I'll ask you, if you will, to
open your Bibles tonight to Psalm 89. I've been preaching from
the letter of Ephesians for several months on Wednesday evening,
and tonight we have come to that last section. We read it at the
beginning of the service, and it begins with the word finally. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. And since I will
not be preaching next Wednesday evening because of eye surgery,
I did not want to begin that section. I didn't feel like that
would be right. So instead, I want to speak to
us from the words here in this psalm in verse one, I will sing
of the mercies of the Lord forever. Jonathan spoke to us last Sunday
from the words of Psalm 92, and those words declare, it is a
good thing to give thanks and to sing praises unto thy name,
O Most High. He reminded us of how singing
praises to God may help us out of the slew of despond. I noticed
in the hymn we sang just a few minutes ago, I will sing the
wondrous story. The fourth verse says, days of
darkness still come o'er me. Sorrow's path I often tread,
but the Savior still is with me. By his hand I'm safely led. Days of darkness, when we fall
into that slew of despond, that it helps us to sing praises unto
the Lord. And I thought about this, the
fact that we have all these psalms, 150 psalms. How many different
experiences did the psalmist have? As you read through these
psalms, he knew all kinds of trouble, all kinds of problems
in this world. Most of the Psalms begin with
lamentation, the psalmist crying out for help, and then end in
praise of God. Tonight, I want us to think about
these words, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I have seven scriptures, seven
scriptures, which all have the word mercy or mercies in them. And each one of them speaks to
us of a different mercy of the Lord. I will sing of the mercies
of the Lord. And so we're going to turn to
these seven scriptures and read them and look at the various
mercies that we should sing and praise the Lord for. First, I
would have you turn with me to Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine, reading
verses 22 and 23. What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy. That's the word, the vessels
of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory. Vessels of mercy. Who are the
vessels of mercy? Well, look back to verse 11,
where the apostle here is speaking of God's sovereign election.
Beginning with verse 11, for the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. having done neither good nor
evil when God chose his people. He did not look down through
the ages and see who would be good and who would not be good
and who would have a heart that's tender towards the things of
God or anything like that. No, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. Not of works. but of him that
calleth. It was said unto her, the elder,
that is Esau, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Some people say that, don't they? When they hear the truth
of God's Gracious election. They say that's not fair. That
cannot be fair. What are they doing? They're
accusing God of unrighteousness. Of being unrighteous. Paul knew
exactly because he faced this in his day. It hasn't changed.
Man hasn't changed. God hasn't changed. And sin hasn't
changed. And the way men think about God
hasn't changed either. No, Paul knew what arguments
people would bring forth when he wrote and preached and spoke
about God's gracious election. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. That's a very strong
statement. A very strong negation. No, absolutely not. God is righteous. and only doeth
righteousness. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. 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. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. So the first mercy that we should
sing of is God's electing mercy. God's gracious mercy in choosing
a people. One hymn writer wrote these words.
Election is a truth divine, as absolute, as free. Works ne'er
can make the blessing mine, tis God's own wise decree. Before Jehovah built the skies
or earth or seas or sun, he chose a people for his praise and gave
them to his son. Eternal was the choice of God,
A sovereign act indeed, and Jesus, the incarnate word, secures the
chosen seed. He loved and chose because he
would, nor did his choice depend on sinner's work, or bad or good,
but on his sovereign mind. No law, nor death, nor hell,
nor sin can alter his decree. The elect eternal life shall
win. and all God's glory see. His counsel stands forever, sure,
immortal, and divine. And justice, mercy, truth, and
power unite to make it mine. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. And the first mercy that I mention
to us tonight is his electing mercy. The second, I want you
to look with me now to Isaiah. We're going to turn to these
scriptures. I hope you'll follow with me. Isaiah chapter number
55. Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 3, incline
your ear and come unto me. and your soul shall live, and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David. There's the word, mercies, plural. The sure mercies of David are
the mercies which are bequeathed. You know that word, bequeath,
when a person has a will and he bequeaths his his goods, his
items to his heirs, those he wants to receive it. He bequeaths
that. In the everlasting covenant of
God, the covenant of grace, these blessings, these sure mercies
of David are bequeathed to his chosen people, his elect, in
this eternal covenant. And that covenant, remember,
was ratified just like a man's will. A man's will can be changed
until that man dies, but once he dies, that will is to be executed. He has an executor of his will,
that will is to be executed just as he has written it out. And
so the blessings, these sure mercies of David are the blessings
of this everlasting covenant. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he
shed his blood to ratify the everlasting covenant. It can
never be changed, can never be altered. And these sure mercies
of David are sure, they're sure to all of those who are named
