I really was struggling this past week with what to talk about, what to go to in the Bible, and that happens sometimes. You know, really, God is in control of what we know and even in the direction we go, and it was during our reading at home that we read this verse and it kind of struck me. It stuck with me and so I thought we would take a look at this. It is in Psalm 86, and I am going to read the whole Psalm. It is a prayer of David. Psalm 86:1-17:
Bow down thine ear, O JEHOVAH, hear me: for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear, O JEHOVAH, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O JEHOVAH; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, JEHOVAH, hast holpen me, and comforted me.
And I will stop reading there. It is the end of Psalm 86.
The verse that really stood out to me when I was reading this at home was verse 15, where it says:
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Talk about a verse full of wonderful truths about the Lord, about God Himself! That verse is packed with all kinds of beautiful information about the Person of God.
We know the Bible is God’s Book and it reveals His Person. It tells us, it teaches us, about His character, or it reveals His attributes. It shows us that this is what God is like. And we really, we really need to hear what God is like, because we are coming down to the wire. We are approaching the end. We are coming to the end of all things, and there are a lot of people, a lot of people who are hearing this information about May 21 st, 2011. That is the last day. That is the last day for salvation, from now until then, and it is not too long until we reach that point. Days are flying. Time is going quickly. And, well, where is the hope or what is the hope for people? The Bible, of course, gives us wonderful hope. For one thing, God is saving a great multitude all around the world.
You know, I have been encouraged recently because, normally, we get these kinds of requests for Bibles and things from Africa, from India, from wherever, but rarely from here. But over the last few months, we have been getting more from the USA that are kind of more touching, more touching. People are requesting Bibles, which has been encouraging to hear from our own country, from people in America, that there are some here and there who also God is dealing with, and He will continue to deal with them until the final day.
And so I just think this is a wonderful verse that reveals the Person of God, and I thought we could look at each one of these characteristics or attributes of God, as it says here in verse 15, Psalm 86:15:
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion…
Thou art a God full of compassion. And in Psalm 78:37-38, it says there:
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not…
You see, that is compassionate. That is demonstrating compassion. When the people of Israel were sinning against God, over and over and over—and, of course, God uses this as a picture, because the vast majority of them perished in the wilderness due to unbelief—but the picture is God overlooked, He forgave their sin, and He did not destroy them because, oftentimes, Moses would intercede and that was a picture of Christ interceding for His people, that they were not destroyed.
And that is just one verse. If we go to Psalm 145:8-9, it says:
JEHOVAH is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. JEHOVAH is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
See how the Bible describes God? And there are so many verses like this, really, I had a tough time choosing which ones to go to that we could look at.
But God, He does not have a little compassion. Let us put it that way. It is not like God grudgingly has decided to save some—and, yes, it is true: it is a remnant out of the whole of mankind—but, still, it is a great multitude. It is an enormous number of people whom God is saving today. And each one has sinned against Him so much and so grievously that He would be right and just to just wipe them out and destroy them, but because He has compassion…and what is compassion? What is compassion? Mercy. They are closely-related words and terms. It is a feeling. It starts inside you. In your bowels, you feel something for another person. You have a real care for another person. And God has compassion. He does not have a little, but He is full of compassion. He is truly a very merciful God.
Now, this word “compassion” is very close to “mercy,” and it is actually translated as “merciful” in Joel 2. In Joel 2:12-14, it says:
Therefore also now, saith JEHOVAH, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments…
God does not want us to literally put on sackcloth and ashes and go out on the sidewalk. Now, in the Old Testament, the Ninevites and others literally did that and that was fine. That was proper at that time, and God used that to draw an illustration to teach us that this is a broken and contrite person, that this is what it means to be repentant, to be someone who desires to turn from their sin as the Ninevites did. And yet, today, God is not interested in somebody doing outward things like that. That tends to be more like a show, and that is not what He is looking for. As He is bringing the Gospel to the world, He says:
And rend your heart, and not your garments…
Do not rip your clothes, “Woe is me,” and sit in sackcloth and ashes. But inwardly, inside, yes. Yes; do it. Of course, that is a very similar command to circumcise your heart. Anybody can be circumcised outwardly. Any male could be circumcised outwardly. But inwardly, God says, “Circumcise your heart,” and that is a command that we realize we cannot do. Likewise, we cannot rend our heart. We cannot rip our heart, spiritually speaking. It is something that God must do for us. It is part of the gift of salvation, when He gives a broken and contrite heart. But we can go to Him and say, “Lord, I see that time is short. I see that the end is near. And, honestly, looking at myself, I see a lot of sin also, which indicates that I am a sinner and that I may not be saved. Could you, would you have mercy on me and break my heart, break it and give me a new heart?”
