Well, let us turn to God's Word
once again as we continue our consideration of these opening
verses here in the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to St.
Matthew. Matthew chapter 5, then we're
considering something of the content of what we call the Beatitudes. These words with which the Lord
Jesus opens His famed Sermon on the Mount. And we come this
morning to consider what the Lord says here at verse 7 Matthew
5, 7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Matthew
5 and verse 7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain
mercy May the Lord help us as we come to consider these remarkable
words spoken by the Lord Jesus himself And remember how the
Lord's ministry was very much a discriminating ministry. We're told on three separate
occasions in the Gospel according to St. John how there was division. Division because of him. Division
because of his teaching. How discriminating then was that
preaching of the Lord Jesus. He preached the gospel, yes,
but he also preached the full vigor of the Lord of God. And we have a remarkable example
there in Mark 10 of the discrimination that the Lord makes as he addresses
certain individuals. There in Mark 10 at verse 17
through 22, he's speaking to the rich young ruler. who comes
and asks, what good thing must I do to inherit the kingdom of
God? What must I do? What good work
must I perform? And because he's looking to himself
and looking to works, how the Lord answers him in terms of
the law. What set the law? He preaches
the law to that man. That law that brings the conviction
of sin. But later in the same chapter,
There at the end of Mark 10 from verse 46 we read of another blind
Bartimaeus who was sitting by the wayside. And how different
is the request that he makes and the answer that the Lord
gives. He cries out, Jesus our son of David have mercy upon
them. And he will not be silenced.
The more they try to silent him the more He cries out, Jesus,
our son of David, have mercy upon me. And how does the Lord
deal with him? He deals with him not in terms of law, but
in terms of grace. He says to the blind man, what
will thou that I should do unto thee? How different, the rich
young ruler, what must I do? And here is one who wants the
Lord to do something for him. And so the Lord deals with that. blind man, that begging blind
man, Bartimaeus in terms of the gospel. How the Lord's ministry,
you see, is a faithful ministry as he preaches and here of course
he is principally addressing his disciples. He sees the multitude,
yes, but when he is said it's the disciples who come to him
as we're told in the opening verse. And in the course of his
preaching here we see how the Lord does make mention of the
law and declares really the true nature of that law, the spirituality
of the law, the breadth of the law. In chapter 6 how he speaks
there at verse 21 concerning Let me get the passage right. Not chapter 6, here in chapter
5 at verse 21. It says, taking up the language
of the law in the Ten Commandments, the Sixth Commandment, Thou shalt
not kill. Ye have heard that it was said
by them of all time, Thou shalt not till and whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of the judgment but I say unto you that
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger
of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother racker
shall be in danger of the council and whosoever shall say thou
fool shall be in danger of hell fire not just a matter of what
a man does he might be guilty of the awful crime of murder
but if a man in a sense is murdering the reputation of his brother,
speaking ill of his brother, bearing anger and hatred in his
heart he can be a transgressor of that sixth commandment and
then in verses 27 and 28 he goes on also to take up the language
of the seventh commandment they shall not commit adultery and
how he shows there the spirituality of that commandment, if you have
lost in your heart wanton thoughts, that is a transgression of that
commandment. Oh, the Lord will bring out then
all the vigor of the holy law of God, that law that is the
ministration of condemnation and death. By the law is the
knowledge of sin, The Law was given by Moses, yes. But it is
Christ who shows us the real spiritual nature of that Law
which is holy and righteous and just and good. But as the Law
was given by Moses, so grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And it is the Gospel that we
see so paramount in all the ministry of the Lord Jesus. And do we
not see it here? as he speaks to his disciples
and how he delineates to them something of the character of
those who are his true followers and that's what he is doing really
here in the Beatitudes he's describing those who are truly the blessed
ones those who know real happiness in their souls it's their characters that are
being described. It's the mark of those who are
his true followers. And what do we see here in the
words that we've read for our text this morning? Well, mercy. Mercy is the mark of the true
Christian believer. Mercy is the mark of those who
are truly the disciples of the Lord Jesus. And so that's the
theme that I want us to consider for a while this morning. And
just to deal really with two points as we look at the text. First of all, to say something
with regards to the experience of mercy. What is it to experience
the mercy of God? And then in the second place,
to consider the evidence and the expression of that mercy
when we have experienced it. So, in the second place, as it
were, to try to come to some application that we might examine
ourselves, and know that we are those who are indeed true partakers
of the mercy of our God. First of all, though, to consider
the experience of mercy. We're told, aren't we, in the
Psalms, that the Lord is good. The psalmist says His tender
mercies are over all His works. Mercy is one of the attributes
that belong to God. It tells us something of the
sort of God that he is and his tender mercies are over all his
works he is the creator and he is the sustainer of all things
and his mercy in that sense is demonstrated everywhere how is
a God who is so long suffering in a world that lies in wickedness
it's a fallen world when God created the world At the end
of those six days of creation he pronounces it all to be very
good. It's the work of his own hands
and he's a God who is good. But then of course we have the
record of how it has all been despoiled by the wickedness of
man, the transgression of our first parents, recorded there
in Genesis chapter 3, the fall of man. And so the world is a
fallen world, and yet God's tender mercy is over all this wicked
world. And it's interesting, isn't it,
what we read later in this chapter concerning the God spoken of
in verse 45? He maketh his Son to rise on
the evil and on the good, and send us rain on the just and
the unjust that is the tender mercy of God this world is not
altogether consumed with the wickedness of men and God's long
patience and God's tenderness in his dealings in
his providences now although that is a truth Multitudes ignore
that. They take no account of the goodness
of God that's to be witnessed all about them. But of course
believers are different. Believers are very much aware
of the merciful dealings of God. Think of the language that we
have back in Lamentations chapter 3. There Jeremiah says in verse
22 it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. because
His compassions, they fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is His faithfulness. But why are we not consumed?
