We're going to look at, this
morning, we're going to have, I hesitate to say a Bible lesson,
but some thoughts, I guess, from the Scriptures on a couple of
things. Primarily, we're going to look at what mercy, what the
Word has to say about mercy, and kind of what it is. what the scriptures have to say
about it. Mercy is that which is a definition of it, that for
which the offender can only plead for from the offended. There's something that's been
wrong. The offender has no other plea, no other standing to demand
mercy. It's withholding that punishment
that the guilty party fully and only deserves, that which the
guilty party has no hope for. And we're going to look at a
number of scriptures. There's one of the Psalms that
we're going to look at a little later, but that relates to and
shows how mercy relates to every thought, An event that goes forth
from God shows his mercy. Others too, obviously, his grace,
his love, his kindness to his people, and those other attributes
of God that are shown. But it relates and shows the
mercy of God towards mankind as a whole, just in the sunshine
comes in the rainfalls and those things. And for the church and
the true Israel in particular, It's God's mercy alone that all
of mankind was not, as Mike Baker says, turned to cinders in the
fall. And when was the beginning of
God's mercy towards mankind? And it had to have been in eternity
past, both for mankind as a whole and, more
specifically, the church in Christ that he shows his mercy to. For God to show mercy in and
for the church had to be part of the everlasting covenant,
and we'll see some of the scriptures that speak to that. It had to
be in light of the lamb being slain before eternity passed. We know that by nature, all men
stand in their guilty before God. The soul that sinneth, it
says, shall surely die. We know that pretty big bulk
of evidence that poor man stands by nature after the fall. Physically, but spiritually dead,
barring the working of the Holy Spirit unto life in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're gonna look at what God's
word says about mercy, some of the examples of God's mercy. A lot of scriptures use the word
mercy in a context of what he's speaking about, we'll see, but
there's a lot of instances of God showing mercy that doesn't
say here's God's mercy, but we'll see. I've got a lot, so we'll make
it through some of them, and we may, next time around, we
may continue here. But in the book of Genesis, and
these are not, these are not exhaustive by any means, and
I think we cannot fully understand the extent of God's mercy to
his people, but we're gonna look at a couple of things. And so
in Genesis chapter three, if you turned in your Bibles, join
me in chapter three, and we're gonna read verses seven through
21. Okay, invert, start. And the eyes, Adam and Eve, the
eyes of both of them are open. They ate the fruit that was,
God said, do not, and the day you eat of this, you shall die. And the eyes of them both were
opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife had hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord called
unto Adam, And said unto him, where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked, and I hid myself. And he said, who hath told thee
that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou should not eat? And the man said, the
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. and kind of put the blame on
Eve for the situation here. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hath done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto
the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above
all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly
thou shalt go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman, he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow. and thy conception, in sorrow
thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy
husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said,
Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles
shall bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb
of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken.
For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called
his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Unto Adam also and unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of
skins and clothe them. in this particular passage here,
one of the first instances we have record of that shows God's
mercy for not, when they aided that fruit in sin, that that
wasn't lights out and just done with mankind at that time, that
it would be just over. God would not have, missed anything. He would not have been less if
he would have done that. We're going to see, though, that
it's not that God was ever caught short. He knew what was going
on. He determined what was going
on. It wasn't It wasn't to show a
problem that God had, it was to show a problem that man had
by nature. It wasn't just a flip a coin,
we'll see which way this goes with Adam and Eve. Otherwise,
it would not talk about the everlasting covenant. It wouldn't talk about
the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. It would say that
at this point, now we need to do something. God was not caught
short. Adam and Eve were exposed for
what they were by nature at this point and very strong, the very
pointed, very big point, exclamation point and star by it, that God's
mercy was shown here and that he allowed this to continue. Now we know it had to, God doesn't
change. He determined that we're gonna
see a people that were gonna be delivered from this by the
lamb that was slain before this ever happened, before the foundation
of the world. So we know what the intent and we know what the
purpose of God is. We're finding out as we look
in scripture, as he reveals to us, he showed these things and
shows who the God of this scripture is and the God that has a people.
