A Sweet Bow

A Sweet Bow

(No. 3317)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1912.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"He delights in mercy." Micah 7:18.

Sons of men, rejoice that such a God has revealed Himself to you! This
should cause a universal Hallelujah, the whole world over, as soon as
ever it is heard! "He delights in mercy." Clap your hands and rejoice
before Him! Yes, exceedingly rejoice! The heathen did not find this
out. Although they had many gods, differing one from another in
character, none of them were ever gods of mercy! They were usually
fierce demons–some of them only rejoicing in the exaction of human
blood. Go this very day to Hindustan and see what gods man makes unto
himself–gods more beastly, more cruel, more devilish than himself!
Such is not the living and true God! Far from taking pleasure in the
sufferings of creatures, He tells us plainly that He delights in mercy.
It is not enough that He is merciful, but He delightsin this high
prerogative! While we may well suppose that every attribute of God
gives Him pleasure in the exercise, mercy is supremely singled out as
being especially His favorite! Mercy is the last attribute openly
manifested–He exercised His power in making men before they sinned or
needed mercy–and He displayed His wisdom in balancing the clouds and
piling the hills before He needed to show mercy, for sin as yet had not
come into the world. If I may say so, mercy is God's Benjamin and He
delights most of all in it. It is the son of His right hand, though,
alas, in bringing it forth, it might well have been called the son of
sorrow, too, for mercy came into this world through the sorrows of the
Only-Begotten Son of God! He delights in mercy, just as some men
delight in trade, some in the arts, some in professions–and each man,
according to his delight, becomes proficient in pursuing a work for the
very love thereof. So God is proficient in mercy. He addicts Himself to
it. He is most Godlike, most happy if such a thing may be said of Him!
When He is stretching out His right hand with His golden scepter in it,
and saying to the guilty, "Come to Me. Touch this scepter and you shall
live!" He delights in mercy!

Now, surely it would suffice were I to sound this trumpet again and
again with its celestial monotone. If you heard nothing but the same
unvarying notes and did but remember them, believe them and come to God
in consequence of them–there would be enough of a sermon in the text
without further exposition or comment. "He delights in mercy."
Nevertheless, as you are willing to listen, it will not be grievous to
me to speak on such a lovely theme. Let me, therefore, mention some
facts which prove it, answer some objections that are raised against it
and warn you against some perversions of it and then endeavor to push
home the great lessons which spring from it.

I. FACTS WHICH PROVE THAT GOD DELIGHTS IN MERCY.

This is clear from the first dawn of promise. When our first parents
sinned, He might, if He had pleased, without straining the words which
He had spoken, have destroyed them both and so at once have put an end
to the race of rebels. He had said, "In the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die." If He had chosen to give to that a literal as
well as a spiritual meaning, He might surely have put on the black cap
and condemned our parents to perish on the spot! But why did He permit
them to live and to become the parents of an innumerable race? Why,
from that single pair, has He allowed the millions of the race to
spring? Because every man that is born becomes a sinner and in everyone
of these millions there is space for God's mercy–these all furnish so
many platforms, I might say, on which God might display His mercy–so
many millions of black foils against which God shall put the sparkling
sapphire of His mercy that its brightness may be more clearly seen!
Surely, it is only because He delights in mercy that He spares this
earth to swarm with sinners and to be covered over with multitudes of
transgressors!

That He delights in mercy is clear from the fact that oftentimes after
His anger has grown hot, He has spared the offender when he has
repented. God determined to destroy the race of Israel in the
wilderness. "Let Me alone that I may

