We turn this morning to Psalm 145. We'll return to Psalm 145 today as we continue to sing the greatness of God here. I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. And I hope that you are, you know, we turn our hearts, I know we get past Thanksgiving and we start thinking about Christmas and all of those things, and I'm sure you are. And I hope that you'll hang in there with us today Maybe you've already been out like I have today in shoveled snow and all that good stuff. So I'll try not to fall asleep if you'll try not to fall asleep and we'll be good, okay? So it'd be really bad if I did, wouldn't it? So, but no, we're excited to be here and we're gonna look today at Psalm 145 and we're gonna talk about verses eight and nine and then a couple other passages in scripture today about this theme to sing the greatness of God's steadfast love. Psalm 145 verses eight and nine. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have given it to us. You have preserved it for us to read today. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who uses your word in a very powerful way in our hearts and lives. God, we seek today not to worship the Bible, but to worship you, the God of the Bible. And so we ask that you would use this in our hearts and our lives today to turn us towards who you are, to show us Jesus Christ who has been given to take away our sins, And we pray that you would help us to leave this place different than we came in because we have heard your truth proclaimed, you have applied it to our hearts and lives, and we have responded in humility and submission to your word. We ask that you would have your way in our hearts, that you would get the honor and the glory for what is said and done here, that I wouldn't get in the way of your work, in your name we pray, amen. Now one of the things that I have learned in life I would say as a parent, but it also is beyond that, just generally being a human being, is this phrase, you should expect the unexpected, right? You think you know what your children are going to say. You think you know what your children are going to do in a situation that comes up, but it turns out you were way off. You think you know how someone will respond to something that comes in their life or what they might do next when faced with a situation, but they go an entirely different direction. When it comes to our almighty and righteous God, whom we've been looking at as we've made our way through this psalm, and we think about God's omnipotence, his power, we think about his righteousness, that he is holy, that he's the standard of that, he is the judge of sin, We might think that God would respond to us in our sin in one way, we are met with an unexpected but welcome reality in this, and that is this, that God doesn't only deal with us just in his righteousness and his omnipotence, but he deals with us who have spurned him with grace. In a verse that we looked at last week when we talked about God's goodness from Psalm 145 in verse six and seven, particularly verse seven there, I mean. When we looked at this verse last, when we talk about God's goodness, we are told there of God proclaiming of himself his own mercy and his steadfast love, right? Exodus chapter 34 and verse six, it says this, the Lord passed before him, that is Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God deals with us according to his steadfast love. This is something that may surprise us, that is something that should make us thankful. In scripture... There was a particular prophet who understood very, very much so. I mean, it wasn't that he was theologically deficient. He was actually a theological expert in the steadfast love of God, in the grace of God, and the mercy of God. But because he knew all these things about God, because he knew God was merciful, and because he knew God was steadfast, and because he knew God was gracious, he actually was extremely bitter at God. And that man's name was Jonah. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach the message of repentance, to call them to turn away from their sin, and I'm not gonna preach a whole message on Jonah, okay? But when that happened, you might know the account there, and he ran away from God, and when he finally ended up in Nineveh, and he finally preached the message of repentance, the people of Nineveh repented. And Moses, Jonah was not excited. In fact, he was very bitter, and he was very angry, and we look at Jonah chapter four in verse two, and it says this. And he prayed to the Lord, that's Jonah, and said, O Lord, is not this what I said when I was in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. Why? For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. So of all the complaints you're going to lodge against God, this doesn't seem like one, does it? There's a lot of things about Jonah that doesn't seem right, right? How could we complain against God because he is merciful, because he is full of steadfast love, because he is gracious? And especially if you consider a guy like Jonah, who himself would be dead in the bottom of the ocean, had God not been steadfast in his love and his mercy and his grace, you kind of scratch your head at this. But the truth is our God is all-powerful. He is the only righteous God. He alone can and does and will judge sin, but our God also deals with us, his creation, according to his steadfast love. And as David continues Psalm 145 in this mighty hymn of praise, he now gives praise to God for his merciful, gracious, and loving nature. And so what we see here today is this, the steadfast love of the Lord provides for our salvation, calling us to place our trust in him and live in him. This salvation that is available in Jesus Christ that we sang about this morning, that we think a lot about this time of year with Christmas coming and we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, this is only available to us because of the steadfast love, and I'm gonna expound on that term here in a minute, help us all understand and be on the same sheet of music there on that. It is only available to us because of that, because God is gracious, because God is