Last week we looked at that amazing
verse in Isaiah 43. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sins. Remember in this thing of salvation,
and really in all things, God is the first cause, especially
in the salvation of the sinner. I can assure you of one thing,
it's nothing in you. Only God can provide to us and
for us all which He requires. Isn't that amazing? God requires
perfection of you. You can't work that out. You can't accomplish that. He
does it for you. God commands you to be perfectly
holy and righteous. We can't do that. It's not by
works of righteousness we've done. It's done by the free gift
of God. He provides us with what He requires
from us. And it's all, every bit of it
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you picture this with me
for a moment. There on a highway outside of
Jericho sits a blind beggar by the name
of Bartimaeus. What was he doing? He was sitting and begging. Mark 10 46 says that he sat by
the highway side begging. He was sitting and begging. He wasn't working. And all of a sudden he hears
a great number of people. A loud commotion going on. You
see he may have been blind but he wasn't deaf. And I can just hear Him, can't
you? I can. I can just almost hear Him in
my head. What's going on? What's happening? What's going on here? What's
all this commotion? What's happening? Tell me. Tell
me what's going on. And someone, possibly another
beggar said, It's Jesus of Nazareth. And a multitude of people fronging
about Him all over the place. In chapter 10, Mark, don't turn
there, verse 47, it says, And when he, Bartimaeus, heard that
it was Jesus of Nazareth, I love these words here, it says, he
began to cry out. What did he do? He, that very
second, begin to cry out and say, Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Now, he heard that it
was Jesus of Nazareth. That's what the Scriptures say.
But that's not the name he called out. That's not the name he cried
out. He said, Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. He, by divine revelation, heard
something. I don't know if it was before,
but he heard that this was the Messiah. That was the terminology
used for the Messiah. He didn't say, Jesus of Nazareth,
have mercy on me. He knew this was a prophet, but
it was much more than a prophet. He said, Jesus, our son of David,
have mercy on me. Now let me tell you what he didn't
do. He didn't cry, Jesus, I'm a good man. I deserve some mercy over here. He was an impotent beggar. And yet, isn't that what men
do? What good thing must I do to be saved? What about that
Pharisee in the temple? Lord, let me tell you what all
I've done. No, dear friends, he didn't cry
out, I've done many wonderful works in your name, Jesus. I
deserve some mercy and grace over here. No, he was a blind
beggar and he couldn't work. And he couldn't do anything but
beg. That's all he could do. He sat and he begged. His cry was a simple and a direct
one. Have mercy on me. And that becomes the cry of every,
every chosen mercy-beggar. Was that not your cry, dear believer? Lord have mercy on me. Bartimaeus had a need and he
sure didn't care to make it known. They said, shut up, you old beggar.
Now I'm paraphrasing, but that's what they said. Men hadn't changed
much, have they, over the years? They said, shut up, be quiet. And the Scripture said he cried
all the more a great deal. I love that. That's what a sinner
would do. You tell him to shut up? Don't
bother God with that. He'll cry all the more a great
deal. He got louder and louder. And
he used that same phrase over and over and more quickly. Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, have mercy on me! And you could hear him over all
the commotion of the crowd as he began to cry it louder and
more frequently. Do you see your great need? Do you care to make it known? When a mercy beggar cries for
mercy, do you know what happens? This passage of Scripture in
Mark 10 says, "...and Jesus stood still." Stop the Son of God in His tracks. The cry of mercy from the sinner
does that. That's the only way to keep Him
from passing you by. You don't deserve His mercy.
You don't deserve a look from the Savior. But a cry of mercy
will stop Him in His tracks. Jesus, Thou Son of David. Have mercy on me. Do you see
your needy condition? If God reveals to you what you
are, you'll see that there's no remedy, there's no excuse,
there's no justification to be found in you. Our only hope and plea is to
be found in the mercy and forgiveness of God Almighty in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I want you to turn with
me to Nehemiah, chapter 9. And that's a book right after
the book of Ezra and right before the book of Esther. And if you
have my Bible, it's on page 755. Between Ezra and Esther. And it's just amazing. I don't
know why it should be. I ought to be convinced. by now
that the Lord Jesus Christ, if God give you eyes to see, is
in every book of the Bible, every chapter, every verse, I'm sure,
if God give us eyes to see. This is a book about Christ,
about the mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in chapter
9, I don't have time to get into the history of all this this
morning, but in verse 2 we can see that the seed of Israel separated
themselves from all strangers And they stood and they confessed
their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And in verses
3, 4, and 5, it says the Levites, and he calls them by individual
names, which I have absolutely no intention of trying to pronounce
to you, but you can see them there. They stand up and they
bless and exalt the God of heaven and earth. Now, I want us to
begin in verse six here, and I just want to show you some
wonderful truths about our great God and our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse six. Every one of these
show forth His glory and His sovereignty. In verse six, I
see the Creator of all things. Thou, even Thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven
of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all things that
are therein, the seas and all that is therein. And Thou preservest
them all, and the host of heaven worshipeth Thee." Friends, God
made the heavens and the earth, and He made the heavens of heavens,
and all the angels, all the heavenly hosts. He made earth. He spoke
it into existence. It was no hard thing for God.
