And I want to speak to you on
the subject, the father of mercies. I was doing some reading this
past week. I can't remember just what it
was I was reading, but it referred to this text of scripture, quoting
from the King James, the father of all mercies. Our translation
says the father of compassion, either word works equally well. so far as a translation of the
Greek word there. Now, not all believers enjoy
the same level of spiritual comfort and peace. Now, that's just so. There are some believers, and
I must admit I envy them, but there are some believers who
seem to live on a plane I know almost nothing about. a plane
of confidence and almost unbroken peace. At least that's how it
seems from the outside. Maybe if I could see their hearts,
I would see that they're greatly troubled, too. I don't know.
But there are some who seem to have a spiritual strength about
them and doubts almost never, if ever, cross their mind. And
they are bold and they live their lives in spiritual comfort, spiritual
peace. And then there's folks more like
myself and more like many that I talk to who have serious trouble
with doubting, serious trouble in the day-to-day peace, the
joy and peace that's supposed to come by believing. There may be a lot of reasons
for that. There can be reasons simply that have nothing more
to do than what we are in the flesh. Often you'll find that
the distinction, those believers, the same distinction could have
been found in them before they were believers because there's
A kind of person that just always seems to be upbeat and optimistic,
and it seems as though all things are well with them in the world,
whether they're believers or not. That's just the kind of
person they are. And then there's others who seem to struggle all
the time, and they are by nature worrisome. When God brings them
into a state of grace, that is, when he fixes the problems dealing
with their spirit, yet all their emotional problems or strengths
come right along with them. Sometimes that's the reason for
the difference. Sometimes there's a difference, and we'll even
notice this difference even within the flow of our lives as believers. Sometimes we are confident and
at peace because we are walking closely with the Savior. We are
paying attention to his word. We are carefully listening and
meditating on the things that are taught, and we feed on that
which is a good diet for us. Therefore, spiritually, we are
strengthened and we, for lack of a better way to put it, we
feel better. And then there are times When
our minds are distracted by the things of this world, what all
kinds of things the world has to distract us, but we are walking
more closely with the world than we are with God. And we go, maybe
we'll go and sit and listen to the preaching, but our mind is
here and there and we're not really receiving anything. And
the spirit, so to speak, begins to weaken because it's not being
fed. Or maybe we've even stubbornly
and purposefully Pursued some course of sin, some course of
selfishness. And we have regarded this iniquity
in our heart. That's how the psalmist put it.
That is, we've held it within our heart. We've cherished it
to our bosom and said we will not let it go. And the Lord begins
to bring upon us a season of discipline. As the scriptures
say, whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son
he receives. So sometimes we're going through
these times of trouble and difficulty and doubts and all this because
we've sinned against the Lord. And we've not repented, we've
not said, uncle, so to speak, and said, Lord, you're right,
I shouldn't do that. But there's another reason, I
believe, that goes even more to the root of the problem, and
that is simply this, that some people, some believers, have
a better understanding of the nature of the God that we worship. And I'll tell you this, this
is for believers now. This is for those who have trusted the
Lord Jesus Christ, who have laid the care of their soul into the
hands of Christ Jesus. The more you know of the God
who has saved you, the more you understand what He's really like,
the more at peace you will be. Now, there is in us too much
of that old spirit of the old covenant. That old spirit of
works wherein the Lord told the people, don't come near me. And
you know, if we are going to try to gain God's blessings by
works, if we're going to try to get his approval by the things
that we do, then here's my advice for you. If that's what you want
to do, don't go anywhere near God. For our God is a consuming
fire. If we come before him to be judged
and dealt with according to the things that we do, then we will
certainly be consumed in a fire of judgment. And you see, that way of approach
to God is written upon us. What does the Bible say? That
even the Gentiles have the law written upon their heart. It's
written on everybody. Everybody understands this way
of eternal life, this do and live. Everybody understands that
way. We come into this life actually
kind of thinking that we're God. And the job of our parents is
to convince us otherwise. Someone once said the two most
important things you can teach your child is this. Number one,
there is a God. Number two, you're not it. It's
not you. And that's true. We got it. We
come in this world thinking we're God. And then we've got to be
convinced we find out there's another God. But then we impute
to him. That is, we assign to him the
same selfish attitudes that we have. And we believe that just, you
know, how do we treat other people? Well, generally speaking, we
like the people that do what we want them to do. And we're
good to the people that do what we want them to do. And if they
do what we don't want them to do, then we become angry with
them and we try to find some way to exact a penalty against
them. And we say, therefore, God must
be the same way. Well, the truth of the matter
is, if you come to him based on what you do, that is how he'll
deal with you. If you do what he wants you to
do, he'll treat you good. And if you do what he doesn't
want you to do, he'll treat you bad. And that principle is written
in our flesh. Not only that, as we were raised
in religion, and all of us were. Maybe not all of you were raised with this particular principle
hammered into you, but it's pretty common to religion. Most of religion
reinforces that way of approach to God, the way of works. Why
does so much of the scriptures have to be devoted to teaching
us that salvation does not come by works, that God's blessings
do not come by works? Why does God expend, as it were,