merciful. And because of that, he calls for us to trust in him for our salvation from our sin, for the impartation of eternal life, and for us then to live in him, living out these things as well. Just wanna take you to two major points today. The first we find here in verse eight of Psalm 145, and that is the expression of God's steadfast love. David says, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. And so, coming right out of the gate here, we're gonna talk about God's grace and God's mercy. Now, if you remember last time, we wrapped up this section in verse seven, talking about God's goodness last week. David is now expanding upon God's goodness, telling us who God is. We're gonna talk a lot today about things that we often refer to as the attributes of God. Attributes of God are just these statements about God, these characteristics of who God is. They're the definition of his character, they're the definition of who he is and how he deals with us. David declares here that God is merciful and gracious, or gracious and merciful. These are two attributes of God that are very closely related and they work hand in hand to bring us, we who are sinners, close to God. I'm going to take them in the reverse order in which David mentions them here. I want to talk about, first of all, that God is merciful. He is full of mercy. He is the definition of what it means to be merciful. You say, well, that's great. You use that word. What does that mean? Well, mercy, very simply defined, is God not giving to us what we deserve. God not giving to us what we deserve. The mercy of God is important in light of what David has demonstrated us about God's character in the previous verse. In the previous verse, in Psalm 145 and verse seven, when David is talking about what are we singing to the next generation, what is it we're focusing on in God's goodness, we're also focusing on, at the end of verse seven, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. God's righteous nature means that he is the ultimate judge of sin. And we, sitting in this room today, we who hear the words of the scripture, understand then that because we are sinners, we are standing before God in judgment. That's the ultimate end of our lives if we don't have a way around that. Because we cannot get ourselves to God. He, God, who is without sin, is the standard of what is right. He is the giver of the law and the executor of justice. And if that righteousness was not coupled with his mercy, we'd be quickly done away with. We deserve the wrath of God. We deserve his just and right punishment in the timeframe in which he sets forth. But in his mercy, we understand that God does not always judge sin immediately. And I think the word immediately is the important word of that sentence, okay? Make no mistake, God does judge sin. but he doesn't always judge it right away. He is long-suffering and mercifully gives to people time to repent and even bestows good gifts upon us when we are apart from him. And so there is not a single person on this earth who does not experience God's mercy as part of his goodness that is shown towards us. And right along with that is the other thing that David declares. The guy's not only merciful, he is gracious. He is full of grace and gives grace. So mercy is the withholding side. In his mercy, God does not give to us what we deserve, and grace is the bestowment of that, that God gives to us that which we do not deserve. Now both of these terms are going to have great salvific application, which I'm going to flesh out here momentarily. But let's talk generally, that God in his grace bestows his goodness upon us in so many tangible and intangible ways. Now just a few verses earlier, David called for one generation to commend God's works to another, right? Verse four, one generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. He prays God for His wondrous works. He prays Him for the might of His awesome deeds. All of these things are expressions of God's grace in our lives. All of these things that God gives, He graciously gives to us out of the abundance of His riches. God is infinite, so therefore His mercy and His grace are unending. And once again, this grace is an incredible part of His nature that defines how He relates to us. And so instead of just immediately doling out judgment upon our lives, God in his mercy and his grace bestows on us that which we do not deserve. We turn our backs on God and he gives us grace. And this grace and this mercy leads us to understanding and seeing a love that is unlike a love we've ever known. So not only do we see grace and mercy, we see the loyal love of God at the end of verse eight. He says, he is slow to anger, and he is instead abounding in steadfast love. Now we've already talked about this, especially discussing his mercy here, but understanding that he is slow to anger means he is patient and he is long-suffering. He does not respond in unchecked, quick anger. Instead, he shows us his loyal love. David says here that God abounds in, the statement that we have translated in our English is, Steadfast love. Now another word for this, maybe you have it in your Bible in front of you, maybe you've seen it before, is the word lovingkindness. And if you've been with us on Sunday nights for our study of Ruth, this is one of the important themes of the book of Ruth, the lovingkindness of God. Now it is a Hebrew word, when it talks about steadfast love or lovingkindness, that Hebrew word is the word chesed, okay? Don't try to say that five times fast, all right? But it talks of God's covenantal love, to his people. It is a love that has encapsulated within it God's kindness, his loyalty, his faithfulness, his gentleness, his mercy, and his compassion. All of that is bound up in this term, steadfast love, or this idea of loving kindness. It is a love that is voluntarily shown from one who is in a stronger, more powerful position towards one who is in a weaker position. And this steadfast love about which David speaks here in verse eight is the basis for God's covenant with his people. Let me take you through the history, a brief, brief history of the nation of Israel, and