Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care. at my father's throne, bakes all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has all confound relief. And shalt escape the tempter's snare, By thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear. To Him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless. And since He bids me seek His face, Believe His word, and trust His grace, I'll cast on Him my every care and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. May I thy consolation bear. From Mount Piscot's lofty height, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlight. Farewell, speed out.

Open your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 1. I was going to read the first part of this this morning to you in the beginning, but I got carried away and didn't. And maybe it was so the Lord would enable us to carry on our train of thought a little bit better. Look with me here in Luke chapter one, beginning with verse 57.

It says, now Elizabeth, who was Elizabeth. She was the wife of Zacharias. She was in her old age, and she was about to bear a child in her old age, and she was the cousin of Mary, who would be the earthly mother of Christ. Look back at verse 36, where the angel tells Mary, and behold, thy cousin Elizabeth.

She hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. They called her barren, childless. But now, that which is impossible with men is possible with God, and she's bearing a child. Verse 57. Now, Elizabeth's time, full time, came that she should be delivered and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her.

And it came to pass that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they called him Zacharias after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.

And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. and he asked for a writing table. You see, Zacharias had been silenced by God during all of this. Silenced because of his unbelief, silenced because of his laughing at such a notion of conceiving a child at this old age. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote saying, his name is John.

And they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt about them. And all these things were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea, and all that All they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of trial shall this be?

The hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias, being filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up and warned of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. Recently, I saw a title of something on social media, and it was a question. And the question was, where can I hear the mercy of God?

I didn't stop to see what the answer was or what the article was or to hear what the sermon was about, whatever it was. I didn't stop. I wasn't able to at that time and haven't since. But that question followed me, stayed on my mind. And I began to think more about it in the days that followed. And I began to examine it in my mind. And I began to ask it of myself.

Where can I hear the mercy of God? And I began to ask it of this church. And I particularly began to examine it in the light of my preaching. Am I preaching the mercy of God? And I thought, Maybe I ought to go again and reexamine the definition of mercy.

What is mercy? I know grace is giving us what we don't deserve. Grace is giving us a gift, an unmerited gift. What is mercy? Well, mercy is defined as not receiving the punishment or judgment that is deserved. You understand that distinction? Grace is giving us what we don't deserve, but mercy has to do with not giving us the punishment, the judgment that we do deserve.

Where can I hear the true mercy of God? Well, I'll say in the outset of this that I came to this conclusion in my mind. And the truth is, anywhere that the true gospel is preached, where can I hear the mercy of God anywhere that the true gospel is preached, wherever Christ crucified, wherever the message of the cross is faithfully proclaimed, wherever the truth about Christ's cross is actually made manifest, because the mercy of God is known by faith, not by feeling. We need to understand that. If we want to hear the mercy of God, we have to understand that God reveals and shows his mercy to God-given faith, not through our feelings.

Because this is what the scriptures tell us about that which is the mercy of God. It has to do with the doctrine of Christ. Hold your place here and turn to 2 John. 2 John, the little epistle of 2 John, and listen to what John writes to us. He says in verse 9, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. hath not, knows nothing about the mercy of God. Because the mercy of God has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine of Christ. But he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine."

Men are always making a demon of doctrine. We don't want to hear about doctrine. We want a loving spirit, but here are all of these false spirits. Here are all of these feelings, but there is not the doctrine of Christ. Oh, he preaches in such a merciful manner. Oh, he's always talking about love, the love of God, and the grace of God, and the mercy of God. But he hath not the doctrine of Christ, the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, Receive him not into your house, neither bid him God's speed." Yes, but what if he acts so merciful? He's not merciful at all. And he knows not anything about the mercy of God. For he that biddeth him God's speed is partaker of his evil deeds." Of his evil deeds. In other words, it has nothing really to do with attitude, or the way something is presented, or the way someone acts, or any of these, it has to do with this doctrine. It has to do with the truth.

You see, no matter what the attitude of one might be, we find out by what God revealed to Zacharias. In other words, we know here by what this passage says that God revealed this to Zacharias because he had shut his mouth. And when they acknowledged that the child's name was John, who would be John the Baptist, by the way, When they acknowledged that, he spoke forth this prophecy by the Spirit, and it was the same one that all the prophets from the beginning had been talking about. What was it about?

He talked about it being a salvation, a salvation of God's people. And he says in verse 17 that God had raised up not John the Baptist, but his servant in the house of David, who was Christ, the one who was the Messiah promised. and he was come for a particular reason.

