She's still having trouble with
her eye after the operation. Pat helped her for a few days
and the doctor put on her and she's feeling better. And then
he took it off and she's feeling bad again. So remember her in
your prayers. Arlene and Hannah and Cynthia,
I guess, are probably on the way back from the beach here
pretty soon. But I texted them. They're having a real good time
eating a lot of good seafood. So we're thankful for that. Other
than that, I can't think of any other announcements. I haven't
heard anything about Larry Brown recently, and Debbie's brother
starts chemotherapy this week, right? On Friday, for his pancreatic
cancer. So remember him in your prayers,
and seek the Lord's help for him. Let's begin our worship
service tonight with hymn number 517 on Jordan Stormy Banks. On Jordan's stormy banks I stand
and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land where my
possessions lie. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. No chilling wind or poisonous
breath can reach that land. sickness and sorrow, pain and
death are felt and feared no more. I am bound for the promised
land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. When shall I reach that happy
place and be forever blessed? When shall I see God for the
space and in His bosom rest? I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land.
Oh who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised
land. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy. His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed Redeemed His child and
forever I am Redeemed and so happy in Jesus No language my
rapture can tell I know that the light of His presence With
me doth continually dwell Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed. Redeemed. His child and forever I am. I think of my blessed Redeemer. I think of Him all along. I sing
for I cannot decide. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed. Redeemed. His child and forever. who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
and giveth me songs in the night. Redeem, redeem, redeem the blood
of the Lamb. Redeem, redeem. His shall end forever I am. if you have your Bibles turn
with me to Exodus chapter 33 this is the third in the series on
these two verses here verses 18 and 19 and Moses said I beseech
thee show me thy glory And he said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy. Let us pray. Our Father, we praise
you and thank you that such words have been applied to our hearts
and our understanding. We thank you, Father, that in
your kindness and your generosity, your tender heartedness and your
mercy, you have saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
your own purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ
before the world began. We thank you for the shed blood
of Jesus Christ that washed away our sins, that put away our sins
by the sacrifice of himself, that fully satisfied your law
and justice on our behalf, that made it so that we stand
accepted in your presence, welcome indeed as your children, your
sons and daughters in Jesus Christ. Although we pray for those of
our company who are sick, especially Loretta, she's still trying to
recover from this eye surgery. Pray you'd be with her. Watch
over her. For Debbie's brother, Randy,
as he's getting ready to start his chemotherapy, we ask, Lord,
you'd be with him. Pray you'd bring him back to
a good measure of health. Pray for Larry Brown as he's continuing
in his therapy. And for the others who've requested
prayer, Lord, we ask your help for them. For those who've lost
loved ones, for those who are struggling for different things
in their life, for the trials and tribulations that come, we
ask your help for them. We ask, Lord, tonight that you
would be pleased to meet with us in the presence of your Spirit.
