The Sure Mercies of God

The Sure Mercies of God

by Wayne Dailey
Senior Pastor, Bethel Revival Center
43 Norwood St.
Everett, MA 02149

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Isaiah 55:1
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

This verse speaks of the free gift of salvation, but we want to look at other things that are connected with this chapter.

Isaiah 55 deals with people who are thirsting in their hearts and souls, needing the water of God. God is saying for them to come and buy without money or price.

Isn't it unique how freely the Lord gives? There's never a charge, never a cost in any way.

Isaiah 55:2
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Think about the desire of our souls. Think about what God says concerning the things our hearts and souls would really need.

We want to be in the place where we recognize that God has good things for us, things we can delight our souls in.

There are times in the Lord when we should just sit down and let the Word be a delight to our souls, because it is bringing us up into a greater and deeper walk with Him.

He speaks of delighting our souls in fatness, referring to spiritual fatness, growing more and more in the Lord.

Isaiah 55:3
Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

This speaks of people who are willing to listen, inclining their ear and listening to what God has to say in His Word — not shutting their ears, refusing to hear.

Incline your ear and come unto Me. Are your ears blocked? Are they full of wax? Are you someone who doesn't want to hear?

You need to be in the realm where you want to hear the Word of God, because you know God is going to speak to your heart. God is telling you that if you would incline your ear, your soul shall live.

I'll make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. We find this expression quite a lot as we read the Scriptures: the sure mercies of David.

We Need God's Mercy

We don't want to look at David as being absolutely perfect. There were times when he needed the mercies of God in his life. Yet, we know this one thing about David: he was a man after God's own heart. There was something in his heart that caused him to want to go with God because he loved God.

You love God, too, don't you? but does that make you perfect?

God was always merciful to David. When David sinned his most grievous sin, the Lord stretched forth His hand to deliver him. David prayed through. He got deliverance. He found forgiveness and was set free. The Bible speaks of the sure mercies of David here in Isaiah 55.

Now, there might be a time coming in your life when you do something you'll wish you had never done.

But, then, God in His goodness can show His sure mercies to you as He showed them to David, and like He forgave David, He can forgive you — blotting out your sins.

On the other hand, there was Saul who was king before David. He seemed to get off to a good start: When God chose him, we are told he was a goodly man. But there came the day when Samuel told him to wait and not to make sacrifice until he came, yet Saul went ahead and sacrificed anyway.

Yes, Saul stepped out of line, starting a chain reaction in his life. From that day on nothing went right for him, and God eventually took the kingdom away from him.

God gave the kingdom to David, and we find the sure mercies of God extended to David, but not to Saul.

God's Mercy Brought Salvation

This is what God gives us with our salvation: the sure mercies of David. When God forgives you, He forgives you of all you ever did. When He blots out your sins, He blots them all out. He doesn't leave even one because He is merciful to you.

What if He let a few of those sins remain? What if He weren't willing to forgive you? Where would you go? If God wouldn't forgive you, who would? Who could?

Isaiah 55:4
Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

We learn a lot from David's life. His example can tend to lead us in the right direction. Of all the kings who led Israel, David's name is on the top of the list.

Seeking Mercy and Deliverance

David was a king who was a man after God's own heart yet not always perfect. When things in his life didn't look good, David fell on his face until it got right.

We ought to be a little more like that. When was the last time you were on your face before God — crying out for God to deliver you and set you free, to help you with the problem or the mess you found yourself in? When was the last time?

There's nothing wrong with falling on your face before God, asking God to forgive your sins. There's nothing wrong in seeking God's help and deliverance.

The Lord speaks concerning David, but He is also speaking to us: speaking of His dealings and of how He is there to help us.

There's a fresh place with the Lord where we stop and realize that it's like we've been using a pencil sharpener, grinding one pencil after another, and the time comes when it has to be emptied.

How many times in your life is there something you need to dump out?

There are those times when we need to come with repentance in our heart — able to rise up in a newness, having a fresh, deeper walk with God. We need a fresh time every once in a while, a time of renewing ourselves and seeking out the things of God.

Seek God While He May be Found

Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near

Is this a time when the Lord may be found? Is this a season when the Lord, through your calling on Him, will hear and respond? Is it time when there will be an answer? time when you will find help?

In our seeking and searching, especially in the realm of salvation, how much God wants someone who is out of sorts with Him to really get straightened out.

Seek Him while He may be found: Does this imply anything?

There are those times when people pray and pray and pray, and there seems to be no answer. Those times are opposite of seeking the Lord at a time when He is really moving, when He is responding with many good answers to prayer — times when many who need to get straightened out with God find answers.

