Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter
22. Luke chapter 22. Now, how quickly
we are apt to forget things, aren't we? We're very quick to
forget things. If you ask us what we ate a month
ago on a Sunday, we couldn't even tell you. We can't even
recall. If you ask us to list all our
meals that we ate last week, we probably could not recall
them all. We're so quick to forget things.
So quick. And we're quick to forget things
that happened last week. We're quick to forget things
that happened yesterday, aren't we? We're quick to forget things
that happened last month, last year. Five years, 10 years, we
forget so much. So much. The name of the message is remember
God's mercy. Remember God's mercy. I was talking
to a brother in Christ this week about the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he brought up a wonderful
point which spurred me to the sermon. I had a whole nother
sermon ready. I had a whole nother message ready. But just the conversation
with our dear brother spurred me to this whole message here
about remembering what Christ has done for us. Because again,
we're so prone to forget. I remember a missionary friend
of mine, he once said, the reason we have to keep hearing the gospel
is because we forget. We forget about the wonderful
things that Christ has done for us. We get caught up in life,
we get caught up in our days, and how quickly our minds are
consumed with the things of the day, the things of the world
even, right? Especially in the times we're
living in now. We're living in, for our lives,
unprecedented times, right? Uncertain times right now. We're
living in. We're seeing things with this
pandemic that we've not seen. And the unrest in our country
and the unrest in the world, My, but for the believer, we
have to keep our eyes on Christ. And you've heard me say this
many times, that's the hardest thing for us to do as believers,
just to look to Christ. So we have to be reminded through
the preaching of the gospel of the great things that Christ
has done for us, that he who holds our souls He who has obtained
eternal redemption for us, the scripture says, is the very one
who holds all things going on in this world. And he's in control
of everything. There's nothing, there's not
a maverick molecule in this universe. Not one. He's in control of everything. And it all moves and has its
being, all life moves and has its being in Christ. In Christ alone. And our dear brother also brought
forth that the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, right? What does
it say? Do this in remembrance of me.
So even when we have the Lord's Supper, we're remembering the
great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ in the place of his people. It's constantly being brought
before us. In the preaching of the gospel,
it's constantly being bought before us as believers. It's
being bought before the lost, and it's being bought before
believers. And there's two different outcomes there, right? By the
power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel comes and it just blesses
the Lord's people. It just blesses them. And then
an unsaved, the unsaved, the lost, I remember being in this
state, you just don't even hear anything. You hear the preacher's
words, but there's nothing going in the heart, is there? Nothing. So it's Christ and Christ alone
who saved us from our sins, isn't it? It's Christ and Christ alone
who saved us from our sins. And we are to remember this wonderful
truth. The wonderful truth that Jonah
proclaimed. Salvation is of the Lord, period. Right? It's of the Lord. From beginning,
he's the Alpha in our salvation to the end. He's the Omega in
our salvation. And he's everything in between.
He's the beginning, He's the author of our salvation, and
He's the finisher of our salvation. Scriptures declare this plainly,
and we are to remember this as believers. Because I'll tell
you what, it doesn't take long, you get out in the world. You
get out in the world, you get caught up in the world, you get
caught up in the things of the world, and it doesn't take long
for the world to start crowding out things in the Lord. And you start to forget. That's
what the brother I was talking to mentioned. He says, all these
things that keep people busy. And there's tons of distractions,
isn't there? And what might distract you might
not distract me. But what distracts me might not
distract you. But we're flesh, aren't we? So
we have to come and we constantly are reminded of the wonderful
things that Christ has done for us. Constantly. And that's what the preaching
of the gospel does. It brings forth the great work of salvation,
the complete finished work of Christ. It brings it before the
hearers. Let's look here in Luke chapter
22. Look what our Lord says here. Luke chapter 22. We're all familiar
with these words. We read these words during communion. And look what our Lord says here
with us. Luke chapter 22, verses 14 to 20. He's at the Last Supper with
his disciples here. And he says in verse 14, And
when the hour was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles
with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to
eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Now, he's desired to
eat this because he already knows it's going to happen, right?
He's God incarnate in the flesh. The whole reason he came to this
world was to die for the sins of his people. He already knows
he has to suffer. The scriptures declare in Isaiah
that he set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. He's ready to go.