Let there be light. And there was light. And He made
everything in it, everything that was made. And the Scriptures
tell us in John 1, verse 3, all things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. Christ, who was God, not only
made all things, but He preserves all things. Did you notice that
word, preserveth, there in verse 6? He preserves all things. And all heaven and earth will
worship Him. If not now, they one day will. Look at verse 7. God, a God of
election who chose and delivered, is what I put over this verse. Thou art the Lord, the God who
didst choose Abram and brought him forth out of the Ur of the
Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham." Now, friends,
not only does God choose His people, but He delivers them,
and He brings them out of their idolatry. That's where Abraham
was. He was in Ur, which was an idolatrous
nation. And God said, you get out of
there, boy. He believed God, and it was counted to Him for
righteousness. God didn't only choose, but He delivers. And
that's what He did for Abraham, and that's what He does for all
His people. The psalmist said in Psalm 65,
verse 4, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes. God chooses and causes. He saves
and He delivers. Verse 8, we see a covenant making
God. and foundest in his heart faithful
before thee, speaking of Abraham, and made a covenant with him
to give the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites
and the Perizzites and the Jebusites and the Girgashites, to give
it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words, for thou
art righteous." God found Abraham faithful. You know why God made
him faithful. God has defined you faithful
today, friends. Don't be talking about your faithfulness.
Talk about His and how He's made you faithful. If you and I are
faithful, it's because God made us so. God made Abraham a promise. He made a covenant with him.
And God gave it to all Abraham's seed. And as we've said many
times, that seed singular is Christ. And Christ performed
all that God promised for God is righteous. He does everything
right. That's what that means. Righteous
means right, right standing. He does everything right. He's a covenant making God. Verse
9, He's a God who sees and hears with compassion. and did see
the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest thy cry
by the Red Sea." God sees His people's affliction and He hears
the cries for mercy just like Christ heard Barnimaeus'. Really, what else can be said
about that? Verse 10, He's a sovereign God who controls all things.
And he showed signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his
servants, and on all the people of his land. For thou knewest
that they dealt proudly against them, God's people, so didst
thou get thee a name as it is this day." Now, our name for
God is sovereign. He's a sovereign God. But just
as there is no grace but sovereign grace, friends, there's no God
but a sovereign God. That's right. There's no God
who is not a sovereign God, and there can only be one. There
can only be one God. You can read in the book of Isaiah,
Lord, I thank You that Thou art God. There's none beside Thee.
God says, I am God. There's none beside Me. That's
what makes Him sovereign. He rules. He reigns. None can
stay His hand, saying to Him, what are You doing? And verse
10 says, God showed and displayed signs and wonders on Pharaoh.
And He did, didn't He? What about those plagues? by
just artillery in God's hand, no big deal. Well, it was to
them, wasn't it? Exodus 9, 16 says, And very deed
for this cause have I raised thee up. Speaking of Pharaoh,
why did you raise Pharaoh up, God? For to show in him my power. my power, that my name may be
declared throughout all the earth." What did the Apostle Paul say
in Romans 9 concerning this? "'For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth.'" For as God raises up and brings down,
the Lord killeth, the Lord maketh alive, the Lord, He rules and
reigns according to His purpose. He's a sovereign God. And that's
why the Apostle Paul claimed in verse 18 of Romans 9, he said,
therefore hath he mercy on whom he has mercy, will have mercy
in whom he hardeneth, he hardens. And who can resist his will? That would be a good question
to get settled in our hearts, wouldn't it? Who can resist His
will? Who can say unto Him, what are
you doing? Verse 11, we see a God who is a rescuer and a deliverer. and thou didst divide the Red
Sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the
sea on the dry land, and their persecutors thou threwest into
the deeps as a stone in mighty waters." Now I got to thinking
about that. And, you know, you go to Lake
Livingston or Lake Houston, you know, it's a pretty big body
of water. And you take a stone, even if
it's pretty much the size of your hand, and throw it into
the water. But you take that same stone down to the ocean,
and you throw it out there in the ocean. Pretty small thing,
isn't it? That's how small a thing it was
to God to open up those seas and let His people cross on dry
land and to throw their persecutors into the depths of it. No big
thing for God. No big thing for Him. As a small stone in the ocean,
stone's no big thing and it's nothing. There's nothing that's
too big. to God. Verse 12, we see God
is a leader in righteousness. Moreover, it says, Thou leadest
them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar
of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. How does God lead His people
in the path of righteousness? Who is that way? Christ said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. That way wherein we should go,
dear friends, is Christ, God's righteousness. And He brings
His chosen to Christ. Verse 13, we see God is our lawgiver
and our law fulfiller. Thou camest down also upon Mount
