Our scripture reading this morning is Psalm 103. Psalm 103. The text for the sermon is verses 17 and 18. We'll read the entire psalm. Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. 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. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. where the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. So far we read God's holy word in the text again, verses 17 and 18. I'll read that again. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them. You love it in the Lord Jesus Christ, obviously Psalm 103 is a joyful song of praise to God for his mercy. The mercy that the psalmist has experienced in the forgiveness of his own sins. The form for the administration of the Lord's Supper quotes extensively from this psalm with good reason, because the believer has examined himself, has seen his sinful nature, has experienced looking at himself, his sins, his corrupt and vile activity of life, and knows that he deserves God's wrath. knows that he deserves to be cut off from God and cast away eternally. But instead of that, he has experienced God's mercy, his forgiving mercy. And that's why he breaks out into this beautiful song of praise for the mercy of God that forgives him. The psalm indicates that the mercy of God is the cause of gladness for another reason, that is, we are surrounded by death. This is hardly a sad song, it's a joyful song, and yet it's sung by someone who understands the circumstances of their life. And when he looks at what life is like, he says, man is as grass, the grass of the field. That's verse 15 in this psalm. Grass that grows up, soon its beauty fades, soon it withers and dies. Man is like grass. This life is nothing but a continual death. We face sickness. We face diseases, hardships. We experience heartache because of the separation, loss of friends, loss of family, and sometimes the death of one that we love. We are as grass. We fade and die. And death all around us reminds us of the curse, reminds us of the punishment that man brought upon himself by is sin. The text in the face of all of that gives us this reassurance, but the mercy of the Lord, the mercy of Jehovah, Lord, all capital letters is Jehovah. God is not against us. God is not destroying us. God is merciful to us. in this valley of tears. The text is tremendously comforting because it assures us that the mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting upon us, upon us, and then that God's righteousness is upon us, not only, but children and grandchildren the righteousness of God. We and our children are sinners. That's how we're born into this world, fallen in Adam, conceived and born with a corrupt nature. And we need forgiving mercy. We need the mercy that will hold us up through all of this life until finally God takes us unto himself. We need mercy. What hope do parents have as they try to raise a child that is born in sin? As they will face troubles and temptations and one day death itself, what can parents really hope to accomplish? We are as grass and you know that more than anyone. In this auditorium, you are fully aware that we are but grass. So what's our hope? God's mercy. God's mercy. The hope that we have is the title of the sermon this morning, Jehovah's Everlasting Covenantal That's the theme that we consider this morning, Jehovah's everlasting covenantal mercy. So we'll look first of all at the merciful covenant, and then secondly, the gracious blessings, which are too especially the mercy of God from everlasting to everlasting, and the righteousness of God unto children's children. Those are the two gracious blessings. And then thirdly, we will look at God's, the godly participants, and that's especially verse 18. So we examine then God's merciful covenant. Clearly mercy is the dominant theme of the psalm, not only, but of these verses we consider this morning. Mercy is a beautiful attribute of God. You children remember what an attribute is? An attribute is a characteristic that makes someone to be what they are. We all have attributes. People have attributes. And you could look at someone and say, all right, here are his attributes. He's tall. He has red hair. He has blue eyes. Those are all attributes of that man. But you could also say, and he can paint pictures and he's good at math and he's a fast runner. All those are attributes that make that person to be what he is. God has attributes. In fact, the Bible says God is his attributes. And one of his attributes is mercy. That's one of the things that makes God to be what he is. God is merciful. Mercy is closely related to God's love. But whereas in God's love, he draws his people close to himself. Mercy within God is his desire to bless someone, to lift them up higher and make them to be happy and to be blessed. That is mercy, God's determination to lift someone up and to make them to be blessed and happy. The Bible does not define Mercy as such, but there are a number of texts that will show that what I just said is is the case Let's take a an earthly example Genesis 39 21 we read there, but the Lord was with Joseph Joseph is in prison now and Showed him mercy So Joseph has just had the worst day of his life. He has been put into the dungeon of Pharaoh this is a life sentence and locked away in chains, but God had mercy on him. And what was that mercy? And gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. So yes, he's still in prison, but he's not locked away in a cell with chains. He is allowed to move freely. God had mercy on him, lifted him up a bit. Better than that even is Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. And then the Psalm speaks of walking through the valley of the shadow of death. But the last verse you remember is surely