God is Mercy
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last week I spent time talking and discussing the idea of God’s justice, or justness. The fact that God is just. This reality, this fact should give us pause when it comes to seeing the sin and lawlessness of this world. Yes, things are crazy, things are out of control in many ways, but God’s justice will prevail. God will reward everyone according to their deeds and God will punish those who rebel against him.
But along with God’s justice, His justness, we also must reckon with, deal with his mercy. For really, the justice and the mercy of God go hand in hand, they go in tandem with each other. You can not have justice without mercy and you can not have mercy without a standard of what is just.
And if you remember our text last week, it was an example of God choosing to enact justice, while Abraham appealed to God’s great mercy. After all, God knew the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, He knew they were exceeding sinners, and yet Abraham asks, if there is not 50, 40, 30, 20, and even 10, won’t you spare the city? What is that other than an appeal to God’s mercy? And when Abraham asks the question,
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
he is no doubt pleading for the mercy of God upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Will not the judge of all the earth do what is just?
God is merciful. God is a God of great mercy. Moses, in taking the tablets of stone up the mountain for God to give the Ten Commandments is visited by the Lord, and there we are told these words,
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Our God is a merciful God. Our God is a gracious, compassionate, and forgiving God.
So, what does this mean? Let’s look, first of all, at what mercy is
I. What is Mercy?
I. What is Mercy?
We throw around this term in our every day lives, but what is truly mercy? We say to someone or something that seems bad, Lord have mercy. We might say mercy when we stumble upon something unpleasant or unsavory. We ask for mercy when we are being pummeled by the bully in school. What is this word that we refer to however?
One of the most essential qualities of God (Ex 34:6, 7; Dt 4:31; Mi 7:18–20). Specifically it designates that quality in God by which he faithfully keeps his promises and maintains his covenant relationship with his chosen people despite their unworthiness and unfaithfulness (Dt 30:1–6; Is 14:1; Ez 39:25–29; Rom 9:15, 16, 23; 11:32; Eph 2:4).
The biblical meaning of mercy is exceedingly rich and complicated, as evidenced by the fact that several Hebrew and Greek words are needed to comprehend the many-sided concept. Consequently, there are many synonyms employed in translation to express the dimensions of meaning involved, such as “kindness,” “lovingkindness,” “goodness,” “grace,” “favor,” “pity,” “compassion,” and “steadfast love.” Prominent in the concept of mercy is the compassionate disposition to forgive an offender or adversary and to help or spare him in his sorry plight.
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Theological Significance
The theological import of the above statements is obvious. At the heart of the concept of mercy is the love of God, which is freely manifested in his gracious saving acts on behalf of those to whom he has pledged himself in covenant relationship.
Mercy is the love of God, freely manifested in the saving acts that He does on behalf of those whom He has pledged himself to. The free, gracious, lovingkindness of God extended towards us, simply and merely because He wanted to.
And this is something that we realize, that we must come to grips with, when it comes to mercy. It is not deserved, it is not merited, it is provided solely at the risk of the one who is extending that mercy.
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
What Paul is doing is quoting the words that God says to Moses in Exodus 33. Moses asks to see the glory and goodness of God, and God says you cannot. But He does tell Moses this.
And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Paul goes on in explaining God’s mercy by saying
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
In other words, when it comes to God, we are nothing more than clay, we are nothing more than a vessel that God has chosen to put his hand upon and who are we to look at God and to say you must do this for me.
I know you are a great person. You give to charity, you volunteer, you do all kinds of good works and yet, can I tell you something, you deserve nothing from God but for His justice to be unleashed upon you. And yet, here you are, and your being here is nothing more than an aspect of God’s divine mercy in your life.
And this leads to our second point here this morning. We have an understanding of God’s mercy, but what is meant by saying
II. What is Meant by saying God is Rich in Mercy?
II. What is Meant by saying God is Rich in Mercy?
Look again at those words there in verse 4.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
To understand this, read the context in which this verse is located.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Look at those words that are listed there.
Dead in your trespasses and sins
Followed the course of the world
Followed the prince of the power of the air, the same spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience
You lived in the passions of your flesh
You carried out the desires of the body and mind
You were by nature children of wrath.
That is a quite discouraging list. That is a list that can get anyone down in the dumps. Thanks Paul, why don’t you tell us how you really feel. But all of this was true of each and everyone of us. And nothing that we could do could ever take us from this. We are and were eternally hopeless.
But God. The big conjunction. The two words that change everything. When we were without hope, without a chance in this world, God reached down for us. God sent us a Savior. God did this because He is rich in mercy.
You’ll be surprise that the Greek word for rich here means rich, wealthy, abundant.
With humanity in a desperate condition of sinfulness, the words “But God” may conjure fear in anticipation of his wrath. However, Paul continues by explaining that God is rich in mercy to a humanity in a deplorable situation. To further define “mercy,” Paul continues by stating that God loves humanity so very much. This is a welcome relief. Did he forget their dilemma? Not at all. But before Paul made his main assertions regarding God’s mercy based on love (2:5b-6), Paul reminded the believers once again of their sinful past condition (2:5a). This reminder was necessary to establish the need for God’s mercy. We should have died, but Christ died in our stead in order that we can have forgiveness and acceptance before God. This is mercy based on love.
And it’s because of God’s great love, great mercy that He has provided redemption for us. Notice what his mercy has done for us.
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Here’s the list.
Made us alive
Raised us up with Christ
Seated us is the heavenly places in Christ
Is going to show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us.
And verses 8-9 reiterate what I have already said.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Rich is one word to describe God’s mercy. Here are some more adjectives, if you want.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
However you want to describe it, the fact remains that God’s mercy is something more than just a drop, a smidgeon, a little bit. Rather it is aabundant nd great, and lavishly displayed upon all who have pled to him for mercy.
We could go on
Lamentations 3:23 tell us his mercy is new every morning. Psalm 36:5 tells us it is high as heaven, Psalm 119:64 tells us it fills the earth, and listen to
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
III. Our response to God’s rich mercy.
III. Our response to God’s rich mercy.
We see that God is rich in mercy, compassion, steadfast love, faithfulness towards us, so what do we do? How should we live based on the reality that God is rich in mercy?
A. We must not take God’s mercy for granted.
A. We must not take God’s mercy for granted.
Romans 2 gives us an answer. We’re told in this chapter
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
And listen especially to these words.
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
God’s mercy is extended towards us, is freely given to us, and our response should never be to take it lightly, to despise, to presume on the riches of His mercy or kindness, forbearance, and patience. Instead, our approach must be radically different.
Instead, we should
B. We should rejoice in and magnify God’s mercy.
B. We should rejoice in and magnify God’s mercy.
I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
C. We should practice mercy in our own lives.
C. We should practice mercy in our own lives.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asks the question, who is the neighbor?
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
A mother sought the pardon of her son from the first Napoleon. The emperor said it was his second offense, and justice demanded his death. "I don't ask for justice," demanded his mother, "I plead for mercy." "But," said the emperor, "he does not deserve mercy." "Sire," cried the mother, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." "Well, then," said the emperor, "I will have mercy." And her son was saved.—Good Company.