, today is the day of salvation. While this ark
is being preached, God is merciful. Come, come into the ark. That's what he said. That's what
we said when we preached it. Come. Come on now. Seek ye the
Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.
Wherever the gospel is, wherever two or three people are met in
His name, Jesus Christ said, I'm there, right there in the
midst of you. I can't see Him. He is. He can't lie. This is not a light thing. This
is life. Now, while he may be found, it
is coming a time, our Lord said in the Proverb 1, he said, when
you call and I won't answer. When the door of that ark shut,
men began, and it started raining, men began to call in. Didn't
it? Oh, no. Oh, listen to this, what he says
in verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way.
Let the unrighteous man his thoughts, forsake his thoughts. There's
a way that seems right to men, to end his destruction. It doesn't
matter what it is, what kind of way it is. There's a way of
the transgressor. It's hard. the world and low
life, you know, it's hard. It's hard. And then there's the
way of religion. Man has all sorts of religious
ways that he thinks right. It's all destruction. It all
ends up in destruction. The man sitting on the bar stool
and the man sitting in the pew are both sinners that need the
mercy of God, the grace of God, the blood of Christ to put away
their sin. Both of them. Neither one of
them thinks so. They're both in need of this
mercy. Well, here's what he said, let him forsake his way. Unrighteous
man, his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy. Not might, not maybe. Oh, what
a word to say. And folks, if you feel wicked,
even believers feel wicked at times, feel unrighteous, don't
you? Huh? Well, it says return. To whom?
Come in. Keep coming back. Come. That's why we come to hear this
gospel. We keep coming back for mercy, don't we? For grace, to
help. For the blood of Christ, to hear
the blood of Christ that puts away our sin and cleanses us.
We come back, let Him return. What does it say? He will have
mercy upon it. Not might. He will. Oh, man. Marvin said, man, oh,
day. Man, oh, man. He will have mercy. That's what
I need. Our greatest need is God's greatest
glory. Mercy. Our greatest need, man's
greatest need, though he doesn't even know it. That's why he's
dead. Our greatest need is his name. He said, I'll proclaim my name,
the Lord, the Lord God. Merciful. Our greatest need is
his name. It's his character. And he delights
to show it. What we need the most is what
he delights to show. The Lord's taking great pleasure
in them that fear Him and them that hope in His mercy. He delights
to show mercy. He's ready to pardon. Our greatest
need is He's ready to do it. Man, oh, day. Oh, my. Oh, my. He will have mercy upon them.
That's good news. To our God, it says, he will
abundantly pardon. He'll abundantly pardon. Our
Lord Jesus Christ said this from his very mouth. He said, all
manner of sin shall be forgiven, past, present, future. He will
abundantly pardon. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is plenteous redemption. Joseph's brother. We keep coming
back to this, don't we? Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, our Lord. Joseph's a picture of our Lord.
Joseph, for seven years, stored up corn and grain. Seven years,
one of the most bountiful harvests ever. Seven years of plenty,
overflowing, likely had three and four and five cuttings. For
seven years running. How much corn you reckon there
was in the grain? How much was stored up by Joseph?
It's full. Fill it up again. It's full. Build another one. Fill it up.
For seven years, all right? After that, it became a famine.
And here come Joseph's brethren. He not only was merciful in his
tender mercies over all the Egyptians and all of those God-haters,
but Joseph's brethren came to him. Sorry lot though they be,
though they're just like those Egyptians, yet they're his brethren. And they come with sacks, little sacks. And they said,
we're hungry. Reckon Joseph's going to give
them something? There's brethren, John. Sacks? You reckon they thought,
well, this is about the third year of the famine, got any grain
left? I've been storing up for seven
years. With the Lord is plenteous redemption. Sacks! When it was over, Brother
Ron, they went home with wagon loads. Wagon loads. Oh, plenty. Abundant power. Let me give you an even better
illustration than that. There was a prodigal son. A prodigal
son. The Lord is so merciful, especially
to his prodigal son. There was a prodigal son who
was a worthless son, and he left. But the father, As soon as he
left, the father told one of his servants, go get a calf and put it up and start feeding
it grain. Who for? Just do as I say. I never thought about this, Gabe,
but this is what happened. He had a calf fattened. I just
went on for a year, fatted him for months anyway, fatted his
calf up. And that boy, while he was wasting
his substance, never gave his father a thought one day, came
to him and said, realized what he was, what he had done to his
father, what he had done against God. God was working on him,
bringing him back. Caused him to think. Caused him
to pray. He said, this is what I'm going to say. I'm going to
go home and cry. Lord God, I've been sinning against heaven and
against thee and I'm not worthy to be called a son. Just make
me as one of your hired servants. So he had his speech. He was
praying to God. The Lord brought him back. And
lo and behold, the Father was waiting on him. How did he know
he was coming? Whom he did foreknow, he did
predestinate. Whom he predestinated, call.
