I invite you to turn with me this morning to Psalm 103. Psalm 103 as we consider this psalm, along with the attributes of God's grace and mercy. Psalm 103, hear now the Word of God. Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust. As for man, His days are like grass, He flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children's children, with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will. Praise the Lord, all His works, everywhere in His dominion. Praise the Lord, all my soul. Beloved of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we know, there are many attributes or characteristics of God which He has revealed to us in His Word in order to give us a glimpse of who He is and what He is like. And each one of His attributes ought to put us in awe of Him as each and every one describes His majesty and His greatness. And each one of them is to give to us as sinful creatures much comfort that this God, the God who reveals Himself in this way through His attributes in His Word, that this God is our God. We have considered together His sovereignty, His holiness, and His immutability. Boys and girls, the fact that God is changeless, without change as you recall. We could also speak of God's jealousy. Now, with you and me, jealousy is most often not a good quality. Often it is a sinful jealousy. But with regard to God, His jealousy is a righteous jealousy and it's talking about His earnest desire for what belongs to Him. He is not willing to share His people with anything or anyone else because He knows that He alone is what's best for us. We can also speak of His omniscience, the fact that God knows all things, past, present, and future, And He knows all these things perfectly. Again, boys and girls, that can be scary for you and me because then we know, as Psalm 139 teaches us, that He knows our thoughts and our words before we think them and before we say them. And that's a bit scary because we know that our thoughts and our words are not always holy. They're not always righteous. In fact, they're often sinful. But God's omniscience is also comforting for us because He knows perfectly. He perfectly knows what it is we need, even before we need it. We can speak of His love, which desires and provides what's best for us. Goodness is another of God's attributes, and God demonstrates that He is good through His attributes of love and patience and kindness. And of course, these are all related, His love and patience and kindness. They're related in some way, and along with these expressions of His goodness are His attributes that we might say are directly related to how God deals with us as sinful creatures. Now we're talking about the grace and the mercy of God. Through His grace and His mercy, He deals in a particular way with us as sinful creatures. And I want to consider these attributes of God's grace and mercy with you as they specifically relate to God's people, to believers. Not in a general sense. The Bible says that God's mercy is over all of His creation, and we can also speak of God's common grace or common favor, or some are more comfortable with the term common benevolence over all people. We want to consider these as they specifically relate to believers, to God's people. Indeed, God's grace and mercy are a demonstration of His love and goodness. But it's good for us to consider these two attributes which are so closely related that these terms are sometimes used interchangeably in Scripture. Yet there is a beautiful distinction between them, kind of like two sides of the same coin. In essence, you really don't have one without the other. And as well, God's mercy, we might say, flows forth from His grace. Now, boys and girls, often in the greeting or the salutation at the beginning of the worship service, like this morning, and in the benediction blessing at the end, you hear these words, these attributes, grace and mercy, pronounced upon God's people, often with the word peace. Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Well, what do these attributes mean of God, and what do they mean for God's people? Well, first of all, we need to have an understanding of man's condition. Because we cannot and we will not understand the grace and the mercy of God, and we can never truly have faith in God's grace and mercy unless we understand our condition apart from God. And of course, I trust there's no surprise here for any of us. We are fallen creatures, each one of us. Fallen creatures, fallen into sin. each one of us is included in the all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the there is no one righteous, no not one, that Paul speaks of in Romans 3. And apart from the grace and the mercy of God, each one of us is like the chaff the wind blows away. And we are those who will not stand in the judgment nor in the assembly of the righteous, but instead will perish, as the psalmist says in Psalm 1. And, of course, we know this is contrary to how natural man thinks about himself, isn't it? Natural man looks at himself. He looks at his accomplishments and his achievements. And he has a pretty high opinion of himself. He sees himself, as we might say, through rose-colored glasses, the way he wants to see himself. He thinks he is basically good. In fact, if you ask many people why they will go to heaven when they die, provided that they believe in heaven, they will tell you it's because they are basically good, or at least the good that they do outweighs the bad. We put them on a scale, and the good are definitely heavier than the bad. For natural man, sin is nothing more than a disease which we cannot help. Therefore, we cannot possibly be held responsible for it. But the truth is, man does not consider himself as a creature fallen from God's image. He does not consider himself as a rebel against God's rule. He does not consider himself as one who is guilty and unclean and unworthy, completely unworthy in God's sight. And he certainly doesn't see himself as one who is condemned to hell. The Puritan Jonathan Edwards wrote these words about the natural state or condition of man in his work, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which I'm sure many of you have read. And he says, So that thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell. They have deserved the fiery pit and are already sentenced to it. And God is dreadfully provoked. His anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of His wrath in hell. In other words, Edwards is making a distinction between souls that are already suffering in hell and the souls of those who reject Him who are still alive on this earth. And they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger. Neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold Him up one moment. The devil is waiting for them. Hell is gaping for them in the sense that hell's mouth is wide open, even drooling, just waiting for them. The flames gather and flash about them and would fain lay hold on them and swallow them up. The fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out and they have no interest in any mediator. There are no means within reach that can be any security to them. You