So I wanted to share about something I've been reading. I'm reading through Isaiah and when you're reading the Bible, I'm sure you've all had the same thing happen. And I don't mean any disrespect to the Word of God because every single part of God's Word is important and every single part of God's Word is meaningful and had a purpose to write every single thing His Word. But I was touched with a verse or two and this is where I want to start this talk this morning about. This is found in Isaiah chapter 63 so go there to Isaiah 63 and we can try and look at this verse and then we're also going to a bigger topic. I'm just going to read a couple of verses from Isaiah chapter 63 and then I'll pause and we'll go back. So if we start reading from verse 15, I'll read to the end of the chapter. Okay, so it says there from Isaiah chapter 63 verse 15, look from heaven and see from your habitation, holy and glorious, where I feel and your strength, the yearning of your heart and your mercies toward me. Are they restrained? Doubtless you are our Father. Though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel did not acknowledge us, you, O Lord, are our Father. Our Redeemer everlastingly is your name. O Lord, why have you made us stray from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake the tribes of your inheritance. Your holy people possessed it, but a little while, our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We are like the old over whom you never ruled, those who were never called by your name. So we presented this sort of request or this prayer from these people here who are the Israelites. And it's quite sad, especially in the very last verses where it says that we have become like those of old, those who were never called by your name. I read that and I was quite surprised or quite intrigued by how they could say about themselves. This is where it started but now let's go back and take sort of a bigger picture and see where this chapter and even the chapter after it, what are they talking about? And we're not going to talk about this exactly but I'm sharing this just as context so we understand the context of this passage. So in Isaiah and in chapter 63 The whole of the chapter and the rest of chapter 64 as well is looking ahead to a specific day, the Day of the Lord. If you've heard about the day of the Lord is when the Lord Christ comes again for the second time and he exacts his vengeance on the people, all the nations who are attacking Jerusalem at that time. And in chapter 6 if you read for example verse 3 and 4 it says I have trodden down the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with. For I have trodden them in my anger, and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my robes. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come." So he's talking about that day that he's come to conduct his vengeance on the peoples. And so this is the day of the Lord. You continue on and he then talks about, so sorry, he goes forward to the day of the Lord, which is what we saw in verse three and four, and that starts from verse one all the way to verse six. And then continues and he now goes backward. And so as the same way that he went forward to look at the day of the Lord, he goes backward from seven and he remembers what God has done for them, what God has done for Israel. calls to remembrance is done. In chapter 64 he brings on this repentance and so he calls for Israel to repent because of their sin and what they've done against the Lord. So just before we, like that's more an introduction where we are in Isaiah. But I wanted to give a title maybe to what to look at today and the message. I think you could title it as the incredible God that we have. And I still want to use that title, the incredible God that we have. And I want to use it and I'll explain why. A lot of the times when we read through God's Word, God's Word is talking about things that are, and I'm not exaggerating, but are unbelievable, that don't make sense, that maybe not don't make sense, but don't make sense to a human man. How can someone react? How can someone do this? This isn't normal. This is unbelievable. On our failure, what happens if we read these things day in and day out, if we read the Bible, if we read the Word of God every day, what happens to us, or I'll speak for myself, what happens to me is that you tend to sometimes be numb and cold. These things we read of how there is a God, we were hearing this morning, who has committed universe, created the earth, created the sun and the moon and the plants and the ground and the soil and the water and so many other things that we can't even begin to mention. A God, if we put it in a small statement, is powerful beyond our own understanding. There is a God who is powerful beyond our own understanding. He's created everything. And this God, Also, we read of him as a God of order, a God of justice, a God who doesn't call someone who's done something wrong as, it's okay, we'll sweep it under the carpet. No, but that's wrong, that's sin. A God who is full of justice. This same God, when you read about him and his interactions with everyday people, with the nation of Israel, with His disciples, with us, and the other side of God, if you can say that there is another side of God, His mercy, of His grace, of His kindness to us, of how He is suffering towards us. how patient with us, with our mistakes and our difficulties and you reconcile two things together. Say, well there's a God who's powerful and just, there's a God who is merciful and gracious and I'm just in the middle, I'm benefiting from this. So this word, incredible, is true and we shouldn't skip over it and belittle it. We