He's on a mission. And the whole mission is to save,
as a believer, if you're a believer, you can say the whole reason
he came, his whole mission was to save my soul. Oh, praise be
his name. Praise his mighty name. He did
that for me. Every believer can say that.
It's wonderful. Look at this, he says, though,
with desire by desire to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. So he knew he was going to suffer. He knew. For I say
unto you, I will not eat, I will not any more eat thereof until
it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and
gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves.
For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine
until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread. and
gave thanks and break it, and gave it unto them, saying, this
is my body, which is, look at this, given for you. He's sinless. He's the sinless, spotless Lamb
of God. He's gonna give his life. He's
gonna suffer on Calvary's cross. The wrath of God for the sins
of his people is gonna be poured out upon him. He's gonna suffer
for his people. Look at that. And break it and
give unto them, saying, this is my body, which is given for
you. He's gonna give his life for his people. We can read this
and know that this is speaking of us as believers, too. Look
at this. This doing what? Remembrance
of me. Remembrance of me. He says, likewise, also take
the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood, which is what? Shed for you. Look at that. He's
going to give his life on Calvary's cross. And he says, I'm gonna
shed my blood for you. Now every believer can take that
home, can't we? We know he's speaking to the
12, but we know that's true of every single sheep of God that
God gave to Christ in the eternal covenant of grace. Wonderful, and he says, this
do in remembrance of me. You know, our Lord walked in
this earth, didn't he? And he's bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh, and he walked without sin. But he knows how
frail we are. He knows how prone we are to
forget. So he's given us his blessed
word that we can remember. We can remember, that we can
see the great things that God has done for his people. Israel's
just a picture of the church, isn't it? He took care of Israel
all through the wilderness. We see that he parted the Red
Sea. He parted the Red Sea for them. And they walked through
on dry ground. He fed them. He fed them quail. He fed them manna from heaven.
He watched over them. He led them into the promised
land. And he did it all for them. And
that's just a picture of how he leads us out of Egypt, which
is the picture of the world. And he can take us right to the
promised land, beloved. He can take us right there. He's
ever with us. He's with us now. He says, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. He's with us. He's with us. Now the Greek word for remembrance
there, in the text, the Greek word there means to remind. To
remind. Remembrance, a commemoration.
It also means a memorial is applied to the Lord's Supper. In remembrance
of me means that the person should remember Christ and should remember
the sacrifice that Christ has done for them. So it's a continual
remembrance for us as believers of what Christ did for us, what
he did on Calvary's cross for us. And we're going to get to
that. That's wonderful news for sinners. There's no better news
than what Christ did on the cross for sinners. And we who are the
people of God should remember the greatness of the sacrifice
of Christ. It was a great sacrifice, because
he's a great God. And the sacrifice is by none
other than God himself in the flesh, the sinless, spotless
Lamb of God. And this should cause the believer,
it should cause us to abstain from sin, shouldn't it? That's
why I always say the love of Christ constrains us from sin. We don't desire to do the things
that we used to do. Well, we still do because we're
sinners, but now we struggle with sin. You know, sin was never a problem
before the Lord saved me. I didn't even think about it.
It didn't even bother me. We talked about that. Didn't bother me. Now it bothers
me. It bothers me more. My own sin
bothers me more than anybody else's sin, I'll tell you that.
And again, I'm going to ask you, I've asked you many times, ask
yourself this question. Do you sin more than you want
to? Oh, yeah, we do, don't we? Oh, yeah, we do. Oh, my. Turn, if you would, to Numbers
chapter 10. We'll just look at one verse over here in Numbers
chapter 10. I'll read a few other scriptures
too. Numbers chapter 10, now look at this. Numbers chapter 10, the Old Testament.
And we know the Old Testament just testifies of Christ. Oh,
the law and the prophets, they testify of the Savior. They testify
of Him. Look at this, Numbers chapter
10, verse 10. Also in the day of your gladness and in your
solemn days, And in the beginning of your months, you shall blow
with the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over your sacrifices
of your peace offerings, that they may be to you a memorial,
a remembrance. That's a remembrance, a memorial.