let's talk about that. When God made his covenant with Abraham in Genesis that he would make of Abraham a great nation, it was on the basis of God's covenantal steadfast love that that covenant was made, right? There's nothing that Abraham did, It was God coming to him and saying, I'm going to do this. When God continued through Abraham's descendants to fulfill that covenant, even though they were unfaithful to God in his ways, that was a further demonstration of God's steadfast love. When God's people were delivered into slavery in Egypt, as he promised they would be, he delivered them, why? Because of his steadfast love. When God's people forsook God and his ways, when they disobeyed his laws and they rejected his leadership on their way and even into the promised land, it was God's steadfast love that continued to care for his people even while they experienced the consequences of their sin. It was God's steadfast love that brought the nation of Israel through their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, providing food and clothing and protection for them while the generations changed before they could enter into Canaan. And when the people conquered the land of Canaan, God's steadfast love went with them and went before them, bringing them victory after victory. And then you get to the book of Judges and you read that the people failed to conquer the land of Canaan, they left the job undone, and they forsook God many times over those several hundred years in the book of Judges. God's steadfast love continued to preserve his people in their land. So time and again throughout Israel's history, God's steadfast love showed itself strong in the nation of Israel. And as David here now looks back, because that's what all of these authors do while they're writing these things. They're looking back on the history of the nation of Israel, right? And how God has dealt with them. Because again, what God has done in the past informs our trust of him in the present and the future. And David considers all of these things. He boldly and accurately declares that God is abounding in steadfast love. Because if he wasn't, there would be no Israelites, would there? I mean, how many of you are just glad you're not God because when the Israelites said, you know, we wish we'd just die in the wilderness, you say, fine, right? Go ahead, right? We'll just start over. But God didn't do that. And David in his own life experienced God's covenantal steadfast love. He was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse. Yet God chose him to be the king of Israel. God gave to David great victories in battle. He blessed David with a great and mighty kingdom. He made a covenant with David that his descendants would reign on the throne of Israel forever. And years after David, Jeremiah the prophet prophesied in Israel after David's death, and he reflected on God's steadfast love in Lamentations chapter three, verses 22 through 23. The steadfast love, there's that word again, of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. As the hymn writer well said, morning by morning, new mercies I see. We could never exhaust the end of God's steadfast love for us. And what David experienced then, we still experience today. God's steadfast love is demonstrated through his mercy and his grace poured out to us each day, giving to us his best in all things we experience. God's steadfast love raised up the nation of Israel. He delivered them from trouble and sustained them throughout their many failures. And even after the nation of Israel was sent into exile because of their sin, God sustained a remnant of his people and brought them back to their homeland at their appointed time. We read about that again in the Old Testament. And his steadfast love brought them back and preserved them. And then at God's appointed time, his steadfast love sent his own son, Jesus, to earth as God and man. He was born in humility, he lived in perfection of God's law, and he died sacrificially on the cross for our sins. And so God's steadfast love saves from sin all those who trust in him and gives to them eternal life. And even though we stumble, even as believers, and we fall and we fail, God is faithful in his steadfast love to us. Are you thankful that God's love for you and his grace and his mercy to you isn't dependent on you, but it's dependent on him? Because without that, we have no hope. What's more, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is the savior of mankind, okay, you understand he is the human descendant of King David, who wrote this psalm and said, the steadfast love of the Lord, it's abounding, right? He's abounding in that to us. This is the loyal love of the Lord about which David sings. And though we've begun to touch that here, we're gonna see the extent of that now in verse nine, okay? So David tells us in verse eight that God is abounding in steadfast love. That's, again, an important word, right? It doesn't mean there's just a little bit there or there's, you know, you can come to the end, but it is over and abundant above what we need, right? Above what we can ask or think, as the scriptures tell us. And so now we see in verse nine What is the extent of that love? That love has been expressed to us, but what is the extent to which it goes? David says, the Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. So I wanna talk first of all here about the importance of the word all, right? Because that's the important concept of verse nine. It is used, now it's not just used here, it starts in verse nine, but the word all actually becomes an important word from now to the end of Psalm 145. And it's used a couple of different ways. It's used of those who will give praise to God. Okay, so let all give praise to God, right? We'll talk about that in the coming weeks. It's used to describe the extent of God's goodness, that he is good in all things. And it's used here to encompass those who experience the goodness of God in their lives. We are told the extent of God's goodness is that he shows that to all. So all is a very important word to us. And it has a very simple meaning that I was taught