Now for you that believe, I want
to ask a question. Do you know that God has received
you? If you believe on Christ in truth,
in spirit and in truth, God has received you. Christ has received
you. How did He do that? How was God
able to receive a sinner like you and me? If God receives us
and saves us, It's purely by His mercy. It's by His mercy. That means, brethren, if God's
received you, God's been merciful to you. God's had great, great
mercy on you and received you. Mercy is God withholding from
us what we deserve. Mercy is God withholding from
us what we deserve. Grace is God giving us not only
what we don't deserve, but what we have demerited by our sin. In our text, we're going to talk
about mercy. And in our text, mercy means
mercy and grace. It means mercy and grace and
forgiveness and longsuffering and love and everything God's
done for us. It includes all of that. I'm so great a sinner and I believe
I can say I'm being honest with you. I am so great a sinner that
I know if God has received me, it has got to be purely by grace
and mercy. It's the only way He could receive
me is by mercy and grace. That's it. That's it. Now that being the case for you
who God has received and for me who God has received, Shouldn't
I receive my offending brother the same way? Shouldn't I? Listen to this. Romans 15, 7.
Romans 15, 7. Wherefore receive ye one another
as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now back up
there in Romans 14. Look there with me. You remember
how Paul began this subject. He says, verse 1, Him that is
weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputation.
Don't be doubting him and disputing about him. For one believeth
that he may eat all things, another who is weak eats herbs. Let not
him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him that
eateth not judge him that eateth. Why not? For God hath received
him. You get that? He says, now you
receive one another. Why? Because God has received
your brother. God has received him. And so
now in our text in verse 7, he says, wherefore receive ye one
another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now who does God give this admonition
to? He gives it to everyone that
He's called by His grace. He gives it to every believer,
Jew and Gentile. He says to us all that are saved
by grace and saved by mercy, receive one another as Christ
has received you. He's saying in mercy, in mercy. Now, concerning God's elect among
the Jews, he gives us a couple of illustrations here. Verse
8, concerning God's elect who were among the Jews, he said,
now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision,
that is the Jews. Christ came to minister to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's the only ones he said
he came to save, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the circumcision. He did it for the truth of God.
to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. He came to
the Jews to manifest God's faithfulness in fulfilling His word. And then
concerning His elect among the Gentiles, verse 9, and that the
Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. And we're all saved
by mercy, Jew and Gentile. But I believe what Paul's getting
at here is He's particularly speaking to the Gentiles. They
were probably the ones who were stronger in faith because they
never were under the law and they never were taught the law.
So they weren't worried about these dietary laws. They had
liberty in Christ and they knew it. So that's probably who he
was talking to that was stronger in faith. So he's particularly
saying to them, now you receive these brethren as Christ has
received you. And it was great mercy revealed
to them because Christ came to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Remember what he said to that Gentile woman? He said,
it's not meat for me to give the children's bread to dogs.
And she said, yes Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs
from their master's table. And he's saying here to these
Gentiles, God showed you great mercy. Christ received you in
mercy. Now that's true of all of us.
No matter who we are, Jew or Gentile, if God chose us, he
chose us by mercy. And if he received us, he received
us by mercy. And then he gives some scriptures
to back it up. He says, as it's written, This is Old Testament
Scripture. For this cause, I will confess
to thee, that's Christ speaking, I will confess to thee, Father,
among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again he saith,
Rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the
Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud him, all ye people. And again,
Isaiah saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that
shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. In Him shall the Gentiles
trust. You know what we are, brethren?