so much effort to teach that one principle? Because that principle
is so deeply written upon us, and what is written on us by
our nature has been reinforced by the religious upbringing that
nearly every one of us has had. Oh, it's a hard one to root out. It's that very principle within
us that makes us so fearful every time we cross God, because we
think he's going to lower the boom. Well, what's the antidote to
that? What's the remedy for such an attitude as that? Well, it's to find out what God
is really like. And not to find it out from a
preacher. who's given his own opinion,
not to find it out from the creeds and catechisms and doctrinal
statements and whatnot of all the churches, but to look into
God's self-revelation, the scriptures. You want to know what God is
like? He says so. He tells us what it is. And right here it
is, it says, praise be, this is verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 1,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies. Father of mercies, Father of
compassion. Now, first of all, I want us
to note this, and what I want to do this morning, if the Lord
will enable me, is simply to set before you God as he's revealed
here, that you who believe might be given comfort. and peace and
confidence in your situation before God. And also that those
who do not believe might venture to lay hold of God in all his
grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, first, let us note
this, that all that God is to us, he is that to us through
Jesus Christ. Now, it speaks here of God being
the father of Compassion and the God of all comfort. He's
our father and he's our God. But what does it call him before
it calls him that? Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there is a mystery to the
relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and God, a mystery
that we cannot penetrate. God himself is beyond our ability
to understand it. As the Bible says, he dwells
in a light to which no man can approach. Who by searching, as
who by diligent mental effort can ever find out or understand
God? Nobody. You just can't do that. Well, then how much more difficult
is it going to be for us to try to understand God revealed in
human flesh? It's beyond our ability. But
here's what we do know. Here's the point that we've got
to lay hold of. Whatever relationship the man
Christ Jesus has with God, that relationship belongs to every
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you stop and think about
that a minute. Now that may not sound like much, but that's the
whole world. That's all of salvation right there. Whatever relationship
the man Christ Jesus has with God, that's the same relationship. that every believer has with
God. Now look over here and I'll show
that to you in John chapter 20. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ has
been crucified. He has suffered the wrath of
God for the sins of his chosen people. He has gone into death. He has buried our sins there.
And he has come back out of death and raised to life by the power
of God. And this is the morning of resurrection. And Mary has gone to the tomb. And when she first saw Jesus
in the garden there, she didn't know who he was. And finally,
in verse 16 of John 20, Jesus said to her, Mary, and he must
have said it in such a way she recognized who it was. And she
turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means
teacher. Jesus said, do not hold on to
me. Don't cling to me. You can imagine
her attitude that morning. She thought I lost you once.
I'm not going to lose you again. I'm sure that's what Jesus laid
hold of him. And he said, I've not yet returned
to the Father. I'm still here. Go instead to
my brothers and tell them. Now, notice this. I'm returning
to my father and your father and my God and your God. Now, what did the Lord Jesus
Christ tell Mary? What was he saying there? And
he told it to Mary and said, you tell this to the disciples
too. This goes for all my people. I'm going back to my God. Yeah,
we understand that. He's your God too. And I'm going back to my Father.
And He's your Father too. Whatever it is, however it is,
you can describe that relationship between the man Christ Jesus
and God. That very same relationship is
ours through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, right away, this will humble
us to understand that all the good of our relationship with
God comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, we didn't
get any of it on our own. You know, people keep telling
everybody, well, God's the father of everyone. Well, he's the father
of everyone in the sense that he's the creator of all and that
he gives life to all. But this is a different He's
talking about here a different kind of fatherhood here. Not
everybody is a child of God. And becoming a child of God has
nothing to do with what you've done. I remember or I've read stories
about back in the pioneer days out here that Often they would
gather up orphans out on the East Coast because, you know,
immigrants would come in and some would settle in those cities
and then parents would die and leave children behind. There
was orphans and nobody to take care of them. They would actually
put them on a train and head them out West and there'd be
families out there looking for kids. I suppose it was something that
had to be done, but it almost sounds a little grotesque. But, you know, I was like shopping
for kids because the train would come in and all the orphaned
kids would stand in a row and they'd all do the best they could
to look as good as they could because certainly they wanted
to be selected. They didn't want to live in an orphanage. They
don't want to live institutionalized. They wanted somebody to take
them in and call them a child and give them a home. And so
they do their best to look desirable. And you can imagine those kids
as they combed their hair the best they knew how, put on the
best clothes they had, just looked like someone that a grown-up
would like. And there they'd stand. They'd look them over. Parents
would look them over. If somebody was looking for some
help on the farm, he'd probably start looking over the boys and
seeing which ones are big and strong and maybe can do something. Or maybe they had dreams of a
little doll baby-like daughter, and so they'd go down there and
they'd start looking for the cute ones, the pretty ones. And so all the boys were trying
to look as big and strong as they could, and all the girls
trying to look as pretty as they could. But you know something?
