If you would, and you want to
follow along, turn to Psalm 117. Psalm 117. Beginning in verse
one. Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is
great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. You know, Psalms praising God
are hymns to be sung. Psalms praising God are to be
read. And Psalms praising God are to
be believed. And they're to be preached and
to be taught. I particularly myself really
like reading about God's mercy and God's truth. Because I need both. You know,
I need both. And here, he's promised us both. I love talking about mercy, I
love studying mercy, I love receiving mercy because mercy is exactly
what I need. And I will say this, also in
this two verse psalm, you'll see the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Because I can tell you this for a fact. You'll never
see the word mercy applied to anyone without the fact of it
being grace. As you understand, mercy is not
getting what you deserve. And bless God, that's grace. That's grace. Merit that you
don't earn. The first verse says this. Oh
praise the Lord all ye nations, praise him all ye people. And
I like that. It says praise the Lord, who? First he says all the nations.
And then he says all ye people. Let's be clear. It's no secret. Everyone should praise the Lord. Every single one should. But
every single one won't. They won't. Because he is worthy to be praised. We're talking about the Lord,
capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. The creator of
the universe. The one who said, let there be
light, and there was light. The one who divided the light
from the darkness. The one who created the earth. This is the Lord God Almighty. He keeps this universe together. How? By his own power. By his word. That's all it took
was the voice of God and there was light. And we learn in the
New Testament who the voice of God is. It's our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing that was made was made
without him. Period. He made all things by
him and for him they were all made. And by him All things consist. Now just on the basis of that,
bare facts, the Lord is worthy to be praised. We wouldn't have
an existence, we wouldn't have anything to exist upon if it
wasn't for the Lord. No one would. But here, I like
what Gil pointed out here, He said the Lord has redeemed his
people from what? All nations, all kindreds, all
tongues and people. Praise ye the Lord, all the nations. You understand, even in the Old
Testament, you can look at, the Gentiles weren't left out. Now,
in the Old Testament, you'll see it, the book is full of it,
Christ's genealogy is full of it. There are those who were
outside of the congregation of Israel and they joined themselves
with the children of Israel. Because why? Because that was
what you were supposed to do at the time. That's where the
oracles of God were, were with the Jewish people. Rahab the
harlot, Ruth, both foreign women. Foreign women from other nations. but they were brought in and
are in the genealogy, in the lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ. But then he also stated this,
he said, praise the Lord all ye nations, praise him all ye
people. And that word people is a collection,
a community of people. Maybe something like a congregation,
Walter. That's what he's talking about.
Because the Lord that we are to praise is the Lord that is
collecting together his people. It's a gathering, the way he
talks. The Lord is collecting his people,
even in the Old Testament, from every nation and tongue and kindred
and people. And guess what? Praise the Lord. Praise ye people. Praise the
Lord ye people. Now what does it mean to praise
the Lord? Very simply, it means to be clear and to boast about
him. Tell what he has done. sing what he is doing, and believe
what he's told us he will do. Because here's the thing about
praising the Lord, it's not about you. There's a lot of people
seem to get that contradicted. They wanna talk about praising
Jesus, and then they talk about what they've done. They wanna
give a witness or a testimony for the Lord, and then they stand
up and they say what they've done. or what somebody else didn't
do, or what they wanna do. You understand,
to praise the Lord is to praise him. Because without him, we
are absolutely the small dust of the balance, the couple of
drips out of a bucket. The whole earth is reputed as
nothing before him. Anything we have in this life,
we owe to Him. Everything we have in this life,
we owe to Him. Any problems you have, guess
what, folks? They're your own. You've earned
more than that. Trust me. In this world, we're
gonna have tribulation. But also, in praising the Lord,
we can have joy. In the Lord, is peace. Why? Because he is our peace.