Before your God, I am the Lord your God. Look at that. Oh, my. Psalm 38, if you read Psalm 38
on your own time, it's a whole psalm about remembrance of the
Lord. As is all the scriptures, right? All the scriptures. All
the scriptures. You know, this whole book is
history. This whole book is history. Everything
in this book is history. It tells us about what Christ
has done for us. The whole book. The whole book. So when a man preaches the gospel
to you, he's preaching the history of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
preaching to you what Christ has done. He's preaching what
Christ has done. My oh my. And then our dear brother
again brought forth that the reason we come to church is to
remember, to remember, to remember Christ, to remember what he's
done for us. in the midst of this busy, busy
world, in the midst of work, in the midst of family, in the
midst of the things in this world going on, this will cause us
for a time to stop and forget about the things going on in
the world and to focus on Christ and to focus on Him alone. All those things, that's why
I pray, Lord, press those things out of our mind. Lord, help us
to just come here and press all these things out of our minds
that's going on, and help us to focus on you. So we come to church to hear
the gospel. We come to remember the wonderful
things that God has done for his people. We come to recollect
what Christ has done for his people, and the preacher stands
up and proclaims what Christ has done. The fact that he came
to this sin-cursed world to redeem his people from their sins. The
fact that he went to Calvary's cross and he bled and he died
and he cried, it is finished. And the salvation of God's people
is finished. The fact that he was raised for
our justification. And the fact is, we looked at
last Sunday night, that he's risen up into glory. And this
same Jesus, who you see going up, he's coming back again. He's
coming back again. Praise his mighty name. And we
remember that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us from our
sins, all of them, all of them. Here are some verses in scriptures
if you want to write them down with a word of remembrance in
them. I won't have us turn to all of them, there's a few words
here, but I'll just read and give you the address. It's just
a couple verses here with the words of remembrance in them.
And they'll cause us to rejoice as believers, cause us to think
about the great work of redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, this
accomplished, finished work. accomplished, finished work of
all the elect of all the ages. Psalm 34, verse four says, sing
unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness. Remember that our God is holy.
Remember that he's holy. He's holy. Psalm 102, verse 12,
but thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever in thy remembrance unto
all generations. See, his gospel will be preached
and proclaimed generation to generation to generation. As
long as he tarries, his word will go forth in power, beloved.
Here, raise up preachers to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ wherever he wills. And in John chapter 14, verse
26 says this, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things
and bring all things to what? Your remembrance. That's the
words of the Master. He says the Holy Spirit will
bring all these things to your remembrance. That's why we rejoice
in our spirit when we hear the gospel preached. That's why we
rejoice when we're singing about the great things, glory to his
name. That's why we rejoice, because
even in those words, we're remembering the great things that Christ
has done for us. And it's marvelous. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10. We'll read verses, Hebrews chapter
10, we'll read verses 30 to 33. Look at this too. Now, the believers,
we're going through the book of 1 Thessalonians on Wednesday
nights, and those believers at Thessalonica were being persecuted
by their own countrymen. We know that from the text as
we've journeyed through that book. It's just a wonderful study.
And they've been persecuted by their own countrymen. And we
know that the churches in Judea were persecuted by their own
countrymen, because Paul writes the saints at Thessalonica and
tells them, you're going through the same thing as the churches
at Judea, because they're being persecuted by their countrymen,
too. Now, when the Lord saves a man or a woman, they're going
to go through persecution. They will. There's no doubt.
It's going to come. It's either going to come from
friends or family. It's going to come from places you didn't
even expect it to come from. It's going to come. It's going
to come. Look at this, though, in Hebrews
chapter 10, verses 30 to 33. For we know him that has said,
vengeance belongs unto me. Vengeance belongs unto the Lord.
That's what it says. I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call to
remembrance. Look at this. Call to remembrance.
The former days in which after you were illuminated, after you're
born again, you endured a great fight of afflictions. Man, people turned against you
and your family, your friends, that you didn't even expect.
Because the Lord said, I've come to divide, didn't he? Remember?
He said, so I'm going to divide families. I'm going to divide,
right? I remember going through this when the Lord saved me.