destroy them." But the prayer of Moses touched the tender part of God,
namely, His mercy–and He said that He would spare the people for His
Covenant and for His Prophet's sake. Even Ahab, that most cruel of
kings, when he had been threatened, humbled himself and God said to
Elijah, "Go and say unto Ahab, Because he has humbled himself, this
thing shall not be in his day." And that great city of Nineveh, which
had been given up to all manner of evil, God had said to Jonah, "Go and
cry, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" But when they
put themselves in sackcloth and repented at the Prophet's warning, the
Lord would not destroy the city, but spared the multitude for a season.
Oh, I tell you, the tears and cries of men move the heart of the Most
High! Not a prayer that ever comes from the most guilty breast, if it
is but sincere, fails to enter into the ear of the God of Mercy! The
tears of penitents force their way into His soul. He has a bottle for
those precious drops! He has a ready record for all their groans and
sighs. He has proved this in innumerable cases. He has drawn the sword
from its scabbard and put it back again when the man has repented. He
has lifted the axe, yet laid it down again when the farmer has pleaded
and said, "Let it alone this year, also." His sparing, even when His
anger has grown hot, proves that He delights in mercy!

Brothers and Sisters, I appeal to all of you in this present assembly!
The fact that we are here tonight after all the provocations which we
have given to God proves that He delights in mercy! Ah, I need not
begin with the worst, the openly worst. Let me mention some of you who
have been trained from your childhood in the paths of piety and yet you
forgot God. You lived without Him–prayer was neglected, His day was a
weariness–to go up to His house was a toil. And yet you have been
spared though you were useless and unprofitable servants! He might have
chased you out of the house and given you your portion among the
tormenters, but He has borne with your ill manners and spared you to
this hour! Ah, but there are some who have gone farther. They have
broken His Laws! They have trampled on His statutes. Some have cursed
His name–some here have done it! They have dared to imprecate
damnation on themselves and have done it often. They have spoken
against God, perhaps with impious and infidel lips. They have done
worse than that–if worse can be! They have persecuted God's children
and that is to touch the apple of His eye, and to hurt Him in the most
tender place! We seemed, some of us, in the days of our sin, as if we
would ride steeplechase to perdition–as if nothing could stop the
insanity of our suicidal resolve! We would sin even if sin were bitter
to us. We would pursue our ruin at all risks and hazards and yet He
cried, "How can I give you up?" He turned to plead with us! A mother's
voice pleaded– from the grave she pleaded! The fever came and preached
to us on the sickbed and we heard it. The cholera came and preached–we
heard its voice in the street–we saw its power in the frequent
funerals that passed along through the city. The preacher came and
spoke as best he could and besought you, as a brother, that you would
turn–that you would not perish, but would turn to God! And all theses
entreaties–these stretching out of the hand, this wooing and these
tears which God has used upon you have all been in vain to now–and you
have sinned and revolted yet more and more! Does He not delight in
mercy to continue still to invite, still to mourn and not to cut it
short by destroying you altogether?

And the very best proof that God delights in mercy, I think, is to be
found in the great number of persons who are saved. I say the great
number of those who are saved, for he who says they are but few,
contorts some passages of God's Word and understands it not as a whole.
Look yonder, if your eyes can see as mine can, by faith–you can no
more count the spirits that rejoice before the Throne of God than you
can count the stars in the sky, or the sand upon the seashore! Their
music yonder is like great thunders, or like the mighty waves of the
sea, for they are ten thousand times ten thousand, a company that no
man can number, all having washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of Jesus, all saved by the mercy of our God! And here below,
how many there are of us who are making our way to the Celestial City,
led by the precious Christ who is our Captain–and in all of our cases
the mercy of God is seen!

Nor is the mercy of God to be discovered only in the numbers, but it is
seen also in the character of those who are saved, for God does not
select the most virtuous, the most chaste, the most honest, the most
talented. He often takes–to make them monuments of His mercy–the
vilest, the most abased and blasphemous! He lays hold upon the polluted
publican instead of the proud Pharisee. He singles out the wandering
prodigal before many who thought themselves far better! He lifts the
poor off the dunghill and sets him among princes! Glory be to the
Infinite Majesty of Eternal Grace that has snatched brands out of the
burning, who has lifted men from the very gates of Hell and passed them
through the gates of Heaven! The guilt of one soul might sink a
world–the accumulated guilt of all the millions whom Christ redeemed
will stand forever as a proof that God delights in mercy!

