Live in the Fear of God and Remember His Mercy Always

You pull that verse back up while we look at it that we were just looking at for this week for spear 411 or better yet turn in your Bible with me if you could please and let's look at that verse I don't plan to speak on it but the more I speak in churches the more I preach God's word the more I'm afraid to do so or careful and by afraid I don't mean that I'm fearful but very careful because of this verse to speak as the utterances of God I believe he speak talking primarily about the church meetings but I believe it's true about any time you open your mouth you speak to your wife imagine God himself saying those same words this is a command is to do so as one you are commanded to do so husband wife parents speaking to our children when you play on the field how you speak to somebody that you're playing with when you speak to your co-worker you speak to the the grocery store attendant speak as the utterances of God so very powerful word God says when you open your mouth because you're my child because I put my spirit in you there's a way sense in which when you open your mouth make sure you recognize just speaking as if you're speaking the utterances of God and especially get up and preach God's word which is why we are careful with how much speaking we want to have in our meetings and it offends some people people have left this church over the fact that we don't allow visitors to speak and and even the fact that we say two minutes offensive to some people but this is God's word I don't want to stand before God as an elder in this church and God say well you made it easy for them to just say whatever they were thinking and not keep first Peter 4 verse 11 in mind so that's part of the reason why we're very careful when we speak publicly when we speak in a way that's broadcast across the world as well there must be a reverence a carefulness about what we say and but really in every aspect of our life so let's keep that in mind this week think about it what a different marriage we would have different homes we would have his husband's wife's right about as you're about to say that you say okay hold on my memory verse for this week and it's a long one interesting to see how many of us actually make it through this but more than even whether you memorize it let's live it out this week Lord I want to speak if I open my mouth I wanted to be as if you are speaking to my wife Jesus himself this is a secret to a godly marriage we have some powerful memory verses already and sometimes I think if we really got the message of all the memory verses there would be no more need for anything additional to that but that phrase in Romans 8 32 is often blessed me tremendously that he didn't spare his own son oh and even just sitting there listening to it I just like a fresh wave of recognition of God's mercy and what it cost God to show me mercy have you thought about that what did it cost God to show mercy to you wasn't just oh I'm rich in mercy so I can just give you mercy God is rich in mercy but I was such a horrible person that he couldn't just say I'll give you mercy out of my abundance he had to deliver his own son up for me that's how bad I was that's how bad you are were sometimes you can think well yeah God's rich in mercy so of course it's easy for him to forgive my sin I can sin lightly I can speak in a rude way I can be careless with my eyes and lust I can have a bad mood I can just kind of be careless with the way in my life because God is rich in mercy I can always just say please forgive me Lord I slipped up again God is rich in mercy but so easy for us to forget what it cost God for him to be rich in mercy for my sin he who did not spare his own son but freely delivered him up for us that word delivered him up I got this picture some years ago when I was meditating on this verse of devil coming to God with his hand around my neck saying God I've got Santo she's mine but you can have him if you give up your son here's the devil holding my neck and going to God and saying I'll give you Santo if you give me Jesus that's exactly what happened he delivered him up okay devil have Jesus I want Santo back and today I'm his but I never want to forget the exchange that happened that day at Calvary when he delivered him up for my sake and now he'll freely give me all things he says if God was willing to do that if you have you seen that picture I tell you it was such a it was a life-changing moment for me now you could get that picture I hope it blesses you but it's quite a different thing when you get it yourself and it changed the way I my attitude towards sin after I saw that picture in my mind with the devil with his hands around my throat dragging me into heaven and saying give me Jesus you can have Santo back I say Lord now I don't want to take sin lightly I would just be careless towards sin lackadaisical attitude live half for myself and half for you half of this world and half of the kingdom not taken up with the things of God not taken up with the kingdom of heaven not interested in building his church not interested in investing in others not interested in going out and seeking that one sheep that's still lost because yeah I'm okay and we forget what it cost God to win me talk about that some more today but I'd like to turn to second Peter chapter 2 I've been thinking recently it's actually prompted by a conversation some I was having with some brothers some of you a few days ago and around why is it that some people fall away you know is it possible to fall away absolutely read your Bible carefully it's possible to fall away don't believe the lie that exists in much of Western Christendom that you cannot fall away the devil would like for you to think that but it is possible to fall away and there's some verses here in 2nd Peter chapter 2 by the way I think sometime we should do a study of Peter 1st and 2nd Peter it's so rich Ajay was speaking