James 5:7-11

[0:00] So James chapter 5, starting at verse 7, James writes, Be patient, therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband whom waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter reign.

[0:19] Be also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned.

[0:32] Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience.

[0:44] Behold, we count them happy, which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. Behold, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

[0:56] But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your ye be ye, and your nay-nay, lest ye fall into condemnation.

[1:10] And that's all we'll read as far as that passage of Scripture there goes. But the verse in particular that I'd like to concentrate on tonight is actually verse 11 here in James chapter 5, where he says, Behold, we count them happy, which endure.

[1:31] Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. That the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. And folks, that's the verse I kind of want to concentrate on tonight.

[1:44] But the beginning of this passage, James here, gives encouragement to the church that he's writing to. And he is writing to the church throughout this entire book.

[1:57] Keep that in mind because he keeps referring to the people he's writing to as brethren. Now these were mostly been a bunch of Jews that have been saved because the beginning in James chapter 1, he says that he's writing to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad, and he gives the greeting unto them.

[2:18] So he's writing to mostly a Jewish audience here, but nevertheless he refers to them as brethren. So these are people that are saved, born again, children of God, just as James was.

[2:31] But he begins this passage saying, Be patient, therefore brethren, under the coming of the Lord. And he goes on to talk about how he says to behold the husband, and how he patiently waits on the fruit of the earth.

[2:46] And he says that he has to wait upon the former, and the latter reigns to come. But folks, eventually that fruit will come. But later on in verse 11, he's talking about the Lord, and he talks about how the Lord is very pitiful, and how the Lord is tender of mercy.

[3:06] And that's what I'd like to talk about tonight, is the tenderness, and the mercy of the Lord, and how the Lord looks down and pity at fallen mankind.

[3:17] Folks, he's done that ever since the fall in the garden. He has looked upon his creation. He has looked upon it in mercy. He's looked upon it in tenderness.

[3:28] He's looked upon it with a pitiful attitude. He knows that we are made of flesh and bone. He knows what our simple nature is.

[3:39] He knows all these things about us, but yet he still looks down on us in mercy. As I said, it's starting back in the garden. When he put out him an ead in the garden, told them not to eat of that particular fruit.

[3:56] What happened the serpent came? Should it be God, ead, and ead, that convinced her husband to eat of the fruit, along with her, herself, eight of it?

[4:06] But yet God didn't just strut them down. God didn't just kill them and say, well, I'm going to try this again. My God, in his pitifulness and in his mercy, looked at them and ead and gave them another chance.

[4:23] He killed an innocent animal. Shed them some blood, made them scared to put on themselves, to hide their sin because they're on the tip and had him sinned by sewing some fig leaves together.

[4:38] Was futile. It was worthless. It had to be an act of a merciful God to hide those sins.

[4:48] And folks, it was an act of a merciful God to wash our sins away through the blood that was shed by Jesus Christ. It was an act of pity and it was an act of mercy that God done that for us, done it for me, done it for you, done it for everyone that's saved.

[5:06] Hey, he done it for everyone that's lost his will. He done it for everyone, whether they've been saved, whether they've been lost. Jesus Christ gave his life for sinners.

[5:16] He said he came to seek and to save those that were lost, folks that was every one of us, without a need, being our original parent, that curse flows on to us.

[5:29] It'll flow on to our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. It will not stop until Almighty God puts a stop to it.

[5:42] But he's merciful. He's tender. He's a tender mercy, as James says here. Folks, there's an example on top of example in the scriptures of the mercy of God.

[5:56] We can fast forward just a little bit in the book of Genesis from Adam and Eve. You can move on forth to Noah before the earth was flooded.

[6:07] What did Noah do? He found grace in the eyes of God. The fact that Noah found grace in the eyes of God showed that God was showing mercy to at least one man on the planet, but that mercy extended on to seven other people, other than Noah.

[6:28] Most of us are meant for mercy by God. There was no obligation to do so. God created us. God created Noah.

[6:39] God created Adam and Eve. He could have destroyed them all and started flesh with someone else. But because of mercy, because of mercy that God showed him.

