Our scripture reading, let's
turn to Luke chapter 1. Luke, the first chapter, we're
going to continue looking at Isaiah 55 this evening. We'll just look at one verse.
So for our scripture reading, we'll read a portion of Luke
chapter 1. We'll begin reading in verse
67. This is right after John the
Baptist was born. And his father, Zacharias, was
filled with the Holy Ghost. and prophesied, saying, Blessed
be the God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his
people, and he hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in
the house of his servant David, 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. the oath which he swore to our
father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we, being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him
without fear, and holiness and righteousness before him all
the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God. whereby the day spring from on
high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of
peace. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was
in the deserts to the day of his showing unto history. Let's
bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for these precious promises of your mercy and grace that you've
made since time began to your people. Promises that are sure
and certain because they're fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we're thankful how you always keep your word, how you always
keep your promise of mercy, grace, and forgiveness to your people. Father, we've gathered here this
evening in a very uncertain world, a world that seems so uncertain
and shifting and changing to us. We know it's not. It's all
going according to your will and purpose. But it seems so
uncertain to us. And Father, we've gathered together
to worship. And I beg of Thee that You'd send Your Spirit upon
us. That You'd enable us to forget about the cares thoughts and
worries and responsibilities of this life. And for a few moments,
Father, let us set our affection on things above, to see our Lord
Jesus Christ, to worship Him, to see Him in His glory, His
majesty and His sufficiency, to bow and worship and have our
hearts comforted by these sure, certain mercies that are promised
to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, for those who are hurting,
in special need at this time, you've called them into the valley
of trouble and trial. And it's so many, there's so
many. Father, we pray that you'd be
with them. We pray that you'd heal. That you'd be with the
doctors and nurses that treat them, that give them wisdom and
understanding, that you'd use them as an instrument to heal
the bodies of these, our loved ones. Father, we pray for your
hand of comfort. Father, we pray you'd comfort
the heart as only you can. Speak peace to the heart through
your word and through your promises, we pray. Bless us as we look
into your word. We pray that you'd give us an
hour of true worship. For it's the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, for his sake we pray, amen. All right, Isaiah chapter
55. The title of the message this
evening is Sure Mercies. Sure Mercies because of the covenant
of God. Now one thing we know from reading
scripture is God is a covenant God. And when we say that, what
we mean is this, that God deals with all men in one of two covenants. He always deals with men either
in the covenant of works or in the covenant of grace. And he'll
meet you on the ground that you want to come to him on. Do you
want to come to him based on your works? That's exactly where
he'll meet you, in the covenant of works. If you desire to come
to God needing his mercy and grace, that's where he'll meet
you, in his covenant of grace. And both of these covenants,
covenant of works and the covenant of grace, both those covenants
are sure and certain. The word covenant means promise. And both of these covenants are
sure Because they're the promise of God. It's God who's making
the promise and God cannot lie. Now, the covenant of works is
this. If you keep the law perfectly, God will accept you. And that's
sure and certain. God's promised it. If you keep
the law, God will accept you. But if you break even one law
one time, maybe not even in action, just in thought, just in desire,
you break one law one time, and God will send you to hell for
eternity. And that's sure and certain too, because that's the
promise of God. That's the promise, the covenant
of works. And you and I can't live under that covenant of works,
because we can't keep the law. So we need another covenant,
because we're sinners. Sinners need a covenant of grace.
Sinners need the promise of mercy. And God's covenant of grace is
sure and certain. First of all, because God promised
it. That makes it sure. Second of all, the covenant of
grace is sure because the Lord Jesus Christ has come and he's
already fulfilled that covenant. He's ratified it in his blood.
The Lord Jesus is the perfect man who perfectly fulfilled this
covenant. The covenant of grace is so sure
because everything's already been done by our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Isaiah says in verse
four. And he speaks here of the covenant. He said, behold, I
have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander
to the people. The covenant's all found in him,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. The covenant of the
law says do. It always tells you do. The covenant
of the law never says rest. It always says do. But the covenant
of grace says done. Covenant of Grace says you rest
in Christ because everything's already been done by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's a sure thing. And
I have to tell you, I like a sure thing. I don't watch my favorite
sports teams play live unless I'm very sure they're going to
win. If they're a 40 point favorite, I'll watch them. If it's a pick-em
game, I just don't. It wasn't always that way. I'm
not real original. You all know Brother Henry did
not watch the Wildcats play live. And I told him one time I did,
and he laughed at me. He said, I'm going to live longer
than you. Well, I've learned it's just too emotionally draining
for me to watch them lose, so I just don't. And really, what
I prefer to do is just wait, and I DVR it. And if they win,
I watch. If not, I just delete that and
be done with it. because I like a sure thing.
