Good morning. It has been a good morning. Heard
a lot of good scripture, good conversation in the back. I'm
going to keep it pretty simple today and basically I'm going
to show you some scriptures. And so if I were to title this
message, it would be scriptures demonstrating God's mercy. And
my message has been totally wrecked because Dad's conversation took
me in another direction. I cut the third page out. Nathan
had something in the back that was fantastic, so I want to share
that with you as well. Nathan opened up with Matthew
23, and you can turn there if you want to, but basically I'm
gonna, I'm sorry, 27, and I just want to give a sentiment on this. And I won't read out of Matthew
27. You're more than welcome to go
there. But the verses he read were right along the line of
the vein of what I want to talk about. And he wrote, he read
when the Lord was on the cross. And the Lord was taunted at that
point in time. He was taunted. And we spoke
in the back that the Lord could come down off of that cross anytime
he wanted to. But that's not how mercy works.
The Lord, our God incarnate, took those punishments, those
earthly punishments, and those worldly punishments, or spiritually
punishments, and He took them for us. He could come down, and
our ego, that's what I thought about when we were sitting in
the back, my ego, would be, I am all-encompassing of all power,
so I'm going to go down off this cross, but that does not save,
that does not deliver His people. And so our frailty, is that a
word? Being frail, would never allow mercy to take
place because our ego would be in the way if we were to be our
own Savior. This all stemmed off of a conversation
that I had a long time ago over John 3 16 and how it is this
encompassing verse that saves everybody. It's not how that
works. That's a misinterpretation of
those, that verse. And so what I want to show you
is God's mercy today and why we cannot save ourselves, but
why he saves as well. Dad also spoke on Romans 8 verses
38 and 39. I'll go ahead and read that one
for you. Romans 8, 38 and 39. Very clear
chapter to a believer. And verses 38 of Romans 8 reads,
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, that's earthly, those are kings and queens, nor things
now, present, nor things to come in the future, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's
ultimate mercy. There is nothing that can separate.
So while He hung on the cross, We were saved. Before Adam and
Eve, we were saved. Everything before and in the
future to come, our future sins are forgiven. We will be delivered
through His mercy. So even though we are presently
in a state that we are, in the future state that we are, we
may be no better. We may be better. I don't know.
Our past may be worse or may be better than we are now in
reality. but the mercy of the Lord will deliver. And that's
what I'm gonna hope to show you again here through these verses. So I open with Psalms 103. Psalms 103, and I'm gonna take
you to three more verses through the day. Psalms 103 in verses eight through 18. And these are blessed verses,
they just speak to a believer of the Lord's mercy. The Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. I guess we can go home. That's
pretty, pretty blessed. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor awarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he
remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass,
as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes
over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
for everlasting, to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his
covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them. God is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abundant in loving, kind, and truth. He doesn't
deal with us according to our sins or punish us according to
our iniquities. In verse eight, God's love is
steadfast, enduring, and a commitment. Excuse me. He is slow to anger. When the
Lord does not react impulsively, He gives Himself time for mercy
because it's everlasting. He is plenteous in mercy and
truth. He abounds in mercy and He shows
compassion and keeps His promises. He keeps His promises. I'm pretty
sure that none of us have ever done that on any level. I know,
I speak for myself, there is no promise that is, that I've
kept promises, but there are some that I have not, obviously.