last week even from some verses here and I've been just reading randomly different verses here in the light of what Ajay reminded us of the way Peter fell and that reminder that Peter had and it's just when you see that this is the same Peter you know you tend to think of Peter writing to the churches as the Peter standing on the day of Pentecost full of authority full of the Holy Spirit yes that was true but it was the same man who denied Jesus after saying he wouldn't and after saying everybody else will deny you Lord but I won't and hours later he did exactly what he said he wouldn't do in that moment of temptation he fell and then he at that time thought it was probably over and when I decided to go back to being a fisher fishermen and God was not done with him he's not done with you my dear brother your sister your child no matter where you are in your life God is not done with you if you are alive today that means he's not done with you that's the memory verse we had for this week so some people do fall away you know I've there have been people who have sat in this church I'm not thinking of anyone in particular who have gone so far away from the Lord in their walk people have heard such richness of truth and fallen away and I'm not thinking of anyone in particular I'm not even thinking about how bad they are but I say Lord I want to learn the lesson to make sure that I don't fall away because if others have fallen away if Judas Iscariot himself could fall away and betray Jesus is it possible that I would do the same thing may I ask you a very very simple question if you were the one of twelve one of the twelve disciples is it possible that you would be the Judas Iscariot if you think no no no no I may be a Matthew or even a Peter but I won't be the Judas Iscariot think again now I'm not saying that all of us will fall away but let's take heed and the examples that we have given in scripture are written for our instruction that we can learn from them Peter says in 2nd Peter 2 verse 19 that about people in the Christians who are once upon a time Christian 2nd Peter 2 verse 19 they promise others freedom they speak about freedom they sing the song free at last free at last and all that but they themselves are slaves of corruption secretly they are slaves to sin but in the church meetings they'll sing loud they themselves are slaves of corruption for by what a man is overcome by this he is enslaved if sin is overcoming you they tell you the word of God right here in 2nd Peter 2 verse 19 you are enslaved to sin God doesn't want you to remain that way if you find that you're constantly speaking to your spouse in a particular way you just can't help it or tell you you being overcome by sin you're enslaved to it and you could go on and on with with all the sin that besets us and then he goes on to say if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they've escaped the defilements of the world they've come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior but they are again entangled in the old sins you went back to being that lustful person that angry person that complaining person that person who speaks rudely and harshly and are overcome they're again entangled in them and are overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first it is if I understand this verse correctly and I don't believe I'm wrong in that that this verse is saying it would have been better that you never gave your life to Jesus and were born again having been born again to have a careless attitude towards sin and to go back lightly foolishly carelessly into the old sins it's very serious words for it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the Holy Commandment handed on to them we won't hear these verses in a lot of churches but they're here in God's Word and then he says in verse 22 it has happened to them according to the true proverb a dog returns to its own vomit and a sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire so it's possible to fall away and the thing I've been meditating on the last few days has been why is it that some fall away how can I be sure that I don't fall away but we could look at a few things before we do that first Timothy chapter 6 if we have a careless attitude towards sin towards the calling that we have that the devil will easily rob us of that which God has given us we will easily take for granted the mercy that God has shown on us we easily take for granted the grace we have received a lot of these things will take for granted will have a careless attitude towards life in general the life that we're called to live on this earth and one day wake up to a shock when we stand before God and Paul was mindful of this when he tells Timothy by the way first Timothy if I understand correctly Paul Timothy was in his late 40s about my age not a not a very young man in his late 40s when Paul is writing this to him Timothy has been working with Paul for about 15 years or so from what we know so this isn't Paul telling new believer hey new convert lay hold of eternal life we're going to read first Timothy 6 verse 12 fight the good fight of fight take hold of the eternal life to which you were called would you tell somebody who has been a believer for at least 15 years maybe more and has been working with the greatest Apostle that ever lived I believe Paul was his co-worker in fact not just any co-worker his best co-worker to the church in Philippi Paul says I don't have anybody like Timothy because they all care for their own interests Timothy cares for your interests and the interests of Jesus Christ and to this man who's the best of his Apostles Paul says lay hold of eternal life you might think really what Timothy's got it right everything's good no lay hold of eternal life Timothy and so if you are the most spiritual person in this room you're the most spiritual person listening to this whoever that is we don't know who it is God knows but even to such a