Your Mercy
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A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death.
"But I don't ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy."
"But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.
"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for."
"Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman's son.
As Christians today… Mercy is all we can ask for. And yet many times we can lose sight of this truth or better yet this reality. One theologian said… “You cannot dwell too much on the mercy of God.” Yes and know that our God is infinite therefore His mercy is infinite… therefore there is no end to it. But it is interesting that mercy tends to be a somewhat passing thought. Sure many of us prefer to hear about the wonders of grace much more that the depths of mercy the lord had to show us. I guess maybe we do not like to be reminded of how we did not receive what we truly deserved. And all the things we did and all that we deserved to get.
Maybe it is because of our existential pragmatic culture’s philosophy of life, which obviously influences the church, makes it very clear that mercy is the characteristic of weakness. Mercy is thing that will keep us from being supermen. Mercy will keep us from overcoming. Nietzsche even said in his tongue and cheek tale of how God died, stated that it was mercy and the compassion of God that eventually led to His death. When it comes to superhero stories … the bad guys always say that the weakness of all the good superheros is their compassion and mercy that they have for other people. Its their weakness. And even our faithful to life story of the Karate kid … did they not say in Cobra Kai that mercy is for the weak.
And in the church… many times we can be so caught up with all the work and sacrifices that we make that we tend to approach God with the attitude that we are owed something. Looking to God to give us what we think we deserve. But we don’t do that, oh no? then why are you disappointed in God when he does not give us what we ask for? Is not all we get from Him an act of grace and mercy anyway? Yes we love the grace and love of God shown when Christ rose from the grave Easter Sunday, but we cannot and must not forget the incredible mercy of God shown on the cross on Good Friday. Mercy is not for the weak.
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
So lets take a closer look Mercy in like of the wonderful Word of God today
Lord, give me your unfailing love,
the salvation that you promised me.
Then I can answer those who taunt me,
for I trust in your word.
The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.
Mercy of Promise
Salvation of Promise
The first thing we will look at today is some of the key characteristics of the mercy of God shown in the scriptures. Second, we will explore the deliverance that is displayed and promised for God’s people in the scriptures.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to lose sight and or diminish the beauty of mercy, it is the power of God and the truth of the scriptures that will cause us to see the wonders of the longsuffering and steadfast love of God and how it brings to us the salvation of all salvations.
I. Mercy of Promise
- Not getting what we deserve.
A. Unfailing love and loving kindness is a correct way to translate Hesed. But in this context it is an appeal for God’s love in the sense that the psalmist is appealing to the mercy of God. Some of our older translations will even translate it mercies. The psalmist is crying out for the love of God in the sense of need the Lord to show him mercy, better understanding in the context of trials and tribulations. In suffering … we beg for mercy.
B. In the difficulties of the Psalmist he cries out to the Lord to show him mercy. But is that really what God wants?
For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
C. Though mercy may not shine in the limelight, it is still a foundational reality that we cannot go without. It is a theological fact. There is no hope if there was no mercy. No life if there was no mercy.
Voddie Bachman writes, “Do you know it was His mercy that woke you up this morning? Because His judgment should’ve killed you last night.”
D. Again mercy is not something we deserved. We did not merit mercy. If we indeed merited and or earned mercy it would not be mercy. But this is, always has been and probably always will be one of the difficulties of our walk with Christ. Dependance. This is one of the great realities of the fall. Part of the knowledge of good and evil is the independence that comes from it so that we don’t have to depend on God. And why do we naturally like independence? Another way to say independence is … control. We like to be in control, we yearn to be in control, yes we just need to be in control.
E. But not only is this a result of the fall, it is the ideology of our post post modern culture. You are in control of your own destiny. Don’t let anyone tell you different you make the decision for your own life. Making decisions that affect your future for yourself is the only real freedom a person has. Even the modern church with life coaching ministries have bought into this. Self help, success slogans, positive thinking and methodologies used for business applied to a Christian only proves the infiltration of pragmatism into modern evangelicalism. Being a Christian is synonymous with a successful living.
F. And we keep lying to ourselves by saying that it is not the case and we are not affected by it. We think the real enemy in life is failure. We think the real enemy in life is public opinion. We think the real enemy in life poverty. We think the real enemy in life is lack of luxury. We think the real enemy in life is no experiences. We think the real enemy in life is no opportunities. We think the real enemy in life is no ability to customize life. We think the real enemy in life is failure. Come to the modern church today and we will help you not fail as a father, as a wife, as a grandparent, as a professional, as an employee, as a friend, as an employer, as an athlete, aunt or uncle, as a cousin, as a social media content creator, as a student, as a boyfriend, as a dog owner, as a citizen, as an American.
