The Mercy of God
-
The Mercy of God
Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here this morning and bring God's Word to you. My name is Chris Peterson, and I have the privilege of serving as one of the elders here. And when I preached a year ago, you may remember, the first thing I did was mention that I was wearing my kids, my boys clothes. Well. Hasn't changed. I'm still wearing the three of them different articles. But I also mentioned that I had eight children, and I had almost three grandchildren. That was a year ago. So Ruby Rose is close to a year old now. And now something's changed. I get to say I have almost four grandchildren. So my coat...not mine, but the coat and the tie are from my son Judah in honor of him and Jaden giving us our fourth grandchild. So. I can't see Jaden, but I'm sure she's turning red. Right? There she is. Yeah, yeah. Um, Jude is just cool as a cucumber, so I'm not worried about him. But just, you know, just hearing the song, His Mercy is More. And just praying and meditating on God's word regarding mercy, it really just reminds me how unworthy I am to stand up here and preach his Word. But it also reminds me that I know something about his mercy, because I have been a recipient of his mercy time and time again. Um, from the day that he saved me out of darkness, uh, and continues. So I have the privilege of preaching on the attribute of mercy, this morning. You know, Adam mentioned last week that we're preaching on the attributes of God this summer. Uh, and so, um, having the privilege of preaching on mercy, we'll be using Ephesians 2:4-7. But if you go back to the first three verses of Ephesians two, uh, they illustrate the depth of depravity and sin to which we were all a part of, as well as the lifeless state and wrath that we deserved. It speaks of indulging the desires of the flesh, the mind, and that we were by nature children of wrath. These three verses paint the bleakest picture of our true condition apart from Christ, making the word 'rich' that we'll see here in verse four where we'll pick up, um, point to God's merciful ability to make even the most vilest sinner clean. And if we even go to the beginning of Ephesians in chapter one, Paul says, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. I love that word lavish because it's just the it's even hard to to put into words, but it's just a, a ridiculous amount of, of his grace being lavished upon us. Um, and no one is beyond the reach of his mercy. So if you'll please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians two and follow as I read verses four through seven.
"But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he 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 ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
Pray with me. Father, thank you for everyone here this morning. And Lord, I pray that you would open all of our hearts to hear the truth of Your Word. Help us to see you as the merciful, gracious, compassionate God that you are. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy and love for us, your adopted children. In Christ's name, Amen.
So the main idea we have here this morning is that God's mercy flows from his great love for sinners...that's you and me, resulting in salvation. I'll say that again. God's mercy flows from his great love for sinners, resulting in our salvation. A good definition of mercy from one Bible dictionary is God's compassion to the miserable, or set in a different way. God's mercy targets man's sinful misery. I knew someone who was addicted to alcohol and following a horrible tragedy in their life, a desire to drink themselves even to the point of death. But God. But God, as it says in our passage today, who is rich in mercy targeted his misery and had multiple believers witness to him, begging him on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. Well, Christ saved this person who was indeed dead in their transgressions and almost physically dead. Today, that person is growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and is walking in the truth. That's a picture of our text today. As in our definition above, God's mercy targets man's sinful misery. Well, as we saw last week, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So we should expect to see the story of his mercy in the same Biblical past, our present salvation, and God's future grace.
So the first point this morning, in light of the Biblical past tense, is that God's mercy is a rich mark of his love throughout Biblical history. So in verse four, the first part of verse four, it says again, but God being rich in mercy. Sinclair Ferguson says the phrase, But God, is reminiscent of the turning points of the personal or corporate laments in the Psalms. Psalm 41 is an example. David is surrounded by the malice of enemies and experiences the betrayal of a close friend. And as he focuses on his situation, the outlook is bleak and he can see no way out. Then he looks up to the throne of heaven. By faith, he sees God Himself seated on it and cries out, but you, O Lord! He began to realize that if God is for him, nothing ultimately can be against him. And that's Psalm 41. So now we'll look at three examples in the Old Testament when God's mercy is revealed in his actions, providing proof of the richness of that mercy. In each example, there was misery on the part of man, and God intervened and poured out his mercy. The first example is God and Moses. And in Exodus 34:6 we read that, and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and obedient in goodness and truth. Here we see God's boundless mercy, patience, and faithfulness, as well as the fact that he is not simply lenient, but actively shows favor and forgiveness, even to those who have greatly offended him. The word compassion in the NASB and mercy in the ESV are the same word in Hebrew. The first attribute mentioned by God in this encounter is his mercy, aimed at those miserable Israelites in the wilderness after pursuing false idol worship of the Golden Calf. It also came after much grumbling and complaining by them giving further proof of their misery. So, continuing to