Mercy Unto The Heavens - Part 1 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace!

This is LeSaire Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, sing his mercy and his grace! In the last chance, bright and blessed, he'll prepare for us a praise! When we all get to heaven, one day, not a day, one rejoicing there it will be! When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout and shout the victory!

While we walk the little ground, pathway flows will overspread the sky, but when travelling days are over, not a shadow, not a sign! When we all get to heaven, one day, not a day, one rejoicing there it will be! When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout and shout the victory!

Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day. Just one glimpse of him in glory will the cause of life remain. When we all get to heaven, one day, not a day, one rejoicing there it will be! When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout and shout the victory! Onward to the prize before us, soon his beauty will be whole! Soon the pearly gates will open, we shall tread the streets of gold! When we all get to heaven, one day, not a day, one rejoicing there it will be!

When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout and shout the victory! I'm thankful for this opportunity to come your way at the same time each week with a message from God's Word. We do depend on our listeners for support in order to keep the program on the air.

So if you'd like for us to remain on your station, let us hear from you. Our meeting address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Or you can go to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org and make a donation there. Come, thou fount of every blessing, to my heart to sing thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some manner yet sonnet, some thy flaming tongues of gold. Praise the mount of fixed beyond it, mount of God's unchanging love. Here I raise my ever-nestle, bither by thy help I come.

And I hope by thy good pleasure, safely to our right at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. He to save my soul from danger, interposed his precious blood. O to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, for take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. I read Psalm 57, verse 9. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people. I will sing unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, let thy glory be above the earth. This psalm says the mercy of God is great, and because of that I will praise God among the people.

I'm not going to keep the knowledge of this truth to myself. I will praise Him. I will praise Him among the people. It also says I will praise Him among the nations, which certainly directs our thoughts to the fact that we ought to be interested in sharing the good news of the gospel, getting the message out at home and abroad. Now, how often do you give thought to the greatness of God's mercy and then declare that greatness to others around you? In reading the scripture, you come across the word mercy.

It's one that you're very familiar with, and it's easy to just pass it by and give no special thought to it, failing to think about its greatness. Or you may have been in a dark place when you said, as the psalmist of old, is thy mercy clean gone forever? You felt your prayers were not being answered.

Things just were not going well at all. You were deeply troubled and felt, has God forgotten me? His mercy must be clean gone forever.

But then you had to come back, as did Asaph, and say this is my infirmity. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy works of old.

But I've set that in my haste. I know your mercy is not gone, and so I'm going to remember thy works. Not only may you read the word mercy in scripture and give very little attention to it, you may sing about it and not notice it at all. That wonderful hymn we sing, Come, thou fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace.

Streams of what? Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I've fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Oh, let us consider the importance of mercy in regard to what our text says.

Mercy is great unto the heavens. Well, it's 62 miles to outer space. And when various ones have made that trip and gone beyond the Earth's atmosphere, they felt it was a great accomplishment. I was looking the other night at a full moon and admiring its beauty. And I thought, as far away as you are, old moon, God's mercy goes far beyond it.

The moon is 238,900 miles away from Earth. God's mercy not only extends to the moon, but far beyond it. Now, God's mercy goes beyond all of that. That's a lot of mercy, isn't it? But surely we know we need a lot of mercy. We need mercy every day.

And there is reason then to rejoice in it and to sing about it and to tell others about it. So as we think about mercy, first we want to define it. Secondly, consider it.

Thirdly, ask for it. And in the fourth place, give thanks for it. Now, if you go to the dictionary, you'll find words like this to explain what mercy is. It speaks of pity, of compassion exercised toward offenders. It's the act of sparing, grace, favor, pardon, all these connected as part of the definition of what mercy is. But let's go to scripture and get some specific information as to mercy. We go first to the book of Romans, chapter 9, reading in 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.

It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I love, but Esau have I hated. Paul is very plain spoken, very specific about God's sovereignty in the choice of Jacob. Verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Paul, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, anticipated the fact that human beings would say, whoa, hold up here a minute, that's not fair, that's not right.

What you do for one, you must do for all. But Paul says there is no unrighteousness with God, God forbid. God is sovereign and has the right to bestow mercy according to His pleasure. For He has said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now we're talking about a definition of mercy and we find here that it is unmerited favor, unmerited favor bestowed by God Himself. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

So what's the result of that? It goes on to tell us. It says, verse 16. So then it is not of Him that willeth nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. A high percentage of people professing to believe the Gospel will say to you, oh, I know that God does His part, but ultimately it's man's choice that turneth the effort.

Man must make his choice, finally left up to Him. Well, that's not the conclusion Paul drew. Paul says it is not of Him that willeth, it's not based on man's free will, it's based on God's mercy. Not of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now there's a plain doctrinal truth defining mercy. Mercy dispensed from the hands of a holy, sovereign God. And then we go to the book of Ephesians and see it is the very foundation of our salvation.

Chapter 2, verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy, now here we learn something about mercy. God is rich in it, God has a lot of it. His mercy goes beyond the stars, it goes into the heavens, beyond the heavens. God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us to gather with Christ. By grace, you are saved. Because of His abundant mercy, because of His rich mercy, even when you were dead in trespasses and in sin, what could you do as a dead sinner to bring about your own salvation?

Man can't raise himself. The dead sinner cannot move toward God. There's none that seeketh after Him.

None righteous, no, not one. And man in his fallen state does not seek God. He is the enemy of God. He is an enmity against God.

Doesn't love Him, doesn't fear Him, doesn't seek Him, doesn't submit to Him, doesn't serve Him. And so it requires a miracle of divine grace. He quickens the sinner who is dead in sin, brings him to a new life in Jesus Christ.