Reflect a moment upon the conduct of those saved after they have tasted
that the Lord is gracious, for albeit they are renewed, yet they are
not perfect. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, we ought to be ashamed to have
to confess it tonight! Blushes should scarlet our cheeks, that we have
been ungrateful, unbelieving, unfaithful! We have sinned against the
gracious Father who has taken us into His family! We have sinned
against the love of God, against the blood of Christ, against the sweet
comforts of the Holy Spirit–and yet no child of His was ever cast
away–no Believer in Christ was ever disowned of God! The mercy which
once flowed to them, flows on forever, never pausing for an
instant–because He delights in mercy!

But think, and here is the main point, think with regard to these
guilty ones who have been saved, at what an expense it was all done. He
spared not His own Son! A son is most dear to a father, yet God so
loved mercy that He gave the Only-Begotten to the smart and to the
death-pang–to the Cross and the sepulcher–that Mercy might ride on
the milk-white steed, a queen among the sons of men! Behold the Savior
bleeding! I pray you let me portray Him to you with hands and feet
pierced with nails. Mark His sufferings! View His agonies and let me
tell you that this was all for the sons of men–that the mercy of the
Everlasting Father, without bound and limit–might come to those who
seek His face through Jesus Christ! Further proof, surely, is not
needed. This is proof, overwhelming proof, that should confound
despair, proof that should make unbelief impossible! He who gave His
son to die mustbe a God that delights in mercy!

II. SOME OBJECTIONS ARE OFTEN RAISED, which I shall very briefly meet.

"If He delights in mercy," says one, "why are some men lost?" Surely,
Sir, God does not so delight in mercy as to tarnish His justice! If He
did, there would be a slur upon His mercy, for sometimes it is not
mercy to the many to forgive the few. It were no mercy for London to
set free all the burglars and murderers. It were no mercy to England if
every man who had committed murder were allowed to go red-handed
without punishment! Punishment for the guilty is required even by
mercy, itself. Remember, of all the lost, there is not one but has
simply and barely the due reward of his sins. And if that had been
roughly and evenly given to him, he would have known no reprieve that
allowed him to live here, after his first offense! To full many of
them, certainly to all of you, if finally lost, you will have had mercy
presented to you. You have had Christ preached to you! You have been
bid to come to Him! You have been assured, on God's own authority, that
if you trust Jesus, you shall be saved! Then if you do it not, lay not
your ruin at the door of God's mercy, but at the door of your own
folly! If a man dies of fever because he will not take his medicine,
who but he is at fault? If a man leaps over a precipice willfully, let
him blame no one if he dashes himself to pieces! On the head of every
lost one, his own condemnation lies, as yours will unless you turn to
God and repent!

"Ah," says another, "but God is not always merciful, look at His
severity sometimes–Korah, Dathan and Abiram are swallowed up–Sodom is
destroyed by fire from Heaven." Yes, Sir, and even Mercy saw this done
without a tear in her eyes. What? Should Sodom go unpunished? Shall the
bestial vice of which Sodom was guilty never be checked? Why, if this
should spread among the sons of men, it would bring in its infernal
train ten thousand times more damage than the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah! The sin itself is infinitely worse than the fire which burned
it up! There is mercy in the physician if he sees poison in the hand
when he cuts it out and cauterizes the wound. And this is what God did
with Sodom. He did, as it were, cut out the plague-spot and cauterize
it, lest that filthy sin should spread over all mankind! As for Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram, their death was the life of others–they were
pestilent traitors against the dominion of God and unless they had
died, others would have revolted and have perished, too. Many of those
things which we call severe judgments are only mercies in disguise. The
great fire of London–how the preachers preached about that! I suppose
there are hundreds of sermons extant to prove that the great fire of
London was a punishment upon London for its gluttony and covetousness!
Why, what greater blessing ever befell the city than that fire, burning
up as it did all those fever and pest dens where all kinds of malaria
and disease constantly lay festering? Nothing could have been better!
The deaths of some in the plague before the fire had called attention
to the evil–and then the fire came and swept the evil away! I do not
doubt that even cholera in our own times has been simply God's great
sanitary commissioner, sent to London to warn us to cleanse this and
sweep away that, that so, on the whole, life may last longer and mercy
may prevail. Judge not God, then, by your feeble sense! Wait awhile
till you see His judgments in the long run and then you shall discern
how they are always seasoned with mercy and love holds the sword!

