All right, Psalm 59. I titled
the message this evening, The God of My Mercy. I took the title
as I read this psalm early in the week. I thought, where's
the message here? I was really thinking, where's the message
here? But there's something that struck out, stuck out to me.
It's repeated in verse, first it's in verse 10. The God of
my mercy shall prevent me. At the end of verse 17, he says, For God is my defense and the
God of my mercy. The God of my mercy. That stuck
out to me. I thought about that. Now, what
kind of God does it take to save sinners like you and me? Well,
we need the God of mercy, don't we? We've got to have mercy in
order to be saved because we can't earn that salvation. We
can't deserve it. But if I'm going to be saved,
I need mercy from God that is specifically for me. Not a random shot out there to
the universe. I need mercy that's reserved
from God specifically for me. And if you're going to be saved,
you need the same thing. Mercy from God that is specifically
reserved and intended for you. That's the God David's writing
about here. The God of my mercy. And he gives us a good understanding
of God's mercy that saves sinners. In verse 10 he uses the word
prevent. The God of my mercy shall prevent
me. Now it kind of sounds like David's
saying that God in his mercy will prevent me from falling
into condemnation. He'll prevent me from falling
into the hand of the enemy and I can escape through the window
like we read there in 1 Samuel chapter 19 to open the surface. And I reckon all that's true,
but that's not what he means here. The word he uses, prevent,
here means to precede or to go before. It's where we get the
term, prevenient grace, grace before grace. Here, David's writing
about mercy. Mercy before mercy. Mercy that
went before us and was there for we ever knew it. Mercy that
was there for we ever experienced it, because it went before us.
And this word, prevent, I like this, it also means to anticipate. anticipated, to send help before
it's even asked for. That's God's mercy. Before there
was a sinner, there was a Savior. God's mercy went before. It went
before even creation. It went before the fall of Adam.
And this word prevent also means to hasten, to meet, to hurry
and help before it's too late. All that's pretty good description
of God's mercy. And that's the kind of mercy
that saves sinners. If we're going to be saved, this
is the kind of mercy we need. I want to point out five truths
this evening about God's saving mercy that goes before, from
the God of my mercy. And you be sure to apply each
one of these points to yourself. If you know the Lord, this is
God's mercy for you, for you, the God of my mercy. First of
all, mercy that goes before is electing mercy. It's where we
got to start. We got to start in eternity because
God's mercy is just like Him. It's eternal. Before God created
anything, there was mercy that went before. Remember one of
those definitions, this word prevent is anticipate. Before
God created anything, He anticipated man's problem. He knew what man's
problem would be. He knew Adam would sin and plunge
his whole race into sin and death. So God's mercy went And before
he even created Adam, put him in the garden, God chose to save
some of Adam's fallen race because he anticipated they're going
to fall. His mercy went before and designed to save them out
of Adam's fallen race. And the election of God's people
was not a random thing. It wasn't by chance. It wasn't
just thrown out there to see, well, it's for as many people
as might decide to accept me. No, that'll never work. That
kind of mercy will never work for a real sinner. God chose
to save a specific people by name, individually picked out
of the seemingly numberless multitude of human beings who have ever
lived. He picked his people out by name,
individually, so that that number, that no man can number, Every
single one of them can say, he's the God of my mercy. Oh, you
think of that? That just thrills my soul. The
God of my mercy chose to save me on purpose, even though he
knew when I'd be. That's mercy. Now that is mercy
that saves. And that's the only kind of mercy
that'll save a sinner. Because we never would have chosen
God first. Never. In our fallen state, we never
would have chosen God first. And God knew it. He anticipated
the problem and He chose His people first. We never would
have chosen to be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our nature
will not, cannot bow to Him, cannot believe Him. And God knew
it. And He anticipated the problem
and He sent mercy out ahead of us and put us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. See, before there was a sinner,
there was a Savior because God anticipated their need of mercy.
And in mercy, He elected them unto salvation. It's eternal. All right, second, mercy that
goes before is redeeming mercy. Mercy that is on full display
at Calvary. Now I know at the time that Christ
died, there were already many saints in glory weren't there?
So you might think, well, that wasn't mercy that went before
to them when Christ died for them. Well, yes, it was too. It was mercy that went before.
