Oh, showers of blessings, showers
of blessings we need, mercy drops from the star-calling, OK turn with me to Matthew five
Matthew five. As we continue our study through
our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. And let me remind you from the
very outset These Beatitudes that we have
been studying, blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn,
blessed are the meek, blessed are they that hunger and thirst
for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, and so forth. These
are not conditions we meet in order for God to bless us. Not
at all. But these are the characteristics
of God's people to some degree. They all have these characteristics. in them, and these are also,
we've seen, states, progressive states the Lord brings a man
and a woman or a young person through. The Lord brings every
believer through this, these states. Every believer has these
blessings already in Christ. We are complete in Him, and we
have all of these blessings in Christ, in Christ. These are signs and evidences
of a work of grace in the soul. And we would greatly err if we
should say that God will only be merciful to those who are
merciful. Or in other words, we must be
merciful in order to obtain mercy from God. No, that would be worse,
wouldn't it? Long before anyone becomes merciful,
God has already shown mercy. He's already been merciful by
saving them. And mercy is undeserved clemency. You know, when a judge or a governor
pardons a guilty sinner, a man who's on death row, he grants
him clemency. Well, that's what mercy is. He
just merely spares him. And mercy is undeserved clemency,
sparing the guilty. If we had to do something to
earn mercy, that'd be worse, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be mercy?
So, let's remember that as we look at this tonight. And let
me remind you, too, that, as I said, These be added to the
poor, but they didn't mourn, but the meat and so forth are
steps like steps or rungs on a ladder. Rungs on a ladder. Now, the ladder is. Would be
the man salvation, the work of salvation, and it all rests on
grace. It stands on the grace of God,
the whole man is standing by the grace and the power of God. Now, and let me say this about
this thing of mercy, we're going to look at verse 7 tonight. It's
mercy. And we're not going to talk about
mercy that the average man or woman has a certain degree of. Every human being, well, most
people have a certain degree of common decency, of mercy about
them. But the mercy we're going to
look at, in the words of one old writer, is a higher and better
thing, and only God, the Holy Spirit, can impart this mercy
to a man or to a woman. Now, look at these ladders, or
these rungs on the ladders again. First of all, God makes someone,
when God begins this work of grace, of salvation in someone,
he makes them poor. The first place, that's what
we looked at this morning, the first place that God brings a
man or a woman or a young person to is to see themselves. And they only see themselves
in light of seeing God and His holiness and His justice, His
And God brings a person to see themselves. He makes them poor. He makes them realize they are
nothing. Not somebody. But nothing. A nobody. You see your calling,
brethren. You see your calling. Nothing.
Nobody. No nothing. Can do nothing. Sinners. And God brings us to that condition
first. We see our utter depravity and
inability to do anything. And then the next step is that
person mourns their sad condition, right? They begin to mourn and
repent of their sinful and desperate condition. And they become truly
sorry for what they are. Not only for what they've done,
but what they are. for what they lack, what they
have done and have not done. And they begin to cry. Anybody
that mourns, anyone in here who has ever been in a state of mourning,
what do you do when you mourn? You cry. You weep, right? You cry like a mourner. And that person begins to cry
unto God Almighty. To have what on me? Have what
on me, O Lord? Have mercy on me, O Lord. And then realizing that we become
poor, and then we begin to mourn our condition, and then realizing
how we depend on the grace and the mercy of God, that'll make
you meek. That'll put you in the dust,
won't it? John, when you realize that you
are nothing, you have nothing, and you don't deserve anything,
And if you're going to get anything, God's going to have to give it
to you. That'll make you lowly, won't it? That'll make you humble.
There's no cause for pride in a beggar, is there? It'll make
you meek and lowly. And this is undeniable evidence. When God clearly manifests Himself
to somebody, they become lowly in their own estimation. That's
an undeniable evidence. That's what I look for more than
anything in somebody who professes to be a Christian or a believer. I look for a brokenness and a
sense of their own unworthiness. And if I see that in somebody,
then I believe there's hope for them. Because that's within every
child of God. Even the greatest man born of
woman says, Oh, I'm nothing. John the Baptist did. I'm a nobody. Who are you? I'm just a voice. I must decree. He must decree. I'm nothing. I know nothing.