Because of the Lord's mercies, because of His faithfulness.
He has said, As long as the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. He is a merciful God in his general
dealings with his creatures. And the child of God is one who
recognizes that. It is of the Lord's mercy that
we're not consumed. There is then a personal experience,
and that's what's being spoken of here in the words of the text. here are those who obtain the
mercy of God blessed are the merciful it says for they shall
obtain mercy who have obtained it? who are those who have obtained
this mercy? well they're not those who are
innocent they're not those who obtain it because there's some
worth in them that they've done something meritorious whereby
they've earned the mercy of God, the exercise of mercy in God
presupposes that there is guilt. He deals with the guilty in terms
of his mercy. And we see it of course in Here
in the Gospel we see it in the language of the publican when
Christ there in Luke 18 speaks of those two men who go to the
temple at the hour of prayer. You know the passage, one is
a pharisee, a most religious man, but alas
a man full of himself, a self-righteous man. And the other is a despised
publican in the employ of the Roman authorities as a tax gatherer,
not just gathering taxes but also taking advantage of his
position and feathering his own nest, as they say. The publicans,
the tax gatherers, so despised. And yet, when the Lord tells
of those two men who go to the temple, In the manner of their
praying, how the Pharisee is full of himself, I thank thee
that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust. And then
he looks over at the publican, I'm not like that man. And there
is that publican, he's standing afar off, so ashamed he cannot
come near. And he smites upon his breast,
and he cries out, God be merciful. God be merciful to me, a sinner. All mercy is for sinners. Because
that is the man who goes to his house justified, says the Lord
Jesus, rather than the other. The self-righteous man receives
nothing. His prayer doesn't go any further than himself. He
prayed with himself. It goes no further than that. that the publicans cry for mercy
is heard God be merciful to me a sinner now I have to say that
the word that we have there in in Luke 18 and verse 13 is not
the same word really that we have here in the text here we have blessed are the
merciful for they shall obtain mercy and you might say well
it's the same word that we have there in Luke 18 well it's not
the same in the original of course the Greek seems to
be in many ways a richer and a fuller language than our own what we have here really in this
word In the text before us is the
idea of pity. Blessed are the pitiful, they
shall obtain pity. But the word in Luke 18.13 is
really the word propitiation or propitious. What is the publican
asking for? He's asking that God would turn
away his wrath from him. he's not just asking for pity
he's asking for more than that he wants God to be propitious
he doesn't just want to be pitied he wants to be pardoned he wants
to know the forgiveness of his sins well he's had the way in which
we come as those who are so conscious of our sin we want the Lord to
pity us to have mercy upon us in that sense but we want more
than that we want to know that our sins are gone that God's
wrath has been turned away from us we were deserving of his wrath
but another has borne that wrath you see how the Lord is describing
really those who are true seekers after God and those who have
a desire to be the real disciples of the Lord Jesus how do they
come? well we've looked over these past weeks at the previous
Beatitudes they come as those who are poor beggars, they are
poor in spirit, or they feel their spiritual poverty, they
have nothing to present to God, they come in verse 4 as those
who would mourn over their sins, sin to them is such a grievous
burden, they are those who are meek, they come with that lowliness,
that humility of mind and as we were saying last week there
are those who come hungering and thirsting after righteousness
or they want a righteousness, they have no righteousness of
their own their righteousnesses are like filthy rags and so they
come also seeking mercy they want God to take pity upon them
Begging mercy every hour. A line that we have in Joseph
Hart's hymn 237. Is that how we come together
this morning? We are begging again for the
mercy of God. We can take up something of the
language of the psalmist. There in the 109th psalm in verse
21, Because thy mercy is good, says the Psalmist, because thy
mercy is good. Deliver thou me, for I am poor
and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. Or can we take up
the language of the Psalmist as we come together to worship
God? We thank God that He is merciful
and is a gracious God. We have those remarkable words,
don't we, at the end of the book of the prophet Micah lovely passage there in the final
words of chapter 7 verse 18 who is a god like unto them that
pardoneth iniquity and pardoneth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage he retaineth not his anger forever because
he delighteth in mercy he will turn again He will have compassion
upon us. He will subdue our iniquities
and they will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea. They will perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which they were sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. What a blessing it is that as
we come together we come to worship a God He was a merciful God,
and we come begging His mercy. We just sang that hymn, didn't
we? Number 11. And the language there in verse 5, The door of
thy mercy stands open all day to the poor and the needy who
knock by the way. No sinner shall ever be empty
sent back who comes seeking mercy for Jesus' sake. God is a merciful
God. and we are to come then as those
who desire that we might experience that mercy, that he would have
pity upon us, that he would pardon our sins. Well let us, having
said something with regards to the experience, let us turn in
the second place to the evidence and the expression of mercy. Blessed are the merciful. for they shall obtain mercy."