work from our definition of mercy above, God's mercy targets man's sinful misery. I want you to think of a command missile guidance system which relies on external commands to steer the missile. Upon receiving the command, the missile's guidance system becomes active. The system, acting as the missile's brains, utilizes various technologies to determine the missile's current location and trajectory relative to the target's position. God's mercy is the missile. And your sinful misery is the target. It will find its mark. One commentator writes. At an earlier period, God has announced himself to Moses in the glory of his self-existent and eternal majesty as I am. Now, he makes himself known as the glory of his grace and goodness. Being about to republish his law, the sin of the Israelites being forgiven, and the deed of pardon about to be signed and sealed by reviewing the terms of the former covenant. It was the most fitting time to proclaim the extent of the Divine Mercy, which was to be displayed not in the case of Israel only, but of all who offend. Our second Old Testament example of God's mercy is God and David. And in Samuel 24, we read, so the prophet Gad came to David and told him, shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to him who sent me. Then David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great. Do not let me fall into the hand of man. So when David acted in pride to number the people at the beginning of chapter 24, he knew he was wrong, because in verse ten he says, it says. Now David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly. Numbering the people was not inherently sinful. Moses had done it under God's command. However, David acted without God's command or his divine sanction. And so David was motivated by pride, vanity, self-confidence, and distrust of God. Being incited by the Lord's anger against Israel. But David knew that God was far more merciful than his enemies. So he chose to fall into the hand of the Lord rather than man. In Psalm 86:15 he says, but you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth. It's hard not to mention Psalm 51 when talking of David and his sinful misery. After sinning with Bathsheba and being confronted by Nathan, David writes, be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Remember that we said, compassion and mercy are the same word in Hebrew. He goes on to write. For I know my transgressions. And they are always before me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation. While he is in such misery that he can't go anywhere without it being before him. What a great picture of misery! Our last example of proof is found in Jonah 4:2. When my oldest daughter, Savannah, was about 4 or 5, she asked us every day to read Jonah to her. We didn't get very far, but we started, you know, and went a little ways, but it was every single day. And, it will be forever... that's one verse that I don't have to read because it's burned in my brain. And it says the word of the Lord came to toJonah, son of...well, I do have to read it, I guess. The word of the Lord. It's been a few years. She's 28 so the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. I mentioned it for two reasons. The first one is because it is stuck in my head, and the second is because Jonah is disobedient and goes in the opposite direction. We all know that the Lord sent his missile of mercy and delivered him from the inside of the belly of a giant fish. So as we look at God and Jonah, we go to Jonah 4:2 where he says he prayed to the Lord and said, please, Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Jonah clearly knew and understood the gracious character of God. He had personally received mercy, as mentioned above, but he didn't want Nineveh to know that same mercy. Can you think of a time when you have received mercy in your sin, but when it happens to others, it bothers you? It also makes me think of the prodigal son in Luke 15, where the younger son received mercy from the father, but the older son was angry and bitter about it, and jealous even. But as we mentioned earlier, compassion and mercy are closely intertwined. In the Old Testament, mercy is often displayed as an expression of God's compassionate nature. It was manifested in the areas of leniency, forgiveness, and grace, even when the people and nations were disobedient. As we have observed in our three examples.
So the second point this morning is in light of the present tense of our salvation journey. God's mercy...point number two is God's mercy is representative of his ongoing love to sinners in the gospel. We see that in verses four through six...because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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. Amen. Amen. Vickie. Thank you. John Bunyan says Jesus Christ would have mercy offered to the biggest sinners, because by their forgiveness and salvation, others hearing of it will be encouraged the more to come to him for mercy. Well Paul describes how our present salvation is proof of God's ongoing, merciful love, and that he still targets our misery caused by our own sinfulness. The best way for me to illustrate this is to share how God saved a miserable, wretched sinner like me. Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That includes you, and that includes me. Well, I grew up in a Christian home where my parents had us in church every Sunday. It really felt like they made us go. I don't remember ever being asked if I wanted to go. I was just there. So the way I see it is, we were made to go. When I was seven, I went down front at the end of the service because my older brother did. I didn't know why he was going. I just knew that I didn't want to be left there sitting by myself. My brother was three years older than me, and I idolized him, and I did pretty much whatever he did. So, it turns out that I was going down for an altar call. And so I did, and I went through the motions, and I was baptized shortly after that. But there was no spiritual fruit in my life. I attended that church until I graduated from high school and didn't step back into a church until I got married at 26. It was that same church, by the way. But a few years had passed, and I continued to live a worldly lifestyle by pursuing my own desires and had no desire for the things of the Lord. But after several years of marriage, my wife turned to the Lord, and I began to see a change in her. She had a joy and a peace that I hadn't seen in her, and I certainly didn't have myself. She started attending a Bible study that some of her friends were attending. And she asked me if I would go with her. Well, I didn't have any intention or desire to change my lifestyle. And that's really the first thing that popped into my mind. I didn't say it, but I had no intention of changing. I was going to go and I would support her in this new thing that she was in. That was my attitude. Well, I had always thought Bible studies were for weird Christians, not normal ones like me. And one thing I left out was during this whole time I thought I was a Christian. My dad even told me, well, you went down at seven, you got baptized. You're a Christian. And as I begin to understand what it really meant to be a Christian, I knew that that wasn't true. I had the head knowledge and believed in God, but I had no idea that I needed to repent and turn to him and confess him as Savior and Lord. So I went, and I not only heard the truth about Christ, but I saw it in the lives of the couple that were leading the Bible study. Many of you know them. It was Phil and Martha Mullins who were one of the couples that started this church. And they showed us love and grace and kindness and tenderness. Even though we were, we were stupid. I mean, we were ignorant, but they were gentle with us. And I began to see what a true believer looked like and acted like. And Christ's love and truth that I heard from them began to penetrate my heart. I turned to Christ in repentance and faith. And even when I was dead in my transgressions, he made me alive together with Christ. By grace I was saved. I know I didn't deserve his forgiveness, but I also knew and know now that I have been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. His great mercy for me flowed from his great love, which resulted in my salvation. I was 30 years old when I came to Christ, but shortly after that I remember. I mean, it was just like a few weeks later. I remember driving home from work one day, and I decided to stop by the store and buy a six pack, and I had actually done this for many years. So it was it was really more out of habit than anything else. I remember thinking...so it did not have the same appeal, but really it was more out of habit. That's why I stopped. But it didn't have the same appeal. And I remember thinking why that was. And a verse came to mind and I was a new believer. So I had like zero verses memorized and I didn't even ever remember committing this verse to memory. But the verse was 1 Corinthians 5:17. And it said, therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things passed away, and behold, new things have come. And then it made sense. That was an aha moment for me, because it made it clear to me why I no longer had the same desire. I wasn't the same person. I was a new creation. So to the unbeliever here this morning, the one who has never trusted in Christ for their salvation. Are you tired of living in misery?...No hope, no light at the end of the tunnel, lonely? But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God has proven that his mercy is rich. As we saw in the Old Testament that he sent His Son to die on your behalf even when you didn't or don't now, at this moment, deserve it, because you are dead in your transgressions. Recalling who I was before Christ is hard, because I was in opposition to our Lord Jesus Christ, and now know that he relentlessly pursued me and missile locked in on my own misery. He bled and died the most horrific death. Why did he do that? And why for me? Because of his great love, as it says here in Ephesians. Because of his great love with which he loved us. That's why. And this is the result in Isaiah 1:18 it says, come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. What a beautiful picture of us being dead and then being alive, being dirty and being clean by his blood. Turn to Christ today by repenting of your sins and believing on his name. Romans 10:9-10 says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Well, have you ever heard someone say, if he saved me, he can save you? Listen to what Paul says in first Timothy. He says it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason, I found mercy so that in me, as the foremost Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. In essence, that's what Paul is saying here, and that's what I'm saying to you. I was the chief of sinners. Yet for this reason I found mercy. No matter how bad or lost you think you are...His mercy is greater. Remember the example at the beginning that I gave of a person who was almost physically dead? Well, God's mercy saved him when many people thought that person was beyond saving. They underestimated God's mercy. And so if you think you are beyond saving, God's mercy is still presently saving people today. And that person would tell you the same thing. They would tell you that you are not beyond saving because that person is walking with Christ today. And also, God's mercies are still new each day. Lamentations 3:22-23 say the Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Here we see the present tense, even though this was written in the Old Testament. His mercies are new for you every morning. His compassions for you never fail. Charles Spurgeon said, God loved us even when we were dead in sins. His love does not depend on what we are. It flows from his own heart. It is not love of something good in us. It is love of us because of everything good in him. Here you see the greatness of his grace in that he loved us even when we were dead in sins. He loved me even when I was dead in my sins. His mercy is present. And if you are not in Christ this morning, know that his mercy is even now, at this moment, even under the sound of my voice, his mercy is targeting your misery.