growing up. That all means all, that's all all means. You can write that down, don't put my name next to it, put somebody else's name, unknown, okay? God is good to all. Yes, even those who reject God and live in open rebellion against him, to those people, God is good and shows his steadfast love. His mercy is over all that he has made. There is nothing here that God has not made And so therefore, everyone experiences his mercy every day, right? And it says there in verse nine, his mercy is over all that he has made. So you tell me what God hasn't made, and then I'll tell you that's who doesn't experience God's goodness. Well, he made everything. They all experienced God's goodness. But those who know Jesus Christ, in many ways, we have experienced it in a greater level because we have been made again in Jesus Christ, right? What does Paul tell us? We have become a new creation. The old things have passed away, all has become new. And so if you are a believer, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you're a disciple, you're one who's placed your faith in him, you know the mercy and the grace of God in a more personal way than others. And then all is an important word because it leaves man without excuse. And throughout the scriptures, we see the demonstration of all in how God uses his steadfast love. So I wanna spend the balance of our time here today looking across the scriptures here at the demonstration of this all that God shows his goodness, he shows his steadfast love too. So David's made the case here. Okay, God is gracious, God is merciful, he shows the steadfast love, he shows all of these things to all people. And the scriptures reconfirm that throughout their pages. We have, earlier, I just demonstrated to you a very big picture view of the history of Israel to show you that. All these people have experienced this. But I wanna zoom in on a couple other places in the scriptures and see that. I'm gonna spend a lot of time here in the New Testament this morning looking at that. Jesus, when he was admonishing his followers to show godly love to all people, called on the example of God's mercy and his love and his grace shown to all to compel us to do the same. Okay, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is preaching. He says this, in Matthew chapter five, verses 43 through 45, you have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Sorry, I didn't know there's an extra click there. So here's an excellent example of how God shows his goodness to all. God set up the world to work in the way in which he intended. So every day the earth rotates and the sun rises in the east. So in our country, in our county, our country, across the nation here, all over the globe, God causes the sun to rise. But upon whom does the sun rise? Well, the scriptures tell us it rises on the evil and on the good. So each day, there are untold numbers of people who love the Lord, and they seek to follow him in their lives, and they experience the blessing of another day. They enjoy the warmth of the sun, and it reminds them of their blessed Heavenly Father who has given them another day of life. But I ask you, are those the only ones who experience that in their lives? Not the realities and understanding of who God is, but are they the only ones who experience the sun that comes up every day? Well, no. There are far greater numbers of people each day who wake up with the sun and they go out in the world with only one person in mind to please, and that is themselves. They engage in evil and sin, they live in rebellion and darkness, they serve their flesh and Satan. And so the question is, does God cease to show them his grace and his mercy? Does he fail to demonstrate his steadfast love to them? No, they experience what we might call, some have called common grace in their lives every day. That is, that this is just the blessing of God that's been poured out on their lives, whether they acknowledge it or not. What's more, Jesus demonstrates from this passage that they actually benefit from these things. They benefit from God's goodness. As Jesus continues in verse 45, it's not just the son, but he says what at the end of verse 45? He sends the rain on the just and the unjust. So those who practice godly righteousness and those who are adamantly opposed to God, those who love God, who serve him, those who don't, they both experience the blessing of rain. Now, you here, You live in Beaverton, Michigan. There's a lot of farming around here. You probably connect with this a little bit quicker than some of us who are from the city originally, okay? But in Israel, this picture is very clear. This was an agricultural society. These people lived and died by the crops that they grew on their land and the sheep and all these other things. So without rain, they can't grow their crops. So when Jesus says he sends the rain on the just and the unjust, it's like, oh yeah, right? Without these crops, they don't have provisions for their family. They don't have any income. And Jesus says you can't just walk down the road and know who is a friend of God and who is his enemy simply by observing the sun and the rain. The field of the scorner received rain just as much as the field of the wise. This doesn't say anything about these people. Now this is not an invitation. These pastors today are not an invitation to just live in your depravity because God's gonna keep showing you his grace. Instead, these passages today are an incredible statement about our God, that he is so gracious, so merciful, and so loving that he cares for all, even those who reject him and his ways. And so therefore, it leaves all of mankind without excuse. There is not a single person who will stand before God and say, I never experienced your goodness in my life. No one will be able to claim he didn't experience God's grace and his mercy and his love. And then this is also Jesus' call in this passage that those who do know him, who follow him, who have believed in him, are to live in that mercy and love and grace of God towards others. We don't get to decide to whom we show God's love or not. We are called to love even, Jesus