I can't even stand the commercials during a TV timeout, you know? It just kills me. I want a sure
thing. Well, if I want a sure thing
for something as trivial as basketball or football, I definitely want
a sure thing where my soul is concerned. If I can't stand to
wait through a TV timeout to find out what's going to happen,
I can't stand a night laying in bed in the dark and wondering
what's gonna happen to my soul. I need a sure thing. Now, if
you're a sinner and you need a sure thing, you need sure mercy
for your soul, I've got good news for you tonight. Look at
verse three of our text, Isaiah 55. Our God says, incline your
ear and come unto me. Ear and your soul shall live
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure
mercies of David. Now, the David that Isaiah writes
about here is not King David, the son of Jesse. These are mercies
we read about a token of scripture. David said, although my house
be not so with God, yet God made with me an everlasting covenant,
order and all things and sure. These are the mercies that King
David enjoyed because these are promises of mercy in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the son of David. These mercies are sure. because
they're all in Christ and they're all given to sinners in Christ.
And these covenant mercies are sure mercies. They're sure because
these are mercies God has promised to sinners. I want to give you
a few of them to you from God's Word tonight. First look at Jeremiah
chapter 31. The word covenant, I forgot to
write down how many hundreds and hundreds of times it's used
in Scripture. The word's used so many times
in Scripture, that tells you it's mighty important in Scripture,
isn't it? Scripture has a lot to tell us
about covenant mercies. And the first covenant mercy
is this, as God promises mercy, it gives holiness in the inward
meaning, holiness in the heart. Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I'll make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not
according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt. That was a covenant of work, the covenant of law,
which my covenant they break. We do the same thing. Although
I was in husband unto them, I was good to them, saith the Lord.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I'll put my law
in their inward parts and I'll write it in their hearts and
will be their God and they should be my people. Now God gave the
covenant of law, but man by nature can't keep the law, can we? And
what's more than just the inability to keep the law? Man by nature
hates God's law. We hate it. All we do is sin. Everything we do is the breaking
of God's law because everything we say, do or think is sin. And
God requires that that sin be paid for. And God also requires,
not only does sin have to be paid for, but God also requires
that we have a holy nature, that he'll accept us. Well, we can't
be holy, can we? Our nature's not holy. So in
mercy, God promises to give his people a new, holy nature. Now that's mercy. God gives us
what he requires, a holy nature. Now hold your finger there, we're
coming right back to Jeremiah 31, but look in Ezekiel chapter
36. God giving this holiness and
inward man is the giving of a new heart and the new birth. It's
the birth of a new man, of a new nature, born from different seed. It's a new heart. Ezekiel 36
verse 26. A new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of
flesh and I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statues. And you should keep my judgments
and do them." See how God puts holiness in his people by giving
them a new heart, giving them a new nature in the new birth. So there's nothing holy of us,
is there? We don't do anything holy. There's
nothing holy of us that comes from us. But there certainly
is something holy in us. And it's what God put in us.
It's a new nature, a new heart that God put in us. You know,
the paradox of a believer is this, is that we're holy. A believer is holy. God says
so. You're holy if you believe Christ. But we never do anything
holy, do we? That's the two natures every
believer lives with. The nature that can do nothing
but sin and the nature that is perfectly holy. That first nature
we got came from Adam. Adam wrote sin in our heart.
He wrote sin in our nature so that all we can do is sin. Well,
when God gives it a new nature, God writes holiness on that nature. So that new nature cannot sin. God in mercy puts his law in
our inward parts. He makes it part of us. Now,
when God wrote the law on the tables of stone, nobody loved
that law. They hated the law. They broke
the law. Moses thoughts a little of it. He broke those tables
of stone just as soon as he came down from the mountain. The first
set God gave him. They hated that law written on
stone. But when God writes his law on the new heart that he
gives, we can say with David, I love thy law. God's law is
perfect and holy and good. God's law is good. I wish I could
keep it. God's law is good. But you know,
when he speaks here of the law, it's not just the Ten Commandments
or the commandments of the Mosaic law. The law is the whole counsel
of God. The law is the gospel. We're
born with a nature that hates that gospel. If God gives you
a new heart, suddenly you love it. Isn't that mercy? God gives his people a nature
that loves the gospel. So we can't live without it.
