We're going to be, well, let
me just say this, in Psalm 5, verse 7, David says, I will come
into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy. When we come to
worship God in a public assembly, to worship our God, if it's going
to be in spirit and in truth, this is how we come. We come
in the multitude of God's mercies. And that's what we're reflecting
on. That's what we're thinking when
we come to the Lord to worship him as we do this morning. We're
coming in the multitude of God's mercies. We're here because of
the mercy of God toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want
to look with you this morning at the mercy of our God revealed
to us in his darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll
look at this in three headings. We'll look at the properties
of God's mercy, we'll look at the objects of God's mercy, and
then we'll close with some instances of God's mercy toward his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's consider, as we begin with
these properties, let's consider a few general things about the
mercy of our God. One distinction between God's
love and mercy, as you're thinking of his love, his mercy, his grace,
well, in distinction of his love is that the love of our God was
put upon the objects of his mercy, the objects of his choosing,
I should say, love was put upon objects of his creation, of his
people before we were ever created. He loved us. Those whom he chose
in Christ, he loved them. And that was before we were ever
created. That means that we had done no
good nor evil. And the beautiful thing about
love is that after our fall and through all the sin and the failings
that we go through, that love never changes. The love of God
for His creatures whom He chose in Christ never changes. And
that love follows us from eternity past all the way through this
time now to our eternal happiness. in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
never changes. It's according as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now, in distinction
of that love, mercy, on the other hand, finds us as miserable,
fallen, sinful creatures. And yet God is merciful to us. That is, His mercy does for us
what we do not deserve. We don't deserve the goodness
and the kindness of God. We don't deserve the forgiveness
of God. Yet in mercy, He does that for
those objects whom He loves in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
2 verses 4 and 5 speaks of this mercy which is stirred up by
the love of God for His people. It says, but God who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. And quicken
means he's made us alive. He's made us alive with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's his mercy. So all the
things that we look at here that have to do with our redemption
and salvation is being made known to us this morning in the context
of His mercy. You could say that. In the context
of His mercy, we're here this morning. We're here to worship
God because of His mercy, which has done all these things for
us, because He loved us in Christ, and has done all these blessed
things in bringing us here so that we come in the Spirit and
in truth, worshiping God in the Spirit and in truth because of
the mercy of God. which has done all these things
for us. That's how we come and worship God, mindful and thankful
for what he's done for us. So let's look at some of mercy's
properties here. First, mercy is an essential
part of God. It's an essential characteristic
or attribute of God. It's essential to his nature
and being. The psalmist said in Psalm 116
verse 5, gracious is the Lord and righteous, yea, our God is
merciful. The true and living God is a
merciful God. He's a merciful God. And that's
a wonderful thought when we enter into the presence of our God
to worship him. God is merciful. He's merciful
to receive sinners. He's merciful to hear our cry. He's merciful to receive our
hymns and songs of praise and our words that praise him and
rejoice in what he has done. And because mercy is essential
to God, that means it's entirely without outside influence. And you can think of it this
way. God is not inspired by anything that we do. He's not inspired
by what we do. Meaning he's not affected or
impacted by the things that we do or don't do. It doesn't change
his mind. Our actions, good or bad, do
not influence God's mercy toward us. God doesn't say, well, I
was going to be nice to you today, but after that, no, forget it. I'm not going to be nice to you
now. That's not God. That's the flesh, but that's
not how God is toward his creatures on whom he has set his mercy.
He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,
and so the mercy of God is only governed and influenced by God's
sovereign will. God does as He pleases. He's not like you and me. He
does as He pleases. He is sovereign, and He does
what pleases Him. And you think about it, that
truth shuts down that false doctrine that says that God looked down
through the annals of time. And he looked to see whether
you would choose Jesus or not, and allow him to be your savior.
That's man's doctrine. That's not the scripture. When
the scripture speaks of the foreknowledge of God, it speaks of God's love
for his people. I knew you. eternity, he says. I knew you, meaning I loved you. I chose you. And so God's foreknowledge
speaks of those whom he knows, whom he loves, not knowing what
we would or wouldn't do. That's the predestination of
God. That's the predestination of God, which for his people
determined to conform us to the image of his darling son. So
that in mercy, he draws us, he gives us his spirit. He worked
out all the salvation to bring us to Christ. And this is a comfort
to us who've been touched by this mercy of His grace and love
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's a comfort to us, because
God's mercy is what we call immutable. It does not change. It doesn't change. Malachi 3,
6, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed. They're not consumed because
God is immutable, he's unchangeable, and his mercy, which is essential
to his character, is unchangeable. It doesn't change. That's important
to us because how else will we take rest in the promises of
God if God's mercy toward us could change from day to day?