in the covenant. The covenant blessings all come
to God's people through Christ. And they're called sure mercies
just because just because they all come through Christ, through
His obedience in death. You know, in, I think it's 2
Samuel chapter 23, we read something like this. These be the last
words of David. And in those last words of David,
he said, he, that is God, hath made with me an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things and sure. Sure, why? Because Jesus Christ
is the surety of this covenant. He's the surety of this everlasting
covenant. And in that covenant, he agreed
with the Father, struck hands with the Father to come and be
the representative of his chosen people and to do everything,
everything that God requires to bring a lost sinner home to
heaven, to be accepted there, to be received there. Welcome. Come on in. This is your house. This is the mansion that I prepared
for you. Lord Jesus Christ agreed to do
everything necessary to make that happen. These sure mercies
of David. When Isaiah prophesied, David
had been dead for over 300 years. He's not talking about King David
who reigned in Jerusalem, but he's talking rather about David's
son. David's son who he called his
Lord. The Lord said unto my Lord. And remember when our Lord posed
that question to the Pharisees, they couldn't answer it, the
religious people. How does David call his son his Lord? I just
not heard of. How can that be? It can be because
he's both God and man. He's David's son according to
the flesh, but he's God's eternal son, made flesh. These are sure
mercies of David. What are the sure mercies of
David? Well, just to name a few, reconciliation. being reconciled unto God. Justification,
being declared righteous before God's tribunal. Forgiveness of
all sins. I will remember their sins and
their iniquities no more. Adoption. Adoption, being made
an heir and a joint heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing,
isn't it? Amazing, the sure mercies of
David. That someone like you and me,
that we might be made sons and daughters of God, might be part
of the family of God. Sanctification, that we would
be set apart. The mercy here of which we should
sing, David said, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. The mercy here of which we should
sing is His blessing us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.
Turn with me to another scripture, Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter one, these are the
words of the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias, and he is
filled with the Holy Spirit and he is prophesying. And he says, and thou child of
Luke chapter one, verse 76, and thou child shall be called the
prophet of the highest. He was a prophet, he was a forerunner
of Christ, a prophet of the highest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt
go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give
knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their
sins through the tender mercy, here's the word, the tender mercy
of our God whereby The Dayspring from on high hath visited us
to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. It is through the tender mercy
of God, the Dayspring, the Dayspring from on high hath visited us. The spring of the day, what does
this mean? The day spring, the spring of
the day, just as spring is the first season of the year. So
the spring of the day is that morning star, that morning star. And this mercy in this passage
is the incarnation of God's eternal son. A star is a son. That's what a star is, it's a
sun. And one of the last prophecies of him in the Old Testament found
in Malachi chapter four and verse two. But unto you that fear my
name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. The day spring from on high hath
visited us through the tender mercies of God, the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God being made flesh. He confessed, notice it says,
to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death. That was you, that was me. We
were in darkness, we were darkness, and in the shadow of death. Scripture
speaks of men being in bondage through fear of death all their
life. And the reason you and I tonight have no fear of death
is because the Lord Jesus Christ has taken the sting out of death. No, he's a dayspring from on
high. Philippians 2 and verse 6, Paul
said, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I will sing
of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing of this mercy, that
is, the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world. The hymn writer
said, I will sing of my redeemer and his wondrous love to me on
the cruel cross he suffered from the curse that set me free. All right, here's the fourth. Let's go back to Psalms again,
Psalm 85. And I know you know this is show,
but I've just chosen these. There's many, many more. I was
saying of the mercies of the Lord, we've looked at God's electing
mercy, we'll sing of that. We've looked at the Lord Jesus
Christ, the sure mercies of David. We will sing of those sure mercies
of David. We've looked at his incarnation.
We will sing of that mercy that God the Son, God the Son came
into this world as a man. He did that to redeem his people,
to redeem you and I. Had he not come, you and I would
be in this world, we would still be in darkness, in the shadow
of death, there would not be a sliver of hope for any of us. And yet the dayspring from on
high hath visited us. I'm gonna sing of the mercies
of the Lord forever. We're here in Psalm 85 in verse
10. Mercy, there's the word, mercy
and truth are met together Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. It is, you see, in Christ, in
this God-man, that mercy and truth meet. They meet in him. That it is in him, and that word
truth might be better understood as God's faithfulness. Mercy
and God's faithfulness meet together. God's faithfulness to the truth,
that he will by no means clear the guilty. But we are guilty. Well, how then? That's a riddle,
isn't it? That's a mystery of the gospel.
