Turn with me to Psalm 59. And it's good to see Jan back. She
showed the pictures of how that thing went. Oh my goodness, awful. Boy. But she's, Lord blessed
her to be with us and we want to remember Kathleen. She's just
She's just having a time, getting well. And Elaine was in the hospital
today, but she got to go home. They come to the conclusion she
had some vertigo. They're going to try to figure
out how to get her over that, but she's at Dee Dee's. So we
have many people that need prayer. And at the picnic this weekend,
Friday, Saturday, rain or shine, We got lots of room in the house.
Tables and lots of places to go. Rain or shine. I'm going to read these first
10 verses of Psalm 59. Deliver me from mine enemies,
O my God. Defend me from them that rise
up against me. Deliver me from the workers of
iniquity. And save me from bloody men. For lo, they lie and wait for
my soul. The mighty are gathered against
me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Lord. They
run and prepare themselves without my fault, awake to help me and
behold. Thou therefore, O Lord, God of
hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen. Be
not merciful to any wicked transgressors. They return at evening. They
make a noise like a dog and go round about the city. Behold,
they belch out with their lips, with their mouth. Swords are
in their lips. For who say they do it here? But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh
at them. Thou shalt have all the heathen
in derision. Because of his strength will
I wait upon thee. For God is my defense. The God
of my mercy shall prevent me. God shall let me see my desire
upon mine enemies. Our Father, our gracious Father
in heaven, we know you're holy, righteous, good, and gracious. Father of tender pities, tender
mercies, God who considers our frame that we're
but dust. And, oh, Lord, you make us to
understand how frail we are. But, Lord, we thank you. God,
we praise you. Bless your holy name for this
time that you've allowed us to meet, for this time you've allowed
us to read and sing and call on your name. time you've allowed
us to meet here for me to speak from your word and for the saints
to hear from your word. And Lord, we pray for those that
we've mentioned this evening. Thank you for Jan being back,
what you've done for her and how quickly she's healed. I pray
for Elaine. Lord, help them to find out what
her problem is. Lord, where she won't feel so
so dizzy. God have mercy on Kathleen. Oh
Lord, she's so sick. She's so weak. And Lord, please
intervene. God arise mighty on her behalf
as it seemeth good in your sight. Lord, I thank you for Floyd who
stays there with her day and night. God strengthen him in
his spirit and in his soul. Have mercy upon him and his children
that they see their need of Christ, that they see just how frail
and how soon things can change in this world so quickly. So,
Lord, as we gather tonight, please have mercy upon these dear people.
Help me to speak. Help the saints to hear. We ask
these things in Christ's name. Amen. We have a song in a long, long
time that's under the blood. We have sung that one in a long
time. Turn with me now back to the 59th Psalm, and we'll use
one verse of scripture here. He says it, excuse me, in verse
10, the God of my mercy shall prevent me. The God of my mercy
shall prevent me. I want to talk about preventing
mercy. Now the setting is that David
is surrounded by enemies. Deliver my enemies, oh God, from
them that rise up against me. They lie and wait for me. They
run and prepare themselves. They come back in the evening
and they run around around me like a pack of dogs and make
noise like a bunch of dogs. But David believed and trusted
God. Called him the God of my mercy.
The God of my mercy. What a title. Paul told the Corinthians
that he was the father of mercies, the God of all comfort, the father
of mercies. And David is saying, God is mine. He's a God of mercy, delights
in mercy. So mercy is mine. And there's
a portion of mercy just for me. And I believe that for myself.
I believe there's a portion of mercy just for me. That God is
mine just like he's the God, David's God, he's my God. Just
like he was the God of mercy for David, he's the God of mercy
for me and for you. And he says, also says, the God
of my mercy shall prevent me. What does that word prevent mean?
