I'm going to give you just a
moment to find my text. It's found in the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah chapter 2, verse 3. I'd like to read the first three
verses of this chapter. Zephaniah 2, verses 1, 2, and
3. Gather yourselves together. Yea,
gather together, O nation not desired. Before the decree bring
forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the
Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come
upon you, Seek ye the Lord. Before the decree bring forth,
before the day pass as the chaff which the wind driveth away,
before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you. Before the
day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord. all
ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness. Seek righteousness, it may be.
Seek meekness, it may be that you, it may be that you shall
be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Now I read this text, it just
gripped my heart and soul like no other that I've read in a
long time. I believe the Lord has given
me a heart to seek him personally. I believe that the Lord has to
some degree given me a pastor's heart. I love this congregation and
these to whom I pray. I do not believe that a man can
minister to people whom he does not love. I would say to any preacher,
you say, well, I love the Lord. But if you don't love the people
to whom you minister, kindly move away and let somebody else
preach to them who does. You can't weep over them and
pray for them. If your heart does not bleed
for them, is not broken for them and burdened for them, And when
I read this scripture, I determined to preach it for myself and for
you, and I trust for His glory, and I pray that God will give
me some wisdom and some understanding of my subject. I don't want to
make the way more difficult than God makes it, but I don't want
to make the way any easier than He makes it. I do not want to
cry, peace to a people who know nothing of God's peace. And yet,
I wouldn't wound one of God's little ones, not on purpose.
I wouldn't wound one of the sheep of Christ. There's some things of which
I'm fully, confidently persuaded. I know that the Lord of heaven
and earth has purpose from all eternity to redeem a people for
his glory. I know that. Heaven will be populated
by holy people like Christ. God, before the world began,
was pleased to choose a people out of Adam's fallen race and
give them to his son. He didn't take on himself the
nature of angel. He was pleased to pass them by.
But he took upon himself the nature of Abraham's seed. He
became a man. came into this world to save
those whom the Father, by His own will and purpose, gave to
Him and committed to His trust. And He says, all that my Father
giveth me will come to me. And of all that the Father has
given me, I'll lose nothing, but I'll raise it up at the last
day. And I'm persuaded of this, that our Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth and gave Himself on the cross to redeem sinners.
When the angel of God announced his birth, that angel said to
Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Our Lord shall save his people. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
make an effort to save his people. He saved them. He didn't come
into the world to try to seek and to save the lost. He came
to seek and to save the lost. His work is sufficient, it's
effectual. I do not believe that the Savior
failed in any way. Christ cannot fail. Those whom
the Father purposed to save, the Son redeemed, and the Holy
Spirit will call. The eternal Trinity is in perfect
harmony. All right, the third thing of
which I'm absolutely confident is that our Lord graciously and
lovingly invites men to come to him for mercy. He says, ho,
everyone that thirsteth, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come
to the water. The old songwriter said, let not conscience make
you linger, nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires
is to feel your need of him. He says, coming to me, all of
you that labor in a heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I barely
believe that in the days of Noah, if anybody outside that ark had
wanted in and had cried for entrance out of a need, out of a desire,
he could have been welcomed into the ark. I believe any sinner
on the face of this earth who wants the Redeemer, who knows
he's a sinner, who knows he's lost, and longs for the mercy
of God. I believe God is merciful to
those sinners. Somebody said one time to Charles
Spurgeon, if you believe only the elect will be saved, why
don't you just preach to the elect? Well, he said, if you'll
go around and put a mark on their forehead, I will. But since I
don't know who they are, I'm going to preach the gospel to
every creature that God let me preach the gospel to. And I'm
going to lovingly, graciously, just like my Lord, invite every
one of them to come in. The table spread, there's plenty
for everybody. There's plenty of room in heaven,
there's no vacancies, but there's plenty of room. Our Lord lovingly,
graciously invites. He stood and said, come unto
me. If any man thirsts on the last
day of the feast, that great day of the feast, when the people
had been there going through their ceremonies and their rituals
for several days, the feast was of the tabernacle They hadn't
heard anything, or received anything, or learned anything. They'd come
to this feast empty, and they were going away empty. They'd
come to this feast with no knowledge of God, they were going away
with no knowledge of God. They'd gone through the motions,
they'd gone through all of the ceremonies, and they were going
home. And on that last day, he stood and cried with a great
voice, he cried, If any man thirsts, let him come
to me. and out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water." Now, I say that to you. You say, can
you sincerely invite any man to Christ knowing that God's
elected a people? Well, I certainly can. I certainly
can. Somebody said, how do you reconcile
sovereignty and responsibility? I didn't know they were enemies.