Sinai and spakest with them from heaven and gave them right judgments
and true laws and good statutes and commandments." Who came down? God came down. He came down from
heaven to Mount Sinai to give right judgments, true laws, good
statues, and commandments. It says, and Christ, who is God,
came down, came down from heaven to be made a man, to be made
flesh, born under the law, to fulfill the law of His people. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son. made of a woman, made under the
law, to do what? To redeem them. To redeem who? Them that were under the law. That we might receive the adoption
of sons. God chose a people in eternity
past. He ordained how it be from the
first to the last. He calls them by His grace and
He saves them on purpose and not a one to be lost. Now friends,
He didn't die for the whole world. He died for all that the Father
gave Him. Verse 14, God is Lord of the
Sabbath. And He made us known unto them
thy holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and
laws by the hand of Moses thy servant. Now God makes known
unto His people Christ, who is the Sabbath. All God's precepts,
all His statutes, all His laws are given in the hand of Moses,
which represents God's law. But friends, they were fulfilled
by the nail-scarred hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
a lawgiver and He's a law fulfiller, isn't He? Aren't you glad? The
law doesn't have any charge on me. Christ my Lord and Savior
fulfilled the law. He took it out of the way. And
in the eyes of God, I've kept His law as perfectly and wholly
and righteously as the Lord Jesus Christ has. And so have you that
trust in Him. Verse 15, God is our provider. And He gave us them bread from
heaven for their hunger, and He brought us forth water for
them out of the rock for their thirst. And He promised them
that they should go in to possess the land which Thou hast sworn
to give them. Yes, Christ is our provider.
We receive bread from heaven. He is that bread. We drink out
of that water from the solid rock. He is the solid rock. He
said in John 6, I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat
manna in the wilderness and are dead." He said, this is the bread which
came down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. He is that bread. He said, I
am that bread. In John 4, he said, but whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. The water that I shall give shall
be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. I am
that water." That's what we're doing today. We're partaking
of that which represents the manna from heaven, Christ, the
water of life, the blood of Christ. That is our salvation. And he
said again in John 6, I am the bread of life. He didn't beat
around the bush. I am the bread of life. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Now there you go. There you go. Yes, God in Christ is our sovereign
provider. Friends, in these verses, I think
you can see by God's grace, what a God we have. What a God we
serve. But then we come to the sad reality
of sinful men in verse 16 and the first part of verse 17. But they and our fathers dealt
proudly and hardened their necks and hardened not to thy commandments,
and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that
thou didst among them, but hardened their necks, and in rebellion
appointed a captain to return to their bondage." Does anybody want to stand right
now and brag on themselves and say what they've done for God?
You see, the nation of Israel in the Scripture seems to always
be set forth as a picture of all God's people. That's a picture
of me and you. From the verses that we've read,
we should obviously see two things that are quite evident. God's
people were highly favored And they were especially ungrateful. And that's a pretty good picture
of you and I. Highly favored and yet especially
ungrateful. You read the rest of this chapter.
We won't take the time today. And you ask yourself these following
questions. To what other nation did God
give his truth? To what other people did He separate
unto Himself? What other nation did He deliver
with a sovereign hand of power out of slavery and bondage? What other people did God pour
out His dreadful place to deliver them and pronounce terrible judgment
upon their enemies? What other people can you find
in the Scriptures? Was there any other nation to
whom God divided the Red Sea to deliver them and then shut
it up and bring deliverance and judgment to their foes? Is there
any other you can think of? Was there any other people that
God dropped food from heaven for? Was there any other people that
He gave drink out of a rock Was there any other nation that
He personally guided for forty years, that He caused their clothes
not to wear out, their shoes to stay like new? Is there any
other people that He did that for? Without any labor on their part? Yet, considering all these things,
Verse 16 says, they hardened their necks. They didn't hearken
to His commandments. They refused to obey. It's the
exact words. They refused to obey verse 17.
They were not mindful of the wonders that God did among them,
but hardened their necks and hearts even more. That's a picture
of me and you. Does that not make God's grace
seem more abundant? They were ready to appoint a
captain to return them back to Egypt, back into bondage. Numbers
14, 4 says, and they said to one another, let us make a captain
and let us return into Egypt. They were ready to go back, back
into slavery and bondage, making bricks without hay. My, oh, my. Within just a few short days
they had seen God with a mighty and sovereign hand deliver them
from the whole host of Pharaoh. And they were ready to go back. You talk about sin and the effects
it has on a man. Does that remind you of anyone?