How else will we be able to take rest and comfort in the mercy
of God? Hebrews 8.12 says, for I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. And so God doesn't, or we don't
wake up one day to find out that God has changed his mind. and
decide, you know what, I'm not going to be merciful to your
unrighteousness today. Forget that. Forget I ever said
that. No, he doesn't say that. It's
a comfort to us because God does not change. And the mercy he's
promised us in Christ today is the mercy that shall be there
tomorrow. We venture upon him trusting
his mercy, looking to him. crying out to him, Lord, be merciful
to me. Save me, Lord. Save me according
to your promise, according to your word in Christ. And then
we see that God's mercy is eternal. Just as God is eternal, his mercy
is eternal. Psalm 90, verse one and two.
Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Now listen to how
mercy is described. It's eternal. It says, the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him. So the Lord does that. He works
this in his people. He gives mercy and he opens our
ear to hear that God is merciful, to hear His promises and to give
us hope in Him, to trust Him, to believe that word. And the
final property that we consider of God's mercy here, before we
look at the objects of His mercy, is that the mercy of God is only
ever given to us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. You try to come to God outside
of Christ, you shall not find the mercy of God. You shall meet
God who is a consuming fire outside of Christ. But in Christ, God
is merciful. He's just and merciful for Christ's
sake to all who come to him through Jesus Christ, the son whom he
has sent and spared not, but delivered him up for us all that
we might know him. His mercy is in Christ. That's
where we obtain mercy. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again. raised us to newness of life,
unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It's all through Christ, all
through Christ. All right, so those are some
of the properties of God's mercy. Now let's consider the objects
of God's mercy. Now first, let me just say there
is a general sense in which all the creatures of the earth are
beneficiaries of God's mercy. There is a sense in which all
creatures are benefited by the mercy of God. It says in Psalms
145 verse 9, the Lord is good to all. He's good to all and
his tender mercies are over all his works. God is good to all,
and his tender mercies are over all his works. Again, the earth,
O Lord, is full of thy mercy, full of the mercy of God. And
so the beasts, they receive mercy from their God and creator. It
says again in the Psalms, he giveth to the beast his food,
and to the young ravens which cry. And again, O Lord, thou
preservest man and beast. And an instance of that is in
Nineveh. When Jonah went to Nineveh, the
very last verse of the book of Jonas, and when Jonah was upset
that God gave them repentance and spared them from destroying
them, was that, Jonah, there were 60,000 souls there. 60,000 souls, men, women, and
children, that I spare. and much cattle, much cattle. God is merciful to his creation. Now I believe it's for the good
of his people. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. It's for our good, but they're
benefited by that mercy and goodness of God. But there is a special,
well, let me just say on that too, he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust. And you go out in the morning
and you hear that songbird singing in your ear, if your neighbors
are close enough to your house like mine, they hear that same
bird chirping, making that beautiful song, right? They're benefited. They're benefited in that sense.
Now, there's a special mercy of God of which the beasts of
the earth and many in the earth know nothing of. But you that
do know of this tender mercy of God in Christ Jesus, that
is a blessing. That is a blessing. That is the
grace of God. which the wicked know nothing
of, have no understanding of that. You see, God has an elect
people to whom he shows his special mercy, saving mercies in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I've noticed that whenever
the wicked speak of God's forgiveness and mercy, they're always speaking
of it in the context of their works and their repentance. I've
stopped doing this, I changed my life, I turned things around,
and therefore God is merciful to me. But that's not the mercy
that we know of. We're not under a covenant of
works. We're under the grace of God.