And blessed Spirit guides and leads into all truth, and takes
the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. that shows us that
He's to be glorified and honored. We're thankful, Father, that
such a concise and precise message is here for us in this passage
of Scripture. Help us now, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Unknowingly, I reversed the last
two elements of this. This is actually the fourth thing,
but we're going to look at it as the third thing tonight. That
is the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the mercy of God. where
he says in the last part of verse 19, I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. And perhaps the reason I reverse
it is because that is the way it is in Romans chapter 9. This
is the third part of the answer the Lord gave to Moses when he
was asked to show his glory. The first thing that is God's
glory we found is the essential characteristic of God his essence
as it were he is good he is good and for those who have been given
the eyes to see his goodness ever passes before them everything
is beautiful in his time said Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter
3 everything is beautiful in his time secondly the glory of
the Lord is that he will proclaim the name of the Lord that is
the name of Jehovah assuring that the only name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved will be proclaimed and
preached throughout this world. The gospel will most assuredly
circumvent the earth and has and will again. God's goodness
passes before all men as the gospel, the glad tidings of good
things that is preached. The third element, actually the
fourth, we'll look at as the third tonight. The third element
of His glory is essential to the Gospel message. The Lord
tells Moses that His glory is that He will show mercy. On whom
He will show mercy. He will show mercy. The word mercy or merciful is
spoken almost 300 times in Holy Writ. This number does not include
words like kindness or tender-hearted or piteous or long-suffering
which also declare the same sense of the word mercy. One of the
descriptions that David gave of the Lord is in Psalm 103 when
he said the Lord was plenteous in mercy. Mercy is here asserted to be
the sole prerogative of the Lord. I will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. We often speak of suing the Lord
for mercy or camping at mercy's door. But this sole prerogative
designates this attribute of God as God's sovereign mercy. God's sovereign mercy. When we
speak of camping at mercy's door, suing God for mercy, this speaks
to sinners seeking mercy. And every sinner who's truly
a sinner and has been revealed by the grace of God that he is
a sinner will sue God for mercy. He will ask for mercy. And paramount
to understanding That is that the sovereignty must be attributed
to the one who may or may not show mercy. If you ask God for
mercy, you're doing something. You're attributing sorrow of
sovereignty to him. Because you're saying if you're
asking for mercy, not that he's obligated to give it, but that
he can give it or not give it. He gives it to whomsoever he
will. a lot of people think if you ask for mercy, it somehow
obligates God to give it. I remember years ago when Bill
Clinton had that affair in the White House and sought counsel
from Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jesse Jackson told him, he said,
apologize, apologize and ask for mercy from the people. He
said, if you ask for mercy, they'll be obligated to forgive you.
That's not the case with God. You may ask for mercy and not
get it. Some people ask for mercy because they're in trouble, not
because they're a sinner, but because they're in trouble. Some
people ask for mercy to get out of trouble or to get out of harm's
way. No one, and this is understood,
if you understand anything about mercy, understand this, no one
deserves mercy. No one on the top side of God's
Earth deserves mercy. In fact, mercy is actually keeping
someone from getting what they deserve. That's what mercy is. It keeps you from getting what
you deserve. Mercy is for SINNERS and sinners
only and sinners who deserve eternal damnation, eternal punishment,
and eternal living death. That's who mercy is for, and
only for those. If God has chosen to show you
mercy, He will prevent from happening to you that which you richly
deserve. the wages of sin is death that's
what you and i deserve and that death is not just dying in our
physical body that's an eternal separation from god as eternal
damnation in a fiery hell as eternal damnation of living and
yet dying all throughout eternity now the reason hell is eternal
is because god never gets what's due him in our eternal death
There's only one death that ever happened upon the face of this
earth that actually satisfied God's justice, and that death
was the Lord Jesus Christ. To desire mercy and to seek it
is to confess that you cannot do anything to deserve it. That's
what you have to understand about mercy. It's to confess that you
cannot deserve it and cannot obligate God to give it. You
can try all day if you want to, but God's not obligated. I will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy. It's His mercy. Having said that, however, there
is no record. There is no record of any wounded,
sick, and sore sinner ever seeking mercy that did not receive abundant
mercy in this wonderful book. The poet wrote, To die having
mercy sought is to die as sinner never die. That's the truth. God's mercy is a wondrous thing.
It's an amazing thing. A sinner has no inkling of his
sinfulness until God shows him mercy. Here's a conundrum. Here's a wonder. So if a sinner
seeks mercy, it is the direct result of God having shown him
mercy. You won't seek mercy until you've
shown mercy, because the mercy is what shows you that you are
a sinner. Mercy is sought because mercy
is shown. As a sinner parks at mercy's
door, it is mercy that orders his steps to bring him to that
threshold. As it is true of everything,
God is the first cause of all things. We blame second causes. You know, we look at second causes,
and we're disturbed by second causes, and second causes often
control our thinking. But the fact is, nothing happens,
or HAS happened, or WILL happen in this world, or in this universe,
that God has not been the CAUSE of. He's sovereign. Absolutely. Everything is predetermined
to serve that first cause. Everything that happens after
that. It is God declaring the end from the beginning. What
sinner will seek mercy? The one whom God has shown mercy
to. That's the beginning. He shows
mercy. And then that sinner, for the
rest of his days, seeks mercy. Seeks to be a merciful person.
