how pretty he was at 6 a.m. this
morning now I'll speak to you out of
Psalms but before that sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of
prayer that calls me from a world of care when you pray you no
longer have to worry and bids me at my father's throne there's
only one throne makes all my wants and wishes known." Well,
who's your wants and wishes? Once you are called by him, it's
just your father at the throne. In seasons of distress and grief, in our worst spots, my soul has
often found relief and often escaped any tempters there by
thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear. We ask for forgiveness
to him whose truth and forgiveness and faithfulness engage our waiting
souls to bless. And since he bids me to seek
his face, We believe his word and trust his grace. And therefore
I'll cast on him my every snare and await on him sweet our prayer. What a blessing, huh? Yeah, I'll be in Psalms chapter
136 and I'm going to read it to you, but I'm only going to
get to verse 3. I'm also, when I read this, going
to omit the latter part of the verses and I wish that you would
go back and read it because it's redundant for a reason. In Psalms chapter 136, the Lord
blesses the author to finish every single verse with, for
his mercies endureth forever. Verse 1, O give thanks unto the
Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. So I
will admit that as I read and just note that every statement
I make is a blessing unto you and a blessing unto the author.
And then follow up every single thing I say with, for his mercy
endureth forever. Verse 2. O give thanks unto the
God of gods. Verse three, O give thanks to
the Lord of lords. To him who alone doeth great
wonders. Verse five, to him that by wisdom
made the heavens. To him that stretches out the
earth above the waters. To him that made great lights. The sun to rule by day. the moon
and stars to rule by night. To him that smote Egypt in their
firstborn, and brought out Israel from among them. Verse 12, with
a strong hand and with a stretched out arm. To him which divided
the Red Sea into parts. Verse 14, and made Israel to
pass through the midst of it. But overthrew Pharaoh, and his
host in the Red Sea, to him which led his people through the wilderness,
to him which smote great kings, and slew famous kings, Sihon,
king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan, and gave
their land for a heritage, even a heritage unto Israel his servant,
verse 23, who remembered us and our lowest estate, verse 24,
and hath redeemed us for our enemies, who giveth food to all
flesh, verse 26, O give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his
mercy endureth forever. And I read through verse one
to Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. And good is a condition. I had an LA teacher a long time
ago tell me that you can't be good, you can only be well. Well, there is one that is good.
One that is actually good. We cannot be good. He's the only
one that can be good. In fact, He can be great. Dad spoke today that Because
of that, we should have confidence in Christ. The most terrible thing that
is bestowed upon us is still a mercy upon God's grace. And we can't see that in our
condition right now. We cannot see that in our own
terrible thoughts and hearts. But the most terrible thing that
we can imagine that is bestowed upon us is still a mercy. Give
thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Mercy is not of us. I think that's probably been
in every single message I've preached. There is no such thing
as human mercy. Mercy is of the Lord. It can
only be from Christ to be actual mercy. Because that means you're
saved. That doesn't mean that you're
provided grace at a certain point in time because you forgave a
fine that was provided to you or something otherwise. Give
thanks to God because of his inherent goodness. Be grateful
for his goodness. In verse two, there's a declaration
of God's eternal love. Oh, give thanks unto the God
of gods. There is no other God. It is
the God. God supreme over all others. There is no God than him or power
to even a smidge of an equal. Not even close. His love endures
forever. The eternal nature of God's love
is a recurring refrain throughout the song. It is important enough
to repeat after every each statement of either God's abilities, numbered
by the author, or action, or the Lord saved and delivered
His people, or the condition of God. It's enough to establish
that His love endures forever, that every single refrain is
repeated. In verse 3, and this is where
I would like to speak to you at, O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. I will openly admit, and this
is not a profession to be made otherwise, O give thanks unto the Lord.
What a faulty thing for a believer to sometimes do. The only time
that we can give thanks is when he opens our heart and shows
us who we really are and shows who He really is as well. We
should give thanks. I give you no reason or no how
or no method to show you how to give thanks because that's
not mine to give you. The Lord will put you in those
steps to show you how to give thanks because His mercy endureth
forever. Who alone does great wonders
for his steadfast love endures forever? That's the amplified
version of verse three. What wonders has he done for
you? If you stop for just a second right now and think back how
young or how old you are, what mercies has he done for you?
What wonders has he done for you? And I can think back and
there's some spots in which that humanistically We are great at
a certain point. I ran a half marathon yesterday
and that's something. There's a lot of other people
that can run that far too. That's not what I'm talking about
by wonders. I'm saying internally and not humanistically, are you
being delivered? What blessed spots have you been
given by the Lord? Has he delivered you? Truly,
have you been saved? Because that is where we say,
oh, give thanks unto the Lord. Has he granted to you all smooth
sailing through your entire life? I don't believe he has on any
level. Do not confuse wonderly wonders
with the true wonders of the Lord. Has he given you grief
by your standards? Has he made you uncomfortable?
Has he given you grief by all standards, the Lord's standards?
If so, on the latter, you may be saved. He opens your heart
to the truth once you've seen what he can do, once you've seen
what you are. In John 16 verse 22, he reads,
and ye now therefore have sorrow. I don't think anyone of us in
here wants to hear that. In reality, our ultimate nature,
and ye, you, now therefore have sorrow. That's a permanent statement.
But he follows up. The Lord follows up with this.