And it goes on:
…and turn unto the JEHOVAH your God: for he is gracious and merciful…
And that is the word “compassion” or “compassionate.”
…he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him…
This sounds very much like the people of Nineveh. Let us go over there because, actually, that word “merciful” in Jonah is the same word “compassion,” too. In Jonah 3:9-10, after the Ninevites had been crying mightily unto God for that very reason because they thought or said:
Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
You see. God brought a timeline to them with a message of judgment attached. He said, “Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed,” so they could know on that particular day that this city, Nineveh, would be destroyed, and yet God worked in the hearts of the people of this city and many of them repented. 120,000 became saved out of the city of Nineveh, and they were crying to God for mercy.
And then in Jonah 4:1, it says:
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Please take a look in your Concordance. It does not say that. It does not say that in the Hebrew. It says that “it was a great evil to Jonah’s eye.” That is the literal translation, or “it was an evil to Jonah’s eye,” and it is the same word “evil” that is in Jonah 4:1 that is in Jonah 3:10:
…God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them…
But you do not see that in the English translation. It was a great evil to Jonah’s eye. Why? Because Jonah is a type of Christ. God repented of the evil that He was going to do to the Ninevites. Repent means to turn. He turned the evil. It did not just vanish, that wrath of God that He intended against those people. God just does not forgive people with no basis. There is always a basis for His forgiveness, which is that it turns from this person to Christ. It turns from that person over there to Christ. Christ is the One who receives the wrath of God—or who did receive it, we could say—as He was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. That is when He paid the penalty for the sins of His people, and Jonah is a type of Christ. It was a great evil to him because God turned the evil from the Ninevites.
And then Jonah 4:2:
And he prayed unto the JEHOVAH, and said, I pray thee, O JEHOVAH, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful…
And that is the word “compassion” or “compassionate.”
…slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
Do you see how they are always lumped in there together: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, of great kindness. Wow! That is a beautiful picture and it is not just a picture. They are beautiful facts about the person of God and what He is really like, because this is the Word of God and God has given us the Word to teach us about Himself.
And so Jonah knew this, but he did not want to go to Nineveh—and we are not going to get into that—but he was a Jew and the Assyrians, the Ninevites, were enemies of the Jews, and so he did not want to bring a message from a merciful Saviour. And that message was all judgment: and yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. His message was not: and yet 40 days and if you repent, if you turn, God will have mercy. He did not say any of that. That was implied. That is all part of the message of judgment, because why would God bother to warn us if He was not merciful, if He left out the possibility that someone might be spared? You see, it is all wrapped up in that message of judgment.
We are hearing May 21st, 2011, and we are hearing about the 5 months of torment on earth, and that is mercy. That is mercy that we are being forewarned, being given advanced warning of what is to come, because God would not bother if He did not intend to save many people. But because He does have a plan to save a great multitude, the message of His judgment is declared and His people will respond like the Ninevites. All the elect of God, all those who are out there in the world, wherever they might be, they will respond like the Ninevites.
But look at verse 3, just so we see how Jonah is a type of Christ. In Jonah 4:3:
Therefore now, O JEHOVAH, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
You see, the evil went to him and now the cry from Jonah is “Take my life,” because that is what happened with the Lord Jesus. Our sins were laid upon Him and He bore them in His body on the tree, and it was better for us that He die rather than that we die. It is much better that Christ die for us than we die for our own sins.