G. And we will help you order your personal world. We will help you, through biblical principles, to get control of your life. We will help you make sense of who you are. We will help you to not just live but to live successfully (As defined by the world). We will help you to know the secret of living a life pleasing to God so that He will give you the desires of your heart.
H. One sociologist said that the church is full of people who decided that they cannot become successful, rich, and famous on their own and they need God to help them get there. And if they are famous and wealthy they go to church hoping that they can rid themselves of the guilt and condemnation that they feel for their greed and selfishness.
I. And the answers are given because there is a sense of control. If I only do these things I will be in a better place. All I gotta do are these five steps and life will get better for me. Even though life is not getting better as long as we feel like we have the ability to get out when we want… we good. Even when there is no peace, we are still ok if we know that by our efforts, our control, we can bring peace.
J. Even with psychological behavior studies of children who are abandoned by their parents. It is just unthinkable in the mind of a child that a parent would abandon them for no real reason. So as long as there is something wrong with them there is a hope that their parents will like them if they become better people. Im a loser Im a screw up… but they find comfort in that because as long as they are their parents are justified in them leaving them. Now if I become a better person and I am likable then my parents will like me and they will come back… so they will come back when I become a better person. But if they don’t come back I find comfort knowing that I’m just not good enough and if I work harder then I will be good enough someday and they will come back and like me.
K. In the end it is control. We have comfort and we have hope as long as there is a sense of some kind of control over things. We want control, we yearn for control, we just need to have control. And that’s probably the reason for our natural aversion to this thing called mercy. It is something that we have no control over. It is unmerited, it is uninfluenced, it is undeserved. If it is, it is not mercy.
L. And mercy is our life blood. There is no life without mercy. Mercy is our foundation. There is no building or growing without mercy. Mercy is our hope. There is no deliverance or salvation without mercy. Mercy is our God. Thereis no life and life more abundant without it. We celebrate all the benefits and wonders of all that we get and all that we become with the beautiful resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the grave on easter sunday, but none of that comes without the death of Christ on the cross on Good friday. Mercy is vital to the Christian. Mercy may be backstage to grace in the spotlight, but there is no grace in the spotlight without mercy.
II. Salvation of Promise
- Mercy triumphs over judgement.
A. Here is the real problem we face in life. It is not what I had mentioned before. Sure some of them are frustrating and real irritations, but let me tell you what is a real problem. We have absolutley and undeniabley infuriated the living God with our sin and rebellion.
But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
B. The greek word used here for anger is the word ORGE. Now kinda weird to use that one… We get our english word Orgy from this. But orgy is understood as the unbridled, highest and most extreme form of lust and perversion. So the vivid picture is that the wrath of God of the living God is in unbridled, highest and most extreme form of fury possible. We infuriated the living God and He has promised to punish with wrath the sins and rebellion of the people on earth.
C. The wages of sin is death. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. There is no one righteous no not one. We like sheep have gone astray. We are all by nature children of wrath. Weeping and gnashing of teeth, eternal darkness, and eternal fire is in our future. This is all pretty bad, but it gets worse.
D. What is worse… there is nothing we can do about it. There is no way to stop this. We cannot in any way fix this and make it right. All of this is completely 100 percent out of our control. Nothing we can do, nothing we can say, nothing we can pay, nothing we can give, nothing we can sacrifice. Our only hope is that the living God who we did infuriate to the maximum will have mercy on us. And He did. Our only hope.
The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
E. He continued to show us mercy as the scriptures promised… Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. He shows more mercy… The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He shows more mercy… Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. He shows more Mercy… He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He shows more mercy… by His wounds we are healed.
F. And because of the mercy shown the promise to Save comes… If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. And the promises continue… All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And the promises continue… All is written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and that by believing we will have life in His name. And the promises continue… If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
G. All of this is the Word of the living God. There is no more accusation from anything or anyone. There is no need for us to be ashamed by the accuser. His promise is yes and Amen… the accuser, the taunter, the condemner, the liar, and the reproacher are silenced in the light of the Word of the living God.