It's not about you, it's not about anything you do. It is about the Lord of glory. Praise him. But then this word
comes next. For his merciful kindness. His merciful kindness. Now, pay very close attention
to that very first word, or second word in this case. His merciful
kindness. It's his. It's his. You understand? Merciful kindness
comes from the Lord. I mean, you might think that's
a strange statement, but I've heard people, religious people,
talk. And they actually talk and they,
try to teach others, okay, that the Lord is obligated to have
mercy on you if you do certain things. That's just wrong. You understand? A, that ain't
mercy. B, it's not grace. It's his merciful kindness. It's
his mercy. It's his mercy. You know, I've
heard him say it. If you do this, and you can fill
in the blank with whatever you want there, right? If you pray
the sinner's prayer. If you come to the altar. Some
people, if you get baptized. Oh, the big one now. If you give
to the church, usually meaning the preacher, a bunch of money,
what happens? Well then, God has got to have
mercy on you. God must be merciful to you.
And I'm here to tell you today, the Lord never said anything
of the kind, not even close. What does the Lord say about
his merciful kindness? Well, the first reference, I'm
just gonna read it, you don't have to turn there, it's in Exodus
33 and 19. I love this scripture, I do. And this is the Lord speaking,
and he said, I will make, I will make all my goodness pass before
thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,
and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Now that mercy right there
is merciful, loving kindness. That's what it is, merciful kindness.
Merciful kindness. It's not your will that matters,
it's His. And you know what we're supposed
to do about that? Praise the Lord for it. Praise the Lord
for His will. My will's corrupt. Your will
is corrupt, folks. Every man's will is corrupt.
His is the only perfect, holy, true will, and his will be done. And I can praise God for that. The mercy of the Lord here in
Exodus 33, 19 is tied with his grace. I'll be gracious to whom
I'll be gracious. And and I'll be merciful to whom
I'll have mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. You cannot get mercy without
the grace of God. And I'm gonna tell you this,
if you know the grace of God, if he's revealed it to you, he's
shown you mercy. Because the world doesn't know
this. And the world doesn't want to know this. The mercy of the
Lord is tied with his grace. You don't earn it, you can't
get it. He must give it. That's what merciful kindness
means. Two things. I don't get what
I deserve. And you don't get what you deserve. That's one, merciful kindness. The other part of merciful kindness
is this. You get what you don't deserve. Well, y'all say that's
grace. Yes, we do. That's because it
is. Merciful kindness is grace. You
can't separate the two. I don't get what I deserve, and
I do get what I don't deserve. What's that mean? I don't get
death, I get eternal life. That's the merciful kindness
of Jesus Christ. Because here it is, what about
this merciful kindness? This merciful kindness is great
toward us. Great toward us. I looked at that word, Walter,
and I like this, I do. His mercy, his grace, his loving
kindness is strong toward us. There's a couple other words
though. His merciful kindness is overwhelming to us. And the last but not least, his
merciful kindness is overpowering to us. Now people don't like
that. Walter, my God's a gentleman.
He won't overpower anybody. You might as well go home and
sit down and shut up. That's what you think. Because this
book is chock full of nothing but God proclaiming and performing his will against the
will of man. Now that's on the enemy side,
and bless God, it's on his children's side. You understand? His merciful kindness is overpowering
toward us. Ah, I like that. Because you
know, I know for a fact I needed to be overwhelmed. I know, as
a matter of fact, that I needed to be overpowered. Because here's
the thing. I wasn't looking for God when
he found me. I wasn't caring anything about
God. And then he found me. And you
know what? My will was to go on just as
I was. His will had a different purpose. He had merciful kindness toward
me. And I can tell you this, folks,
if you've got merciful kindness towards you, you will never be
the same again. And amen to that. Selah, park
on that. Think about it. You understand,
God's merciful kindness will change you. And thank God for
it. Because I needed to be changed.
And everyone here needed to be changed. Because see, this is the thing. I am found of those that sought
me not. Who said that? God said that.
