Amen. It's a blessing to be here. I sure appreciate the hospitality. I listened to a message from Brother Greg on the way here about money. The love of money, the root of all evil, was a wonderful sermon. You know, big money has been trying to destroy fundamentalism. Early Southern Baptists had to deal with it. then they brought in and funded the New Evangelical Movement. And so, I appreciate that message. Let's go to God in prayer and ask for a blessing on the message. Dear Lord, we do thank You for Your mercies. I do pray for Your mercy to preach and in some way make it known, Lord, We do thank You, God, for all of the benefits and blessings. And we do pray You'll meet with us today, individually, corporately. Give us what we need, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. If you look at your notes, if you have them, there's some notes if you don't. The title of the message is, Some Neglected Mercies of God. Some Neglected Mercies of God. It says in Psalms 103, which will be my text, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. I want you to notice, I want you to look at the word forget. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. I want you to think about the word all. Forget not all his benefits. And finally, I want you to realize, forget not all His benefits toward us. So we got a problem today among many Christians, and that is that we, I'm sure all of us, do this to some degree. We forget God's benefits, or at least some of them, that He has for us. Now, who is the psalmist addressing? Well, we get application from it, but directly, he is addressing his soul. He's talking to himself. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He is telling himself, But in the Bible, the soul is the inside of man, but particularly it is that realm of affection, desire, feelings. In the Bible, and commentators all down through history, fundamentalists, literal interpreters, have seen this in the Bible. The soul is the realm of your desires, feelings, and emotions. Now this makes sense that David would say, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Because God wants you, when you're able, to have your feelings engaged in worship. In a good way. It shouldn't all be about feelings. But the point is, feelings are not a bad thing in the Bible. Don't let them lead you. The Bible says don't let them guide you. You've got to guide them. But you cannot guide them directly. You have to guide them indirectly by what you think and what you do, and they tend to follow. So David is pretty much dealing with his realm of feelings, and he's saying, I want you to bless the Lord. I want to feel God. I want to be engaged in my affections. In the Bible, the soul, in Psalms 34, 2, David calls his soul a she, feminine. He says, my soul shall make her boast in the Lord. David talking, my soul shall make her boast. And what that means is it's just a picture, a figure of how to describe this emotional part of David. Now, this emotional part of us is often led by circumstances and experiences. To be discouraged. To have despair. to have vexation, sadness, anxiety. David went through a lot of experiences as you read through the Psalms. He had people lying about him, people falsely accusing him, people persecuting him. He just went through so much and you've got 150 songs about his experiences, many of his experiences. And oftentimes, David talks to himself. Oftentimes, David, he's not insane, he's not crazy, but what he's doing is he's saying, listen, you're not gonna act this way. I want you to be encouraged. You have no right to be sad today when God has been so good. And this is what's happening right now. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Forget not all His benefits. So His mind is speaking to His emotions and He's reminding His emotions of God's benefits toward Him. And we have to do that. Don't just walk around from day to day letting your feelings just go and blow in the wind. Because they're always going to go bad. Just about. They're always going to be bad. And they're going to lead it. It doesn't take much to put you in a bad mood. It doesn't take much to make you sad or anxious or depressed. So in the Bible, you have a spirit. The spirit is the realm of your mind, your intellect. The Bible calls it the candle of the Lord. And whatever you think, whatever you do with your will, will direct your feelings sooner or later. Look at Psalm 42 verse 5. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Again, I want you to notice, why art thou cast down? He's telling himself, why are you sad? Why are you depressed? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. I want to give you an example here. So what we've seen so far is David talks to his emotional life that's pictured as feminine. And he reminds himself of the goodness of God. Are we with me? Alright. Luke chapter one, I want you to see this actually carried out by Mary. In Luke chapter one, Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord. That's present tense. She's saying my feelings right now are engaged about God. But look at the next verse. My spirit, that's my mind, my intellect. Path, that's past tense. Rejoiced in God my Savior. So here's how it works. What you do with your mind will soon have an effect on your feelings. Now if you want to sit here and think bad thoughts, and I'm not talking about the positive thinking movement, you know what I mean, that was basically saying by thinking certain things you can control reality. What I'm telling you is you can control to some degree, a large degree, how you feel by what you think. Which is why if you're going to put a bunch of pollution and sin, and things without hope, just bad stuff before your mind, you're going to start feeling this way, you understand. And you've got a flesh, so it's very easy to feel this way anyway. And so that's why the Bible talks about, watch what you see, what you put before your eyes, what you put before your ears, the people that are around you. It determines, in many ways, how you feel, and what you're going to be in the Lord. They that walk with wise men will be wise, and we've got many scriptures about that. But I want you to see Mary's soul magnified God, her emotional life, because you have leadership of the Spirit, which in the Bible is pictured as the man. So pretty much your body is likened to, you've got a man of the house, you've