And then one more, Titus chapter 3 verse 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done. So how is it that somebody can so boldly say, well, I know God has His part, but the sinner has His. And it's not by works of righteousness which we have done. Really there cannot be any works of righteousness until after there was a work of grace.

Because all that the sinner does is against God. He can't perform works of righteousness. He may exercise some noble act and do something that is morally significant and beneficial to society, but he cannot perform works of righteousness when he's alienated from God. So even after the experience of grace, even after one has been regenerated and does perform works of righteousness, his salvation is not based on that. The works of righteousness are not the cause of the salvation but the evidence of it. So not by works of righteousness as we have done, but according to His what? Mercy.

He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. According to His mercy. According to His mercy, He chose the people before the world began. Before they had any being in themselves. If you're a child of God, you can't boast as though you brought it about before you were ever born. Before God created the heaven and the earth. He thought about you.

Isn't that amazing? And He knew you, loved you, chose you in His covenant of grace. It was mercy by which God chose the people as we read clearly laid out in Romans chapter 9. It was mercy that brought Christ to this earth to die for the ungodly. He didn't come here to reward the good and the upright and those who boasted in self-righteousness.

He came to die for the ungodly. Now if you know you're a sinner, that's good news to you. We believe the gospel is good news. It's not good news to everybody.

Some are offended by it. But if you've been convicted of your sinful state and know that you need a Savior, it's good to know He died for the ungodly. It was by mercy that the Holy Spirit brought about the washing of regeneration that's described in this text.

It wasn't because of any movement on your free will. It was by His free grace, by His sovereign mercy. And it's because of mercy that you are being kept by the power of God.

Ultimately to receive that inheritance on the other side. It will be because of mercy that you one day arrive, safe home at last in the presence of Jesus Christ to live with Him forever in that wonderful mercy. Ah yes, we sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing His mercy and His grace. In the mansions bright and blessed He'll prepare for us a place. Let us be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day. Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay.

Do you sometimes try to envision that? What will it be like to be in heaven itself, to be able to look upon Jesus Christ? Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay. So when we sing in the hymn, a familiar one, when we all get to heaven, we sing His mercy and His grace. So as we sing these hymns, as we read about mercy in scripture, let's pay close attention to it.

Think about the abundance of it. Now this mercy is not something that you deserve. If you were being repaid because of your worth and your merit, it wouldn't be mercy.

It would just be the worker receiving his hire. Mercy can never be earned. In the book of Genesis chapter 32 verse 10, we read the words of Jacob. Jacob was fearful at this time.

He knew he was going to meet his brother Esau and could well imagine that Esau would be very bitter because Jacob had taken the birthright. And so he comes to the Lord to pray, I am not worthy of the least of Thy mercies and of all the truth which Thou has showed unto Thy servant. If you may cast your prayer on a regular basis, you're not going to be one that's easily upset. You're not going to be a complainer. You're not going to be bitter toward other people. Because whatever your situation is, say, I am not worthy of the least of His mercies.

That will give you a totally different outlook on life if you indeed believe that and make that your prayer. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan. In other words, when I came this way first, coming from my home, going to Laban's house, I was by myself. All I had, I didn't have any possessions, I just passed over this river with my staff.

But now I've become two bands. Now he's very wealthy. In spite of the fact that Laban had mistreated him, he's prospered. He has wives, he has children, he has flocks, he has herds, he has an abundance. And so he says, I pray thee that you would deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with children. Oh Lord, I'm afraid that he will come and do us harm. He's in great fear and acknowledges I'm not worthy of the least of thy mercies. And God did intervene and when he met Esau, Esau fell on his neck and kissed him and wept. Yes, God did intervene and spared his servant Jacob.

But may we all constantly maintain the attitude and spirit that he expressed in his prayer. I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies. So we see that mercy is something that cannot be earned. It is the sovereign mercy of God that's dispensed according to his pleasure. Now consider it further. Consider that mercy is up to the heavens. It's greater than we can fathom. It's described as being abundant in the book of 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3.

It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So when you know you need mercy, you're not asking for something that's about to go out. There's not going to be any left. There's an abundance of mercy. It was abundant to begin with to reach your case to save your soul. And it's still abundant as you need his mercy on a daily basis. Not only is it described as being abundant but being plenteous.

Psalm 103 verse 8, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Plenty of it. You know we've gotten so used to prosperity here in America that you see some of the things happening today that are a little different and it kind of jars you a little bit. I went to a store the other day and I could not believe all of the empty shelves. Where most of the time you go and they're full. Empty shelves. There was not an abundance of merchandise there from which to select. Of course many people around the world know nothing about the prosperity that's enjoyed here where you go to the grocery store and expect the shelves to be full.

Go to the merchant and expect that there's going to be the clothes you want to buy and all of that. Well certainly then things are not as abundant as they have been at other times. But not so with the mercy of God. It is abundant. It's plenteous.

There's plenty of it. Verse 10 says, He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, here's reference to this fact once more, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. So His mercy is plenteous.

It's great. It's high above the earth. God's love so great He gave us all. His love so great His name we call.

His love much more than man can tell. Sweet grace and love while here we dwell. What a wonderful truth to consider that the mercy of God is great unto the heavens. There's an abundance of it and if we know that in ourselves we're fallen bankrupt sinners we rejoice to hear the good news of the gospel that there is an abundance of mercy in the grace of God to rescue us from our low fallen state.

I hope that you will take time to write us this week. Until next week at the same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. Behold this love He hath for one. His love so great He gave His Son. To lead and die our sins to free. And this He did, so brave was He. He rose again, our God supreme. Around His throne someday we'll see.

This love for Him we feel so strong. We'll ever be in heaven's home. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. Address all mail to the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.

That's the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Precious is He to all His fold. Within our hearts His lovely hold. He first loved us never in vain. Glory and praise to His great name.