Verse 72 says, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. And that means that mercy is not simply in a person, but in the performance of that person. Not only who he is, but what he actually did, his performance. As a matter of fact, Christ told the Pharisee that they needed understanding concerning that. He said, but go ye and learn what that meaneth.

I will have mercy and not sacrifice. It's about my mercy, not your sacrifice, not your giving, not your works, not your doing. For I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You see, these Pharisees, in their self-righteousness, didn't think they needed mercy.

Again, we read in Numbers 14, the Lord, the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy. The Lord is merciful. He's a merciful God. And he's merciful and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, disdaining the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. In other words, God's mercy is never at the expense of his justice. He's merciful, but he won't clear the guilty. That loses most people right there. How can God be merciful and yet at the same time not clear the guilty?

Psalm 103, verse eight. The Lord, Jehovah, is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. Plenteous in mercy. That's wonderful to think about. He's plenteous in mercy. And then in Deuteronomy, he says this, for the Lord thy God is a merciful God. You say, we've got a merciful God. I can do this, I can do that, and I can do the other thing, don't worry about it, everything's okay, God's gonna sweep it under the carpet, it's okay, because he's merciful, no? It says, the Lord thy God is a merciful God. He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he swear unto thee.

He's only merciful because of a covenant. Turn back over to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. Because we find out something that is definitely true, cannot be changed, that God is merciful only in Christ. And he's only merciful in that work that Christ performs. Look here in Ephesians chapter two.

When he begins chapter two, he talks about all of God's people as they are influenced by Satan, deceived in their sin, dead in trespasses and sin. And he gives us this three verse description, which is totally awful. Our condition, our state, our relationship to Satan, our rebellion against God as children of disobedience, living in this flesh, fulfilling the desires of this flesh, not only immorally, but religiously. And then he comes to verse four.

But God, who is rich, in mercy. He's merciful, has great mercy, is plenteous mercy, and he's rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, He has quickened or made us alive together with Christ. By grace are ye saved. and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, God's people deserve what these first three verses, what these relationships and what these sin and this sinfulness, that deserves the wrath and judgment of God.

But God didn't treat His people like that. He remembers His covenant. And not only is God merciful, but He's shown mercy to many. He has shown mercy to a multitude. But the mercy of God, listen now, the mercy of God is not like mercy that is shown between equals.

I ought to show mercy to you because I'm just like you. You ought to show mercy to me because I'm just like you. We're equals. But the mercy that we read about in scripture and hear about in the gospel is a mercy that is shown by the thrice holy God of glory, who has purified them to behold iniquity, the just God in his inflexible justice. He's shown mercy to those who act like enemies, rebels, Thou, creatures, sinners of the first order." That's where the mercy of God comes in. It's not mercy among equals. It's mercy that is shown by this God to sinners such as we are.

And that's why it's amazing mercy. That's why it's great mercy and wonderful mercy. And it's mercy that is so different from what we think and so different from how we think that God has to teach us about His mercy. when he teaches us about the first thing we'll find out about the mercy of God. When we hear about the mercy of God is that his mercy is sovereign mercy. Sovereign mercy.

Hold your place here again and turn to Romans chapter 9, Romans chapter 9, because there is nothing maybe that illustrates, you know, God's the best illustrator. All our illustrations, they fall so far short, but God is the great illustrator, and he has illustrated himself and his sovereignty by depicting himself as a potter.

You know what a potter is? Takes the clay, puts it on the wheel, takes his hand, shapes it any way he wants it, makes it just like he wants it, makes it what he wants. There's one potter over here, makes a big pot, and another potter over here, he makes a little vase and whatever. He makes whatever he will. He does according to his own will.

And that's what God says about himself. He likens himself to this potter. And we read in Romans chapter 9, the apostle Paul saying this again, reminding us of this. He's already showed it to Moses. He's already demonstrated it throughout the ages. But Paul says this is the way it is in salvation. God's not trying to save everybody. Verse 15 of Romans 9, for he saith to Moses, he's already said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

Now, you know nothing about the mercy of God until you know that, that God absolutely shows mercy to those he desires to show mercy on, and everybody else, he withholds it. You say, that's just a little bit too much control. That's the control of God. He says, so then it is not of him that willeth, it's not your free will, it's not your decision, nor of him that runneth, not your works and your obedience and your deeds, but of God that showeth mercy.