Come on home. Come on back. It came back, okay? And before he could get his,
he said, the Lord said, before they call, I'll answer. And before
that prodigal could get that little speech out, you know,
I said, the Father said, bring the best robe. And surely somebody
said, not the best. No, he's not good enough for
that. Bring the best robe. Bring a
ring and put it on his hand, on his finger. Put shoes on his
feet. See, he was in rags. He didn't
feel like he belonged. Put a ring of love and ownership
on his hand. And get that fatted calf I've
been waiting on, or that I've had it fatted. Get it. Kill it.
We're going to have a feast. And they said, he's not worth
it. Give him a little plate and put him in the barn. The father
said, no, this is my son. He will abundantly pardon. I've got to holler this. This
is my story. He will abundantly pardon. Skin
of our teeth, get a hold of this, prodigal son. Heaven erupts. when his prodigal comes. Abundantly
pardoned. Abundantly pardoned. Oh my, the
best robe, the ring, the shoes, the cap, the fatted cap. That's
who that was waiting on. That worthless son. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts. That's why that says that. My
thoughts are not... I wouldn't do it that way. Would
you do that? Thank God He's not like us. My thoughts, He says,
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way. As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
way, and my thoughts higher than... God said, I'm not a man, I'm
God. And how I prove that is, I'm
merciful. That proves Him to be more God
than anything else. His mercy. Our Lord, oh my, oh how merciful,
blessed Lord. He proved it beyond a shadow
of a doubt, didn't he, while hanging on the cross, the most
worthless human being that you could take, with a word. That man said, remember that,
with a word, blotted out all of his sin, forgot his past and
took him in the glory with him. Thief and a murderer. My thoughts
are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. Oh,
I had a bunch of notes on that, but that's it. It's just mercy. As the heavens are higher. And
he says, the rain. Here's how the Lord is merciful,
people. Verse 10. You know that everything, life
on this planet depends on the rain. You know that? You know
that. It's called the water of life.
It really, literally is. Everything on this planet depends
on the rain. If we go without rain, and all
of the, nearly every one of the judgments upon people in the
Old Testament were drought. When the Lord withheld the rain,
everything dies. Well, our Lord said this, here's
what the rain is, here's the mercy of God, the greatest mercy
of all. He said, verse 10, the rain that
cometh down the snow from heaven, returneth not thither, watereth
the earth, maketh it bring forth the bud that it may give seed
to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. This is the great, what you're
hearing right now. My word. It's not man's word.
It's God's word. Sure mercies. It will not return
unto me, boy. Teresa, you know, we bring our
children, as young people, to hear this message. And God said
this. He said it's able to make them
wise unto salvation. It won't return, boy. He's promised
that. But when they're young, they don't want to come, do they?
He says bring them. Why? This is His power. It will not return void. And
our hope is that the seed was sown. Isn't it, Tammy? Our hope
is that the seed was sown. Because if it was, it won't return
void. It will bring forth fruit, fruit
of faith, life. It will. My little sermon won't... I want to throw every one of
them away. Thousands of tapes and notes and all that. Just throw it away. Throw it
all away. But God's Word is new, it's fresh,
it's right now, it's a living Word. It's right now, going forth.
And it will not return void. It will accomplish that which
I plead. It will prosper in the thing
I send it today. His Word. What Word? What Word? I took that verse
and capitalized. Word. It. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was made flesh, of whom he said, He'll prosper
in the thing that I send him. He says he'll accomplish what
I send him to do. And in the end, John, he said,
it's finished. Mission accomplished. See the
psalm. Life is given. Death is vanquished. And you'll go out, verse 12,
if you hear this message of Christ, Him crucified, buried, risen,
reigning, ruling, coming again, you'll go out with joy. Go out. You'll go out, not of this building. We're going to go out of this
place when the Lord comes with joy, exceeding joy, joy unspeakable. Joy, you ain't had it yet. We
hadn't had it yet. This is joy unspeakable and full
of glory. And you'll be led forth with
peace, peace, eternal peace. that no man can take from you.
And it's true, when you hear the gospel for the first time,
or you hear it again as if it were the first time, you'll go
out of here with joy and with peace. And he said, and you'll
hear the mountains wave forth and sing. You'll hear for the
first time the birds singing sweetly in the trees. Oh, Lord
my God, when I in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds thy hands
have made. See the star and hear the rolling
thunder. And to think that God, his Son
not sparing, sent him to die, how scarce can I take it in,
that on the cross my burden bearing, I proclaim, My God, how great thou art."
That's what David said after he heard that. He said, is this
the way of man? No, his thoughts and his ways
are much higher than that. Not the way of man. He said,
my God, you're great, great. And the trees will clap their
hands. And verse 13, instead of the
thorn, you know in the garden when man sin, he's cast out thorns
and briars and thistles and sweat. The fir tree, evergreen. The
myrtle tree. That happens to be my favorite
tree. Crepe myrtle. I don't know why, it must be
meant to be. A myrtle tree. Beautiful. For
beauty. That's the Lord Himself. It's
for a name to Him. It's for a name to Him. to the
praise of the glory of His grace, His name, the Lord our Savior,
Jehovah, Jesus is His name, Savior. An everlasting sign, an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, ensure it will not be cut off,
those mercies endure forever, because Christ lives forever
to ensure it. Okay. We're going to sing that
hymn. Oh Lord, my God, is that number
37? Okay, number 37.