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[0:00] Psalm 33, 18-22 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

[0:33] Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

[0:49] Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time of fellowship and of communion together with you as we think of your death for us, for your resurrection, for your life in us, for our hope that is in you, the mercy you give to us.

[1:07] Lord, we thank you for it. Help us to dwell upon it. In Jesus' name. Amen. I know when I face trials, as was talked about, often I say grace and mercy.

[1:22] Grace and mercy. I just think of his grace and of his mercy. And I was just looking in the word and there's another one with those two. There's grace, mercy and peace.

[1:37] Grace, grace, mercy and peace. Now, we read in the word of Luke 18 of the publican, the tax collector and the Pharisee. Luke 18, 13. You might want to turn there.

[1:51] Along the theme of mercy. Mercy. Luke 18, 13.

[2:03] Two men went to the temple to pray. One had not got peace. And one was quite peaceful.

[2:13] Luke 18, 13. The context there is of the long praying man who praised himself in his prayer and really prayed to himself in his prayer.

[2:31] And the man who prayed to, the Lord, from the depth of his heart. Beating his chest. Luke 18, 13. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

[2:54] I've heard it put. You could write it. God be merciful to me, the sinner. He saw himself as a vile sinner. God is holy.

[3:05] God hates sin. Habakkuk 1, 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. God is angry at the sinner.

[3:16] Psalm 7, 11. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. Now, I've talked about it of late. Some of our tracks are pretty confronting.

[3:28] They're in your face. But we need a wake-up call. His wrath is against our sin. If we're outside of Christ, we're in great peril. His wrath against our sin, it must be pacified.

[3:41] It must be eased. It must be relieved. It's a spare man from eternal destruction. In Psalm 33, it says that his eye is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.

[3:56] But he's of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Habakkuk 1, 13. Something's got to happen to take that sin away, doesn't it? Because every man is a sinner.

[4:09] None does good. No, not one, as we heard of yesterday. Our soul waited for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

[4:25] Mercy and grace and peace. Mercy, grace and peace. Mercy is our only plea. That was the only plea of the repentant man.

[4:38] It was the only plea he could utter from his lips. It wasn't praising himself for his own apparent godliness or his own credibility or his own credentials of his own making.

[4:52] But his only plea, his only hope was in the mercy of God. And thank God. God provides himself the remedy for our sin.

[5:04] The solution for our sin. He provides it by sending Christ as a satisfaction for our sin. Christ's death pacifies God's wrath. The gift of Christ satisfies the holiness of God.

[5:17] It turns away God's wrath. And in Luke 18, 13, where he says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. When he says, God, be merciful, be merciful, it's got the sense of being propitiated.

[5:33] Now, propitiation is a technical word and I struggle to understand it myself in many ways. But propitiation is the covering for our sin.

[5:46] The man was saying, essentially, reconcile me through the atoning blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. Reconcile me because of your blood that is poured out on the mercy seat for me.

[5:59] And that's propitiation. You know, sometimes, sadly, the word is missing at times in some versions. Propitiation, it's a wonderful, important word.

[6:13] We read of it in Romans 3, 25. It says, Of Christ whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.

[6:27] Well, propitiation, it means he's the sin offering. It means that here's that one whose blood was poured out upon the altar as an atonement. And the propitiation means that God's holiness is satisfied.

[6:41] It's vindicated by his death. It's God is appeased. God's wrath, his anger against our sinfulness is satisfied because the blood, because Christ took that punishment for us.

[6:56] And that's our only hope of mercy. It's his atoning death for us, his work. That can, only that can satisfy God's righteous demands.

[7:07] Because God is holy and righteous. He cannot overlook sin. But through Christ's work at the cross, God is fully satisfied that his righteous standard is met.

[7:19] And isn't that a great source of peace? Grace, mercy and peace. You know, the Pharisee was there. He didn't see any need for prayer, really. He didn't see any need for justification, for God-given righteousness.

[7:33] He had all the righteousness of his own, of his own thinking and making and really of nothing, of substance in reality. But he had a peace of his own mind, of his own making.

[7:45] But he didn't have peace with God. He didn't have the peace of God or peace with God. But the man who came lacking peace and realising his utter need of mercy, of grace, he was the one who found it.

[7:58] He was the one who received it. And God's demands can be fully satisfied because of the cross today. It says in 1 John 2, 2, And he is the propitiation for our sins.

[8:11] And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 4, 10, Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

[8:24] There's that big word again. That atoning blood. That one who took our place. That one who bore our punishment for us.

[8:41] The one who bore our very sins in his own body on the tree. And through union with Christ, we can have that acceptance with God. We're accepted in the beloved, in Christ. We're spared from the wrath of God.

[8:54] I like to call the ushers to come. And that's Jim Modest. He's not here. Paul. And John Veer's not here.