The reason that those saints are in glory, you want me to
tell you why? It's because Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. This thing went before. This was done in eternity. In
eternity, God the Father purposed to save a people in the sacrifice
of His Son. That was His will. God's purpose
is just as good as His act. It's done just as sure as His
act is. So when He purposed to save His
people through the sacrifice of Christ, those saints that
went to glory before Christ actually died on earth, well, it was still
mercy that went before. They were there washed in the
blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
But now for us, who've lived after the death of Christ, the
cross, it's easy to see how that's an act of mercy that went before
us. It went before us in eternity, in God's purpose, and it went
before us in human time. And that's what we begin reading
about at the opening of this psalm. This is Christ speaking
from the cross. Listen to me, verse one. Deliver
me from my enemies, O my God. Defend me from them that rise
up against me. Deliver me from the workers of
iniquity and save me from bloody men. For lo, they lie in wait
for my soul. The mighty are gathered against
me, not for my transgression nor my sin, O Lord. They run
and prepare themselves without my fault, awake to help me and
behold. Thou therefore, O Lord God of
hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen. Be
not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Now this is our Savior speaking.
He was given into the hands of His wicked enemies so that God's
purpose of redemption would be accomplished through the crucifixion
of His, excuse me, of His Son. And our Savior cried out in agony
how those mighty enemies mistreated Him, made Him suffer. Now I know
they only had power that God gave them. We know that, don't
we? They only had power that God gave them. but they were
mighty enemies. God gave them plenty of power.
Acts 4 tells us the kings, the powerful people, the kings of
the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against
the Lord and against his Christ. Herod Pontius Pilate with the
Gentiles and all the people of Israel were gathered together
to do whatever their wicked hearts wanted to do. And they did just
that. They did exactly what their wicked
hearts wanted to do. They did what they wanted to
do, but you know what they accomplished? They didn't accomplish what they
wanted to accomplish. I said that just the way I wanted to
say it. They did what they wanted to do, but they didn't accomplish
what they wanted to do. They accomplished what God determined
for it to be done. They accomplished the redemption
of God's people through the sacrifice of His Son. See, at Calvary,
all those kings of the earth and the rulers and the Gentiles
and the people of Israel, They carried out God's purpose from
all of eternity. The cross in time, the death
of Christ on the cross in time, in human time, is simply God
carrying out His eternal purpose of mercy for His people. Mercy
that He sent before to redeem them. See, this must happen. God elected a people unto salvation,
but the substitutes got to die. The sacrifice has got to shed
his blood to put away their sin. And those people that God chose
to save, they're lost. God knew they'd fallen Adam,
and he knew that their sin, he anticipated their problem. He
knew that their sin could only be put away with sinless, perfect
blood, and they wouldn't have any. Because all their blood's
polluted with sin. So God anticipated the problem,
and he sent a substitute. He sent a substitute to die in
their place who had perfect, sinless blood, whose sacrifice
would put away the sin of his elect. Verse three, look at the
end of verse three. This is Christ speaking as the
substitute. He said, they're gathered together
against me, not for my transgression, nor my sin, O Lord. Well, it
wasn't his sin, then whose sin was it? I mean, this is the question.
Whose sin was it? Well, it's the sin of God's elect
that was charged to him. Now, when Christ was made sin,
the sin of his elect became his sin. It became his. He is the
one who called it mine iniquity. But he speaks, then why does
he say here, if it's his, if it became his sin, then why does
he say, not for my sin, not for my transgression? He says in
verse four, it's without my fault. Well, he says it that way. So
you and I would know he is suffering for the sin of his people. He
took the sin away from his people. They committed it all and he
took it away from them and he suffered for it. He suffered
wrath for it. He suffered condemnation for
it. He suffered death for that sin so that his people never
will. This is to substitute speak.
Now we say what the scriptures say, that Christ was made sin.
No one, when we say that, no one is ever saying that when
Christ was made sin, we're not saying that Christ was made a
sinner. That's foolish. When we say that Christ is our
substitute and he was made what we are so that he could be our
substitute. We're not saying that Christ
was made with a sin nature like what we have. That's foolish. Nobody's saying that. What we're
saying is he was made flesh. He was made in our nature without
sin so that he could be our substitute. He had no sin of his own so he
could take the sin of his people upon himself. The Lord Jesus
Christ never sinned. He knew no sin. He did no sin,
neither was any guile found in his mouth. Remember one time
they tried to stone him and he told him, he said, many good
works if I showed you from my father, for which of these works
do you stone me? The only works I ever did were
good works. It's not for my fault. I didn't do something wrong making
you stone me. He never sinned. So he was not
a sinner, and even they couldn't charge him with sin. They said,
well, we're not killing you or trying to stone you for a good
deed. It's because you make yourself to be God. Well, Mike, he is
God. He is God. He never sinned. But oh, how he suffered for sin. Oh, how he suffered. Not for
sin, he committed for the sin of his people. He became guilty
of their sin and in justice, the Father put him to death.
