Okay, this morning, once again,
thank you for joining us here and have a second part to last
week's lesson, spiritual mercy. God's mercy to his people and
what that, we'll see what. else we took
a look at today. And we're gonna like to start
with Luke chapter 18 and just read a passage of a couple of
places, but in Luke chapter 18, starting with verse nine. Let me get in the right chapter here. Luke 18, verse 90, spake this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in a week, I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote on his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
In verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other. For everyone that exalted himself
shall be abased, and he that humbled himself shall be exalted. And here, particularly, Verse
13, in the last little bit of that, where he says, God, be
merciful to me, a sinner, that his approach to this prayer was
that God be merciful to him. And as God's people, that is our thought, is to God, have
mercy on us, and that he has mercy on his people. And we're
going to look at a few examples and a few thoughts about that.
And then also with this in 1st Timothy, chapter 1, starting with verse 15, 1 Timothy
1, 15 and down. It says, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am cheap. How be it for this
cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and
glory forever and ever. Amen. And here, up here, Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief, and howbeit for this cause
I obtained mercy. that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. The first one we
looked at, the publican, in that his attitude and his approach
to God was for mercy on him as he stands before God and all
of God's people that is the thought and the attitude towards them
and not as the publican was. And here it says in 1 Timothy
that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, who I'm
chief, and for this cause I obtained mercy because he came into the
world to save sinners. save his people that were sinners
and not righteous ones of themselves to obtain mercy. And we're going
to, with those thoughts in mind, we're going to look at some other
places in the scripture. In Psalm 25, There's a lot in the Psalms about
God's mercy to his people. And a lot of them are passages
of David that we know, Psalm of David, that he's asking for
God's mercy and delivering him from from circumstances, but
a lot of it is much more than that, it's deeper, it's delivering
him and delivering God's people from the sin and from the things
that he is delivering his people from. And in Psalm 25, verse
six, and not to, Obviously not to short the rest
of this psalm, but verse six says, remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercies and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old. And it goes on and tells you
not to remember our sin that we have, and that's part and
parcel with mercy too, but here, tender mercies and lovely kindnesses,
for they have been ever of old. And that harks back to what we
looked at last time, that God's mercy to his people in a spiritual
mercy sense, and that is from everlasting. That was with the
everlasting covenant before time was in that term. I like that term that Norm has
used that he's, gotten from old preachers that talk about old
eternity, eternity past, and that these things were decided
and were set down in that time, that God had a people at that
time given to Christ. that they've been ever of old. He's not talking about just mercy
for today for something here. He's talking about the mercy
that is everlasting mercy. We also talked about last time
that mercy is Withholding that is deserving, that somebody is
deserving. Norm's got a plaque on his wall
that said, grace is giving us those things that we do not deserve,
and mercy is withholding those things that we do deserve. And
mercy, withholding those things that we deserve by nature is
condemnation. I mean, we stand condemned by
nature. that in spiritual death, that's
the mercy that we depend and plead on in our Lord is deliverance
from that. And that's those things. The sun, the rain, those things
are mercies of God and graces of God to all people. And he
withholds immediate death from, look at, has been said before,
we live in a world that's dead people, spiritually. Physically, God gives, and one
of the questions that people have asked religiously over the
years is, how come bad people have good things happen to them?
There's a lot of people that we view as bad people that seem
to prosper pretty well. And there's one man that, was in that category and was
pretty proud of it, and God turned him out to pasture for a while,
and he had his mind changed about that
Nebuchadnezzar. But we're speaking of the, here,
primarily of the mercy God shows his people in salvation, in redemption.