I remember family members saying, I don't want to be around you
anymore. Yeah, we've talked about that, too. Yeah. So remember
the former days. Call to remembrance. Remember
those former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured
a great fight of afflictions, partly while you were made a
gazing stock. They looked at us and said, what
in the world happened to them? Well, praise be to God, I'm saved.
I'm born again by the Holy Spirit of God. But we were made a gazing
stock, both by reproaches. Oh, yeah, reproaches. and afflictions,
and partially, well, you became companions of them that were
so used. Don't be surprised because it happened to our brothers and
sisters in the past. Don't ever be surprised by things.
It's happened for years and years and years. My, oh, my. Now turn, if you would, to 2
Peter, 2 Peter. Look what's written over here.
Second Peter, chapter one, verses one to 14. Now many of the Psalms
are poetic records of God's mercy towards his ancient people and
calling upon God's people to bless and praise his glorious
name. And again, Israel forms a mirror
in which we can see our own spiritual history, the spiritual history
of God's elect. Look what it says over here,
though, in 2 Peter 1, verses 12 to 14. Wherefore I will not
be negligent to put you always in remembrance. Look at that.
Paul, or Paul, Peter, we know Paul, Peter, here it's Peter.
He says, I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna neglect to put in remembrance
before you, Christ. Christ, look what he says. Of
these things, though you know them, oh, you know them, you
know them, but I'm gonna keep putting them in front of you. I'm gonna keep putting them in
front of you. God's people know the gospel, don't we? Yeah, we
know we've been taught. Peter said, I'm gonna just keep
putting that in front of you, even though you know it. I'm gonna
keep putting the gospel in front of you. Remembrance of these things,
though you know them, and be established in the present truth,
even though you're established in the present truth, you still
need to hear it. Why? Because we're so prone to
forget. We're so prone to get busy in
this world. We're so prone to let the things of this world
just crowd out the things of Christ. So Peter says, I'm going
to just keep putting these right in front of you. And we know
Paul did the same thing, didn't he? He says, I'm determined,
what? To preach Christ and Him crucified. He's saying the same
thing. I'm just going to keep putting
Christ before you. And that's what every gospel
preacher does, which is put Christ before you, praying that the
Holy Spirit would use to just edify you and build you up and
to draw in the lost sheep. Oh, Lord, please, please save
your people. We know you will, but oh, please
draw on the lost, Lord. Draw them in, if it be your will.
Look to Christ, we cry. Look to Christ and live. Look
to Christ and live. We call the sinner to look to
Christ and live. Look to him and live. There's
no hope anywhere else but Christ and Christ alone. And it says,
yea, I think, is meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle. So
Peter's saying, as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up
by putting you in remembrance. Look at that. He says, as long
as I'm alive, as long as God gives me breath, I'm going to
put Christ in front of you. I'm going to stir you up with
Christ. That's what he's saying. I'm just going to keep putting.
Again, remembrance, remembrance, remember. We come here to remember
the wonderful things Christ has done. And the gospel preacher
just keeps putting Christ in front of you for you to remember. When I listen to a message, when
I get so stirred up, Lord brings the remembrance. He saved my
soul. Oh, praise God. Praise God. He didn't leave me in that pit
where I was. He saved my soul. Knowing that
shortly I must put off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord
Jesus Christ has showered me. Oh, boy. Turn, if you would,
to Psalm 136. Let's fix our eyes upon a verse
in the Psalms here. Psalm 136. Now this whole Psalm is about,
this whole Psalm is about how God's mercy endures forever. Think how long-suffering the
Lord Jesus Christ is with his people. He is long-suffering
with us, isn't he? Oh my, think of how long-suffering
he was with the people of Israel. Going through that desert. Said, these people are stiff-necked
people. Moses said, these people are stiff-necked people. And
the Lord just kept having mercy on them, didn't he? Oh, my. Just kept having mercy on them. Look at this, though. Let this
just warm your heart today. If you're a believer in Christ,
let this warm your heart. That God's mercy endures forever. His steadfast love towards you
is unceasing. His mercy towards you is eternal. Look at this. Let's fix our eyes
on verses 23 and 24 here. Look at this. Who remembered
us in our lowest state, for his mercy endureth forever. and hath redeemed us from our
enemies. For his mercy endureth forever. Now look at that in verse 23.