I can do nothing but by the grace of God. By the grace of God,
I am what I am. And then, after feeling that
poverty and after mourning their condition, and it breaks them,
it brings them to have a broken heart, a contrite spirit, and
to be meek and lowly before God. Then they begin to hold out their
hands and open their mouths, hungering and thirsting. Open
your mouth and I'll fill it, the Lord said. They begin to
hunger and thirst for the things they don't have. Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption, all of these things that come in
Christ. And we begin to hunger and thirst
after these things we need. We need the righteousness of
Christ to clothe us. We feel naked. Give me this clothing. I need this wedding garment.
You've said that only those who have this wedding garment will
be allowed into your presence. I need it. I don't have it. I'm
naked. All things that I do are naked and open before the God
with whom I have to do. And he'll by no means clear the
guilty. And if God should mark my iniquities, I'm not going
to stand. Would you cover me in the righteousness of Christ?
You hunger and thirst for that righteousness of Christ to clothe
your naked soul and the righteous character of Christ. The righteous
character of Christ, that righteousness imputed and in righteousness
imparted. One who sees their wickedness
and then sees the beauty of Christ, admires Him, and wants to be
like Him, and will only be satisfied with and upon receiving that
likeness. And then we come to this beatitude. After hearing these things, you
know, there's promises of fulfillment for all of these things. The
poor have the promise that they're a joint heir with Christ. Blessed
are the poor. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We inherit the kingdom. The king and his kingdom. We
get both. Those that mourn have this promise
they're going to be comforted. And what is the comfort of a
believer? It's the gospel. The true gospel
of Christ. The comfort for mourning sinners of peace, love, health,
hope, adoption. And then a believer is blessed
with the thoughts of future glory, future heaven and earth. We shall
inherit the earth, the new earth, and it brings you low and meek
and humble and filled with gratitude. And in promises of Christ, you
begin to believe and hope in Christ and His righteousness,
and you receive a promise of being filled and complete in
Christ, like Colossians 3 says. And then that person experiences
and feels, actually experiences and feels the mercy of God in
their own heart and soul and life. And they begin to praise
Him like never before. They realize that every step
of their life, every day, is in the mercy of God. in grace. And what is growth
in grace, John, but growing more dependent, growing weaker in
your own eyes and more dependent on him. And the more you grow,
the more you mature in this life of a believer, it's like a stalk
of corn, someone said. It's a downward growth. You become
more and more humble because you realize just how merciful
God's been to you. The more, the further you go
along, the more you're bowed down with a sense of gratitude
for His mercy toward you. And you become full of this fruit,
like a stalk of corn, that the Lord has mercifully rained upon
all His grace and His blessings and so forth. And it grows up
in Christ in all things and becomes filled with fruit, hangs its
head real low, but nevertheless it's full of fruit under the
glory of God. And one of these fruits is merciful. Blessed are the merciful. Now, look at it, verse seven,
blessed are the merciful. You see that little F-U-L on
the end of that word? Full. That means what it says
there. I looked this up in the dictionary
and that's an adjective suffix, which denotes full up. In other words, it's something
that comes after the word that means full up, full up, or abounding
in. And I say to you concerning something
or someone, I say that is, that dress she is wearing is colorful. That means what? It's full of
color. I say, so and so, my wife is
beautiful, full of beauty, okay? Very simple. For something to
be full now, for something to be full, it has to be what? It
has to be filled. It has to be filled. For example,
a glass. A glass, when it is empty, is
just a glass. But when there's water in it,
up to the rim, it's a glass full. Right? The Scripture says, blessed
are the merciful. Now, we're not full of mercy. We're not full of mercy. As a
matter of fact, the only thing we are full of, by nature, is
sin. Right? We are sinful. full of sin. In order for us
to be mercy full, God comes along in Christ. Now we are sin full. We're full of sin. We drink iniquity
like the water until we are full of it, right? Psalm 38, my sins
are over my head. I am full of sin. Now, in order
for me to be full of mercy, God comes along in Christ and He
takes, as it were, by way of illustration, the cup of our
sins and drains it dry. He empties us of all of our sins
and He takes it all upon Himself, right? He becomes sin for us. He empties us of all our sins
and takes all of our sins upon himself. He goes to the cross
and God puts them away, punishes them, right? Then, this is how
we come to God. Not merciful, but empty now,
as empty vessels waiting to be filled. Empty vessels. And we come to be filled with
his mercy. and His grace in Christ. And then God fills us with a
sense of His mercy toward us in Christ. We who were rebels,
unthankful, unholy, ungrateful. And this is the mercy in it.
