Merciful Mercy
The Gospel of Matthew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
Connection:
To begin this morning I have an opening question for you all to ponder in your hearts: “Are works necessary to salvation”? Is the answer a simple yes? Or a simple no? Or is it a yes and a no at the same time? You could ask it in another form: is love for Jesus necessary to true salvation? Or again: is showing mercy necessary to salvation? You see, all of these questions are getting at the relationship between the root and the fruit. Can someone be born again by the Spirit, be vitally connected to the Vine of Jesus Christ, and fail to produce living fruit, works, love, and mercy? Can someone receive Jesus as Saviour but not as Lord? The answer is NO! Good works are necessary to salvation, with this distinction: good works do not save you, but they are always present in the saved; the fruit of the Spirit doesn’t ground your salvation, but it’s the evidence of your salvation; and so if you don’t have fruit, works, love, or mercy then you cannot claim to be a true Christian who is saved by the mercy of God! This is where our text leads us this morning as we sit at the feet of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ:
Theme:
Merciful Mercy
Need:
If we are claiming to be true Christians indeed, then we need to be living mercifully today—for in so doing we are able to know the hope of eternal mercy on the final day. Our mercy will not merit God’s mercy, but we won’t find God’s mercy without ourselves living mercifully. There is no salvation in the mercy of God if the saints are not merciful. Even as our Lord taught us to pray!
Purpose:
To explain the nature of true mercy; to show how the merciful are truly happy and blessed in the Gospel; to comfort the merciful in the future hope that is coming their way in Christ; to warn the merciless of the judgment coming upon the wicked; and to exhort us to walk in Tangible Gospel Mercy.
Recap:
As we return to the Beatitudes this morning, we remember that Jesus has been preaching on the blessings of the Gospel and Kingdom of God and defining who his true disciples are. They are those who are repenting and believing in Jesus and who are walking in new life—he describes the truly blessed as those who are spiritually poor in themselves, as those who are mourning over sin, as those who are meek & humble, and as those who are hungering after God. And this morning, in the 5th Beatitude, we come to see that those who are truly blessed in the Covenant of Grace, in saving relationship with God, are the merciful.
Read Text:
Matt. 5:7 NKJV
PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY
(1) Showing Mercy - v. 7a.
(1) Showing Mercy - v. 7a.
Blessed are the merciful,
(1) Showing Mercy - v. 7a.
(1) Showing Mercy - v. 7a.
Q - What does it mean to to be blessed by Jesus Christ?
As we have been defining it: to be blessed by Jesus Christ is to be joyfully lavished with God’s saving goodness. It is Gospel blessing. It is salvific blessing. It is the unmerited favour, gifts, and kindness of God. It is to be an heir of the Kingdom, a child of God, and a member of the Body of Christ (truly, savingly, and spiritually)!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
To be blessed in Jesus Christ is to be absolutely drenched in the love and grace of God which endures forever. So, right of the bat, we remember that these Beatitudes are describing True Christians—the invisible church (which is only ordinarily made manifest in the membership of the visible church)! Jesus isn’t speaking to the air; he is speaking to his covenant community and church who are gathered before him at the Mountain for the Sermon on the Mount. He is therefore describing those within the visible church who are repenting and believing in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and for peace with God—those who are born again by the Holy Spirit and are walking in obedient fruit in keeping with their repentance. If you are a true Christian—you are this. If you’re not—you need this. So let’s pay attention:
Q - What does it mean to be merciful?
The word for mercy in our text is: ἐλεήμονες. It’s an adjective, a descriptor word. Blessed are the ἐλεήμονες, those who are merciful!
According to BDAG this word: “pertains to being concerned about people in their need, [it is to be] merciful, sympathetic, compassionate”.
And according to DA Carson: “Mercy embraces both forgiveness for the guilty and compassion for the suffering and needy”.
We must note that this mercy isn’t simply an emotional state; it leads to genuine action! And interestingly, the only other time this adjective is is used in the New Testament is in Hebrews, where it is used by the author to describe the saving work of our Great High Priest!