You cannot separate the mercy of God from the justice of God,
from the wrath of God, from the goodness of God, from the love
of God. the grace of God to his people, they're all part and parcel of the everlasting
covenant. And you can't mention an attribute
or a position that God is and has and with his people without
keeping that in mind. It isn't a standalone a piece
of who God is or who God's people are. It's so tied together. And so it's hard in our perspective
to just take a word and say, how do you define this? And how
does this connect to the rest of it? It's like what grace is. And mercy and grace are kind
of, they have to go hand in hand with God's people. Mercy is withholding
that which is deserved, the punishment part. It's not withholding good
things that's deserved, it's withholding the wrath and punishment
of the offended one, and grace is giving that which is not deserved. It's the 180-degree side of that
same thing, kind of, that grace is giving those things that there
is not a deserving for. And so we have to keep those
things in mind when we look at this because God's mercy Doesn't
just doesn't stand apart in God for the church and for God's
people. God's mercy on mankind. It's still here. There was there
was eight people saved in that arc. to continue and to repopulate
the earth as God's purpose was to do. It was His mercy that
that ark was provided. And as we see that, a picture
of the church and our Savior as being the ark and the one
that we're in, in those things. Let's move along. In Exodus chapter
15, we're gonna, and this, like I said, this isn't exhaustive.
Any of these passages a person could spend a lot of time on. They're not filler material,
and as we've seen on several books now, the flyover material
in the Old Testament is best taken at a pretty slow pace.
And we'll see what there, but in chapter 15 of Exodus, It's Moses' song, and just taking
a piece of this, starting with verse 11, down a little bit. It says, who is like unto thee,
O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders? Thou stretchest
out thy right hand, and the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy
hath led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. And here,
from the get-go, we see what man is like. And the book of
Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, Numbers, the rest of them show
what God's people are made of. Not much, only by his doing are
they made of anything. And here, as Moses said in his
Song of Moses, verse 13 particularly, thou and thy mercy hath led forth
the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them in thy
strength unto thy holy habitation. And this is speaking to God's
people, the ones that he has redeemed. He had mercy on all mankind and that he gives
them life and breath and being, but that's not the same as his
people, as the redeemed ones. Those are, they can't say the
same thing. And that mercy that they had
led forth the people which are redeemed and has guided them
in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. And that, not just
in a physical, he's led them through these things, but he
has guided, as it says here, the redeemed, has guided them
in his strength into faith in what he has to say, and standing
in his strength and not in mankind. And the gospel is, there is one
that does have righteousness that can clothe us with, and
does, and not our own. In Exodus chapter 33, for just
another, just a little spot here, Exodus chapter 33. Exodus 33,
starting with, let's see, Verse 18, Moses speaking with
God, and he says, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. And he said, thou canst not see
my face for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord
said, behold, there is a place by me and thou shalt stand upon
a rock. And it shall come to pass, while
my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock,
and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will
take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but
my face shall not be seen." And up here, it speaks about, it
says, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. and gracious
to whom will be gracious. And that makes a point that continues
all through the scriptures of it's by God's doing that grace
and mercy are dispensed. It's not a, we do a certain amount
of things and God will show mercy on us. We can never be in that
spot that where we deserve that mercy. If he doesn't see his
people in the righteousness of the lamb that was slain, there's
not to be, we don't want him to, not only can we not look
on God's face, he has to He has to see our savior and
then he sees us and we're accepted as a song said in the beloved.
We're not accepted of ourselves. And, uh, but that mercy is, is
only dispensed. And down through here, it speaks
about the rock and not just a rock, but, uh, and there's quite a
significant to that, that that's the rock we're placed upon is,
uh, the Lord himself. And then one last little spot
in Exodus in the next chapter 34, Exodus 34. And here, first table of stones, Moses
came back down from the mount and they were partying. And it
was not partying and praising the Lord God that Moses was visiting
with. They had their own another God
that they thought was worthy of their praise. And Moses threw the tables down.
Lord, gracious and mercy again shown that that didn't just turn
into cinders, that Lord says, Carve out two more tables, bring
them up, we'll do that again. But here in Exodus 34, in verse
6 and 7, and it says, Above that, the Lord descended,
verse five, in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him
and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and fourth generations. But up here, he's merciful and
gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, that will by no means clear the guilty, And that speaks
directly to the church and that their sin, iniquity and transgression
is covered. There's been a true covering
as he covered those two in the garden, I believe as a real picture
of that covering that was going to be provided in time when the
Lord came and was crucified and was made an offering for sin
for his people. That this here speaks to that. That's the only hope that God's
people have is that he's a merciful God and that he indeed covers
our sin and transgression with someone else's righteousness. And that is the only hope that
they had at this time. And it's not just talking about
every time that they sidestepped what they were supposed to do.
