God is Merciful
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Intro:
Today we continue our series on “Who is God?” a very loaded and large question that reaches the vastness of the infinite. It is a question that can only be observed through the Holy revealed Scriptures.
We all have our opinions about who God is and what He is like? Some of those opinions may mislead due to our sinful distorted human nature that brings God down to our level of reasoning and understand ability.
Through this series we are comparing our god to the one true God of the Bible.
Please note: In theological terms the God of the Bible is revealed within two frame works.
Communicable attributes - which are attributes that humans can emulate in their relationships with each other.
Non-Communicable attributes - which are attributes that you and I will never posses or share with God. Those include His omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence. (All knowing, All present, All powerful)
So far we have just been looking at God’s communicable attributes.
Personal
Holy
Just
Truthful
Today we look another communicable attribute of God with is mercy
God is Merciful...
Let us start by looking at some passages that tell of God being a merciful God.
Passages telling of God’s Mercy
Passages telling of God’s Mercy
There are over 65 results in the NKJV that refer to God being merciful. Lets just look at six of them.
31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
9 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful.
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
God’s Mercy Defined
God’s Mercy Defined
What does God’s Mercy mean how does the Bible define it?
The mercy of God is such a tremendous and all-embracing theme that it applies to virtually every area of life.
The mercy of God describes his focused disposition of compassionate forgiveness toward his people, especially in light of their distressful and dire circumstances.
In other word, its God giving us what we do not deserve. We do not deserve His mercy. He is not obligated to give it. It is within His chose to offer it to fallen mankind.
Mercy is a relational expression of God’s character and flows from his attributes of goodness, compassion, graciousness, kindness and love.
15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.
God’s mercy is rooted in His love for us. He is merciful, in large part, because He is love 1 John 4:8 “8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
As sinners, we deserve punishment Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
God’s righteousness requires punishment for sin—He wouldn’t be holy otherwise. Since God does love us and is merciful, He sent His Son (John 3:16)
God’s mercy is evident whenever he delays punishment, even when his people are lost in sin and not aware of the relational consequences this sin entails.
Lexham Survey of Theology God’s Mercy
When the circumstances of God’s people are dire—due to impending conflict, physical and spiritual persecution, or other types of suffering—those who fear God appeal precisely to his merciful character. They pray with an expectation that he will willingly and powerfully act as he has in the past (Dan 9:17–19; Pss 25:6–7; 51:1–2). Over and over again in Scripture, God demonstrates his mercy by saving, redeeming, and restoring his people
The fullness of His mercy is seen in Matthew 27. Jesus is brutally beaten and murdered on our behalf; Jesus received our just condemnation, and we received God’s mercy.
Let us explore this a bit further...
God’s Mercy Applied
God’s Mercy Applied
let us look at how God’s mercy is applied.
Throughout the Bible, God gives many illustrations of His mercy. God fully demonstrates His mercy in Jesus Christ.
God’s mercy is found in Matthew 18:23–27. In this parable, Jesus describes a rich ruler who was owed a large sum of money. The ruler ordered that money be collected, but then the debtor came and begged for mercy. The ruler, in turn, graciously forgives the debt.
Here’s the point: we owed God a debt we could never repay, and He has freely forgiven us that debt in Christ! Interestingly, after the ruler in the parable forgives the debt, the person who owed the money refuses to forgive someone else. The ruler then judges that ungrateful person. God requires us to be merciful and forgiving to others here on earth (see Matthew 6:15).
We who have been forgiven so much have no right to withhold forgiveness from others.
God’s Mercy Experienced
God’s Mercy Experienced
Lastly lets talk briefly about how a person can experience God’s Mercy.
God’s mercy is not forced so you not forced to receive it.
It must be cried out for. The good news is we can receive and experience God’s mercy.
Maybe you recall the story Jesus told about the tax collector.
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Who are those who receive mercy? They are those who ask God for it. They are those who turn from their own self-sufficiency and trust Jesus.
He has never rejected anyone who has believed and place faith on Jesus Christ.
Come, every soul by sin oppressed,
There’s mercy with the Lord,
And he will surely give you rest,
By trusting in his Word.
Only trust him, only trust him,
Only trust him now.
He will save you, he will save you,
He will save you now.
If a person believes that and comes to Jesus, he will find God to be exactly what the Bible declares him to be: the merciful God who has reached out to save many through his Son. He will hear your cry for mercy and save you.