We're Gentiles. We're Gentiles. And God, you who God has received,
He's shown you great mercy. Great mercy. Our subject is glorify
God for His mercy. glorify God for His mercy. Now believer, knowing that Christ
received us in mercy in order to glorify God, receiving us
in mercy, He glorified God for His mercy. He showed you the
glory of God's mercy by receiving you in mercy. And so knowing
He received us in mercy to the glory of God, God says to us
now, receive one another in mercy for the glory of God. You want
to glorify God? Receive your brethren. And we're
not talking about receiving your brethren when they're all smiles
and y'all are happy and everything's going good together. We're talking
about when they've offended you, greatly offended you. That's
what we're talking about. Receive one another as Christ
received us in mercy. That's what glorifies God. Be
merciful to one another. That glorifies God. You know
why? Because if you can do it, God
worked it in you. If you can do it, God gave you
the grace to do it. If I can't show mercy, nobody
to blame but myself. my sinful flesh is the only reason
I can't show mercy and forgiveness and long-suffering and all those
things. But if I can, God gets all the glory because He did
it. He worked it in me. Now I want to show you for our
divisions the glory of God's mercy in the face of three things. I want to show you the glory
of God's mercy, number one, in the face of our sin. And then
we'll see the glory of God's mercy in the face of our Redeemer. And then we'll see the glory
of God's mercy in the face of our brethren. In the face of
our sin, our Redeemer, and our brethren. Now first of all, we
see God glorified for His mercy in the face of our sin. You who have received mercy,
And I'm speaking also to you who need God's mercy, whether
you know it or not. Do we know how exceedingly sinful
we are? Do you know how sinful you are? Do we know that? It's only then,
it's only when you see how great a sinner you are, that you'll
rejoice exceedingly in the riches of His mercy. So, you have to
be made to know how great a sinner you are if you're going to rejoice
greatly in God's mercy. In Adam, we sinned against God. Now, I know you know that. I
know you've heard that. You've heard me say that over
and over and over. In Adam, we sinned in God. But I want you to know it more
than a doctrine. Do you know that about yourself? In Adam, because he was a federal
head, he was a representative head, God made him the head of
his people. So whatever Adam did, we did. And when Adam transgressed against
God, when he sinned against God, I sinned against God. I sinned
against God. And not only in Adam, but there's
not one commandment that we ourselves have not broken every moment
of every day. When we talk about breaking God's
commandment, we're not talking about somewhere down the line
where you slip up and you do some sinful act. We're not talking
about some sinful act that you do every day. We're talking about
every moment In our thoughts, in our heart,
we sin against God. We break God's commandments every
moment of every day. Let me see how I can put this
so that I encompass the totality of our sin. In everything we
have ever done, the only thing we have ever done is sin against
God. That's how much of a sinner I
am. That's how much of a sinner you
are. Whether you acknowledge it or not, whether you know it
or not, everything you've ever done, in everything you've ever
done, the only thing you've ever done is sin against God. And
that's true of me. Our fleshly nature, this nature
we're born with, when we were conceived in our mother's womb.
Our father was a sinner. So when we were conceived in
our mother's womb, Scripture says we were conceived in sin. That doesn't mean that mom and
dad were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing.
It means the very being that came alive in our mother's womb
was nothing but sin. Nothing but sin. We are sin itself. We are sin itself. We are enmity
against God. Hatred against God. Romans 8
and let me just read it because I know you are familiar with
it but go to Romans 8 if you are not familiar with this and
look at Romans 8 and look at verse 7. The carnal mind, that's what
we're born with. A carnal nature, a sin nature,
a carnal mind. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not at enmity against God. It's not doing some hateful things
against God. Our sin nature is hatred against
God. That's what it is by nature.
Look at this. What does that mean? It's not
subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. And so
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If God leaves
us in that state that we're born in, in our flesh, there's nothing
we can do that will ever please God. Nothing. I don't care if
you gave everything you got and built the biggest church on the
planet. and paid everybody's way to come there and did it
all you like, it won't amount to nothing with God. You can't
please God while you're in your flesh. You just can't do it.
Why? Because you can't submit to the
Word of God. You see, here's proof. I can't
submit by nature. I can't submit to the fact that
I'm enmity against God. I can't submit to God's Word
that says I can do nothing to please God. I can't submit to
that unless God gives me a new heart and makes me bow. So then
I can't go to the law and do anything to please God. I can't
submit to any of God's Word. We are enmity itself. We are abomination to God in
itself. Listen to Psalm, I mean Proverbs
3.32 says, The froward, that's what all of us are by nature,
the froward is abomination to the Lord. That's what he is.
What's abomination? What's abomination? You be turning
to Isaiah chapter 1. What's abomination? Now I'm going
to tell you what it is. I want you to listen closely.