Who remembered us in our lowest state. God looked upon us in our fallen,
helpless, hopeless state in Adam. He remembered us. He remembers
his people. He'll never forget them, will
he? Because his eternal love is set upon them. And look at that, he remembered.
Now let's consider our lowest state. Let's consider the lowest
state that we were in when God found us. And then consider on
the side, as this verse finishes, his mercy endures forever. Forever. Let's consider our lowest state
by birth and by nature. When Adam fell in the garden,
we all fell in him. He is our federal head. The theologians
call it our federal head. Just means that we were in Adam. And we fell in him. We are the
seed of Adam. The seat of man, right? Remember
who Christ is. He's the seat of the woman. There's
a big difference there. He's sinless. He's perfect. We're conceived
in sin. And we're sinners. When Adam
fell, we fell with him. We were ruined by the fall. We
come into this world dead in trespasses and sins. Absolutely
dead, spiritually. Physically alive, but spiritually
dead. Separated from God by our sins. The scripture declares at enmity,
which means hatred toward God. By wicked works. If anyone denies
that, they're calling God a liar. Because God himself has said
we were at enmity in our minds with God by wicked works. My, oh, my. Turn, if you would,
to Romans chapter 8. Look at this. Again, anyone who
says they were not at enmity with God before they were saved,
they are calling God a liar. They do not know the depths of
their sin. They do not know the depths of
the sinfulness of man. Because God himself in the scriptures
declared that we were at enmity with God. Look at this, Romans chapter
8, verses 5 to 8. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. So those who are not born again
mind the things of the flesh. Those who are born again mind
the things of the spirit. And don't forget, we have a civil
war within us. We have a battle within us that
we've never had now, because the flesh is now battling the
spirit. Oh my. And if anyone who says,
well, I don't have that. Well, I wonder if you're born
again, because we have a battle. We have a war within us. My,
oh, my. Look at this. For to be carnally
minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because,
look at this, and this is God's word, because the carnal mind,
the natural state of man, is what? Enmity against God. for
it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it
be. It's in constant rebellion against
the Lord. And if they don't say in their
words that they hate God, I know by my actions before the Lord
saved me, I was telling God I hated him. By my very actions, by my
very disobedience, I had... And we can all testify to that,
can't we? We may not have verbalized that,
But oh my, by our actions, it was true. And that's what
the scripture says. It says, where to be carnally
minded is dead, but to be spiritual minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, the natural mind, for it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Look at that.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Do you know that
you and I, Saved and lost cannot please God in our flesh by anything
we do. You know that? But praise be to God. The believer
in Christ is in Christ. He's clothed in the royal righteousness
of Christ. So when God looks upon a saved
sinner, he sees us in Christ. clothed in the perfect, spotless
righteousness of Christ. Right now. Right now. Isn't that wonderful? So our text here, that text in
Romans and in our text in Psalms there, brings before us our lowest
state by birth. Our lowest state by birth. By
nature. And we're laid low by our sin,
aren't we? When Adam fell, we were ruined by the fall, beloved. Sin is so much a part of us,
our minds, our bodies. And you know, man and the natural
state are by nature so low that we can't be any lower. We're
just depraved sinners. Just depraved sinners. And you know, it's only the restraining
hand of God that doesn't let man just go. You know, all these
riots going on and this stuff, Just think what it would be like
if the Lord just let it all go. He's restraining even that. Yeah,
glory be to his name for restraining, restraining. My oh my. We are so vile and so weak in
our natural state. We have no ability to change
the situation that we're in when we come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins. We have no ability to change
that state by anything we do. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. The lowest state that the scripture
said there, that's our lowest state. And think of how high
God is. Think of his holiness. And we
are so low in our natural state. There's such a separation. And
we can't gap the separation on our own, can we? No. But think of this. In our natural
fallen state, we are also God's determined foe according to what
we just read there in Romans. We're his determined foe. We're
at enmity with him in our natural state. He didn't consider the
law of God a natural man because natural man's condemned by the
law of God, right? And the law of God shows us our
sinfulness, right? It does. but praise be to God
for the believer. We're showing the balm of Christ,
salvations of the Lord. It's in him and alone. And in
the world, man is enslaved to sin. And that's how we came into
this world, enslaved in sin. We're enslaved by its customs.