They continually asked Moses, Is the Lord among us? Is the
Lord among us? Why came we forth out of Egypt?
Oh, let's don't be too hard on them now. They picture us. And God told Moses, He said,
You ask them this question. Is the Lord's hand whack short? after all they'd seen and experienced,
is the Lord's hand wiped short. And I ask myself, and I ask you,
O faithless and fickle believers that we are, is the Lord's hand
wiped short? But we're rebellious, hard-headed,
stiff-necked, disobedient, forgetters of God, wretches is what we are. But that's who the gospel is
for. That's for whom Christ came to
save and to die for. Sinners! Look at the last part of verse
17. We get the bad news and then
we get the good news. It always makes the good news
seem sweeter in pressure, doesn't it? More precious, I mean. In spite of all these things
concerning us, concerning God's people. Notice the words in verse
17, towards the end of the verse, but, there's another, there's
that precious little three letter word again, but, oh, they're stiff necked, they're
hard hearted, they're worthless, they're no good, but, Thou art a God ready to pardon. Gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness, and forsook them not. Thou art a God ready to pardon.
Friends, not only is God ready to pardon, He delights to show
mercy and grace. He is gracious and merciful.
He slowed anger and He showed great kindness in the fact that
He didn't forsake them. And He does to us too, doesn't
He? I'm so glad that it doesn't have anything to do with my faithfulness. It's the same with us. We're just like these folks. And some of you still remain
indifferent and in your sin. Our God is a God ready, ready
to pardon. You haven't done anything to
serve His grace and His mercy. That's why He's gracious and
merciful. It's undeserved. It's unmerited.
It's unobtainable. Accept God. Pardon you in Christ. And friends, He is ready to pardon. Christ is God's pardon. must not allow sin to go unpunished. The judge may be willing enough
to pardon the culprit, the one who's committed the offense,
but if he's a righteous judge, he must condemn the guilty. The readiness of God to pardon
was seen in that of His own will which provides the only way by
which His mercy might be consistent with His judgment. Now bear with me just a few more
minutes. This is a blessing. God just may bless this to your
heart from His own bosom. took His only begotten Son, His own self, in the person of
His Son, and suffered that which honored
His justice, vindicated His law, and enabled, if I may use that
word, Most of the time, I wouldn't stand for you to use that word,
enable God. But in this sense, I think it's
about the only word in our language we can use. Because God cannot
forgive the guilty. This enabled God to be just and
justifier of the ungodly. What? He did for me what I couldn't
do for myself. He came in my place, my room,
my stead, and yours if you love and trust Him. And He kept God's
law perfectly for us. And He became both just and justifier. Oh, can you see the adorable
Father giving up His well-beloved Son to bleed and to die for God's
chosen elect? I know beyond all question in
hearing that and knowing that, that He's a God ready to pardon. By the blood of His dear Son,
He's able to blot out all offenses. And through the sweet savor of
the sacrifice of Christ, now get a hold of this, God smiles
on guilty men and women. He delights right now to blot
out and forgive forever the transgressions of all them that seek His face,
bow, worship, and trust His Son. Friends, He's a God ready to
pardon. His readiness to pardon is very
obvious to sinners because He sends His message of love to
them while they're yet in their sins. He presents perfect pardon
through Christ to them even while they are sinners. Christ died
for the ungodly. I love the fact, I love this,
that the Gospel does not address itself to those who might have
helped themselves or show some signs of lingering goodness. No! He died for sinners, wretched,
no good, stiff-necked, hard-headed sinners. Can you see the beauty
in that? If you can, it's from God. The true gospel comes to men
ruined and adamant, doubly lost by their own sin. It's a double
cure, isn't it? It comes to them in the bottomless
gulf and pit of chaos and sin where sins hurl them. Like you
take a rock and throw it as far as you can. That's where we are
and it lifts us up from the gates of hell. Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save those which are lost. Jesus Christ His salvation is
like that of the Good Samaritan. It comes where the wounded man
was. Isn't that right? You read that story of the Good
Samaritan. He came to where the wounded man was and he poured
in his oil and wine into his bleeding wounds. He came to me. He came to me. Why? I ask, why would a lost soul? I'm just serious. I can't. I'll
leave you with this thought. Why would a lost soul tarry any
longer in coming to Christ who is a gracious and merciful, kind,
benevolent, loving, slow to anger? We can go on and on. Full of compassion? non-forsaking
love who is a God ready to pardon. Why? Come to Christ. He's a God ready
to pardon.