1. I Peter chapter 1, and I'll
begin reading in verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you,
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." Our subject
this morning is God's abundant mercy. Did you see that statement
in verse 3, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten
us? God's abundant mercy is why we're
here this morning. You say, no, I just woke up and
decided I believe I'll go today. No, no. God's abundant mercy
is why we're here. It's why we have any reason to
be here. And it's certainly why we have any desire to be here.
God's mercy, not our merit, but God's mercy means everything. God's abundant mercy. Question,
how is it that you have an interest and a heart for the things of
the Lord this morning? How is it that you and I are
alive to these precious truths when so many in the world Even
great minds are not interested at all. Why is that? There's
but one answer, and we read it to you. According to His abundant
mercy, He hath begotten us, begotten us from the dead, the spiritually
dead, unto a lively or ever-living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Now, to me, To me, one of the
most devastating tragedies I can think about, and I've thought
of this a lot of times, we hear about this from time to time
through the years, is that several miners have been trapped deep
in the earth in a coal mine. And you hear about it on the
news. Sometimes there's seven men, sometimes eight or nine,
sometimes 15 or 31 or 28. And the news is always the same. We're not sure if they're dead
or alive. And the rescuers say we're not
sure if we'll be able to get to them in time and rescue them
before they perish. We don't know this. And we don't
know that about the situation. But there is one thing everybody
knows about it. The rescuers know, the families
know, the media knows, and those men trapped know. Everybody
knows this one thing. Their hope is not in themselves. Their deliverance from that captivity,
from that bondage, from that blackness and darkness and fear
so dark they cannot even see the hands in front of their faces.
They know their hope of deliverance is in somebody else getting to
where they are. They know that. Brother Jonah
cried from the fish's belly deep in the sea. Here's what he cried
out in Jonah chapter 2. Salvation is of the Lord. Why did he say that? He knew,
and he knew very well, if I get out of this mess, it won't be
my doing that gets me out. It'll have to be God. If there's
any deliverance for me, it'll have to be Him. For salvation
is of the Lord. That's what he said. Now in this
generation, we've been taught that the reason our neighbors
and our co-workers and our friends and our family members and loved
ones, the reason they're not saved is a term a lot of people
use, the reason they have no heart for God, We've been told that it's just
because we haven't been able to convince them that they need
to make that decision and be delivered. Now, what that's saying is this.
Those miners are trapped simply because they're too lazy to move
100,000 tons of rock and come on out of there and go home. No, that's not it. Jonah just will not kick that
big fish in the side and say, get me out of here, take me to
the land. No, that's not it. Poor Lazarus in the Gospel of
John, been dead seven days, already buried, and the Bible said, body
already stinking. His sisters are at home grieving. And all he needs to do is kick
the lid off that casket and come on out of there and go to the
house? No. No. These are in bondage. They need
deliverance from somewhere else. And such is the bondage of every
unregenerate sinner in this world today. You see, when our father
Adam fell into sin, it brought death, and it brought enmity. Not just that man was God's enemy,
but God was man's enemy. You say, I'm not God's enemy.
I mean, you say, God's not my enemy. If the Spirit of God has
not quickened you to life, you are. And He is your enemy, and
you are His enemy. Because of sin, Adam's mind was
set with a firm conviction that me and God are through. It's
over. And when the Lord came walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, what did Adam do? Well, he exercised what men today
call free will. And he ran and hid. He ran from God, not to Him. He wasn't free at all. He was
bound. Bound in sin to the extent that
he could only run from God, not to Him. And that's what Adam's
race has done ever since. is run from God, not to Him.
And until the Spirit of God touches your heart, that's all you'll
ever do, is run from God until you run your way plum into hell.
That's how it works. That's how it works. Now what
kind of fool would think that those miners were trapped only
because they chose to be trapped? It's their choice. to be trapped
or not trapped. It's Jonah's choice. That big
old fish can't control him. It's Lazarus' choice. He must
want to be dead in that tomb. No, that's not it. That's not
it. No one wants to be trapped. No one wants to go to hell. But
no one can do anything about it. And that's what gets me in
trouble preaching. No one controls his or her eternal
destiny. This is something decided for
us. It is a matter greater than we
can decide. Well, then who decided it? I'm
glad you asked. Adam decided we'd all go to hell.
Is that right? Is that right? Adam decided we'll
all go to hell. But God purposed that some would
not. That's what I'm interested in.
It's what God has purposed to do about my bondage. Now, by
nature, none of us are any better off than those trapped miners. No better off than Jonah. No
better off than Lazarus. Our hope is not and cannot be
in ourselves. Oh, no. It's not about the sick
idea of you accepting Jesus. It's what I've heard most of
my life. He's the outsider. He's just worried to death about
getting into your world. Would you please accept him?