said, our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us because of our faith. For we have experienced God's goodness when we didn't deserve it. And we experience it in countless ways each day. And ultimately, that mercy, that love, and that grace of God brought to mankind salvation from sin, even though we didn't deserve it. I'll take you to Romans chapter five here, verses six through eight, to show us this. The writer Paul says, for while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Now, probably if you have gone to the Awana Bible Clubs or you've been around church, you've heard Romans 5.8 a good bit. But the context of Romans 5, verse six through eight is very important. It's made quite clear here in the scriptures that who Jesus died for, and it doesn't fit with any of our own human logic. Christ died for the weak and the ungodly. What is he talking about the weak, the spiritually weak, those who can't do anything for themselves. And that's, we can't. And then he says, for one who is considered righteous or good, those statements, he talks about that in verse seven, these are just synonymous statements, you might find someone who would die for them. They might, by an act of boldness and courage, lay down their lives for someone they consider worthy of their sacrifice. But Jesus gave his life for those who don't deserve it. He died for sinners. He died for the unjust, he died for his enemies, he died for you and me. That's who he's talking about. He swung the door to eternal forgiveness and everlasting life wide open through his final substitutionary death on the cross. And now he offers salvation from sin and eternal life in him to all who trust in him. We continue, I'll show you now Second Timothy chapter two, verses three through six says, this is good and it is pleasing the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. And so what you and I have to come to grips with and understand is this, that you and I are born enemies of God. We are born in need of a Savior. Jesus, as we sang today, was born to die to be your Savior. He is the Savior of all who come to him in faith. This is the greatness of God's steadfast love. He pours out his mercy, his love, and his grace upon you in Jesus Christ. And so if you hear these things today and you have never trusted in the Savior, today is the day to do so. If you are trying to live your life your own way, if you're trying to earn salvation through your own actions, thinking you don't need Jesus, then the truth of the matter is, my friend, you are wrong. You need Jesus, and he calls to you to come to him today. And if you have placed your faith in Jesus, are you filled with thankfulness for his steadfast love? Do you see his hand of goodness, his grace, his mercy that works in your life each and every day? As believers, we should live in resplendent thankfulness for what God has done for us. Our lives should ring with the praises of heaven, giving him the praise with how we live, we should praise him for his goodness and tell others what he has done. We too must live in and live out the goodness of God. God's mercy and his grace and his steadfast love, what they should do is they should motivate us to obey. If we know and we serve a God like this, who is full of mercy, who is full of grace, who is abounding in steadfast love, why wouldn't we want to live according to his ways? The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love, and so let us give ourselves wholly unto him. The steadfast love of the Lord provides for our salvation, calling for us to place our trust in him and to live in him. God's steadfast love is an astounding thing, and it calls for us to sing of his greatness. So really, may God's mercy and grace overwhelm us today and call for the response of our hearts. It is true that God's steadfast love and mercy and grace are poured out on all men. And because of that, We are all beneficiaries of God's goodness each day in our lives. But I want to remind you of something that Pastor Isaiah reminded us of last Sunday night when he preached. He reminded us that if you do not know Christ as your Savior, this world is as good as it gets for you. And you may have a pretty good life here, but it lacks a lot of things, right? We feel the brokenness of the world we live in day after day after day. And if you leave this earth and you pass the eternity without faith in Christ, you need to understand this. That is when you are no longer the recipient of God's steadfast love and his goodness to you. You are then, if you leave this earth without knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are the object of God's wrath and you will receive the just punishment for your sin and spend eternity in torment separated from God, which is our just and right punishment. If you have never trusted Christ, if you have never turned to him, again, I implore you to see the mercy and the grace that is poured out for you on the cross. Do not presume upon God's goodness, but respond to that goodness in faith. And if you have accepted Christ, You already enjoy the wonderful blessings of God's goodness and the bestowment of eternal life. You have been given life in Jesus, the Son of God. That life is in you today and it will be with you in God into eternity. So therefore live out the goodness of God as you live in him today. Live in obedience to his ways and to the praise of his glory and sing of the steadfast love of the Lord now and forever. God's steadfast love doesn't cease. No matter what the world does, or no matter what mankind may throw at God, he continues to display his love. And so I just thought it was fitting today that we close our consideration of these things with the well-known words of a hymn writer, Frederick Lehman, who wrote in his hymn, I'm just gonna give you one stanza. The hymn is called The Love of God, and it says this. When years of time shall pass away, and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, When men who hear refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call, God's love so pure shall still endure, all measureless and strong, redeeming grace to Adam's race, the saints' and angels' song.