There are both times: times when it seems the heavens are brass and times when the Lord is near, when He is responding to our cry. There are those times in our lives when there are dealings of God. The Lord comes along to deal with us about that thing we knew was wrong but never did anything about.

He starts bringing it up. Sometimes it's like a roadblock, where we can't move on. He doesn't want that thing in our life. It should have no place in us. But we let it go. Weeks go by, and then weeks become months when we never make any effort to repent, never go to that person and ask them to forgive us for what we did or said to them.

Some would be more prone to look back and question, "What I did to you?? You mean, what you did to me!!" They think the other person is to blame, the other person is the guilty one.

God is saying, Call upon Him while He might be found, while He's near. There's a time — a season.

The Lord wants us to be free. He doesn't want us to have anything standing in our way, anything hindering our life.

Is there something back there you haven't taken care of? that you haven't repented of?

Feeling Troubled

There was a man back home who knew me since I was a young boy. He was a nice man. I remember when he gave his life to the Lord.

After I had gone into the ministry and moved away, I came back to hold some services. He was delighted that I was in town to preach. As I was ministering in those meetings, I could see that he was having a problem.

There was something he had done to another person that had never been straightened out. He never told me what it was other than that he had hurt someone. After he had gotten saved and started going on with the Lord, this began to trouble him.

Well, I was preaching in this revival meeting about getting filled with the Holy Ghost.

Deep in his heart he couldn't respond to what I was preaching, though, normally, that would have been a delight to him. You see, his heart was troubling him. He felt troubled within. Here he was listening to a message about such a great gift from God, but he had something in his life that had been there for years. He had never taken the time to go and straighten things out with that man. What a snare it was.

That night at the revival meeting, he made up his mind to find that man and get things right before he died. He had no idea where the man lived but was determined to find him that he might have peace in his heart.

Why let something just hang around in your life? Why go around with a guilty conscience, when all you really need to do is repent and make things right with the one you wronged.

That night he made up his mind that he wanted the Holy Ghost, and he knew he wasn't going to be filled with the Holy Ghost while harboring this in his life. He told me he was going to get up in the morning and go everywhere he knew to go to see if he could find that man. Yes, he wanted to get right with God.

He knew he would never get straightened out until he found that man and ask his forgiveness. So, being troubled in his heart, he went and he did find that man. He had a long talk with him and got it all straightened out.

And, you know, when he came back, he came back with a better feeling in his heart. He now had a clear conscience, knowing he had made things right.

Not long after that, he was in his home when he had a feeling in his body like something was happening. He realized he was having a heart attack!

Later that day there was a visiting nurse at his home. He told her he thought he had had a heart attack earlier. And then he told her he felt like another was coming upon him — and a few minutes later he was dead!!

What does all that mean?

He didn't die with a guilty conscience, that feeling of being unforgiving. He did what he had to do — and he did it just in time.

Go God's Way

I want you to think what it means when we are told to call upon the Lord while He is near, call upon Him while we can. We want to always be in that place where we let the Lord have His way.

Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

You see what the Lord is really like. This expresses how willing He is to pardon us.

But first He said, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts — then He will abundantly pardon.

While the Lord is near, while He is willing, while He is visiting, seek Him: Ask Him to abundantly pardon, to wash and cleanse you from your sinful ways.

We don't always understand God, but, thank God, He is being loving to us when He works to get us to clean up our life.

Chastening

It takes some chastening to get some folks to clean up.

Did you ever get chastened as a child? Did it do you good? Did you change your ways? Does God ever chasten?

Hebrews 12:5,6
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.

Can you look back and see how, many times, when you were growing up, you knowingly did something that was wrong? something you were told not to do?

I remember my dad had just planted new grass in the front yard. He tied a string around it to keep us from walking across it. I remember his warning, "Don't you dare make short cuts through that yard!"

Well, up the dirt road was the garbage dump. We boys had to go up there quite often to dump the garbage. And because the front yard was off limits, I had to walk straight out to the road and then up to the dump.

But this particular day, I came out of the house with the garbage and took the short cut right across the new seeding my dad had planted! Dad had warned us, but I went, anyway, and he didn't hesitate to correct me.

You know, that's the only time I remember going across that yard before the grass was grown!

Remember my friend who lived for years with an unforgiving spirit, refusing to forgive. He just barely got under the wire in getting that straightened out before he died. If he hadn't gone and found that man when he did, he may have gone down to the grave with that sin still in his life.

We all have had times when we needed someone to forgive us. Let's be just as quick to forgive others when they need to be forgiven.

Mark 11:25
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

If there's a problem, why don't you call upon the Lord while He is near? why don't you seek Him to forgive you? He has promised to abundantly pardon.

Titus 2:12
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world