We don't often do that very well. We're more apt to want to fly
off the handle than to show mercy. But a child of God has received
mercy, and therefore he is a merciful person. I think it was old John
Brown, the old preacher of many centuries ago, who said, in whatever
situation you find yourself, always seek to be merciful. Seek
to be merciful. God shows mercy to whom he will. to whom he will. How can he show
mercy to hell-deserving sinners? Think about it. How can he show
mercy to hell-deserving sinners? Will he simply disregard that
they have transgressed his law? Will he pretend that they actually
deserve his kindness? Will his holy justice be cast
aside? Will he deny his own character?
Will the sinner's sin go unpunished and will he enter glory or wash
in guilt? That cannot be. so how can god
show mercy he declares that he will show mercy in chapter thirty
four verse seven of this very book he says keeping mercy for
thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and
that will by no means clear the guilty so something's got to
take place where this sinner who's shown mercy is considered
before God as not guilty of sin and transgression. How can that
be? Justice has to be satisfied.
The sinner will receive mercy because his sin has been punished.
You can't be before God with unpunished sin. Your sin must
be punished, and it can only be punished in two creatures.
It's either punished in you, or it's punished in a substitute,
one or the other. But your sin will be punished.
your sin will be punished. That's how God shows mercy to
sinners, showing mercy for thousands, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgressions, yet in no wise will He clear
the guilty. The sinner's death, my death,
has already been recorded in the eternal counsels of the triune
Godhead. I'm dead. That's what the scriptures
say. You're dead. and your life is
hid with Christ in God. That's a wondrous thing. I don't
understand that. I know people talk about, I don't
know about my Christian life. I don't. It's hidden from me. Be honest with yourself. Do you
ever really know if anything you have done is worthwhile?
Has value? Can stand on its own merit? Of
course not. Every sinner saved by grace believes
he's somewhat, he wonders if he saved it all. Most of his
life he said, how can I be saved? And yet he believes he is with
all his heart and never doubts that he is. And yet he struggles
with that inner struggle because his life is hid. We can't pinpoint
anything that says this is evidence that I'm a child of God. My life
is hid. It's because our death is recorded.
You are dead or you died and your life is here with Christ
in God. The sinner is yet a sinner but
his debt has been paid and as the poet said, justice cannot
twice demand payment at my bleeding surety's hand and then again
at mine. So remarkable, the remarkable
character of Sovereign Mercy stands. God will remember the
sinner's sin no more. and the sinner will never forget
it. That's the case. God doesn't
remember our sins. He said he didn't. Why? Because
a perfect sacrifice has been offered. Read Hebrews 10. For
by one offering Christ has perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
So much so that God says, I will remember their sins no more.
This is the new covenant I will make with thee. And yet we remember
them all the time. We know we are sinners we know
that but we know our debt has been paid if you desire mercy and when
you think of mercy I want you to think of this you desire mercy
is because you recognize and confess that you are a sinner
only sinners seek mercy and mercy is only shown to sinners Jeremiah
in his lamentation said, This I recall to mine, and therefore
have I hope. It is the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They
are new every morning. So when you go to bed tonight,
you know what you'll be? You'll be a sinner. And when
you wake up in the morning, you know what you'll be? You'll be
a sinner. You will also be their mercy. Mercies are new every morning.
His mercy is sovereign. We are thankful for that. It
is His glory to be merciful. If you have found out what you
are, a helpless, ruined sinner, take hope, despair not, for He
who does as He pleases says this, I will show mercy. I will. Show mercy over in Psalm
89 and verse 14. It says this, Justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right. God bless you.