When God chose his children, there were no strong to choose.
There were no pretty ones to select. If you are a child of God, it's not because
God was pleased with you. It isn't. Because, friends, there was nothing
pleasing in us. I've also heard of stories where
people go to orphanages and try to adopt children out of them.
Of course, when someone came looking for a child, now this
was back before adoption was such a complicated process, but adults would show up at the
orphanage. Of course, all the kids would
be gussied up. But there were children who the people that
ran the orphanage, they knew they'd never be chosen. The handicapped,
the lame, the blind, the retarded, the birth defected, whatever. They were in their own wing.
They were just stuck in cribs and beds and that's just how
it was dealt with in those days. And nobody ever walked in and
said, take me over to that wing. But you know something? That's
exactly what God did when he chose his children. Paul says,
you see, you're calling an election, brother, how not many wise, not
many strong, not many mighty, not many notable, not many worthwhile
by the world's standards. But God has chosen the foolish
and the weak. As it were, he went to the very
back room of the orphanage. He went back there among the orphans, who not even the
workers wanted really anything to do with. The Lord described it this way
in Ezekiel 16, picking up that practice of those nomadic tribes.
And when a child was born into a family, if it's not the kind
they wanted, and sadly that often meant if it was a girl, they
just throw it out. You say, that's brutal. Yeah,
but that's what they did. Or if it was a little bit sickly,
didn't look like it was going to make it or ever amount to
anything or might be a burden on the family. This sounds awful,
but they literally would toss it into the weeds and just keep
going. And our Lord says, when you were
cast out to the loathing of your person and when you were lying
there crying and screaming in your own blood or the blood of
your birth, when no eye pitied you, I came by and I said to
you, live, live. And brethren, if we are the children
of God, it's because we were laying there in our blood helpless,
hopeless, and no eye pitied us. And God came by, and He looked
on us in our misery and in our worthlessness, and He said unto
us, Live. And we lived. And when God came by us, brethren,
He came by us in the person of Jesus Christ. We are humbled
by this. We can't go around and brag and
boast and say, oh, I'm a child of God. I'm better than my neighbor. Why, he's a heathen over here.
Or he worships at a church that I don't think is right. And I
think when he dies, he's going to go to hell. But I'm a child
of God. I'm going to heaven. There is no such opportunity
for boasting. Everything we have from God,
every good relationship we have with God, comes to us by Christ.
And that humbles us. But you know something else it
does when I'm able to lay hold of it? Boy, what encouragement
it brings to me. You say, how so? Well, brethren,
if it wasn't because of anything I did that he chose me in the
first place, I can be pretty sure it will not be because of
anything I do that he keeps me. If I realize that God has chosen
me and made me his child, not because of anything good he found
in me, then I can be done with the worrisome task of trying
to come up with something good. The silliest thing you'll ever
do is refuse to come to God because you think you're too sinful to
be received by Him. I'll tell you this. Nobody has
ever been too bad to be received by God, but almost everyone is
too good. Almost everyone. And all the
ones that aren't too good, they've already been received by Him.
You say, well, there's none good. No, not one. Yeah, but there's
a lot of people think they're good. And they'll come to God
and they'll say, well, God, I realize that I haven't done everything
right, but I never killed anybody. Well, then you're too good. See,
then I got to go out and kill somebody. No, if you think the
fact that you haven't killed somebody is going to commend
you to God, then you're too good. You're too good for God's grace.
You're too good to be one of his children. But if you can say like Augustus
Toplady did in his song Rock of Ages, in my hand no price
I bring, simply to thy cross, to thy son I cling. Now then maybe, maybe you're
bad enough, maybe you're sinful enough to be saved by God. Notice the names by which God
is called, and see if they don't bring you some encouragement.