He suffered on Calvary's tree because that sin became his sin. He took it away from his people
so that he could make his people the righteousness of God in him. Here's the good news. Preacher, why insist on Christ
was made sin? He took my sin. He made my sin.
He suffered for it. He took it away from me. For
this reason, that's the comfort of God's people. Bob, if Christ
suffered for my sin, I never will. If Christ died for my sin,
I'll never die. If the Father exhausted His wrath
upon my sin, on Christ my substitute, not a drop of it will ever fall
on me. I'll never be delivered into
the hands of God's justice. Christ went to Calvary's tree
and suffered for His people because mercy went before Him and provided
a sacrifice for our sin. Let's stick with our title. He's
the God of my mercy. If you believe on Christ, forget
the number that no man can number for just a moment. Think of Him
suffering there for you because He did. your name on his heart. He went there to put your sin
away. Mercy went before. And thirdly,
mercy that goes before is life preserving mercy. God's mercy
kept me alive during all the time of my rebellion against
God. I know God chose to save a people in eternity. That's
electing mercy that went before. And I know that Christ died for
those people. He died for them on the cross. That's redeeming
mercy that went before. But I was born in sin. I was born in sin. I was born
hating God. I was born an enemy of God. I
was one of those enemies outside of Pilate's hall crying, crucify
him, give us Brabus. I'll not have this man to reign
over me. I didn't know God. I didn't love God. Didn't believe
on Christ. Heard of him, but didn't believe
on him. And if I would have died in that state, I'd have gone
to hell. That's so. Now our life is but
a vapor. It can be snuffed out so easily. So to human logic, it sounds
like, well, just the slightest thing could have snuffed my life
out and sent me to hell. It sounds like way, doesn't it?
But not if the God of my mercy has gone before me. God's electing
and God's redeeming mercy that went before also kept me alive
until God gave me life and faith in Christ and the new birth.
God's elect are delivered from many life-threatening events,
things that happened and should have killed them before they
know the Lord, but it didn't. Some of them they know about.
Some of them they went through whatever, a car wreck, Botched
surgery or whatever, you know? And they said, well, it's a miracle
I survived that. I can tell you why. It's God's pervenient grace. God's mercy going before preserving
and protecting you until that time when God crossed your path
with the gospel, gives you faith. And you know what? There's lots
of those things that could have just killed us. We never even
knew about them. Never even knew, never even saw
them. We never knew we were in danger. It's because of God's
prevenient mercy going before, preserving us and protecting
us. And I got some help here. Look
here at verse 11. I looked and looked and looked
at this verse. Slay them not, lest my people forget. Scatter
them by thy power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield. I looked at that and looked at
that because up here earlier he says, slay them so that they
be no more. But here he says, slay them not.
Now, what is that? These are the words of Christ
our Savior. This is Christ from the cross. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Don't
wipe them all out yet. Not yet. Give them space for
repentance. I know this. Whoever it is that
Christ prayed for from the cross, Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. Brother, they're forgiven. I
don't know who they are, but I know they're forgiven. The
Father always gives them what he asks for. But it could be
he's saying, Father, forgive these ones. This one right now,
this Roman soldier nailed me to the cross, this centurion
who's overseeing the whole mess. One of these chief priests is
plotting to have me put to death. I know they're an enemy right
now. I know they hate me right now, but don't wipe them out
yet. Because mercy's gone before.
And mercy's going to meet them. Don't wipe them out now. Don't
wipe them out now. It could be one of their children
that's going to be born. Mercy's gone before them. Wait. Wait till that child's born.
God's mercy went before. God's mercy, mercy that goes
before is life-preserving mercy that makes us Just we cannot
be killed. We're immortal. Until God crosses
our paths with the gospel, gives us faith to believe. That's God's
mercy that kept us up to that point. And that brings me to
the fourth thing. Mercy that goes before is regenerating
mercy. It's mercy that gives life in
the new birth. God elected a people in eternity.