[6:53] Folks, that had nothing to do with who Noah was. And it had nothing to do with who Adam or who he was. It had nothing to do with who Moses was or anyone else in scripture.

[7:05] It's because of who God is that he shows mercy. God is merciful. What does the Psalmist say over and over in the book of Psalms?

[7:16] He says, Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endured forever. What's the very next verse in Psalms 107?

[7:27] It says, Let the redeemed say so. Hey, we should all be willing to say so. How God is merciful, how God is good, how his mercy is everlasting, how it's just as eternal as he is as our maker.

[7:46] My God's merciful and he'll be merciful forever. I heard a sermon this past, actually last night. Wonderful sermon, fella, dude.

[7:57] Preached about how one of these days Grace Allianz. Now, folks, it won't end period. It's just as eternal as God is. But on a personal level, on a personal level with individual men and individual women and individual people in general, Grace sooner or later will come to an end for those people, for those that die lost without Jesus Christ, those that wind up in hell.

[8:26] Hey, mercy and grace has come to an end for those people. And people will say, Hey, God should give them, should have given them another chance.

[8:37] God should have waited just a little bit longer. My Bible says that my God is patient. He is long suffering. James has said he is tender, he is merciful, and he is pitiful the way that he looks at his creation.

[8:55] God will give someone chance after chance after chance. And because they die lost, the world will say, God should have given them another chance.

[9:07] Hey, we don't tell God what he should and what he should not do. He will bless, whom he will bless, he will curse, whom he will curse.

[9:18] Paul said in the Book of Romans, he'll have mercy on whom he will have mercy. He'll show compassion to whom he will show compassion.

[9:29] He'll show mercy to whom he will and whom he will. He will harden us. And we have no right to ask God if that's fair, because I can assure you my Bible describes God as just.

[9:46] My Bible describes God as merciful. He's just in everything that he does. He's merciful to those of us that accept Jesus Christ.

[9:56] He's merciful to the lost that are wandering around this world right now because they're not in hell yet. Folks, that's a sign of grace and that's a sign of mercy within itself.

[10:08] Don't dare question the mercy of God. Don't give up on your lost loved ones if they're still roaming around here with breath in their body. They're still hope that God can save them and God can save them.

[10:21] God wants to save them. I know the Bible says that he makes vessels on the wrath and he makes vessels of righteousness. Hey, why would God even want to make vessels on the wrath though?

[10:38] When it's not his will that any should perish, but that all, all should come to repentance. All of us should. Now, again, that's all that's not, if you want to read that on your own time sometime.

[10:53] But it plainly speaks of how God, God will make a vessel of wrath and a vessel of righteousness.

[11:04] That righteousness is obtained by mercy. It's obtained by mercy from, from a merciful God. And thank God we, that we have that mercy. Thank God that he is the way that he is.

[11:16] As I've already quoted, thank you, give thanks unto the Lord. Why for his mercy endureth forever? Folks, why is it that we bust the Lord sometimes?

[11:27] Why do we say, bust the Lord? Hold my soul and all that's within me. Bless his holy name. Why do we say that? Because God is good. God is merciful.

[11:38] God is forgiving. And God is patient. God is long suffering. And God let us wander around in our sin some years for you, some years for me.

[11:51] But he allowed us to do it instead of killing us off when it first began. God showed mercy. Because that's God.

[12:02] And that's how he acts. And that's who he is. Folks, mercy is not just something that God shows. Mercy is what God is. Just like love is what God is.

[12:14] Just like light is what God is. God is all of these things. Showing the omniscience of God. Showing how, how all powerful that he is.

[12:25] Folks, all of these things existed before you and I did. Before the foundations of the world were ever laid. All of these things that we just didn't exist in.

[12:35] Because God existed before any of those things were spoken into existence by him. And if he's eternal, those things are eternal.

[12:47] And his wrath is eternal too. That's who the first six verses of James chapter five were, were pointed at. Were those, those that were sinning, those that were not showing mercy.

[13:00] Those that were defrauding their fellow man. Those, those that were acting wickedly. James is referring, or talking about wrath. And those things, giving them warning.