You don't reconcile a friend. God is sovereign. If he wasn't,
man wouldn't have anybody to be responsible to. Man's responsible. If you are saved, it will be
God's fault. If you go to hell, it will be your fault. Nobody will ever accuse God of
being the cause of his damnation. Everybody in hell is going to
take full responsibility for being there. And everybody in
heaven is going to lay the crowns at the feet of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You say, explain that. I can't. I believe it. God didn't send us to explain
the gospel. Maybe that's our trouble. He
sent us to proclaim it, to preach it, to declare it. The Lord God
Almighty will redeem a people. He lovingly invites all who want
to come. Everybody in this world who wants
Christ may have Christ. And then the fourth thing, of
which I'm absolutely confident and sure, is the Holy Spirit
is sent into this world to convince men of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. My Lord said that. And he will
convince the world of sin. And he shall not speak of himself,
but what things soever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And
he shall glorify me. He shall take the things of mine
and reveal them to you. The Holy Spirit has come into
this world to call sinners to Christ. I know those things to
be facts and truths. But my soul rebels against today's
preaching. My soul sincerely rebels against
today's preaching which obligates God to sinners. That troubles
me. Salvation, my friend, is by grace,
free grace, free grace. God is not obligated. God doesn't
owe man anything but condemnation. Salvation is by an act of mercy. sovereign mercy. You'd get the
impression from the average preacher as they hand out their recipes
for redemption and their sure cures for sin, their infallible
assurance of divine favor, that the Lord somehow is indebted
to me. A preacher asked a young man one
time who was a very, very evil young fellow, outwardly so rebellious
and sinful, he said, Do you intend to remain in this condition?
Oh, no. No, he said, I'm not going to
remain in this condition. I intend someday to call on God.
I intend someday to seek salvation. I intend someday to believe on
Jesus. That's the way he put it. And
the preacher said, well, do you think God will receive you? Do
you think God will save you? Do you think when that day comes
that He'll pardon you? Why, he said, sure, that's what
God's for. We have preachers today, I heard
one recently that said, if you will come down to the front and
pray the sinner's prayer, I guarantee you God will save you. I don't
believe you can guarantee any man God will save you. I don't
believe that. When we were down in the park
in 1951 and Brother Ralph Barnard was preaching, he made some preachers
rather angry when at the end of the service he'd stand and
look over that vast congregation and say, Sinner! Seek the Lord! I don't know whether He'll save
you or not, but you sure better seek Him. Boy, those guaranteed salvationists
went out there gnashing their teeth. I heard one preacher say the
other day, he asked the congregation, he said, if you're saved and
know it, and it's sure for heaven as if you were already there,
raise your hand. Would you raise your hand in
prophecy? Brother, I'll tell you, I believe
the Lord's done something for me. I believe the Lord's done
something for many of you. I believe he's my only refuge
and hope. I believe I'm trusting him alone.
But I'm afraid of presumption and this carnal pride of religion. I'm more afraid of it than I
am a rattlesnake. Now the Lord, somebody said years
ago, Brother Jeff Thornberry, I believe it was, it said, in
God's Word He hedges us about on one side with promises, lest
we despair. If I didn't have his promises,
I would despair. I couldn't sleep. You couldn't
either. I couldn't find any hope at all if I didn't have his promises.
My feelings won't help me. My experience won't help me. My preaching and working in the
church, that doesn't give me any help at all, any assurance.
But his promise, I believe it's worth it. And he hedges us about
on one side with promises, lest we despair. But he hedges us
about on the other side with warnings, lest we presume. And
I'll tell you, I've seen too many the same height and weight
and enthusiasm as you, and I fall away. I've seen too many. And the Bible's full of examples.
Matthew 7, our Lord said, not everyone that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven. And here in Isaiah 28, he said,
you scornful people, you say, we have an agreement with hell,
we're not afraid to die when the overflowing scourge of God's
wrath comes through. It won't touch us. It won't touch
us. We made our decision. We've been baptized and joined
the church. It won't touch us. We're serving Jesus. It won't
come down to us." He said, your refuge is a refuge of lies. You've
hidden yourself under falsehood, and he said, when I lay judgment
to the lion and righteousness to the plummet, it's going to
rapture you out of your refuge of lies. What mean is that scripture
in Hebrews 3 where Paul says, take heed, brethren, lest there
be found in you an evil heart of unbelief. I expect Israel
came out of Egypt just about as joyously as you came down
to the front. I expect they branched through
the Red Sea just about as confident as some of you went through the
baptismal water. But every carcass of them died
in the wilderness except two that came out of that land over
20 years of age. And that's what he says. Now,
just go on. We have churches full of people.
