God Who Is Rich In Mercy

Q: What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

The Bible says God's mercy is rich, abundant, and everlasting, providing refuge and strength to His people. The Scripture emphasizes God's mercy as 'rich' and 'full of compassion' in passages like Psalm 145:8 and Ephesians 2:4. God's mercy is not only expansive but also unending; it's described as new every morning in Lamentations 3:22. This infinite mercy is illustrated in various biblical narratives, showing that it serves as a refuge and strength for believers, reminding us that it's by His mercy we are not consumed.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sufficient?

God's grace is sufficient as stated in 1 Peter 5:10, where He promises to establish, strengthen, and settle His people. The assurance of God's grace being sufficient comes from 1 Peter 5:10, which describes God as 'the God of all grace.' This highlights that He bestows grace in every aspect, from election to adoption and sanctification. The Scripture supports this by asserting that His grace meets every need, enabling believers to stand firm amid challenges. Knowing that grace is not conditional on our merits but flows from God's sovereign will provides immense comfort and assurance.

Q: Why is understanding God's compassion important for Christians?

Understanding God's compassion is vital for Christians because it reflects His unchanging love and assures us of His support in our struggles. Understanding God's compassion is fundamental because it reveals His unwavering love and patience toward His people. In Lamentations 3:22, we see that 'His compassions fail not,' which gives us confidence that despite our failures, God remains merciful. Recognizing His compassion encourages us to approach Him as His children, knowing He is always willing to forgive and restore us. Furthermore, as Christians who experience His compassion, we are called to extend that same compassion to others, reflecting His character in our lives.

Q: What does it mean that God is slow to anger?

Being slow to anger means that God is patient and long-suffering, offering grace and forgiveness rather than immediate judgment. When the Bible states that God is slow to anger, it signifies His remarkable patience and forbearance. This characteristic is highlighted in Exodus 34:6, where God reveals Himself as merciful and gracious, 'slow to anger, and abundant in mercy.' This attribute underscores the idea that God does not respond to our sins with immediate punishment; rather, He gives us time to repent and turn back to Him. Knowing God is slow to anger reassures believers of His grace and the certainty of His forgiveness, which motivates us to approach Him with sincere hearts.

Turn back to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Our text will come from verse 8, but I'd like to read to begin the service from Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, beginning with verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace, are you saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Paul writes God who is rich in mercy, abundant in mercy. His mercy is unending. His mercy is inexhaustible. His mercy is eternal. God who is rich in mercy. In Lamentations 3, we read this of his mercies, that they are new every morning. New every morning, each morning. It's of his mercy. It's of the Lord's mercy. that we're not consumed. His mercy is our refuge. His mercy is our strength. His mercy is an anchor in the storm.

Turn back to Psalm 145. Follow along with me again in verse 8. The Lord is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. He's good to all. And his tender mercies are over all of his works. I want us to just carefully look at this verse of Scripture this evening, and just four points. And the first we read here is this, the Lord is gracious. He's gracious. You know, the first time we read that word in Scripture, it's in regard to Noah. Remember that? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace. He found unmerited favor. He did nothing to deserve it. He did nothing to have it taken away from him. Unmerited favor. This world filled with wickedness. We read this, and I wonder, I think things are pretty awful in our day. But this was said of that time. It said that the thoughts of man, they were only evil continually.

But Noah, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In Exodus 33, 19, the Lord spoke to Moses. We looked at this, I think, last week, and he said this. He said, I'm gonna make all my goodness pass before thee, and I'm gonna proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And he said, I'm gonna be gracious. I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll show mercy to whom I'll show mercy. He's going to show grace to whom He will. He's going to show mercy to whom He will. He's going to save whom He will, whom He's pleased to save.

And we're to bow to Him, to His indisputable, unchangeable sovereignty in all things. Sovereign over life, over death, over salvation, sovereign over all things. In 1 Peter 5, turn there with me, 1 Peter chapter 5. Again, the Lord is gracious. And here in this passage, we read that he is the God of all grace. All grace. Electing grace, adopting grace, justifying grace, pardoning grace, all sufficient grace. He's the giver of grace. faith, hope, love, repentance, every supply of grace.

Look at 1 Peter 5.10. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you've suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. The Lord is gracious. The God of all grace.

