Welcome to the Hedgemaker broadcast. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied to the nation of Israel many long years ago. He hath not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge, for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. He also said that the Lord sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none. Hedgemaker Baptist Ministries, located in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is attempting to stand in the gap and make up the hedge in these days of spiritual compromise and theological apostasy. Our biblical and historical Christian heritage challenges us to fill in the gaps left by those who have moved away from their biblical foundations. Listen now as we build up the wall and make up the hedge through sound preaching from God's Holy Word. So let's go to chapter 3 verse 21 this I call to my mind Therefore have I hope Here's what the hope is it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not They the mercies of the Lord are new every morning Great is thy faithfulness the Lord is my portion saith my soul Therefore while I hope in him the Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh Him. So we're going to talk tonight about new mercies. The word for mercies. Interesting Hebrew word. It's the Hebrew word, Kethet. Hebrew has that guttural, kind of like German to it. Kethet. Kethet. It means goodness, kindness, faithfulness. It's translated as mercy 149 times, as kindness 40 times, as loving kindness 30 times. as goodness 12 times, kindly 5 times, merciful 4 times, favor 3 times, good 1 time, goodliness 1 time, pity, reproach, wicked thing all 1 time. So a total of 248 times it's used in the Old Testament mercy. It's the word that's used, classic illustration of it, of David who shows mercy to Mephibosheth. Do you remember the story of Mephibosheth? David and Jonathan became friends. They made a pact with one another that basically they would help the other person's family. Jonathan, of course, was killed in battle and because of this promise, David promised to take care of Jonathan's family. Somewhere in all of that, Mephibosheth was a son of Jonathan, I think, if I remember the story correctly, His nurse picked him up and fell and dropped him and he became lame. And so he's a picture of the sinner or of the lame man. Jesus healed several lame men, lame persons in the New Testament, the picture of we who cannot walk. We need Christ to help us walk. And David calls, I think it was Ziba was the fellow's name, the servant that was in charge of Mephibosheth to come and brings Mephibosheth. It was a practice in those days that when you took over the kingship that you destroyed or somehow disabled the other family members. And so I think Mephibosheth thought, well, David is going to destroy me. And it was because of this promise that David made with Jonathan that he preserved Mephibosheth and exercised loving kindness toward him. And it's a wonderful picture of what Christ has done for us, what God has done for us in Christ, maybe I should say. So we are not worthy of salvation. Mephibosheth, lame, he couldn't do much, and yet David says, I want to preserve you and keep you alive. And so, loving kindness. I wrote down about eight things that describe this mercy from these verses, and let's go through them. First of all, the mercy of the Lord is divine. It is of the Lord's mercy. It's interesting in this book of Lamentations, Jeremiah does not mention the Lord's name until you get here to chapter 3 and verse number 22. First time he mentions it, and you notice it's all caps. And so you recognize that's the name for Jehovah. That's the name of the Lord, the covenant or promise keeping God, the Lord's mercy. So these are divine mercies. God is the source of mercy. You probably remember the difference between mercy and grace. They're kind of flip sides of the same coin. Mercy is God not giving to us what we do deserve. God not giving to us what we do deserve, whereas grace is God giving to us what we don't deserve. What we do deserve is hell because we're sinners. What Israel deserved because of Jeremiah's prophecy was destruction. And God was going to do that and He was going to exercise His wrath because they did not repent. But at the same time, this God is a God of mercy and not giving to Israel everything that she would have. I mean, she would have really deserved complete annihilation. God's not going to do that. He does not completely, totally destroy the entire nation, but saves them alive. In fact, that's what he's saying here. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. We deserve consumption. You know, you hear the world talk, and maybe Christians talk this way too, something bad happens to somebody and we say, well, they don't deserve that. We don't deserve that trouble. What we deserve is consumption. What we deserve is total destruction, whether it's through an accident or anything. Yes, we do deserve everything that comes our way. We used to tell our kids when they were punished at school or even at home, I guess we never really said it when we were at home because we thought we were perfect parents, but when they were punished at school for something and maybe they didn't do it, I said, well, go ahead and take the punishment because you're You're getting punished for something you did do and didn't get caught on. You know, that's the way it is. Sometimes, and I was a boy anyway, that's what they did. They punished the whole class. Now, I never kind of liked that form of discipline, disciplining everybody. Just my personal opinion, I just don't, never did like that. Some think that's a great idea, but that was my personal opinion. I don't like that form of discipline. Punish everybody and then, you know, the guys that didn't do anything, they gang up on me. I just never liked that. I don't see the Lord doing that necessarily, although I do. When there's a bad thing that happens, like a tornado or a flood, Did we do something bad that the Lord is disciplining us? No, I don't think so. So we do experience some of the judgment or punishment of the Lord even when we do what is right. But we never get anything that we don't deserve. It's of the Lord's mercy that we're not consumed. We are utterly sinful. And so whatever we get, we deserve. But anyway, it's the Lord's mercy. So they are divine mercies. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. The second thing I wrote down is that the mercies of God are compassionate. We are not consumed because His compassion. And some of this comes from the meaning of that word, mercy, the Hebrew word chesed. Love, kindness, favor, Goodness, these are all expressions of the compassion of God's mercy. When we think of ourselves as sinners, I mean, we can think of horrible nation of Israel, how they went away from the Lord and worshipped these false idols and all the things that they did, the things that Jeremiah lists in the previous book of Jeremiah. But we are also sinners. The heart being so deceitful above all things. Isn't that Jeremiah? Jeremiah 17. and desperately wicked. So we have that wicked heart. So the Lord is compassionate. We talked about that a little bit this morning when we talked about charity. We ought to have concern and compassion for others. So the Lord has that concern, that compassion for us. Yes, He talks about the wrath of God in chapter 2 of Lamentations. But in the midst of all that wrath, God is a compassionate God. The world doesn't understand that. I think we have a job to preach the wrath of God as well as the compassion of God. You see, the compassion of God, the world wants us to talk about the love of Christ and the New Evangelical wants us to forget about this harsh gospel and just preach about the loving God. Well, that doesn't really mean a whole lot. So you have a loving, mushy God. You can come in and blubber all over Him you know, slobber all over him and hug him, and what good is that, you know? I don't know about you, but I get a little leery about people that are all bubbly and so forth, you know. I don't want you to get mad at me or anything, but it means a little bit more if somebody gets upset with you, and we shouldn't get upset with each other, but if they get upset with you and then they become bubbly, you somehow make it right. Well, that's what happens with us. We're sinners. We're aliens from God. And yet God is a loving, compassionate God. He's not just this bubbly, grandfatherly type Santa Claus, you know? Doesn't he look great? He has hatred for our sin, and yet at the same time, a tremendous compassion for the sinner. That's the God of the Bible. So I think we need to present Him that way, and that's why Paul spends three chapters in the book of Romans talking about how sinful and wicked we are, generating the wrath of God, and yet, Romans 5, 8, "...but God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That's the compassion we're talking about. And so we have this divine mercy, we have compassionate mercy. Alright, the verses also say, "...it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions Fail not. The third thing I wrote down is they're unfailing. The mercies of God are unfailing. You don't have to worry about whether you're going to experience the mercy of God or not. It's unfailing. It's a great God. See, it's all because this is the Lord, Jehovah. He's the promise-keeping God. I think Jeremiah has this in mind. I can't prove that. But I think Jeremiah has this in mind because he's using that covenant-keeping name for the Lord and remembers the covenant. Jeremiah was the one that talked about the new covenant, Jeremiah chapter 31. God's gonna make a new covenant with the nation of Israel. That's one of our new things we'll talk about somewhere along the way in this series. And so Jeremiah understood about this covenant-keeping God, a promise-keeping God that was unfailing. the mercies of God, the compassions of God fail not. And then the next thing I wrote down is that the mercies of God are new. They are new every morning. New. What does new mean? We're looking for a new thing. When we think of something new, it can either be brand new or it can be new to us. Either way, it's something that's fresh. The mercies of God are fresh. They are new. There is a fresh supply of the mercies of God. Even though you might think of the mercies of God being hoarded up in a storehouse somewhere, they don't get old. We don't have to come in every once in a while to God's mercy storehouse and clean it out. And so we've got to get rid of this, like you have to do with your refrigerator. Well, you never have to do that with God's storehouse of mercy. Well, this is old, stale mercy. Let's get rid of it. It never happens that way. It's always new. They are new. And then they are new every morning. I wrote down another word. They're limitless. Every morning they're new. Every morning you can get up and it's a new slate. The mercies of God are there again for today. They'll be there again for tomorrow and the next day. You and I sin. We fail. We are in the place where we should be consumed. But tomorrow when we get up, because of God's mercy, we are not consumed. Aren't you glad about that? Amen. We have another day to live. So they're new. and they're limitless every morning. Similar, I wrote down another thing, be number six, I guess. They're everlasting. And I went with that next phrase. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. I'm thinking about this as a relationship to the Lord. The Lord is who He is. He says, promise keeping God, who is an eternal God. And when God says something, you can take it to the bank. He's an eternal God and what He says is eternal. We have verses that tell us that the Bible is an eternal thing, but great is thy faithfulness. God is faithful. Maybe we could have said faithful. The mercies of God are faithful. You can write that down if you want to. Everlasting. And they're great. Great is thy faithfulness. I don't understand all about this, but as I'm looking at some of the commentaries on these books, I've already mentioned to you the book of Lamentations is a poetic book. Not only do we see these verses written starting with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but a number of these verses will have a poetic device where they have a main phrase and then a shorter, smaller one that encompasses. And I think that's what's happening here in this verse, verse number 23. They are new every morning is the first phrase, and then the smaller one, great is thy faithfulness, is a repetition of the first one, but making it more concise, the context is still the mercy of the Lord, the new mercies of God. And so God is a faithful God, so His mercies are faithful. He's a great God, and so His mercies are great. Great is thy faithfulness. And so the Lord's mercies are new, they're limitless, they're everlasting. And then two more things. We go on beyond the context of those verses. It is of the Lord's mercies, verse 22, that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord, notice again, that's the same Jehovah-keeping God, a promise-keeping God. Jehovah, the Lord, is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in Him. Now here we have a book. It's called Lamentation. The whole book is full of Jeremiah