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
So we note that this mercy is both emotional concern, and sympathetic action! Jesus felt mercy, and he gave himself to show us mercy! Why? Because fundamentally the LORD our God is the merciful and gracious God, Father, Son, and Spirit! This is his self-revelation to Moses:
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
So to be merciful is to be an imitator of God as his beloved children—as the image of God is being restored to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To be merciful is to have sympathy and genuine concern and compassion in your heart. To be merciful is to be quick to forgive, to be ready to forgive your brother even if he has sinned against you 70 times. To be merciful is to be abounding in generosity and giving—whether it’s food, money, time, counsel, or care—it is to be helping the helpless—physically and/or spiritually. To be merciful is to be like our Lord Jesus Christ who came to bring the tender mercy of God to so richly shine upon us in our darkness and despair. And so this leads us to ask:
Q - Why does Jesus bless the merciful?
Because the merciful are those who know the merciful God in Jesus Christ our merciful Savior! They are those who plead his mercies; who live by his mercies; and who show his mercies:
for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
If you have been touched by the greater mercies of God, if you have found all of your sins forgiven your brokenness healed, your person redeemed, and your deepest needs met in Jesus…. then you will extend that very same mercy to others! He who is forgiven much, loves much! God’s children have God’s nature imprinted upon them. If we don’t know mercy, if we don’t show mercy, then we haven’t received mercy, and we won’t receive mercy. We read this earlier from Psalm 18:25:
With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
And as good evangelicals, some of you are probably still thinking—but we are saved by grace—we are saved by faith alone! To which I would say, yes absolutely! But remember, Jesus is speaking to his gathered disciples and he is explicitly addressing those who are already repenting and believing the Gospel. They are already trusting in Christ for eternal life, they are already born of the Spirit. Jesus is describing those who are already savingly blessed by Him—He is not giving us a social program to earn God’s blessing. He is saying that someone who has received God’s mercy in salvation—will be someone who shows mercy in life—and thus it is this person who will obtain mercy in heaven. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
MLJ: It is a solemn, serious and, in a sense, terrible thing to say that you cannot be truly forgiven unless there is a forgiving spirit in you. For the operation of the grace of God is such, that when it comes into our hearts with forgiveness, it makes us merciful. We proclaim, therefore, whether we have received forgiveness or not by whether we forgive or not. If I am forgiven, I shall forgive. None of us has by nature a forgiving spirit. And if you now have such a spirit, you have it for one reason only … by grace and by grace alone!
If the Gospel of Christ’s mercy is the Root of our salvation, by grace through faith, then a merciful heart is the fruit of salvation, walking in good works. God saves us in order to sanctify us. God saves us in order to cleanse us. God saves us in order to renew us. That’s why these Beatitudes are crucial for God’s people.
Jesus is describing true Christianity—true salvation—which leads to experiential & tangible godliness.
Grace is the root, godliness is the fruit. If we don’t have the fruit, then we don’t have the root. But we must never confuse the root for the fruit. We aren’t saved by fruit, but we are saved for fruit. Fruit doesn’t cause life, it is evidence of life! Is fruit necessary to life YES! Because without it, there is no life. We aren’t saved by showing mercy, but we aren’t saved without showing mercy!
And so, brothers and sisters, all of a sudden this get’s extremely practical and important as we examine our own hearts and lives. Are we among the camp of those who are blessed by Jesus—are we among the merciful who are his true saints? Do we have the life of Christ in our hearts? Do we have what James describes:
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Q - How can I know that I am merciful? What does it look like?
Well, as we defined earlier, mercy is forgiveness for the guilty, and compassion for the suffering and needy. So—do you do that? Do you desire that? Do you seek to live like that? Do these characteristics describe you in the LORD?
When you are sinned against do you forgive? When you are slandered do you forgive? When you are lied to do you forgive? When you are stolen from do you forgive? When you are dishonoured do you forgive? When you are disrespected do you forgive?
Some of you might think that those are fairly easy to forgive. Okay; but what about those sins which cause deeper wounds? By no means am I downplaying the difficulty of such things, nor am I condoning such sinful actions… But …
When you are sexually sinned against do you forgive? When you are physically abused do you forgive? When you are on the receiving end of hatred and envy do you forgive? If someone tried to kill and take your life, would you forgive them?