And those who boast in what they've done and how they've turned things
around to earn the favor of God, they don't know anything of that
covenant of grace. But you that hear the gospel,
and by that I mean hear the gospel in truth by His Spirit, that
is a blessing. That is a covenant blessing of
God's grace given to those whom He loves and chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world. He breaks forth these
tender mercies upon our heads so that we hear them and we rejoice
and we come to worship our God in spirit and truth in the multitude
of God's mercies. When he blesses us to make us
to understand and to open our understanding and to make us
mindful that, wait a minute, I'm here simply because of the
grace and mercy of God, as opposed to those who are not here. And
so we pray, Lord, always remember us in mercy. Draw us, Lord, keep
us. Bring us to hear that which is
most needful in your darling Son, Christ. And so, because
God has a chosen people who receive God's grace and mercy through
this covenant of grace established for us in Christ, the scriptures
call us the vessels of mercy. The vessels of mercy which God
had aforeprepared unto glory To them, to those vessels of
mercy, He makes known the riches of His glory. He makes this known
to us through the preaching and declaration of the gospel, and
it's the Spirit of God given unto us whereby we hear that
word in spirit and in truth, not as men in darkness, but as
men translated out of that darkness into the light. so that we hear
what Christ has done. We hear it as a melodious song,
a melodious sonnet, a beautiful song that strikes the heart and
rejoices us in the beauty of it, the beauty of Christ. And
so this special mercy is given and received by those, again,
let me say it again, in Christ Jesus. We cannot speak of the
love grace of God apart from Christ, because God is a consuming
fire outside of Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. in that atonement,
in the redemption of Christ. That's what he's saying there.
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, in love. And so these are the elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, right? There's that foreknowledge. God foreknew us. God loved us. not according to what we would
do, but what He did for us in Christ. Through the sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. It's
the grace of God in Christ to us. and he declares it to our
hearing, making us to hear what he's done. This blessing of mercy,
along with all spiritual blessings, are through the redemption, the
blood redemption of Jesus Christ. That's why we glory in Christ. It's why we rejoice in Christ. It's why we speak of and boast
of the Lord Jesus Christ because He redeemed His people. He laid down His life for His
bride on the cross, sacrificing Himself unto the Father. to atone
for the sins of his people, to make a covering, to provide a
covering, to put them away from the eyes of God, and to justify
us in himself before God, to reconcile us to God. to remove
that sin and that which separated us from our God. Our Lord Jesus
did that. Of these blessings, the psalmist
writes in Psalm 107, verse one and two, oh, give thanks unto
the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And here he says, let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. You that are redeemed say, yes,
God's mercy endures forever. It's beautiful, it's wonderful.
Thank God for his mercy toward us in Christ. Let them say so, whom he hath
redeemed from the hand of the enemy. The redeemed of the Lord
hear what others do not hear. And they're happy. Happy are
those who were in bondage to sin and death, but have been
set free by the Lord Jesus Christ. He went into the strong man's
house, passed by others, and took you and unlocked your shackles,
and brought you out of the prison, brought you out of darkness to
know the redemption of Christ. And not everyone hears that.
Not everyone believes that. Not everyone is blessed and comforted
by the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, but to you who
are the redeemed, you hear it. And you boast in and declare
and give God thanks for that mercy. For that mercy. So the
redeemed are free because of the redemption of Christ, in
which he sacrificed himself to the Father to deliver us, to
give us an expected end in himself, a sure and certain end that's
not waffling and depending and vacillating on whether or not
we do something. It's been done by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's fixed, it's eternal, and
it does not change, does not change. Now. And Peter speaks of us saying,
which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Those to whom the Father loves,
they obtain mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings it to
pass. And so this mercy, it's special,
and it's distinguishing, and it's in that mercy that we come
to worship God. In that distinguishing mercy,
we come to worship God. And we see these objects, these
vessels of mercy described in the Scripture, throughout Scripture,
what God has done for His people. Psalm 116, verse 6 and 7, the
Lord preserveth the simple. These are the objects of His
mercy. On whom does He have mercy? Well, the Lord preserveth the
simple. The psalmist says, I was brought low and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. And so to whom does
God show mercy? Who are the objects of his mercy?
To the simple and the low. to those who need His mercy,
to those who are needy sinners in need of His grace, in need
of the blood of Christ. That's those to whom God is merciful. to the low, to the simple, the
sinner. And they're described, such are
described as the recipients of his mercy. Paul said, in Corinthians,
you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world. to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, things
which are not to bring to naught things that are." And someone
might say, don't say that about yourself. Don't put yourself
down like that. Oh, it's true, and it's perfectly
fine, because as Paul said, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me." It's perfectly fine and it's right
to see ourselves in, as God sees us, as poor, weak, bankrupt sinners,
needy sinners who need His grace, who lean wholly upon the Lord
and trust Him, believe Him. Go in the strength of Christ,
not in the strength of your own hand, but knowing what we are
and how we deserve nothing but His wrath, but receive mercy
for Christ's sake. Go in the strength of your God
who has blessed you and holds you up in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's your strength. He's your
might. He's your all to stand before
the holy, true, and living God. Believe Him. And so we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks
foolishness, but unto them which are called, whether they be Jews
or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Believe
God. He knows exactly what He's doing.