[13:11] That's the way that they're acting. It is not becoming of a child of God. It is not becoming of a Christian. Folks, that's the fruit that we know when we look out.

[13:21] When we see how folks act. It's the fruit that they bear. Whether we know they're a brother or sister in Jesus Christ. I know that the Bible teaches that the spirit bears witness between you and between me.

[13:35] I understand that the folks, sometimes we don't feel that spirit like we all do. But we can still look at the fruit that someone is bearing and see.

[13:46] What kind of child are they? Are they children of wrath? Or are they children of obedience to God? Oh man. That fruit will tell all. Oh yeah.

[13:58] God's merciful. God's merciful to us in that respect as well. Because we can look out and see who a brother or sister in Christ is. And who they're not.

[14:09] Too often we'll look out. We'll see somebody not dressed the way we think is, is quite right. We'll see somebody with a turban on their head. What's the first thing that we think?

[14:20] We think they must be a Muslim. Or they must be a Buddhist. Or they must be a Sikh. Or one of these other religions that are out there. Folks on the other side of the world.

[14:30] There are Christians all over the map on the other side of the world that wear robes. And wear turbans. And wear all these things on their heads. They don't dress like we do.

[14:42] They don't look like we do. Their culture is different. They don't eat their drink like we do. But bless God. We are brothers and sisters in Christ.

[14:53] Because a merciful God died for them. Just like he died for us here in the United States. And it was all in mercy that he done that.

[15:05] Folks, God don't change. And that seems to be a thought. Especially right here in the epitome of the Bible Belt. Or in the epicenter of the Bible Belt I should say.

[15:17] We take it. All Christians is just white folks from Tennessee. Or from Western North Carolina. Or Southwest Virginia. Hope that's not the case.

[15:28] These Christians all over this nation. These Christians in every state. These Christians in Canada. These Christians in Mexico. All over South America and Central America.

[15:39] They're in Asia. They're in Africa. They are everywhere. Because God's mercy is not confined to one area. No more than God is confined to one area.

[15:51] Solomon said himself that the heavens of the heavens cannot contain me. My God's big. And so is his mercy. Hope's all through the Bible.

[16:04] We see his mercy. What happened when Moses coming down off the mountain the first go? The first time around. What happened? He got mad. He dropped the stone tablets that God had given him himself.

[16:16] God had taken those tablets. God had heat them out. And God had done the writing. And all these things. Moses dropped them. Broke them everywhere. God did not strap Moses down.

[16:27] He didn't say you done messed up son. I'm taking you out. And I'm going to use another. He gave Moses another chance. Moses went back up into the mountain. God said, here we are through stones.

[16:39] You ride what I tell you to ride. We'll ride upon them. And Moses did this thing. And God was pleased with what Moses did.

[16:50] I know he was pleased because when Moses come off the mountain that time. The glory of God was shining off of his face. So much they had to veil him.

[17:02] They had to cover him because the glory of God was shining so bright. His fellow man couldn't see him. Hope's God was pleased with that. God is pleased to give mercy.

[17:13] God is pleased to be merciful. David in his sin. Hey, it was an act of God. It was an act of grace. It was an act of God looking on David in pity.

[17:24] It was an act of God looking on him in mercy when he sinned with Bathsheba. It was an act of mercy when God told Nathan the prophet to go in and speak under David.

[17:34] And Nathan went in and he told him the parable about a man that had one land. And another man that had many lands. And he said the one that had many, the rich man went to the one that had one.

[17:46] And he took off his only land and he sluied so him and a guest could have supper. And what David say, Breakin here, he deserves to die.

[17:57] He deserves to die. Nathan said, thou art the man. You're that man, David. That was mercy from God. That was mercy. God used another man to show mercy under David.

[18:11] David had sinned, yes. And his sin was grusious and it didn't just end with adultery. Hey, it began before the adultery ever started. It was sin layered on top of sin, on top of sin.

[18:23] But my God died and he could show mercy for sin that is on top of sin, on top of sin. He can wash it all away.

