Alright, Matthew chapter 5 verse
7, continuing at the Beatitudes, showing the character, the spiritual
quality of character that exists in the true citizens of heaven,
citizens of God, the kingdom. Blessed, graced by God. Blessed refers, in God's Word,
according to God's standard of things, blessed always refers. to one who is a sinner saved
by grace and that's that blessing uh... you know the bible speaks
of blessing how in Ephesians chapter one verse three how we
who are blessed are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus so all spiritual blessedness is by virtue
of the merits of Christ so anything that is said here has to be taken
in that context. That salvation, or any part of
it, even the qualities of character that evidence it, evidence salvation
in light of God's grace, in light of the faith of God's people,
is never earned or deserved. Well, he's talking about mercy
here. And one thing about mercy is by definition it's never earned
or deserved. If you can earn something or
deserve it, work for it, then whatever you get is not an issue
of mercy. Somebody said one time that grace
is God giving a sinner blessings that he does not deserve and
does not earn. Mercy is God not giving me what
I have earned and what I do deserve. And that's a good definition
of both. But what happens in this, when he says, blessed are
the merciful for they shall obtain mercy, what he's talking about
here is those who have been made acutely aware by God the Holy
Spirit of our own need of mercy. I know this. that if God gives
me anything good at all, it's mercy. And that word mercy there
is the compassion that draws out our desire to relieve the
suffering of others, to meet the needs of others. That's what
he's talking about. This word merciful, this word,
those blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,
it's the same word for mercy that Paul used in Romans chapter
nine. In verse, where is it, Romans
nine, in verse, when he was talking about Jacob and Esau, and in
Romans chapter nine there, and I've got this listed in your
lesson, where he says in verse 15, for he saith to Moses, we're
going to be looking at that later on. He said, I'll have mercy.
That's God's compassion. undeserved compassion, on whom
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. And the conclusion we draw from
that is in verse 16 of Romans 9, so then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
This is sovereign mercy that God shows towards his people.
It's his good will. We've been talking about that
before the service. Why did God choose any of us
as far as salvation goes? Because none of us deserve it.
None of us have earned it. You say, well, I'm not perfect,
but I'm not as bad as some people. Well, in God's sight, there's
none good, no not one. In God's sight, there's none
righteous, no not one. And this is the thing, how many
times we say this, that if God ever at any point in time, based
upon my best efforts to obey him, to love him, or to love
my neighbor, if God were to give me what I've deserved and what
I've earned, it would be eternal wrath, eternal damnation. Now that sounds so negative to
people. They say, well, that's a gutter ditch religion, I heard
somebody say it one time. He doesn't reveal that to us
in order to keep us, as old Bunyan said, in the slew of despond.
Sometimes, you know, you'll get to reading some of the old Puritans
and some of the ivory tower guys that I call them, because they
didn't get out and deal with people so much, as much as they
just stayed in their ivory tower riding on their quill pens by
candlelight. And they somehow, you know, they
get a little bit of a skewed view of what holiness is, you
know, and they feel like, well, unless I'm down in the slough
of despond or despair, you know, I'm not holy. And that's not
what God does this for. Our need of mercy is not given
to us so that we can be down and negative on ourselves as
human beings relating to other human beings. Because we're all,
you know, just like I heard a preacher say one time, you know, talking
about the worm, you know, you have Job, you know, one of his
friends, you know, talking about man who is a worm, talking about
a maggot, you know, and he said preaching the gospel, when sinners
get up to, false preachers get up and preach a false gospel,
it's just like one worm bragging on another worm. But God doesn't
reveal these things to us to leave us in despondency and despair.
He does this to bring us to Christ for joy and peace. And see that
our worthiness is not in ourselves but in Christ. And every beatitude
can be under this umbrella of mercy. He talks about the poor
in spirit. I don't have anything to offer
unto God to earn or deserve my salvation. Nothing to recommend
me unto God. He talks about they that mourn,
mourn over our sin. But he says they'll be comforted.