In Psalm 103, And we mentioned this last time
some, but a couple of verses, starting with first verse of
Psalm 103, it said, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that
is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth, verse three, all
thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindnesses
and tender mercies, satisfies thy mouth with good things, so
that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made
known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, low to anger and plenteous in
mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy. Toward them that
fear him, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath
he removed our transgressions from us. The rest of the psalm goes on
in that vein, but speaking here of His mercies and what He has
withholden from us, or those things that He has not rewarded
us according to our nature, but has rewarded us in the Lord Himself
and covered those things with His righteousness. with the mercies from everlasting
to everlasting. In Romans chapter 8, in Romans chapter
8, there's a lot in all of the scriptures speak about God's
mercy to his people. In chapter 8 of Romans, This whole of this, it starts out in the first verses,
therefore, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walked not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And it
speaks about the righteousness that he provided, that he does,
that the law could not provide. the standing which we had by
nature and which he has taken care of by his own blood. But down here in 38 and 39, it
says, I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. And connecting that and what
he has done, that Christ is mercy personified. We're going
to see another one where all the attributes of God are gathered
together in him in our redemption. And, but he is, and it struck
me as in Proverbs, wisdom is spoken there and wisdom is highly
regarded, but wisdom is, is ultimately, shown as Christ is that true
wisdom, and he's personified, and it looks like good advice,
wise things to do, but actually, in all of those, it shows that
Christ is the true wisdom, and not only the true truth and knowledge,
but the true action and use of that, the wisdom that is only
in him. And same way in the scriptures,
that many times when mercy is, that should be capitalized, as we'll see in some other places,
but it's not just a, it can be talking about that action that
we talked about, not giving what is deserved, but as Christ himself
is that mercy promised, and that mercy, that promise of God from
eternity past that this mercy would come upon a people and
in the form of our Lord himself as the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. I've got a couple of arrows that
go back to another, some added things. In Isaiah 53, go to Isaiah
53. We're pretty familiar with this and
it speaks of our Lord and those, what he did for his people. Isaiah covers a lot of ground,
as do the rest of the scriptures, about what he has done for his
people that were less than helpless, that were in peril. In Psalm 53, and not to either read the whole thing or
skip it, but parts of it. But in verse three, it says, he's despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Verse four, surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
you are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And then A couple more verses,
starting with verse 11 down. And he shall see the travail
of his soul. and be satisfied by his knowledge,
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him
a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. And here, all
of this speaks about those things that the Lord accomplished and
went through to do that and shows His mercy and that He is that
mercy that, and we're gonna look at, that was promised and that
He did those, all those things that He accomplished were things
that we, stood condemned for, that we were guilty of and had
no, there was nothing we could do
about it, our nature and that, and that
he had to do those things. And those were all things that
he did, stricken and smitten of God,
and that he carried those things and paid for those things in
our behalf. In Isaiah 54, while we're right
next door here, that's a great, that shows God's mercy for sure
in chapter 53. But in chapter 54, starting with
verse five, chapter 54 of Isaiah, verse five.
For thy maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. The God of the whole
earth shall he be called. Verse six, for the Lord hath
called thee as a woman forsaken, as aggrieved in spirit, and a
wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a
small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as
the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters
of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that
I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains
shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall
not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. O thou afflicted,
tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay
thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with
sapphires. And I will make thy windows of
agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant
stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord,
and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness
shalt thou be established. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. And particularly up here, my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
And that is only accomplished in the Lord himself, in that
he is that mercy, and that mercy that's been promised from Genesis
on, that there's one coming. There's one coming. that is gonna
show mercy, that is gonna provide righteousness, that covers and
forgets all of our sin, and not forget as in never happened,
cuz somebody paid, it had to be paid for. It was a paid for
redemption. It was not just God turning his
back and saying, it's no big deal. And as we saw in Isaiah
53 and other places, he had to pay the full price of that for
all of his sheep, all of his ones that he had redeemed. And Psalm 100, go back to the book
of Psalm one more time. And the book of Psalm, like I
said, there's a lot of David, pleading for God's mercy in situations
and deliverance and in a physical sense. But the greater picture
to us is we're not standing in the same physical danger he was
in with Saul or other enemies in that regard. We have greater
enemies than he had greater enemies than those physical ones. And
that was the spiritual desolation that we are in by nature that
only he could remedy that. And in Psalm 53 and others, it
describes that, that he went through to us. And then in Psalm
100, It says, make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness,
come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord,
he is God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy
is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. This psalm, it says of praise,
and indeed God's people cannot praise him too much or
too often, but here that it speaks about coming before him with
these praises, and he is good, his mercy is everlasting, and this truth endureth to all
generations. And that mercy, it's in eternity
past, in the covenant, when Christ was given a people and everything
was written in stone, as it were, and God decided those things,
they were done and they were going to be accomplished and
culminated in a sense, All that, when Christ said, it's finished. All those things were finished
that him as mercy procured for his people. And his people can
say, thank you, Lord. I don't stand in any of that
that I did before. I'm not accountable for that.
We'll never stand before him and account for what we are by
nature. And then, in one more place in the psalm,
Psalm 85. Psalm 85. Another wonderful psalm of the psalm
we have. It says, Well, we're gonna read, we're
gonna read down there. First verse, Lord, thou has been favorable
unto thy land. Thou has brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou has forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin,
Selah. Thou has taken away all thy wrath.
Thou has turned thyself. from the fierceness of thine
anger. Turn us, O God, of our salvation and cause thine anger
towards us to cease. Will thou be angry with us forever?