That's not the deal. It's the other way around. It's
the other way around. You say, well, how does it work? If God Almighty, before He created
this world, did not place you in His Son and represent you
in His Son on Calvary's cross to settle the question of your
sin once and for all, Then hell is your lot. And there's nothing
anybody can do about it. You say, well, I thought he represented
all Adam's race. No, no. Don't don't charge the
Lord Jesus Christ with being a failure. Don't tell me that
his blood was shed in vain. God's not going to charge his
son with my sin and then put me in hell. Oh, no. Oh, no. If you're represented in His
Son, you're His from eternity. That's the gospel. That's this
book. But that ain't what's being preached around this country
today. Well, the Apostle Paul, he wrote
to the believers at Ephesus. He's not writing to the world.
You cannot give the New Testament epistles to Adam's race. You
say, I thought the Bible was for everybody. No, you go check
it. Turn to the beginning of every
New Testament epistle and you'll find that they're written to
the church at this place. Or they're written to the saints
at this place. Never to the world in general. The epistles are
written to believers. And Paul wrote to those Ephesian
believers in chapter 1, verse 3, and said, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, no need to talk to me about
any spiritual blessings yet to be attained. It's said clearly,
God hath That's past tense, by the way. I got that much English.
God hath already blessed us with how many? All spiritual blessings
in Christ. Don't tell me about this TV crowd
that can tell you all about how to get in on this new insight
and this new something from God. No. This old book said that God
has blessed His children with all spiritual blessings, all
that there is, in Christ. In Christ. How did He do that? Next verse, Ephesians 1-4. According as He hath chosen us
in Him, that is, God the Father, Paul says, chose us, not Adam's
race, but us means the speaker and who he's speaking to, me
and you believers at Ephesus. God the Father has chosen us
in Christ Jesus his Son before the foundation of the world.
Wow! Yeah. You say, what does that do to
the proposition of John 3.16? Well, John 3.16 is not a proposition. You can just throw all your modern
versions out the window and go get you a Bible, one like mom
and daddy and grandma and grandpa had. Here's what it says in John
3.16. For God so loved the world, the one He
created, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth, believeth. That is, them that
do. It does not say whoever decides
to believe. Nobody decides to believe. But whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. John 3.16 is not a proposition
to unbelievers. It is a promise to believers. Everlasting life. So believing
is not the difficulty. Wanting to is the difficulty.
And it is God's mercy, God's abundant mercy, that quickens
any sinner to want to believe on Christ. It's His doing. All right, let me give you four
things hurriedly, and then we'll be ready to go here in less than
a while. I told you all what it means
when a preacher looks at his watch. You know what it means? Nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Number one,
we do not deserve God's mercy. We understand that, don't we? No need to go comparing yourself
with somebody else. Nobody qualifies. There is none
good, no not one. God's standard is perfection. And it'll never be one fraction
less than perfection. We're all in such bad shape.
No need trying to scrape up a dime to pay a trillion dollar debt.
You'll never get it done. You won't find enough dimes. We are what we are because of
sin, and God hates sin. You do not deserve His mercy. You do deserve to perish in your
sins and go to hell. Now let's just confess that.
Let's just confess that. That's what we deserve. So we
don't deserve mercy. Number two, God is in no way
obligated to show mercy. You say, well, what if I do this
and I do the other? God is not obligated to show
mercy. What if I come confessing my
unworthiness and pleading on my knees for mercy. Well, you
ought to do that. But if you put a premium on your
pleading, that's a work. And He'll damn you for trying
to impress Him. God's impressed with His Son. You don't stand a chance of impressing
God. He's been impressed with one.
whom you know sin. So God is not obligated to show
you mercy. Old Dr. Caldwell used to say,
God doesn't owe you anything but hell, and he can pay you
off any minute. It's a fact. It's a fact. Every breath we draw, every breath
we breathe is God's mercy to us. Number three, God is just
in showing mercy to sinners like you and I if it's pleased Him
to do so. If it's pleased Him to do so. Now, are you interested in what
it takes for God to show you mercy? Well, it's not anything
you can do or say, no. If He is pleased to grant you
mercy, He did not decide on it yesterday,
or last year, or when you made a profession, or when you was
baptized, or when you was born into this world. No. No. This is eternal business. God's
justice must be satisfied. And before the creation of the
world, if God has any mercy for you, here's how it is. Before
the creation of the world, God charged His Son with your sin. That's big. That's big. His Son came into this world,
bore the guilt and the shame of your sin, was nailed to a
cross to die, shed His blood, to pay the sin debt for His people, for those we
read about in Ephesians 1, those chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. What am I saying? I'm saying
that Christ never potentially paid for the sins of anyone. That's what's being preached
in this hour, that God sent His Son into the world to die on
the cross, and He's just hoping somebody will believe. His people
will believe. His Holy Spirit will bring His
people to believe. But He never paid for the sins
of anyone potentially waiting on your vote to come in to make
it worth anything. No. He perfectly paid, fully
paid for all the sin of all whom He represented on the cross. And God accepted that sacrifice,
and His people are accepted in Christ, in the Beloved. So God is just in accepting us
in His Son. A lot of people try to get to
God and bypass Jesus Christ. They think, well, I can do this,
I can do that. And they think somehow or another God just wipes
the slate clean. He just takes the eraser and
erases the book. No, that's not it at all. Everything
has to be paid for. And either Christ paid for your
sin on the cross or you'll pay forever. But it can't be both. It can't be both. So you see how blasphemous Today's
teaching is and preaching is that Jesus Christ was pretty
much a failure because he shed his precious sinless blood to
save Adam's race. But it looks like most of them
are going to hell. You see how awful that is? God is just. in approving us, accepting us
in His Son. He'd be unjust and unholy not
to. Accepted in the blood, in His
perfect righteousness. And God is just in that acceptance.