You're in your lowest of your low. You've heard something,
something has happened to you. And the Lord says, but, I love
that phrase. Tim James came up here years
ago and spoke about the howevers and the but, and what for's and
all this kind of thing. So let me explain to you why
this word is so blessed. Verse 22 of King James 16, it
says, and ye therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again. That's
a promise of the Lord. And your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you. This world cannot take from
you the joy. And you say, well, I'm not happy
on this earth. That's not what the Lord's talking
about. The joy he's talking about is
far supreme to anything that we have on this earth. It's true
salvation. The joy is of salvation. It's of the Lord. The most terrible
of terrible may bestow his people. But can you see that it is the
Lord's design? Can you see that that point is
also part of grace? In any moment of that situation
taking place, I admit there is no way that even I am strong
enough to see the path of God. But, as the refrain of every
single verse in Psalms 136, His mercy endureth forever. Openly, I'll admit, I wanted
nothing of this town or this church when I was younger. I wanted nothing of this life
to still be in this area. Yet the Lord has put me here.
He has put you here. So many stories could be told
of our backgrounds, of people that we really wanted to be around.
My father has openly said multiple times that there is no way we
would all be friends if we were led by our own design. And yet
these verses say, give thanks. I would not have known God if
I walked my own path. Of course, we're not allowed
to do so. As bullheaded as we can be, we
are not allowed to walk our own path. Our path is already set
before us. Our path is one that is set and
is also blessed. Have you looked back on your
path and really tried to criticize it? You can't. Because by human
standards, you could be a little bit upset by how it worked out.
Maybe you don't make enough money. maybe by your standards you're
not in the house you thought you would be, whatever it may
be, materialistically, but have you ever really looked back and
tried to say it's not blessed? Because it is. It's truly blessed.
Our own path is laid with sin. We can be assured that we are
sinful by our own nature. What we get to be blessed with
is that is laid far more so with grace. But by not our grace,
we give grace to open doors and be nice to our neighbors. That's
a lowercase g, you know, in reality. I go through my notes and I always
talk about, I was looking through here that when I use the term
him, or his, that when I refer to God it's a capital H, semantics
maybe. But true grace is a lowercase
g. You know, you can go and somebody's
passing away or what have you and you can give them a lasagna. That's not true grace. True grace
is to talk with your neighbor, your people around you, fellow
believers with proper grace. That's the word of God. That's
what we're talking about. He is the one that provides true
grace, sovereign grace. Dad spoke today on sovereign,
what it really means. So I googled it. It says supreme,
and I love this word, unmitigated, which means unchallenged, because
it cannot be challenged. That's what sovereign actually
means. There is no challenge to sovereign. So sovereign grace
means that it is the only grace, period. The Lord also created
the heavens and hell, a place that is an absolution of a person's
condition. Hell is for unbelievers, non-negotiable. Heaven is created by not only
the greatest Savior, but the only Savior for his kept people. Why? So from here on out, on my outline,
I printed this off at my work and a faculty member found it.
And that's where the question I actually have in my notes,
why? He asked, hell is for unbelievers, non-negotiable. Heaven is created
by the, not only the greatest savior, but the only savior.
for his kept people. He doesn't like election, is
what I found out. And he asked why, and my answer
was very simple. Because he loves his people.
That's why. He keeps them away from sinners.
Hell is kept away from the heavens that has kept his people. He gave his only son to be sacrificed
to take every single burden of all of his lands. and be punished for his sins.
Before current sins, before sins, current sins, and after this
time he sacrificed to save. Let me reread that as well. Yes,
again, why? Because the Lord loves his people.
He gave his only son to be sacrificed to take every single burden of
all of his lands. All people that is chosen and
decreed to be of him will not be lost. To be saved is not temporary
or partial. It is full and without any duty
you pay nothing. Full sovereign grace. Sovereign. It is only the free grace that
is provided by our God. Given. We're first not ignorant
of who we are. I apologize. Let me reread this.
We are first ignorant of who we are. We live first blind,
and then he gives us a selected vision. We are then arrested
by salvation. We are seen who we are. No believer tries to walk an
aisle or try to place more money in the plate to find salvation. So what do we do? We listen to
hear His word. We listen to hear His truth.
Verse 3 again, O give thanks unto the Lord for His mercies
endureth forever. The song sings, then sings my
soul My Savior God to thee, do we? A believer does. Our soul sings, how great thou
art. Do we give true thanks? When
we are first confronted with our sinful condition, we give
full thanks. Though we can become stale, very,
very easily to be grateful for moments, Events in our life can
even make us angry at the gospel. Have you ever been there? I have. I've come in here, and
for my own self reasons, I've been angry and aggravated. Aggravated at the church. But
only not by something of the church, By His return, only by
His grace are we returned. Only by His grace do we come
back. If you are saved, or ever first
hearing this Word, His Word, I have some great news. The news
is not from me. My nature is of sin. No, I have
news from the Lord, which means It is not a lie. No fault, but
it is absolutely true. In Psalms 136, in every single
verse, but I use three all the time, at the very end of every
single verse, I have great news. His mercies endureth forever. Forever. If you are saved, there
is nothing you can do about it. If you are saved, you are kept
forever. which is even past your imagination. If you are a part
of His mercies, you can be sad or upset for now, but your forever
is anything but sad. Your forever is anything but
sad. Your forever is grace, sovereign
grace, true salvation beyond our own understanding. You are
loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you believe that, you
are saved. There is not a tighter grip than our Savior. He saves forever, and He forgives
forever. He delivers even future sins
forever. His mercies endureth forever. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Give thanks
today. He delivers even the current
weakest of spirits, all doubters, the ones who are pained. He delivers
all of His. Give thanks. His mercies endureth
forever. Your salvation does not require
anything from any human or you. No isle, no sacrament to continue
your salvation. Once saved, His mercies endure
forever. Shall we pray? Lord, we are a small congregation, but we are the biggest of the
saved. We're of you. We ask that we
be of you all the time. What does that mean? that we
know the truth, that we know that you save, that we also know
that your mercies endureth forever. We ask this in your name. Amen.