Rebels, unthankful, unholy, ungrateful, unmindful of God, uncaring, unconcerned
for God, for Christ, unrepentant of our sins. As a matter of fact,
blatantly rebellious against God. Then God shows us His holy
law. How we ought to be damned for
that ingratitude and that unthankful lie. Condemned, destroyed, punished,
separated from God. God shows us that in His law. And then Christ comes in the
gospel and the gospel says in two words, but God. That's the
gospel. But God, who is rich or full
of himself, full of what? Mercy. Super abounding with mercy. He is rich in mercy. Has a lot
of it and a lot to spare. And it's sovereign mercy. Right? He doesn't have to give
it. That's a characteristic of mercy. It's sovereign. And God
says, I will show mercy. Now, that's good news. That's
good news, the fact that God will show mercy at all. And if
God only, only showed mercy to one person, he'd be great in
doing it, wouldn't he? He'd be worthy of all glory and
honor and wisdom and strength and praise and so forth, wouldn't
he? Throughout eternity. If he only
showed mercy to one, because it's sovereign, he doesn't have
to. And He says, I will show mercy on whom I will. That's
His divine prerogative. But He will show mercy. And that
He says it's going to be on a whole lot of people. A whole lot of
people. Here's an illustration for you. This thing of mercy
in a way that you'll not forget it. Here stand a hundred men. Here you stand. A hundred men
lined up on the gallows. You know what a gallows are,
don't you? Used to hang people. You stand
on the gallows with ninety-nine other people. You got a rope around your neck.
And you're guilty. The law has come, whatsoever
it saith unto you, it says you're guilty. You're condemned to die. You know it. The law says it. You've got a rope around your
neck, and so does everyone else. And you're standing on the gallows.
You've been sentenced to die, and you're ready to die. And all of a sudden, the judge
comes out and says, wait a minute. Stop. Stop this scene. And he looks at those 100 men.
Now, every one of them are guilty, right? And one of them got a
rope right there, all guilty. He looked at those 100 men, and
he points a finger at you. He says, deliver that one from
dying. That one, right there. Which
one? That one. Well, he's no different. He's guilty. She's
guilty. I've chosen to deliver that one. I'm going to have clemency
and mercy upon that one. I'm the judge here. That one.
Deliver her or him. And they come and they take the
rope off your neck. And then the king's son comes
out. The holy spotless son of God. The altogether lovely one who
is without sin. And he stands in her or his or
my place. And he puts a rope around his
neck or in The case, as it were, a cross on his back, and the
nails in his hands. And now God says, drop the gallows. And he dies. And you stand back
and wonder, and amaze. And what do you say? That should
have been me? That should have been me? That's
mercy. That is mercy. And God does that
for some people, for some people. And mindful of that mercy. Now,
realizing this, this is the only way that a man or woman is ever
going to be merciful, when they realize, when they are mindful
of true mercy, the mercy of God in Christ, that Christ got what
I deserve. Mindful of such great mercy to
you. superabounding mercy. How would
that make you feel? Huh? How would that make the
person who saw this done for them feel? Oh, it would make
you full of joy and thanksgiving and amazement and wonder, wouldn't
it? Unworthiness? Why me? You look around and say,
why me? There was your buddy, your brother,
your sister, your father, somebody on the gallows with you, and
they died and you didn't. Love for the person who took
your place, wonder, amazement, it'd make you full of mercy.
Or it ought to, and it will. Full to overflowing. You know,
when something's full, this isn't full, this isn't full. When something's
full, it's, when you move it at all, it'll spill out, right? It'll spill out. And if we're
full of mercy and keep receiving mercy, if you're full of mercy
and something's full and you pour something more in it, what's
going to happen? It's going to run over. And if
we're full of mercy, it's going to spill out on somebody else. When wronged, when we've been
wronged, now, remember I said, mindful of how greatly we wronged
our God. That's the only way you're going
to show mercy to others if you're mindful of the mercy of God towards
you. And mindful of that, you readily
show mercy to others, don't you? Christ gave that parable of the
man who owed the talents, the many talents, and the judge frankly
forgave him of all of his debts. And he went out and he found
the man that owed him, what, $5? And he grabbed him by the
neck and said, you better pay me or else. And the judge found
out about it and grew angry with the man. He said, I forgave you
many and very much. Couldn't you forgive that man
of a little bit? One word for mercy, another word for mercy
is forgiveness or forgiving, right? When you realize how much God
has forgiven you and how he keeps on forgiving you, I mean keeps
on forgiving you, never stops. If he ever stops, we're goners,
aren't we? Realizing how much God has forgiven
us and how he keeps on forgiving us, then we should and do forgive
others. I always use our children as
an illustration. There's no better illustration
here. No matter how your children abuse you, no matter how they
misuse you and use you, and take, take, take, take, take. That's
all they do for the first twenty-some years of their life, isn't it?