Should anyone say, with blank surprise, "If God delights in mercy, why
is there such a thing as the unpardonable sin?" I think I would reply,
with a burst of gratitude, "Is it not a great mercy that there is only
one sin that is unpardonable?" There might have been a catalog of
crimes for which forgiveness was impossible! There is but one–that one
is only unpardonable because the person who commits it has so seared
his conscience that he never asks for pardon. Any of you, man or woman,
that sincerely asks for mercy, shall have it, whatever sin you may have
committed! But that one sin strikes a cold chill about the heart and,
henceforth, the man never desires mercy, but perishes an impenitent and
a careless sinner!

Should another say, "How is God merciful, when I feel in my own self
that He cannot have mercy upon me?" I should reply, Your feelings are
not to be trusted! Whatever despair may whisper, or doubts may suggest,
one text of Scripture is worth 50 fears and doubts, or fifty thousand
of either. You may be a black sinner, but He delights to wash you. You
may have offended Him, year after year, and done despite to His Grace,
but His arm is still not shortened that He cannot save. I care not how
far you may have gone, I am sure He can come after you. Lost sheep,
bleating on the mountains, the Shepherd can hear you and the Shepherd
can reach you! You may fall into a pit but it shall not be so deep that
He cannot bring you out! While life remains there is hope! Sin as you
may have sinned, there is abundance of pardon with a gracious God. Oh,
put not your thought so in opposition to the declaration of Heaven, but
believe tonight that God is able and willing to forgive you–and come
with a penitent prayer and find forgiveness now! All objections to the
delight of God in mercy are but illusions of your brain–or delusions
of your heart.

III. THERE IS PERIL OF MISUSING THIS MERCY OF GOD, lest instead of
leading us to repentance, it should

plunge us deeper into sin. Though God delights in mercy, sin is no
trifle in His estimation. Sin is an enormous evil, an evil so great
that it never could have been prevented from destroying us all except
by God, Himself, coming into this world, taking upon Himself our Nature
and suffering to the very death in our place! Calvary tells us that sin
is not a thing to be laughed at. It cost our Savior unutterable groans
and griefs that can never be measured to deliver us from our guilt! And
if the sinner comes not to Christ, it shall cost him endless tears! It
shall cost him everlasting misery! His sins shall sink him to Hell
forever! Oh, trifle not with sin because God is merciful! This is a
cruel, brutal thing to do–to sin because Grace abounds. If you do so,
you shall find that there is no Grace for you!

Say not that because God is merciful a prayer or two on your dying bed
will suffice. How do you know you may ever have a dying bed? Men fall
dead in the streets! There was one who always said, "I shall set it all
right at last. I shall say, 'Lord, have mercy upon me,' and it will be
all right." Returning home drunk one night, he spurred his horse over
the parapet of a bridge into a deep river–and the last words he was
heard to say was a sentence too blasphemous for me to repeat. And why
may not you die so? You cannot tell. Put no trust in deathbed
repentances–they are, of all things, the most deceitful! Every thief
repents when he comes to the prison–and every murderer will leave a
word of repentance on his pathway to the gallows! It is a sign of the
heart being set right to cry and groan when you are coming near to your
punishment. God is merciful to these who seek Him early, but
procrastinators will find that He is just. "Today, if you will hear His
voice, harden not your hearts, lest He swear in His wrath that you
shall not enter into His rest."