goodness and mercy, goodness and mercy, those two things going together shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will be lifted up and dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's mercy. It lifts up and it makes to be blessed. Mercy is an attribute of God, which means God has always been a merciful God. Even apart from the creature, we think of mercy as God giving something to us. And that's true. But God is merciful within himself. Within the Trinity, the three persons of the Trinity were always willing, desiring the highest blessedness of all three persons, living together in the highest blessedness and happiness. And God has done that through all eternity. He is a merciful God even within himself. But now that mercy that God has within himself, desiring his own blessedness, is something that he bestows upon people. Mercy that determines to lift them up and to make them to be blessed, mind you, with the blessedness even that God himself enjoys. Not a mere earthly happiness, but a happiness that will partake of God's own blessedness. That's God's mercy toward his people. We usually think of mercy in connection with misery for good reason. God's misery, rather God's mercy towards misery. People that are sinful are in misery. the misery of sin, the misery of guilt, the misery of the curse of death that is upon the human race. Mercy has two aspects to it. On the one hand, mercy is pity. Mercy is pity. That is, as the psalm earlier said, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. God's mercy is that he looks at his people in their suffering and he pities them. He feels for them. He's not cold and unmoved by their suffering. In a certain sense, he feels sorry for them. God is a God of pity. But the other side of mercy is the activity then of lifting up, and that's translated in verse four of this chapter, loving kindness. That's what God is. In kindness, he then lifts those up who are in misery. He dries the tears. He removes the sorrow and the pain, and he lifts them up to blessedness. The sorrow and the tears are replaced by laughter and rejoicing. Mercy is an essential part of salvation, obviously. According to his mercy, God redeems, delivers from the misery of sin and death. It's illustrated that. amazing work of God delivering Israel from the bondage of their their slavery in Egypt. God heard their cries and in mercy, he came down to them and he delivered Israel from their slavery and brought them ultimately to the land of Canaan. That's a picture, a picture of the greatness of God's mercy in delivering us from the bondage of our sin and death, and at the same time, then, giving us eternal life, life with God. Mercy is a beautiful attribute of God. Mercy is also an integral part of the covenant of God. We've talked about mercy. Let's talk about the covenant. That mercy and the covenant are connected is evident from a number of places in the Bible. Deuteronomy 7, verse 9, for example, know ye therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy. He keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments. Or Psalm 89, we sang a part of that Psalm 89, but not this part. Psalm 89, 29, 28 says, my mercy will I keep for him forevermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him. The him there being Jesus, his own son. My mercy will I keep my covenant shall stand fast with And then one more, Luke, in the New Testament, Luke 1, 72, Zacharias talking about how God was visiting them with his own son, with the Messiah, said God did that to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. They're inseparable. They are connected in the text that we consider this morning too. The mercy of God is from everlasting, verse 17, verse 18, to such as keep his covenant. And the fact that it's the mercy of the Lord, Jehovah, that's his covenant name. The I am that I am never changes. That's his covenant name. God is a covenant God. In fact, the word covenant really describes God's own life within himself, a life of perfect, intimate love and fellowship. The father begetting the son in love, the spirit proceeding from the father to the son, from the son to the father with communications of love. God, God's life is a covenant life of love. And in all of that, of course, the mercy of God is on display, as the Father wills, desires the blessedness of the Son and the Spirit, and all three of them desire the blessedness of each other. That's God's mercy, as we said. But God eternally determined to form a covenant people a people who would live with Him in perfect love and fellowship and share in His covenant life. The covenant that God establishes with his people is not a cold business agreement that God offers a contract and now man signs the contract and a deal is made and now we have a covenant. That's not the covenant. The covenant of God is not something that he just gives out to everybody in the world and says, well, if you fulfill my condition, then I will take you into my covenant. That's not God's covenant. But God's covenant, as we read in the baptism form, Genesis 17, 7, God says, I establish my covenant with thee, with you, Abraham, and with your seed after thee in their generations. Thus, we understand that the covenant with God as his covenant within himself, His covenant with us is a relationship of friendship and of love. God is our God. He loves us. He draws us unto Himself in love. He makes us to be His people. He adopts us as His own children. He recreates us in the image of Jesus. And He dwells with us. In the Old Testament already, God told them, make a tabernacle, later a temple, and I will dwell there right in your midst. He fulfilled that in the New Testament with Jesus coming and dwelling among us. Then after Jesus ascended into