5-24-2024 Hope in His mercy

If you will, our scripture reading this morning, we want to look at Psalm 119. Let's look at verse 49 through 56. Psalm 119, verse 49. Not sure what the subtitles are. Zayn. This one begins with Zayn. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me.

The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined from thy law. I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law. This I had because I kept thy precepts. Amen. I pray the Lord will meet with us here as we listen to this message. Good morning, everyone. And good morning to you folks in rescue as well. There's an article in the bulletin today that I want to start with, written by Brother David Edmondson, Pastor David Edmondson from Madisonville, Kentucky.

He says in 1873, A lady by the name of Dorothy Greenwell wrote these words, I am not skilled to understand what God hath willed. What God hath planned I only know at his right hand is one who is my savior. The article is titled Not Skilled. Now I'm going to echo what David has written here. Beloved, I take these words to be my own. There's so much that I am not skilled to understand concerning the will of God and His divine purpose in salvation of His people.

I see through a glass darkly. I know in part, and I preach in part, as God is pleased to reveal his word to me, but there is one thing that I do know. At the right hand of God, there sits one who is my savior. May God enable me to clearly declare him." What a statement.

I'd like to ask you if you would Turn to the book of Lamentations. Lamentations 3. And you can sit your Bibles down in your laps for just a moment there. And while you're doing that, allow me to read two verses from the scripture reading that we just read in Psalm 119, verses 49 and 50.

Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort and my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me." Now, this is the start of the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, or it might be Greek, Some of you may have in your King James Bible the word in the middle there right above verse 49, Z-A-I-N. And what that word means, it means literally a weapon or a sword, symbolizing the word of God as a spiritual sword used for protection and strength against adversity. against the flesh This is this the battle that we've seen that I was talking about last week between the flesh and the spirit And this sword is this is the Word of God It's exactly what we saw here. Remember the word the sword Remember the sword unto thy servant the word unto thy servant upon which thou has caused me to hope and Folks, I know what I am as a sinner, just as all of God's children must know before they can know the Lord Jesus as their substitute. Before we know Him as our substitute, we must know that we need a substitute. And as we go through the Lord's Word and see over and over again where there is nothing of this flesh for us to be confident in, the only thing that we can have any hope in, and the entire Bible points us to that.

If you start in the book of Genesis where Adam and Eve sinned, you'll find that they tried to clothe themselves with leaves. They were naked. After they sinned, they saw they were naked before God, and they tried to clothe themselves. That's not good enough. That's not good enough.

God demands perfection in everything. And there's only one person that He sees perfection in, and that's His Son, the Lord Jesus. That's why He sent Him to the cross. You know the Lord Jesus was sent? Look in John chapter 17 in your own time and look at how many times the Lord Jesus says, You have sent Me and they know it. They know that You had sent Me. Christ was sent by God His Father to be our substitute. Just as Abraham said to his son on that mountain, that high mountain where the Lord had sent them, the son said, Father, I have the fire, I have the wood. Where's the sacrifice? Abraham said, God will provide himself a sacrifice. Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused.

Did you catch that? Did you catch that when we were reading the scriptures? How is it that God saves his people? He causes us to look to his son. That's how. We come into this world dead in trespasses and sin. We don't even want God's word. We like the darkness that we once walked in. It was good. It wasn't convicting. There was no guilt in it. Caused me to hope. My only hope, the only hope any child of God has is in what Christ has done for us.

This is what David is saying. This is what John is saying. I know that right now there sits one on his throne ruling all things after his own counsel. He doesn't need any help from me. If the Lord looked to me for anything, I would mess it up. He's already got it all planned out and purposed exactly as he should have it to be.

Our only hope is his confident persuasion. of His goodness and mercy in His Son and the Lord Jesus. Listen to these words from the Apostle Paul. He says over in Romans chapter 8 verses 38 through 39, Paul says, for I am persuaded. Do you see the hope? It's not just a hope, but oh maybe. No. This is a solid hope. It's a hope and a guarantee in Christ and what He has done. He says, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life Nor angels, and I'm reading this slow because I want these to settle into you. I want these things that Paul is listing off here to grab a hold of you.

Nor principalities. What's a principality? The apple falls from the tree. That's a principality. It's going to happen, isn't it? Nor powers. Whatever your mind may think of power, whether it be a man sitting at the head of a nation, or whether it be the power of the wind, whatever your thought is of power, power cannot.

This is part of that list. Nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us. from the love of God. And then it closes with this statement, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see where the hope is from Paul? Nothing.

Those folks who say Jesus loves everybody and somebody's going to hell, they just don't know what they're talking about. Folks, the people that Jesus loves, He died for them. He shed His own blood for them. Those that He was given before the world began by God the Father, those that He says, My sheep shall hear My voice.