He talks about the meek, that's submission. Those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, they'll be filled. How? Because
they look to Christ. And they find that he is the
Lord, our righteousness. I have a righteousness that answers
and equals the demands of God's justice. But it's not in me. And it's not what I do or what
I don't do. People make a bad mistake when
they measure righteousness by what they do and don't do. Because
nothing I do or don't do measures up to righteousness, but I've
got a Savior who is my righteousness. And that's the whole issue, see?
Well, again, mercy by definition cannot be earned or deserved.
And so when God shows mercy to a sinner, it's undeserved, unearned
mercy. The only reason that we can point
to for God choosing me, redeeming me, justifying me, is it seemed
good in his sight. That's it. And I don't know why.
But it glorifies him, I know that. All right? Mercy being undeserved and unearned.
However, when God shows mercy, undeserved mercy, unearned mercy
to a sinner like me or like you, God still has to be just when
he does so. It has to be mercy from him based
on a just, righteous ground. Now why is that? Because he's
God. He cannot do anything less than what His very nature as
God demands. He can't be anything but Himself.
He could not show mercy to a sinner apart from justice being satisfied. And that's why it's very significant
here to understand that in the New Testament there are basically
two words for mercy. Now the most common word for
mercy found that's translated, for example, in the King James
Version of the Bible, for mercy, is the one we have right here,
which talks about compassion, which talks about those who concern
themselves with relieving the suffering and misery and meeting
the needs of others. That's what it's talking about.
Sympathy, you might call it. Empathy, whatever you want to
call it. But there's another word, sometimes
translated merciful and mercy, that shows that God's mercy is
upon a just ground. And turn over to Hebrews chapter
2. I want you to see this. Hebrews
chapter 2. Now, one of the times that the
other word for mercy That's not in our text now, but the word
in our text refers to the compassion. You know, the same word in Romans
9. God said, I'll have mercy, I'll have compassion. Still,
it's undeserved and unearned. All right? But there's another
word for mercy, and I want you to look at Hebrews chapter 2,
but I'll tell you another place that it's used is in Luke 18. You know the parable of the Pharisee
and the publican. The Pharisee stood at the temple
and he prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, I'm not like
other men. Well, the old publican, who everybody despised, everybody
looked down on, if anybody's gonna, as the old preacher said,
split hell wide open, it's gonna be that publican. That's the
way people look at it. And that publican said, God,
be merciful. to me a sinner, the sinner. Now that word merciful there
that the publican used is not the same word for mercy in our
text, Matthew 5-7 or in Romans 9. The word merciful that the
publican used is a word that is related to what we see in
type and picture in the Old Testament as the mercy seat. Remember the
mercy seat in the tabernacle? Back in the tabernacle where
you had the three areas, you had the outer court with the
altar. where they slew the sacrifice,
collected the blood, and then you had an inner tent. The first
place you went into is called the Holy Place. That's where
you had the table of showbread, and the candlestick, and the
golden laver, and all the priests of Levi could minister in there. But then you had the inner chamber,
the very holiest of all, the Holy of Holies, and inside there
you had the Ark of the Covenant. that box that was made of chitim
wood and overlaid with gold, and on top of that was the lid
made of chitim wood and overlaid with gold, and it was called
the mercy seat, and it had the cherubims over it. The high priest
went in, and what did he do on the mercy seat? He sprinkled
the blood. What does blood represent? The
wages of sin is death. Justice had to be satisfied.
square at the mercy seat. Now when the publican cried in
Luke 18, God be merciful to me the sinner, that's what he was
referring to. And the word could rightly be
translated into English as propitious. God be propitious. to me." Now where does that word
come from? That's propitiation. You see
it translated in the King James Version, I think, three times
as propitiation. Romans 3, 1 John 2, and 1 John
4. What does propitiation mean?
It means justice satisfied. That's what it means. God showing
mercy based on justice satisfied. All right, now look at Hebrews
chapter 2. I thought I was there and I'm
not. Okay, Hebrews chapter 2 and look at verse 14. Now here's the point I'm trying
to make now. Merciful in Matthew 5 is compassion,
empathy, sorrow, sorrowing for others who are in need. That's
what it means. uh... blessed are the merciful
but when god and god shows that mercy that kind of mercy to us
he does everyday uh... when the psalmist said god's
mercies are forever endure forever well we know what that means
don't we that's talking about his compassion for his people
His sympathy, you might say. I mean, you know, sometimes when
we talk about God in that way, we don't know how to relate to
it because we're so human and God is so high above. But it
says, he says, I will be compassionate. I will show compassion to whom
I will show compassion. So there's God's mercy towards
us. But we do need to understand,
number one, that God's mercy is totally undeserved, totally
unearned, yet God must be just when he even shows that compassion,
when he shows that mercy, when he gives us, when he relieves
our suffering and when he gives us the things that we need, all
right? Now this word mercy, look at
verse 14 of Hebrews 2. He says, for as much then as
the children, that's God's elect, That's God's people, that's believers.