[18:34] It don't matter how many layers we got, when God calls our name, when God draws us, when the Holy Ghost, God doesn't do that, just to tease us. He doesn't do it to play a joke.

[18:46] He does it because of what a Jesus Christ was all powerful to walk through every layer of film and sin and wickedness and shame and get it off of us.

[18:58] Amen. And it's done in mercy. It's done in mercy in the New Testament, the disciples. Jesus showed mercy not only to the disciples but to those that gathered around to hear and preach.

[19:15] To hear and preach. It says more than one time in the scripture that these multitudes, these people will come around and Jesus had compassion on them. He had compassion.

[19:25] He wanted to show mercy and he did show mercy. Hey, he fed a few thousand at a time a couple of different times in the scripture. We read about those things. Hey, he healed those that were sick.

[19:37] He healed the blind. He healed the lame. He forgave people their sins. He drowned up 12-year-old issues of blood. My Jesus did it all and he's done it all because of compassion, pity, and mercy.

[19:52] The same reason that sins are forgiven is the same reason Jesus did what he did in forgiving and for healing and every other act that he performed.

[20:05] And all these people, they heard the tales. They saw the miracles. They saw the wonders. They felt what this is. Jesus died.

[20:16] He's put in the tomb. Jesus is resurrected. You read over in the Gospel of Luke, one gospel has this accounting. These two disciples walking on the road after the resurrection, walking on the road to Emmaus, walking the wrong direction.

[20:34] Jesus told them, you hang out right here. You go, you stay here. You wait until I arrive. But they've been taken off. They're walking toward Emmaus. Jesus comes, starts to walk next to them, starts to expound the scripture to them, starts to explain himself to these two disciples.

[20:52] They had done giving up, they were headed their own direction, headed their own way, headed the opposite way that Jesus had told them this day. But the call of his mercy, and the call of grace, Jesus tracked them down.

[21:07] Jesus walked with them, explained the scriptures, explained himself. Blessed God had communion with those two men. And it was in mercy that he done that when he comes to the shore of the lake.

[21:22] And Peter, Peter said, Peter done told those buddies, he said, I'm gonna go fishing. He said, I'm going out on the water. I'm going back to where Jesus first found me. He didn't say that. I don't even know if he was thinking about that, if he was thinking about that or not.

[21:36] But that's exactly what he was doing when Jesus found him, when Jesus called him. He was fishing. He said, I go fishing, Peter had obviously given up some water, even though Christ had already told him, when thou art converted, when thou art converted, strengthen the brethren.

[21:56] And Peter done give up, he done give up those very words. We're spoken to him. Folks, we got promises in the scripture. We got promises, we got promises after the farmer and the latter rain that James speaks of here.

[22:11] And the fifth chapter of his book, after that, there's going to be fruit. It's going to be a harvest. Folks, I ain't talking about a soul harvest. I'm not talking about material blessing, but we need to look just like the prophet said that James talks about, we need to look toward the end.

[22:28] We need to look toward the end of things, not the current condition that we are in now. Jesus called the church of Smyrna. I know thou art, he said Satan himself will cast you in the present.

[22:41] He said it'll be for 10 days, then here goes more, then here goes look toward the end of that 10 days. And know at the end of it, there will be redemption.

[22:53] What's the Bible say? Folks, I didn't point it to songs one of them said. It says, let the redeemed say so. I'm redeemed right now. I'm redeemed.

[23:04] Jesus paid the price and I am redeemed. Praise God I am. But what does the scripture say? What did Jesus say himself when these things come to pass?

[23:15] Look up. We are redemption drawers. And all of us now, Jesus said it sounded like we equated. We are redemption drawers. Folks, there's bonus points in this thing.

[23:27] There's bonus. Hey, I'm a saved one again child like God. I know I'm heaven bound right now. But true redemption, absolute redemption, the finality of that redemption will be one day when I'm in heaven, worshiping my God that died for me, praying to my God that died for me, saying hallelujahs and holy, holy to my God that died for me and showed mercy unto me.