We're enslaved by the spirit of the world. Just look at natural
man, see how they're enslaved. They're enslaved to sin. They've
been led captive by Satan and sin. And look at man in general, natural
man. See how in their various associations
with their fellow creatures, look at their craftiness, look
at their cruelty to one another. You don't have to look very far,
do you? Just read the newspapers. Well, now let's read the internet.
Go on the internet and look at the Look at the news on the internet. Look at how wicked man can be
to one another. Look at how man exalts themselves
in their accomplishments also, boasting in their own self-righteousness.
Now, self-righteousness is a killer for all of us. We can all be
self-righteous. My, but natural man is full of
self-righteousness. They have no care for God. They
have no care for the glory of God. Did you care for the glory
of God before he saved you? Now, granted, some of you grew
up in the church. You heard about those things,
but did you care about them? One brother in our midst told
me he couldn't wait to get out of here when he turned 18. He couldn't
wait to get out of here. He didn't know Christ. But my, oh, my. So what a hopeless, helpless
state we're in. Let's go back to Psalm 136, 23.
If we were left there, oh, my, we'd be in despair, wouldn't
we? We'd be in absolute despair if we were left there. We'd be
in absolute despair. Let's go back to Psalm 136, verse
23. Again, why do we come here? To
remember. to remember what Christ has done
for us, to hear again the gospel preached and proclaimed. Look at Psalm 136, verse 23.
Who remembered us in our lowest state. Now remember, God chose
the people in Christ before the foundation of the world, right? And those, the lamb, Christ is
a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, so it's
all been planned and purposed by God that there's going to
be a redeemer. And the scripture says here,
who remembered us in our lowest state. Now, we saw the state
that we were in just by the scriptures we looked at. And we already
know what state we were in if God saved us. We know. We know
we were helpless, hopeless, and with, we're just lost. Look at this. Who remembered
us in our lowest state. God remembered his people. You
know, he's never forgotten us. But even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins, even when we were at enmity with God, He
remembered us. Look at that. Who remembered
us in our lowest state, for His mercy endureth forever. Now see that word remembered
in verse 23, in the Hebrew it means to mark. I love that, to
mark. To mark. God's people are a chosen people
to mark so as to be, and in the Hebrew it says, to mark so as
to be recognized. God knows his people. He knows his sheep. He knows who every one of his
sheep are through all the ages of this world. Now, we cannot
tell the sheep of God apart, can we? No, we can't. We have
no idea until the Lord saves one. Oh, my. We cannot tell the sheep apart
from the goats in our natural state, but God knows. God knows
every one of His sheep, every one of them. And the definition in the Hebrew
continues with this, to remember by implication to mention Be
mindful, recount, record. Think of that in light of how
God's people's names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, recorded
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Isn't that wonderful? As one commentator said, he's
written our names in indelible ink, and that's the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. My, oh my. And God's people's names have
been written in the Lamb's Book of Life from eternity. And God remembers them. He remembers them in their lowest
state. My. So we can see then how God's
mercy truly endures forever. It endures forever. towards his
people. God's mercy is and was from eternity
freely fixed upon his people. Now take that home if you're
one of God's elect. His love and his mercy has been
freely and fully fixed upon you from eternity. Now that's almost
too much for our minds, isn't it? That's almost too much for
our little finite minds. Because, and I say it all the
time, it leaves you in awe, doesn't it? It's almost too much for
us to fathom. But it's true. Because His mercy
endures forever. Forever. Forever. And it's distinguishing mercy.
It's distinguishing mercy, too. Look at verse 24, and remember
what Christ has done for you. Remember what Christ has done
for you as a born-again, blood-washed believer. Look at this. And hath
redeemed us from our enemies, for his mercy endures forever. Christ has redeemed his people.
He's redeemed us from our sins. What was our greatest enemy?
Our sins. Right? Our sins. Our greatest enemy. They condemn
us. Every one of us. There's none
righteous. No, not one. That's everybody in this world.
In a natural state. There's none good. There's none
that seek it after God. That's everybody. But for God's people, He remembers
us in our lowest states. He has redeemed us, beloved.