It means to go before. It means to anticipate something. You're going along and God said,
the God of my mercy shall prevent me. That means he'll go before
David. He'll go to anticipate anything
that may happen to David. Prevent means also to go before
as a guide to make the way easy. And so David is saying here,
the God of my mercy will prevent me. or anticipate me in his mercy. He go before me in mercy. He
will anticipate what's gonna go before me in mercy. And that
means taking advance against measures something possible or
probable. Now there's nothing possible
or probable in God's will, in God's way. Everything that could
be possible is not gonna happen. The only thing that's going to
happen is what God willed to do. You know, if everybody tries
to figure out all the possibilities of something that could happen,
might happen, this, that, but what God does, He goes before
us. So all the things that you and I don't know anything about,
To us, all things is possible and probable. He don't consider
that, but he goes before us to guide us, prepare the way before
us, and anticipate before us. It also means checking another's
intentions by acting first. It'll prevent somebody from doing
something by acting first. So this word prevent, I'm gonna
use it in three tenses tonight. The preventing mercy, I'm gonna
use it in three tenses. Past tense, the God of my mercy
has prevented me. Present tense, the God of my
mercy does prevent me. And future, the God of my mercy
shall prevent me. You know what preventive grace
is, don't you? That means grace before grace.
Grace comes and prepares the heart before grace ever comes.
Well, God has preventing mercy. He goes before us and anticipates
things. And I say here in the past tense
that God of my mercy shall prevent me. The Lord has prevented me. Now here's this blessed, blessed
glorious truth of eternal electing love. Love having no cause but
in itself. God said this about us before
we ever existed. He said, yea, I've loved thee
with an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness
have I drawn thee. He says, we love God, why? Because he first loved us. Our Lord said this, he says,
no you're not, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained
you. And he said, I'll love them freely.
And you remember the infant cast out in Ezekiel 16, cast out with
his blood all over it and his navel still on it. And to the
loathing of his person, it was throwed out to die, throwed out
with no love. No one cared for it. No one watched
it. No one swaddled it. And God passed
by and he says, now is the time of love. Oh, that's preventing
mercy. You see, God's eternal covenant
is called the sure mercies of David. and ordered in all things and
sure. So how can this covenant and
ordered in all things and be sure? How can they be sure? Because
God in Christ went before and anticipated where we would be
and what shape we would be in. Ain't that right? He says that
He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world or
from the foundation of the world. This is what I'm talking about.
God has prevented me. He provided a Savior before there
was ever a sinner. He provided the provision for
an atonement before sin was actually ever existed in this world. Before we were made filthy by
Adam's and our own sin, God made a way of cleansing. He said there's
a fountain open for uncleanness. and he told us he says that by
the sacrifice of the lord jesus christ himself he put away our
sin and he has perfected forever and sanctified them that are
in him and beloved all this was provided for us went before us
anticipated adam's fall anticipated our fall and went before us and
prepared the way prevented us from being lost prevented us
from going on headlong in sin, prevented us from being lost
forever. And I tell you something, beloved,
sin is a thing of time. It's a thing of time. Mercy is
from everlasting. Sin, the only sin that's going
to be committed is in this world. And before this world existed,
there was no sin until Adam came in. Sin is a thing of time. Mercy came from eternity. And,
beloved, when we get done with sin in this world, we're going
to have that mercy going on, that grace right on throughout
eternity. Sin's a thing of time, but mercy is from everlasting. Transgression, an old writer
said, is but of yesterday, but mercy was ever of old. And the
Lord sought us, sought us long, long before we ever sought Him.
And people talk all the time about, you know, you need to
take the first step. Well, that's the work of a depraved
mind. The grace of God is preventing
grace. It's unsought, undesired, unmerited. It came before we even had a
good thought, before we existed, before we were in our mother's
room, before we ever had any right emotions. It came to us
when we were yet ungodly, when we were dead in trespasses and
sins. God smoked the rock before we
ever got thirsty. And he sent the bread from heaven
before we ever got hungry. That's what I'm talking about,
preventing mercy. The Lord has preventing mercy.
And beloved, the God of our mercy, in his infinite goodness, knew
we had need of everything. We had need of everything. We
had need of an offering. We had need of sanctification.