That's His electing mercy went before. And the Son came. He died for those people. He
shed His blood in time. to put their sin away. That's
redeeming mercy that went before. But now listen, there's no salvation
without faith in Christ. If we would be saved, we must
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you would be saved, if I would
be saved, you must believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But here's our problem. We've got a dead sinner. It will
not believe. It cannot believe. It cannot
see Christ. It cannot love Christ. Well,
you know, God anticipated our problem. He knew we'd be dead
in sin. And He sent regenerating mercy
ahead. Mercy ahead that hastened to
meet us. That hastened to help before
it was too late and give us life and faith in Christ and a new
birth through the preaching of the gospel. See, that's mercy
that goes before. It's mercy that comes before
we even ask for it. Now, I know there comes a point
we beg God for mercy. I understand that. But it's only
after God's provenient mercy, after His mercy that went before
has hastened to come help us and meet us. See, we didn't even
know we were dead. We didn't even know there was
a problem. Not until God sent mercy and showed us. See, God
knew we'd be dead. And he anticipated the problem
and sent life giving mercy in the new birth. And the only time
we find out that we were dead is after God gives us life. The
only time we ever find out we got an old man is when God gives
us a new man because only the new man can see the old man.
That's God's mercy. Now, let me ask you, what other
explanation could there be for the woman at the well? Think
of her. There she was on a specific day,
an exact day, ordained from all of eternity. She's going out
in the heat of the day because everybody else knows it's too
hot to be out here. She's doing this on purpose to
avoid seeing anybody. And to her dismay, there sits
a man on Jacob's well. What is he doing there? God, with her mercy, went before.
And he would not let her go. He wouldn't let her go. He was
there waiting to give her life, to reveal himself to her. And
after she experienced that life-giving mercy, she left her water pot. She forgot all about needing
water. And she ran and she told everybody, come see a man which
told me all things ever I did. Is not this the Christ? He's
got to be the Christ. Come and see. Here she's wanting
to avoid, early in the day, just a little while ago, she's trying
to avoid seeing. Now she's running, trying to find people and say,
come see, come see. What happened? God's life giving
mercy, hastened to meet her and help her. Give her life before
it's too late. Saul of Tarsus. God's mercy went
before him on the road to Damascus to meet him there. Lydia going
down there by the riverside. God's mercy went before her to
open her heart. Peter getting ready to fish or
coming back from fishing. Matthew collecting his taxes.
And the Lord passed by and said, follow me. And up they got. And
they went and followed him. Why would they do that? They've
never seen this man before. Because God's mercy went before.
And they followed him. And the same thing's true, you
and me, if we believe on Christ. The only reason we believe Him
is His mercy went before and met us. and gave us life and
faith in the new birth. And then lastly, mercy that has
gone before is going to keep going. It's going to keep going
before me to preserve me and protect me against every enemy.
Now, David knew that God's mercy had gone before him. And he was
confident it's going to keep going before him. The same man
wrote, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of
my life And I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That
mercy that's going before me all the days of my life is going
to bring me all the way to glory. And we know that so. It can't
fail because God's mercy is powerful mercy. Look at verse 9. Because
of his strength will I wait upon thee. For God is my defense. Now first, God's mercy is powerful.
So it will defeat every enemy. It will defend us from every
enemy. Verse six, they return at evening.
They make a noise like a dog and go round about the city.
Behold, they belch out with their mouth. Swords are in their lips.
For who say they doth hear? But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh
at them. Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. Now
they return at evening. And you know why they return
at evening? Just like a bunch of little cockroaches coming
out They do what they do under the cover of darkness. And they're
like dogs who bark. You know, they come out in the
darkness and they bark. And they think they're scaring
everybody away. Think they're able to devour, you know, all
these enemies. I told you before about these
two crazy Yorkies we got. They got two different personalities.
One of them, buddy, I'm telling you, if a mother dared, I mean,
if she dared, Take her baby for a walk. Push that stroller down
the sidewalk in front of our house. Oh, this dog gets up in
the window. He just barks and barks and barks.
And she just keeps walking. She don't pay a bit of attention
to him. But he's so proud of herself when she leaves, he thought
he did that. He thought he made a little dog. We got this other
little dog. And we take him for a walk. And
I don't care what dog he sees. He's going to kill that dog.
He's going to kill him. Ollie was taking him one time.
He was a puppy. And she didn't realize he could
get that close. And he got too close to this
police dog, tore the pad of his paw off the bottom of his foot.