[24:02] Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Back to the old Testament. These all kinds of examples. In book of Ruth, Ruth then lost her husband, lost her father-in-law, lost her brother-in-law, lost their father and their children and then went back to her family, back to her idols, back to her culture, back to her things.

[24:28] Ruth alone with a woman named Naomi, Naomi meaning pleasant. When they come back to Bethlehem, they come back to the hometown.

[24:40] Naomi said, why are you calling me? Why are you calling me, Naomi? She said call me Mara instead, Mara meaning bitterness. Ruth didn't give up on Naomi. She didn't give up abiously. Naomi had been some kind of witness to that woman.

[24:54] Naomi has shown mercy to a Gentile woman from Moab. My God showed mercy to me, someone who was not part of the original covenant, the Abrahamic covenant of redemption, but he showed mercy.

[25:13] Naomi showed mercy to this little Moabite named Ruth. The folks just called her, she showed mercy. Redemption hadn't fucked up the place yet.

[25:25] Now she was alive and she was with Naomi. When she said, when Naomi told her, she said, you need to go back. Go back to where you come from.

[25:35] And Orpah did. But Ruth stuck with her. She said, wherever that log is, I will live. Whatever you do, basically I'm going to do. Whatever you touch, I'm going to touch.

[25:48] Where you sleep, I'm going to sleep what you eat, I'm going to eat. And she said, thy people shall be my people. And thy God, my God, Naomi, had been a witness under this little Moabite girl named Ruth.

[26:01] She had been a witness. She showed mercy for the one true God on behalf of the one true God, Jehovah God, that Naomi knew she had told this woman, Ruth, about.

[26:14] So Naomi went, or Ruth, and they get back to town. Ruth goes out to clean. She goes out to clean the fields, says that she had to find a field along with a bow add.

[26:25] Ladies, if you know the Red Ruth, that's the most romantic book in all scripture. That's the most beautiful book in all scripture. It is, as far as the writing goes, as far as the storyline goes. If you want a good love story, you turn over there.

[26:40] You read those four little chapters of the book of Ruth sometimes. But it said that Ruth, she had to find this field, had belonged to Boas. Boas looked out and he said, who is this little girl out here?

[26:51] And obviously, she was a very pretty woman because Boas took notice of her. But folks, other than that, and beyond that, it was divine providence working behind the scenes.

[27:02] It was the providence of an omniscient and an all-knowing God that put Ruth in that field for that man, Boas, to see. And when the, and Boas gave an instruction to his men, to his leopards, to give her a little bit, drop a few handfuls of purpose for her, don't you dare turn her away.

[27:23] He went to Ruth, he said, don't go to another field. You stay here with me. You'll be taken care of. Yep. So Ruth goes home. She got all kinds of food.

[27:36] Folks, remember, redemption hadn't taken place yet. That's just the beginning of it. That was just the start of it. So she had all kinds of food, not only for her, but for Naomi as well.

[27:48] Naomi says, where'd you get this? And Ruth tells her, she said, I went into this field. This whole boy took care of me. Folks, that's my words. That's certainly ain't the old English King Jamie Furson of the Bible.

[28:01] That's pretty much how it was going down. Said, where'd you get all this? Said, tell her this field. Who was it? The boy. She was there. What does Naomi do? She blesses the Lord.

[28:13] She prayed as God. She said, he's shown pity. He's shown mercy. God's looked down upon us in our time of need. And he saw what we needed. And Naomi explains to Ruth that he's a near kinsman.

[28:27] He's a kinsman to Naomi and Naomi being a Jew knew what the law said about such things. She said, in her mind, she would say, hey, this boy can marry her.

[28:38] He can redeem because her husband and her boys had already died. And there was nothing left for her to do but stop the little hop of poverty.

[28:49] You're a somebody redeemed. We're in that same boat. We're in that same boat. We have nothing. We can have $1,500 billion and a cent in the bank.

[29:03] And still have a lot of poverty without Jesus Christ. We can have every ounce of food that we need to rest of our life. We can have a nice roll of Roy sitting in our driveway. We can have $4,500 spread all around the world.