shouldn't take for granted that this is the God that we have, but it's true. This is the God that we have. Let's look at what we mean by the incredible God that we have. I wanted to read these verses from chapter 63 verse 7. Verses 1 to 6 talk about the day of the Lord. And that's looking to a day in the future. But then the prophet goes back and he says, I want to look at what happened before. I want to remember what God has done with us before. And so we'll read from verse 7. And I'm going to make a couple of comments as we read these verses. I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us and the great good towards us of Israel which he has bestowed on them according to the multitude of his loving-kindness. For he said, Surely they are my people, children who will not lie. So he became the Savior. In all their affliction he was arrested, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bore them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit, so he turned himself against them as an enemy, and he fought against them. He remembered the days of old, Moses and his people saying, Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put the Holy Spirit within them, who led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make for himself and us shame? who led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness that they might not stumble as it goes down into the valley and the spirit of the Lord so you lead your people to make yourself a glorious name. Before we talk about these verses, I want to go back to what I was saying before which was These verses which said at the end of the chapter, we come like those over whom you never ruled, those who were never called by your name. If we just stop and think about what is being said here. Israel is coming to God and they're saying, But because of our sin, because of what we've done against you, you've distanced yourself from us and we feel like we've become those who you never ruled, those who were never called by your name. And just two simple thoughts that I wanted to think about was, what does it mean maybe when it says we've become like those over whom you never ruled? People who were never ruled or people don't have no, first example, no leadership, no guidance. That's one of the first things we can look at. And if we look at a state of a people with no leadership and no guidance, I was just thinking about it this morning. Some of the things you can remember, for example, when the people of Israel decided not to obey God, And they didn't obey God when He told them, I've given you this land, you can go and you can conquer it. And they didn't believe. And it says in the book of Hebrews later on that for belief, you know, they were judged. But what happened? They got upset and they repented. They tried to repent, sorry. But oh well, we'll give it a shot even though we've sinned to God and we didn't believe Him. And they went to try and take the land of Jericho and were defeated. They were defeated and they were very humbled. Or for example, if you think of the second part, which was those who were never called by your name. who didn't have the association of God or of the Lord with them, who didn't enjoy God's action. You could probably think about people like people in the days of Noah. People, for example, who all perished and died in a flood because they didn't have the favor of God, because they weren't his. And so he kept Noah and his family in the boat, everyone else out. Or, for example, the Egyptians tried to catch the Israelites and they fell into the water in the Red Sea. God's protection and favour wasn't on them and they all died in the water. Or even someone, for example, like Samson, who was wrong beyond comprehension. And when he disobeyed God and he told the secret of strength to God and his hair was cut, God's protection in a way or God's favor on him was sort of removed for a time being. Read that he was like an animal grinding in the meantime. Or even if you think one last example, but the people of Israel in the time of Balaam, when Balaam advised the king and said, these people, their protection, God is protecting them. The only way that you can remove God's protection and conquer them is by causing them to sin. And so he devised the plan, he sinned, and the king wasn't able to conquer them for that period. And so this expression that you have is a very sad and very sad state for people who are never ruled or have this sense and feeling of themselves. This is Israel talking about themselves who feel like they were never ruled by God or those who were never called by his name. Putting that to the side, let's go and take a look at this. The first thing that I wanted to look at is in verse 7. In verse 7 he recounts all of this wondrous kindness that God has shown to his people. Goodness that he has shown on the house of Israel, how he was merciful, how he was loving, all that he bestowed on them. God is he described he himself in a description as let's read this verse and I'll explain it he says in verse 8 for he said so this is talking about God and this is God yes God he said surely they are my people children who will not lie became their Savior this is God talking about himself he portrays himself as someone who He knows the end from the beginning, although it's everything. He portrays himself as, I've come to these people, these Israelites, saying, I know, there can't be any other way, but I'm sure that they're going to love me. I'm sure they're going to follow me. I'm sure that they're going to be loyal to me. And so he said, surely they are my people, children who lie, children who go away or disobey me. And so he became their saviour. I became their saviour. I