Paul just quoted it. I was found of them that sought
me not. How's that happen? Well, he goes
out and overwhelms them, overpowers them with strong, strong, merciful
kindness. Oh, I like that, I like that.
I don't wanna be what I was. Because what was that? I can
tell you what I was. and I was rebellious and I was
ignorant. And I don't want to be that anymore.
Praise God, I'm not. Because now, in him, by his merciful
kindness toward us, I have, in Jesus Christ, eternal life. That's a merciful kindness. Because God's children have great
reason to what? To praise his name. Because his
merciful kindness is great toward them. See that last part, toward us.
God's mercy, his merciful kindness is particular. I already read
it in Exodus. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. I'll have mercy to whom I'll have mercy. What's
that mean? It's not for everybody. I mean,
you can take that however you want to. I don't think God saved
Pharaoh after he drowned him in the Red Sea. I really just
don't see that. You understand? I don't think
Esau's the only folk he hated. I know people don't wanna talk
about this. I know they don't wanna think about it. But you
understand, the potter has power over the clay. Of the same lump,
no different, we are no different than anyone else, we are no better. If it's not for his grace and
his merciful kindness, I'd be right with that other lump. Out
of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor and to make
another vessel unto dishonor. And I know they wanna say that
means, oh, one vessel unto honor and one vessel that's common.
Ain't what it says. I mean, I don't speak Greek,
but I have a computer, and it can look stuff up. I've got a
book at home, an interlinear Greek New Testament, and it says
dishonor. Now you don't like that, I understand. I didn't like it either at one
time. but bless God, right now, I can
praise God because that potter does have power over the clay.
Whatever lump I am, whatever vessel I've been made unto, the
potter still deserves the honor. He deserves the glory and he
deserves the praise because he's the one that made us and not
we ourselves. His merciful kindness is toward
us. Now, I will grant you, and I'll
say this clearly if I can, there is a sense in when he has mercy
on everyone, on the whole planet. The rain falls on the just and
the unjust alike. You understand? God gives jobs
and money and friends, everybody. And every breath, to be honest,
every breath you draw on this side is one you won't draw in
hell. That's the other thing. Jason mentioned this, we were
talking the other day. Someone he knows mentioned him,
you starting to believe this stuff about going to hell and
all that? And I said, you know, that's
the part that bothers me. because that's what everybody
worries, people worry about hell. They don't want to go to hell.
They may not necessarily want to go to heaven, they don't want
to know Christ necessarily, they don't want to hang out with you
or me, but they don't want to go to hell. Don't worry about
hell, worry about the lake of fire. You understand, nobody's
talking about the second death. You know who's going in there.
I mean, everybody's going in there who's not on the right
hand of God the Father in his son. And that's the second death. Anyhow. The Lord's merciful kindness
is overwhelming, overpowering, and strong toward his people. Now, those people are those that were
chosen in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world.
I know you're talking about the elect again. Yes, I am. It's
okay, I like talking about the elect. Henry Beckham said, I was listening
to the tape the other day, he says, you know, some people come
and they hear that I preach a message about sinners and they show up
and then I talk about election, they get mad at me. He said,
you don't believe in preaching to sinners. He said, and other
people's come to hear sovereign grace and they show up and he
preaches about God, Jesus Christ saving sinners and calling sinners
unto repentance and they get mad because it's not sovereign
grace. No, it's all. It is all of grace. It is all
of his merciful kindness. It is all of his will. And Jesus
Christ came to save sinners. And if you don't know you're
a sinner, I got nothing for you. But if you know you need his
merciful kindness, oh, I got a message for you. Because it's
there. It's there. Because I'm gonna
tell you something, if you know you need his merciful kindness,
You've already been visited. You've already got his merciful
kindness. But here's the thing, the elect always have his merciful
kindness. From before the foundation of
the world, before his son ever came, he was coming, he was coming. We've had his merciful kindness
our whole lives and before we were ever born. But now, If you
have his merciful kindness and you believe his son, you know
it. Those that he's brought in, the
saved, those that he has converted, those that he is converting,
they know it. The lost don't know anything.