Well, you know, the Old Testament is surprisingly filled with the grace of God, the compassion of God, the mercy of God. You always hear people make that accusation, “I worship or I serve the God of the New Testament. He is the God of mercy and compassion. The Old Testament God, well, He was ruthless. He would kill people outright.” No. It is One God, the same God. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” They are not two Gods. There are not two dispensations of salvation. There is one plan of salvation. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Moses found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Every one of the saints of old were saved exactly like a believer today: through the Word of God that is bestowed by God’s grace. He saves sinners.
Now, let us go to the New Testament, in looking at this idea of compassion. In Matthew 20:30-34, it says:
And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.
And, again, the compassion of Christ is found many times. Before He would heal an individual, it says that He was moved with compassion. He was moved. He is not a God who is not touched by our infirmities. He is the God/man, a Man like us. He knows what is in man. He is aware of our trials and our troubles and, of course, our sinfulness and our weakness. He knows that the only way that anyone is going to enter into Heaven is if He shows compassion, and He is very much interested in doing that.
Or go over to Mark 9:20-24. It says there:
And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
And then we know that Jesus saved him and had compassion. He cast out the demon, and that young boy was fine afterwards. And that is a wonderful way of going to God. Notice that the father said, “Have compassion on us. Yes, I have a lunatic son and he has been like that since a child. Our whole house has been in an uproar. It has been trying, to tell you the least, and I am at my wit’s end. Everything is frayed. I am really beat. Have compassion on us.”
You see, he was going to the right Person. He was going to the right Person, was he not? To a God full of compassion, full of mercy, a God who has also the power and the might and the ability and the will to hear prayer and to answer prayer, and not only for the father, but also for the son. And so an unsaved father can go to God and say, “Have compassion on us, me and my children.” Or a mother, “Have on compassion on us.” Not only yourself, but even your family. If you happen to not be saved and others in your family are not, you can cry out to God that He might have mercy and compassion on all in the home.
Well, you know, as we read about the Lord Jesus’ compassion and His mercy, let me ask something of everybody. Let me ask—and I want you to think—where in the Gospels, or you could say the whole Bible, but where in the Gospels has somebody, anybody, gone to Christ, beseeching Him earnestly for something very serious, like eyesight, like a withered hand, or like lame legs or a woman concerned about her daughter or a man whose son is lunatic, or you could go on and on, a widow with her dead son, where has anyone gone to Christ, to the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, and the answer was, “No”? Can anybody think of an instance? Can you think of one place in the New Testament where someone truly, earnestly, went to Christ and said, “Lord, Lord, have mercy”? Now the answer is yes, that He delayed sometimes. He delayed sometimes. We even read in one account that He went on as if He heard them not. But, of course, He heard. He heard every single time. And every single time, even after a delay, He answered. He responded and He gave the blind sight. He gave legs to the lame. He straightened out the withered hand. The dead were raised to life again. A woman with a fever had the fever leave her—again and again and again, without fail.
Now, please, you know, do not think, anybody, that I am saying that if you go to God, if you go to Him, it is a guarantee that He is going to save you. I am not saying that, and the Bible does not say that. The cry is who can tell if He will be merciful? That is what the Ninevites cried out. They cried mightily to God. Who can tell if He will be merciful? But they are not going to a man. They are not going to a human king or ruler or to anybody whom we are familiar with. And we know what men are like. Men might be merciful, if it suits their own end. But they are going to a God whose characteristic, whose attribute, whose very being is compassion and mercy. And that is what the Bible tells us: full of compassion. Full! Not half empty. Full of compassion. And God gives us all kinds of illustrations of Him being compassionate and merciful.
So what we can learn from that is that God is showing us and encouraging us, “Come. Come to Me. Come to Me.” It could be. It could be that He would have mercy on you. I do not know. But just look at what the Bible tells us. I do not see how anybody can be discouraged.
You know, some people, they hear the true Gospel and it is not a Gospel where you can do anything. It is not walking down the aisle. That is not going to save anybody. It is not being baptized. That is not going to save anybody. It is not accepting Christ. That is not going to save anybody.
No. The true Gospel is that we are sinners. We are dead in sin. We cannot do a thing to save ourselves, although we can place ourselves in an environment, in a position where God might save us, being under the hearing of the Word. We can go to God—He permits that—to cry for mercy. And yet, finally, at the end, it is in His hands. He will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. He will have compassion upon whom He will have compassion. It is in His hands and His control.