That's a sure mercy. If you love the gospel, you always
will love the gospel. God's given that to you. Covenant,
promise mercy. Second, this is a sure mercy,
a sure thing. God promises in mercy that he'll
give his people a saving knowledge of Christ. In Jeremiah 31, look
at verse 34. They shall teach no more every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to
the greatest of them. saith the Lord. Now, men by nature
don't know God, and men by nature can't know God. We can't figure
God out. We can't find God. And that's
a problem for us. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians
1a, that when Christ returns, he'll take vengeance on all them
that know not God. That's a problem if we don't
know God. Knowing God is vital to our souls. It's so vital,
our Lord said, John 17 3, that this is life eternal, that they
know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. Knowing Christ, knowing God is life eternal. And that's
why the apostle Paul said he longed to know Christ and the
power of his resurrection, because to know him is to have eternal
life. What mercy that God would give
his people a knowledge of who God is, that we know him, that
we know how he saved sinners in his son, so that we know whom
we have believed. This is not a knowledge of a
what, it's a knowledge of a person, that they'll know me, saith the
Lord. So we can say, I know whom I
have believed. If you say that, God's been merciful
to you. That's a sure mercy he'll give
every one of his people. Third, here's a sure mercy. God promises mercy that forgives
iniquity. That forgives iniquity so completely
that God doesn't remember the iniquity of his people anymore.
Look here at the end of verse 34. For I will forgive their
iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Now the reason
God's mercy is so sure is there's no reason for God not to be merciful
to anyone for whom Christ died. The sin of God's elect is forgiven,
washed away under the blood of Christ. And that sin is forgiven
because justice was satisfied when Christ suffered and died
as our substitute. We sing that song, there's power
in the blood. There's so much power in the
blood of Christ that his blood put away Obliterated, made not
to exist, the sin of God's people. That's why God doesn't remember
it, because Bob, it doesn't exist. It's gone. The blood of Christ
completely removed the sin of God's elect. And someone might
ask, well, aren't you worried that God's going to punish you
for your sin? I say, what sin? I don't have any sin if Christ
died for me. Even God can't remember what's
not there. What mercy to sinners? That's a mercy that so great
our pea brain can't comprehend it. Maybe David was thinking
about that when he said, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity because the blood of Christ made it not
to exist. That's a sure mercy. Fourth,
here's a sure thing. God promises mercy so that a
sinner has union with God. Look in Jeremiah over next chapter
32 verse 38. And they should be my people
and I will be their God. This is a mercy. God chose a
people to make his and when he chose a people, he chose a people
from Adam's fallen race. He had to choose sinners, didn't
he? That's a mercy. God chose those sinners to be
His, to belong to Him. God chose those people in love
to make those people part of His very family, to make them
the very body of His Son. Now that's a mercy that God would
take the worst of the worst to adopt into His family. That such
great love, the Apostle John said, behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we, Sinful men and
women like us should be called sons of God. You who believe,
you belong to God. You belong to Him. You're His
people. And He will be to you everything
you need because you belong to Him. Your soul must be safe and
secure if you belong to Christ. Eric, is there anything, anything
that Abby would need that's in your power to give her that you
withhold? Not one thing, not one. If a sinful man would do that
for his wife, oh, what will God do for his father? He'll not
withhold anything that you need. Your soul is secure in Him. And
God, The God of heaven and earth is our God. He'll be our God
and we shall be his people. Almighty God is our God who undertook
to save us. Is there any way we can be lost?