There's no ifs, ands, or buts about that. They will be saved. He says they shall come unto Him. And all those who come unto Him, He shall not in any way cast them out. Is that not what God's Word says? Well, there's our hope. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus, in Him. There's no hope in this flesh. I've got nothing in this flesh that I could give God. Oh, Paul says very, very clearly in Romans chapter 7, just before he declares himself, oh wretched man that I am, he says, even the good that I do, I see evil.

I'm not calling God's works evil. I'm telling you that Paul says the good that he does, he sees evil. And guess what? John Reeves, the good that I do, I see evil. We were talking about this in the Bible study just earlier. Pride. Oh, how quickly we can do something. Look at how good I did this piece of woodwork. Let me show you how cool it is. Isn't this great? See how great I did? That's ugly pride. Look how I fixed this problem with the roof that I had over here. See how nice a job I did with that? See how quick ugly pride can rear its ugly head? Folks, every single thing we do in this flesh, we can account to God's purpose in one way or another. And that includes the wrong things we do. God allows us to go off, and you think Adam sinned without God's permission? If anything could be outside of God's permissive will, then he wouldn't be God. We couldn't say that he rules all things according to his own pleasure, could we?

Notice what Paul's confidence was in. It's not something that he did in the flesh. At best, folks, we are but weak worms. Our pride rears up its ugly head at the slightest sign of self-strength. In Philippians 3, 3, for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. And then it closes that statement with this, and we have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence. But just before he says that, he warns us in Philippians 3, 2, beware. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. That's those who come in and try to bring separation. division. Beware of these.

And just before that, if you go back one more verse, he says this, he says, my brethren rejoice in the Lord. Oh, what joy it brings to this poor sinner's heart to look to my savior. Just as Moses lifted up that brazen serpent, to look to Him for everything I need. You see, when I look to Him, my hope of salvation is strengthened. When I'm down in the ship, the waves are banging against my ship, and I'm crying out, Lord, don't you care? Don't you care about me at all? He gets up and he says, oh, ye of little faith. Oh, how true that is. How true it is about John Reeves. Oh, ye of little faith. Wind, be still. That's where our hope is. I want to talk to you about hope this morning. Hope is in his mercy.

Despite my weakness in this flesh, my joy is in Christ Jesus, my substitute. My hope is His confident persuasion and goodness and mercy in His Son, the Lord Jesus. It is an expectation of all necessary good, both in time and eternity, founded upon the promises, the relations, and the perfections of God, and upon the righteous shed blood and intercession of Christ Jesus. It is a combination of desire, expectation, patience, and joy. by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are persuaded that God is both able and willing to do us good by His word. And we expect Him to do so, because He said so. Not because of anything we have done in this flesh, but because of what His Son did in His flesh. laying down his life, shedding his blood. This is our hope.

Our circumstances may vary. The waves against our ship may be different, but our confidence, our confidence may at times be even diminished. Our assurance may even waver. Our senses of joy may be almost deleted. But our hope never changes. Why? Because our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Malachi 3, 6, we read these words. He says, this is the Lord's words. For I am the Lord, I change not. That just bolsters any hope that I've got right there. Look what I did yesterday. Look at the thoughts that went through my mind from the moment I've gotten out of bed today. How could God not change His mind about me?

Because of Christ! Because of His Son! That's where our hope lies, in Him! That's the only hope I have, is in Him! Why does our hope never change? Why is it always in one thing and one thing alone? Because as Malachi has written, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope.

Are you with me in Lamentations chapter 3? Well, it would help if I got there. Look with me if you would at just a couple of verses beginning at verse 21. Remember what we read now. Keep in mind, remember the word, the sword, the sword of comfort to God's people and to thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. Look here at verse 21. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. What is it we recall to our mind?

That He is God. He is Lord, as He has said, and He says, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob, therefore ye sons of the one for whom I have loved. Love from before the world was are not consumed. Folks, our judgment, the very judgment that we deserve, Christ took upon Him. We were looking at this in the Bible study of the travail of His soul. The God-Man, God Almighty in the flesh, travailed. The very One who rules every speck of dust, every snowflake where it would drop.

Every particle of our being. prevailed for us All the magnification of his love for his people how dare you say that Christ loves some who would go to hell And we know that there are some don't we We know that by his word there are some who say I will not have that one to rule over me because we were just like that Every one of us until God by His mercy and His love comes and quickens us.