They don't just obtain the mercy, they are merciful. That's what it says in the opening
clause of the verse. The blessed ones are those who
are the merciful ones. Now, we could quite easily misunderstand
and misinterpret what we have in this text this morning. Is
it really saying that mercy from God is given on the condition
that we ourselves are merciful people? On the surface it might
seem to read in that fashion. That God has mercy upon those
who themselves are unmerciful. But we know that that is not
really the case. God's mercy is sovereign and
God's mercy is free what does it say there in Romans 9 18 I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion the sovereignty of God is exercised
as he shows mercy upon sinners we don't earn his mercy by our
merciful dealings it's the same isn't it when we think of that
pattern prayer that the Lord taught his disciples the Lord's
prayer and it should of course be the pattern to us it's the
instruction that the Lord gives his disciples as to how they
are to pray and amongst those various petitions in the Lord's
prayer We're to say, forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors. And again, that can be misunderstood.
Are we really coming and expecting God to grant forgiveness to us
because we forgive others? On a superficial reading, it
might seem to say that. But we know that the basis on
which God forgives sins is nothing to do with us. The basis, the
grounds of forgiveness is in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his
person, and in his work. Well, that's the very heart of
the Gospel. We have the forgiveness of sins
because of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus, how
he has died. bearing the punishment that was
due to sinners, because God can by no means clear the guilty.
He is a merciful God. He is a gracious God. He is a
loving God. These are all attributes in God.
But the God who is a God of mercy is also the God of justice. He
is the God who is holy and righteous. He must punish the sinner, and
the basis of our forgiveness is because Christ is that one
who was born the penalty and endured the punishment that
was due to sinners. If any man sin, John says, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous,
and he is the propitiation for our sins. He is the propitiation
for our sins. Again, later in that same first
epistle, John says here in his love, not that we love God, but
that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. And what John is saying there
is the same as what the Apostle Paul will say to the Romans.
Speaking of the Lord Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be of propitiation
for our sins. Now remember what we said with
regards to that publican who goes to the temple and prays,
God be merciful. Well that word mercy that we
have there is related to those words that we find in John's
epistle, John's first epistle and in Romans. The word propitiation,
the man is praying, God be propitious. is asking the pardon of his sin. All the forgiveness of sin is
in the Lord Jesus Christ and nowhere else. We do not imagine for a moment
that we can do anything that would merit God's favor in the
pardon of our sins. No, we look to Christ and all
that he accomplished when he was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And so too with regards to mercy. It's not something that we obtain
because we ourselves have behaved in a merciful fashion. What are we to understand then
with regards to these things? Thinking of the words in our
text concerning the mercy of God, and thinking also of that petition
in the Lord's Prayer concerning the forgiveness of sins well
in each case what is being taught is that those who have experienced
mercy will be evidenced in that they
are merciful people and again those who have experienced the
pardon, the forgiveness of sins will also be those who are ready
and willing to pardon others, to forgive others when they sin
against them. This is the mark of the Christian,
you see. This is what the Lord is setting before us. Remember
how Paul, when he writes of the Ephesians, we come to the more
practical part, the latter part of that epistle to the Ephesians. In chapter 4 he says that to
be forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you." If you are forgiven, or behave as those who are forgiven,
be ready to forgive others. If you've obtained mercy, well,
that will become a characteristic in your life. You'll be ready
to show mercy to others. And I read that passage here
in the 18th chapter because at the end of course we have the
parable of the unmerciful servant we have the parable there at
the end of that chapter from verse 23 right through to verse
35 the parable of the unmerciful servants and it shows us what
is involved when a man has experienced real forgiveness has truly known
the forgiveness of God here is one and he owes a great debt
10,000 talents 10,000 talents I've seen it said that that probably
represents something like well over a million pounds thinking
in our terms two million pounds it's a great debt that he owes one was brought to the king which
owed him ten thousand talents it says there at verse 24 and he's forgiven his debt but
is he really forgiven? has he really experienced forgiveness?