Of course not. Almighty God is our God who has
sworn to protect us. Anything harm us? Of course not. Now this is mercy, because when
Adam sinned, Adam lost fellowship with God, but the sacrifice of
Christ reconciles his people to God and brings us back into
fellowship, union with the Almighty. Now that's mercy, and that's
a sure thing, sure thing for God's people. Here's the fifth,
sure mercy. God promises mercy that gives
true godliness. Verse 39 of Jeremiah 32. And I will give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them. A true godliness is seen in these
three things. He says here, this is the three
things he'll give them. A new heart, one way, and reference,
fear of God. True godliness is found in a
new heart, a new nature that God gives. And when God gives
a new heart, he gives a heart that loves God. That heart we
got from Adam hates God. The car of mine is enmity against
God. But he gives a new heart. It's a heart that loves God,
that loves Christ, loves his word. And that love is important. John said, he that loveth not
knoweth not God. He that loves not doesn't have
eternal life, for God is love. That love's important. Love is
the mark of a true disciple. Our Lord said, this is how all
men will know you're my disciples, that you have love one for another.
And God gives a new heart, a heart of love. And we can't come up
with that love on our own. I tell you, we're born hateful
and hating one another. So what mercy God would give
us a new heart, a heart that loves him and that loves others.
Second, true godliness is seen in this. God gives all of his
people, I don't care where you find them, he gives all of his
people one way. There's one way of salvation,
and that's Christ. Every believer of every generation
from every country has that confession. There's one way of salvation,
and it's Christ. There's one way of righteousness,
it's Christ. There's one way of peace, it's
Christ. There's one way of eternal life,
it's Christ. There's just one way of faith.
Just one way. It's faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And every believer has that same
one way. One way of salvation, one faith,
one righteousness, one peace, one life. And third, true godliness
is seen in the fear of the Lord. Now fear is not being afraid,
it's reference. You know, we think of a godly
person, a person who, they do the right thing all the time,
you know. When they're out and about, they're always doing the
right thing. But you know, true godliness is not seen when we're
more moral, more moral acting than other men. True godliness
is seen in a reverent worship of the Lord, to fear the Lord.
True godliness is seen in a reverent trust in Christ. that he is all
I need. And God gives that to his people.
That fear and reverence, that's a mercy. Sixth, this is a sure
thing. God promises mercy so that God
will never forsake his people. And his people will never forsake
him. Look here at verse 40, Jeremiah
32. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. But I'll put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Now, God's mercy is
like Him. It's eternal. So God's mercy
can never fail. It can never end because it's
eternal, right? Now, God's been merciful to His
people. So God cannot and He will not Take the mercy that
he's promised his people away from him. He won't do it because
it's eternal. Now, God's not like a man. This
is why we have a problem understanding this. God's not like us. God's
ways are not our ways. God's thoughts are not our thoughts.
Our way, man's way, is we'll be merciful. We'll be kind to
somebody. Once. Maybe two or three or four
times. Maybe like Peter and say, oh,
I'll do it seven times. But you know when Peter said
that, you know what he meant? There's an end to this thing, right?
Because that's our way. Peter was saying, okay, after
so long, I have to be nice to him. I don't have to be forgiving
anymore, right? Is that what the Lord said? See, the problem
that causes fear to rise up in our hearts is we'll be forgiving,
merciful once, two or three or four times maybe if we're just,
you know, real patient. But when we see ourselves continually
sinning, continually rebounding against God, we become afraid
that God will quit being merciful to us. Because that's what we
do to somebody else. So God makes this clear to His
people. His promise, His covenant is
eternal. And even though all we do is
sin, even after conversion, all we do is sin. God promises for
the comfort of the hearts of His people, He will never turn
away from His people. Now that's mercy. That might
be my favorite sure thing. He'll never turn away from His
people. And He won't turn away from His
people because the Father already turned His back on Christ, our
substitute at Calvary. The Father left our substitute
alone. He left him alone to suffer and
die alone in the darkness. So he'll never turn away from
his people. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. You
could probably quote it, but let's read it. If we read it often enough, maybe
someday this will sink into our hearts so that we know this is
a sure thing and we'll find peace and rest and joy in this. Hebrews
13, verse five. Let your conversation, your conduct
be without covetousness and be content with such things as you
have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. So because he promised he'll
never leave us nor forsake us, we may boldly say, the Lord's
my helper. I will not fear what man shall
do unto me. God promises He won't leave His