became their saviours. Surely they won't disobey me. They won't do wrong against me. Surely they won't. They are children who lie, so I've become their saviour. He goes and he talks about what that means when he says he became their saviour. He said in all affliction he was afflicted. The Bible talks in great lengths about the affliction of Israel. The Israelites as we know are a people who We're loyal to God and we're disloyal to God. So many times. And you read that a lot through the book of Judges. You read how many judges there are in that time. And it's the same pattern. A judge comes or the people are crying out to God and saying, Lord, save us. We're in distress. The enemy is hard against us. And they repent and the Lord sends a judge and they're saved. They enjoy a couple of good years and they forget what God's done for them and the enemy starts attacking and they cry out to God saying, Lord save me. One of the instances, I'll just read it for you. Chapter 10. I want you to pay attention to this verse. In verse, sorry, just a second, I'll just bring it up myself. Judges in verse 15, we'll read there, just these two verses. It says, and the children of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do us whatever seems best to you. Only deliver us this day, we pray. So they put away the foreigners among them and served the Lord. And talking about the Lord, it says, his soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. Talking about himself, he says, I no longer endure the misery of it. And so when it says he was afflicted, it's true. God's soul was moved, God's affected by the misery of his people. So much so that, as we read, his soul could no longer endure the misery of his people. And so you think about this God, a God, although his power above us, who is touched, just as we read about the Lord Jesus Christ, touch feeling of our infirmities. And so he was afflicted in their affliction. And the angel of his presence saved them. How many times do we read that? He saved them. And then it says, moving forward, in his love and his people he named them and he bore them and carried them all the days of old. And I wanted to say again just because like I said in the Bible when we read magnificent things we skip over and we say oh yes right yes we know God loves us we know God's mercy is great God's gracious beyond that but try and think about it try and remember that Bible isn't the books that we have that are worldly, which you have concepts like over exaggeration, exaggeration of people, exaggeration so we can make this image seem more than it is. But it's there clearly. And he told them and carried them, not just one day, two, three days a week, couple months every year. And they had some difficulties. He said, all the days of old. He called them, He carried them, He was with them every single day. All the days that they were in distress, all those days that they had difficulties in spite of their own lack, that they would foolishly turn away from a God who loves them, a God who's powerful, who's told them what to do and what not to do. He would still carry them. So you read these verses of God's mercy. Let's read just very quickly. It says loving kindness of the Lord, His great goodness toward the house of Israel, His mercies, again the multitude of His loving kindness. And then you read in verse 9 where He said He'd saved them, He redeemed them, He bore them and buried them. But then you come to this next verse in verse 10. He just stops and says, but. And it says, but they rebelled against His Holy Spirit. And so you think, well, wait, did something happen? Did things change? Like, why? That's such a thing to start the next verse with. But we've just recounted the loving kindness and the mercy and righteousness of God, how He saved them. He redeemed them. Even in their depression, He was afflicted. But then it just says, but they rebelled against His Holy Spirit. That's what we did, and no surprise to us. But this talks about our interaction with God as well. We have the Word of God and we know what He wants us to do and how He wants us to live our life and what we should do and what we shouldn't do. And God's loving kindness is displayed and for us to take His righteousness and His mercy. But many times we rebel and grieve His Spirit. And so it says that he turned himself against them and he fought against them. God is describing who he is and praising God doesn't change based on who we are or our actions. Remember when I was saying in verse 8, he said, Surely they are my people, children who will not lie. He became a saviour. He said, surely I know these people. It's like He's coming and saying, I know that these people, they couldn't, they wouldn't, wouldn't turn away from me. They won't lie. They'll be true. They'll be loyal to me. I'm going to become their Savior. He presents himself in this way, but the Lord knows the end from the beginning. The Lord knows what we're going to do before we do it. He knows how many times we're going to disappoint Him, how many times we're going to betray Him. And yet, He shows His kindness and His mercy towards us and just to state the obvious, us as human beings, we're not like this. If I know that someone I want to show great favour towards, someone who I want to show such love and great mercy and just Like I said, a favour that's not natural towards. If I know that this person is going to, in the same words of the Bible, rebel and grieve me, would I go and show this favour before it happens? Honestly say, I wouldn't do that. I would find that very hard. But this is God. This is the character of, like I said, an incredible God that reacts and acts in a way that isn't the same as us. And you can read