person God's Word would say God himself would say lay hold of eternal life wherever you are in the Christian life lay hold of it fight see the active words there it's not a hey sit back and and just kind of make coast through life fight get out your weapon get out your sword know the Word of God be a prayer warrior be active in your Christian life be active in helping others in building up the church be active be active don't be passive otherwise you will fall away be active fight the good fight lay hold take hold of the eternal life to which you were called now we know eternal life Jesus defined it in John 17 verse 3 eternal life is this that they may know the the only true God and his son Jesus whom he has sent John 17 verse 3 so this is eternal life is to know God and when you say laying hold of eternal life there are three aspects of knowing God you could probably think about a lot of different things but I'd like to just focus on three today and the first of that is when you see God when you really get to know him I believe more and more as I've been thinking about this and seeking to know God I believe we will realize that his holiness is much higher than we realize holiness is not just okay I didn't sin I didn't lust with my eyes I didn't go get drunk I didn't get angry that person who cut me off or I was actually pretty nice to my wife this past month and that that's not holiness though that's kind of putting a very low standard of holiness that's saying I didn't do bad things the holiness of God is much much much higher than we realize and if you are not growing in knowing God as holy it's probably another God that you're knowing to God of your imagination the more we truly get to know God the more we realize holiness is a much higher standard than we realize people sometimes write to us or complain about us that we preach to higher standard in this church and I'll tell you honestly I feel like the standard that we preach is not high enough because I don't know God fully yet when I finally get to the place where I know him fully I will realize that his holiness was much much much much greater so and so the first area of knowing God is how do I make sure that I always that that I don't fall away is to always live in the fear of the Lord there's a lot of people that talk about the love of God and I believe God is love because the Bible says he is love he can't not be loved he cannot he's always love he is love he can't not be loved everything he does is full of love but there's a sense in which I believe that one of the things that's missing in Christendom today especially in Western Christendom is a lack of a foundation in the fear of God proverbs 9 verse 10 says that the fear of the Lord is the ABC of wisdom the beginning of wisdom and it's like reading a book about the love of God but I don't know my ABC so I've got this book that's the love of God but I'm just looking at it and imagining that the love of God is certain things when it's not now if I couldn't read and I was just looking at this book and you said hey can you read that from that page page 409 and I can't read I don't know my ABC so I would just make up a bunch of stuff I believe what's going on in a lot of Christendom today is there's a lot of people a lot of preachers who don't know the fear of God that are speaking about the love of God and they don't have the first clue what they're speaking from the book of love of the love of God because they don't know ABC and I'm thankful that I was raised in a church and in a home where I was taught the fear of the Lord you know what it says fathers we ought to do for our children I think the NASB says bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord I think it's a King James that says bring them up in the fear of the Lord my dear brothers and sisters fathers and mothers if you really want to change train your children a right teach them the fear of God the fear of God it will save them in the long run yes it's possible and you might immediately say well they'll become legalistic they'll be afraid of God and all this thing yes that's true but I tell you that unless we start with ABC and knowing the fear of the Lord we will imagine a love of God and a mercy of God that isn't based on the fear of God now what that actually looks like ask God to to show you Lord I want to know what does it mean to fear you Proverbs 23 verse 17 says live in the fear of the Lord all the day long all the day long 24-7 it's one of those 24-7 things that you don't hear about too often you hear about 24-7 rejoicing 1st Thessalonians 5 24-7 prayer 24-7 giving thanks those are easy what about 24-7 living in the fear of the Lord Proverbs 23 verse 17 live in the fear of the Lord all the day long always every moment Lord you're here you're walking alongside me you're seeing you're in my thoughts you're you see my attitudes you see my motives and I tell you when we really live in the fear of the Lord all the day long it will change the way we act and there's a lot of Christians that are trying to change their outward behavior how they speak or how they act or what they do or what they look with their eyes and all that but it's not started with the ABC of living in the fear of the Lord if you turn to Isaiah chapter 6 when when Isaiah saw God you know speaking about knowing God this is what it means to lay hold of eternal life it's important that we make sure that the God we're seeking to know is the God and I don't know what knowledge of God Isaiah had before Isaiah chapter 6 the first five chapters some knowledge of God I mean he was speaking something was good he was you know you could look at his God saying I will reason with you first the Isaiah chapter 1 though your sins are a scholar this is true this is the mercy of God but Isaiah still had not seen God that happens in chapter 6 you know Isaiah 1 is your sins though they be red as red as scarlet they shall be white as snow and though they are red