They are partakers of flesh and blood, that's what we are. Weak
flesh and blood. Christ also himself in the same
way, likewise, took part of the same. Remember, he says over
in Hebrews 10, according from the Old Testament, he says, a
body hast thou prepared me. Well, who prepared that body
for him? God did, the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
That's how we were prepared. The only difference between him
and us is he was formed without the aid of man. It was the work
of the Holy Spirit and a miracle birth, and his was without sin. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins, all right? But he did have a human body.
And so it says that through death. See, why did he have to have
a human body? Because he had to die. God cannot die. You remember last week we took
the Lord's Supper. He said, this is my body which is broken for
you. That's what the unleavened bread
symbolized. He could not die as God absolutely considered. God cannot die. You can't kill
God. You know, you used to see those
signs back in the 60s, God is dead. And I'll never forget,
I saw one little cartoon type thing that said God is dead and
there was a weed that kept growing up and finally it hid the word
dead and it said God is. Well, that's good. You can't
kill God. I hear preachers sometimes say
God died on the cross. christ is god and he did die
but that's to be attributed to his humanity the god man died
and it was an actual death it wasn't a fake hoax so that through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil now
the devil's power of death is not the power to kill you or
to make you alive the devil cannot give life and he can't listen
You remember when the devil had to ask God's permission to even
hurt Job? And God said, you can't touch
his soul, you know, you're not gonna kill him. And when Job's
family were wiped away, what did Job say? The Lord giveth,
the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. God
only has the power of life and death. So what is he talking
about, the power of death, that is the devil? The power of death
has to do with our sinfulness. The wages of sin is death. What
is the devil? The word devil, you know what
it means? It means accuser. He's the accuser of the brethren.
And he accuses us of what? What does he accuse us of? Being
sinners, which we are. And so when his accusations fly,
if they stuck, what would happen? We would die under the penalty
of God's law. The wages of sin is death. But
what if his accusations do not stick? What happens then? Then we cannot
die under the penalty of sin of the law. We'll die physically,
but we won't die spiritually and eternally. And that's what
he's talking about. How did Christ take away that
power from the devil, that power of accusation? Well, it's through
his death. He died on the cross to remove
that. That's why a person for whom
Christ died cannot perish eternally. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies, it's
who can condemn us, it's Christ that does. Well look at verse
15, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage, that bondage of death. Verse
16, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but
he took on him the seed of Abraham. Now who's the seed of Abraham?
That's those who come to faith in Christ. That's the elect,
that's spiritual Israel. Now look at verse 17, wherefore,
or for this reason, in all things it behooved him. What that means
is that he was obligated to do this. Why? Well, the word behooved is the
Greek word for debt. He was indebted to do it. Why
was he obligated to do this, to die? Because before the foundation
of the world, God chose a people and gave them to him and laid
all of their sins by imputation upon him. He became our surety. In other words, and somebody
said, well, that's not fair. Oh, yes, it is, because he agreed
to do it. I've been writing on that this
week for this new book I've got. You know, somebody says, well,
It wouldn't be legal for God to do that. It wouldn't be right
for God to do that. It would be if the person to whom the
sin or the debt or the guilt is imputed is willing to do it. Remember the book of Philemon?
The runaway slave Onesimus who robbed his master Philemon and
ran away? And he ended up by God's providence
of all places in Rome Now somebody says that Philemon lived in Colossae,
where the Colossian church was. I'm not sure of that, but I'd
have to look all that up. But he ended up in Rome, where
Paul was in bondage, but people could go in and out of his house,
you know, and talk to him, and he could witness the gospel.