Whether they're elect or not, it doesn't matter. They don't
know. Oh, but it's a glory to know. That's a merciful kindness
just to know. just to know that Jesus Christ
saves sinners. Those who need merciful kindness. And it's toward us. It's toward
us. You understand? It was toward
me when I was this tall and kicking up a ruckus in a Catholic church.
I didn't know it. I know it now. I know it now.
Ah, I mean, The saved, those that he has called out, those
that he has brought into the fold, the good shepherd has,
they know his merciful kindness is great toward them. It takes the power of God to
save a sinner. How many? Every single one of them. You
understand? Every single sinner has to be
made alive in Christ but has to be given life. The Holy Spirit
comes in every single sinner. And we think, oh, well, God's
mercy, that's something simple. We don't know nothing. That's
bad English, but it's a good thought. That's the way we are. We have to be, I preached on
this four years ago. I found that out, Walter, I looked.
As I ran across it, I said, oh, my, I gotta do this, whatever
it is. And I look, I've done it four years ago. I'll do it
again tomorrow. I don't care. You understand? The truth of
God's the truth of God. The grace and merciful kindness
of the Lord is toward all of his people and it's overpowering
to us. It's overpowering toward us.
It's overwhelming toward us. Because if God has merciful kindness
to you right now, he always has. And he always will. You understand? I'm the Lord, I change not. We
forget that in our temporal lives, because all we know, and we know
it very badly, okay, is yesterday and today. Okay, and I'm pretty
fuzzy about yesterday. And don't ask me about last week
because I've been trying to forget it. Other than the part where
I get to come here. Hang out with my wife part of
the day when I'm not asleep. Understand, that's all we know. God don't work like that. God
works in what Earl used to say, it's a bad metaphor but it's
all I got. In eternity past, in eternity future, it's all.
God knows from the beginning, he declared the end. And you
can't have that unless you're taking care of the middle too.
See, people are like, well, it's all up to us and God's just gonna
wrap it up the way, no, it ain't up to us. It's up to his will. It's up to his grace. It's up
to his merciful kindness. But you wanna know something
about merciful kindness toward us? I'm gonna read you something
here. Jeremiah 31 verse three, the Lord hath appeared of old
unto me. Unto me. See how personal this
is. Say, yea, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. What's that mean? If God loves
you now, he's always loved you. Understand? If God's gonna love
you at the end, He's always loved you. If God loves you now, he's
gonna love you forever. It's an everlasting love. Therefore,
an everlasting love has results. It has results. Guess what? Positive
results. Therefore, with loving kindness, Merciful kindness. Have I drawn
thee. I'll tell you something, when
he draws you, you're coming. You know why? Because that love
and kindness, just like merciful kindness, is overpowering. It's
overwhelming. It's strong. I like it, it's
strong. Hosea two in verse 19. Now I
understand these are the words of Hosea. But I also understand
Hosea is a type of Christ. And he's talking about, Hosea's
talking about his bride. You understand, Hosea had an unwilling
bride. Guess what? So did Jesus Christ. That's what I was just talking
about a while ago. I wasn't looking for him. You understand, the
good shepherd didn't say, other sheep I have and they better
get over here. That's what people preach. That's
what they preach. Don't believe them. So the other
thing about the sheep, he goes out, picks it up, puts it on
his shoulder, and carries it back where that sheep is supposed
to be. And there's gonna be one foal and one shepherd. What'd
he say? Them I must bring. Guess what? He's gonna bring
them. He's gonna overpower that sheep. You can kick all you want, but
if you're on his shoulders, you're not going anywhere. Matter of fact, you might as
well just settle down and enjoy the ride. We can't do that. Not then. And once we're in, we'll say,
oh yeah, you know, that was a good thing. But I was confused and
disturbed and afraid. Spirit of fear under bondage.