have nothing to stand upon nor anything to take hold of. There is nothing between you and hell but the air. It is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up. And a few sentences later he goes on, If God should withdraw his hand, they, and he's talking about the good state of your bodily constitution, the care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation, they, anything that you could do, would avail no more to keep you from falling than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it. Quite a description, isn't it, of the natural state of man apart from God. But how many of us have thought about ourselves in that kind of a situation because of our sin? How many of us have understood that because of our sin, we have forfeited any claim to God? We are totally unworthy. And that our sin must be punished and that God's favor is beyond our power to gain it back. Do we really understand that apart from Jesus Christ we stand before God as tried, found guilty, and condemned to eternal hell? Do we see ourselves in that way at all? Do these words of the hymn pierce your heart not the labors of my hand can fulfill thy law's demands. Thou must save, and thou alone. You see, beloved, it's only when you and I understand all of that by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit that we can also then understand the beauty and the preciousness of the grace and mercy of God. And only when we understand that true condition along with the grace and mercy of God and its preciousness, only then can we understand the urgency of missions. The urgency of the gospel message going forth because everyone else apart from God is as Edwards describes. The urgency of spreading that gospel message in some way. God's grace toward His people has been simply defined as His unmerited favor or His giving us that which we don't deserve. And His mercy which we don't deserve flows from His grace and includes His compassion and pity and is simply defined as God not giving to us or we might say withholding from us that which we do deserve. One theological definition of grace includes both of these ideas. Listen, grace is God's voluntary, unrestrained and unmerited favor toward guilty sinners, granting them justification in life. Again, what they do not deserve instead of the penalty of death which they deserved. Another definition, I think, says it even a little more colorful. The grace of God is love freely shown toward guilty sinners contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity. Beloved, once we understand our true condition because of sin, only then can the born-again heart understand that God's sovereign grace is showering, showering, pouring out what is not deserved. And again, that includes His sovereign mercy, which is withholding what is deserved. Grace presupposes man's sin. If sin were not in the picture, there would be no need for grace. And mercy then presupposes the effects of sin, which is misery both in body and soul. We've said that a number of times in a variety of instances that where mercy is needed or compassion and pity, where that is needed, misery already exists. And mercy then is relieving misery. In His mercy. In His mercy, God withholds from us that which we deserve. We deserve to wallow in our sinful misery. We deserve to be left in our sin and to be condemned to hellish agony. We deserve to be discontent. We deserve to be without peace and without comfort. We deserve that God would turn His back on us and that He never shine His face and favor on us. but that His anger and punishment always be against us. That's what we deserve. We deserve to be miserable in both body and soul, and our misery includes the truth that we are unable to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. See, nowhere in the Bible, beloved, does it say that God helps those who help themselves. And that's because we can't. But His benefits to us, as David says in Psalm 103, include His mercy in that, as verses 9 and 10 tell us, He will not always accuse, which we deserve. We deserve His accusation. Nor will He harbor His anger forever. We deserve His anger. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. God's mercy includes His loving devotion toward His covenant people who cannot support themselves in a sinful world. and therefore upon them he pours out his tender compassion and his pity. The parables of the good Samaritan who helped the man left for dead and the prodigal son in which the father didn't give the son what he deserved but had pity and compassion on him are demonstrations of God's mercy. Their misery was relieved and God's mercy, beloved, was demonstrated for his people in that Jesus Christ got what we deserve. Isaiah says it clearly in Isaiah 53, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And the Bible then describes the character of God's mercy. Psalm 57 verse 10 speaks of the bounty of God's mercy when it says, For your mercy reaches to the heavens. And God's mercy endures forever. That means it will never be taken away and we will never get what we have truly deserved. David says in 1 Chronicles 16, verse 34, he sings, Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. And Psalm 86, verse 5, talks about those who receive God's mercy, the recipients. For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you. Beloved, there are many who have argued at some point in time that God is not love. He can't be. Otherwise, He could never send anyone to hell. Therefore, if hell is real, if some go to hell, God certainly cannot be love. Because if some go to hell, God is not fair. He's unfair. But that's really the completely wrong way for us to think about this. We are not to look at the fact that God passes over some and leaves them in what they and we all deserve. But we are to be in awe that He chose any and all, especially me, and has showered upon me what is not deserved. You want to talk about unfair. It is unfair, beloved, that Jesus Christ took my punishment. It is unfair that I am saved and don't get what I deserve. But you never hear people screaming about that, do you? You never hear people complaining about that unfairness. Only that if some go to hell, certainly God must be unfair. God's grace showering, pouring out upon me that which is not deserved. Again, David says it beautifully in Psalm 103, beginning at verse 3, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. In verse 11, For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. A beautiful demonstration of God's grace again. And why is this true? Paul says it beautifully in Romans 5. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. In verses 6-8, you see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. And Paul goes on in Romans 8, 1, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And Paul says in Galatians 1, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom we glory forever and ever. Amen. And beloved, that gift of salvation through the mediator Jesus Christ, the one who brings the two opposing sides back together. That gift is the most precious, undeserved, unmerited, unearned gift of all. And Paul gives a beautiful summary of God's grace in his own life when he says in 1 Timothy chapter 1, beginning at verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me the worst of sinners Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life. Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, the fullness of God's grace is seen in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. But there's so much that we could talk about in connection with that gift of salvation. The order of salvation, as we call it. Calling, regeneration, conversion, all the way to preservation and glorification. Everything included in our atonement. We can't possibly mention all the details taught in Scripture, but we can mention some of them. And, of course, we have a beautiful summary in that first answer of the Heidelberg Catechism. He has fully, my faithful Savior Jesus Christ has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood. He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ by His Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. a beautiful display there of what we deserve and what it is that we get. You see, congregation, remembering that the object of grace, the one to whom God freely gives His grace, remembering that He is totally and completely unworthy, we then rejoice because by grace the way of redemption, which was closed and locked, is opened. And God's people are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Justification is that free act of God's grace by which He declares you and me not guilty, but instead forgiven. And He accepts us in His sight as holy and righteous only for the sake of Christ's righteousness has freely imputed, given to you and me. Justification, we know, is the most beautiful truth. And as one commentator says, it is the transition from the status of condemned a criminal awaiting a terrible sentence to an heir, boys and girls, a child awaiting a fabulous inheritance. We didn't deserve that fabulous inheritance, but it is given to us. We deserved the terrible sentence which Christ took upon Himself. Paul says in Titus 3, verse 7, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. And God's grace includes the undeserved gift of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us with new life and gives us that gift of faith to believe the truth of God, the truth of ourselves, the truth of Jesus Christ and His salvation, the truth of all that God says in His Word and to receive by faith all of the benefits earned for me by Christ. Again, nothing in my hands I bring. God must save, and God alone. And it's only by His grace, beloved, His grace alone, that the message of redemption goes forth both to the ears of those who are already the objects of God's grace, even as we sit here this morning, but also to those ears which will be the objects of God's grace, those whom God has graciously chosen. In Acts 14, verse 3, we read, So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there in Iconium, speaking boldly for the Lord who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. Beloved, the grace of God is the source of all spiritual blessings that are poured out upon sinners saved by grace. And we would be remiss if we left out the classic verses that talk about this from Ephesians 2. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. Even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And not of yourselves, Paul says, it is a gift of God. Not by works, lest anyone should boast. See, the grace of God is the source of our very existence. And it is by His grace alone that God's people indeed find comfort in times of sorrow and loss and enjoy a calm spirit in the midst of adversity as well as peace in the midst of uncertainty. It is by His grace alone that we can be patient in adversity and thankful in prosperity. And it's by His grace alone that His people are sanctified, cleansed more and more daily from the pollution of sin until one day the Holy Spirit delivers us perfect into the glorious presence of God. You see, it's by the grace of God alone that we persevere to the end, that we will make it, you see. Just as God's plan of salvation is certain, so is the Christian's future assured. That's what Peter says in 1 Peter 1. Not only is God's inheritance reserved in heaven for His believers, but they too, through faith, are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. And Paul rightly adds, Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. You see, beloved, we've been brought from hellish rags to heavenly riches, from death to life, from being useless nobodies to being children of the Heavenly Father. And every morning as we open our eyes to another new day, may our opening song of praise be, oh, to grace how great a debtor for daily I'm constrained to be. And the greatest response that we can give for God's grace and mercy is thanks. Thanks to the Lord, as the psalmist says, give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever. And we know that that too, our thanksgiving, is a benefit of God's grace, isn't it? The new attitude, the new direction, the new desires. A new way of leaning, thankfulness to God. Our whole life, thoughts, words, actions, work habits, relationships, our service to the Lord and for His kingdom in whatever way that may be, everything about us is to be a demonstration of thanks to God for His undeserved blessing of grace to us. We know it's not for everyone, which is a hard fact to swallow. That's God's sovereign choice. But it is for some. And that too is God's sovereign choice. Beloved, what kind of thank you note are you? How does your life read as a thank you note? By His grace, God's message of saving grace, calling to repentance and faith, goes forth and He brings many, He brings many to humbly understand the truth that in Christ, I'm not getting what I deserve. But I'm getting what I don't deserve and what I didn't even want. And what is the result of God's grace and mercy poured out upon you and me? Peace. Peace with God. That's the work of the mediator, Jesus Christ. To bring those two opposing sides back together again that we might have peace with God both now and forever. And beloved, may each one of us be able to confidently say with Paul, by the grace of God, I am what I am. What is that? A sinner saved by grace. What a precious gift from our sovereign, holy, unchanging, and almighty God, as it has been described. God's riches at Christ's expense. Amen. Shall we pray? Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed we stand amazed as we are reminded so vividly of our condition apart from You, of what it is that we deserve. Yet we thank You and praise You with such profound joy in our hearts that what we deserve is not what you give to us. But Jesus Christ has taken that and we are given the riches and the glory of eternal life in your presence. Father, may we be those who walk before you humbly, day by day, yet confidently as those who desire to share that message with those who are still lost in sin and hanging over the open mouth of hell by a simple thread. We thank you and praise you, Lord, for your grace and your mercy and your peace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.