God chose a people in Christ. He redeemed them by His Son. Redeemed them by His mercy. And He calls us to repentance and faith by the Spirit of God. And here He says, He's going to make you perfect. make you complete, make you what you ought to be, what you cannot be by nature, but He's gonna make you what He predestinated you to be. He's gonna make His people just like His Son, just like Christ. And we're told, listen, the Lord is gracious.

We're told to approach Him To come to Him, to come boldly where? To the throne of grace. To come boldly and pray and hope and expect, expect His sufficiency in every need. Not a throne of judgment, but a throne of grace. The Lord is gracious. Are we thankful? Listen, if we don't hear one other thing tonight, wouldn't it be a blessing to just know and to hear and to believe the Lord is gracious? Well, next, there's more. We read, look, it says, he is full of compassion. That's the second point. He is full of compassion.

I read a portion of this earlier from Lamentations 3.22, but let me read it again.

It says, it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because His compassions fail not. I tell you, there's many that fail us, and there's many that we fail, but His compassions, they never fail. His compassions fail not. They'll never fail. They are from everlasting to everlasting. They're new every morning. God is love, and his love for his people will never fail. His love is of old. It is everlasting. And yet, how can something be old and everlasting and yet new every morning? We love today and we hate tomorrow. We can be unloving and unlovely creatures.

And with that, it is, I don't wanna say difficult, it's impossible. for us to truly understand the love of God in Christ. The love of God in Christ for his people, for his elect. Love begins with God. We didn't love him, and yet he loved us. That's why we love Him because He first loved us with an infinite love, with an unchanging love.

Think about this. There's nothing that we can do to cause God to love us. And there's nothing, if I'm His elect, if I'm a child of God, there is nothing I can do to cause Him to cease from loving me. That gives us hope, doesn't it? He's full, full of compassion. His compassions, they fail not. Look at, turn to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. And here we read the parable of that prodigal son. You remember that young man? He had taken his inheritance. He went to his father and he said, give me, give me what's due to me. Give me what is mine.

And he went into a far land and he took that heritage and he wasted it away with riotous living. And when he'd spent it all, when it was all gone, a great famine came through the land. And he began to be in want. He began to be in great need. And he went and he joined himself to a citizen of that country And that man sent him into the fields to feed his swine. And we read that he would have filled his belly with the husk that those pigs were eating.

And no man gave to him. And when he came to himself, at some point he came to himself and he said, how many hired servants are there in my father's house? And they have, not only do they have plenty of bread, they have plenty and there's more to spare. And here I sit here and I perish with hunger. I will rise, I'll go to my father and I'll say to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before thee and I am not worthy to be called a son. Just make me a servant. Make me a servant in your house. And he arose. He arose and he began to make that journey home.

And we read that when he was far off, far off, before he saw his father, his father had already seen him. You know, before there was a sinner, we read, before there was a sinner, what was there? There was a Savior. Before we loved Him, He loved us. God commendeth His love toward us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. Known unto God are all His ways from the beginning.

Look at verse 20. It says, His father saw Him and He had what? Compassion. The Lord is full, full of compassion. And isn't it evident here? He ran, and He fell on His neck, and He kissed Him. He was... He had compassion. He was moved with pity. In the Old Testament, that word compassion, it means the same word as mercy. Mercy. That prodigal. What good did the father see in him?

Think about that. He had taken his inheritance. He had wasted it away. He'd lost it all, hadn't he? But you know, there's something else about that son. He knew that. At some point, it was revealed to him he was in want. He was in need. He knew something of his unworthiness.

He said, I'm not worthy to be called a son. If you know that about yourself, there's only one way you can truly know that about yourself, and that's because the Lord revealed it to you. I'm not worthy to be called a servant. I'm not worthy to be called a son. Make me a servant. He comes empty-handed. He doesn't bring anything, does he?

And we read that his father had compassion. And we see that evident there. He said to his servants, he said, you bring forth the best robe. And you put it on him. Put a ring on his finger. Put shoes on his feet. All those things he's lacking, the father supplies. He's full of compassion. He said, go kill the fatted calf. Kill it. Let us eat and be merry. For this my what? He didn't say my servant, does he? This my son. He's mine. He was dead, and he's alive again. He was lost, and now he's found.