Will thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Will thou
not revive us again that the people may rejoice in thee? Verse seven, show us thy mercy,
O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his
salvation is nigh to them that fear him, that glory may dwell
in our land. I'm gonna stop there just for
a second, that it speaks about us, and he talks about taking
away thy wrath, turn thyself from the fierceness of his anger,
has brought back the captivity of Jacob. Speaking of, again,
of deliverance of God's people here, and turn us, oh God, of
our salvation. And it says, wilt thou not revive
us again that the people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy
mercy, oh Lord, and grant us thy salvation. And indeed, again,
when that mercy could be capitalized, show us the Lord himself, show
us the lamb slain before the foundation of the world and grant
us thy salvation. And here in verse 10, it says, verse 10, Psalm 85, mercy and
truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good and our land shall yield
her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him and shall set us in the way of his steps. Pardon me. But verse 10 here, mercy and
truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. And, The mercy and truth, righteousness
and peace, these are all things that culminate and gather together
in our Lord. The only one that can show us
and provide the mercy to us and the truth. Righteousness is His
righteousness and because of that, And only that can peace
be given to us. Paul says many times in the beginning
or in closing of his letters, the God of peace and grace bless
you and do those different things to you. And only he can give
that peace. And that peace can only come
to those that he has provided mercy for, that he has been the
mercy for. And that one that was promised, that can only have been true
in the light of the everlasting covenant. That's the only way
these things could come together. And he indeed is the personification
and is in his character, he is the mercy, truth, righteousness,
and peace for the church. And it's only
in the Lord Jesus Christ that these attributes, and Brother
Hawker said, He said, all the divine attributes in the person
of Christ, Christ himself called mercy, the mercy promised. And that's, mercy can be just
a definition of a word, but it has no real meaning to God's
people unless it is the Lord himself is that mercy. Because
it's not just a not getting what you deserve that's a bad thing,
but the mercy is in all these other things provided, and that
we stand, as it says, heirs with Christ, joint heirs with Jesus
Christ. That puts us on a pretty good
footing that that mercy has provided, and without him doing those things
and being that one for his people, it's not possible. It's not possible
to have that mercy. One more spot. that we're gonna look, well,
a couple more, but in Luke, turn to the book of Luke, first chapter. First chapter. There's a passage
that we have to look at here. Okay, Luke chapter one. You'll recognize the situation
here. It's the birth of John is taking
place here, has taken place. And starting with verse 67, it
says, and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost
and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for
he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up
and horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been
since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the mercy
promise to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the
oath which he swear to our father Abraham, but here. to perform, verse 72, the mercy
promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. And
here he says up above there, this is spoken by the mouth of
his holy prophet since the world began, speaking about this and
the promise here, the promised mercy, that should be capitalized
both M and P probably. mercy promised to our fathers,
and indeed that one is the Lamb, the Lord ourself. And then in
chapter two, another very interesting statement that God caused this
person to say, starting with verse 36, and you'll know who
this is too, it says one Anna the prophetess. the daughter
of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age and had
lived with and husband seven years from her virginity. And
she was a widow of about four score and four years, which departed
not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers
night and day. And she coming in that instant
gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all
them that look for redemption in Jerusalem. There was not, speaking of the Lord, they were
not looking for, his people were not looking for saving from Rome
or saving from physical things. They were looking for, those
that were looking for redemption in Jerusalem were looking to
the Lord himself. And she was reminding them that and pointing
that out. that he was that promised one and that was the promised
mercy. And then in Titus, in Titus,
just one little spot there. that I'd like to read, Titus
chapter three. Titus chapter three, starting
with verse three. It says, for we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating and hating,
hateful and hating one another, but after, verse four, but after
that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
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, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And this
is a faithful saying, and these things that I will that thou
affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might
be careful to maintain good works. These are good and profitable
unto you, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and on there.
But here in verse four, five, six, and seven, what we were
like, but after that the kindness and love of God our Savior towards
man appeared, not by works of righteousness, but according
to his mercy he saved us. And that's according to that
capital M, mercy, in the eternal covenant. That's the only reasoning and purpose and means
of that was because that was set out and this is He's about
his business, and he's doing that until the last sheep is
called in, the Lord bless him. And so we have to keep that in mind
and remember that. And as we've seen in all aspects
of our redemption that they all point
to him. He's the center of this. He's
the, uh, the main thing that we keep the main thing. So, um,
Christ is our, is our mercy is the mercy of God to his people.
And with that son makes you free. You'll be
free indeed. Thank you.