[29:17] Folks, we could own beaches. We could own islands. We could own small countries for all I care. But outside of Jesus Christ, we will be left like Naomi and Ruth was.

[29:27] There's nothing more than a law of poverty. But it is by God's mercy. It is by His mercy that Ruth hath upon that pill belonging to Boas.

[29:40] It is God's mercy that the Holy Ghost showed up in my house one day. Showed up at this clay house one day. He showed up, showed me where I was, showed me what a sad state I was in, showed me how depraved I was, what a wretch I was, and showed me the Savior, showed me my way out of there.

[30:00] I take that back. He showed me His way out of that. My way would never get me out of it. But it showed me God's way. Naomi and Ruth, it was all God's way.

[30:11] It's how God planned it. It's how God worked it. So, all with that story, we need Naomi and Ruth. We need Naomi and each other. Go up there. Go up there.

[30:23] And you make yourself pretty. And anoint yourself. Another word, put a little perky in your sleeve. Clean yourself up real good. Make yourself look presentable.

[30:35] You go up there to Boas. She goes to Boas. She goes up there after they had eaten, after they drank. They were laid down through the night. Ruth goes up there.

[30:45] She uncovers this thing. She nestles herself in there. I hope that's got a whole lot more meaning than thousands of years ago of what it does now. But nevertheless, she uncovers this thing.

[30:56] Snubbed herself up there. And Boas says, what in the world? What's happened? Who are you? And she refers to herself as he is.

[31:06] She says, not him. They can never leave. It's what she's referred to herself as. But, I ain't read that in a while. But she refers to herself as he is. And he knew what was going on at that point.

[31:18] He says, that's all great. We'll find him well. And Boas starts wrestling in his mind. Because he knew there was a kinsman nearer than he was. He knew there was one that was closer than he was. And he explains that to Ruth.

[31:30] But folks, it wasn't very long at all. Boas shows up at the gates of the city. He shows up at the gates of town where a court took place. That's where all the business was settled in the towns back there.

[31:41] And he waits. And he gathers the witnesses around. He sees the near kinsman come in. And he says, oh, such a boy. And he tells him what the deal is.

[31:51] He says, there's a woman that you can redeem. Because you are a mere kinship than I am. And the man says, I'll redeem her. And Boas goes on to say, the thing is, if you'll redeem this, you're going to have to marry this little boy, that girl, named Ruth.

[32:09] And he says, I cannot redeem her. And he gives it over to Boas. Folks, at near kinsman, with a picture of the law, is a picture of the law never able to redeem us.

[32:23] God gave that law in mercy. If Adam and God forgot to show them that mercy, I don't think you'd ever give Moses that second set of tables we were talking about earlier.

[32:34] That second set of tables. It needed to be done. Why? Because the law shows us that we are sinners. God wanted to show us that we're sinners because of his mercy, because if we didn't understand the fact that we were sinners, we would never recognize our need for a Savior that we can only burn in God himself through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

[32:57] It's all in mercy. Everything that happened in Naomi and Ruth, it was the mercy of God. Ruth in one of three Gentile women that are brought up in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

[33:11] 23 is brought up there. And that's in folks that's mercy. And that was a foreshadowing of what was to come. That was a foreshadowing of the Gentile church.

[33:23] That was a foreshadowing of God not just accepting the Jews, not that it was going to extend onto somebody else. God said that there would come a day when he would pour out his spirit on all of mankind, on everyone that was on the planet.

[33:39] What youth would have been to pour it out on a bunch of people that could not be saved. He done it for everybody just like he shed his blood for everybody.

[33:52] Amen. Amen. Praise God. It's mercy. God showed mercy. Folks, the greatest picture of mercy in all of the Bible is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

[34:07] It is the death, not only the death, but the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And people will look at that and they'll say, I read in Psalms where they yanked his beard out.

[34:19] They'll say, I heard Jesus, or I read myself in the scripture. He said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? I'll read in the scriptures that he shed his blood, of the beating that he took before he even got up there.

[34:33] I'll read in the scriptures that after he was dead, they poked him in the side with a spear. And out came blood and water. I read all these things. How can we say that there is a picture of mercy?