got the woman of the house, and the leadership And what he does or does not do, what you think with your mind, which is called the candle of the Lord, is going to determine how you feel in many ways. And you don't want to walk around with bad feelings. Because it's a temptation. It's a temptation for you to go off into sin. Now sometimes you have to just do what's right even though your feelings are not engaged. Even though you don't want to do it. Even though your feelings are screaming out for the world. Even though you're depressed. Even though you're full of anxiety. You've got to just go contrary to those no matter what the soul does. Adam gave in, and you see where that got us. See? And it's hard not to give in to the feelings when they're against God. The Bible says it's better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious woman. And I'm going to tell you something. When you're walking around with your feelings, just in a bad mood and against God, tempting you, it's hard not to give in. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, by doing what David's doing right now of encouraging, admonishing in the right way, When Job, in the middle of all of his chaos, in the middle of all of his pain, in the middle of the loss of his children, the loss of family, boils all over him. When his wife began to say, just curse God and die, he said, you speak as a foolish woman. You're speaking like a foolish woman. This isn't like you. In other words, this is what you have to do to yourself. You have got to learn to talk to yourself and basically put your feelings in the right frame. The Bible says the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the parts of the belly. What does this mean? It means your mind, your intellect, The Bible says God will light my candle. He will enlighten my candle. If you walk around with your mind and you're feeding your mind with a bunch of trash, your mind is darkness. Now your feelings, the realm of your soul and emotions are going to be darkness. But if you enlighten your candle with the Word of God and around good people, around good preaching, go to a good church, when you enlighten your mind and remind yourself in the Word of God, now that begins to shine. That begins to shine to your soul and now you begin to feel good. See, you've got to lead yourself to feel good. In other verses that we won't get into, your spirit is said to be the marrow inside your bones. And the bones are said to be your soul, the feminine. The Bible says a broken spirit, your mind, in the wrong way, will dry the bones. See? In the Bible, your bones in your belly, by Dr. Solomon, are the key to health. And science is finding that out, how much your health depends upon your bones and your belly, the bugs in your belly. And all throughout the Bible, we see if you want to have happy bones, you need a spirit that is enlightening, is the marrow Bad thoughts, wrong thoughts, leads to bad feelings. The soul in the Bible, David even calls it his darling. And sometimes you see in the Bible David complaining. He says, my soul is surrounded by lions. It's surrounded by dogs. It's in danger. He's having temptations, feelings. His feelings are raging. And he calls out to God. He encourages himself. He manages himself. Prayer. Talking to yourself with Scripture. Now let me just give you the conclusion of this so far. What you think on, what you focus on, will determine, after a while, not immediately, in a great measure how you feel. and what kind of emotional temptations you experience. Now this just a little bit could change people's lives. People go off to psychologists and get drugs because they don't know what I'm telling you right now. They've never in their life, parents ought to teach children this. You should be learning this every, because you can know it, but it's hard to practice it. But it's just like a toddler, you give it it's way, and it gets down to the ground and starts screaming and crying, and you're going to be like, okay, and what do people say? They say, just go ahead and give it what it wants, okay, I just don't want to listen to this, I can't deal with this right now. And that's what people do with themselves. And you can end up with a brat. You end up with chaos. And then you wonder later, what in the world happened? What happened is people have been trying to tell you your whole life that you've got to learn to train your child. And you've trained your child by teaching it that if it screams loud enough, you'll give it whatever it wants. And people apply the same thing to themselves. If I want something, if I'm in a bad mood, I'm just going to go wherever my feelings direct me No, you've got to learn. Paul says he keeps under his body, which means he does not allow his body to control him. You ought not allow your emotions to control you. You need to direct them. Philippians chapter 4 is about this. Isaiah chapter 26 verse 3 if you look. Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusted in Thee. That's in the King James Bible. And I'm going to tell you, the Bible's saying that peace, that's emotional to a large degree, is an effect of your mind being focused in the right place. Oh, how important it is to get our mind in the right place. Now something we need to notice is David is not stoical. The stoic says that your emotions don't matter. Now they don't matter in the sense that in the end it's not about how you feel but what you think and what you do. But you need to understand that God wants you to give and be compassionate. The Bible speaks of the bowels of compassion. God wants your feelings. He wants you to love Him with your mind and with your emotions and with your body. It's all very important. Now, your soul is like a garden. just like your children in the Bible. And a garden needs to be nourished, watered, attention. And it needs to be trained in the sense of children. In the Bible, the farmer is called the husband man, the husband man. We're told in James that the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and has longed patience for it. Talk to yourself in the right way. Redirect your soul. Encourage your soul. Remind your soul of the promises of God. And don't get me wrong, there was a fellow about to lose it in the Bible. And he said, oh, we saw the angel of the Lord, we're gonna die. And his wife had to come reason with him and say, hey, sweetheart, if he was gonna kill us, he would not have promised us a child. So I'm not telling you, sometimes your emotions can actually be right and lead you in the right way and encourage you because you just wake up, you're just happy in the Lord. You're just happy in the Lord. And it causes your mind to be focused. But never ever Just allow your feelings to take over without discerning from the Bible whether it's right or wrong to follow that particular temptation. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Read the Word of God. Hear the Word. Remind your minds, and this is going to stir up your affections. Philippians chapter 4, think on these things, and then you get the peace that passeth all understanding. Think on these things, it says, and then you get the result in your soul. But notice in Psalms 103, David is reminding himself not to forget all the Lord's benefits. That means don't forget any of them, not one of them. Now, if we walk around in our Christian life and we are not remembering a very important benefit that God has for us, then we're gonna pay a big, big price for forgetting it, okay? Benefit means favors, gifts, blessings. So God is saying, I have some things for you. I hope you don't forget one of them. I hope you take a look here because I've got a box of them. I've got them laid all out for you. I hope you come and take advantage of every one of these benefits I have for you. Each one of us has experienced the mercies of God. Great blessings. And it takes humility and gratitude and being reasonable and sober to remember what God's done for you. None of us remember it to the degree that we should. But God has been so merciful to us that it'll be eternity to actually see what God's done for us. And I don't think we'll ever see it in fullness. God is that good and that merciful and has done so much for you. He says every hair on your head has been numbered. God loves us. It says in Genesis 32, I think it was Jacob, he says, I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which Thou hast shown unto Thy servant. The things that you know. None of us know what we should know and what we could have known if we'd applied ourselves more diligently to study the Bible and be open to what God's teaching us. None of us know what we should know by now. But I tell you, the things that we do know, Praise God. Praise God. We're not worthy of what He has shown us. We are not worthy of the mercies that He has shown us. It says in Nehemiah 9, many times did thou deliver them according to thy mercies. Just read about the children of Israel in the Bible and see the mercies of God toward them. They would disobey, God would punish them, then they would cry out to God and He'd give them mercy. Isn't that wonderful? That we can go to God. Psalms 89, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. Well, it's an important thing for you as a Christian to thank God for His mercy, to sing of His mercy, to remind yourself and your feelings of His mercies. Psalms 106, our fathers, they remember not the multitude of thy mercies. Sit down and say, you know what? I remember when God did this for me. He did this for me. And you're supposed to tell your children. You're supposed to tell people around you. Hey, God did this for me. And you say, Dad, I've already heard about that. I know. I'm going to tell you again. I want you to remember this. I want it to be ingrained. This is what God did for me. Lamentations 3, it is of the Lord's mercies, plural, that we are not consumed. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. Romans 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Paul says, I'm going to argue with you about something. I have something important to tell you on the basis. That word by means on the basis of. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by, on the basis of the mercies of God, because of the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy. acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable servants." Paul is saying, now listen here, God has been so merciful to us and you that you need to present your body. You need to offer your body, your body, and say, Lord, my body is yours. You've been so merciful to me. You bought me with a price. I was a lost sinner. I was dead in trespasses and sins, and you redeemed me. You brought me up. I was headed for the lake of fire for all eternity, and you saved me by your blood. You purchased me. I belong to you, and now I need to glorify you. in my spirit and in my body which belong to you." Paul said this is just reasonable. People say, you expect me to do this? You expect me to obey that commandment? Paul said, you better believe. I expect your whole body to be a sacrifice unto God. Whatever He wants, whatever He commands in that Bible, you should be submitted unto God because of the mercy He has given you. So let's sum this up again. We're to not only understand and remember all the Lord's benefits to us, His mercies, but you are to remember them to such a degree that you feel them. You are to remember His mercies and just have it in your mind to such a degree that, I was talking to a brother on the way here that I just met, and he was talking about all of a sudden just sitting there thinking about God, and he was a grandfather, and he had his little granddaughters, and he was just thinking about God, and he'll get to shouting, and by now his granddaughters, they're used to it. But it was just so wonderful because they're growing up realizing, oh, Grandpa's just a worshiping God. He's just remembering God. And all of a sudden, he just gets this flow in his emotions. And boy, you're just shouting out and singing. And that's an important thing. And there's nothing wrong with that. The early Baptists, they were called shouting Baptists. It wasn't because they were crazy. The Bible said you couldn't... Not the Bible, but the early history And the colony said, you could not pass a Baptist on the street without him giving you a gospel track. It's just, they're shouting, they sing, they're always praising God. And you hear Paul and Silas in jail, and they're singing, and everybody heard what they're doing. The blind man, he was shouting out because he was grateful for the mercy of God. And they tried to get him to hush when he was asking Jesus for it. And I tell you, he just shouted louder, you know? We ought to go to God and cry out to Him and we ought to praise Him. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm telling you that we ought to understand and remember God's mercies to such a degree that you feel them. You feel them. You shout it out in Psalm. This is what David's saying in Psalms 34. I will bless the Lord at all times. That is, even when he doesn't feel like it. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. And then the feelings will eventually be engaged. Because he says, my soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. That is David with his mind is praying God no matter how he feels. But eventually his feelings get engaged too. Praise God for that. Praise God for that. Remember Mary, what she thought with her mind, she soon felt in her soul. You just gotta keep at things. With children, you just gotta keep at things. You just gotta keep training and doing right. And before you know it, you have fruit. And everybody says, how do you get children to do that? Well, I just was consistent. You just gotta be consistent. You gotta be consistent with yourself. But David does more for us back in Psalms 103. He doesn't just tell us not to forget any of the Lord's benefits. He begins to divide them in classes. He organizes them into headings. He begins to list some of these important benefits we better not forget in our Christian life. Let's just go through some of them and see if you've forgotten any of them. It's helpful because we ought to avail ourselves. The Bible says in Hebrews, let us have grace. That means avail yourself of what God has for you in the Christian life. It sure be terrible to forget some of God's benefits and struggle and go through life without it. And the whole time you're going to get at the judgment seat and He's going to say, well I gave you this. It was available. Why didn't you come avail yourself of it? Imagine if your grandfather left you a box and nobody told you what was in it. And you forgot to look. You disrespected your grandfather so much you didn't even look in the box that he left you. And after years, you decided to go to the closet and open that box and you found out I was rich. I had all of this that he had left me and I never even looked in the box. All of this struggling that I went through and I never looked in the box. You had a great inheritance. And some of it your grandfather gave you with no conditions. It was just there for you. Some of it had conditions that you had to do in life to get the rest of the inheritance. But you never looked in the box. You never cared. And that's what the Christian life is in these last days with many Christians. They haven't even looked to see what God's given them. And I'm talking about spiritual blessings. I don't mean a new Corvette, if that's even a thing anymore. I'm talking about things that God has given you that we need, that are precious things. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Now he's gonna begin to list some of them. Number three, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Boy, that's the first benefit, isn't it? Other than just being created. God, you forgave me of my sins. There is a sense, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, He has forgiven you of all your past sins, all your present sins, all your future sins. There is nothing that will ever bar you because you have the perfect righteousness of Christ. Now listen, that has to do with your standing, that has to do with your eternal salvation. But remember when he told the disciples they were washed, but their feet are still going to get dirty. And they need their feet washed. That's a picture of your walk, your feet in the Christian life. So in your walk, even though your sins have all been forgiven as far as your eternal sin debt, your fellowship with God and some other blessings that He has for you beyond just eternal salvation get affected by your sin. 1 John says if you sin, it's going to harm your fellowship with God. And you're not going to have the joy that you could have. You're not going to have the answered prayers that you could have. And then even 1 John says that you're going to be ashamed when He comes, and you're going to be in a lot of trouble, according to the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't lose eternal salvation, but the Lord is going to take care of some business when judgment begins at the house of God. So now I'm understanding. I've got a benefit here, I better not forget. He forgives me of my sins. So I've got to remember what He did for me on the cross in salvation. I don't want to ever forget that I've been saved, He's forgiven me of the eternal debt of sin, and now I owe Him a debt of gratitude and service. But wait a minute, in the Christian life, I've got my Lord Jesus as a high priest, and the Bible says to Christians, come boldly before the throne, that you may find that grace and help, and that mercy is what he's talking about, in time of need. So, 1 John says, confess your sins, and he's just and faithful to forgive you. So your father, in the daily Christian life, the Lord said to believers that this is an example of how you should pray every day. And one of the things he says is, forgive me of my trespasses as I forgive others. Scofield said, I don't know how that could be applied to a Christian. My sin's already been forgiven. Well, it's a shame that that's in the Scofield Bible because this is talking about your Christian wall. He's talking to people already saying, we need forgiveness of sin in our daily Christian life so we can not lose our reward at the judgment seat of Christ, not lose God's fellowship right now in this life, and have our prayers answered. and not walk around in sadness and sorrow because that's what sin is going to bring you. So we have a benefit here. God will forgive all your iniquities. Not only to the sinner that's lost if he will come and believe, but also to the believer every single day. Come to God. David knows about that. David came to God in Psalms 51 and cried out to God and got forgiveness from God. You better do it now before the Lord comes home or before you die or you're going to lose your reward. You're going to lose your kingdom reign. But wait a minute, second benefit. Who healeth all thy diseases. This is Old Testament. That's why many early fundamental Baptists, they walked around anointing each other with oil, praying for each other to be