We had need of forgiveness. We had a need of being sought
out. We had need of God calling us
and choosing us and doing everything that we didn't even know He was
doing it when He was doing it. That's going before and anticipating
something, ain't it? And oh, listen, He knew we had
need of these things and He prevented us by laying them up in store
for us from eternity. He laid up in store for us the
Lord Jesus Christ so all spiritual blessings would be in Him. He
laid up for us from eternity the cleansing from our sin by
His blessed blood. He laid up for us before the
world ever began that He would send the Spirit of God and create
in us a new heart. He laid up from us before the
world ever began and prevented us, because He said, I'll seek
them, and then when I seek them, they'll turn around and seek
me. All that was done for us and
purposed for us, it all went before, He knew what was going,
and He went before us to prevent us. Look over in Lamentations
with me just a minute. Lamentations chapter 3. Not only
has the Lord provided us, in the covenant of grace provided
us everything we needed. Provided us everything we needed
in the eternal covenant of grace. Provided that he had a righteousness
because we didn't have one. He had a fountain open for our
uncleanness because we were unclean. We had a heart of stone so he
provided us a heart of flesh before the world ever was. And
when the time, the fullness of time was come, He come to get
us and call us to Himself. He had us, He had that Savior
prepared, that Savior slain in His will, in His purpose, in
His decree before Adam was ever put in the Garden of Eden. I
believe that to all my heart. Don't you, Brad? I believe that.
He knew we was going to be sinners. So he purposed to save us. Went
before us, anticipated, and knowed what we would be. Only people
that didn't know what we was and didn't know what we would
be and didn't know what we was due was us until he sent that
preventing mercy. And look here in Lamentations
chapter three, verse 18. And I said, My strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still
in remembrance as humble in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. Listen now. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail
not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in
him. But you see, it's of the Lord's
mercy. He still does prevent us right
to this day. Right now, he prevents us. He
prevents us with his mercy. And you know how he does it?
By and through the gospel. He sends the Gospel to us, He
sends the Word to us, and He works through His Word to prevent
us, and to keep us, and to go before us, and watch out for
us. He knew our inability. So He
prevents us with His mercy by and through the Gospel, by His
Word and through the Gospel. He knew our inability. He knew
we had no faith. We knew we had no sorrow for
sin. So where are we going to find
out our inability? Where in the world are we going
to find out that we had no faith, no sorrow for sin? Where are
we going to get that at? Well, God in His preventing mercy,
He sent it for us. They ain't got no ability. So
I'm going to have to give them some. I'm going to have to raise
them from the dead. They don't have no faith. I'm
going to have to give them some. How am I going to give them faith?
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Where are
they going to get the power? The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Where are they going
to get the power to be believers? Where are they going to get the
grace to be believers? Where are they going to be quickened
from their death? God said, I provide all that
in the gospel. And he prevented us in the gospel.
Sends that blessed gospel to us and with it, he gives us faith.
He gives us sorrow for sin. He gives us repentance. He gives
us grief over ourselves. And he provided all these in
the gospel. Nobody will ever know anything
about their inability unless the gospel comes in power. Nobody
will never sorrow over sin unless the gospel comes in power. Nobody
will have any faith without hearing the Word of God. Men cannot call on someone whom
they have not known, and they can't believe in somebody whom
they've never heard. And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? So then faith comes by hearing. And God prevented
us in His mercies. We said, oh, this wormwood, this
gall, this bitterness. And then I recall to mind that
the God of my mercy And every morning when you get up, you
know how many mercies you got? Brand new ones every day. And
he daily, not only has he prevented us with his mercy in the gospel,
gave us faith, gave us sorrow for sin, gave us power to become
the sons of God. He granted us repentance. We
had no repentance, he granted it to us. And he daily, even
today, prevents us He meets our needs before we even ask. He meets our needs before you
and I ever say a word. In fact, I'll say this, that
we go through a whole day, get up and get busy, get up and get
at it, and we'll go through our day, and then all of a sudden,
we'll think about the Lord or something, and we'll say, well,
He provided for me today, and I didn't even ask Him. Look what
He's done for me today. Oh, He's gone before us as you
worried. He went before you as you worried
about next month. What are you going to do with
this thing next month? How is this going to happen?
How is that going to come out? Well, He went before you and He anticipated. He went before you and His mercy
prevented anything from hindering or hurting or causing anything
to come to pass that shouldn't. And He has prevented our sins. Oh, bless his name for this.
You all remember the story about Nadab, David and Nabal. David
was in the hold and Saul was after him and he had about three
or four hundred men that followed him around. He was up taking
care, watching out for this man who had lots and lots of sheep
and all that. And they was up in the hills,
and he was watching out for all this fellow's property and everything. And he said some of his young
men said, go down there and tell them David would like this much
food and some food and some wine and some grapes and some dates
and some things, need some food, some bread. They went down there
to ask him. Old Nabel ran back and said,
who in the world is David? You think I'm going to take what
I've got and give it to somebody that has, there's lots of men
that's took off and left off from their masters and went out
on as big, become rebels and become rogues. Boy, and he sent
his men, sent his men back home and he told David that, you know,
and David's got his sword. He said, I'm going to go and
I'm going to, I'm going to slay that fellow. I'm going to kill
him just as sure. And everybody in his family,
I'm going to kill them all. David had it in his heart, said,
I'm going to kill that man. Well, here comes a woman, Abigail.