You know it and I know it. An evangelist said just a few
weeks ago, a nationally, internationally known fellow, he said 50% of
the members of the churches today could die and it'd take the church
six months to discover they were dead. That's one of the great, powerful
evangelists admitting over 50% of his converts are lost. We
have churches full of people who have little interest in the
gospel, no fruit of the Spirit, no growth in grace, little love
for Christ and no love for everybody else, who have complete confidence
they're saved. And brother, I tell you, if you
want to start a fight, you challenge their profession of faith. Now
they may never pray or witness, they may never love Christ, they
may never worship. They may have no interest in
the gospel. I'll tell you this, somewhere back yonder they made
a profession of faith and they're hanging on to it like these people
in Isaiah 28 held on to their refuge of lies. So it frightens
me when we talk about this so-called no-soul salvation. When we talk
about this, I'm as sure for heaven as if I was already there. I
like the way the old songwriters used to talk, and I hope by thy
good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Here I raise my Ebenezer,
hither to, hither by thy help I am come, and I hope, I hope,
by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. We say you
better be careful, for sure you'll destroy people's assurance. Wouldn't
that be nice? And turn their hearts to Christ.
You can't destroy any man's assurance if Christ is his assurer. I guarantee
you that. And you can talk about my feelings
and experiences and profession and just rip them to shreds if
you want to. But that's not my assurance.
That's not my confidence. My confidence is in a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I may be up here today and
down there tomorrow, but He never moves. He's at the right hand
of God. I may be high today and low tomorrow. I may be filled
with doubts today and assurance tomorrow. I may feel like the
world's greatest sinner today, and I should because I am. But
my confidence is not in me nor my faith, nor my faith and my
faith. Isn't that horrible? My confidence
is in Him who is seated at the right hand of God who never moves,
who never changes, who's always the same. Change and decay all
around me I see, O thou that changes not, abide with me. That's what I'm trying to do.
I'm trying to get people to forget that old experience that stays
old. Forget it! Forget it! I'm trying to get
people to cease to even trust their feelings. Your feelings
can't be trusted. Oh, if I know my heart, that's
one thing you don't know. That's what the Scripture says,
the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked. Who can know it? God doesn't demand that you know
your heart, but that you know Him. Oh, that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection. The old-timers in Scripture.
Let me show you some Scripture, but first look at the text again.
Verse 3, seek the Lord. Seek righteousness, seek meekness.
It may be, it may be that you'll be hid in the day of the Lord's
anger. Return with me to 1 Samuel 14.
1 Samuel 14, here's Jonathan about to go into battle with
the enemy. about to engage the enemy in
conflict. 1 Samuel 14, what I'm trying
to show you in verse 6, what I'm trying to show you is these
fellas just didn't have that cockiness and confidence that
religionists have today. They believed God. I didn't say
believed in God, I said they believed God. They didn't just
believe on God, they believed God. Abraham believed God. But
they didn't feel that God owed them anything, that God was obligated
to them. In 1 Samuel 14, verse 6, Jonathan
said to the young man, you know who Jonathan was? Choice one. Choice one of the Lord, David's
friend, said to the young man that bared his armor, come, let
us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised, these
heathen pagans. It may be, it may be that the
Lord will work for us. It may be. It may be. There's no restraint to the Lord
to say, by many or by few, it may be. Turn to 2 Samuel 16. Listen to David. Now you know
who this fellow is. This fellow, as it's said a couple
of times in the Scripture, he's a man after God's own heart.
Here's one whom the Lord chose and anointed and blessed and
empowered and just gave him his fellowship. And David His son
Absalom had taken over the kingdom and driven his father from the
throne. He was out there in exile, out
there wandering with a few followers. And you know he was upset and
disturbed and troubled and on edge and wondering what has happened. His own son Absalom had taken
his throne away from him and turned the hearts of the people
away from him. He had tricked his father and
deceived the people and connived until he had taken over the kingdom
and driven his father out. And then David passed by a fellow
who began to curse him. He said some pretty bad things
in verse 8. In verse 7, let's look at this,
and thus said Shimei. when he cursed, Come out, thou
bloody man, come out, thou bloody man, thou man of Bilal, Baal,
false god. The Lord hath returned upon thee
all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead you reign.
The Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your
son, and behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because you
are a bloody man. What in the world would we have
done? David had some of his bodyguards with him. Hear this loud mouth
just berating him and saying some awful things. And then Abishah,
the son of Zeruiah, said unto the king, why should this dead
dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take his head
off. I'm sure what I would have done, permission granted. But David said, verse 11, to
all the servants and to this man who was ready to take his
head off, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, Absalom,
seeks my life. How much more now can this Benjamite
do it? Let him alone. Let him curse.