people. All right, I see that. And I
believe that. God can't lie. He's not going
to break His promise. I understand God won't leave
His people. But one great fear of every believer
is this. I fear I'll leave God. And if
we're honest, everybody have to admit we leave Christ We leave
the gospel, we leave the assembly of the saints if we could. If God let us, that's what we
do. If you're honest, you know that's so. We would all not believe
Christ if we could. I'd leave Christ, leave faith
in Him, leave rest in Him and try to save myself if I could. But thank God I can't. I can't because number one, he
won't let me. Number two, I can't leave him because he's given
me a new nature that won't leave him. Now, that's mercy. Oh, what mercy. Here's the seventh
sure thing. God promises mercy that cleanses
us from the filth of our sin. Look in Ezekiel chapter 36. He promises mercy that cleanses
us from the filth of our sin. I wish that people of our day
could get this through their heads. Sin is not a mistake that
we made. Sin is filth. That's what it
is. It's filth. Filth before God. And nothing can cleanse it save
the blood of Christ. Only God can cleanse it. He promised
to cleanse the filth of the sin of His people. Ezekiel 36 verse
25. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. This is talking about sanctification. Sanctification is being made
holy. And this is not just a legal
thing. This is being actually made holy. Now believers made
holy in the new birth. We were given a new nature that's
holy and clean. We're cleansed from the filth
of our sin in Christ. And that was pictured after our
Lord died, that Roman soldier came and pierced his side with
that spear and out flowed blood and water. Blood to justify and
water to sanctify. Now, God says, he's promised
to all his people, I'll make you clean. Clean from all the
filthiness of your sin. And every believer sitting here
thinking, I don't feel clean. I don't know. Is this a sure
thing? Because I don't feel clean. I know we don't feel clean. And
that's good that you don't feel clean. Only the new man can tell
the old man's filthy. You don't feel clean, but you
are clean and holy and promised. And I can tell you why we don't
feel clean. It's because we're still carrying
around this sinful, dirty flesh. But the new man who's been born
of God is clean. And that's the only way God can
accept us, is if we're clean. So he makes his people clean.
Now that's mercy. God giving us everything we need.
And here's another paradox of a believer. Even though a believer
doesn't feel clean, a believer still has a clean conscience.
I don't feel clean, but my conscience is clear. The Lord says here,
I'll cleanse you from all of your idols. Now people serve
idols willingly, with gusto they serve idols. They do everything
false religion tells them to do. You know why? Because their
conscience is bothering them. Their conscience keeps telling
them, you've sinned, you've sinned, you've sinned, you've not done
enough, you've not done enough to put away your sin. And they're
willing to do anything to quiet that conscience. Well, I'll tell
you the only way your conscience can be quiet. Look at Hebrews
chapter 9. There's one way your conscience
can be made quiet. And that is through the death
of Christ. If Christ died for your sins. Hebrews 9 verse 13. For the blood of bulls and of
goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? The blood of Christ sprinkled
on your heart purges your conscience so that you don't have to serve
those idols anymore. You don't have to go through
all those, the form and rituals and ceremony of religion to quiet
your conscience because the blood of Christ quiets your conscience.
If the blood of Christ was shed for your sins, your conscience has got nothing
to throw at you. If your sin's gone, your conscience has got
nothing to use to accuse you, does it? That's how we have a
quiet conscience. All right, here's the eighth
thing. The eighth, sure mercy. God promises mercy to make his
people hate themselves. Ezekiel 36 again, verse 31. Then shall you remember your
own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and
for your abominations. Now, this sounds strange to the
natural man, but being taught to hate ourselves is a mercy
that really is a blessing because we'll never look away from ourselves
and look to Christ until we hate the sight of ourselves. You know,
I hear this all the time. People say we've got to teach
our children to love themselves. No, we don't. We got that down. We love ourselves just fine.
What we've got to be taught and what only God the Holy Spirit
can teach us is to hate ourselves in our sin. And the Spirit's
got to do it so that we'll be forced to look outside of ourselves
and look to Christ and trust Him. And the only way we'll ever
hate ourselves is if God the Holy Spirit shows us Christ.
Isaiah said, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. Well,
Isaiah, how do you know that? Because mine eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts. That's how I know. Job was pretty
proud of himself, wasn't he? Then he saw the Lord. After he
saw the Lord, he said, I abhor myself, and I repent in dust
and ashes. I've seen the Lord." Paul said
in Romans 7 that he hated everything that he did. He said, what I
don't want to do, that's what I do. What I hate, that's what
I do. Because everything I do, sin, and he said, I hate it.
Well, you know, it wasn't always that way for old Paul, was it?