She comes riding down, and she had all these donkeys loaded
down with food. You wouldn't believe how much
food she had. Cheese, and bread, and wine, and oh, she had all
this food. And she come running up to David
and got off that thing and bowed down and said, oh, listen. Mabel's
his name and a fool is what he is. That's his name and that's
what he is. He's a fool. And I'm here, God has sent me
before you to prevent you from killing him. Said if you kill him, you've
just killed a fool. And I'm here and said I forgive
him for being such a fool and I'm here with everything you
need. And he brought all that food.
But she got off that. She says, you know, and David
put his, and he says, well, I bless the Lord that you did that. Because
I was going to hurt that man. And how many times do you reckon
God has prevented us from committing how many sins? We have no idea. Absolutely have no idea. We know
how many, we have no idea how many sins God has prevented us
from. from committing. We commit enough as it is. Like
Simon Peter. Our Lord told Simon, this is
preventing mercy. Simon Peter, you're going to
do this here. You're going to deny me three
times. But preventing mercy says, but I pray for you that your faith fail not. Now
that's preventing. He knows this is going to happen.
Told him it's going to happen. But that's not the end of it.
That's not the end of your life. That's not the end of your sin.
That's not the end of your days. That's not the end of your ministry.
That's not the end of being an apostle. You know why? Because
my mercy knows you're going to do this. And my mercy said, I
pray for thee, that thy faith be honored. Oh, boy. And you know why we
haven't failed? completely fell away. When we
commit sin and do things that we shouldn't do and act ways
we ought not to act, when we do that, you know what keeps
us? He prays for us. That our faith
doesn't fail. Yes, He does. And He has prevented
our prayers. I mean, He's went before our
prayers. Look at Psalm 65. Not Psalm 65, Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65. He has prevented our
prayers. God said, call upon me in the time of trouble and
I'll deliver you. Before we ask, keep we had. And
while we were yet calling, we have received. Oh, God goes before
us even in our prayers, prevents us in our prayers, anticipates
and goes before us in our prayers. Look what he said here. in verse
24 of Isaiah chapter 65. And it shall come to pass that
before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear. Has that ever happened to you?
The desire of the righteous shall be granted. You just look back
over our lives What would have been our lives been like if we
took one step different than we took? One step different than
we took? Just one step, huh? One wrong
step and our whole lives would be different. Why didn't we take
that wrong, wrong step? Why did we go the way we did?
we could not be where we are had not God in preventing mercy
went before us to anticipate and prepare the way view everything
possible and probable as far as we're concerned. Why didn't we go that way instead
of this way? Why'd we go that way and not
this way? It's like that woman at the well.
You reckon it was The Lord Jesus Christ got there before she got there. Why? Preventing mercy. There's going to be a woman show
up at Jacob's will on a certain day. And it's going to be hot. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to walk a long way. And He's going to be by Himself.
There ain't going to be no... Because She's a Samaritan. There
ain't going to be no apostles with Her. There ain't going to
be no Jews with Him. That they're going to find fault and say,
She's unclean. And our Lord Jesus Christ sat on the well. And here
She come. You know why He was there? Preventing
mercy. to save one of his elect. Why
in the world is that what I'm talking about? What if Zacchaeus
hadn't have got there that day and climbed up that tree? You
reckon that could have been happened? Zacchaeus said, I'm not going
to go see Jesus today. There's a big crowd. I'm tired.
I'm weary. I'm going to stay at the house.
No, no. Preventing mercy says you're
going to go up a tree. And preventing mercy said, I'm
going to go before you and put you up that tree for one reason,
so I can call you down out of that tree, so I can go to your
house and I can bring salvation to your house today. See how God's mercy goes. Saul at Tarsus, he said, on the road to Damascus, Saul
didn't have a clue what was going to happen to him. But the God
of preventing mercy, the God of His mercy that prevented him
stopped him that day. And oh my, could we have been
anywhere else and done anything else than what we did and where
we was at? And then God not only has prevented us, does prevent
us, but will prevent us. If men in this world, if men
in this world, anticipate or go before, just like an army.