Though God is merciful you are not, therefore, at liberty to despise
the Lord Jesus and His salvation, for all His mercy flows to us through
the silver pipe of Jesus Christ the Mediator. I speak advisedly–there
is no mercy in Heaven or earth in the shape of saving mercyexcept
through Jesus Christ! Unless you come to the Cross for it, you shall
not have it. God has nailed up every other door but this. This one,
alone, is left open–the door sprinkled with blood on the lintel and
the two side posts, and on which is written, "Whoever believes in the
Lord Jesus Christ shall never perish, but have everlasting life." There
is an alternative. It is, "He that believes not, shall be condemned."
What? If he does this and that, or if he humbles himself, if he is
virtuous? Yes, yes, God makes no exception! The sentence comes to kings
and queens and emperors, as well as to crossing sweepers, paupers, or
even to convicts, "He that believes notshall be condemned." They shall
take which they will. If they will have Christ and God's mercy, so be
it–God's Grace has compelled them to take that. But if they will not
have Christ, there is no mercy–no, not a drop of mercy–but wrath,
righteous wrath against those that despise the Son of God!

Nor must you think that the Doctrine of God's Free Mercy at all comes
into conflict with the Doctrine of God's Electing Love. No, rather, by
His election it is seen that God delights in mercy–thinking mercy,
planning mercy before men needed mercy, in the Eternal
Covenant–determining the persons upon whom mercy should
come–selecting them, not because of any good in themselves, but
entirely out of His own good pleasure, and thus proving His mercy! If
God had sent into the world a Gospel full of conditions and of human
doings, it would have been no Gospel to anybody, for

no man could fulfill the conditions except by Divine Grace. But He has
sent an unconditional Gospel! He will have mercy upon whom He will have
mercy, and He will have compassion upon whom He will have
compassion–and in this great Free-Grace Gospel, the mercy of God is
magnified to the fullest.

IV. WHAT IS THE LESSON FROM ALL THIS? IIGodis so merciful let His
ministers preach of His mercy.

If God delights in mercy and not in sacrifice, do not let His ministers
be dressing themselves up and performing genuflections, bowing to the
east, winking with their eyes, making signs with their fingers,
offering incense and I know not what besides! God is not a child to be
amused with toys that are beneath the notice of babies. God delights in
mercy. Let the pulpit, therefore, ring with mercy! Let the preacher be
continually telling of mercy through the blood of Jesus! Mercy through
faith in His name! Mercy for crimes of deepest dye, mercy that comes to
us through the atoning Savior! This ought to be our daily message when
we preach. We ought to remember that God delights in mercy. As God's
ambassadors let us proclaim most freely that which He has the most
pleasure in, His mercy–His mercy–oh, His mercy, it endures forever!

Christian people, here is a noble example for you. If God delights in
mercy, and you are His children, be like He is– let mercy be your
delight! Be merciful to the poor. Be merciful to the ignorant. Be
merciful to the guilty. Never be the man to cast the first stone at the
fallen woman, for your Master did not condemn her. Never be the man to
pass by the naked and the poverty-stricken. Your Lord's eyes were quick
to detect the leper. Mercy well becomes the heir of the God of Mercy!
And if you are not merciful, how can you expect to obtain mercy, or
think to be numbered among the children of the Great Merciful One? To
all of you I would say–take care, as you expect the mercy of God, to
deal it out to others. Never say, "I won't forgive," for you seal your
own condemnation when you do! And if you forgive not your brother his
trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you. You have
chosen your own destruction when you shut the door against your child,
or against your neighbor and say, "I will treasure up that enmity as
long as I live." I tell you, Sirs, your offerings at God's altar are an
abomination to Him until you have forgiven all of your fellows their
trespasses! Your prayers cannot come up before God–they are most
effectually hindered. How can you pray when one of the petitions which
God puts into your mouth is this–"Forgive us our debts as we forgive
them that are indebted unto us"? How can you, with one hand on your
brother's throat, lift your other hand and say, "God be merciful to me,
a sinner"? Go your way, tonight, and if possible, before you close your
eyes in sleep make your peace with any whom you have offended or who
have offended you! As God delights in mercy, let the children of God
likewise delight in mercy!

Still, the great lesson I want to bring out is this–if God delights in
mercy, then why should those who have offended Him be afraid to seek
Him? He will hear your prayers be they ever so feeble or broken! He is
ready to forgive you, however grossly you may have offended. Think of
that! If He is so kind, why do you stay away from Him?