I don't want that no more. Thank God I'm not gonna get it
anymore. We've not received the spirit of bondage unto fear again.
We did once. But the spirit of adoption whereby
now we can cry, Abba, Papa, Dad, Father. Overpower me, O Lord, with merciful
kindness and I will praise thee. Because it's worthy to be praised.
But here's what Hosea said, I got sidetracked there. and I will
betroth thee unto me forever, forever. Now, how much did Hosea's
bride have to say about that? Ain't got nothing to do with
her, other than she's the one. It didn't require her cooperation,
he didn't ask her. Now I understand, I'm not saying
this is the way men are to treat women nowadays, okay? Now what
I'm saying, if you wanna marry somebody, ask them, and if they
say no, go away. Leave them alone. Just find somebody
else, do something else, doesn't matter. But here's the thing,
this is the type of Christ in us. His bride, he's got a bride. He's the head, and he says, I
will betroth thee unto me forever, yay! I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment and in loving kindness. And, still not done, in mercies. You understand? Now we've got righteousness and
judgment and loving kindness and mercies tied together. And
loving kindness and mercies are tied to grace already. How in
the world does all this come together? Ah. The truth of the Lord forever. It's the end of this verse. For
his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the
Lord, it says endureth, but you can leave that out and just say
the truth of the Lord forever. Forever. It does endure forever,
yes. But the truth of the Lord forever.
Because Jesus Christ said, I am the truth. Guess what? That's where you
get righteousness, and judgment. He was judged, that way I don't
have to be judged. Actually I have been judged because
I was judging him. Righteousness and in judgment
and loving kindness and merciful kindness, mercies. I'm gonna
tell you something, that's pretty overpowering. That's pretty overpowering. The truth of the Lord forever. We have two problems. First problem is we don't understand
the truth. And the second problem is we
don't understand forever. But it is. You know why the truth
of the Lord is forever? Because it's true. You understand,
this is the thing. We're not talking about your
truth, we're not talking about my truth, we're talking about
the truth of the Lord. We're talking about the truth actually
of who? Righteousness, judgment, loving
kindness, mercy. We're talking about Jesus Christ.
He is the truth. Everything he said that we have
recorded is true. And if it's true, it can never
change. You understand? That guy, he
asked the question, what is truth? If you have to ask the question,
you don't know. You don't know. Now I understand,
my truth is subjective. It's subjected to what I think.
You understand? But my thinking is subjected
to my brain. And my brain's still corrupt.
My mind is still corrupt. I still have the flesh. But you
understand, the Lord has no faults. No fallacies, no nothing. There's
not even a shadow of turning. Not even a hint of turning. The
truth of the Lord is forever. And the truth of this is that
his merciful kindness is great toward us. So the conclusion
of all this, the last piece of that verse is praise ye the Lord. You got something to praise him
about. Oh, you've got something to praise him about. His merciful
kindness and his truth, both, and his righteousness, his judgment,
his loving kindness, and his mercies are forever. Forever,
forever. He's the one who gave us this
life. And he's the one that's keeping
us in this life. It's all of grace. And it's all
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father and the Spirit. It's of God. God was in Christ, reconciling
us to himself. We don't have to be reconciled
to each other. We need to be reconciled to God. And what? God did it. And now, in his merciful
kindness, he is showing that to sinners. The righteous can
go their own way. Christ said, I didn't come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Do you know your
sinner? Do you want merciful kindness?
Do you want his grace? Ask him. Call upon the name of
who? The Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. Our
Heavenly Father, we are thankful again this time, this place.
Thank you, Lord, for your blessings. In righteousness and judgment
and loving kindness and mercy, we don't deserve any of it, but
you've given it all to us and your son. Be with Walter as he
comes to preach your word, and bless our hearts to receive it. In Christ's name we pray, amen.