If they're going to have an army, they've got to prepare before
the army to get there. They've got to have food there. They've
got to have equipment there. They've got to have a place for
them to live. If they're going to move an army somewhere, they've
got to go before it and make a way for that army to get there.
And if men do that, how much more will God prevent us and anticipate and go for us
in the future? Whatever our situation, whatever
our circumstances, God will give us light. God will meet our needs
at that particular time. In fact, He said He sends His
angels to be ministers unto us. And as soldiers of the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to march on and march on
and march on and march on. And God will go before us, and
He'll prevent and anticipate everything about us. He will
provide for us the exact amount of peace, joy, strength, faith,
everything He'll provide. Peace? He'll give you peace when
you desperately need it. He'll give you joy. He'll give
you strength. He'll give you faith. And that's
why He says, look up, you child of God, your redemption draws
nigh. I mean, it's right on us. And
it won't be long. It won't be as long as it has
been. But we're going to get at an old age one of these days.
We're going to get old. We're going to arrive at an old
age soon. And with old age comes lots of infirmities. Lots of
infirmities. Sickness, weakness of body, feebleness. Men that used to take big, long,
purposeful strides, they end up shuffling their feet. Men
and women who one time were strong and could just do anything, they
come to the place that they barely can get up out of a chair. And
oh, the old age is arriving on us, and with it's going to come
feebleness and sicknesses and inabilities to do things. But
listen to me, the God of our mercy will go before us. He's
gone before us to prepare the way. He's gone before us to prepare
the way. Whatever happens in this world is just for a moment,
just a brief moment in time. He's gone before us. He's gone
before us to take the sting out of death. He's gone before us to give us
victory over the grave. The gates of heaven and the gates
of home is open. We're expected. We're expected
to get there one of these days. We're expected to arrive there
one of these days. When will you be home? When God
calls me. They're expecting me there. I
go places and they expect me there. And I say, I'll try to
be there between this time and that time. They expect me and
they're watching. I pulled up to Stan's house the other night
and whatnot. I just pulled up in the driveway.
And I wasn't hardly, just got there and the garage door went
open. He was anticipating me coming, going before. Well, I'll
tell you something, beloved. They was expecting me. They're
expecting us in another world. The mansions are waiting for
us to move into. And the God of our mercy and
the God of my mercy has in His Son blessed us and went before
us to prepare the place for us. And He said that where I go,
you're gonna go. I'll come again and receive you
unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also. And if
He prevents us so in His mercy, Let us never, never hesitate
to come to Him. Huh? Oh, God is so quick in mercy. Let's be quick in our thanksgiving,
in our praise, and in our worship of Him. And oh, He's quick in
mercy. Let's be quick in our life to
honor Him. God has given me these mercies
and you these mercies unasked. What shall we render unto Him?
Huh? You know, if we cast ourselves
in the Lord's arms and knowing that He has gone before us, gone
before us, He's went before us and anticipated and goes before
us getting things out of the way, making it easier for us. Cast yourself on Him and be done
with worrying and fretting. Look with me in Psalm 23 and
I'm done. Psalm 23. Surely, verse 6, surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And when
that's over and done with, then I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever, forever. And David said in Psalm 59, you
don't have to look at it, but he said in verse 16, I will sing
of thy power, yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning. I'm gonna sing of thy mercy in
the morning. Preventing mercy. Preventing mercy. Mercy going
before us. Went before us before we were,
goes before us now, and shall go before us. Prepare a place
for us in good. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your wondrous mercy.
God, your mercy that prevents us, goes before us, provides
for us, keeps us, keeps us from so many things, keeps us from
things that we're absolutely unaware of and unconscious of.
But you went before us. You went before us to call us
by your gospel. Went before us and anticipated
before us our need of a savior, our need of keeping, our need
of a heart faith, repentance, peace and joy. You went before
us to give us these things. You gave us all these blessings
in heavenly places in your blessed son. Oh, we thank you for him. Thank you for your mercy. You're
the God of our mercy. Thank you for that, oh Father.
In Christ's name, I thank you. Amen. Oh, how merciful again. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, How merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful thou art to me. See you Sunday, oh Saturday,
Saturday. Now, rain