It's real pretty. Abomination is a stinking wound
that's oozing putrid pus that is so vile and so nauseating
that it would turn a sailor's stomach. That's what abomination
is. And that's what we are to God. I know that's not offensive enough
to get the point across. But that's what God tells us
right here. We're far more offensive to God than that. But look at
here, he says verse 6, from the sole of the foot even to the
head, there's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores. They've not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. That's what our sin
nature is before God. That's what we are before God
in our flesh. And from that cesspool, the only
thing we belch out is sin after sin after sin after sin after
sin. That's all that comes from it
so that in our flesh we can do nothing to please God. Now sinner,
do you know that about yourself? Do we know that about ourselves?
Can we really say, I have to be saved by mercy. I have to
be saved by mercy because that's the great sinner I am. We've offended God so much that
God owes us nothing. God owes us nothing except Eternal
condemnation under the justice and wrath of God. That's all
He owes you and me. You think of somebody who's offended
and hurt you deeply. Think of somebody that's offended
you and hurt you very deeply. Let's say somebody murdered your
only child. Would you be offended? Let's
say somebody murdered your whole family. Would they hurt you deeply
and offend you deeply? They have not offended you like
you and I have offended God. Do you believe that? That's so. That's so, brethren. For one sinner to offend another
sinner, that might be truly offensive. They might truly offend you.
But for a sinner to offend holy God, it doesn't compare. It does not compare. No offense towards you from another
sinner compares to your offenses toward God. And yet, God had
mercy on you. God had mercy on you. God shows mercy to whom He will
show mercy. He shows mercy to whom He will
show mercy. Since we're there, let's go look
at that. Romans 9. Let's hear it real quick. He's
using Jacob and Esau for the example, verse 11. The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. Here's the reason
God has mercy on whom He will. Here's why He elects a people
to save. So that it's not of works, but
of Him that calleth. Not of your works, it's of God
that calleth. And so it was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger. That's what God said to their
mother. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. Purely by grace and mercy, God
loved Jacob and he hated Esau. What shall we say then? Is God
unfair? God unrighteous? God forbid. For he said to Moses, this is
his glory, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it's not of your will, it's not of your running and doing many
wonderful works, it's of God that shows mercy. If I'm going
to be saved, God's going to have to do it simply because God would
in mercy. And if I ever see my sin, I'm
going to know that's the only way God could do it, is by mercy. By mercy. Can I say, can you
say, I'm such a sinner, the only way God can save me is by mercy? Believer, when you hear those
words, Christ hath received you. When you hear these words, God
hath received you. Do you see the glory of God? The glory of His mercy in the
face of your sin? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. I need mercy from God. I need
mercy from God. There's not a moment that goes
by that I don't need God's mercy. Every moment of every day I am
sin and all I do is sin. If that's so, of you, and you
know God saved you by your mercy, I don't have to speculate about
this. You will be merciful. You will. Now secondly, we behold God glorified
for His mercy in the face of our Redeemer. The face of our
Redeemer. Now God owed us nothing but judgment. God owed us nothing but condemnation. He owed us nothing but an eternity
in hell. And yet, mercy sent His only
begotten Son into this world to bear that condemnation that
we deserve. When I say we, I'm talking about
those on whom God had mercy. Those who before the foundation
of the world, God said, I'll be merciful to that one. I'll
be merciful to that one. I'll be merciful to that one.
I'm passing that one and that one and that one. I'll be merciful
to that one. And He chose us in Christ Jesus
and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Him. And Christ
came forth. Mercy sent Christ forth. Mercy sent His only Son forth
to bear the sin and shame and curse and condemnation that His
people deserved. Christ came forth. And God withheld
from His chosen people what we deserve. That's mercy. He withheld
what we deserve. How did He do that? Because Christ
willingly became the offense we are to God. And He was made a curse. What
does that mean? It means more than just that
he was raised up on a cursed tree, although that is what it
is to be a curse, to be crucified on a cross. Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. But, it's more than that. It
means God separated Himself in judgment of His own Son because
He bore the sin of His people and He hung there as guilty before
God and God justly poured out wrath and fury and condemnation
on His Son until His justice was completely satisfied. You see, if God's going to save
you, you've got to be executed. If God's going to save you, you've
got to go to the electric chair, you've got to have the poison
pumped into your veins, you've got to die. And the only way
God's justice can be upheld and He still show you mercy is if
His Son came and took your place. And His Son didn't take everybody's
place, because if He did, then everybody in this world is justified.