The Lord hath bidden him. It may be, it may be, that the
Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will requite
me good for his cursing this day. No cockiness there is. I
know I'm the king, David said, and I know we'll get back on
that throne. Because God anointed me, and Samuel anointed me, and
that's where I belong, and I'm God's anointed, and God's man
after all that. Now see, he said, just leave
him alone. God has permitted this, brought it to pass. It
may be. It may be. It may be. Turn back to Jonah. Just two
or three pages back from Zephaniah there where we are, Jonah chapter
3. You remember Jonah went down to the city of Nineveh and preached
to them, called them to repentance. And it says that the king of
Nineveh, in verse 6 of Jonah 3, the king of Nineveh, rose from his throne and laid
his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in
ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed
and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king, his
nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste
anything. Let them not feed nor drink water. Let every man and beast be covered
with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn
every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in
his hand. Who can tell? Who can tell? It may be. The Lord will turn
and repent and turn away his anger that we perish not. You
see what I'm pointing out? It may be. The songwriter said, Out to the
gracious King approach, Whose scepter mercy gives. Perhaps he will receive my touch,
And then this sinner will live. I can but perish if I go, I'm
resolved to try, For if I stay away, I know I must forever die."
Our Lord gave Israel a lesson in this very truth in Luke chapter
4. When our Master came back to
Nazareth, where he was brought up, as his custom was, he went
to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.
And he had ministered in other places and they had heard of
his fame. And the synagogue was full that Sabbath morning of
religionists. The synagogue was full of Israelites,
Jews. It was full of people going through
the motions of religion. They felt that they were circumcised. They'd gone through all of these
things. They were God's people. They recognized the law. They
recognized the true God. They recognized the prophets
and the ceremonies. They kept the feast days. They
did all these outward things that were required and commanded
of them. They felt that they had a corner
on God, that they were a special nation and a covenant people
and there's no way that they could perish, no way that God
could turn them away. And our Lord stood before them
and he said, there were many lepers in the land of Israel
in the days of the prophet, and not a one of them were healed.
Not a one of them was healed, except Nahum, a Gentile. And
he said there were many widows in the land of Israel among professing
covenant people, circumcised people, and God fed none of them,
not one of them, but he fed a Gentile widow. They gnashed their teeth,
they rose up against him, they led him out on the hill upon
which their city was built and would have killed him. But he
simply stated the truth that God is not obligated to man.
All of these outward claims and all of these outward ceremonies
and all of these outward professions does not put God under obligation
to me or you, either one. His mercy, if it's forthcoming,
will be because of the good pleasure of his own will through the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's holy. We're unholy. God
is truth and we're all liars, every one of us. God is light
and we love darkness. God is love and hate is our nature. The holy love of God has pronounced
every son of Adam guilty and shut every mouth and justice
demands our death. How can man then be just with
God? That's what Job asked. How can man be just with God?
How can he be justified, this born of a woman? Behold, the
moon it shineth not, the stars are not pure in his sight. How
much more abominable and filthy is man that drinks iniquity like
the water. Will God show mercy to this defiled,
depraved, degenerate creature, this traitor? Will God show mercy
to you? I know that. It's offensive. I know it's offensive.
It's the offense of the gospel. Paul talked about the offense
of the gospel. And you go forth to this generation
and you're just expected to say something nice. You're expected
to sort of go along. But it's time that some preachers
of the gospel stood up and told men the truth. It's time. You could take the searchlight
of God's holiness and look through you from the bottom of your feet
to the top of your head, and you wouldn't find one thing God's
pleased with. Not one thing, not one thought
you've ever thought or deed you've ever done or word you've ever
spoken. Now, we compare ourselves with one another. Human nature
compared with human nature comes out smelling pretty good. But
human nature compared with God's holiness comes out, well, the
Scripture says, stinking and filthy. Even our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. In the flesh, no man can please
God. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Compared with the holiness of God, compared with the righteousness
of God, I am a vile, sinful, ill-deserving, undeserving, hell-deserving
creature. If we could see our hearts and
minds and souls and imaginations like God looks upon us and what
he sees outside of Christ, We couldn't stand the sight. We'd
perish. I'm just confident of that. I
don't think any of us... I preached a sermon one time
on man's sinfulness and wickedness and I'm standing back at the
door shaking hands and a dear lady came out and took me by
the hand and she said, you really think we're that bad? It kind of shocked me for a minute.