Those were each individual times that they did not deserve God's
mercy, but He time and time again bore with them as a nation there. And I think that's a picture
of Him bearing with His people and His mercy, as we'll look
in one of the Psalms, endureth forever. Or as Paul says, there's
nothing that can separate us from Him from the love that's
in Christ Jesus that we stand in him. And this speaks to them
physically at that time, but to the ones that were there that
were his, that were true Israel, some of those people understood
that they, where they stood and what they stood in need of, and
they were truly looking to God for that. And the bulk of them
just, it was, they were, drug back in line again and had to
do the right things physically and that type of issues. In Psalm 25, and not to pass over all the
many places in the rest of scripture in between that speak to his
mercy, but This is kind of how it was led
to this and from place to place. In Psalm 25, to speak of God's love and mercy
and care and all those things to the church. all of scriptures
and the Psalms from start to finish speak to those things.
So it's not picking out the few places that say what we want
them to say, but it's rather picking out a few key places
to say what you wanna say from all of them. And in Psalm 25, here it speaks of, here it's
speaking of as we'll see of ourselves and
our position and our desires and prayers and also of our Lord
himself. It says, Psalm 22, verse one,
it says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why hast
thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring?
Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in
the night season am not silent, but thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and
were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a
reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that
see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They
shake the head, saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver
him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him. But thou
art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee. from the
womb thou art my God from my mother's belly be not far from
me for the Trouble is near for there is none to help And we're
going to stop there, but here it speaks both to what the psalmist
was was saying and also what the picture of the Lord and those
things that that that he was and went through
to be a propitiation for his people. And here it speaks of
that mercy that would do that, that to deliver and to provide
the deliverer. In Psalm 32, just a couple of
verses in Psalm 32, passing by here, many places
here in the next few Psalms that speak about our rock, our God,
our strength, our deliverer, all those things that he is to
his people, but in Psalm 32, The first couple of verses say,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity
and whose spirit there is no guile. And it goes on down in
verse seven, it says, thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve
me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs and deliverance. But up here, whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. And we know that that doesn't
mean it was set aside, but that it was covered, that it was paid
for. Those transgressions are paid for by the, again, the everlasting
mercy of God that had a people, gave a people to the Son, took
pity on them, that he would have them delivered from their unrighteousness
and their sinful nature. And that was not something that
could be God's justice, didn't let it just get set aside, it
had to get paid for. And the Lord himself was the
only true sacrifice that could take care of that and do those
things. Let's see, Psalm 62. And you're going to be passing
over several psalms that would fit into this obviously also. And Psalm 62 talks about our defense, our
rock, our salvation. It starts with verse five. It
says, my soul waiteth only upon God, for my expectation is from
him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you
people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah. Surely men of low degree
are vanity and men of high degree are a lie. to be laid in the
balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not
in oppression, and become not vain in robbery. If riches increase,
set not your heart upon them. Verse 11, God hath spoken once,
twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also
unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, for thou rendereth to
every man according to his work. And you have to read that and
does not mean Now we add up what we can do and it will come down
to that he will render mercy for what we have done. Not gonna
happen. As it says here, O Lord, unto
thee mercy belongeth, for thou renders to every man according
to his work. And that work is what it says later in the scriptures,
what is the work of God? And that is belief that he gives
his people and belief in the work that the Lord has done. When he said it's finished, it
was finished. All those things that was needful
to God's people for their redemption were then done. And that is the
only work that we can stand in is his work. There's no, There's
nothing we add to that. Anything that we do that God
says is a good thing is because of what he has done for his people
and that they do those things in that, in that standing. So it's not, it doesn't discourage
doing good things and being good people, but it does discourage that it doesn't build up that
you do things to get to this position of mercy. It's either
given by God and it's given by God for his people that have
been covered. That's the only work that counts. That's the only work that's gonna
be considered. And aside for that, there isn't another except
for his work. And Psalm 85, Psalm 85 probably
should have been and should be a lesson to itself, or many lessons. But in Psalm 85, there's several
interesting verses that stand out. Showing in verse seven, and above here it talks about Turn us, O God, of our salvation,
it says in verse four, but in verse seven it says, 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
them that fear him. that glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace, verse
10, 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 increased. Righteousness shall go before
him and shall set us in the way of his steps. Down here, show
us thy mercy, O Lord, verse seven, and grant thy salvation. I will
hear what God the Lord will speak, and he will speak peace unto
his people. That's according to what the scripture says, not
according to what we want or would like him to say, or how
we would read into, as Mike once said in one of his lessons, they
paid attention to how the scriptures was read. not loud, soft, or
how your inflection was, but what that scripture was actually
saying. And here when it says, I will
hear what God the Lord will speak. He will speak peace to his people
and to his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. That
is according, our only hope and understanding is according to
what the scripture has to say. And it's not, It's not pick and
choose the pieces from it. And if it's not according to
what God says, then it's not right. You have no hope of mercy
being shown or held out to us. It has to be in those things
that, again, as the scriptures say, and God says, the gospel
plainly says, The problem isn't that the gospel
doesn't plainly say, it's that man's heart does not plainly
hear without God's doing and causing
that. Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Okay. This is a psalm again of David's
and of thanking and attributing God's saving to the saving that
he had. And starting with verse eight,
it says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow 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 as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. Verse 12, as far as the East
is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his
days are as grass, as a flower the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passes over it and is gone. Place thereof shall
know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his
covenant and those that remember his commandments to do them."