Take and don't give anything in return. No matter how they
use or abuse you, You keep right on forgiving them, don't you? Keep right on. Why is that? And one thing that
helps you do this is if you're mindful of the fact that that's
what you did to your parents one time, wasn't it? Won't that
help you become a better parent when you remember and you're
mindful of just how you treated your parents growing up? Well,
the only way someone will show true, unconditional, constant
mercy is if they keep their minds on the mercy of God to us in
Christ. The only way. Mindful of the
mercy of God to us in Christ. The only way we're going to continue
to show mercy to others. If we lose sight of that, if
we become forgetful of what God has forgiven us of and continues
to forgive us, then we'll become quickly unmerciful to others. We will quickly incur the wrath
of the heavenly father. Because his mercy endures forever. And we ought to have mercy on
other people because they're just like us. But God ought not
to have mercy on us at all. Now, I thought about this. We're
such forgetful, and I'm going to hurry, I'm going to let you
out of here very quickly. We're such forgetful creatures. We're
called vessels of mercy, Barbara. The scripture says we're vessels
of mercy, right? But we're pitiful, poor vessels. We're leaky vessels, partly. We leak out all the time. This is the reason His mercies
are new every morning. He has to keep on. We're leaky
vessels. We lose sight of it and he keeps
showing us mercy over and over again until finally someday we
learn. We learn. And this is the reason we need
to go back to the fountain and be filled daily with supplies
of mercy and grace to help us in time of need. What times are
those? Time of need. Times when we need
to be merciful to others. We need to go back to the fountain
and remember how he's been merciful to us. All right, now here's
the promise in verse seven. Look at it. Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Now, like I said before, earlier,
the only way we can become merciful is for God Almighty to show us
saving mercy, then fill us with a sense of His love to shed abroad
His love in our heart. And the believer, mindful of
God's mercy toward him or her, then begins to show mercy to
others. It's the natural, well, it's
the spiritual outpouring of a regenerated heart and mind and life. Okay? You become full of mercy. And it begins to spill out, a
little bit, not great portions of it, but a little bit. The
older you get, the more it ought to spill. And you know what God says He'll
reward you with for just displaying some of this mercy, for some
of this mercy coming forth? You know what He says He'll reward
you with? Of all things, more mercy. Well, now, wait a minute. I think
I ought to have a little crown and glory, don't you? That's
not mercy, is it? That's not what mercy's about.
Well, I think I ought to have a, you know, front row seat,
and, Lord, what all the things I've done. Look, Lord, we've
preached. We've given our bodies to be
burned. We've given to the poor. We've done this, we've done that.
I was a nun. I was a monk. I was a priest. I gave up... I was celibate. Look what all I've done. Sacrifice. Now, turn over with me to Psalm
38. Psalm 38. You say you're about
a size 38, John? John came in to study the other
morning, and I said, how you doing, buddy? He says, oh, about
a Psalm 38. That's good. That's a good answer. That's
all of us, buddy. We all wear this Psalm 38, size
38 right here. What is it that we deserve? Death, condemnation, the wages
of our sin, of our lives, sinful lives, death, judgment, condemnation. What do we get from God? What
is our reward? Mercy. Mercy. We sure didn't earn that, did
we? And He gives more. Isn't that the one thing needful?
Isn't mercy the one thing needful? See, my sin is ever before me.
Is your sin ever before you? Alright, look what Psalm 38 says,
verse 3. There's no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest or
peace in my bones, within me. I can't find anything to be satisfied
or any comfort or assurance when I look within because of my sin. My iniquities are gone over my
head. As a heavy burden, they're too
heavy for me. My wounds stink. I corrupt because
of day long. What about my sin?