So the last point today is, in light of God's future grace toward us is that God's mercy is redemptive work of his gracious love for all eternity to praise. We see that in verse seven, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God's grace is not just a present day blessing, but will continue to be revealed in ages to come. Here we see the exceeding riches of God's grace, demonstrating the greatness of God's love and kindness toward humanity through Jesus Christ. Romans 2:4 says, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. Our hope points to our future as believers, where we will be praising God's glorious grace for all eternity. 1 Timothy 1:17 says, now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. That's what we'll be saying in our in our praises to him. Last week, my family had the privilege of going to the beach. I mention this because standing on the beach or looking out from our balcony or deck, or some people call it a crow's nest. It is difficult to see where the ocean ends and the sky meets. It's always amazed me. This makes me think of our future in light of eternity and also the one who created it all...the King, Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God. So now we've looked at God's mercy as a rich mark of his love in light of the past. And we've looked at his mercy as representative of his ongoing love to sinners in the gospel, in the present, and ending with his mercy as the redemptive work of his gracious love for all eternity to praise in the future. So now, how can we receive more of God's mercy. For the unbeliever there is only one way. You cry out for it. Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other people...Swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes, tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven. But beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Cry out to him and pray as the tax collector did. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Who can receive mercy? The humble man who cries out to God for his mercy. Who is it hard for to receive mercy or who can't receive mercy? The self-righteous man who focuses on one's own merits rather than seeking God's mercy. Hear the words of the prophet Micah, Who is God like you, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot. Again, I will say to the unbeliever, there is only one way to receive God's mercy. You must cry out for it.
For the believer here today. How can we receive more of God's mercy? Well, I'll give you three ways. The first one is that we can seek more of it. Matthew 5:7 says, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. How are you showing mercy to others? One way to seek more is to extend more, which in essence is what Matthew 5:7 is saying. Remember, mercy is given when it is undeserved. So it is not easy for us. And I sayus who tend towards pride and self righteousness...show compassion, forgiveness even when it is undeserved, and kindness to those who are in misery. Just as you have received mercy yourself from God. The second way is that we can praise God for it. 1 Peter 2:9-10 says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. When was the last time you praised God for his great mercy to you in salvation, and proclaimed his excellencies to others? He is worthy of all of our praise. And 1 Peter 1 says so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So the third way that we can receive more of God's mercy is that we can show it to others. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. John MacArthur says, "the best illustration of showing mercy is the Lord himself. Jesus Christ was the most merciful human being who ever lived. He reached out to heal the sick, restore the crippled, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and even life to the dead. He found prostitutes, tax collectors, the debauched and the drunken and drew them into a circle of love and forgiveness. When the scribes and Pharisees brought the adulteress to him to see if he would agree to her stoning, he confronted them with their merciless hypocrisy. He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. When no one stepped forward to condemn her, Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more. In John 8:7-11, we see that Jesus wept with the sorrowing and gave compassion to the lonely. He took little children into his arms and blessed them. He was merciful to everyone. He was mercy incarnate, just as he was love incarnate."
So today we have seen that God's mercy flows from his great love for sinners, resulting in salvation. We did this by looking at God's mercy as a rich mark of his love throughout Biblical history, and as a representative of his ongoing love to sinners in the gospel and finally as a redemptive work of his gracious love for all eternity to praise. So to close, we looked at ways that we can receive more mercy. For the unbeliever, it was to cry out as the tax collector, and for the believer it was to seek more of it, and to praise God for it and show it to others. So I hope that you will leave here this morning with a deeper understanding of God's attribute of mercy, and how he targets our misery for his glory. If you would like to hear more about God's rich mercy, or if you would like to be prayed for, the elders will be available down front after the service. So, in closing, I want to close with words from a hymn written, a long time ago in 1700s by Charles Wesley. And I think it sums up what I was trying to say perfectly. The title of the hymn is Depth of Mercy."Depth of mercy can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners spare? I have long withstood his grace, long provoked him to his face. Would not hearken to his calls. Grieved him by a thousand falls. I, my master, have denied. I afresh have crucified. Oft profaned his hallowed name. Put him to an open shame. There for me, the Saviour stands, shows his wounds and spreads his hands. God is love. I know I feel. Jesus weeps but loves me still. Now incline to me repent. Let me now my fall lament. Now my foul revolt deplore. Believe and sin no more."
Let's pray. Father, thank you for showing us your mercy by sending us your Son. Lord, who even though he knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, so that we might become your righteousness. Thank you, Lord, for teaching us from your perfect Word this morning. Help us to show mercy to others as you have shown us mercy. Guide us in your truth this week, Lord, by your spirit. Father, we ask that you continue to draw us to yourself. Lord, we are blown away by the fact that you show us mercy...undeserved, unmerited. Lord, and everyone here who has trusted in you for salvation knows that...has experienced that, Lord. But the good news is, Lord, that you have given us victory in Christ. And so may we be encouraged, Lord, by that. Thank you, Lord, for your steadfast love for us. And it is in Christ's matchless name that we pray. Amen.