And that's where this runaway slave ended up, and Paul preached
the gospel to him, and God saved that slave, that bond servant
named Onesimus. So here's a man who was a thief
and a robber and a runaway, because the indication was he had bonded
himself out to Philemon to pay a debt, and he reneged on that
debt, failed to pay it. So here he was. Paul preached
the gospel to him, and God made him a brother in Christ. And
so Paul writes a letter back to Philemon telling him about
this. This man Onesimus, who did you
wrong, is now our brother in Christ, and I'm going to send
him back to you. And he says, you receive him
as a brother. Now, he's still indebted to Philemon,
but you received. Well, what did Paul say? He said,
if he owes you anything, Put it on my account, I'll repay
it. That's what Paul said. Well,
what a beautiful picture of our sin imputed to Christ. He told
the father, he said, put it on my account, I'll repay it. And
that's what happened. That's why he was indebted, because
he agreed to do so. He willingly did it. Remember,
he told him, he said, no man takes my life from me, I give
it. You remember that? You remember in the book of John
when the soldiers with Judas came to arrest him? And he come
before him, this was after his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And he came to him and he said, who do you seek? And they said,
we seek Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, literally, in the
King James Version it says, I am he. Literally what he said was,
I am. Remember Moses, I am has sent
me. He said, I am. And remember what happened to
them? They fell backward. And then he said, and they got
up and he said, whom seek ye? And he said, we seek Jesus. And
he said, well, I am. He said, now take me and let
these go. Now that's what happened under
the law of God. When he went to the cross, the father's wrath
was poured out upon Christ so that his people could be set
free. Well, Look at verse 17, wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren
that he might be a merciful. Now the word merciful there is
the same as in our text. Matthew 5, blessed are the merciful. All right? And a faithful high
priest in all things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. to satisfy justice. Now that
phrase, to make reconciliation, is the same word that the publican
used when he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Sometimes
it's translated propitiation. So you see here, the mercy, the
compassion that God shows in Romans 9, I'll be merciful to
whom I'll be, is based upon justice satisfied, that mercy, all right? Justice satisfied. So those are
two words for mercy. Now go back to our text in Matthew
5. Now what happens here? This mercy
here, he says in Matthew 5, 7, blessed are the merciful for
they shall obtain mercy. He's not talking about obtaining
mercy based upon our showing mercy. as if by our showing mercy
we earn it or deserve it. What he's talking about is a
merciful, compassionate spirit. And listen, I know it's in us
by the power of the Holy Spirit, but we still have a lot of selfishness,
a lot of self-righteousness, don't we? There's still warfare
going on within us in this. For example, it's It's selfishness
when we go around acting like the good things that we have
is something we've earned or deserved and not a gift from
God. And I always tell you, even if
you go out and you work hard for what you get, always understand
it was God who gave you the opportunity. It was God who gave you the thinking
power. It was God who gave you the energy.
I've seen people, or have you ever known people, who've gone
out, worked hard, and still failed. You ever seen that? I have. So, ultimately, even all the
good things we have, it's a gift from God. And to think otherwise
is selfishness. It's self-righteousness whenever
somebody suffers And we think they deserve what they're getting,
but we don't. You remember in Luke 13? Remember
when Christ talked about those Galileans that were slaughtered
by Pilate, and then he talked about those when that tower fell
on them? And he said, suppose ye, they
were greater sinners than you. In other words, are you supposing
that they got what they deserve, but you weren't there and you
didn't get killed and you didn't suffer like it because you don't
deserve? He said, except you repent, you'll likewise perish. That's the attitude we're talking
about. the merciful. Merciful here is our compassion
and our desire to relieve the suffering of others, to meet
the needs of others. And it's an evidence that God
has been merciful to us, that's what it is. It's not a way we
earn God's mercy, it's evidence because we know that Christ is
the seed of all mercy. But let me give you two ways
here. that we who are children of God, citizens of the kingdom,
are to show mercy. And the first and foremost way
is in preaching and witnessing the gospel of mercy. That's number one. Since the
Lord is speaking of blessings of the salvation of the kingdom
here, the kingdom of heaven, we need to understand that the
greatest mercy that we can show to anybody is to tell them of
Christ. Tell them the gospel. Here's the point. You know, somebody,
we've talked about this before, and I've got a, we talk about