this elsewhere. I'm going to read just a couple of verses from Psalm 78. In Psalm 78, the title that I have for the sermon, if you have a title as well in your Bible, it says, God's kindness to Israel. I'm going to read a couple of verses from verse 12 to 20. He says there, Marvellous things he did in the sight of their fathers. In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zohan, he divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and he made the waters stand up like a heap. In the daytime also he led them with the flood, and all the night with a light of fire. He cut the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like this. He also cut straight out of the rock, and caused it to run down like rivers. but they even against him. By rebelling against high in the wilderness and they test God in their heart, asking food of their fancy. Yes, they spoke against God. They can God prepare a table in the wilderness. Old, he struck the rock so that the water stout and the streams overflowed. He give bread or can he provide meat for his people? Read these passages, God's kindness. It's far beyond our own understanding and the people's, in a way, maybe response to God's amazing calling. It says there just the same as well, that they sinned even more against Him. This just goes to show how amazing and beautiful, how gracious, how merciful our God is and Just to sort of, in Isaiah 63, I'll read some verses as well in the New Testament quickly. But Israel, in a way, in verse 11, I'm going to read this as quickly and then move to the New Testament. You will notice You notice when it says, then he, you see it's not capitalized, talking now, not about God, it's talking about Israel. Israel is about himself and he's saying, then he remembered the days of old. Where is he, God, who brought him up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Is he God again, who put his Holy Spirit within them? who led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the world before them, to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the deep, a force in the wilderness, that they might not stumble as a beast goes down into the valley, and the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest. So you lead your people, so you make yourself a glorious name. As I was reading these verses, you see at least three times It says that God is still or that God is leading in verse says who led them at the end of Moses it's 13 again who led through the deep and in verse 14 still Leading his people. So you lead your people and Sorry one last comment before we move from this to the next to to the New Testament is that In these verses from verse 7 all the way to the end of verse 18, you'll see that God is revealed in the Trinity here as one who is saving his people. Where it says for example in verse 18, I'll mention the loving kindness of the Lord, the Lord there, for the Lord is God. Then we read the verse in verse 9 where it says, And the angel of his presence saved them. That is talking about the Lord Jesus. And then lastly in verse 14 where it says, And the Spirit of the Lord called them to rest. And so this passage is talking about God in his whole. Who God is. God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I want to now just quickly, I'm sorry, I don't mean to take too long. In chapter 15, if we can turn there, I want to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, very quickly. Luke 15 is a chapter we know quite well, and we know that it talks about three parables there. It talks about the lost sheep, one of the lost coin, and of the lost son. At the start of Luke chapter 15, think about what is said in verse 1 and 2. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him, to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes saying, this man receives sinners and is with them. The Pharisees, they had a complaint or they had this idea that they couldn't reconcile. They heard about what the Lord Jesus said, how he was the one who God gave them, how he and God are one. How God is a man without sin. And so they think and they try and remember and they say, Well we know about God and about who He is. We know that God and sin are very much apart. And God is righteous and just. So much so that even people who would do something isn't in line with what God's For example, even if you think back to this person who was a loser, and he put out his hand to stop the ark of God from falling on the ground, and the Lord looked at him and said, that's not right, that's not the way you should do things. And they think and they say, okay, well, you're saying that you and God are one, but then you were receiving sinners. and you're eating with them. That's not the God that we know. From their perspective, that's what they saw and thought about God. Although we know that that's not the case. We know that God is who He is from the Old Testament and the New Testament. And God is one who shows great mercy even to those who rebel and grieve Him. But they come up with this sort of point. They say, you can't reconcile the two. And that from a human perspective you can never reconcile the two. You can never understand how this God can be. And the Lord Jesus here talks about these three parables. And I want to mention just a couple of things about them quickly before we end. So we'll look at the first one, the parable of the lost sheep. It says there, what man of you, having lost his sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lies on his shoulders rejoicing, and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety just persons who need no repentance. And so very quickly, and we know this, sheep, as we know, are very stupid animals. And what