healed. Never forget. Now, if God wants to leave something in you, but Paul, he had some type of affliction and infirmity, and he went to God three times. But God says, I tell you, we're going to leave this on you. Because in your weakness, you're strong. Because my grace is going to be your strength. Fanny Crosby, her blindness was never taken away, but listen to the beautiful song, She Left Us. But I'm telling you, Paul wasn't messing around. Paul said, I'm praying for God to take this affliction away from me. Because you ought to go to God. You ought to ask God for strength and for healing and for blessing. That's a benefit from God. Now, if you have an affliction that God's not taking away or not taking away immediately, I'm not saying you're in sin. I'm not saying, well, you just needed more faith. But I am saying, have you gone to God and asked Him? Have you gone to God and got prayed over? Have you called your pastor and asked him to come and pray over you? I mean, these things are very, very important and sometimes we have not because we ask not. Now, there's a lot of folks that won't obey God. So the Bible said, look not at the wine, but you go off and say, well, I've been drinking alcohol and now I feel terrible, and now my liver's hurting. Well, you've got to quit. Don't just ask God for healing. Stop the foolishness that you're doing in life. I was at a church one time, and the whole church was talking about, well, we've got cancer. Oh, man, diabetes. We've got this. We've got a heart attack. We've got a stroke. We've got this. And the pastor got up and says, is everybody dying? Is everybody here dying? Why is everybody like this? You ought to see what they were eating for lunch. I mean, they all know. Do you realize you shouldn't be eating that? Oh yeah, I know I shouldn't. So that's the kind of mentality we have. We want to go to God and pray for healing, but we don't want to be responsible. You see what I mean? Then it says, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. I believe this looks on to not just this life, but the literal crown at the judgment seat of Christ. Do you know if God says to you, well done thou good and faithful servant, that it's His mercy? He doesn't have to reward us. And every believer that stands at the judgment seat and he says, well, you're going to be one of the ones that come in here to the kingdom. You're going to get to reign because you've been a good and faithful servant. Every believer that knows themselves is going to take that crown off and say, Lord, you've been merciful to me. You've been merciful. Wow. Don't presume on that mercy. Don't presume on that mercy. Don't say, well, I think God will just give me mercy at the judgment seat. Don't presume on it. But at the same time, know that if you get the well done, thou good and faithful servant, God has been merciful to you. People say, I don't care about a reward at the judgment seat. Well, God's commanded you to seek first the kingdom of God. He says, store up treasure in heaven. He said, let no man steal your crown. Jesus wants you because you're going to take that crown and you're going to worship God with it. You're going to lay it down at His feet. You're going to bring honor to Him. Now look at verse five. David says, wait a second, there's still some other things. He forgives you, He heals your diseases when you pray, and sometimes when you don't. He redeems thy life from destruction. How many people can say, boy, I was close, I was almost over a cliff, and God saved me, literally, and spiritual destruction. Some people can look back and say, wow. Remember the psalmist Asaph. He was upset because other people were prospering who were living like sin, living in sin, and he wasn't. And he began to grumble. And he said, my feet almost slipped. God, you saved me. I almost went over a cliff. I was about to backslide in my Christian life because I was getting so mad. All my sacrifice is for you. And it's like you're just ignoring me. But then they're over there living like hell. And look what's happening. They're getting blessed. And he says he went into the sanctuary of God. And he began to think of the children of God, the young people. And he says, you know, if I backslide, I'm going to be a bad example. And God forbid that one young person backslide because of my backslidden state. I'm not going to do this. It's too painful for me to think about that. And then God gave him the light to see. You know, when you go pray, and you get in the Bible, and you go to church, and you hear a sermon, all of a sudden his eyes were open. It's like, you know what? God just fattens them. God just lets these people go off. But they have a day coming. And before you know it, and I've seen it with my own eyes, they're just gone. They're gone. They're just cut down in their sin. And you thought they were getting away with it. They weren't getting away with anything. But sometimes you're this close to destruction and you feel it. He crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercy. And don't forget verse 5, we got another benefit here. Let's see, we got 1, 2, 3, 4. This is the fifth benefit. Who satisfies thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. God not only provides your daily bread when you pray to Him, But God prescribes how to eat in the Bible. The whole Bible is full. The Bible has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And many people don't realize that God blesses your soul in the Bible. God blesses your spirit in the Bible. But He has so much for your body in the Bible. And I wonder, see the Gnosticism came upon all the churches and they said the body doesn't matter and we're just not going to care about what we do in our body. We can sin in the body. God doesn't care. It's all about your spirit. That's what 1 John the epistle is about. This has kind of come over the Christian churches to where they say, it doesn't matter what I do with my body, it's just my spirit. Well, wait, wait, wait a minute. God said love Him with your body, love Him with your strength. And He said bring your body as a living sacrifice. And Paul said that you ought to glorify God in your spirit and in your body, because both of them belong to God. So my point is, is there's a benefit. God says, I got some benefits for your body. I satisfy your mouth with food. and you start reading Song of Solomon that has all