And so He keeps His. In verse 9, He does not treat us as our sins
deserve. When I wrote that, I was in my
classroom and I looked over at a student that had the What Would
Jesus Do band. Jesus is not our friend. He's
not your buddy that's going to deliver you. He is a true Savior. He's more than a friend. He's
loving kindness on a whole other level. He has forbearance and
restraint as well. Look at verse 9. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. I found that as a believer, you
find yourself in these spots and they come and they go, they
ebb and they flow. And I don't, you know, it's the
Lord's mercy that we're Returned but there are these moments where
we're in the depth. I mean of any kind of emotion
and That's him chiding As a verse says and we are at the lowest
of the low There's points where I would probably wake up and
I would question. I don't think I believe I honestly
don't think I know the gospel. There are times on, especially
a Wednesday, we come to church and I'm pretty sure I can honestly
say I go through the motions. And there's times that I get
up on a Sunday and I, oh my goodness, I would just love to stay in
bed. I know we have a service at 9.30 and that's not real late
or whatever, but the point of what I'm saying is that the Lord,
that's the Lord Those moments are the lowest of the low. And
when the Lord brings you back, the Lord, that's a mercy that
he's bestowed upon you, that he will knock you down. And on
top of that, he will also bring you to where you hear him again. And a lot of times we don't hear
him. We go for a long period of time, sometimes without hearing
him. In verse 10, he says, he hath not dealt with us after
our own sins. If we were to be punished for
our sins, We can rank ourselves by humanistic abilities that
we're bad sinners or better sinners than everybody else and there
would be a bar graph that everybody would be on. That's not the truth. He does not see sin anymore. Our sin is fully forgiven by
his sacrifice. We are not rewarded, verse 10,
according to our iniquities. Reward would be a full-blown
punishment. Verse 11, For as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is the mercy toward them that
fear him. There is no gap, and this goes along also with verse
12. As far as east from the west,
so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. He's talking about a
distance. There is no distance that will
ever gap us back from our, return our sins, if you will. The distance
between God's mercy and our failings to the vastness as a true distance. In verse 11 and 12 we are shown
the gap between the Lord and us. I'm sorry, between, we're, in verse 11 and 12 we're shown
the gap between Sin in the Lord and it is fully as far as any
person could ever imagine Number verse 13 I'm sorry. Oh Verse 14. Okay verse 14 For he knoweth
our frame. He knows what we are We are a
dust is what he says and you know, I don't know what you do
with dust, but you sweep it away It's the lowest low He knows
our frame. We are what we are. God remembers
our frailty and knows we are dust. He forgives our sins like
the clouds disperse. And His righteousness extends
to those who keep His covenant. In verse 14, He remembers our
limitations. We are created beings with nothing
as our origin. Nothing as our origin. He's acknowledging
our weakness. And I found that These verses
ebb and flow because when you see a gracious verse, you see
your situation and you see the Lord's situation and you also
see the way the Lord saves. And verse 15 through 16, like
a grass or a flower, it emphasizes our fleeting nature and God's
awareness of it. The Lord knows what we are. I've done a poor job of setting
this up. Basically what this came to was
verse 17. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting. Is from everlasting. To everlasting. Upon them that fear Him. That
doesn't mean, we've said this before, to fear Him does not
mean we're afraid of Him. It means we're in awe of Him.
We love Him. but the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that love him and his
righteousness unto children's children. His mercy is for those
who believe in him, not merely fear of punishment, but reverence
and respect. His mercy endures forever to
those who fear him and keep his commandments. His righteousness
extends to all believers. His covenant is faithfulness
and continues despite individual failings. No matter what you
do, if you're in Him, you are forever kept. You are forever
His. That's a full mercy. It's from
everlasting to everlasting. God has a boundless mercy. He is exceeding our limitations
because we can keep Him in a box so we can imagine what He is.
But His limitations, I don't even know if you can put limitations
on the Gospel. There isn't one. The Lord takes
care of all. And He forgives all transgressions
for His believers. And I want to make something
clear. My father and I had a conversation last night and it was the same
tone every time, you know, as Lord Jesus Christ. When we speak
and we say, from anybody comes up here and says, we say, all
people. It's not John 3, 16 from the
world. It's not all people. It's not
every human being that ever lived. It is people who believe in Christ
as an elect person, as a person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I pray that we all are here today. If you would turn to Luke 15. I won't read the whole passage,
but please go back and read this passage. I have a note in this
passage that is probably one of the oldest notes in my Bible,
and it literally reads, free sovereign grace. So John 15,
and I'm gonna start in verse 25 through 32, and this is the
parable son. Now his elder son was in the
field, and he came and drew nigh to the house. He heard music
and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked, what
these things meant. And he said unto him, thy brother
is come and thy father has killed the fatted calf because he hath
received him safe and sound, the parable son. And he was angry
and would not go in. Therefore came his father out
and entreated him. And he answered, said to his
father, lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed
I, at any time, they commandment, and yet thou never gavest me
a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon
as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with
harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said
unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have
is thine. It was meet that we should make
merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive
again and was lost and is found." And I want to focus on verse
31. Like I said, please go back and
read the entire verse. Verse 31, and he said unto him,
Son, thou art ever with me. The Father's response, God's
desire for mercy and restoration over judgment. It was necessary. This son was always lost until
his repentance. He was, he was, that's us. We're
lost. To rejoice reflects God's delight
in the sinner's return. This is mercy yet again. Christ's salvation is forever.
It's permanent. If you have a fear of falling
into the group of hell, there shouldn't be if you're kept by
him. And all I have is mine. That's the Lord's words. According
to King James Version, all this is in red, which means that's
Jesus' words. And verse 31 is read. That's Jesus' words. And all
I have is thine. That's everything. That's everything
to a believer. Not just everything for comfort.