There's not the spirit of forgiveness in this man, because in verse
28 that same servant goes out, finds one of his fellow servants
which owed him just a hundred pence. And again it's said that
that's probably about three pounds. He owes all that vast sum of
money, well over a million pounds, and here is one who owes him
just three pounds. And he laid their hands on the
man and took him by the throat and said, pay me that thou owest. And the fellow servant falls
down and beseeches him, have patience, I will pay thee. And
he won't have patience, he won't give that poor man any leeway
at all to pay the small debt that he owes. Well, what are we to make of
this? What are we to make of this? We're told in verse 27,
Now the Lord of the servant who owed him that vast sum was moved
with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. I understand that in this sense.
He was one who, we could say, really heard the gospel. But he had no real experience
of the gospel. because he was never completely and utterly
hopeless when he falls down in verse 26 and begs his master
to have patience and he says he will pay all that he owes
that's what he says he is going to pay the man he imagines he'll
be able somehow or other to pay the debts that he owes And I
think then of the language that we have in Hebrews 6. There are some, aren't there,
who have every appearance of having partaken of the grace
of God. Remember the language that we
have there, that searching passage in Hebrews 6, where the Apostle
says, It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and
have tasted the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers
of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." They have
every appearance of being the Lord's, but they put Christ to
an open shame. And I think of that with regards
to this particular man, how he betrays his real condition. there
in verse 28 through 30 in the way in which he treats his fellow
servants well what does the Lord say by their fruits by their
fruits he shunned others and what do we see in this man
that the Lord is speaking of here in the gospel or this wicked
man who was forgiven so great a debt and yet had no spirit
of forgiveness he had known the mercy of God there had been pity manifested
towards him and yet it showed no pity at all to another or
blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy if we've
known and tasted the mercy of God. It will be evidenced in
the manner in which we live. It will express itself in different
ways of course. But principally, surely we're
to be those who would be merciful to the souls of others. Merciful to their souls, desiring
their salvation. Is that true of us? We want to
deal faithfully with men and women. If we are merciful, we won't
be afraid sometimes of offending. We'll speak plainly. I was struck
by the remarks of one of the Puritans,
Thomas Watson. In fact, there's a whole book
Banner of Truth had in print for a good number of years on
the Beatitudes and its sermons on these verses that were preached
by Thomas Watson and here with regards to what's before us this
morning the Puritan says there is a cruel mercy when we see
men go on in sin and let them alone and there is a merciful
cruelty when we are sharp against their sins. Oh, if we're going
to be merciful to others, we must speak to them plainly. It's not merciful to be inoffensive
to men. When we think of the Gospel,
isn't there a great offense in the Gospel itself? The Gospel
declares salvation is of the Lord. to the Lord belongs salvation. That's high doctrine, isn't it?
To say that all that is involved in the salvation of the sinner
is in God. We sought to remind you of that
just now. All our forgiveness is in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing that we do.
We can do nothing to earn the forgiveness of God, nothing to
merit the mercies of God. That's high doctrine, and it's
offensive to man. And we would seek, therefore,
rightly to contend for the sovereignties of God in all His works of salvation. But if we would speak of the
the sovereign grace of God, we must also be those who are desirous
continually to manifest something of the grace of the doctrines.
How these two go together. Yes, the doctrines of grace,
sovereign grace, free grace, but also we are to live those
doctrines. We are to show in our lives the
grace of those doctrines. We are to be those who, because
we have known the mercy of God, we are merciful in our dealings
with others. And because we know that for
Christ's sake all our sins are forgiven and blotted out, we
are those who are ready to forgive others. Or the Lord grant then
that we might bear something of the marks that the Lord is
speaking of, as he declares these great blessings, these Beatitudes. We'll continue, of course, if
the Lord will, to proceed to look at the following verses. Though in each and every one
of these statements we see something of what the Lord has to say with
regards to the marks of those who have known and tasted truly
of the grace of God. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Oh the Lord, bless to us this
word today. We're going to sing again of
that mercy as we come to our final praise this morning, the
hymn 761. The tune is Baker 292. Show pity, Lord, O Lord, forgive, let a repenting
rebel live, are not thy mercies large and free? May not a sinner
trust in thee? Part of Isaac Watts' paraphrase
of the opening words of Psalm 51, the hymn 761, the tune 292.