happens here, one of the sheep in the flock of a hundred decides to go its own way. And this isn't something that's strange to us. You know, the Lord Jesus, or we read about it in Isaiah 53, where it says, all like sheep have gone astray. We have each, everyone turned to his own way. So this is describing us, like these foolish animals who decide to go on our own. Because of our foolishness, we are now lost, in peril, in danger. And the shepherd, leaving 99 safe sheep, 99 sheep that don't need saving, He goes out. Why? Because He cares. Because He loves. Because He is. And He goes out and it says in verse 4, and go after one which is lost until he finds it. He'll go out and he'll search and he'll search and he'll search until he finds it. that sheep, he says, when he finds it, when he has found it, verse 5, he lays it on his shoulders, somewhere safe, somewhere, a place of intimacy as well, close to him. He lays it on his shoulders. He doesn't just pick it up and alright, let's go, wrap around it, smooth it down. No, he loves the sheep. He lifts it up, he lays it on his shoulders, safe now, close to him. And he comes home and decides to call a big celebration, a big feast. Come all friends, I found this lost sheep. I love this sheep and I want you to celebrate that I found it. And as I said, the sheep now enjoys this place of protection and intimacy with the shepherd. For example, the lost lamb says in verse 8, what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses her coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I lost. Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angel of God over one sinner who repents. So this woman, is looking coin. A lost coin. Look at this lost coin. Coin is inanimate. It's hard to get. But the coin is lost. And like us, we're sinners. And in our own sinful, dead state towards God, we're like this coin. We can't do anything for ourselves. We can't bring ourselves any closer to God unless He reaches out first. And it says the same thing. She lies again, sweeps the whole house, and searches carefully until she finds it. It's a matter of endurance. It's a matter of persistence in God to search carefully to find the lost and the saved. It says, God our Saviour desires all men to be saved. That's His desire. That's who He is. So the Lord Jesus mentions this parable of the lost coin. Let's look at the last one. The parable of the lost son. I want you to read it, because reading the Word of God is beneficial. So spend a couple more minutes and read it. In verse 11 it says, Then He said, A certain had two sons, younger of them, said to his father, Father, give me the pot of goods that to me divided to them his life. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there weighed his possessions with prodigy. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and himself, a citizen of that country, took him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. When he came to himself, he said, how many of father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare? And I perished with hunger. I will rise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion. He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and it is alive again. For he was lost in his family, and they beg him. Now his oldest son was in the field. He came and drew near to the house and heard music dancing. So he called the servants and asked what those things meant, what these things meant. And said to him, your brother has conceived him safe and sound, you of his fatted calf. But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded him. So he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I have been serving you, I never tranced your men at any time, and you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came and devoured your livelihood with harlot, you killed the fatted calf. And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. It is right that we should make merry and be glad. For your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. And we've heard a lot about this parable and so I don't need to make too much mention of it, too many mentions of it, but I will make a couple of mentions. So a couple of years ago when I first looked at this parable, I learned how disrespectful it was for the son to even make that request to the father and to say, give inheritance to me. And why is that? Because inheritance was given when the father passed away. now that father is no longer there who wants to happen with his assets and his inheritance gets split up and so the son in you put it in other words saying dad or father I consider you died and I don't want anything to do with you anymore now as if you've died come and give me the inheritance that would be given to me For me, and you, it seems like to me, you've died. I don't want anything to do with you anymore. Let's just proceed and make what's going to happen, happen in the future way, happen now. I don't want to do anything with you. Give me the inheritance that belongs to me. I'm going to do with it what I want. So this is what he said. A portion of goods left to me, so he divided them in my livelihood. The father did that. That's the first thing. He went to a far country, as we know, wasted all his possessions. and did it in a wicked way and once all of his friends and his money was finished, he was now nothing and he had nothing and it says that he went and joined himself to a citizen of the land and that put him in a feed swamp. Just a thing to show you that I only realised when I was looking at this again recently. For this few Israelites, when you think about pigs, there is nothing that could join together. They are unclean animals and Israelites I think now to