Like I just read back there in Psalms 119. This is my comfort and my affliction for thy word, thy sword of comfort has caused me to hope. There's nothing in this flesh I can have any hope in, but there's everything We need for that hope of salvation in our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Everything. Let's go on, shall we?

It is of the Lord's mercy, verse 22, that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. That's what I said a moment ago, if there were one person for whom Christ laid down His life, that would have to pay the penalty of death, and Christ is not God. Verse 23, they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.

Allow me to give you four things, four things which give me hope, four solid as a rock, not sand, not sinking sand, but solid as a rock, four things which are solid, immutable, that means unchangeable, pillars, Those are posts that stand under structures and hold them up. The strength of those structures being held up, the cornerstone. The cornerstone. These are things which upon I rest my soul continually.

And the first one is God's immutable, unchanging mercy. Some people trust in their works. others place all confidence in their religion, but we know that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. As a guilty sinner, I have no hope but in God's eternal, redemptive, immutable, and daily mercies. I don't know about you folks, but when I get out of the bed in the morning and the first thing I want to do is look in the mirror to comb my hair or whatever, Just in that short amount of time, I've sinned enough to deserve God's wrath. That's what it's talking about, His mercies every day. Every time we get out of bed, and I think of my Savior, the Lord Jesus, His mercies remind me of where my hope is. It's by his mercies, as we read in Malachi, that we are not consumed. As a guilty sinner, I have no hope but in God's eternal, redemptive, immutable, and daily mercies.

Listen to these three verses. Let me read this for you to save us on some time. 2 Samuel 24, verse 14. We read these words, and David said unto Gad, David was under great stress. He was being attacked. He says, I am in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man. David's hope was not in himself. In 2 Samuel 23 verse 5, we read these words, Although my house be not so with God, this is on his bed of death. He said, even though my house be not with God.

Isn't that interesting that David, a man after God's own heart, a man who we see over and over again, the Lord is with him, just as he was with Joseph and Jacob and Abraham and all of his people, Noah and so on and so on. Here is David crying out, even though my house My sons, my daughters, my children, my wife, even though it be not so with them, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.

For this is all my salvation and all my desire. There's folks who want to spend a little time talking about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit moves in us and does certain good things. And I don't deny that. I don't want to give any impression ever that it's an evil thing. But in this flesh, as Paul has stated, Even the good that I do, I see evil, because in this flesh is nothing but sin from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Every bit of me is sin.

I need hope in something else. I was speaking with a child of God yesterday. I shared this during the Bible study. I'm going to share it again because Rescue wasn't here for the Bible study. They had their own up there. I was speaking with a child of God yesterday.

And I said this, I said, they're going through some major trials. And I said, if you didn't have any trials, if all of a sudden your life was just peachy king and everything was going good for you, you wouldn't need God. Do you see how the trials work out for our good? Do you see how Paul would write Thank you God for the trials that I go through. David's hope was not in himself. His salvation was in the Lord. All of it. And this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. Listen to Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 28.

But after they had rest, speaking of Israel, they did evil again before thee. I'm convinced, and I could be wrong and I'm going to say that up front, but I'm convinced that God's not going to give his people rest until we leave this world. That's where our rest is going to be. How often we've heard a preacher stand before us and say, doesn't it seem like we get out of one trial and all of a sudden we're right back in another? God knows how weak we are, folks. It doesn't take much for us to say, OK, I don't need God anymore. I'm doing all right. Like I said in the Bible study, if I had won the lottery, it would ruin me. They had rest.

They did evil again before thee. Therefore, leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried unto thee, Crying unto the one who is held up before us on the on the post is the brazen serpent Crying unto him because there's no hope in anything we have in this flesh We've been bitten by the serpent of sin And it goes through our blood all the way through us all the way to the tip of your finger your capillaries and the only The only help is the one who's paid it all. Thou heardest them from heaven, it says, and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies.

God's immutable, unchanging mercy. Listen to Psalms 44 verse 26. Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. Secondly, a pillar, a foundation, a rock to stand on is God's unfailing love. To those who are in Christ, God is love. Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." Folks, God doesn't quit loving us.

And I think it was in Bible study I mentioned, you know, or it might have been just a moment ago as a matter of fact, God's had every reason to stop loving John Reeves since the moment I got out of bed today. and my preparations for bringing a message to you, I fail.

I am the most insufficient speaker that I know of that God has in this world. And I know every pastor that I know would say the exact same thing. Because it's not our sufficiency, it's Christ who is our sufficiency. That's where your hope should be. not in your pastor, not in your preacher, but in the one who deserves and is earned to be called a great hope of his people, his unfailing love.