Oh, come to Him, come now! 'Tis all mercy today. You are not bidden to
come to a judge, nor to advance to the bar where the sentence shall go
against you–'tis a sweeter note you hear–"Come unto Me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you
shall find rest unto your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is
light." Oh, I wish I could lead you to the Lord! It is not in my power.
His Spirit, alone, can do it, but ah, do come, and welcome! There is
not a hard word in the whole of the Bible for a coming sinner! There is
nothing to keep back a soul that desires to be at peace with God. God's
House is open! God's heart is open! God's table is spread! God waits to
be gracious–no, He comes to meet the sinner that comes to Him! Are you
willing to have Him and to have His mercy? If so, you may have it!
Come, then–come and welcome, Sinner, come!–

"Lord You have won, at length I yield!

My heart, by mighty Grace compelled

Surrenders all to Thee!

Against Your terrors long I strove,

But who can stand against Your love?

Love conquers even me!

If You had bid Your thunders roll,

And lighting's flash to blast my soul,

I still had stubborn been–

But mercy has my heart subdued,

A bleeding Savior I have viewed, And now I hate my sin."

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 136; EPHESIANS1

Let us make this occasion a time of praise and thanksgiving! Let our
hearts dance at the name of our God! Let our lips give expression
thereto in joyful music!

Verse 1. Ogive thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy
endures forever That is the beginning of our praise–the essential
goodness of God from which all the streams of mercy flow. Oh, deep
abyss of Infinite Love!

2, 3. Ogive thanks unto the God of gods: for His mercy endures forever
Ogive thanks to the Lord of lords: for His mercy endures forever His
greatness, which is beyond that of all potentates on earth or
principalities in Heaven–this, also, is to be our joyous theme song!
His greatness and His goodness together make us magnify His name.

4. To Him who alone does great wonders: for His mercy endures forever
Nothing is absolutely wonderful except God–all other things are
dwarfed and diminished in wondrousness as compared with Him. The Seven
Wonders of the World are trifles compared with the seven-million
wonders of God!

5. To Him that by wisdom made the heavens: for His mercy endures
forever They boasted of the Colossus that strode across the sea, but
what shall we say to the heavens that span not only the earth but all
the universe? And in those heavens there is mercy to be seen as well as
wisdom–the adaptation of the physical world to the circumstances of
man–so that there is a relation between the weight of every dewdrop
and the structure of the human body!

6-9. To Him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for His
mercy endures forever To Him that made great light, for His mercy
endures forever The sun to rule by day: for His mercy endures forever
The moon andstars to rule by night: for His mercy endures forever.See
how these ancient godly ones loved to dwell upon a thing! When the note
was "light" they did not just sing it through and have done with it,
but there were many repetitions in their music. But the music of today
is "rattle through it as fast as you can, and quickly have done with
it." Our forefathers liked to linger a bit on these sweet praises of
God. So did the Hebrews." "Great lights!" Yes, but there must be the
sun and the moon and the stars. They could never have enough of
it–they rolled these sweet morsels under their tongue and then out
upon their lips as they praised God!

10. To Him that smote Egypt in their first-born: for His mercy endures
forever Yet it was an awful judgment and it needs a reverent, lowly,
saintly spirit to sing over even the judgments of God. Had certain
theologians of the present time been present at the Red Sea, they would
have cried in sentimental sympathy over the Egyptians! But instead of
that, Miriam took a timbrel and said, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously." The fates of sinful men are of small moment as
compared with the Glory of God! Jehovah fills all things and when the
heart is fully taken up with the Glory of God, it learns to sing even
this stern refrain–"To Him that smote Egypt in their first-born: for
His mercy endures forever."

11-15. And brought out Israel from among them: for His mercy endures
forever: with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for His
mercy endures forever To Him which divided the Red Sea into parts: for
His mercy endures forever: and made Israel to pass through the midst of
it: for His mercy endures forever: but overthrew Pharaoh and his host
in the Red Sea: for His mercy endures forever See how they prolonged
the strain–and what blessed exercise this is, to take mercies to
pieces and examine all the details–and have a fresh verse for each
particular of God's goodness to us! Glory be unto His blessed name
forever and ever!