He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. because you can't deserve mercy. You can't earn it. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, says of Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Did you understand that? Well, let's run to a commentary. He didn't really mean that. It's not saying that. Yes, it is. And we can't change that.

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why dost he it bind for? For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed? Say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump?" Not different kind of clay. As a matter of fact, the same clay and of the same lump of atom of the same clay, the potter, hath he not power, or sovereign right, over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?

What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Why is He enduring these vessels of wrath? Why did He make them? Why did He determine what he determined about them, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of what?

Mercy. Vessels of mercy. That's what God's elect are. That's what every sinner that will be saved by the grace of God. That's what every person that will be taken into God's presence in heaven, that's what they are. And they are because he made them to be such.

He determined this. He determined, it's just not acknowledging a doctrine in this sense that he has the right. No, he did it. He not only said, I will have mercy on whom I will, He emphatically says, I will have mercy on some. These vessels of wrath will be in his presence forever, eternally, because he made them so.

That's why we don't boast. That's why we can't entertain such thoughts as people say, well, I know she was a good woman. If anybody's in heaven when she dies, That surely she will be, no? If she's in heaven, it's because God made her a vessel of honor, a vessel of mercy, mercy. and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared under glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. of the Gentiles and the Jews, the two distinctive barriers that God made of our race. He of one people, of these two bodies of people, chose a people and he made them vessels of mercy.

You say, I don't believe that. Well, you don't believe the word. You don't believe God. You have your own ideas about God. You have your own thoughts and feelings. That's what he describes in Ephesians 2, those first three verses. That's the course of this world. That's our natural belief, to believe, not want to believe that. This is the way it is. This is God as he is. This is his mercy as it is.

And what a foolish thing it is to fight against the idea of God not having mercy on everybody and forsake the whole idea of Him having mercy on you. Paul says this, and it's the same thing that God said to Moses. When Moses asked him in Ezekiel 34, I mean, in Exodus chapter 34 or 33, well, in 34, when God asked him, he said, show me your glory.

He said, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll forgive whom I forgive. I won't impute their iniquities to them whom I will. I'll do it according to what I purpose and plan. They don't any deserve it. They deserve the wrath of God. all sinned in Adam, all in themselves deserve this eternal punishment and separation from God, but I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy."

How? Because of a visit. That's what he says here in these verses. In verse 68, he says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people. What visit was that? What visitor did that? The Lord Jesus Christ. He was made flesh and dwelt among us. He came into this world sent of the Father. He visited, as you would say, and it says in this text, God visited us in the person of Jesus Christ, and He did something. What did He do? Look here. He visited and redeemed. He didn't make them redeemable. He didn't visit them so He could offer them redemption. He didn't visit them so that He could enable them to redeem themselves. He visited and redeemed. Who did He redeem?

His people. I want to be one of His people. I pray that I might be found in Him. I want to be one of those vessels of mercy. I want to be saved by God alone. And if I want to do that, if I want to give Christ all the glory in myself, if I want to acknowledge this word and this truth and have mercy from God, it's because he made me that way.

He manifested himself in the flesh, and he did what? He performed the mercy. This was a promised mercy. And it was a remembrance of his holy covenant. And what that is, that's a pledge. That's like a will. Here's the will. These are going to receive the blessings of God. I mean, yeah, in this will, or as a natural earthly will is, these are the children that will receive this and this and thus and the other.

He made a covenant within the Godhead of Father, in the Son, this covenant that is based solely on God's grace, not our works, but on the performance of the mediator of that covenant. The one whose blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant. The one whose death ratified that covenant. assured that these vessels of mercy would receive all that they were given of God and their punishment for all their sins were held because this Christ performed a just suffering and death for their sins.

Paul says it's God that justifies. It's God that declares them righteous. Why? Because it is Christ that died. Yea, rather that is risen again. They're redeemed. Verse 9, 69, it says, he hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. This is about salvation. Salvation is of the Lord.

Then when Christ died, and when He suffered in the place of His people, and when He redeemed through His blood these, He accomplished all their redemption. And that's just exactly what all the prophets said He would do. That's what Zacharias was sent of God to remind us that he would do. That's what John the Baptist would say, behold the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world.

You see, mercy has to do with a promised covenant, promised blessing, promised mercy. and a covenant carried out. There's nothing left for you and me to carry out in that covenant. His blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant. His cross is the evidence that he has died and fulfilled all things.