this day have a very big hatred maybe of pigs and that's the worst thing that they could ever come near or touch or do anything because it's an unclean animal from their perspective. and God had told them. And a person sent this son to go and feed the pigs. It's as if there wasn't a worse job that this son could have but feed the pigs. And this son was so hungry and nothing. He wouldn't go as far eating the food that the pigs were eating. That was how low he'd come in his state. That was how far he'd And so the story continues, and he came to himself and he thought, well, why am I in this position? I know that my father has many hired servants that have bread enough and to spare. I'm here on the brink of death, about to die. I'm going to go to my father. It says in verse 18, I will arise and go to my father and tell him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before I am no longer to be called your son, make me like your hired servants. And so he arose and told his father. And then you read this statement of the father. The father says to himself, when he was still a grey off, I don't know how far, but it says a grey off, so this must be a long distance. The father saw him, had compassion on him, rubbed him on his neck and kissed him. Can you think What was the son just doing? The son was just in the middle of a job where he was feeding the swine. But the father goes to him with compassion, embraces him and kisses him. He talks about the love that the father has. This isn't a story, but this is God the Father, who's reached out to every single one of us in our own wicked and disgusting and terrible. When we'd reached rock bottom, he came from a great, great way. He saw us. He ran and compassion fell on his neck of the son and kissed him. And he interrupts his son, comes to the father and says, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. The son was about to count what he had said to himself before. Make me one of your hired servants. But the father stops him and says, that's enough. Bring the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet, a fatted calf here, and let us eat and be merry. The last thing that I wanted to mention about this, that also goes to show how amazing God is. You read this encounter which sheds some light about the rest of the story that the father has with the older son. The father is coming to speak to the older son who doesn't want to be married, who doesn't want to come in and join the session. And the son tells him, I've been with you and served you all these many years. And you've given, he says, you've given me a calf to celebrate with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, if you read it again in verse 30, But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the king." What does that say to us? It says to us, I don't know how, but it says to us, in some way, knew of what this son was doing in this far away land, must have come back to the fathers. so much that the son, the oldest son knew what his younger son was doing or his younger brother was doing. So the father must have known what his younger son was doing. Now put those things back together. Now that we know that. It says back again in verse 20 that the father says, but when he was still a great way off his father saw him In spite of what the father knew his son was doing, in spite of all the wickedness that the son was doing, the father was waiting until the son came before him, waiting until he was back in his infancy, in spite of what he was doing. And he ran, and he had compassion, and he fell on his neck. This just goes to show once again that God without exaggerating beyond our understanding, beyond our imagination, beyond what normal people would do. He shows us kindness that is unchecked, that has no mercy. I was just thinking about this and I'll end with this. Just like Brother Ben last week, just before we remembered the Lord. He was talking about how Lord Jesus showed this kindness and love to even this dying man on the cross next to him. A dying man who maybe had a history of wickedness and sin in his life and gave absolutely nothing to the Lord. Here he is about to die in minutes or hours with nothing to give. He comes in repentance to Jesus. He says, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. And the Lord Jesus' response immediately, today you will be in paradise. It goes to show that God is amazing. It's not like he asks little of us. In that case, I don't know what he will ask that he ever made in his life. But the Lord gives with looking nothing in return. Not like the Lord loves us with such grace and mercy that we've never experienced, unless just with him. So let's close our eyes and thank God. Heavenly Father, thank you so much. for your word. We thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you that your word declares to us who you are. It declares to us your characteristics. We thank you that these characteristics are true and that we've experienced them in our own personal life. We thank you for your gracious towards us. We thank you for your mercy. It's new every morning. We thank you that our own foolish and sinless against you. Having tasted love and having tasted the goodness of who you are, we thank you that every morning your mercies are still new to us and you still show us this kindness and love that we don't deserve. We pray that you will continue in our lives to appreciate who you are, to love you, Warren, as we see who you are and what you've done for us, help us to become like your son, the Lord Jesus, and also have this love that is unnatural to the world. We pray that you help us to be faithful and obedient to you. We ask this in the Lord Jesus Christ's name. Amen.