I’m not asking if you are going to necessarily be restored to friendship? I’m not saying you shouldn’t get help if you are under genuine abuse. Nor am I saying that you need to brush off genuine trauma or pain. But…
I am saying that Jesus calls us to a heart-disposition of mercy! Fundamentally, who are Christians? Those who forgive!
You might wrestle to forgive someone. It might take you a long time to work through that. But the question still remains: do you forgive? You might need to pursue civil justice if there have been civil crimes—but do you forgive your offender?
Watson: Mercy in forgiving injuries is the touchstone and the crown of Christianity.
To fail to forgive someone is to forget how much you yourself have been forgiven! It is to forget that your offenses against the LORD are infinitely more heinous and wicked than those who have sinned against you.
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Dear believer, you who seek to forgive as you have been forgiven in Christ, you who seek to show mercy even as you have received mercy—you can know that you are the blessed of the LORD!
Blessed are the merciful. Another way that this practically plays itself out is caring for the poor and needy? Are we mindful of the widows, the orphans, the homeless, and the helpless?
He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker,
But he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.
Blessed are the merciful. What about the vulnerable? Are we praying for, and giving ourselves to the abolition of abortion, MAID, and the injustice committed against the helpless?
Deliver those who are drawn toward death,
And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
Blessed are the merciful. Oh how merciful should we be—because Christ has shown mercy to us. Oh how forgiving and forbearing we should be—because of how patient God has been with us. Oh how eager to pity and serve the needy should we be—because of how God has pitied us and saved us from eternal sufferings in hell, through Jesus!
Jesus, knowing all of our sins and evil deeds—knowing all of our offenses and transgressions—knowing all of our stubbornness and envy—knowing all of our pride and lust—knowing all of our covetousness and anger—knowing all of our idolatry and filth. How does he feel toward us? What has he come to do for us? He has come to show mercy to poor and needy sinners:
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Do you know this mercy of Jesus? Do you know this hope of salvation? Have you become merciful in Christ? If not then you need to run to Jesus and put your hope in Him alone. You need to rest in His promises of grace and salvation—and receive his mercy today. And even you, God’s people, need to renew your faith and repentance with the Lord—as we walk in fellowship with God, as we imitate him by………….
(1) Showing Mercy - v. 7a.
But you don’t just need his mercy today, you need it tomorrow, and the day after that—and the good news is that in Jesus Christ his mercies are new every morning! And here he promises everlasting mercies unto the merciful! So not only do true Christians show mercy, but they will also receive it on the final day! And so we come to our second point:
(2) Receiving Mercy - v. 7b.
(2) Receiving Mercy - v. 7b.
For they shall obtain mercy.
(2) Receiving Mercy - v. 7b.
(2) Receiving Mercy - v. 7b.
Q - What does it mean to obtain/receive this mercy from God?
Literally speaking, there is no word for obtain in the Greek. The way this works is that Jesus uses the verbal form of the same word for mercy. And he uses it in the passive tense. The word is ἐλεηθήσονται. And it’s an action or a mercy that is done to us. In other words… it is to be mercied!
According to BDAG it means “to be greatly concerned about someone in need, [to] have compassion/mercy/pity”. And in the passive it means thus to “find or be shown mercy”.
And the way that this word is used in the NT shows that this mercy is needed in the light of the judgment that is coming! Mercy is what saves us from the coming wrath (Rom. 2; 9; 15). We do not merit this mercy, nor do we secure this mercy, rather, being a passive verb, this mercy is something that is given to us and lavished upon us! All the mercy we need on that day is freely promised to us through the LORD Jesus Christ!
To receive this mercy from God is to be an heir of the free gift of salvation that is in Jesus. And if we are savingly in Jesus, and showing the fruit of mercy, then we can have the assurance of faith knowing that we will obtain mercy on that day! But…..
Q - What is this mercy that is promised to us?
It is full and free pardon before the judgment seat of God and Christ. At the end of history, right before Jesus makes all things new, there is a final judgment day coming.
The Apostle Paul proclaims this in Acts:
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
And it is this final Day of the Lord, a dreadful day of wrath for the wicked, but mercy for the saints, that will close off this side of history before the day of eternity. It is in regards to this day, that Paul prays for God to have mercy:
The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day.