Redeemed us from our enemies. Because He regarded us in our
lowest state. He regarded us in our fallen
Adam. And His mercy endures forever.
He remembered us. And He sent His Son to die for
us. Because He remembered us. And he sends us his word, didn't
he? He's given us his word to instruct us. To instruct us. And he's remembered
us. He sent his ordinances to comfort
us, so we could remember the great things that Christ has
done for us. To remind us of the finished,
complete, finished, sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary's cross. And that's what we remember.
And what does it do? It fills the people of God with
great joy, doesn't it? We can leave this building rejoicing. Because we're undeserving. We
didn't seek it out. And yet, his mercy towards us
endures forever. Unceasing, eternal mercy. Mercy. Oh my. He remembered us and he saved
us by his eternal mercy and his eternal grace. So marvel, beloved
of God, that our great God remembered his mercy towards his chosen
people in Christ. He remembered our guilt and he
provided an atonement, a perfect sacrifice. In his name is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He remembers our weakness, too,
doesn't he? And oh, how weak we are. Oh, how weak we are. But in our
weakness, what? He is strong. He is strong. We're so frail. And when we're
in danger, which is often, and we were in danger, think of this,
we were in danger. from our sins, weren't we? The
law of God and the justice of God had a legal claim upon us.
But what does God do for his people? He remembers us in our
lowest state, and he provides a refuge. And who's our refuge? The Lord Jesus Christ. See, we're so prone to forget,
but God never forgets. He never forgets, beloved. And
then think of this, he remembers us in our lowest state. This
world is the lowest state, isn't it? One day we're going to be
in heaven with him because of him, because of what he's done
for his people. He remembered our destitute,
our destitute position, our destitute state, and his love provided
a perfect redeemer. A perfect Redeemer. His mercy
provided a perfect Redeemer. His love and mercy provided a
perfect substitute. And His name is our great Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. God's own Son, God incarnate
in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. He remembered our lowest state,
beloved. Oh, my. And do not forget who
is the one who remembered us. His name is Elohim, in Hebrew. His name is Elohim, which means
the strong one. His name is Jehovah, which means
the self-existent one. His name is Jehovah Jireh, the
Lord provides. His name is Jehovah Sekindu,
the Lord of Righteousness. This is the one who's remembered
us in our lowest states. Why? Because his mercy endures
forever. And His mercy endures forever,
and it moved Him to consider us in our lowest state. Remember,
He knows the end from the beginning. He knows the end from the beginning.
We only know from now till the end of our lives, but He knows
the end from the beginning. Oh, my. And He considered our
lowest state, the lowest state of His people, and He provided
the Lord Jesus Christ, who willingly came here, the Son of God. The word of God willingly came
to save his people from their sins. And none but God incarnate
in the flesh could redeem God's people. Because when we consider
our low fallen estate, there was nothing we could do to save
ourselves or to help ourselves. And he remembered. our lowest
states, and he redeemed us with his own precious blood. God himself became a man. God himself, the sinless, spotless
lamb of God, gave his life on Calvary's cross for his people. Why? Because his mercy endures
forever. Forever. Praise his name. Isn't that comforting? That's
so comforting, isn't it? That's so comforting. So let
we who are the people of God marvel at the mercy that's been
shown us in Christ Jesus, that the mercy of God endures forever,
that he considered our lowest state, that he sent his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. The word of God himself came
to save his people from their sins, that in itself is a very,
that in itself, the fact that Christ came is the greatest act
of mercy this world has ever seen. The greatest act of grace
that this world has ever seen. The greatest manifestation of
love that this world has ever seen. That Christ came to die for the
sins of his people. That the king himself, gave his
life for his servants and his subjects. My, my, oh, my. God delights in mercy. Do you
know that? Turn, if you would, to Micah, Micah chapter 7. God
delights in mercy. It's never said that he delights
in wrath. It's never said that he delights in judgment. No,
he exercises those things because of his holiness. But you know,
the scriptures does declare that God delights in mercy. Mercy. And think of that. His mercy endures forever. He delights to pardon his people. Look at this, Micah chapter 7,
verses 18 to 20. And we see here, we've seen it
already in that psalm, right? The steadfast love of God and
the steadfast mercy of God brought forth. But look at this in Micah
chapter 7. This is just wonderful. Who is
a God like unto thee? Well, there's no one like Elohim,
is there? He's the true and living God. Every other God that people
stand up is just a little G, false gods. There's none God
like our God. He's a true and a living God.