And here that, merciful, and here it shows in several thoughts
of how he shows that mercy, plenteous mercy, not dealt with us according
to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Great mercy that fear him, far
as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions
from us in the Lord in Christ, in his doing as he removed them
from him. His work has removed that from
us, not our doing. This shows the mercy of God in
those things to God's people. And they recognize this, that
this is not a how-to book, but a book about what God has purposed
and has done and does do for his people. And it's tied as
we see that from start to finish in all the studies and messages
and preaching and teaching that we have seen here and with others.
that one of our camp speakers years ago said, the main thing
is to keep the main thing, the main thing. And that is keeping
all these things in light of our Lord and not separating. That's not another department.
It's all tied in his redemption for his people. I've got a lot more, but we're
gonna go right to Psalm 136. I don't wanna... Psalm 136. Okay. It's in Psalm 136, and we're
not gonna read all of this, it's not that long, but as you'll
notice in the first verse, it says, O give thanks unto the
Lord, for he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. Verse two, O give thanks unto
the God of gods, for his mercy endureth forever. And if you
look all the way down through all these verses, end with, and
his mercy endureth forever. Now the word endureth, is italics,
and I can't tell you what the original language says through
there, but Even reading that without this, his mercy forever
does not lose, but it does endure forever. Everything, every attribute
about our God, he changes not. It's not a same time thing. And the mercy that he shows,
if he determines and has determined to show mercy to somebody, that's
it. It's going to be taken care of.
That mercy is going to be there. And then at the end of this,
after these, and it talks about many things with Israel and with
mankind and God's mercy in these different situations and different
areas, and then I'd like to read, starting with verse 23 in particular,
the part that, they all stand out to us, but these in particular,
it says, speaking about the God whose mercy endureth forever,
who remembered us in our lowest state, for his mercy endureth
forever, and hath redeemed us from our enemies, for his mercy
endureth forever, who giveth food to all flesh, for his mercy
endureth forever, O give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his
mercy endureth forever. And up here, it remembered us
in our lowest state, and hath redeemed us from our enemies, They indeed had enemies, physical
enemies, that God delivered them from, and we've got record of
that taking place. That was indeed something to
be thankful for, that his mercy delivered them from the Philistines
and from the different ones and all the historical record we
have of those, but those were the minor things as it were. To the majority, they were the
big things. Thank God we got the land, we
got all the different things. Those were the big things, but
to God's people, the redeemed, it says, redeemed from our enemies,
and those enemies are those spiritual things that only the Lord could
deliver from. It wasn't, he didn't, It wasn't just a magic wand type
of thing. These things and the enemies
that His mercy took care of was that great mercy of providing
the true sacrifice given a people to our Lord and Him delivering
them and redeeming them. And that's where all God's mercy
to the God's people of the church ties in. It's all based That's
one of the key pillars of many of our salvation and of the eternal
covenant. He would have mercy on a people
and he would provide the means for that to be carried out. And
like I said, you can't carve out mercy just from a piece and
it doesn't stand alone, but it's a very important, And as people
and humans in our mind, we have to kind of look at it as a thought
sometimes. But keep in mind of all the other attributes that
we see of God in our salvation. And mercy is but one of them
and mercy is, as the publican said, he wasn't standing there
in anything that he could bring and he asked for mercy and that's
all of it. that man can plead and then plead
that mercy in our Lord himself. And so thank you for joining
with me this morning. And as Mike says, be in the Lord
and the Lord and the scripture and the truth will keep you free
and set you free.