Saul of Tarsus was proud of everything he did. Saul of Tarsus says,
touching the law, I'm blameless. After he saw the Lord, after
the Lord unhorsed him, put him down in the dust, and he saw
the Lord, Paul said, now I hate myself. I hate all the works
that I do, all those works of righteousness that I used to
trust in, all my religious activity I used to think made me so good.
Tell you what, Paul said, I count it but done. I just count it
but newer. Because I've seen the Lord. I've
seen And that's a mercy. If we hate ourselves, that's
when we'll trust Christ. What a mercy. God has promised
he will reveal his son to everyone of his people at his last minute. Sure mercy. Look at Psalm 89. God promises mercy, in mercy,
that he will give his people the rod of discipline. Psalm
89. Verse 28. My mercy will I keep for him
forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His
seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the
days of heaven. If his children now forsake my
law and want not of my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my
loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break
nor alter the thing that's gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn
by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall
endure forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall
be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness
in heaven. God has promised in mercy the
rod of discipline to his people. He's promised mercy. He talks
here about his covenant of mercy. It can't fail. It'll never end. God's mercy is sure because God
promised it. He said, well, it's gone out
of my lips. I won't take back. God's mercy is rich mercy. It's
saving mercy. It's mercy that's comforting.
It's mercy that assures the soul. But in this flesh, we're still
just sin, aren't we? That's all we are, is sin. Now God'll never punish His people
for their sin, because He's already punished Christ, our substitute
for our sin. But God will correct His people
with the rod. Somebody's thinking, what? Being
corrected with the rods of mercy? Frank, now you had me. You had
me when you talked about mercy that gives eternal life. You
had me when you talk about mercy that forgives sin so that God
doesn't remember him. You had me when you talked about
God's mercy that's eternal, that he'll never go back on. You had
me when you talked about mercy that'll keep us forever. But
now you lost me here. You talk about mercy being the
rod of discipline. God's striking me with his rods.
Mercy? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. I'll use an earthly example to
illustrate what I'm saying. My parents corrected me often. Often, I was corrected with the
rod. Their rod was a paddle. You remember
that game you have, that little wooden paddle that had the stretchy
string on the ball on the end of it? Well, they took that string
off and that was the rod that was kept up on top of the refrigerator.
And it was used often. That rod was used on me often
because I deserved it. And it was very unpleasant at
the time. But Sunday was Mother's Day. And in my car to my mother,
I told her, thank you. Thank you for discipline. I'd
probably be in jail if I hadn't. They taught me how to behave. You know, if I did something
wrong and I got spanked, it caused pain, guess what? Well, you'd
think I wouldn't do it again. Often I did. It had to be repeated.
But eventually, I got the lesson. And parents have to do that.
Parents, if you love your children, you spank them. I'm telling you
the truth. I know that's politically incorrect,
but I'm telling you that's so. God, our Heavenly Father, uses
the rod for the same reason. He uses his rod to correct his
people. If he didn't, you know what we'd
do? We'd wander off and fall off a cliff. Somebody says, oh,
I don't want to yell at my children. Well, wait till they're running
out in front of a car in the street, see if you ought to yell
at them or not. God uses his, and wouldn't you be thankful?
God uses his rod to keep his people from wandering off and
falling off a cliff. The good shepherd has his rod,
his rod and his staff, and he uses his rod to keep his sheep
going in the way, in the way, the one way that he gives them
so that he'll bring them all to glory. Thank God for that
rod, which is a mercy that keeps us from wandering off. Now that
is a sure thing. Sure mercies of David. I hope the Lord will bless that
to his glory. Father, how we thank you for
the promise of full, free, sufficient mercy, rich mercy, mercy that
forgives, mercy that gives life, mercy that keeps, mercy that
reveals Christ, mercy that keeps us coming to Christ, mercy that
keeps us from ever trusting in ourselves, but trusting only
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank you. How
we thank you that these mercies are assured. They're not left
up to chance, they're not left up to if we do something right,
we get them, but they're sure mercies in our Lord Jesus Christ. Sure, because you promised them
to your people before time began. Father, I pray that you'd apply
these precious, sure mercies to the hearts of your people,
to comfort us in dark and difficult days, to comfort us as we go
through this journey below, that we keep us looking, upon our
Lord Jesus Christ. It's for His sake, the glory
of His name and for the good of His people we pray.