[9:07] Inga. Another couple of brethren that can help. Please step forward. Be a volunteer. Thanks, Peter.

[9:18] Thank you, Michael. We'll go through the service of communion time. And we're talking about at-one-ment with God.

[9:31] This is a communing, a union, a oneness with God. And it's only possible by the cross. And this is a table for believers. It's not a table for a denomination or a select number or just for members or such like.

[9:45] This is a table for believers. So if you're one who trusts Christ as your Lord and Master, then you're very welcome to join us as we take together. So we'll pass the bread and cut and hold together.

[9:57] And you're very welcome. Visit us if you love the Lord to please feel welcome. It says that we should examine ourselves and so let us eat and drink.

[10:08] And I just love the passage of Scripture that says in 1 Timothy 1 verse 2. As I say, I was looking for grace and mercy in a concordance where they're together.

[10:31] And in just about all occasions, peace is there too. Grace, mercy and peace. And we can know that peace this morning. Not a false kind of peace like the Pharisee had.

[10:42] But if you're truly like that repentant sinner, God's grace and mercy is evident. And He is willing.

[10:57] I was challenged with some of the information yesterday. Salvation. Sometimes we put all the emphasis on our own willingness. But really it's His willingness, isn't it?

[11:08] It's His mercy. It's entirely His mercy, His grace that opens His welcome arms to us to receive us to Himself. And this man receiveth sinners, it says of Christ.

[11:21] Thank God for that. He received the repentant sinner. He was the one who went home justified because He had grace and mercy and real peace. Because of God's work at the cross in anticipation as it was at that time.

[11:37] But for us, it's in retrospect. God's wrath has been satisfied because of the cross today. Reconcile me through the atoning blood sprinkled on the mercy seat was the intention of that repentant sinner's prayer.

[11:53] That's our only plea. Mercy, grace, peace. God forbid that we should have a false peace today.

[12:13] Thinking that it's anything of our own doing that saves us or keeps us saved. It's tragic ideas such like that we can even, for one, merit our own salvation.

[12:27] And secondly, retain it by anything of our own doing. If that's your salvation, it's not the real deal. People today, it's only by His grace.

[12:39] It's only by His mercy that we can have any hope of peace. And we can prayerfully prepare our hearts as we consider what He has done, what He is doing.

[12:55] I know we've got a little technical hitch here, but it's more time to pray, isn't it? It says prepare our hearts. Consider our standing.

[13:06] Well, let's just prayerfully close our eyes and consider where we are. I know for myself I've got a great lack and a great need of more Christ-likeness, of more humility, of less of my own self-righteousness.

[13:21] To crucify myself. To humble myself under the mighty hand of God.

[13:35] To not claim any merit of my own doing or being, but everything of Him. That Christ is all. If you're here this morning and there's any consideration in your own mind that you can lay claim to anything of your own making to merit His grace and mercy, then you're in great need this morning.

[14:04] Our only hope is the atoning blood. The reconciling work. The atonement. The precious blood. The spotless blood. Of our Lord.

[14:16] It's to that that we must look today. It says look unto me and be ye saved. Praise God. Let's just pray as we think of what He has done for us.

[14:32] It's everything that He has done for us. Everything that He has done for us. The finished work. We're not re-enacting it today or re-sacrificing Him.

[14:45] There's no magical substance in our hands. But it's everything that He has done. That's what we're reminding ourselves of today. Praise God. I'll ask our brother Jim to pray as we think of the bread that reflects His body bruised for us.

[15:02] Dear God and Heavenly Father, we do thank you Lord for the suffering and pain that you took on your body so that we may live.

[15:15] Lord, we know what suffering is like. We all go through our pains. It's been spoken about quite a few times this morning. But Lord, we can never, never take the pain that our Lord Jesus took on our behalf.

[15:30] Amen. And it's that's what we remember this morning, Lord, is that suffering that He went through, the broken body. And Lord, as we take this bread now, this represents His broken body.

[15:44] The broken body that He gave so that we may live. So we remember that at this time. And we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[15:55] Take it, He says. Dear Lord, we thank you for the mercy and grace that you pour out upon sinful man, unworthy man, that you can enter a heart and cleanse it and take sin and forgive every wrongdoing, every wrong thinking.

[16:28] Lord, we thank you for that mercy and grace today that gives us peace, peace that passes all understanding. Lord, we thank you. If there's any here that they would call out for mercy, call out for mercy, they would plead for mercy, as all of us only can do, and but trust in your redeeming power of your blood.

[16:50] Lord, that it be a covering, that it be a reconciling act, that it be a covering over our sin, a cleansing of it, a blotting out of it. Lord, we thank you for that work of Calvary, the wonder of it, the majesty of it.

[17:05]  We praise you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us dream. Let us dream.