He's called the Father of Mercies. He's first put up before us under
the figure of a father. Look over here at 1 John, chapter
3. You know, not everybody had good
fathers. I was blessed with a good one. A chance to talk to him
on the phone yesterday. Always a pleasure to talk to
my father on the phone. I'm glad I was a son in his household. It was good. Not everybody has
or has had a good father. But you know, it seems like everybody
knows what a good father is supposed to be. And that's why it's so
tough on kids when they're raised by an abusive father. Because
it's just kind of written in us, isn't it? We know that's
not the way it's supposed to be. Therefore, when the word Father
is rightly applied, it's a wonderful name. Anybody that's actually
worthy of the name Father. Now, there's a person, there's
a man. And what does it say about us? and the privileges we have when
it says that God is our Father. Look in 1 John 3, verse 1, how
great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should
be called children of God. When God is revealed to us as
a Father, the first thing that says is, that he loves us. Now, again, he's not revealed
as a father to everyone. But if he calls himself our father,
then he has called us his children. And if he has made us his children
and made us heirs as children, all what love has been lavished
on us. And I love the way our Translation
uses that word lavish. I mean, the love of God is not
some small thing. He does not give it out in small
doses. If the Lord God loves someone,
He pours out on them the abundance of His love. As the hymn writer
put it this way, if we with ink the ocean filled and were the
sky of parchment made, if every stalk on earth a quill, and every
man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh, is God your Father? Is the Spirit of God within you,
you know, the Spirit of adoption as it's called, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father? Oh, what love has been bestowed
and lavished upon you. He's called the father of mercies,
and what a good title, what a good name for those who have strayed
from home and would like to go back. Look at Luke, Chapter 15. Very familiar story, but one
of the most touching stories of Scripture, at least for me. You're familiar with the prodigal
son. Here he is, he's a son. And he's had all the blessings
of the household. And yet, he leaves the household
and wastes all that was given to him. And he's in a bad, bad situation. He's living with pigs, living
in a pigsty, and he's actually lower than the pigs because he's
hungry, and he's looking at the hog slop, the hog food, with
a jealous eye. He doesn't even get to eat as
good as pigs do. And you know what Jews think
of pigs. Remember, this story was told to Jews, so you've got
to read it with Jewish sensibilities. Our Lord represented this man
as low as you can get. Here is a Jewish man feeding
pigs, and he's not even allowed to eat the hog slop. And note what he says, this young
man here in Luke 15, verse 17, when he came to his senses, he
said, How many of my fathers hired me and have food to spare,
and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to
my Father and say to him, Father." Brethren, there's the key word.
Father. Oh, if we learn to relate to
God as a child with a father. I did plenty of naughty things
when I was a kid. And there were times when I was afraid I was
going to get a spanking, but in all my days, I was never afraid
to go home to my Father. And if we learn what it is that
God is the Father of mercies, we'll never be afraid to go home. In fact, we will call ourselves
fools for ever having left. You say to believers, leave home.
Well, I think that in a way this can be applied. I don't know
that that's the way our Lord intended to apply the story of
the prodigal son, but I do believe that there is an application
there. We play the fool, don't we? And we leave the comforts
of our father's home and suddenly we're out there and we come to
our senses again. We start to see things with the
spiritual eye once again. We start to realize that the
things of God are much more important than the things we've been chasing
after. The things we've been given ourselves to. We come to
our senses and realize that we're eating, we're trying to eat hog
slop instead of feeding on the bread that comes down from heaven.
And we go, oh man, I'm going home. I'm going home because
there's a father there. This boy didn't get up and say,
I will arise and go to my employer. Though admittedly, his senses
didn't completely return to him until he got back home, because
he thought really, he said, I'm going to go to my father, but
I'm going to see if I can be a servant in his house. Well, let's not,
there's no use going home that way. Let's go home in the full
confidence that there is a father who awaits the return of his
son, that he might show him mercy. And one of the most beautiful
scenes in all the scripture is this. Verse 20 says, So he got
up and went to his father. While he was a long way off,
his father saw him. Think of that. This boy must
have been in a rough shape. I mean, he's been gone a while,
been gone long enough to spend up his inheritance. He's been
gone long enough to get so far down on his luck, he'd take a
job feeding pigs. And he's gotten so hungry. doubtless
emaciated and weak, that he would have been willing to eat pig
food if he could have got a hold of some. I'll bet you if it had
been just you and me watching that fellow come down the road,
we wouldn't have recognized him. We wouldn't have known who he
was. But while he's yet a long way off, the Father knows him. The foundation of God stands
firm having this seal. The Lord knows them that are
his. And here's his son coming home. And it says the father saw him and he said, here comes
that no count son of mine. Well, he better be thinking twice
if he thinks he's coming back here. Aren't you glad God isn't
like that? Look, it said the Father saw
him, saw him in his wretchedness, saw him in the filth he was in,
saw him weak and emaciated, and he was filled with compassion
for him. He ran to his son through his
arms around him and kissed him. Do you have any doubts that if
this day You were to go to the Father of mercies and ask for
his mercy, that he'd treat you any different than that. The problem is most of us hadn't got far enough
down to say, I will arise and go to my Father. Most of us still
think we've got some inheritance left. that somehow or another
we're going to pull this thing out and we're going to make it
work. When you get down as low as that boy did, you'll come
home. And the Father will see you.