And he sees that dog to this day and still thinks he can kill
him. That dog just laughs. He just laughs. That's his enemies of our God.
They're just dogs. And he laughs. They're easily
defeated in his power. And God didn't even have to exert
any energy. He just lets them be destroyed in their own traps
by their own words. Verse 12, for the sin of their
mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken
in their pride and for cursing and lying, which they speak.
He just lets them be taken in their own traps. He lets them
be judged by their own words. They belched out slander against
our Lord. They said, we don't want him.
Let his blood be on our head. The sword of their own lips killed
them. But God said, all right. His blood's on their head to
this day. They don't have him to this day because they said
they don't want him. Verse 13, consume them in wrath. Consume them that they may not
be. And let them know that God ruleth
in Jacob under the ends of the earth. And in the evening, let
them return and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round
about the city. Let them wander up and down for
meat and grudge, if they be not satisfied. Every enemy, God's
gonna bark like a dog. They're gonna go about the city
barking and growling, and they're never gonna find anything satisfying,
because they're looking in the wrong places. And in His time,
God's gonna destroy every enemy. God's people, though, They're
preserved and protected from every one of those enemies because
God's powerful mercy goes before them, goes before them. Second, we can trust in God's
mercy. It's powerful because it depends upon God's strength,
not mine. It depends on God's purpose,
not mine. That's the only kind of mercy
that'll take me all the way to glory. Mercy that does not depend
upon me. That's why our Lord said, why
he said, forgive them. Let them live. Let them live
until all of God's mercy has been fulfilled. And thirdly,
God's mercy is powerful enough to make his people praise him.
Even when the enemy's still around, even when the enemy's out there
barking like dogs, God's mercy is powerful enough to make his
people sing. Verse 16, but I will sing of
thy power. Yea, I will sing aloud of thy
mercy in the morning, for thou hast been my defense and refuge
in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will
I sing, for God is my defense and the God of my mercy. Now
the wicked howl and bark like dogs, but God's people sing. God's people sing. They sing
of God's power, His power to choose me, His power to redeem
me, His power to give me life, His power to keep me, preserve
me, protect me, to go with me every step of the way. The power
of His mercy. Oh, I love to sing. Oh, how merciful. God's mercy is powerful enough
to overcome all my sin. David, this same David, he talked
about these provenient mercies, mercies that goes before. He
said, these are sure mercies. These are the sure mercies of
David. because they're the sure mercies
of Christ, the son of David. They're sure mercies because
they depend upon the power of God to carry out His purpose
of mercy for His people. You know, God's sovereignty is
not just a point of doctrine that we talk about that separates
us from the Armenian. God's sovereign power over all
things guarantees the salvation of His people. guarantees the
protection of every object of mercy so that He'll bring them
all the way to glory. God's mercy that went before
is going to keep going before us all the way until He brings
every one of His people home. I know He's going to bring a
number that no man can number. I understand that. I understand
He is preserving and protecting a people all over this world
right now. that we just can't imagine the power and the intricacy
of His purpose all working together to preserve Him and protect Him.
Remember the title of our message. It's the God of my mercy. God's
engaged all of His power, all of His mercy, all of His grace. He is engaged His very glory
in bringing You who believe, every single
one of you who believe He's put all that He is into you. How do you think of that? The stuff going on in this world
doesn't seem quite so big, does it? Doesn't seem quite so big. I'm going to sing the God of
my power, the God of my defense, the God of my mercy. All right,
let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your mercy. How can we ever thank you enough
for your mercy? Your mercy that's gone before,
that's gone before eternally and come to us in time and will
go on before us eternally, bringing us, bringing your people before
your very throne into your presence. Father, how we thank you. How
we thank you for mercy for the miserable. We could never earn,
we could never deserve your mercy, your grace, your salvation. The
only thing we could earn from you is wrath. but how we thank
you for mercy. How we thank you for pouring
out your wrath for the sin of your people in Christ our substitute
and giving us his righteousness, giving us his obedience and making
us righteous in him. The only explanation for it is
mercy. And Father, we thank you. Father,
now bless your word, I pray. Bless it to your glory. Bless
it to the hearts of your people to comfort and strengthen and
feed our hearts and strengthen us to keep going on this journey
that you've called us to here below. Keep us ever in your mercy,
ever looking to Christ, my mercy, the God of my mercy. It's in
Christ's precious name we pray and give thanks.