I can't think of reports and replies like Jake and Charlie. They always got something to
say back, you know. I have to go home and think about it. Tell
it to you next Sunday. But I did say this. I said, yes,
sir. Yes, sir, I do. And I really
don't think that I've commenced to begin to get started to tell
you just how wicked we are. I don't believe you could stand
it. How can man be just? Is it possible? That's what he says here. He
says God's anger and judgment and wrath is coming upon this
race, this generation. Now you seek the Lord. You seek
meekness. You seek righteousness. It just
may be. There's a possibility that you
and I will be healed in the day of His anger. You reckon that's
possible? Well, I'll tell you this. I sure hope so. I surely do. I do pray that it
may be so. But I'm encouraged, and I'm going
to give you six things tonight that encourage me. Here are six
things I'm going to give you that give me hope. Here are six
things that cause me to hope that whenever that day is, that
day of wrath and judgment and fierce, fierce judgment falls
upon this world, there's six things that give me hope. that
I shall be healed, and you. The first thing is this. It's
the nature of God to show mercy. It's the nature of God to show
mercy. I heard a preacher say one time, he said, now God could
have saved everybody, or God could have damned everybody.
And I thought at the time, that's pretty good preaching. That brags
about Jeffrey, God's sovereignty. God could have saved everybody,
or God could have damned. No, wait a minute. I got to thinking
about that. Could God, being God, damn everybody? My friends, God is just, and
God is righteous, and God is holy. But God is merciful. God is love. And love must be expressed. Now
that's just plain truth. Love, there's no way that God
can damn all of creation. Because God is love. God's love
must be expressed. I don't know how to explain that,
I just know it's so. We need to study the attributes
of God. Because His attributes are in
harmony. He's not going to demonstrate one at the expense of the other.
He cannot exercise one at the expense of the other. But God
is love. Turn back to Micah. Let's just
back a couple of pages here. Chapter 7 verse 8, 18, Micah
7, 18. Listen to this. Who is a God
like unto thee? Micah 7, 18. Who is a God like
unto thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of the rendement of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. God delights to show mercy. Now,
if you were if you were down and out and broke and hungry
and uh... you came to the church here and uh... you came to see the
assistant pastor of the pastor because you want something to
eat you know what would give you some hope if you knew that
the man that you're coming to see was a man He doesn't owe
you anything. He doesn't even know you. He
doesn't owe you a thing. But if you knew that he was a
generous man who delighted to help folks, I'd give you some
encouragement, wouldn't I? Well, that's what encouraged
me to seek the Lord for mercy. I know I don't deserve it. I
don't claim to deserve it. But you're a preacher. They're
the worst kind. They're the worst kind. Paul
said I'm the chief of sinners. I don't deserve mercy. I don't
merit His grace. But I have hope because God delights
to give mercy. He delights to show mercy. Moses
said to him one time, it would be good to read Exodus 33 sometime. But Moses made three requests.
Moses had a tent out there. This was before the tabernacle.
He'd go over there and commune with God. And he went over that
tent one day and he had a burdened heart. And he asked God three
things. First of all, he said, Lord,
If I found grace in thy sight, show me your way. Show me your
way. If I found grace in your sight,
show me your way. And God spoke to him, I'll show
you my way. I'll reveal my will and way to
you. Then Moses asked a second, made the second request. He said,
Lord, if you don't go with us, don't let us go. If you don't
go with us, I'll be with you. I told you I'll be with you.
Lord, one more request. Show me your glory. Show me your
glory. Now listen, Moses had seen some
things. He'd seen enough to satisfy most
of us for ten lifetimes. He'd seen all these plagues of
Egypt, he'd seen the dividing of the sea, he'd seen all the
rap giving forth water, all of these things. But here he is
saying, Lord, show me your glory. I see so many of what they call
divine healers getting all excited because a fellow with a limp
walked out straight. I've seen so many of them get
excited because some fella said he couldn't hear, and he went
out saying he couldn't hear. That's not God's glory. God may
heal my crippled body, but it's going to die in just a few years.
But I'll tell you wherein lies the glory of God, the saving
of a man's soul. And that's what he said. He said,
Moses, I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you. I will be
merciful to whom I will be merciful. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. And I want to emphasize the to whom I will. I know that's important. To whom
I will. But let's not overemphasize it
and destroy the I will be merciful. I will be gracious. I will be. So that's my first reason to
hope. That's the first reason. It's
the nature of God to show mercy. Secondly, these things that I'm
commanded to seek, These things that I sincerely, I believe,
do seek are things that are pleasing to God. I seek ye the Lord. He
said, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him
while he's near. Ye shall seek me, search for
me, and find me when you search for me with all your heart. It
delights the Lord. It's pleasing to God. It's commanded
of God for men to seek Him. To seek Him. Seek the Lord. And
then he says, seek righteousness. That's not my righteousness,
that's his righteousness. Turn from my righteousness, not
mine, but his. Seek righteousness and seek humility,
humility before him. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. These are things that are pleasing to God. These are
things that God has commanded. And I believe that I've discovered
these things in my own experience and heart. I do believe that
I'm seeking the Lord. Are you? His righteousness and
that humility and meekness in his sight with which he is well
pleased, a meek and quiet spirit that is pleasing to the Lord.