like crimson they would be like wool if you consent and obey you will eat the fruit the the best of the land etc that's chapter 1 but that is all coming from an Isaiah who hasn't yet seen God high and lifted up and then his eyes are opened in chapter 6 in chapter 6 we read in the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple seraphim stood before him stood above him each having six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one called up to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory so when Isaiah finally saw God high and lifted up high lofty the lofty loftiness of God the exalted aspect of God that Isaiah saw he didn't all of a sudden say love love love or mercy mercy mercy yes God is all of these things but his the word he heard clearly was holy holy holy when he saw God high and lifted up all of a sudden he saw God is much holier than he than I thought he was much holier than I thought he was and even you know it says even the seraphim they covered their faces here's our seraphim these are sinless beings they've never sinned never sinned in their whole life they they don't have the capability to sin they don't have free will they're just angel maybe they do have free will I don't know but these seraphim that he's talking about were ones that have never sinned themselves and they're not being tempted but those seraphim who have never sinned when they saw the holiness of God they cover their face let me ask you the more you've gotten to know God has it resulted in a wanting to cover your face and just say Lord I can't even see your holiness I can't I can't gaze on your holiness as easily because I see you are even more holy and that sin that I sort of tend to neglect that attitude or that little bit of pride that's there in me I just sort of have a casual attitude towards I've had a casual attitude towards it now I realize you're so holy and I want to just bury my face in my hands that's what the seraphim did and I believe that must be our response that will be our response when we've truly seen God want to bury our faces say wow Lord I didn't realize you were that holy I didn't realize you had to go through that much suffering for my sake because you're so holy you know here we are thinking well my sin it's pretty bad and then God I see God is up there and the when we get to know God realize wow he's even more holy I realized man you mean you had to come from that distance down for my sake you see how the holiness of God being raised in our understanding causes us to repent causes us to live in the fear of the Lord all the way all the day long so that I don't continue to sin so that I won't go back to that vomit so that I don't go back having been cleansed I don't go back and wallow in that dirt anymore because I've seen God is higher if God is no more holy to me today than he was six months ago I won't tell you you may fall away if God is not more holy in my in my sight that he was six months ago or a year ago I'm probably falling away I'm just getting getting along in life just coasting along yeah you love me so much thank you all the love that sought me all the love that brought me and we sing these songs lightly Psalm 36 wonderful verse here like us to look at Psalm 36 verses 1 and 2 transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart or David was actually saying the literal translation is in my heart David's to read that correctly my understanding of the literal word here is transgression speaks to the ungodly within my heart David is saying even though he's not living in just blatant sin he's he's a man after God's own heart but I believe David saw God a little bit more as holy and it certainly ought to be true about me and some 36 verse 1 ought to be true about my heart that I realize how ungodly I am as a saved redeemed sanctified child of God how ungodly I am because of the that sin that casual attitude I have towards sin does that sin speak to you in your heart before it came out before you spoke to your wife or spoke to your husband or spoke to your children or did that outward thing did the sin in your heart speak to you David had it in the Old Testament a man who was not filled with the Holy Spirit and Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes he will convict you of sin convict you of righteousness and convict your judgment but but there is no fear of God before his eyes so even though this sinner this ungodly man is convicted in his heart and the sin is speaking to him he doesn't have the fear of God in his eyes and so it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hater of it he just feels like well I haven't gotten caught so I'm I'm okay I managed to hide it so far I've been managed to keep it under wraps I'll just continue that way and you read the rest of that Psalm the outcome of that but the key there was that the reason this man was not it didn't really result in change in him was because there was no fear of God even though the sin was convicting him convicting him convicting him if the transgression was speaking to him in his heart long before it came out and then it came out and he still wasn't convicted this is the this is what happens when we don't have the fear of God and one more verse in Proverbs chapter 8 we read here that the fear of God is the fear of the Lord is to hate evil but look at specifically what the writer of Proverbs I believe it Solomon says Proverbs 8 verse 13 the fear of the Lord is to hate evil and what especially what evil he says pride and arrogance pride and arrogance I believe this that if I haven't seen more pride in my life over the last year let's say I think yeah you know I haven't seen I'm not proud if God hasn't shown me my pride more in this last year I'm probably on the on the way to being to falling away the the sure way to fall away is that I no longer see my pride I think I'm pretty humble yeah every now and then I rub people the wrong way that sort of thing but I'm