I can’t stress this enough! Jesus here promises his people that we are going to find mercy on that day! Not that we might. Not that we can wish for it! But that it is the sure promise of the living God in Christ Jesus, that we shall receive full mercy on the Day of Judgment. We will receive full and free pardon! For who—Christians! Those who are repenting of their sins before God, trusting in Jesus Christ, and born of the Spirit of God. They will be saved from the pangs of death and hell, and brought into the joys of life and heaven! But….
Q - How can we be certain of our assurance of pardon on that day?
Because there is sufficient mercy in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ to cover all of our sins! You aren’t too far gone, you’re sins don’t disqualify you from Jesus, you’re not too wicked to be redeemed! If you come to this Jesus then you can now that you are a saved, secure, and safe vessel of mercy! His mercy is sufficient for you!
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
Dear Christian—take hope! Jesus promises that you shall obtain mercy—because IT IS FINISHED! It is complete. The work is done. The promise is sure. The hope is eternal. The inheritance is guaranteed. Are not all the promises of God yes and amen in Christ Jesus? Then don’t doubt Jesus’ promise to you, beloved child of God—blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. God’s heart for you today, if you are in Christ, is a heart of overflowing compassion and love, and he desires you to know and to rest in his mercy!
Press on—trust and obey—endure in hope—live in mercy—and look to his mercy:
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
But that leads to one last question for this AM:
Q - Will everyone receive this promised mercy?
No! On that dreadful and glorious day of Judgment—there are two doors, two declarations, and two destinies. Hear from King Jesus even now:
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
On that day King Jesus will come in the all brilliant glory of God, he will appear with his elect angels, to save his true people, and to judge the wicked. On that day men and women will be thrown into either heaven or hell. Mercy or Wrath. Salvation or damnation.
Friends, brothers and sisters, visitors—wrath is coming, the justice of Almighty God is coming to consume his adversaries and vindicate his saints. So flee to Him while he can be found now—find salvation in Jesus before it is too late—find eternal life that you might escape eternal death.
And notice who the one’s are that admitted into the kingdom of glory—they are those who lived in mercy: feeding the hungry saints, welcoming God’s people, clothing the needy, visiting inmates—in sum—walking in Gospel Mercy! Not saved by their mercy—but saved to be merciful—and their mercy was proof that they were savingly blessed by God and so they received mercy from the Father.
But those who lived a selfish, prideful, and faithless life proved to be dead in their sins, who were rejecting the only way of salvation in Jesus Christ—and they will be cursed into the eternal fire. Do not be deceived, beloved, we will reap what we sow:
[God] “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath,
Hear the importance of mercy from the blessed Puritan, Thomas Watson:
Watson: Lack of mercy is the sin of the heathen (Romans 1:31). While you put off the heart of mercy you put off the badge of Christianity. … [but as we live in mercy we can know that] God’s mercy is a tender mercy, a pure mercy, a rich mercy [to us]. Mercy shall follow and overtake the merciful man. He shall be rewarded in this life and in the life to come.
So let us take this Beatitude to heart. Examine your mind and heart. Trust in Jesus Christ. Rest in His promised grace. Walk in repentant love. Live in Gospel Mercy. And know that you shall receive mercy on that last day, you who show mercy today. May His mercies abound unto all who are here this morning—in salvation—new life—and eternal hope. Our sins they are many; His mercies are more.
For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Let us all ensure that on the final day we will be those who are:
(2) Receiving Mercy - v. 7b.
So hear now our conclusion for this morning:
(C) Our Merciful God Blesses His Merciful People and Promises Mercy Forevermore!
(C) Our Merciful God Blesses His Merciful People and Promises Mercy Forevermore!
1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in His justice
which is more than liberty.
2 There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in His blood.
3 For the love of God is broader
than the measure of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Amen? Let’s pray.
Discussion Questions:
(1) Why do the first 4 Beatitudes need to be true in order for the 5th to be lived out? Notice the flow from heart to hands.
(2) What does it mean to be merciful? What does it look like in real life? And examples?
(3) Why do the saints have merciful hearts? And why should they show mercy?
(4) What is promised to God’s people who walk in this Gospel Mercy?
(5) What is the opposite of a merciful attitude? And how can we battle against it?