And as soon as people hear that, many—I will not say everybody—many get discouraged, “Oh. I cannot save myself. I cannot do it. It is in God’s hands,” like He is some kind of evil judge who grudgingly will hear their case, like that woman who was so persistent and because she was so persistent, that judge heard her and granted her wish. No. God says, if we turn to Luke 11, He says in Luke 11:9-13:
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
And that would be salvation. If you receive the Holy Spirit inside, that is salvation. You have the Spirit of Christ within you. How much more gracious and merciful and compassionate is God than man?
And, you know, when there is a birthday in the house, you really try to think, “What would be a good gift?” Or for Christmas, “What would be a good gift for my son or my daughter? Something good for them?” You do not want to think of something that is going to lead them into harm, like video games, but you want to think of something that will be good for them, that they could use, and so forth. And that is our mindset, is it not? We do not want to give them anything bad. We do not want to withhold anything good from them. We want to give them everything that we can, according to our limit, according to our resources, and our resources are very limited.
But what is God’s limit? When it comes to compassion and mercy, what is His limit? He does not have any. He does not have any. He is full of compassion. So we know that if we go to Him and we cry out to Him for mercy and we beseech Him that He might save us, there is a possibility, a real possibility that He might do it, that He might have mercy.
Well, let us go back to Psalm 86:15:
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious…
God, of course, saves by grace, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” He gives it. He gives it. He is gracious.
In Exodus 34, if we go back to Exodus 34:6-7, it says:
And JEHOVAH passed by before him, and proclaimed, The JEHOVAH, JEHOVAH God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty…
And then it goes on. So, again, God is a God of grace in the Old Testament as well as the New. He is one and the same. There is no difference. Anybody who tries to separate the Bible and to say, “Well, the New Testament is to my liking but not the Old,” then they do not have the Bible any longer because they just subtracted from it. We have the whole Bible and there is One God and He is gracious.
If we go to Psalm 103:8-13:
JEHOVAH is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
How many verses have we read like that? They all seem similar and very much alike.
He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 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, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children…
And there is the compassion.
…so JEHOVAH pitieth them that fear him.
And, you know, we could just keep reading verse after verse after verse, and sometimes it is very good to do that. It is very good to do that to get this in our minds and see that it is not an isolated instance in the Bible. It is dripping with it. It is all over the place. God is merciful. He is gracious. He has wonderful kindness.
Let us move on, though, to the third thing here in Psalm 86:15. It says:
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering…
Longsuffering. There is a good verse in Romans 2:4, where it goes on to say:
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
That is where longsuffering comes in, because we are guilty. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and God could have taken our life long ago. He could have destroyed us. As a man dies, in that day, his thoughts perish. His body goes to the grave. But, basically, he is gone. It is only on that day on May 21st, 2011, that the body, what is left of it, will come up, but there is no conscious existence.
God could have taken anyone out at His own choosing at any time, because we are all equally deserving of His wrath. We all have sinned. We are children of wrath, even as others. However, He has a plan to save certain ones, His elect people, whom He has named from before the foundation of the world. And those people are sinners, like anyone else. But now, God is waiting. He allows the world to continue on until each one of them does become saved, and then He will no longer be longsuffering. He will no longer wait.
Let us go to 1st Timothy 1 and we will read a couple of verses that God moved the Apostle Paul to write. 1 Timothy 1:14-16:
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
So Saul of Tarsus was very zealous for his religion, going about hailing men and women, throwing them into prison. He was compelling them to blaspheme. He was consenting unto Stephen’s death. He was a wretch, even though he did not know it. He was a sinner, and yet God put up with him and all of his sins and all of his transgressions, all of those iniquities, for years, until it was according to God’s time that God came to him on the road to Damascus and intervened in his life and saved him. And Paul says, “I am an example. I am an example. I am the pattern.” And that goes for all the elect, of all those who will follow—that God has put up with us.
I know I can look at my life and, believe me, the sins are too numerous to count. But I know also that this is the nature of man. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short of God’s glory, and God has mercifully…I think that this idea of being longsuffering is connected with His mercy, with His grace, with His compassion. He puts up with the sinful rebellion of man because He is going to save certain individuals out of the world, and that is what God did before the flood.