Who is a God like unto thee? Look at this, that pardons iniquity.
He pardons our iniquity. How? He pardons the iniquity
of his people. How? By the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. I'll pass over you. Oh, my. It doesn't care. Mercy,
like I said, this is the greatest manifestation of mercy when Christ
died on the cross for his people. He pardons iniquity. He passes
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage, and that's his
elect. He retaineth not his anger forever. Now, sometimes we get
mad at people. We don't let our anger go, do
we? God's not like us. His ways are not our ways. He
forgets. He forgets, who have we sinned
against? We sinned against God, right? He forgets it for his
people. It's forgiven in Christ. His
anger, his anger, he doesn't retain his anger for his people,
against his people because it's already being appeased in Christ
when Christ died on Calvary's cross. His wrath and his judgment
against his people has been satisfied, has been extinguished by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. He retaineth not
his anger forever, because he what? Delighteth in mercy. Beloved, his mercy endures forever
towards his people. He delights in mercy. He delights
to show mercy to his people in Christ. He will not turn again. He will have compassion upon
us. He will subdue our iniquities. And thou wilt cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. He remembers them no more. We have a hard time forgiving
someone if they sin against us. I remember in my natural state,
man, I could hold a grudge for a long time. I don't do that
anymore. I just tend to let things go
now. Christ has forgiven me so much, it's not hard for me to
forgive other people. It really isn't. It really isn't. But look
at that. Here, cast all the sins of his
people into the depths of the sea. John, you've been on that
sea. You know how deep that sea is.
You throw something in that ocean, you're never going to find it
again. Never going to find it again. My, oh, my. Our sins are gone. The sins of God's people are
gone. Christ paid for them all. God will remember them no more
against his people. Blood of Christ has cleansed
us from all our sins. Hallelujah. Why? Because His
mercy endures forever. Forever. And He delights to show
mercy. He delights to show mercy to
His people. He delights to show His wonderful,
eternal, everlasting mercy to His chosen people. Wonder of
wonders. It's said That our God is a God
of great mercy, plenteous in mercy, abundant in mercy. And
God's people can say, I have tasted that he is gracious. I
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. I can say that. I know
if you're a believer, you can say that. You tasted the Lord's
gracious in you. Oh my, he's so gracious. He's
so wonderful. And we can testify The born-again
believer can look back in our lives and see how we were before
the Lord saved us, and even know how we are after the Lord saved
us, and we can say His mercy endures forever. His mercy endures
forever. So God's mercy should be the
theme of our heart. We should think of it, we should
speak of it, and we should sing of it. All the mercy of God in
Christ. And we should set God's mercy
against our sins. Set God's mercy against our sins.
Set God's mercy against our faults. Set God's mercy against our misery,
our trials, our tribulations. And set God's mercy against what
we deserve in our natural state, what we deserved for our sins. And in delight and rejoice in
the freeness of God's grace and mercy in Christ towards us, towards
his people. May we think upon these things
this week. May we meditate upon these great truths and may we
remember, may we remember the great things that Christ has
done for his people. He saved us from our sins. He
satisfied the mercy of God in our place. He's extinguished
the wrath of God that was against us. Hallelujah. Praise his mighty
name. Heavenly Father, we thank you.
We who are your people, we thank you for your mercy. We thank
you, Lord Jesus, for a complete sin-atoning sacrifice which you
performed on Calvary's cross. We thank you that you've saved
your people by your mercy and by your grace, and that we are
but recipients of this free, wonderful grace. Why? Well, we've
seen today because your mercy endures forever. Lord, let us
remember this as we go back out into the world. Let us remember
what we've looked at today. Let us remember that your mercy
endures forever, oh Lord. Keep it ever before we who are
your people. And oh Lord, we just pray that
you'd be glorified and magnified as we remember your mercy towards
us. In Jesus name, amen.