these spiritual and prophetic teachings, but all of a sudden you realize, wait a minute, Dr. Solomon that studied all the plants of the world and is inspired by God in this writing, he's given us soul, he's given us a medical manual. Things that Solomon taught, doctors are just now discovering. You can go right now, type in about your bugs, and now they're finding out your bugs in your body are connected to your brain. They're connected to... Solomon said the key's in your body. The key to health is your belly. And they're just finding all of this stuff out. Some of the things we were studying 30 years ago from the Word of God, the King James Bible, they're just now finding out, see. And so you could say, okay, Lord Jesus said an egg is good. Well, all through the 70s they told everybody, egg will kill you, it's got cholesterol. And then all of a sudden they find out, oh well, we were wrong about that. See, I'm just giving you some examples. I could preach a long time on this, but I'm not going to do it. But I'm just giving you some examples, okay? That that book is inspired and you've got so much that God would bless you with in health if you would simply avail yourself. Say, you know what? I'm just going to try to look in the Bible to see if I can find, has anybody ever searched the Bible to see what it says about this subject pertaining to health? And this is why a common person can be so much smarter than a scientist. God uses doctors, don't get me wrong. But I'm just telling you a lot of times, they're not using the Bible. Most of the medical discoveries that are good were by Christian doctors that were looking in the Bible. And they said, I got it from the Bible. How did that fellow find out about germs? A doctor would go and he would deal with these dead people, and then he would go bring forth babies, and all of a sudden everybody would die. And he's like, what in the world is going on? And he discovered the idea that, wait a minute, God said when you touch a dead thing, you've got to wash yourself. He learned that from the Bible. I'm telling you, God wants to give you good things to eat and tell you how to eat that you can have your youth renewed. What is the common sad American diet? Full of inflammatory foods, full of things that are just so filled with poison and they don't bring youth. But you start looking, it's like, well, the Mediterranean diet, wow, it's good for your heart, it's good for inflammation, it's good for all of these things. And the Mediterranean diet isn't even the biblical diet. It's almost the biblical diet, but imagine what we could receive as far as strength and youth and vitality if we would just avail ourselves of this benefit. People say, I don't think food's very important. Well, let me just ask you a question. And the same people will go, they're not going to stick Coca-Cola in their gas tank. See, you're going to say, I can't believe you stuck that Coca-Cola in my gas tank. Now listen to me. This whole world fell because Eve and Adam stuck something in their mouth they shouldn't do so. Now you think about that a minute. The Bible said Sodom was eating and drinking. I might tell you God burned them with fire because of eating something wrong, but I'm telling you they didn't have any fear of God and what they were doing in their life. But let me give you one more thing. Jesus in Luke chapter 21 gives a sermon about the end times and about preparing for the second coming. And he goes through all this stuff about earthquakes and raging waves of the sea and persecution and false prophets. And then he gets to the conclusion of his message. It says, now therefore, since I told you all of this stuff and how bad it's going to be in the end times, therefore, what did he say? He said, I want you to make sure that you don't surf it. What? You're ending your sermon by telling me not to surf it? The Lord says, yeah, because that affects your whole mentality. It affects your mind. It affects your spirit. It affects your soul. Then you look up, I've got to find out what the surfeit means because the Lord, talking about the last days we're living in, said don't surfeit. And then you look up what surfeit means. It means to eat in an unregulated way or to eat unhealthily. That's what it says. That's the definition. So we can say, I don't care about that benefit, I don't care about trying to renew my youth. Hey, if you renew your youth, then you've got more things you can do for God, amen? You've got more blessing to do for God. Paul didn't just walk around with whatever infirmity he had. He said, I went to God three times and asked Him to take this away. Paul says, I don't want to be hindered in any way. Now if somebody's bedridden, they can pray. A lot of the great revivalists said, I had somebody in bed, or I had this old person out in the woods and shouting to God, and they said God just brought revival. Moody said that, Finney said that. So I'm telling you, you can be bedridden and participate, but don't just make yourself bedridden because you've forgotten one of God's benefits. God says, I heal you of diseases, but I also tell you how to eat so you don't get them. And so you can be healed through diet. Now what about this benefit? Verse 8, the Lord is merciful and gracious. Can I show you a few more? Okay, alright. You can say, that's a long-winded preacher. Okay, just let me show you a few more, okay? The Lord is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Aren't you glad of that benefit? I don't mess around with God, but praise Jesus, praise God, He's slow to anger. He's not just sitting here waiting for you to mess up so He can squish you like a bug, but don't mess with Him. Don't presume on Him, but just be thankful for His mercy. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. Aren't you glad about that? I have a book over here about God's anger against sin and the judgment that's coming for Christians. But my book is actually a book of mercy. People say, that's the scariest book, you know. Well, I wanted to write a book after it called, that's the Rod Will God Spare It. I wanted to write a book after it, and I plan to, on the hope of God and the mercy of God. And that's coming, God willing. And even Brother Dixon, he told me one day, he used to call me just about every day, and we loved to talk, and he said to me one day, he said, Brother Joey, it's not just kingdom exclusion. That's the warning side. But what about kingdom inclusion? That God would put this hope of not only saving us in eternity, but giving us this opportunity to reign with Him in a time of reward. It's just as much a message of hope than it is a message of fear. And I'll show you, it says that He will not keep His anger forever. This is talking about believers here, not unbelievers. The Bible says that even if you miss the thousand years and don't get to reign with Jesus, the Bible says at the end of that thousand years, He wipes away every tear from your eyes and says there is no more pain and there's not a single believer that will ever, ever, ever have God's anger upon him or her forever. And that is so wonderful. And you say, well, I don't believe that. Well, what do you believe the warnings say to believers? You only got really two choices. Either they're about the millennial kingdom, and I don't believe the second one is a choice. Or they refer to eternity. And God says he won't keep his anger forever toward a believer. And there's plenty of other scriptures that show, no, you don't lose eternal salvation, but The warnings are there, people. The warnings are there. All throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, the Lord's words are full of warnings to His disciples, to John, to Peter, to James, about the coming Kingdom of God. Verse 11, For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy, and I don't miss this, toward them that fear Him. Now imagine if you're a believer saying, I don't believe God can ever punish me at the judgment seat. I've been saved and bought by the blood. I know you have. Praise God for that. But what about the judgment seat of Christ for reward that has to do with your walk? Oh, I don't have to worry about that. God's just going to crown me and He's going to give me the well done, thou good and faithful servant. I don't have to worry about that. Now wait a minute. So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. You're not fearing God right now. In fact, you're telling God, you can't punish me. You won't ever do anything to me. If you want to not get the mercy of God, one good way to not get it is not fear Him. The qualification, the condition He gives you is to fear Him. And then He's gonna repeat it, just in case you forgot, just in case you don't remember. Verse 13, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that, what? Fear Him. Verse 17, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. We are told that in a very, very special sense, after you're saved, You can come, and if you've done wrong, you can come and be restored by the Lord. But you need to fear Him. Come and say, God, I think I'm in trouble. I know I'm in trouble at the judgment seat of Christ. Lord, if you come right now, I'm in a lot of trouble. I know I can't lose my salvation. I know you've given me eternal life, and you'll never take it away. But Lord, I believe you're going to be very upset with me when you come and judgment begins at the house of God. I think I'm in a lot of trouble." And God there, you said, Paul said, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And he said that we may receive the things done in our body. And then he says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade man. He's talking to believers about the judgment seat of Christ. And Paul said, we, all of us, are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So Paul said, knowing the terror of the Lord, I remind believers, I remind, I've warned you and Paul warned you about it over and over and over about those that do wrong will receive for the wrong they have done, talking about the judgment seat of Christ. So what we need to do is we need to come to God and we need to say, Lord, I believe what Paul said about the judgment seat of Christ. I don't understand it all, but I believe what the Lord Jesus said about the judgment seat of Christ. He talks about some very dangerous thing, and I do not want to receive these things. Lord, I fear you. But go ahead. Just say, oh, God's not going to do any of this to me. That is a bad spirit to be in. That is a dangerous spirit to be in. Let's give a summary. We see the mercy of the Lord in saving us in eternity. Thank You, Jesus. We see the mercy of the Lord in allowing us to come before the throne of mercy in our Christian walk and get cleansing and help in time of need. Thank You, Jesus, that we can go before that throne of mercy. That throne of grace. But I'm telling you that even if He gives you the well done, now good and faithful servant, look what it says in Luke 17, so likewise ye, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded of you, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. God doesn't really technically owe us anything, but in His mercy, He's going to give you a crown. That's such a wonderful thing. And here's what you're going to do if you get that crown. Revelation 4.10, the 420 elders fell down before Him that sat on the throne, worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou has created all things for Thy pleasure. They are and were created. You say, I don't need no crown, really? Yeah, you do. You need one to worship God with. And I tell you, we're going to cast it before His feet if we get one. Thank you, Jesus. He says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. This is true in this age. Sometimes God puts a cloud on you. Sometimes God's angry at you. But when you repent and you start bringing forth fruit and you fear God, He restores you. And you feel that cloud just kind of disappear, and God's so merciful to you. But listen to me now. Those that do miss the millennial kingdom and do not get to reign with the Lord Jesus, it's also true that He's not going to keep His anger forever. Even those that don't take advantage of the throne of grace in this life, Talking about believers, it says in Matthew 5, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. There's things in the Old Testament that are for us today. And if they've been changed in the New Testament, by all means, they've been changed. But there's some stuff that hasn't been changed. Bestiality, that hasn't been changed. Astrology, that hasn't been changed. That's still wrong. Necromancy, that's still wrong. Verse 19, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men, so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. That's the kingdom that heaven establishes on earth. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So the Bible's telling you that the small things will affect you. You say, well, I don't think this is going to bar me from reigning with the Lord Jesus. Well, maybe it won't. The degree that you reign, the degree that you have authority in that kingdom will be affected. The cities that you get to reign over will be affected by your attention to even the small things. There might be a sister that says, no, I'm going to obey this. It's in the Bible. The other sister says, I don't think that really matters all that much. Well, the one that didn't think it mattered, if the other sister's right, will be taking orders from the sister that gave attention to the little thing. And that happens with the Lord often. So, don't forget the big things though. Whatever you do, don't forget the big things. because then you won't even get to enter the coming millennial kingdom. He says in verse 20, I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. He's talking to believers, light of the world, salt of the earth, children of the Father. That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is kingdom exclusion. The Pharisees loved the little things, but neglected the big things. And of course, one of the biggest things is they didn't believe in the Lord Jesus. But the Lord is talking to people that already believe in the Lord Jesus, and He's telling them that don't be like the Pharisees that just concentrated on the little things, but the big commands, like mercy and love and they robbed widows and all of these things, don't be like the Pharisees. They're hypocrites. And Paul gives you a list of things that you will not inherit the kingdom of God for. Fornication, adultery, drunkenness, witchcraft. I mean, he gives you a long list. So what the Lord Jesus says is this, if you keep the big things but not the little, you'll get into the kingdom, but you'll reign low because you didn't pay attention. Remember the Lord said do the outside of the cup and the inside, the big things and the little things. But if you just concentrate on little things like a Pharisee, but not the big things, you're not even gonna enter. You're not even gonna enter the millennial kingdom. We're talking to believers about the millennial kingdom. But remember, even those believers that miss the Millennial Kingdom will one day come out of their banishment. You can read about it in Revelation chapter 20 and 21. 1 Corinthians 3 says, if any man's work shall be burned, that means this man did nothing for the Lord Jesus that was worthy, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. Praise God. God is going to punish, chastise, but not forever. But He does warn you, yet so as by fire. And here's the verse I was talking about, Revelation 21, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away. But I'll even go further. Not only is there mercy with God right now in this life, not only will there be mercy at the end of the millennium for the believers that did not get to reign with God, The Lord, even in the millennium, could be merciful. No believer will come out of the underworld until the thousand years are finished, but notice there is a measured punishment based upon your works. It says in Luke 12, that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. See, he knew. But he that knew not, he could have known, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. You got a homeschooled child, gets saved, raised in a Christian home, has a lot of light. The Lord is going to hold them to a higher standard than somebody that didn't know much about God and didn't get a chance to know much about God. The Lord's still going to hold every believer accountable, but your light determines the degree of your punishment. Matthew 18, it says, His Lord was wroth, He didn't forgive His brother, and delivered Him to the tormentors till He should pay all that was due unto Him. Notice till. And then the Lord says to Peter, James, and John, who He said belongs to Christ. Our Lord says, So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. I see no reason why in the underworld, which has two sides, it has the paradise side and it has the bad side. I see no reason why. I don't want to add to the word of God or take away. I see no reason why the Lord might say, hey, your punishment has been enough. You're still not going to get to reign in the kingdom until afterwards. But, you know, perhaps he lets you go over to the paradise side until the resurrection. I'm just telling you God is merciful, God is just, and if He gave us all, even in our Christian life, what we deserve, my, we couldn't stand before Him at all. I close with just giving you mercy, and there are conditions of mercy in the Christian life. whether we forgive others that seek it from us, and whether we fear God. So I close with these verses. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Please fear God. Please fear God. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Please fear God. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. And again I say, please fear God. Don't bow up and get proud and presumptuous with God. Shall you look at the Lord's warnings and not have fear and trembling? Shall you look at the Lord's warnings and say, well, I believe that's talking about the Jews. He said He's talking to Peter and James and John. You say, well, that's talking about somebody that didn't really believe. He's talking to James. He's talking to John. He's talking to Peter. So He's talking to you. He's talking to you. He's talking to me. We've got to fear God, man. We've got to love God and thank Him for His mercy and then serve God. And we've got an anchor. On one side is fear, the other side is hope. Hope and His mercy. And dear Lord, we do ask that You will please help us not forget these things. Oh Lord, let us read through Psalms 103 where You list these benefits. Where You list these merciful blessings. And let us evaluate our Christian life and see if we forgot maybe one of them, or maybe two, or maybe three, or maybe we forgot your conditions for some of these things. And Lord, let us be forgiving toward those that have wronged us when they ask it, Lord, especially. And Father, let us fear you and turn from sin now while it's called now, while it's called today. We love you, Lord. Jesus' name, amen.