God's love is sure, unchangeable, immutable. He who so loved me that he gave his only son to redeem me will not withhold any good thing from me. What shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, grant behold of this. Put your hope in this. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again. who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. You know that scripture. That's Romans 8, verse 31 through 34. This is my hope, my only hope.

His compassions fail not. The eternal God will never cease to love his own. Thirdly, and I got to make this kind of quick, God's unchanging faithfulness is our third pillar, the rock that we can stand on. His faithfulness does not change. Great is thy faithfulness is what we sang for an opening hymn. You didn't know I was going to bring that up in my message, did you? See how God works?

You know how often this happens with Kathy and I? Kathy and I don't spend our mornings, well, I'm going to talk about this. Okay, well, I'll pick this. No! She's over at her computer. I got my back to her. I'm over at my computer. We're doing our own thing. And sure enough, God moves her and He moves me to come together in the message with a song, because that's what she does. She picks out the songs, or an article that she might pick out. This happens all the time.

Why am I so surprised about it? Does He not rule all things? Is He not the one where my hope is? Absolutely! I should expect it more often. It's unchangeable faithfulness. This I know. God is faithful. He is faithful to His covenant. He is faithful to His people. And divine faithfulness, sovereign faithfulness, fills me with great hope. How about you? When your hope is in that, is there anything that can go wrong with it?

Listen to Psalms 89 verse 1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, and my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. Psalms 89 verse 5. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. Lamentations 3, 23. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

And then the last point I want to bring before closing, God's inexhaustible goodness. He's good. He's good, folks, no matter what John Reeves is, no matter what John Reeves does. And that's not an encouragement to go out and sin. How foolish! I love Him and want and desire to fulfill His precepts. I want to walk according to His will. I want to walk according to His Word. But I don't. Like Paul said, the things that I should, I don't. And the things that I shouldn't, I do. And if you say you don't sin, then you call God a liar.

Our Lord is inexhaustibly good. His cup never runs dry. The Lord is good. Surely then, He will do good for all who seek Him, for all who wait upon Him with faith, hope, and patience. Listen to Psalms 107 verse 31. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. This is my blessed surety. This is my only hope. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. God accepts me despite what I am in His Son. my Savior, my substitute.

Listen to 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15. We read these words, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. That means set Him apart. Set Him apart from the things you think of in this world. Sanctify the Lord in your heart. and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh, you a reason of the hope that is in you."

Don Fortner wrote this, and I'll close with this. We all hope for eternal life and the glorious bliss of heaven, but is my hope reasonable? Peter wrote this, he says, Be ready always to answer every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, implying that a good hope is both reasonable and evident. Did you catch that? A good hope is not a, you're not gonna go out into the world and live like hell and expect to go to heaven.

Be ye holy. for our God is holy. In Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are perfected forever. We have been purged, as it says in Hebrews chapter one, purged of all our sin. This is my hope. My only hope is in the substitute, one whom God will accept in my stead God himself has provided such a substitute for sinners like me. Jesus Christ, God's own son, took upon himself my own nature.

He lived in this world as a man for 33 years in perfect conformity to God's law and will, establishing perfect righteousness for his people. Then he went to the cross there to suffer the just penalty of God's law and the justice for the sins of his people. Being both God and man, he was able to satisfy the infinite wrath of God by one great sacrifice. Dying in my place, the God-man was buried in a tomb, but on the third day, as he had said, after his crucifixion, my substitute broke the walls of the grave, declaring that those people for whom he died were justified.

By his resurrection, the Son of God is declared of God to be accepted as the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, my sin. My sins which he bore are all gone. My debt to God's offended justice was paid for in full by the price of Emmanuel's blood. Now it is most reasonable for me to trust him and him alone for my entire salvation. No other sacrifice can give my guilty conscience peace And none other can meet the requirements of a just and holy God. God himself provided his son as a substitute for sinner. God laid my sins upon him. God killed him in my place. God raised him from the dead as my representative.

And God declares that all who trust him will not perish, but have eternal life. Trust him, I will. Trust him, I must. Trust him, I do. I have no other hope. Will you trust him as well? Did you want to go and then we'll do that? Okay. Folks, as I have said many a times from the pulpits that God has allowed me to stand in, I don't need to tell you how to live.

God's Word does that just fine. You come into this world knowing what it is you're doing wrong. You come into this world knowing good from evil, just like Adam and Eve learned what good and evil is. You don't have to teach those three young ones over there to try to hide whatever it is they may be ashamed of doing. They know. And so do you. What I do need to do is point you to Christ. To give you a hope. To give you the hope that God gives us in His word. Not John's word, not John's opinion, but God's word. But think ye of Christ.

5-24-2024 Hope in His mercy

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5-24-2024 Hope in His mercy

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