These vessels of mercy will go free they will have all the benefits of his finished work, because God has accepted it. The holy covenant, verse 73, the earth which he swear to our father Abraham, not as a national people, but our father Abraham, who is the father of them that believe. that He would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear." Those who have received mercy serve God without fear.

They don't worry about falling or failing in the sense of losing their salvation. It's accomplished in another in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. We're not waiting to be holy. We're not waiting to be righteous. God has imputed to us the righteousness of Christ. He has made us holy in Him, and right now in Him, we are holy and righteous. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest. for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way. What for? To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins.

Remission means forgiveness, but it also ties that forgiveness to this remission by the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And so God's forgiveness and remission, which are sometimes words used interchangeably, the same word, it is forgiveness by the remission of our sin, the payment of the debt of our sins. through the tender mercy of our God. Maybe sometimes I ought to be more tender, but that doesn't affect the mercy of God. His mercy is always tender mercy. because it's in the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's performed the mercy.

And if you want to know something about the mercy of God and the true mercy of God, Paul says, or if he's the writer of Hebrews, says in Hebrews 2, wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of his people.

When God showed us in that picture with Israel, how those people were to go before him, how he was to be approached. It was by taking one out of their midst, but setting them apart, and making him, in the eyes of God, different from them, and putting on him a white robe, and doing all these things. But he was one from the people who went in to that holy place, and there, in the ark of the covenant, he was to sprinkle blood to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Where was he to do that at? That's what it was all about. There in the midst of the camp of Israel, there in the midst of that tent covered in badger skins and all the ... curtains made of embroidered work, and there in the midst of the holy place, and there in the center, which was called the holiest of holies, where that high priest went once a year, it was there that the Ark of the Covenant was, and it was there that he sprinkled that blood on what God called the mercy seat. When he came out, it was done. Once a year. That's where mercy is. It's in the blood of Jesus Christ. It's in the performance of that word which was needed and necessary for that covenant Turn with me to the book of Titus. Titus chapter three. I'm going to ... Titus chapter three.

But after that, in the kindness and love of God our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy." His mercy, he saved. His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. According to His mercy, He did what? He saved us. Not he'll save you if you let him, or you save him if you make a decision for him, or he'll save you if you quit doing one thing or the other. Not if you'll be baptized or any other thing, but according to his mercy. He saved us.

That's where you can hear the mercy of God, where you can see and hear of that mercy in the gospel. That's where gospel mercy is. In the book of Luke, in chapter 18, we read about these two men that went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee and the publican, Pharisee evidently was religious. He went up to the temple to pray.

And he said, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. You see, that's where Phariseeism rears its ugly head. when we get to looking about everybody else, what they do and what they don't do. If you ever start that looking at what other people do and what you don't do, mark it down. That's as fair as it is. And he said, John, thank you. Now, I'm really grateful that I'm not like other men, even as this publican. I do all these religious things. Fast gift ties.

But that public, the Bible says he wouldn't even look up toward heaven. Smote himself upon the breast and said, God, be merciful. To me, the sinner. Be merciful. That man, as Jesus was walking by, he said, Jesus, thou son of David. What? Have mercy on me. Have mercy. That's what I need most.

And this is the good news. Peter says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you. How could a sinner like me have hope of an inheritance reserved for me in heaven, incorruptible, undefiled, because of God's mercy? You say, well, I'm worried about this, and I'm worried about that. Well, God may allow all these things to be taken from us. All these relationships, all these things that we possess. And we'd be left with nobody but Christ. It'll still be a mercy. He's raised from the dead for the mercy, and that's why we're to be merciful.

I remember in Kentucky, there was a man in there. He was a unique kind of a man, but he told me something one day that really hung with me. talking about dealing with this young lady in the place of business he had. He said, preacher, he said, I want to be merciful to her because I need mercy. You need mercy? Be, therefore, merciful, as your father also is merciful. Only those that need mercy will show mercy.

Christ performed the mercy. Where can I hear the mercy of God? Wherever the true gospel of his sovereign mercy in Christ is preached. Father, I ask you this morning, solely on the merits of Christ, to bless and honor your word and in some way get glory to yourself. I thank you this morning that with you is plenteous mercy, your great and mercy. Time and eternity will reveal the greatness of your mercy to sinners such as me. Tender mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ and his cross work. We thank you in his name. Amen.