How that God may be just, and yes, he is just. How he may always
be righteous and remain just and righteous and yet forgive
sinners like you and me. mercy and truth have met in Christ,
that it is through him. You know, the throne of grace,
and we do come to him upon a throne of grace, but think about this. The throne of grace is not built
on the ruins of the throne of justice. God is still just as
just as he ever has been and always shall be. He is a just
God. And yet, it is through Christ
that he may be merciful to you and I, through his substitutionary
work. The mercy here of which we should
sing is of Christ's substitutional, vicarious work of satisfaction. That word vicarious means in
the stead of, doesn't it? He suffered in our stead. The sufferings that we merited
because of our sinfulness, He suffered. I will sing of the
mercies of the Lord forever. Well, let's go back to the New
Testament. We're going to come back to the
Old Testament again, but fifth, I want you to look in Titus In Titus chapter 3, and beginning
with verse 3, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish. Boy, every one of us, or I speak
for myself, I can identify with that. The fool has said, no God. I know that the translators have
added those words, there is no God. The scripture text itself
says, the fool has said in his heart, no, God. How foolish is
that? And yet every one of us as we
come into this world in a depraved, sinful condition, we all say
the same thing. No, God, no. I'll choose for
myself. I'll make the decisions. I'll
call the shots. I'll go my way." No, God. A fool. A man speaks as a foolish
person who says no to God. Has anyone ever fought against
God? Remember that scripture says,
let the potsherds of the earth strive with the potsherds. In
other words, a potsherd, a broken piece of pottery. And that's
man, broken, fallen. Let them strive with one another,
but Don't strive with your maker. You're not going to win that
battle. Foolish. That's what Paul says, for we
ourselves also were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another. That's a good description right
there of the world. The people that you interact
with every day, on your jobs, your neighbors, your friends,
if there are lost people, a good description of all men apart
from Jesus Christ and his saving mercy. Foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice
and hateful and hating one another. After that, the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. Mercy. According to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost. What does that mean, the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost? That's the
new birth. He saved us according to his mercy, not by works of
righteousness, not by any righteous acts that we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. The Lord quickened us when we
were dead in trespasses and sins. This is equivalent to when the
Lord told Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of heaven. Of his mercy he has saved us. He's quickened us, given us life
in Christ. So the mercy here that we sing
of is his quickening mercy. Number six, let's go back to
Psalms. Actually, I added this one today. I couldn't pass this one up. I was reading in this part of
the scripture this morning. I said, oh me, I've got to put
that in. This is great mercy, great mercy. Psalm 108, three
and four. I will praise thee, O Lord, among
the people. And I will sing praises unto
thee among the nations, for thy mercy is great above the heavens,
and thy truth reaches unto the clouds. This mercy is his great
mercy. You know, there are two individuals,
one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament, who
seem to me as though God recorded their acts just to show how great
God's mercy is. In the Old Testament, King Manasseh,
King Manasseh, in the lineage of Judah, and yet he did more
wickedness and caused the nation to get involved in more wickedness
than all the kings before him. burning his children in the fire,
offering them to false gods, bringing in all these witchcraft
people and sorcery and all of that stuff. I mean, you just
wonder if there was anything else he could have done to be
more wicked and to act out his wickedness. But you know what? God's great mercy saved him. Saved him. God's mercy is great. And then in the New Testament,
I think of Saul of Tarsus. You know, we think about him
as the Apostle Paul, but let's remember this. Before he was
the Apostle Paul, he was Saul of Tarsus, and he persecuted
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Lord said, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Well, Lord, you're in heaven,
and I'm down here on earth, and I'm persecuting you? Yes. How
did he do that? Because he persecuted the Lord's
people. He was a persecutor. Injurious,
he calls himself. Blasphemer. But God saved him. Why? Because of his great mercy. I
thought about that verse in Psalm 25 when David prayed, pardon
mine iniquity, O Lord, for it is great. It is great. Great sinners need great mercy.
God's mercy is great. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. And the last one, look with me
in Lamentations chapter three. Lamentation chapter three, that's
right after Jeremiah, this small book of Jeremiah. Lamentation
chapter three. You probably already know the
verse I'm going to point out to us. Lamentation chapter three,
verse 22 and 23. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Because his compassions fail
not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. This
mercy is his new mercies, his new mercies that we experience
every day. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we, you and I, that we are not consumed. And his mercies are
new every morning. And remember this about mercy. Mercy is never deserved. It's never deserved. Someone
said, well, I just don't deserve that. We're not talking about
what you deserve. We're talking about mercy. Mercy,
if you deserve it, it's not mercy. It's justice. It's righteousness. Oh no. God's mercy is always
undeserved. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. I'm going to do that. Aren't
you? As long as the Lord lends me
breath. And yes, even in eternity. I'm going to sing of the mercies
of the Lord. Oh, there's so many of them,
so many. I'm going to ask Bill, if he
will, to come and lead us in a hymn.