not really that proud I mean proud yeah you know I can think of people in the world those athletes and those politicians and all that but me yeah that means that the humility of God the holiness of God's humility you know the holiness of God includes his humility that is not becoming I'm not seeing it as even higher there is absolutely no pride at all in in Jesus there's no pride at all in God nothing at all that's what caused the highest angel to become the devil and unless that estimation of what the humility of Christ is isn't being raised up even higher I'm probably it's no wonder that I'm still just as proud as I was last year the fear of the Lord is to hate evil especially pride and arrogance and so here for me is a very simple test that I really fear the Lord what does it mean to truly fear the Lord I hate pride if I see even a little bit of a proud attitude towards somebody else then I hate it I recognize that I'm on the way to be to falling away you know I thank God we have our spouses I see that the way in which God shows me my pride the most is in my marriage now Megan's not saying hey you were proud anything like that I'm seeing it it's in my heart and you might say well what did you do are you are you being abusive to her and no none of that's going on in our home but I see pride in my interactions in the home more and more oh this year I've seen so much and I hated brothers and sisters but I tell you I I take some comfort the fact that I see that God is it's the standard is being raised even higher I say Lord I want to continue on that way and I believe that the more you show me my pride the more you will set me free from it but if I am I if I'm in denial about it and I just imagine that there's no pride and God will let me be the fear of God is not there and I'll continue that path so to avoid to make sure that we don't fall away let's always live in the fear of the Lord secondly let's always remember God's mercy to us if you think that God has been merciful to you like I was just saying in the beginning he's been a lot more merciful our verse no let's turn to 2nd Peter chapter 1 our verse for this week also I'll talk about in a second said that really blessed me 2nd Peter 1 we read in verse 4 you know verse 4 through 8 you can say or 4 through 7 is this building up of you know faith moral excellence knowledge self-control perseverance godliness brotherly kindness love it's kind of like a building blocks to build up but he says that if verse 8 2nd Peter 1 verse 8 if these qualities are yours and are increasing then you will be useful and fruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ that's how you're growing check yourselves brothers and sisters let's check ourselves I'm not really growing in these things but what's the one way that he says that you will lack these things so there's two things one is he says make sure you're growing in these things because then you're fruitful so how do I make sure that I'm growing in these things he doesn't say well work hard read your Bible pray do it better grit your teeth try harder no none of those things he says the very simple way to make sure you grow in these things is don't forget your purification from your former sins it's a revelation you know that it's really good I was sitting there listening last week to brother RJ speaking on this and it was really blessed me that that the way to make sure that I'm growing because when I think growing okay you know when you say hey kids you need to grow eat your vegetables work out go you know exercise all these things you say eat healthy or you know that's the earthly way the spiritual way to grow is don't forget how merciful God has been to you you see now how I and I tell you honestly as this week as I've been meditating on it I realize why there were times in my life and there are times that come every now then where I don't not growing spiritually why because I've gotten so far from the sheep that was out there wandering we sang about it in the song I'm the 99 now in the in the fold and Jesus is out there fetching that one that is still out there you know we all know the loved ones that we pray for the ones that are rebellious the ones that are in sin but I forgotten that that was me not that long ago but it's I've gotten far from that I've been enjoying the comfort of the fold so much that I've forgotten that God was merciful to me forgotten the purification for my former sins and this the easiest way to stagnate stagnate just means that I just stopped growing you know what would happen if you stop growing physically and I'm not talking about a height because I've stopped growing in height a long time ago I'm getting shorter actually my spine is curving but I'm talking just growing you know what happened I would die death comes in the moment you stop growing and I'll tell you spiritual death will come in the moment you forget your purification from your former sins it's a sure way to backslide to fall away all of a sudden now you have complaints against others oh this brother's like that this sister's like that or my wife's like this my husband's like that my children are like that my parents are like that my friends are like that my colleagues are like that my neighbors like that forgotten that you were that sheep that Jesus had to go and forgotten what you know Hebrews 12 verse 3 says consider him who has endured such hostility from others think about that phrase for a moment consider that means sit down and just meditate for a little bit how much hostility Jesus had to face when's the last time you went to bed I think that's a good place to consider a couple places I consider one is in the shower and the others when I'm falling asleep or if I wake up in the middle of the night and then often I'll consider as like Lord I want you to show me exactly how much you suffered for me how high was that mountain you had to cross to find me how deep was that thorny valley that you had to