My loins are filled with this loathsome disease. Filled. There is no soundness in my flesh. Are you about to Psalm 38, Henry? So what do you need? What is
it you really need? Every day. Mercy. Don't you?
Every morning. As soon as you wake up, the one
thing needful for you an old rotten sinner who's going to
start sinning the minute he steps out of bed. No, he doesn't have
to step out of bed. He can lay there for a little bit. All he's
going to need for the minute, his waking minute, and all night
long, while he sleeps even, is the mercy of God. The mercy of
God. Thank God it says, it says a
hundred and thirty times in the Psalms, it talks about the mercy
of God. 130 times, at least 130 times. Thank God, His mercy endureth
forever, forever, and comes to me daily. His mercy endureth
forever and comes to me daily. That's Psalm 38. Brother John
and I got a blessing thinking about this. There's a verse of
Scripture That verse 4 says, My iniquities are gone over my
head. Believers, and Sister Jeanette
and I were talking about this also. Believers, there's a verse
of Scripture that says, They that go down in ships do business
in deep waters, or great waters. The fellowship of the saints.
We know something of this fellowship right here. Every one of us,
believer that is, can enter into these verses right here. You
feel this. You feel your sin. They've gone
over your head. Fellas in the same ship. Vessels
of mercy. The Lord is at the helm and you
are totally dependent upon Him to get you safe to the shore.
But these fellas in the same ship. Fellowship of Christ and
the Gospel. and you feel you're the same
things. It says you do business in deep
water. A tempest, tempest toss, up and down. The life of a believer
is like a shaky boat at best. It's not shaky. We're in the
Ark of Christ. It's going to reach the shore. But our lives
are up and down, aren't they? One day we'll be up, riding the crest of the wave.
Well, I've got it now. I've made it. I've overcome.
I've overcome that particular problem. What happens? Back down under the water again.
Then you think, oh, it's over my head. I'm going down. I'm
going down now for the last time. I'll never come back up again. My sins are over my head. God
will damn me now. And what happens? He lifts me
up. out of the angry waves and sets me riding up here again.
And you think, ooh, glad that's over with. I'm riding now. I've got it made now. I'm a believer
now. I trust Christ. I believe. Down
again. Down under again. He'll not allow
you to be lifted up in pride too much with it. He brings you
down. Up and down. Up and down. It's the life of
a believer. They that do business in Go down
in ships, do business in deep and troubled waters. Up and down
life. But His mercy endures forever.
Though a righteous man fall seven times, yet the Lord will lift
him up every time. Be not fearful. Why are you so
unbelieving? The Lord and the Master who's
on the boat says, Why are you so unbelieving? And He steals
those angry waves. His mercy endureth forever, and
cometh to me daily." The blood continues to make... You know, this is what that publican
in the temple was praying. And he said, Have mercy upon
me, O God. If you look up the original,
what he said there was, Let thy blood be propitiation upon the
mercy seat for me, O God." The blood continues to make propitiation
or covering or atonement for my guilty soul on the mercy seat. That is, for the presence of
God Almighty, covering the broken law, the law that I've broken. And our text here says, blessed
are the merciful. because they'll get more mercy. That's good news. They'll get mercy. And I'll remind
you what it says over in the Psalm. It says, with the merciful,
Psalm 18, I don't want to misquote it. With the merciful, thou wilt
show thyself merciful. And with an upright man, thou
wilt show thyself upright. With the same measure you meet,
it shall be meted unto you." You want mercy from God? You
see need, your need, desperate need of mercy from God? You be
merciful. You be merciful. He said He'll
measure you with your own bushel. He'll measure out to you with
your own bushel. Okay. I hope that's been a blessing
to you. Stand with me and I'll dismiss
this prayer. Our merciful God, how we thank
you, praise you, give you all the honor and thanksgiving that
we can muster for your mercy in Christ Jesus. For that precious
blood that was shed on Calvary's tree, to make propitiation or
a covering for our sinful, wretched, vile soul. Thank God our lives
are hid with God in Christ. They're hidden, covered under
the blood, which is covered by the mercy, which is covered by
the blood. Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy
in Christ. And would You allow us, would
You fill us of mercy for all men, for all. Fill us, may we
be merciful people unto all about us, mindful of your great mercy
to us. In the blessed name of Christ,
we pray and ask these things and worship you this evening.
Amen.