Here's the third thing that encourages me. Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said, this is
a sure saying, this is a faithful saying, and this is worthy of
acceptation by all men, that Jesus Christ came into this world
to seek and to save, or to save sinners of whom I am cheap. Christ
came for that purpose, to redeem sinners. The Lord chose the guilty. The Lord died for the ungodly.
The Lord is the friend of sinners. When our Lord went down into
Samaria, He came back with a very sinful woman. That
was his trophy. When he went down into the land
of the Gadarenes, he came back with a man that no man could
tame, the chief sinner. When our Lord went down into
Jericho, he came back with Zacchaeus, hated, despised, publican. When
our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he redeemed the thief. So brother, I tell you, there's
hope for me. That's what I'm saying. Christ
died for sinners. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. Our Lord Jesus Christ delights
to show mercy to sinners. Follower, go all the way through
the word. You find our Lord's harshest
words for Pharisees, religious hypocrites. He called them a
generation of snakes. He brought all kind of accusations
against them, but our Lord saved sinners. They brought him one
time a woman found in adultery and cast her at his feet. And
they stood around in the circle, you know, with their stones in
their hand. Moses' law says stoner. And they stood around waiting
to see what he would do. They thought they had him between
a rock and a hard place. If our Lord sided with the woman,
he turned against Moses. If he sided with Moses and said
stoner, then the people would turn against him. What were they
going to do? What was he going to do? Well,
he didn't stay up there with that crowd. He got down here
with her. He identified himself with her. Our Lord stooped down
and wrote in the sand. Then he turned to them and said,
he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. And he
stooped back down and was writing again. Somebody said they thought
he was writing some dates and places and names, probably, that
were well known to those Pharisees around that circle. But nevertheless,
they began to leave one at a time. And when he looked up, they were
all gone. He said, woman, where are your accusers? Does no man
accuse you? She said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I.
Go and sin no more. Well, that ought to give everybody
here that's a sinner hope. Where was mercy? It was down
there where she was. It wasn't in this religious circle.
Mercy was down here. That's where Christ was, with
her, when he was sitting, when he was eating with that Simon,
the Pharisee, and the harlot came in and bade his feet, and
that Pharisee was offended, and he looked down there, and he
turned to his buddy and said, now, if this man, if this man
was a prophet, now he'd know that woman's a sinner, and he
wouldn't let her touch him. But I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ not only let her touch him, but he touched her with
the grace of God. Where was mercy? Down there at
his feet, not up here in these uppermost seats of intellectualism
and theology and criticism and phariseeism and legalism and
every other kind of ism. I'm encouraged because the Lord
came to save sinners. And I go through this Word and
I find Him showing mercy to the chief of sinners. Look back at
Lamentations. Listen to Jeremiah. Here's another
reason why I've got some good hope. Lamentations chapter 3
verse 22 listen to this 322 It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not concerned That gives me hope I'm not in hell yet. That's what I'm saying I'm not
in hell yet Barnard you say anything this side of hell's mercy, but
I'm not there yet and that gives me hope God Almighty could have
turned us all into eternal condemnation the moment that we came into
this world, the whole human race. When I consider the mercies that
I've already received, I'm encouraged to hope for more. Are you? Are
you? And then in the fifth place,
I consider the character of those who have received mercy. Turn
to a couple of scriptures, 1 Corinthians 6. Now this encourages me. 1
Corinthians chapter 6. I'm talking about the mercy of
God. I'm not talking about religion. I'm not talking about the approval
of men. The approval of men won't benefit
me one bit. Not one bit in this world. I
need His mercy. I need His grace. I need His
fellowship. And so do you. He says when God's
anger and wrath and judgment falls upon this world, how will
you fend? Well, I warn you, he says, seek
mercy. Seek the Lord. Seek righteousness. Seek humility.
It may be, it just may be, that you'll be hid in that day. Well,
this encourages me. Some fellas that have been just
like you and me have found the mercy of God. Look at 1 Corinthians
6, verse 9. Now listen. Know ye not that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't you
be deceived. fornicators, idolaters, adulterers. You say, you haven't got to me
yet, preacher. Oh, yes, I have, too. Yes, I have. Nor infeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you. Huh? That's what you were. But God has washed you. God has
washed you. You've been washed. You've been
sanctified, set apart, perfected, justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That ought to encourage everybody
here to sue for mercy. That ought to encourage everyone.