today's articles, why me, you know, and all that. Or was that
last week or today? Anyway, if I'm a chosen of God
and saved by grace, I'm a vessel of mercy. That's it, I'm a vessel
of mercy. So we show mercy to others by
preaching the gospel, showing them the truth, showing them
how Christ, how God is merciful to sinners through the blood
of Christ, through his righteousness alone. But secondly, we're to
show mercy to others in seeking to help to relieve their physical
suffering and provide their needs when we're able to do so. And
that includes our enemies. You remember later on he talks
about, he says, do good to them that despitefully use you, all
of that. Now, certainly that shows the
standard of perfect love and mercy that can only be found
in Christ. No other way. It shows us that
we always have to fight the remaining sins of selfishness and self-righteousness. But does that mean, you know,
now people are going to all kinds of things like this. First of
all, you know, somebody asked this, and I've got this in your
last, does this mean that we should support a welfare state
that fosters laziness? No. No. Does this mean that we should
go out and give away everything that we have and live in poverty
ourselves? No. Somebody said use the rich
young man for that in Matthew 19. You know the reason Christ
told the man to do that? Because he was trying to be saved
and earn eternal life based upon his law keeping. And so Christ
said, well, let's put it to the test. If you're trying to be
saved, if you're trying to be righteous based upon your law
keeping, let's put it to the test. Go out and say everything
you have and give it to the poor and follow me. And of course
the man went away. So the Lord doesn't require us
to do that. Why didn't he require Abraham
to do that? Abraham was a rich man. Why didn't he require Abraham
to give away everything he had? See, that's not the requirement
of the gospel. That's not even the requirement
of mercy at all. There's nothing wrong with having
things. Read the book of Ecclesiastes.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of our labor. Nothing
wrong with saving for a rainy day. All of that, you know, for
retirement, whatever. Now the Bible does say, let's
not be selfish, let's not live for riches as if they're an end
in and of themselves. Those who are blessed in whatever
way, whether it be money, health, or whatever, don't act like,
you know, that that's salvation. Live for the glory of God. But
another thing we need to understand, does that mean, and let's close
with this, turn to 1 John chapter 3. Another thing we need to understand
is that the mission of the church, like for example, one of the
things that you see often in scripture mentioned in the church
is the issue of like orphans and widows. In other words, the
church was always cautioned to take care of the orphans and
the widows, talking about in the church. Now why was that
specifically a problem back then? Because these were people who
were left destitute. They didn't have any way of support. A widow back then, she didn't
have her husband's social security or retirement funds and all of
that. And sometimes they didn't have
family. Remember the Bible says, well the family's to take care
of, but if they don't have family, who's to take care of them? The
church. In other words, a believing widow in the church is not to
be put out on the street and left destitute, but the church
is to be compassionate, show mercy. Same way with orphans.
But now it's not the mission of the church here on earth to
start orphanages or soup kitchens or anything like that. Nothing
wrong with those things as far as people doing them. We wanna
give to charity when we can. We can't support, listen, we
can't put the world on our back and totally exclude poverty.
That's what Christ, remember he told Judas that, told the
disciples, the poor you have with you always. The mission
of the church here is to be the light of the gospel. We're gonna
see that later on in the sermon. We're to preach the gospel and
help out when we can, especially as individuals. But look here
in 1 John 3 and verse 13. Here's the main issue of mercy
for the church. He says, marvel not, my brethren,
if the world hates you. We know we have passed from death
unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not
his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. That's the extreme expression
of love. But verse 17, but whoso hath
this world's good, and seeth his brother have need. Now to
have need doesn't mean a lazy person on welfare who won't work.
Because the Bible also says if they're able to work and they
don't work, they don't eat. Second Thessalonians, all right?
He says, they have need. And shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him. My little
children, let us love not in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. In other words, we help brothers
and sisters in need, what he's talking about. And elsewhere,
we can, if we have the opportunity, we have the ability. And you
know, somebody said, well, you know, there's so much fraud going
on out there. I know it. You gotta use some
wisdom, too. Use the knowledge that you have,
that God gave you. Okay.