In 1 Peter 3:19-20, it says:
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Why did God wait in the days of Noah? He gave 120 years to build the ark. The ark was a preparing. But also, God delivered eight people. Noah was a child of God maybe early on, but we do not know about the other seven. We do not know about his wife, his three sons and their wives. They were involved, undoubtedly, with the shipbuilding. But at what point did they become saved? Over the course of the 120 years. Remember in Hebrews 11:7, God says:
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house…
You see, that construction project was to the saving of his own family. And God did save. Physically, He did deliver those eight souls. But, spiritually, I think the picture is that God waited. Yes. Noah had, he definitely had to complete the ark by 4990 B.C. in order for the whole timeline of history to unfurl and for us to have that perfect 7 days or 7,000 years unto 2011. That is all definite and built-in according to God’s wisdom. However, God works within His timeline. He works within His overall plans to work out salvation for His people. And that is what He did before the flood and that is what He is doing today. He is putting up with the sin of 6 billion and 700 million people, about. He is putting up with their sin, because the ark is a preparing; that is, the Lord Jesus does not have everybody—the house of God is one picture or the ark or however you want to look at it—Christ has not yet saved everyone and that is the only reason we are still here.
In 2 Peter 3:15, this fully explains God’s longsuffering. It says:
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…
It is salvation. God waits because He has to save His people. It is salvation, and so even in that, He is compassionate, He is gracious, He is longsuffering. He even has longsuffering as a characteristic that has to do with salvation, with saving sinners, with showing grace, with bringing the lost sons of Adam to Himself, which we all are.
Let us go back to Psalm 86 and we will finish looking at this verse. In Psalm 86:15:
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Again, this idea of abundance, super-fullness, He does not have a little. You know, like a beggar, a smart beggar would not go beg in the Projects, right? Because what do they have? What do they have? They could give you maybe a penny or two. They have very little themselves. No. He will go downtown and he will go on the main streets of the big city, because that is where the money is. That is where people have occupations and careers and some of them are making a lot of money. To them, $10.00 or $20.00 or $50.00 or even more would not really be that much, like, you know, a poor person giving a quarter or giving a dollar.
And so, they have sense. They have wisdom in these things, and they go where those who have might give (are). You go on the street, and I am pretty familiar with the streets of Philadelphia and seeing some of the beggars on the streets. They set up shop. They have a hat open. Some play music. Some, they are lying on a vent in the winter to get warm, and they are just reaching out and, really, they are doing what the Bible says, beseeching. They are asking. They are trying to see if they might get some money, because of what is in man, where man has compassion.
You know, we are living in a day when men’s hearts have grown cold, but people have compassion to a certain degree. People have mercy within them to a certain degree. We can be moved to feel for the awful plight of other people, that they do not have certain things in the world. And so a beggar reaches out and sometimes that string, that heartstring of compassion is moved, and someone gives them something. Of course, true compassion and true mercy would be to give them a tract, to give them a Bible, to give them some spiritual information. But we know that the world does not think along those lines. It is all physical, and so they do give money because a beggar is smart. A beggar is smart to do that.
Now, God says that He is plenteous in mercy and truth, plenteous. It says in Ephesians 2:4:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
And it goes on to tell us about how He loved us. And that word “rich” is the word rich. It is the Greek word that means “rich,” like Joseph of Arimathaea was a rich man. It is that word that we find in the New Testament. God is rich. He is plenteous. He is not lacking. He is not wanting. It is not on short supply. He has abundance, abundance of mercy and grace and compassion and truth. He is…I do not know what more God could say to us to express Himself to man, to sinful people who are in desperate need of a Saviour, of salvation, who are in desperate need for somebody, God, to show mercy, for God to have mercy upon us. What more can God say? Really. What more can He say? What more can He declare about Himself in order to encourage someone to come to Him, to go to Him and say, “God, be merciful to me a sinner; have mercy upon me, O God, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies”? That is what Psalm 51 says, and again and again and again, this is the Person of God.