Well, turn back to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Verse eight. The Lord's gracious. He's full of compassion. And then we read, here's the third point, he's slow, slow to anger. He's long-suffering, long-suffering. When God revealed his glory to Moses, he said, it says, the Lord passed by him, passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering. and abundant in goodness and truth. You know, Moses used that. He used God's long suffering as an argument. I don't know a better way to say that, but in prayer. He said, the Lord is long suffering.

He's of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. And for that reason, he said, I pray thee, pardon the iniquity of thy people. Pardon me for the greatness of thy mercy. God's speaking to the mouth of Isaiah. He said, for my name's sake will I defer my anger. He's long suffering. He said, for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off. The Apostle Paul, he reasoned with an unbeliever. He said this, he said, thou despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.

In Romans 3.25, we read that God has set forth the Lord Jesus Christ to be a propitiation, a sin offering through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed the forbearance through the long-suffering of God. Peter said this, he said, the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. David wrote this, he said, the Lord is merciful and gracious.

He's slow to anger. What's that? He's long-suffering. Plenteous in mercy. He'll 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." He's slow. Aren't we thankful that He is slow to anger? Before He saved us, and indeed after He saved us, that he's not dealt with us after our sin, that he's not rewarded us according to our iniquities. What is the reward of iniquity? Death. The wages of sin is death.

He's not dealt with us in that fashion. He's not given us what we have earned, but rather he rewards his people according to the redemptive work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Back to our text. The Lord is gracious. He is full of compassion. He's slow to anger. And then we read this. The Lord is of great, great mercy. We can't even begin to enter in to the greatness of His mercy, the greatness of His mercy in Christ. It's higher. Anybody know how high the heavens are? His mercy is higher. It's higher than the heavens.

If you have Psalm 108, Turn back just a few pages to Psalm 108. Let's start with verse one. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I'll sing and give praises even with my glory. Awake, psaltery and harp. I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people. I'll sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens. and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth. Great mercy. And as a result of that great mercy, our sins are covered.

They're blotted out. They're removed from us as far as the east is from the west. Infinity. They're remembered no more. The guilt of our sin can no more return than the, listen, than the East can become the West. They're two completely separate things.

That's what the Word of God declares in Psalm 103. Look at Psalm 103 verse 11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, again Psalm 103 verse 11, as 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 transgression from us. And like a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him.

For he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. Such pity and love as a father has to his children. Our Lord, he knows his people. He knows how we're made. He knows what we're made of. He made us. He knows our weakness. He knows our infirmities. He knows our flesh. He was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. He knows we're made of dust, that we are dust, and that one day we'll return to the dust.

Think about that. He knows our frame. He, the Lord, is of great mercy. That being true, why would we spend our time seeking anything else but seeking him, seeking his mercy? Back in Joshua 2, you remember Rahab. She sought mercy, didn't she? She sought deliverance. She was a sinner. A center by birth, a center by choice, a center by practice. I often wonder how self-righteous folks try to describe Rahab. There's only one way Rahab can be justified, isn't there? And how often has her name mentioned Rahab the harlot?

A notorious sinner. But that's who the Lord Jesus Christ came to save. He came to save sinners. She sought mercy. She was told to put that scarlet cord in the window. And she did. By faith, she did. And isn't it interesting, it's not just any cord, it wasn't a blue cord, it wasn't a yellow cord, it wasn't a black cord, it was a scarlet cord.

A clear picture of Christ's blood. Just like Abel's lamb. Blood shed, just like the Passover blood. The blood of that Passover lamb on the door. the sin offering in the tabernacle. It was a blood offering. And it's by his blood, by faith in his blood, that sinners have redemption, that we have forgiveness, that we have atonement, safety, protection from God's wrath and God's justice. He's merciful. He's merciful. Remember what he said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And that was the same story there, wasn't it? When I see that scarlet cord in the window. Everything and everybody in that town was destroyed, but not Rahab and her family. the scarlet cord, everything else was destroyed, but everyone else was destroyed, but not her. Any question, any question that the Lord is gracious, that he is full of compassion, that he is slow to anger, the Lord is He's of great mercy. And all these things are in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, ready to come, lead us in a closing.

God Who Is Rich In Mercy

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient?

Why is understanding God's compassion important for Christians?

What does it mean that God is slow to anger?

Sermon Transcript

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God Who Is Rich In Mercy

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient?

Why is understanding God's compassion important for Christians?

What does it mean that God is slow to anger?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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