cross how wide was that gulf you had to cross for me for me we sang last week seeking for me seeking for me yeah there it's possible to have this God so loved the world mentality that he gave his only son but the moment John 3 16 and Romans 8 32 becomes personal for God so loved Santos that he delivered up his son Jesus for me then all of a sudden I realized God you've been merciful to me I tell you if you ever have a complaint against anybody if you ever have a complaint against anybody I can tell you quite frankly you don't have forgotten how merciful God has been to you you have a complaint against your wife against your husband oh he's like this she's like that complain against another brother oh you know they're not my type or he's got these quirks and you complained against somebody there have been people sitting in this church who have left with complaints vocal complaints and text complaints and email complaints you've forgotten how merciful God has been to them and I've fallen into that myself I tell you I've had complaints in my life and I I hate it now I hate it with such a passion because I say Lord that's how I will I'm guaranteed to backslide and fall away I'll go back to my old vomit because I've forgotten how merciful God has been to me Luke 15 the story of the sheep oftentimes I'll tell you honestly when I read this parable I think of sheep that are out there I think of sons that are out there think of coins that are out there but in the last week I've been thinking reading this parable as myself yeah we know the lost who are still out there we know the sheep that still lost the coins the son the prodigal son but I I want to spend a little time and I want to encourage you to spend a little time dear brother dear sister and even dear child thinking about yourself as the sheep yourself as the son especially if you you know now if you're walking with the Lord you have a good Christian life you're seeking to be to grow up in all respects of salvation but don't forget don't forget the sheep you were now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to him we read in Luke 15 verse 1 both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble saying this man received sinners and eats with them and so he told them this parable saying when what man among you if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it and like we sang in that song this this rhetorical question if you as it were but Lord you have 99 is that enough one yeah you know and then 99% if you got 99% in your test I think you would all say well if your child came back and said dad mom I got 99% my test I think all of us would have been excited maybe a few of us would say what about the one percent you know what happened what was the question you got wrong but you know there's a sense in which 99% was too few for God and he had 99 others and then there was Santosh he says no heaven will not be complete unless Santosh is here that's how he thought about it that's how he thought about me I'm speaking on my behalf but you must see it yourself you must see that Jesus that God saw the heaven would not be complete unless you were there and so he came and it wasn't enough that Abraham was there David was there Joseph all the Old Testament Saints Peter James John you know all of them there all the other godly men think of godly men who have come over the years Saints we read about he's got all of them read the biographies of people like Hudson Taylor CT stud read about godly men like Tozer David Wilkerson and others gone on before us and think Lord isn't heaven you've got such wonderful people he says no I gotta have Santosh too I tell you what that does for me it makes me put my head down in shame because I said Lord there's all those great people that in a sense I might think well of course they did so much for you it was so useful for you they didn't dishonor you the way I've dishonored you Lord and he says no but I want you Santosh I want you this is what caused Jesus to leave his throne above I tell you if the mercy of God and the love of Christ in leaving heaven has not become personal to us if his mercy is not in a personal way where like I said earlier if I was the only sinner Jesus would have still come and I want to live in the light of that reality constantly and I tell you then I will be sure I can be sure that I'll never fall away because every day I'll say Lord thank you that you came for me doesn't matter that you came for that person and that other person whether they respond to your grace or it doesn't matter you came for me and I want to make sure that I lay hold of eternal life and that I don't waste the life that you spent your whole your blood for that I don't just live here and flip my life away and let it just be spent in careless earthly things money and and and success and pleasure and sports and all these things which are all good if God gives it to you that's great but is that what you're investing your life in if so I want to tell you you haven't seen what Jesus had to give up for you and I repent I repented of having missed it for many years and today I want to live more and more with a daily recognition of the mercy of God to me and I tell you I believe with all my heart I haven't seen that what I see of the mercy of God towards me personally is just the tip of the iceberg his mercy towards me and how much he suffered what he had to go through for me is much much greater as long as I live on this earth and as many sermons as I hear about the mercy of God and as many songs I sing about God's mercy this doesn't even come close to how merciful God has been to me even it says his mercies are new every morning you know we sing that easily in that song morning by morning new mercies I see okay if you were to sit and count how many days you've been alive you count the number of years you've lived multiply that by 365 that in itself is a big number even if you're a little kid if you're five years