So the next time you hear someone a little down because they are discouraged—maybe they have been praying, maybe it has been a period of time and they still do not know if they are saved, they are still unsure of their salvation—we can encourage them. We can encourage them and say, “God is merciful.”
And let us close with this verse in Micah 7:18-19:
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
He delights in saving. That is what God delights in. We are saved according to the good pleasure of God’s will. “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” is what God tells us. But He delights, on the other hand, in bestowing mercy, in saving sinners.
He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
And that is referring to our sins being placed upon Christ as He paid the penalty, the equivalent of an eternal destruction for all those whom He came to save.
Let us stop here and close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are merciful and gracious and compassionate. And these things are not just words. They are not just what man thinks of another man, and, really, it is not true. This is what is very true of You. And, Father, we do pray that You would have mercy, that You would grant someone here, grant our children, grant them Your salvation that can only come through the hearing of Your Word. And, Father, we pray that You would be with us the rest of this day as we have lunch and fellowship. Help our fellowship to be centered around Your Word. And we pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Chris: If anyone has any questions or comments that you would like to make, you are welcome at this time. You can raise your hand here or on Paltalk. If you are here, please come up to the mic so that they can hear you on Paltalk. And on Paltalk, raise your hand and Bob can relay your questions.
1st Question: I do not know if you realize how badly Family Radio is doing financially, but I heard from someone who works there that they are broke, and I am just asking you and myself, too, to take time to think of things that you can cut out of your life, maybe some treats that you buy that are not good for you anyway because they are full of sugar. Even in our fellowship, I know that we see the children chewing on the cups and destroying them. If you could just take one cup and use that the rest of the day, that would be helpful. And just think about these things. I think we know that God is using Family Radio to get the Gospel out and we want to be able to help them out. And I think even children can earn money, you know, raking leaves, or maybe when it comes to snow time, to help shovel walks. Not that you should ask a lot of money from people for that, but if they give you a dollar or so, just put that in the offering for Family Radio. But you can think of things that you can do to conserve energy and things so that, in the end, the Gospel can be given out. Thank you.
Chris: Thanks, Sally. Well, I have not heard exactly that. I heard Mr. Camping on the Open Forum. I saw the video that was posted on Friday and he was saying that they have reached their limit, and what he means is that they have been going as far as they can go with the Gospel, with purchasing airtime and having the Open Forum and other things translated into many different languages, which is very expensive. And so I heard Mr. Camping make…well, he was letting it be known that they can use money. And also, he was saying that for those in other countries, it is not just America, but believers everywhere, if people in other countries could go to Family Radio, they could make a contribution through their secure on-line donation. And he was encouraging them, you know, it does not have to be much if you do not have much. If it is a nickel, it is a nickel.
But, you know, I think it is very significant in Luke 21, if you go to Luke 21, which we are familiar with it being the chapter in the Gospel of Luke dealing with the Great Tribulation. But look how this chapter opens up in Luke 21:1-5:
And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones…
And it continues and goes on to describe the destruction of the temple and the fleeing out of the church, the departing out. All of that information is there.
In other words, God placed this particular account, which was historical about this woman and her two mites, in the same chapter that He knew He would open up at the end of time dealing with the Great Tribulation and also with the great multitude that is to be saved. And so I think that this is very significant and I think that Sally has some good points. All of us can look at what we can do, and I think, you know, we can look at that as a fellowship, too.
By the way, just for clarification, this is Delco Fellowship. EBiblefellowship is the website ministry. They are actually two distinct organizations in the sense that, you know, for tax purposes and everything like that. But this is Delco Fellowship and at this fellowship, we can look at what we can do. And also online, on EBible, maybe, you know, we can think of some things. One thing that I was thinking of was putting a link where people could give and it would link to Family Radio for an offering.
But when I heard that, I had the same feeling, the same reaction. You see, they are not stretched to the limit because money has not been coming in and people are not giving. It is because they are carrying the Word as far and as fast as they can, and it is expensive. It is expensive. And so, yes, whatever we can do, we will pray for wisdom in that. Thank you.
2nd Question: Hi Chris. Proverbs 1:25-32. I was just reading these verses this week and something seemed to jump out at me. I was just curious what your comments may be on them. Proverbs 1:25-32.