[34:47] It wasn't God being merciful to the crown of heaven. It was God being merciful to us because we were the sinners.

[34:59] It was God pouring out wrath on Jesus Christ. Wrath that you deserve, wrath that I deserve, wrath that everybody deserves. That's what that was a picture of.

[35:09] But it was wrath on the part of Jesus. But it was mercy being shown unto us, all those Jews and those Romans, everyone that was in the crown that fell witness to this day.

[35:23] They sheds, they sing with their own two mouths. The greatest act of mercy that had ever been shown to mankind. And I thank God for his mercy.

[35:35] I thank God for that shed blood. I thank God that he sought me. I thank God that he found me. And I thank God that when he found me, he didn't say, I can't do nothing with that.

[35:48] I thank God when he found me that he said, I believe I can clean that up. I know I can clean that up. My son said it shed his blood just so that I could clean that up.

[35:59] I'm glad God didn't just kick me to the curb. Throw me out with the trash. He said, I can clean it up. I can make something useful. I can make it vessel to honor and to righteousness out of this mess.

[36:14] That's what he done with any of us. Any of us that's saved, God showed mercy through Jesus Christ that he can save our unworthy souls and that we can have life and have it more abundantly.

[36:27] Folks, that life wasn't necessarily life here. God never promised that we would have riches here, that we would have prosperity here. Our riches will come after that ladder rain.

[36:38] Our riches will come at the end of the harvest, at the end of the way, at the end of the road. And when we'll be prosperous, when we'll be rich, when we'll be glorified, let Jesus Christ our Lord.

[36:51] That's the redemption that I am looking for. I preached last week, I believe it was, the week before.

[37:03] And Gospel Luke, that Pharisee in the public, went into the temple. Went up to the temple of the Pharisee, bragged about who he was, bragged about what he was, bragged about what he done and what he hadn't done.

[37:19] That's not the one that went away to his house just like I thought. It was the one that said, God, be merciful to me. Merciful! To me, a sinner.

[37:31] That's who God shows mercy to. He won't show mercy to a Christ full of hearts. He won't show mercy to someone that said, I don't need to be forgiven. To someone that says, I've done nothing to be forgiven for.

[37:43] God will not show mercy to that. He's got to break that down. He's got to soften that. He's got to need that. He's got to break up that phallogram so that he can get something in there.

[37:57] That'll take root and that'll start to produce fruit one day after a while. But folks, it wasn't the Pharisee. It wasn't the Pharisee that he was merciful to.

[38:07] It was the one they recognized that he was a sinner. We have to recognize that we're sinners, that we're in need of a Savior before we can never receive that Savior.

[38:18] Paul done it on the road to Damascus. Did he not? Jesus Christ showed him the lie, blinded the man. He had to show Paul in a blind state. Had to show Paul just how blind he really was.

[38:31] Just how much of a sinner. Just how wrong. Just how much against the laws of God that Paul was. And he done that mercy.

[38:41] He could have let Paul go on to Damascus, folks. They've been Christians killed for years. Hundreds, hundreds of years. 2,000 years now. Christians have been killed. Christians have been martyred.

[38:52] Christians have been sold out. Christians have been thrown in the arenas with the lines. Christians have been burned alive. Christians have been poked or laid on top of stakes. All kinds of things have done with those that confess and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord.

[39:08] And God could have stopped the folks. Now, it would be the folks that done the killing. He could have stopped them. Yeah. The folks, they's a crown of murder.

[39:18] I'm persuaded. They's a crown. Those folks wasn't looking for their end here. They were looking for their end up down there. Where mercy becomes reality. Where they get to go up there and physically see mercy in God.

[39:33] They get to physically see that God, who the Bible says is lie. They get to physically see the God, who the Bible says is love. They get to see this God, this God, who the Bible describes is lie.

[39:46] Hey, the Bible also says that he dwells in the darkness. He dwells in the thick darkness. Hey, he does, but he's the lie. He doesn't need any kind of man-made life.

[39:57] Doesn't need anything else. The lie was here before God commanded it to be here because it was with God. He is life.