old that's about 1700 times of mercy 1,700 that's just a little five-year-old boy you and I are much older than that us adults that's just morning by morning new mercies and even that is just the tip of the iceberg the mercies that I've seen and the vastness of God's mercy I have not seen and I will not see as long as I'm here on this earth I believe that so let's let's remember the mercies of God and you know like we sang Lord thou has you have 99 aren't they enough for these says no there's Santos has wandered away and I must go and find him a couple chapters later Paul Jesus says this parable about the Pharisee and the publican he says you know you know the story that two men went to pray there was a Pharisee who thought he you know I this Pharisee was also a sinner and before we quickly identify ourselves with the public and let's see if there's Pharisee ism in my heart what is Pharisee ism it's having been gone so I believe this Pharisee was once upon a time a man who recognized his sin and asked Jesus into his heart was forgiven but now and he was working his way towards holiness the best he knew thinking well I need to pray more I need to fast more and now he's gotten to the point where he's doing things pretty well and he's become come quite a ways from that sheep that he was out in the miry clay and so his prayer now is not God be merciful to me the sinner but it's oh I thank you Lord that I'm not like that having forgotten that he was that public and once upon a time he says I thank you Lord that I'm not like that look at me today when you look at your life today dear brothers and dear sisters when you look at your life today do you still see the sinner that Jesus came to save oh I do I do and doesn't mean that I go back to sin doesn't mean that I'll go back and live that way and it doesn't mean that I'm still going back into the old sins I'm not returning to the old vomit but I never want to forget the sinner I was when that Jesus came to say never want to forget it and the prayer of the the the publican was God be merciful to me the sinner you did you see it the sinner there's only one sinner in this world Lord that's me you see how there's no complaint he's not looking at the Pharisee see the Pharisees treat look down on the publicans so he was the public and I'm sure he saw the Pharisee sitting up front and he knows how the Pharisee thinks of him and he's not oh that Pharisee why is he here he says Lord I don't care yeah let him look down on me let him treat me badly but I'm I'm the sinner Lord I am the sinner there's only one sinner in the world today that's me this is the attitude of one who has seen God's mercy it's not the sinner over there the sinners over there the the people who are living the liberals and this and that and the this agenda that agenda no it's God be merciful to me the sinner and this man went home justified this man received forgiveness and mercy and grace the Lord is not slow about his promise as some consider slowness but is long-suffering is patient 2nd Peter 3 verse 9 we memorized this week he's not slow as you might think he's slow you know sometimes you think Lord why didn't you answer sooner you know sometimes we think about God answering prayers quickly it's like Lord I've been praying for this praying for this why didn't you answer why didn't you give me that I prayed for so long and I've come to see thank God he's not fast thank God he's not a speedy God you know what a speedy God would do he would cast me into hell a long time ago a long time ago he would have thrown me into hell that's the speedy God Oh get him out of my sight oh yeah get him on my sight so-and-so sinned yeah throw them into hell they deserve it they sinned and now when I see God slow in responding whether it's for healing for something or answering a particular prayer yeah I say Lord I hope you'll answer in your time but thank you that you are a slow God thank you that you're a slow God because you just were slow and you waited and you waited and you waited I remember years ago when I was a young boy I asked Jesus into my heart because I was taught and I prayed I hope parents that you tell your children the importance of asking Jesus into their heart I received some flack over this people called me a child evangelist and all that stuff which doesn't matter I tell you I don't care what names people call me but I want our children to be in heaven that's a passion of my heart that not one of these children mine and yours that God has given us that not one of them will be lost I have a burden for all of them all of you children I think I'm not the only one I'm not saying in this I'm not the only one I believe all of the adults you see here children want to speak to you for a moment here all of the adults here have a burden for you that you will be a child of God for all eternity that you won't be a part of the world and how the world lives its life that you will know that you can ask Jesus into your heart and receive him in faith and you can say that prayer and it begins in that prayer and then your journey can grow from step to step to step by step by step faith to faith to faith all you will trust God and I'm thankful that my parents now they didn't force me to pray and none of us will force you to pray we'll tell you about it we'll tell you about baptism we'll tell you about growth and Christian things but we'll lay them out there not only by our words before that by our life that you will look at us you ought to be able to look at me and say man Santo seems to be really excited about Jesus I want what he's got have you thought about that parents that your children ought to be able to see that your eyes light up the moment you talk about Jesus and his church and the kingdom of God more than whether the Broncos are winning or whether you got a little promotion in your job or any of those other things Jesus his kingdom oh yeah let's talk about that not in a fake way but in a