heaven, now how is God with us? Well, it's the spirit in Pentecost dwelling in our hearts, making us to be the very temples of God. And eternally, we will dwell with God in his house in covenant fellowship. That's God's covenant. So we've looked at mercy. that attribute of God where God lifts up into a higher level of blessedness. We looked at the covenant where God comes to his people and brings them into his own covenant life through Jesus Christ. Can you see that the covenant and mercy, therefore, are absolutely inseparable? Let me point out four ways that you have to see, we must see. They are intertwined in scripture. First of all, both mercy and the covenant have the same goal. The same goal. Mercy of God is desire to lift his people up to the highest blessedness. The covenant is the way that God does that. Lifts them up out of this life into his own covenant life. That is their blessedness to know his love and to delight in fellowship, to have God call us his children and we call him our father. Mercy and the covenant have the same goal, the greatest blessedness of God's people. Second, Mercy and covenant are inseparably connected with the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. God's mercy in the Old Testament when this psalm was written, God's mercy there was evident in the sacrifices, the blood that had to be shed because of the sins of God's people. And the blood had to be taken even into the most holy place and sprinkled on the mercy seat of the ark. That's the only way they could approach God. But their sacrifices and that sprinkling of blood obviously pointed to Jesus and to His atoning work and how He would one day offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin. There is the misery of God more clearly displayed than anywhere else on the cross. But that is also where the covenant is realized. That's where our adoption is finalized. We are made righteous. We are given the right to live with God in covenant fellowship. The way into the presence of the Father was made open by the cross, the shedding of blood of Jesus Christ. The covenant and mercy have the same goal, the greatest blessedness of the people. The covenant and mercy are inseparably connected with the atoning work of Jesus. Third, both the covenant and mercy are eternal. They are eternal. The text says from everlasting to everlasting. God is merciful. He is that way. He has to be. If He's merciful today, He must ever be that way because He's the unchanging God. His mercy is everlasting. The point is that neither God's mercy nor His covenant are an afterthought. There are those who imagine that God made Adam Put him on the earth and Adam would live here in obedience and maybe even make his way into heaven someday. But that Adam fell and now God has to come up with a new plan. And so he comes up with a covenant of grace and mercy. Not at all. God's mercy was from everlasting. His plan was everlasting that Adam would fall. He knew because his eye was on Jesus, the mediator of the covenant and the way of salvation and mercy through Jesus. It's eternal, his covenant is eternal. He always had Jesus in mind as the mediator and all those who are in Jesus are his covenant people. The mercy of God, the covenant of God, are both eternal in God. The same goal, both of them attached to the atonement, both of them eternal, and then notice, fourthly, that mercy of God is limited to His covenant people. He has mercy on them that fear Him, we read in verse 17. Not on everyone. His mercy is sovereign. It's particular. He said that in Romans 9, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. He decides. And his decision is only those whom I take into my covenant, on them will I have mercy. We'll talk about that more in the third point. But for now, we see that the mercy of God is on His covenant people and on them alone. Merciful covenant. The second thing we look at this morning is God's gracious blessings in that covenant that's the second point of the sermon gracious blessings and there are especially two that we pull out that we see here in this text and the first is that the mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him his mercy Everlasting mercy of God, as we have seen, is is basically our salvation from sin and death and the gift of eternal life lifting us out of this and giving us that. And that mercy is from everlasting. Glorious salvation begins in eternity, and it did because in eternity God chose his people election. In love, God elected his people. He determined who would be the objects of his mercy. As we said, it's not everyone. And again, Romans 9 makes that abundantly plain. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And then he goes on to say, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Doesn't have mercy on them. His mercy is given to those whom he has chosen. Romans 9 is all about predestination, the election of Jacob and not of Esau. But imagine that the mercy of God is upon us from eternity. Before God created the heavens and the earth, before we were born, the mercy of God was upon us, that determination to lift up and to bless. God knew his people eternally determined to make them happy, to share in his own blessedness as a covenant God. From everlasting unto everlasting, there's no end to this mercy. There's no end in sight. This mercy that goes into eternity carries us beyond the grave into eternal life. God has given us eternal life. In fact, we read he has begotten us in mercy. 