Well, if the Lord saved folks like that, then he can save me.
John Newton was sitting at his desk one day studying, and William
J. walked in. And William J. said, as he threw a letter on
John Newton's desk, he said, there's a letter that I've received
from, he called the man's name down in Bath. Must have been
a county. And Newton picked it up and read
it, and he says the man's been saved. And William J. said, isn't that wonderful? Newton
said, it certainly is. And J. said, well, I'll tell
you, Mr. Newton. He said, since God has saved that man, I'll
never despair of anybody else. And John Newton looked up and
said, Brother Jay, he said, since the Lord saved me, I've never
despaired of anybody else. I think we all, Brother Terrell,
think we're cut above everybody else, you know, just a shade,
just a little more holy. Just a little more. I never have
done this. You never have done it outwardly.
In God's sight, you've done it inwardly. You're a rebel against
God's law and holiness and righteousness. You've searched the world over.
You won't find a greater sinner than yourself. Even your pride
that causes you to start at that statement is proof of what I'm
saying. Even when you recall, and I talk
about classify you with the harlots and drunkards and infeminate
and abusers of themselves with mankind and thieves and idolaters
and covetous when I identify you with those people the very
thing that makes you start and recall from it is that pride
of heart that damn in your soul. We'll come down or we'll never
go up. We'll be broken or we'll never be healed. We'll be stripped
or we'll never be clothed. We'll be slain or we'll never
be made alive. I'm as confident of that as I'm standing here.
God's going to send every pious, self-righteous hypocrite to hell.
God's going to save sinners. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost hath made him so. The Holy Ghost hath made... I
think about David. I think about David. That fella
here, one of his best friends had gone to war. And fighting
for David, he stayed home. And he took a lichen to his wife.
And he went down and got her and brought her up to his house.
And she got pregnant. And so he connived. He was disturbed. He's in trouble. And he knew
it. And he sat down and wrote a note to who was it? Joab was
out there. And he wrote a note and said,
Joab, send Uriah home. And he didn't say why. Just send him home. He had it
all fixed up, Jim. He was going to get this thing straightened
out his way. So Uriah came home. He said, how's the battle going?
And Uriah told him how the battle went. He said, well, I just want
to know how the battle was going. Why don't you go on home, spend
the night, and then go on back down there and help Joab? Uriah
said, no. He said, my buddy's out there
fighting, and I'm going back. Well, don't you want to go home
and see your wife and visit down at the house? He said, no. I'm
going to go on back to war. That messed up David's plans.
So David connived around a little bit and got him drunk. He said
in his stupor, going down to the house, you know, mind me,
son. And even drunk, Uriah said to
him, no, sir, I'm not going. With all due respect to the king,
I'm not going. I'm going back out where my buddies
are. David's in a mess, and he knows it. And so he sits down
and writes another letter to this General Joab. And he says,
Joab, Uriah is coming back. And Uriah carried the letter.
David was the first fellow to put a contract out on a man.
That man had the God's own heart. He wrote this letter. I doubt
his hand even trembled. He wanted to get out of the mess
he'd gotten himself into. He said, Uriah, when he gets
there, put him out there in the hottest part of the battle and
back off and leave. That's what he wrote. Signed
his name and put the king's seal on it. Uriah took his own death
certificate with him. and hand it to Joab, not knowing
what it said. And they sent him out there and
put him in the forefront of the battle, and he was killed. And
Joab sent word to the king, your eye's dead. But Joab wasn't pleased
with this. And David wrote him back and
told him, says, just don't be alarmed. Everything will be all
right. Good men die in battle, and bad men die in battle. That's
the way it is. Now David's comfortable. He let Bathsheba grieve a little,
and he brought her up to the house. You know, it's all over.
It's all covered over. It's all smoothed out. No problem.
Everything's all right. And he's sitting on his throne
one day, and one of his servants came in and said, there's a man
to see you. And David said, well, who is
it? He said, well, it's Reverend Nathan. And David I'm sure David
thought, well, I'm glad old Reverend Nathan's come up. He probably
wants something on his new building, you know, and he come to the
right fella. I'm always glad to help a preacher.