[40:07] He doesn't only come from Him. It is Him. Yeah. Praise God. Just like mercy. Just like grace. Just like love. Just like all these other things. Folks, it is a mercy of God that we're sitting here tonight.

[40:19] It's the mercy of God that we have His written word. It's the mercy of God that we're not in hell right now. It's the mercy of God of all of these things. And it's the mercy of God that we have a prayer line to get to God.

[40:33] In the book of Hebrews chapter 4, we quoted all the time we see it on bumper stickers, on television, on billboards, everywhere else.

[40:45] That we may therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. That we can obtain mercy, not attain mercy. That will be our own worst. We can obtain mercy from our God who is mercy.

[40:58] But we can obtain mercy. Now we can find grace. We can find help in a time of need. Praise God. It's all mercy that we're able to do that.

[41:09] And it's only a mercy that we're able to do that. It was a mercy, folks. We were able to hear the songs that were sung tonight. It's a mercy. We can pick up the Bible and read it. It's a mercy that we can understand what we're reading.

[41:22] It's a mercy that God wants these things for His people. It is all a mercy. Folks, James here, back to James chapter 5.

[41:32] I've been everywhere else in the Bible. Praise God. Ain't nothing better to read, is it? Nothing better. Behold, we count them happy, which endure.

[41:45] Not those that stick their hand to the plow and look back. Jesus said, anybody put their hand in the plow and look back wasn't fit. They weren't fit for the kingdom of God.

[42:01] Those that endure, you have heard of the patience of Job and seen the end of the Lord. Folks, that is the key to this whole mercy thing.

[42:11] Because in our lives, we'll suffer trial. In our lives, we'll suffer sickness. In our lives, we'll suffer death. We'll suffer all these things.

[42:22] If it don't come to us, it'll come to somebody we love. And if we're a born-again child of God, we will suffer with that person. We will feel bad with that person.

[42:32] We'll feel sick, maybe. We might not have a tummy ache like they had, but we'll still suffer. We'll want to stand with another, with a brother or sister in Christ. But folks, we don't look towards what's happening right now in the present.

[42:45] We look toward the end. We look toward what does the Bible say? The Bible says, at the beginning, know the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

[42:56] It's the beginning of knowledge. Oh, God. The folks, here, now that's the beginning. Here, we got the end.

[43:07] Says, you have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. What's he talking about? What happened in Job? Job started out just fine, did he not? He started out just fine.

[43:17] And people will say, well, Satan and God got to play in a game. No, they didn't. God don't play games. God don't play no games. He don't play games of any kind.

[43:31] He knew what kind of man Job was. He knew how strong Job was. He knew how much faith that Job had. Job had three friends that came to him, tried to convince them of his sin, had another little brat named Elidio came to him after the first three failed.

[43:45] And then he tried to convince Job of his sin. And he found, we ain't getting nowhere. Then God stepped in on him and said, God stepped in when Job was playing his case.

[43:56] When Job, and listen folks, Job had some pride about him. He did. And that was his fault. That was Job's main fault was his pride. And God said, where were you?

[44:07] Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when the sons of God sang, when I threw this whole thing together? When where were you when I did all this Job?

[44:18] And that humble Job, the folks, although God come down on Job and he come down on him hard and every one of us, if we're honest, God's come down on us in the exact same way, the exact same way.

[44:32] But it's the end of Job. What happens at the end? They got everything restored to him and then some. Oh yeah. Folks, one of these days, I'm not gonna sester.

[44:44] One of these days I won't be sick. One of these days I won't hurt. I won't have any of these things going on with me. I won't have any of these wrongs with me anymore. Everything will be made right, but it will be in the end of things.

[44:59] When it happens in the end of the Lord, not to say that the Lord will come to an end. I've already said the Lord is eternal. He cannot die. He will not die.

[45:09] He's immortal and eternal. But in the end, I will be as well when this correction puts on incorruptible and this mortal puts on immortality.

[45:21] That's the end that I'm looking for. Folks, we attain that end by the mercy of God. And that is the only way that we attain that end.