1 Peter 1, verse 3. We will not perish, though humanly speaking, we are as grass. He has given us a life that cannot die, cannot die. His mercy will be upon us in heaven. Think about that. Again, the determination to bless will be upon us in heaven. He will never get tired of us in heaven. He will never turn against us in heaven. He will only eternally be lifting us higher and higher and higher into greater blessedness. That's His Word. His mercy is unto Everlasting. What does that mean for us now? If His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting, it means there is never a point in your life, never when His mercy is not upon you. It rests upon His people constantly. He has pity in our sorrows, in our sin. He sees us in our sin. He gives us a repentant heart. He turns us, and then He forgives us. Day after day is mercy upon us. It never fails. His lamentation puts it, His mercy is new unto us every morning. every morning. Mercy in our sorrows, in our troubles of life. We are as grass. We have trouble. We have sorrow. The smallest touch can put us on a bed of affliction, cancer, a stroke, heart attack, even a terrible case of the flu. We can be overcome by sorrow. overcome by the death of someone we love, by loneliness, by family troubles. And we all face the certainty of death. But God's mercy is never absent from us. Never. It's a mercy that lifts up. Now understand, You might think, well, then why do I have any misery in my life if God's mercy is upon me? Why don't I, after a couple minutes of trouble or sorrow, why doesn't he quick lift me up? Why doesn't he lift me up even before the troubles come? But understand that the troubles and the sorrows of this life have a purpose. And that's important to remember too. And whatever affliction we have in this life, it's not pointless. There's a purpose to it. God is using that to mold and to shape us for the place he has prepared for us in heaven. And so he brings afflictions and he brings sorrows and troubles into our life exactly to strengthen us spiritually. But his mercy is always there, it's always present, it's always sustaining you so that you do not throw it all away. and rebel against God, it preserves. Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." And then, when he has accomplished what he wants, he lifts us up. In this life, he lifts us up as he did with Joseph, but ultimately, it's the life of heaven. With all of the troubles and afflictions of this life that have worked in exceeding glory, that we can enjoy in heaven. Mercy is upon us from everlasting to everlasting. That's the first blessing. The second is that his righteousness unto children's children, his righteousness is upon us. The mercy is upon them that fear him. His righteousness is upon them that fear him unto children's children. So what is God's righteousness? God's righteousness is another attribute of God. And whereas mercy, whereas mercy is related to God's love, righteousness is related to God's holiness. God is a holy God. He's absolutely perfect. There is no sin, no corruption in Him. The righteousness of God is this, that God, whatever He says or does, whatever He plans, is always in perfect harmony with Himself. The Holy One, the standard of righteousness and goodness. That's what God is. He is the righteous one, always in harmony with his own goodness. That's God's righteousness. Now, this righteousness is upon us. And upon our children, what does that mean? For us to be righteous means that we are right with God. We're right with his law. The law is the standard that shows us the righteousness of God. And to be righteous means I am perfectly in harmony with the law. I have not broken it. I'm innocent of any transgression of the law. That's what it is to be righteous. Now, we are not that. We are not that by nature. We're very unrighteous. The psalmist says that, behold, I was shapen in iniquity. and in sin did my mother conceive me." He's not pointing to his mother's sin. He's saying, this is the way I came into the world, sinful. That's the way we are, not righteous. God made that plain in the Old Testament. You are an unholy people. You need a sacrifice. You bring your lamb to the temple. You put your hand on the head of that lamb, signifying your guilt being put on that animal. And then the animal will be put to death. That's a symbol of the fact that you're unholy. You're unrighteous. But the text amazingly says his righteousness unto children's children upon us, even unto children's children. How does God put righteousness upon us? The answer, of course, is through Jesus. God in the flesh, who offered himself on the cross, took the guilt of his people on himself, and when he paid the wrath of God, his terrible wrath, even unto death, even unto hell itself, Jesus paid for our sins. He satisfied the justice of God so that the guilt that was on Him as it was symbolically imputed to the Lamb in the Old Testament has been put on Jesus and He paid for it. It's gone. But He did more. He perfectly obeyed God. Every Old Testament prophecy He fulfilled. Every law that God put upon Him He obeyed in perfect love. Where Adam broke the law, Jesus kept the law perfectly. And that righteousness, therefore, earned on the cross by satisfying God's justice, earned in his life by his perfect obedience, that righteousness God puts upon us by faith in Jesus. Justified. by faith in Jesus. Sins are forgiven, clothed with perfect righteousness, so that it's as if we never sinned. We have nothing to fear. We are right with God. But now, this blessedness is extended to children and children's children. Because God establishes his covenant with believers and their seed after them. That's Genesis 17, 7. That's what we read in Acts 2, verse 39. The promise is unto you and to your children. God gathers his church in the line of generations. This truth determines how we view our children. That's why we bring them to baptism. because God establishes his covenant with believers and their seed. Therefore, the sign of the covenant must