And that means God, that same justice requires God to call
out everyone that's justified. That means we're all going to
be saved. And that ain't so, because you see some people go
through life cussing God and never once bowing to His Son.
Who is it that's going to bow to His Son? Those He justified.
You said we can't do anything to please God in our flesh. That
obviously means He's going to have to do something in us too,
doesn't He? He does. God withheld what we deserved
because His Son came and became the offense we were. And God
in grace gave us what we didn't deserve because His Son merited
it for us. His Son fulfilled the righteousness
of the law for us. His Son accomplished everything
that His people couldn't accomplish for us. And so God's law has
been honored, it's been magnified, it's been upheld, justice has
been carried out, righteousness has been fulfilled, because Christ
did it. And so in Christ, God can have
mercy. He figured out a way to kill
you and save your life. That was the dilemma of grace. That's the dilemma of the gospel
that no man could ever come up with. God figured out a way to
kill us and save us and it's in His Son. It's in His Son. We hated and we were hatred to
Christ. We were nothing but a constant
offense to Christ and yet our Lord Jesus Christ lowered Himself
to the lowest low. He bore the shame, the most shameful
shame and died the most cursed death for His people. for us
who were offending Him, for us who were an offense to Him, for
us who did nothing but curse Him. That's what He did. Can
you imagine? Now I know we have people offend
us and every now and then they'll say something or do something
that really offends us and hurts us. What if they did it every
single hour of every single day? Every single moment of every
single day? Remember that fellow that came
out yelling at David, cursing him as he went up the hill and
just cursing him, cursing him and calling him names? What if
you had somebody doing that to you every second of every day? That's what we did to Christ.
And yet He came to where we are and took that sin and paid our
sin debt and died our death. And then we arose in Him. to
eternal life. See, just like He made Adam a
federal head, so that Adam, we send in Adam, He made Christ
a head, federal head of His elect people so that we accomplish
righteousness in Christ. Well, I don't like that, that
I'm represented by somebody else. You're going to have to take
it up with God, because that's how God did it. Go to Romans 5.13 sometime
and read all about it. Romans 5.12.13 down to the end
of the chapter and it will tell you all about it. We don't have
time right now, but God can say to His people there, Awake, awake,
stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the
Lord the cup of His fury. Thou hast drunken the dregs of
the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. You know when you get
through drinking and you do the cup out like that, you know?
We've drank to the dregs of the cup of God's wrath and wrung
the cup out. I didn't ever do that. Yes, I
did. When Christ drank damnation dry,
I drank it dry. I was in Him that real. Just
like I was in Adam and I really cursed God, trespassed against
God, I was in Christ and I really did what Christ did. And so God
showered us in mercy when He called us by His gospel. Go to
Ephesians 2. I'm going to try to hurry here, but I want you
to see this. Since He talked about those Gentiles, I want
you to see this. He's talking to some Gentiles,
Ephesians 2.1. Here's what we were right here.
Ephesians 2.1, it says we were dead in trespasses and in sins. It says in verse 2, we walked
according to the course of this world. It says there we were
under the prince of the power of the air. We had the spirit
that now works in the children of disobedience. We were children
of disobedience. We all had our conversation,
our conduct in times past. We walked in the lusts of our
flesh. We were fulfilling the desires
of our flesh and of our mind. And we were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. Look down at verse 12. At that
time, you were without Christ. Now here's what our text means. This is what Paul meant when
he said Christ came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
He came through the circumcision and he came to confirm the truth.
He came to confirm the covenant that applied to them. At that
time though, you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
You were strangers from the covenants of promise. You had no hope. You were without God in the world.
That's a pretty bleak picture, isn't it? So how were we saved? How were you and me who were
Gentile? How were we saved? Go back up to verse 4. But God
who is rich in mercy. That's Al. God was rich in mercy
to us. For His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us
together with Christ. By grace are you saved. There's
that mercy again. He raised us up together. He
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And we
didn't know any of that. We were still without hope, without
God in the world. How are we going to find out
about it? He raised Christ, set Him at His right hand so that
in the ages to come, Art D'Armiento be born into this world. And
Christ will protect him all the way up to the point where he
crossed your path with the gospel. And he showed you the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness towards you through Christ Jesus.