And He's right to call us weak, base, and lowly, needy sinners,
beggars of His mercy, because He fills us with the Spirit of
His darling Son. He's our strength. He's our might. He's our all. There's nothing
we can't do through Christ. Trust Him. Believe Him. Now,
the instances of God's mercy and the instances of his mercy.
Oh, let me just say on that distinguishing grace, it's not seen or recognized
through nationality or family ties. It's not because you're
rich in the riches of this world or rich in looks or rich in intelligence
or rich in anything like that. It's according to his grace and
mercy which chose us out of every kindred, tribe, people, and nation,
yeah. Every kindred, tribe, people,
and nation. He's done that. Now the instances
of God's mercy are displayed to us through the salvation work
of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So these instances of our God's
mercy are these multitude of mercies that David describes
when he says, I will come into thy house in the multitude of
thy mercies. That's how we come. It's God's
mercies in Christ that bring us into the body of Christ, whereby
we worship God in spirit and in truth. These mercies. And
so, it's a mercy that God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to establish
for us this covenant of grace. Because in Adam, we were in the
covenant of works. We were in the body of sin, the body of
death that we could not free ourselves. We were subject to
the inheritance of that body of sin. But now we've been delivered
from the law of sin and death, and are brought into the body
of Christ, whereby we worship God in spirit and truth. In these
mercies, Christ established this for us. All right, he says, by
the prophet Jeremiah, this shall be the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
That's the Lord saying, I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful.
I'll be compassionate to whom I'll be compassionate. For I
know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. I'm
not going to backhand you and knock you out. You're mine. I
love you. I've done this for you. I'm keeping
you, he says. Then shall ye call upon me and
ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hear you. I'll hearken
to you. I'll answer your prayer. I'll
save you." That's his word of promise. Then it's a mercy that
redeemed the people of God by Christ. In mercy, the Father
sent the Son, the only one who could save us. perfect Savior. And we're told in Romans 3, 24
through 26, that we are justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. As you hear all these
things, you can reflect back on those properties of His mercy. that is unchanging mercy within
himself. You hear it, it's dripping from
all these instances of his mercy so that you know he's not changing,
he's not gonna depart from this word of promise. This is a comfort,
a comfort to my soul because God does not change and this
is eternal, it's in himself, it's not dependent on me and
what I do or don't do, it's all dependent, all rests upon the
mighty, broad, strong shoulders of Christ our Savior our champion,
our God, our all. It's all on the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood. The anger that was in wrath of
God that was against us justly has been turned from us and justly
put on Christ, the faithful Savior, the Savior of his people. through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
again, we're declaring his righteousness and to declare, I say at this
time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus. And that hearing is by his grace. We hear these mercies because
he gives his spirit that takes the things of Christ and gives
them to you. and reveals them to your heart,
opens your ear to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
so that you hear it in spirit and in truth. And third, in these
instances, for mercy's sake in Christ, the Father forgives us
our sins. David said, Have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. That's
founded all in the redemption of Christ. because He redeemed
us. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption,
and He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Christ did
it. He paid the price. We are set
free. Prisoners no more, set free from
the bondage of sin and death, alive in Christ. have our liberty
in Christ. It's for mercy's sake that we
were regenerated by the Holy Ghost. According to his abundant
mercy, hath begotten us again, or given us a new birth unto
a lively hope. That's how we come, brethren.
So our complete salvation. And the life that we're given
in Christ, they all flow from this mercy of God, not because
we've worked for it and spent and labored and earned it. It's
given freely because God would be gracious to whom he would
be gracious. He would be merciful to whom
he would be merciful and compassionate to whom he would be compassionate,
all founded and resting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 3, 5,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. And so it's this blessed sweet
mercy of God and Christ that keeps us all the way through,
bringing us safely home to our eternal inheritance, our eternal
life in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll close with what Jude says
in verse 21. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. It's all by his mercy, his grace,
his love in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray he bless that word to
your hearts, brethren. Amen.