Chris: Could you narrow it down a little bit? Or what did you notice?
2nd Question (continued): Yes. I was reading through these and it seemed to talk about the Day of Judgment, the 153 days. Like, for instance, in verse 28 where it says:
…they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
That kind of reminds me of Revelation 9:6:
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
It really seemed to tie in to those 153 days where they are going to seek Him and they are not going to find God and so on, but I just wanted to bring that to your attention and maybe encourage all of us to perhaps at look at this.
Chris: Let me read that verse in Proverbs 1:28. Well, let me back up. Proverbs 1:24-28:
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Yes, it does sound like it does relate to that, at first reading.
2nd Question (continued): And then in verse 32.
Chris: Proverbs 1:32 says:
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
It definitely has all of the ingredients.
2nd Question (continued): It sure does. Yes. There is one other verse, too. Isaiah 63:9.
Chris: Isaiah 63:9:
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
2nd Question (continued): I was just focusing on where it says “all the days of old.” That is very similar language to Psalm 74:2, where it speaks about they were “purchased of old.”
Chris: Psalm 74:2:
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance…
Yes. Well, thanks, Fred. I see the direction that you are going in and I will take a look at that.
3rd Question: I am finding it very interesting that there are many chapters in the Old Testament that are talking about the end of time. I have some questions about Isaiah 13. It appears that the Lord is talking about the end of time. I have some questions, if the whole chapter is about the end of time. I have a question in Isaiah 13:17. It sounds like the Medes are a group of people. Is this the battle of Armageddon that He is talking about? And who are these people that He is talking about whom He is going to be the host of?
That is the first question of Isaiah 13, now here is another question that I have. I do not understand why He is bringing up in Isaiah 13:21 and 22 things about these wild creatures that are going to be there. Can you read Isaiah 13:21 and 22 also and explain what these “doleful creatures” are and the “satyrs shall dance there,” and then He is talking about wild beasts and dragons. The whole scenario, it is a very strange chapter.
Chris: I have not studied that, Gloria, but Mr. Camping has recently. It was on yesterday…well, it was recent. You might want to check Family Radio archives. I know that Isaiah 13 is speaking about, in these last verses, that 5-month period, because in verse 10, it says:
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light…
And that is a key phrase. Whenever we read about the sun, moon, and stars, that is after the tribulation. Well, in just about every place, it is after the tribulation, as Matthew 24:29 says:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened…
And so what follows has to do with that 5-month period. Now, each word or as you are referring to it, you really have to check it out with a Concordance. Mr. Camping has recently done that, so I would just refer you to him.
3rd Question (continued): But is there a significance to why He would use these wild creatures, these wild beasts and dragons and all?
Chris: Well, they are unclean, or they were unclean in the Old Testament.
3rd Question (continued): It appears that these are going to be used as a part of torment in that 5-month scenario, by the way that it is read here. To me, these wild animals…it is kind of strange.
Chris: Well, it is similar to Revelation 18:2, where it says:
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Mr. Camping, as far as I know, is recently teaching that Revelation 18 has to do with the 5-month period, where verse 4 says:
…Come out of her, my people…
I am just getting this kind of secondhand, but this refers to the rapture and not the church. So then you can see how Revelation 18 ties in with Isaiah 13.
I am sure that Mr. Camping was studying Isaiah 13. He saw all of these creatures that we find here, and then it came together. But that is just something for all of us to check out, including myself.
3rd Question (continued): It seems interesting that the more and more I read the Scriptures, I am finding just as many pictures of the end in the Old Testament, if not more, than in the New.
Chris: Well, God is amazing. The Lord is amazing. All through history, the Bible was vibrant. It pertained to the life of whatever generation it was in. For the New Testament Church Age, it just was not for them to know the times or seasons or the day or the hour, but it pertained to their period. Then when we got into the Great Tribulation, at first, what really pertained to us was the information about the end of the Church Age. Now we are almost at the 5 months. He cannot open up the information during the 5 months, because His people will not be here. So as we are approaching, He is giving us more insights into that final period.
Well, it is 1:00 P.M., so why do we not stop here and we will close with a hymn.