lamenting about the condition of the nation of Israel, the misery of the city of Jerusalem, and as a follow-up, a sequel to the book of Jeremiah, the terrible condition of the nation itself, how they're wicked, sinful people. And you think about all this lamenting, and if that's all there was, it would be depressing. But he has hope. He said in verse number 19 he was remembering his affliction. In verse number 20, my soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This, this remembrance, I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Why? Because we have a promise-keeping God who has divine mercies, compassionate mercies, unfailing mercies, new mercies, limitless mercies, faithful or everlasting mercies. So, number seven, the mercies of the Lord are a cause for hope. A cause for hope. Therefore have I hope. Verse 24, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope, and then the next thing, not only the cause for hope. The mercies of the Lord are the basis of salvation. The basis of salvation. Verse 26, it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. See, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, wasn't just boo-hooing about it, oh man, we're in a terrible state, you people are just horrible. He was looking for restoration. He was looking for this great God who was faithful, who would restore, like He said He would, the things of the former days. Behold, I do a new thing. What are we looking for? What are we hoping for? We haven't seen this in the ten years of the history of Heritage Baptist Church. Well, we want the Lord to do a new thing. We marvel about what the Lord has already done in ten years. We're in a situation. We think it's desperate. And we need the Lord's mercy. He's a great God. He's a faithful God. He's an everlasting God. He's a promise-keeping God. Do we deserve it? Do we deserve a new building? Do we deserve to have $80,000? Do we deserve that other people, other churches should help us with this matter? No. We don't deserve that at all. We don't deserve anything. It's because of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, Heritage Baptist Church. But, because we remember our affliction, and we know we have a great God, we have hope. And we're looking for a new thing. We don't know what it is. Jeremiah knew that God was going to do something for Israel, And he prays, as we already looked in the last chapter, about the Lord restoring those things and turning again, as the way he puts it, the things renewing our days as of old. We want the Lord to do that. There was a time when we had 40 folks at church. Can the Lord do that again? Sure. That and beyond. There was a time when we had probably about 1,800 square feet. Can the Lord provide that again? Yeah. And more. Amen. Can the Lord bless with the finances? And up until this last year, actually up until we planted the church, the Lord had blessed our finances. We hit our, well, I don't think we hit our budget every year, but we increased our budget. And over those years, we had people leave. We went up and down, up until the church plant. That was a big chunk for us. But up until that time, our budget increased every year in spite of folks leaving in the past. We have a great God. The Lord can do that again. We're looking for the Lord to, we've had to reduce our budget now since the church plan, and so we're looking for the Lord to re-do that. Can He do it? Sure, a new thing. Beyond what we ever dreamed of before. I think the highest budget we proposed was, if I remember right, was $72,000 a year. You know, I think back, I realize economy's different, from 10, 12 years ago, but when we were in Dividing Creek and we had a building of our own, I think our budget there was only $60,000. Now, we didn't have to pay money for our building. We didn't have to put out money for that. So, you know, I'm impressed that the Lord did that. We had a budget for a good number of years of $60,000 with fewer people. And so, not that we're comparing churches, but I was just watching that, you know, and the Lord can do it. Alright? And so, we're trusting the Lord to do that. Time measured out my days Life carried me along In my soul I learned to follow God But knew I'd never be so strong I looked hard at this world To learn how heaven should be gained Just to end where I began Where human effort is all in vain Were it not for grace, I can tell you where I'd be. down some pointless road to nowhere. With my salvation untold me, I know how that would go. The battles I would So here is all my praise, expressed with all my heart. Offered to the one who took my place And ran a course I could not start And when he saw in full Just how might his love would part He still went the final mile Between me and heaven So I would not be lost Were it not for grace I can tell you where Wandering down some priceless road to nowhere, With my salvation up to me, I know how that would go. The battles I would face, Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse, I'd sing were it not for rain I can tell you where I'd be One thing down from poison road to nowhere To me, I know how that could go The battles I would face Forever running, but losing your way Were it not for faith The Lord's mercies, new mercies, let's pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity once again to preach the precious Word of God We pray for your blessing as we anticipate the new things that you want to do. We're reminded from the passage tonight that the mercies of God are new. We don't deserve a place to meet at all, but we know that you are a promise-keeping God. You have promised to meet our needs. We believe that this is a need for our church. Father, we can take this and apply it to our areas of life. Individually, as a family, maybe there's some needs that we have as individuals or as families. Your mercies are new every morning. You are an everlasting God. Your faithfulness is great. And you can provide for every need, every thing, and you can do new things. Like Paul said to the Ephesians, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. And so I pray that as we ask for these things, that we will expect you to do great things and trust you for it. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. This is Dr. Lee Hennise, and we want to thank you for listening to the HedgeMaker broadcast today. Most of our broadcasts are portions of a sermon that I have preached the church. HedgeMaker Baptist Ministries is the preaching, teaching, and writing ministry for myself. You can visit us on the web at HedgeMaker.org. And let's be encouraged to stand in the gap and make up the hedge until Jesus comes again.