And the Father of mercies will throw His arms around your neck. And He'll plant a kiss on your
cheek. And He'll put a ring on your finger and a robe on your
back and shoes on your feet. And he will rejoice and call
all his friends, all the other believers and angels in heaven
and say, come with me and rejoice for my son, which was lost, has
come home, the father of mercies. Let me ask you something. You
got any need of mercy? You got any need of somebody
to pity you? If you've got any need, you say,
well, you know, if I could just get close to God. Do you need,
have you a need if somebody can see you a long way off? Oh, I love that. A long way off.
The father didn't even wait for the boy to get close. Boy, he
was getting a long way off. Say, I'm a long way off. Good. The father's farsighted when
it comes to sinners. He can see a long way off. It's
those that think they're close. He can't see Him so well. Call on His name. The Father of mercies. Look with me just a minute at
Psalm 103. Show one other application of
this. And then we'll be done. Mercy is for the needy. The father of mercy is for those who no longer want
to be employees of God, working hard to gain his blessings. For
those who desire to be the children of God and to receive his blessings
for free, And it says of God in Psalm 103,
verse 13, as a father has compassion, that is, pity or mercy on his
children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he
knows how we are formed, and he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like
grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows
over it and it's gone, and its place remembers it no more. The Lord God, and I'm telling
you this on the authority of what's written right here, the Lord is the Father of mercies. to those that fear Him. He is compassionate beyond your
ability to understand or comprehend to those that call on His name. Just like a father, He is towards
His children. You who have been fathers, you
remember how your children, even when they did wrong, Their broken heart was enough
to break yours. If their heart was broken over
what they'd done, your heart was broken towards them. Do you
remember how your anger could melt away at their tears? Do you remember how your wrath
could be quelled by their hearts being broken
for their transgressions? Well, if the Lord said you being
evil know how to be good to your children, how much more does
a heavenly Father know how to be good to his children? You
may be this day laboring under some sense of guilt, some sense
of having offended the Father beyond ability to restore. Well, if you're going to a judge,
I would say, yeah, you've got reason to be worried. But I tell
you this day, go to Him who's called the Father of mercies. And if you have a broken heart
over your sin, I'll tell you this, your broken heart will
break His. And if you want His mercy, I
can guarantee you upon what's written in the Scriptures, You
shall have it. It says here in verse eight of
Psalm 103, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,
abounding in love. Is that the kind of God you need?
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve. How do you think your
sins ought to be treated? Are you afraid of receiving the
treatment your sins deserve? Then you better go to this God.
You better come to the Father of mercies and plead your case
before Him. Plead it by Jesus Christ. And
He won't treat you as your sins deserve, nor repay you according
to your iniquities. For as high as the heavens are
above the earth, So great is God's love for those who fear
Him. So far as the East is from the
West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. You got any transgressions? Do
they cling to you? Do you feel as though they'll
drag you into the pit? You need somebody to remove them.
You need somebody to separate you from your sins, and there's
only one who can do it. The Lord God. The very one against
whom you have sinned is the only one who can remove your sins
from you. How does He do it? He takes them
off you. and puts him on his son. And
he deals with those sins in the Lord Jesus. That's what he did
back on Calvary. And when he dealt with those
sins on Calvary, he put the sinner's sins, he separated the sinner's
sins from the sinner as far as the east is from the west. And
someone pointed out, he didn't say as far as the north is from
the south, because if you start going north, If you go far enough,
sooner or later you'll be headed south. But you head east, it
doesn't matter how far you walk, you'll never start heading west.
And he sent our sins one way and sent us another. And until east meets west, never
shall our sins come back to us. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God
of all comfort. Lord willing, we'll talk about
the God of all comfort this evening.