Joy in Mercy and Grace
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Joy in Mercy and Grace
Nehemiah 9:16-25
Wednesday night call to prayer. And 24 hr fast.
Difference between Man and God
ILL- David and Bathsheba
David failed yet God showed mercy and grace.
-He remains King
-Though this son dies, Bathsheba has a second son, Solomon, who becomes King and builds the first temple.
Man continually runs from God. God continually pursues man with mercy and grace.
Nehemiah and Ezra have been leading the people through a spiritual revival.
They are confessing their sin, mourning, and repenting.
We have been looking at this corporate prayer written for the people.
This part of the prayer shows the contrast between God and Man.
16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.
17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies,
19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
22 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.
23 You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.
24 So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
6 Reasons Man Deserves Sorrow (16-18)
6 Reasons Man Deserves Sorrow (16-18)
1- We are Arrogant (16)
1- We are Arrogant (16)
16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.
Presumptuous= overstepping the boundaries. The rules do not apply to you.
Someone who walks into your house and opens your refrigerator and starts eating your food.
APP- We think we can take from God without asking. We think we can manipulate God.
ILL- 1 Samuel 4- the defeat of Israel by Philistines and the capture of the Ark.
Tried to use it as a good-luck charm.
2- We are Stubborn (16)
2- We are Stubborn (16)
Stiff Necked (16)
We are going to do what we want.
3- We are Disobedient (16-17)
3- We are Disobedient (16-17)
17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
16b and 17a “Did not obey”
God has given us rules and we make every excuse on why we will not follow them.
Disciples are those who obey Jesus, not just know about him.
4- We are Forgetful (17)
4- We are Forgetful (17)
“Not mindful of the wonders you performed...”
They forgot all the great things God had done.
5- We are Ungrateful (17)
5- We are Ungrateful (17)
Wanted to go back to slavery instead of follow God to his reward.
God’s way is too hard.
They elected a new leader, not Moses, and were ready to go back to Egypt and become their slaves again.
How could they forget how bad it was?
How could they not remember the 10 Plagues.
We forget God’s miraculous works in our life and we run back to the sin that enslaves us.
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
6- We are Idolaters (18 )
6- We are Idolaters (18 )
18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies,
Made another God to worship and give the credit and worship that belonged to Yahweh.
We make a lot of things our god.
2 Reasons We Receive Joy
2 Reasons We Receive Joy
1- God is Merciful (17b-19a)
1- God is Merciful (17b-19a)
Mercy has to do with justice.
David cried out for mercy after sin with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
Mercy is us not getting what we deserve.
We deserve to be punished/ death.
Habakkuk 3:2 “...in wrath remember mercy.”
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies,
19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
Look closer at second part of verse 17.
17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
Forgiveness= pardon. To not hold a sin against us.
Grace- see more in a minute.
Mercy
Slow to Anger- so patient with us.
Abounding in “Hesed” love.= covenant love. Loyal love.
Did not Forsake= did not leave in the desert to die. Did not forget about them. Did not find another people.
2- God is Gracious (19b-25)
2- God is Gracious (19b-25)
Grace is God’s unmerited favor. We receive from God that which we do not deserve.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Grace is us getting what we do not deserve. Mercy is us not getting what we deserve.
God took care of their basic needs
19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
God Fulfilled His Promise to Israel
God gave them the land.
22 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.
God multiplied Abraham’s descendants.
23 You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.
God gave them an abundance.
24 So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
CONCLUSION
What was their response to God’s grace?
They took it for granted and were selfish with it.
“They ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.”
It became about them and not about God.
Our sin gets in the way from us experiencing true joy from the mercy and grace of God.
Will you accept God’s mercy and grace?
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is part of both mercy and grace.