And that's what Christ is doing right now. And he's not going
to stop until he showed everybody he died for the exceeding riches
of his grace and mercy. in the kindness of God shown
to them through Him. He's going to do that in every
one of His people. We're going to all find out and know the
riches of His mercy. The riches of His mercy. Now,
do you see the glory of God's mercy in the face of Christ?
Do you see it? Now, let's go to this last thing. We see God glorified for His
mercy in the face of our brethren. Now, preacher, what do you mean
by this? Do you offend your brethren? Have you ever offended a brother,
a sister in Christ? Do you need mercy from your brethren?
Do you need them to show you mercy? I need mercy from you,
my brethren. I need mercy from my brethren
just like I need mercy from God. That's right. I need mercy for my sins which
offend you. Of course I need mercy for the
sins that we all know as sins. Of course I need mercy for those.
But I'll tell you when I need mercy the most. When that old
Pharisee that's in me rears his judgmental head and starts condemning
you for your sin and justifying myself. That's when I need mercy
most. That's when I need mercy most.
Paul was addressing believers here who had been received by
God by His mercy. And yet, they were standing in
judgment of their brethren because of something their brethren were
doing that they didn't agree with. They were despising them, they
were doubting them, they were ready to reject them. And those
were brethren received by God in mercy. Those ones they were
ready to reject were received by God in mercy. Just like the
ones doing the condemning were already received by God in mercy.
You see, when God saves you, don't think all of a sudden you
become a saint and your halo's on so tight that you're just
perfect and everybody looks at you and admires what a great
person you are. No, you're still just a stinking rotten sinner
in yourself. And the worst sinner of all is
when you rise up in condemnation of another brother over their
sin, which is nothing more than exalting yourself over your brethren. If God doesn't subdue that Pharisee,
that's what we'll do. And that's what Paul's teaching
these brethren in chapters 14 and 15 not to do. I've experienced
that Pharisee in me on more occasions than I care to count. He says, I'm just not to show
mercy. That's what that old Pharisee
says in my country. You're just not to show them
mercy. Don't show them mercy. That brother greatly offended
you. I greatly offended God. But they hurt you. They're wrong. I hurt and I was wrong. I hurt
God. I crucified His son. God helped me to glorify God
by being merciful to my brethren. But let me say, imagine if I'm
in that awful state. God's received my brother. He's
received my brother. But I won't receive him? God
received him, but I won't receive him? God, for Christ's sake,
is showing him mercy and I won't show him mercy for Christ's sake?
Am I going to refuse a sinner Refuse him mercy, who the righteous
and holy God has received in mercy. Not one of us would want to stand
up before our brethren and say, I don't really thank God for
his mercy. I'm not really thankful for his
mercy. No one of us would want to stand up and say that. But
when we condemn our brethren and won't show them mercy, that's
exactly what we're saying. That's exactly what we're saying. So having that Pharisee in me,
I need mercy from my brethren. I need mercy from my brethren.
Don't you? Now listen, when you behold a brother overcoming self-righteousness,
if you behold me overcoming self-righteousness, refusing mercy, judging, condemning
one for whom Christ died, one that God has shown mercy to,
remember this about that brother that is overcome in that self-righteousness.
Remember this about him. That's not the new man created
in righteousness and holiness. That's not the new man. That
new man born of incorruptible seed and cannot sin, Christ abides
in him. That's his old sin nature. That's his old sin nature. That's
sin that dwells in his flesh. So don't be harsh with that one
who's condemning and won't show mercy Don't be harsh with them. Don't be harsh with them. Self-righteousness
tends to beget self-righteousness. And if you're harsh with that
person who's raised up in self-righteousness and he's judging and he's condemning,
and you judge and condemn right back, you're in the same fault. Don't do that. Remember, when
a brother refuses mercy, he needs mercy most of all. When a brother
refuses to show mercy, he needs mercy most of all. Do you see the irony in self-righteousness? Something I've learned a lot
lately is when you point and condemn people and tell them
all their sins, while you're pointing at them and condemning
them, you're doing something far worse than they're doing. Self-righteousness says, you're
too great a sinner for me to show you mercy. That's what self-righteousness
says. You're just too great a sinner
for me to show you mercy. And yet when we are that great
sinner, overtaken in that great sin of self-righteousness, God
saves us by saying, you're not too great a sinner for me to
show you mercy. You see how the irony of self-righteousness
You'll stand up and say, oh, you're too much of a sinner.