And he said, well, send him in. And Nathan came in to exchange
pleasantries. And I'm sure David said, well,
said, that's cheap, but I've been talking about having you
and the missus up for supper some night and just have a seat. Well, Nathan wasn't there to
have a seat. He was there to deliver a message. And he said,
my king, he said, There was a man that had a whole lot of sheep,
lambs. His neighbor had just one. And
he said a bester came by, a man who was hungry. And so instead
of killing one of his sheep and satisfying his hunger, he went
down and got his neighbor's sheep and killed it and fed it to the
man. David came up out of that throne and hit his fist on his
hand. He said, tell me who he is, and
I'll kill him right now. I'll kill him right now. And
Nathan said, you're the man. You're the man. And David sat
down. Oh, don't you know that he saw
the clouds of God's wrath just fall. Don't you know? Can you
imagine? Can you imagine the state he was in? It was the worst
state he'd ever experienced. Now let me tell you, here's what
I'm getting at. Nathan said, David, The sword
will never leave your family. But I'm here to give you some
good news. God has forgiven your sin. Now that's the riches of
his grace. That's what I'm talking about.
I'm glad that I can preach God is good. God will forgive sin. I don't care. I don't care what
the sin is. I've just given you a summary
of a a most horrible deed. Here is a man that murdered his
best friend, one of his best friends, to get himself out of
a scrape. And yet God says, I forgive you. Isn't that good? Doesn't
that make you hope? Boy, I tell you, that gives me
good hope, good hope. And these things are for our
examples. The Lord has not chosen the mighty, he's chosen the weak.
God has not chosen the wise, but he's chosen the foolish to
bring no flesh glory in his sight. Come ye sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded by the fall. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of love and grace and pity and power. I tell you this, if you tarry
till you're better, you'll never come at all. Here's the last
thing, and I've preached too long, but let me give you this
one more. Number six, I'm encouraged to hope because our Lord's great
design in redemption is to display His grace. That's what, you know,
Brother Garner and I were talking yesterday, I believe he told
me that it was Lloyd-Jones made this statement. If somebody doesn't
accuse you of being an antinomian, you're not preaching the gospel.
Now, I want to preach the gospel so free from man's merit, and
so free from man's righteousness, and so free from man's works,
that the fellow out there on the street says, well, you're
saying that our sins exalt and magnify the grace of God. I don't
care what you say. I'm just saying salvation is
all of grace. Somebody else is going to say, well, let's do
evil that good may come. I don't care what you say. I
just know that salvation is all of grace. that we don't make
one contribution to the redemption of our souls. I'm totally passive
in the redemption of my soul. Christ paid it all. He is my
sanctification, He is my righteousness, He is my redemption, He is my
wisdom, He's everything if I never open my mouth again or raise
my hand or turn my foot. Christ is all. I'm complete in
Him. With His spotless garments on,
I'm as holy as God's Son. Near so near to God, nearer I
cannot be, for in the person of his Son I am near as he. And
I'm not preaching in order to go to heaven. I'm not giving
in order to be saved, and I'm not witnessing in order to get
a reward. I don't expect to get any yo-yos in heaven. I expect
all Christ is my reward. There's nothing better than Christ.
If I have him, I have everything. You sit over there and play with
your yo-yo, you know, when you get up there, but I'm going to
feast on his face. Everything I've done he enabled
me to do, everything I've learned he taught me, why should I be
rewarded for what he did? It says in Ephesians 2 verse 8,
or Ephesians 2 verse 7, that in the ages to come, He might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. That's why God redeems sinners,
that he may get all the glory. All the glory. So seek the Lord. Seek his righteousness. And seek
that broken, humble, meek spirit at his feet. It just may be. It just may be. But we've got
good reason to believe it, that you'll be here in the day of
his wrath. I ask you this question. How long will a beggar sit by
the street and wait for help? It all depends on how hungry
he is. How eagerly will he hold out
his cup? He has no promise of help. He has no guarantee or
assurance that anybody will put anything in it. But if he's hungry
and weary and empty, he's going to sit there till somebody helps
him. Prostrate I lie before thy throne, and there my sins confess. How long will searchers look
for a little lost boy in the cold north woods with very little
promise of finding him? They'll look for him till they
can look no more. How long will a wife stand outside
a fallen mineshaft as the workers dig for survivors with little
or no hope? But she'll stand there till they
bring him out alive or dead, wouldn't you? But I'm going to
camp at the door of mercy. I'm going to stand at the door
of mercy fortified with earnest expectation that the Lord of
glory who has heard the prayers of other men will hear mine.
in Jesus' name. That the Lord of glory who has
shown mercy to other sinners as vile and sinful as I am will
receive and hear my cry. That the Lord of glory who has
dealt in mercy with men of equal guilt will be pleased by his
grace through the blood of his Son to take me into his kingdom. We sang about it this morning.
Depth of mercy can there be? Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear me, the chief of sinners fair?
Can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who Him to death pursued? I have great hope that it's all
in Him. I trust the Lord will give you
that same hope and confidence. Let's pray together.