Fourth thing, if God shows you mercy, rest assured, His mercy
is abundant. It'll be enough. He is rich in
mercy. You know what that means? It
means he can spend and spend and spend and spend and never
be any less rich than when he started. His mercies, the Bible
said, are renewed every morning. You're not going to use it up.
God's abundant mercy. When I was a boy growing up in
South Carolina, I thought about this the other day. There was
a little creek below our house there. I don't know if you'd
even call it a creek or not. A little bitty stream. Very small. But boy, we tried to make it
big. I mean, we'd play in that thing and dip out water and make
mud and dam up the creek and do all sorts of stuff. But it's
just a little old British dream. And sometimes when it come a
dry spell, it would dry up. It would dry up. And I remember thinking one time
it must have dried up because we dipped too much of it out. We used too much and It was our
fault. We bankrupted it. Well, you'll never bankrupt God's
mercy. No. He's rich in mercy. And the text
said, according to the abundant mercy, his abundant mercy, he
hath begotten us from the dead to an ever living hope in Jesus
Christ. God's mercy is sufficient. The
abundance of His mercy will never be the problem. That will never
be the problem. Your desire for it, your recognizing and confessing
your need of it, that's the problem. That's the problem. Now, there's
a whole lot of folks today, ignorantly, in religion, are obviously appealing
to God's justice. And they're saying, look at our
works. Look at our profession. Look at our crowd. Look at our
programs. Look at our determination. Look
at it, God, and agree that we have qualified ourselves for
your approval. Can I say no child of Adam has
ever been accepted that way? Never. I must plead for mercy. I've not made the grade. Neither
have you. I heard a story about a mother
long ago who had a son who had committed an awful crime and she went before the judge
in tears to plead mercy for her son. And the judge said to her, but
he's committed an awful crime. And she said, Your Honor, I plead
for mercy. And the judge said, but he don't
deserve mercy. And she said, Your Honor, if
he deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. I plead for mercy. Mercy is for the guilty. Mercy
is for the undeserving. Undeserving. There's a story
in the Old Testament, the book of 2 Kings chapter 7. It's a blessing to read that
chapter, 2 Kings 7. The city of Samaria is surrounded
by Syrian armies who have cut off the food supply into the
city. And those Syrians are just waiting till the people in town
starve to death, and then they're going to take their city. Well,
outside the city gate sat four leprous men, four lepers, who depended on daily the alms
and the charity of city residents to feed them. Well, the people
in town, they had no food for themselves, let alone for lepers. And it was evident these lepers
are going to starve to death in time. But one of the four
put a question to the others, and here's what he said. Why sit we here until we die? It's obvious we're going to starve
to death. If we enter the city, which they
were not allowed to do, but they said we won't find any help there.
If we sit here, we're going to die. Why don't we go out to that
enemy camp and cast ourselves upon the mercy
of our enemies, the Syrians? And he said, if they kill us,
They'll just be sparing us the pain of starving to death. We're
dying anyhow. We've nothing to lose. Let's
cast ourselves on their mercy. So they did that. And the story
goes, when they got there, they saw no man, the Bible says. The
Lord had caused the Syrians to hear a great noise of chariots
and horses. Even a great host, the Lord caused
them to hear that noise. And they thought they were being
attacked. And the noise was so great that it was obvious that
they were greatly outnumbered. And so in fear, they fled and
left their camp, left behind all their supplies and their
food and everything. Well, when these four lepers
got there, There wasn't anybody to talk to. They just walked
right on in, into the camp, into the tents. There was the food. There was everything. And they
ate and they ate until their hunger was satisfied. They were
granted mercy, but it wasn't from the Syrians. It was from
the Lord, from the Lord. And I told that story. to refer
back to that question, why sit we here until we die? Why not cast ourselves on the
mercy of the one and the only one who can keep us from perishing? When a sinner is brought by the
Spirit of God to cast himself or herself, upon the mercies
of God, that mercy will be in great abundance. God's abundant
mercy. Our God is able, Paul said, able
to do above. How much above? Exceeding abundantly
above. Exceeding abundantly above what? Exceeding abundantly above all. All what? All that we ask or
think. How? According to the power,
the power of God. that worketh in us." That's Ephesians
3.20. And Paul concludes that great
anthem with these words, unto Him be glory in the church, by
Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Talking about God's abundant
mercy. He don't have to grant it. It's
not like a can of groceries on the shelf. You can go by and
pick it up if you want. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. It's not this business
of would you accept Jesus? Would you let Him in? He ain't
the one out. You're the one out. Will He have mercy? Will He let
you in? That's the question. That's the
question. You say, that disturbs me. Good. Very, very good. That's what it ought to do. Disturb
us. Bless his holy name. All right. Stand with me.