I can't show you mercy. Well, God says to me, you're
not too much of a sinner for me to show you mercy. Oh, let me move on. So what did Paul say we should
do instead? You think of this. What if Paul,
ok, he comes there to Rome. So he writes his brethren, they
write him back, and he knows all these, what's going on here.
There's some that's eating what they should, they don't have
to eat these meats and all that stuff, they're in error on that.
But these brethren come and they tell Paul, they say, look at
them, they're eating these meats, they're observing these days,
and if Paul got to looking at that, and he said, you know,
you're right. I bet they don't even believe
the gospel. You know what he'd be doing? He would have established
that brother that's condemning them. He would have established
him in self-righteousness. And exalted him in self-righteousness. And he would have condemned that
brother for whom Christ died. And he would have divided the
whole church. That's exactly what he would
have done. And that's what he was trying
to prevent. That's what Paul was trying to prevent. So what
did he say, do? Romans 15 says, Wherefore receive
ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Do you see what Paul is doing?
He is being merciful. He is showing them mercy. He
is not joining in condemnation. He is showing them all mercy.
He is showing them all mercy. He is showing them all Christ.
That's what he is doing. So brethren, be merciful and
receive your offending brethren as Christ receives us. It's so hard to do because it
runs contrary to our flesh. We're by nature, pharisaical,
self-righteous, condemning sinners is what we are. but restore your brother in mercy
like Christ does us. Remind them how God received
us by mercy as Christ does us through the gospel. But preacher,
that weak brother's wrong. That weak brother's judged me.
He's condemned me. He don't deserve me to show him
mercy. That's what mercy is, isn't it? You don't show mercy to somebody
that deserves it. Are you saying he's such a sinner
he don't deserve for me to show him mercy? You're saying he's
a candidate for mercy. He's the very one I should be
showing mercy. Did you and I deserve mercy from
God? Yet he had mercy. That's how
we receive one another in Christ when we don't deserve it. That's
mercy. And I'll tell you this, this
is true. This is true. This is how God works this by
putting us all together here and letting us get puffed up
in our flesh and judging one another and then bringing us
down and that one that you're condemning for whatever sin he
did, you're condemning him, he'll be the one that ends up showing
you mercy. And what happens? Once God has
brought you to reconcile, your bond will be stronger than it
ever was before. What happened when God showed
you your sin and then God showed you that He had received you
in mercy for Christ's sake? Didn't that melt your heart?
Didn't that make you want to please God? Didn't that make
you run to Christ when He did that? That's what will happen. Christ's unceasing mercy toward
us no matter what we've done is what constrains us. When did
you ever go to Christ and ask for mercy and not receive it?
Never. Have you ever come to God begging
mercy and didn't receive it? No. That's when we see the glory
of God's mercy in the face of our brethren. How do I see God's mercy when
my brethren's being merciful to me? Because it's God's mercy
and grace that makes a brother be merciful to an offending brother. And I'm seeing God's mercy work
in that brother to make him merciful to me. And I thank God when I
see that, that God delights in mercy. Because I need mercy. I need mercy from God. I need mercy from my brethren. There's only a few times in our
life that God gives us a really, really hard trial. Just a few
times. And among the most difficult
is to have an offending brother that disappoints us. And we know
they're guilty. And they even tell you they're
guilty. They come ask you for mercy. But they've hurt you. They've offended you. If we want
to manifest that we believe what God's taught us in the gospel,
and we're going to receive that one who does not deserve it,
restore them to Christ, and glorify God Because that's how Christ received
us to the glory of God. And that'll be God's mercy. Working
every bit of it. That's what we pray for. God
have mercy on us. God have mercy. I pray God will
give us grace to have mercy. Amen.