16. To Him which led His people through the wilderness; for His mercy
endures forever Therefore He will lead you through the wilderness and
bring you through great droughts–and your manna shall drop from
Heaven, and your waters flow from the Rock. Sing, then, to His name,
you that are in the wilderness!

17. To Him which smote great kings: for His mercy endures forever That
is a terrible and tragic matter, that smiting of kings. Yes, but these
singers did not groan over it! There are no less than four notes over
this.

18-23. And slew famous kings: for His mercy endures forever: Sihon king
of the Amorites: for His mercy endures forever: and Og the king of
Bashan: for His mercy endures forever: and gave their land for an
heritage: for His mercy endures forever: even an heritage unto Israel,
His servant: for His mercy endures forever Who remembered us in our low

estate: for His mercy endures forever The note descends a little from
the martial strain of trumpet, from smitten kings and the drowned
chivalry of Egypt. But though it sinks, how it sweetens! What a soft,
clear sound there is about it.

24-26. And has redeemed us from our enemies: for His mercy endures
forever. Who gives food to all flesh: for His mercy endures forever. O
give thanks unto the God of Heaven: for His mercy endures forever
Glorious Redemption! That is always the choicest note of all. Ring that
silver bell again! This is the Christian's true promised land of great
spiritual blessings. May we have faith enough to enter into the full
possession of it. It is a very wonderful chapter!

Ephesians 1:1-2. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the
Lord Jesus Christ That is a sort of crossing of the Jordan to go into
the land and get Grace and peace. Grace changes us, peace quiets us,
and then we are over Jordan.

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ.They are all yours! He has not blessed you with a part of the
blessings, but with all of them! They are all yours. Have you the
courage and the faith to take possession of them? That is the point. If
you have Grace and peace you are in the land. Now let your foot rest
first on one blessing and then on another and appropriate them all to
yourself.

4. According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
What an inheritance! To be made holy! Oh, that we might be perfected as
our Father which is in Heaven is perfect, sanctified through and
through! We are elected to this end–it is the very objective of the
Divine choice that we may be without blame before Him in love.

5-6. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will To the
praise of the Glory of His Grace, wherein He has made us accepted in
the Beloved. See how Paul goes on taking one city after another of this
heavenly Canaan? It was election. Now it is adoption. Now it is
acceptance in the Beloved. He is a good Joshua for us if we will but
really and truly follow Him and take possession of the promised land.

7-10. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His Grace; wherein He has abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He has
purposed in Himself: that in the dispensation of the fullness of time
He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
Heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him. Oh, what a wonderful
gathering that will be when all the things in Christ shall be gathered
together! No division among the people of God! When the whole redeemed
inheritance shall be one and we shall as one body possess it forever.
"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance." Got it! God has given
it to us! We have a right to it–we are the heirs of it in

Christ!

11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel
of His own will He not only wills it, but He works it! When He wills to
give His people a broad inheritance–of that large inheritance they
shall certainly have for He "works all things after the counsel of His
own will."

12-14. That we should be to the praise of His Glory, who first trusted
in Christ. In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the Word of
Truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that you
believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is
the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of His Glory. You have got the Holy Spirit.
He is God's seal upon you that you are, indeed, saved men and women! In
getting that, you have already received the earnest, that is, a part of
the inheritance never to be taken back. A pledge has to be restored,
but an earnest is kept forever! The Spirit of God is ours and in having
Him we have all things!

15, 16. Therefore I, also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord
Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you,
making mention of you in my prayers. Having got so much, you might get
a great deal more.

17, 18. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of
Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may
know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the Glory
of His inheritance in the saints. That is a wonderful passage! We are
not only to know our inheritance in God, but God's inheritance in us!
Wonderful thing, and yet it is so! The Lord's portion is His people,
Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. Joshua gave each one of the people
his own portion, but all the people were God's portion! And today God
delights in His people. He finds a solace in those whom He chose, in
those whom He redeemed by blood, in those whom He brought near into
daily fellowship with Himself!

19-23. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who
believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own
right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality,
andpower, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and has put all
things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to
the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in
all