way that's full of the Holy Spirit where the joy of the Spirit has filled me and Jesus and his kingdom takes up my passion and I want to live my whole life for him whatever I do on this earth and children can see that and they're drawn to that let's be known like that as a church and I'm thankful that I grew up in a home and in a church where I was taught that you can give your life to Jesus however old you are if you're young enough to old enough to understand English I think you're old enough to ask Jesus into your heart not so that you can continue to live for yourself but so that you can begin that journey of living following Jesus and if Jesus was two years old full of the Holy Spirit pleasing his father you can be full of the Holy Spirit pleasing your father at the age of two I believe it so I prayed that prayer years ago when I was a little boy I don't know maybe five or six years old the reason I prayed was because I didn't want to go to hell and that's what I said at the beginning I'm thankful that I was taught the fear of the Lord that a loving merciful God had create had allowed for a place called hell that would be forsaken that's forsaken by him it's the fear of God that taught me that if it was just the love of God and the mercy of God I would have reasoned in my mind and says well how is that loving how is that merciful if there's such a place called hell I thank God that I was taught the fear of God and today I know the love of God I know the mercy of God but it began when I saw hell as a real place and an eternity in hell if I didn't repent of my sins I didn't want to go to hell because it's not a fun place I wanted to go to heaven because it is a fun place was that simple and I asked Jesus into my heart but I would fall into sin I would get angry with my brothers or disobey my parents or secretly tell some lies and things like that and outwardly I had a good reputation because you know Zach Blumenthal he's got to look good people try to put me in a mold and and every time I sinned I would feel like Jesus had left and I had to come back and ask him back into my heart oh you have to ask Jesus back into your heart because you sinned right so you have to ask him back into your heart and but I would do that at night because I thought that in the daytime you know because I thought that God is is waiting to throw me into hell and this was a false understanding of the fear of God which the devil planted into my mind that God is waiting to throw me into hell so at the moment I sinned God's gonna grab me and throw me into hell real quick and so but during the daytime I'm awake and I can you know this is my little child's understanding that I could somehow run away from God or avoid him if he came to throw me into hell I'd go and hide somewhere I'd be ready for him or quick repent of my sins before I got thrown into hell but at night if I'm asleep he might take me while I'm still asleep and throw me into hell what an evil picture of God the devil had painted in my eyes and then I read this verse when I was a teenager the Lord is not slow about his promise as some consider slowness but his long-suffering and I realized that the true God is actually exactly the opposite he's not waiting to throw me into hell he's waiting for one more day that I might repent that all may come to repentance and I was that sheep that had not yet come into repentance and that's why he gave me one more day and said let's wait one more day for Santosh and when I think about the suffering in this world as well you know often people who don't believe in God or have questions and answers how can a loving God allow this suffering to go on without doing something about it here is an answer that has really helped me the reason God does not put an end to the now is because once he does there's no more opportunity for repentance and he's willing to allow his creation to suffer all creation groans it says longing for our the revelation of the sons of God while he hears the groans of creation and the groans of the abused and the groans of the people being molested and sees all of that and it breaks his heart he says but can I wait one more day in case Santosh would repent and in case so-and-so would repent then I will this is the God of mercy that I've come to know and love and say Lord you gave up so much for me he was so long suffering you've even been long suffering with me today you gave me one more day and I'm if Jesus Christ was to come back today I honestly think he might have to throw me into hell I don't know and I'm not saying this lightly and I want to be careful what I say but I'm not yet free of sin there's still carelessness in my sin I want to be freed off and I say Lord will you give me one more day to repent of the sin that is still in in me he who says he has no sin deceives himself John says and so I don't want to fool myself that I'm free of sin yeah Lord take me to heaven if you were to come I would you would welcome me into heaven I believe he would but he will welcome those who have this radical hatred for sin because they're living in the fear of the Lord and I've not forgotten how merciful he's been to us individually children you have a loving father in heaven you have a loving father in him he's not waiting to throw you into hell don't ever let the devil fool you into think that hell is real there are people in hell today and the one cry from hell is give me one more hour to repent and they would not have that hour the one cry from hell is this one more minute even just can you Lord can you get me back I don't want anything else I don't want money I don't want you to heal me just give me one more minute to repent so that I don't have to suffer for eternity in this place that's the cry from hell and thank God that he waited and waited and waited and waited and waited for me and he's waiting for you dear brother dear sister dear child if you haven't yet come to that place God's waiting for you amen