Literally, salvation is yours. All I have is thine. Ultimate
mercy is that you're kept because He says so. That's all you need. You know, I can go and tell you
who's going to win the Super Bowl today. That doesn't mean
anything. I can tell you my mom's kettle
cooked beef is really, really good. And it doesn't mean anything. But if you tell, if you've heard
the Lord, if you read that, that's His words. And if He's kept you,
verse 31 means more than it did a minute ago. Because He says,
all that I have is Thine. What's He have? He has His believers. He has you. He is the ultimate
mercy. You're kept. All that I have
is Thine. You have what He has. Everything. Alright. And lastly, I'm going
to take you to John 3, 16 and 17. You know, I can remember calling Drew years ago. I was
in Parker Hall, the parking lot. I just got done with a delivery.
And I was working at the university. I was delivering copies. I don't know what happened. I
don't know your whole story, and I'm not looking to testify
at all. But I remember, hmm. Sunday or Wednesday before, came
to the church as normal, and got my Bible out because that's
what mom and dad said to do. Somebody spoke, I'm pretty sure
it was Drew, I don't remember. I heard the word mercy, and I
heard the word salvation, and I heard the word elect. I think
that was about it. I may be romanticizing this memory. But I remember pulling into the
parking lot and getting done with my delivery. It was about
noon or so and I didn't have any classes that day and something
hit me. I mean, smoked me. And I remember
calling Drew in tears because I was arrested by the Lord. I had heard the message for the
first time that I've ever heard the message. And it was so funny
that you can sit here for 20 years and you don't hear the message,
but yet at a certain point in time, the mercy of the Lord will
arrest you. You'll hear the word. And it's
not something that you can hear in other churches. It really
isn't. And you hear things that make you feel really good. And
like my dad always says, he would go as a young man, and he would
go, and he would go to services, and he'd feel really good. And
then later on, about half the day, The shine wore off. And that's what happened to me
for a really long time. It's interesting that the Lord
has a point in time, a mercy that bestows upon you. And what
it does is, it does not open your eyes and life is fantastic. It does, I think off the bat,
pretty well the opposite. It shows you what you are. It
shows you that you are a sinner at the fullest level. You're
the lowest of the low, as the Bible says. You're the worst
sinner of worst sinners because you're aware of it. If you're
not aware of sinning, you feel pretty good about it. You can
kind of gloss it. But a believer can hear the Word
and know, especially off the bat, where the Lord has blessed
you with the ultimate mercy, the ultimate mercy of being aware
of your sin, your condition, But then on top of that, His
mercy, His ultimate mercy. Thank God that He has exposed
us to the ultimate sin that we are. Thank God that He has shown
us His mercy. Thank God that He shows us what
these words actually mean. Thank God that He gives us vessels
that come to pulpits and speak the truth, and I hope I'm doing
that today. Thank God that he has us a clear heart, that it
continues as well, that the Lord shows us what we really are.
And the verse that actually, Drew and I's first conversation
were these verses, John 3, 16 and 17. And you all know them,
they're classics. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. Everybody's saved. Just go and
believe. Verse 13 says, And no man hath
ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. even
the Son of Man which is in heaven. Reading context, you can see
that this is talking about a select group of people, a blessed group
of people. Verse 16, this simple verse encapsulates
the heart of God's mercy, for God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. I've got children. I don't know how. I have no clue
how He He, you know, I'm so fallible, I don't know how you could sacrifice
a child, but He gave His own self. Why? That whoever believeth in
Him should not perish. That's why. He loved His elect
so much that He sacrificed His own son to have everlasting life. So if you're part of His elect,
you have everlasting life through the ultimate mercy of the Lord
sacrificing His own Son. Now, I saw this the other day,
verse 17. God sent His Son not to condemn
the world, but to save it. My last point is very simple.
Not to condemn the world. God desires restoration of His
people, not a punishment. The world is already condemned.
Romans 5.18, Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation. However, but, the elect is already
free from condemnation. Continuing on Romans 5.18, Even
so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. Romans 8.1, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That's the elect,
that's you. If you believe, that's you, if the Lord's blessed you.
I'll leave you on this. I'm gonna read you, I'm gonna
cheat, I'm gonna read you Charles Spurgeon. Condemnation does come to the
world through Christ because the world rejects Him. But that
was no part of God's design in sending Him. His design is salvation. Salvation only. He that believeth
on Him is not condemned. Not even now, now withstanding
every sin He has committed. Let me read that again. notwithstanding
every sin that you have committed. He is not condemned. You're not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Unbelieving is the condemning
sin. It seals upon us the condemnation
of every other sin. If thou dost not believe in Christ
this morning, my hearer, Thou art not in a state of probation. Thou art condemned already. He
that believes on Him is not in a state of probation. He is not
condemned. He is already acquitted. He is
at this moment free from condemnation before the judgment seat of God.
We pray. Hey.