be on that baby. Must be. Why? Because we assume that that baby is regenerated. No. No, God does not promise that. He gives to Jacob and Rebekah, or rather he gives to Isaac and Rebekah Esau, an unbeliever, reprobate. So that's not what we think. I know this child is regenerated. I know this child is elect. No, that's not why we bring a child to baptism, but because we hope that maybe baptism will give them a better chance of being saved. No, God saves his elect. He doesn't save more. He doesn't save fewer. Rather, we bring our children to baptism because God promises to gather his church from our children. He promises to gather his church from the children of believers. We do not need to know whether a child is elect or not. We only need to know that promise. I establish my covenant with believers and their seed. And then we treat the child as a covenant child, not as a pagan unbeliever. We teach them to love God, teach them to fear God and keep His commandments. A covenant child deserves that kind of instruction, and God demands it. What a blessing. God saves. our children. He's not obligated. We don't deserve it. Every father and mother here who's raised children understands it's not because of me if I have a child that believes. If there's even one of the children God gives that is a believer, that's a wonder of grace. And it's really in spite of my work, not because of it. God saves His people. How precious are these blessings, the mercy of God from everlasting to everlasting and His righteousness unto children's children. To whom? Thirdly, godly participants in God's covenant of grace. They are identified in verse 17 as those who fear Him. Those who fear God are those who have reverence for God. And they love him. And they love him so much that they never want to do anything that would offend him, that would make him to be unhappy, disappointed in them. They fear God. And. Verse 18 further explains that to those that keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them. Those who fear God walk in His commandments. They live in covenant fellowship with God. They are walking according to the obligations. There are obligations in the covenant. We read that in the baptism form, the third section. There are obligations. When God establishes His covenant, He expects His people to walk in obedience to Him and to love Him. When they do, this is the evidence of the work of the Spirit in them. No one fears God unless the Holy Spirit works this fear in the heart. Oh, you can pretend that. A person can pretend to be a believer, keep the commandments externally for a time. But genuine fear of reverence and love for God and remembering to keep His commandments, that's the fruit of the Spirit. But it ought to be understood very clearly that those who are believers should cultivate that, that they live in the fear of God, not terror, but reverence and awe. No believer may walk in callous disobedience to the law of God, Those who do will not experience the mercy of God. They will not. So what's the relationship then between experiencing the mercy of God and the walk of obedience, keeping His commandments? It's not that we earn salvation. It's not that we merit God's mercy. We do not earn even a particle of our salvation. God never yet saved a person because he was faithful. That's not what salvation is. It's God's work from beginning to end. He has mercy. He hardens. And therefore it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God finishes His work and there's nothing you and I can do to add to it. Only this He does require of us, that we live out of His work, that we obey Him. How do we explain the relationship then? It's this, in the way of obedience, in the way of godly fear, in the way of keeping His covenant and remembering His commandments to do them, you experience God's mercy. The opposite is also true if a person walks in sin, impenitent, lives in ungodly life, he will not experience mercy. God is not going to say, I forgive you anyway, live as you please. That's not how God works with us. For the ungodly, this is true all of their life and into eternity. But even for a believer who lives in impenitent sin, you cannot expect he's going to experience God's mercy. But in the way of faithfulness. God. Continues his covenant. In succeeding generations, neglect your duties as old Eli. There's our warning. God cuts us off in our generations. So we have a beautiful promise which is an incentive to us as parents to be diligent, diligent, diligent in the instruction of our children. So really we return to the starting point of the sermon. Our hope and confidence is in God for his everlasting covenant and his mercy. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy abundant goodness, for the blessings we have in Jesus Christ, for every good thing that we have is in Him. And we have blessings which we cannot even, we can scarcely imagine. They are so glorious. They reach into eternity. and thou hast brought us up from the pit of hell. We thank thee. Father, we thank thee. Continue thy covenant with us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. We turn to Psalm 103. We will sing from selection D, the fourth selection of 103. The tender love a father has for all his children dear, such love the Lord bestows on them who worship him in fear. Let's sing the stanzas 1, 4, and 5. 1, 4, and 5 of 103B. ♪ Such love the Lord bestows from heav'n ♪ ♪ To worship Him in fear ♪ ♪ Unchanging is the love of God ♪ O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ Their children's children shall rejoice ♪ ♪ To see its righteousness ♪ Come, thou shepherd, be a mighty one, Travel the God of Israel, Lord, be of the best wonders done. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. you