Truth and Mercy

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

God's mercy is central to His character, as He delights in showing mercy and does not retain His anger forever. The Bible reveals that God delights in showing mercy, as expressed in Micah 7:18. He is a God who pardons iniquities and passes over transgressions. While God's holiness and justice demand judgment, His mercy allows Him to show compassion and deliver sinners from their sins. Micah captures this truth beautifully, indicating that God's mercy is rooted in His love and the promise made to His people, specifically the elect. The promise of God's mercy culminates in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who bore our sins and reconciled us to God.

Q: How do we know God's promises are true?

God's promises are true because He is unchanging and faithful to fulfill His covenants. The certainty of God's promises is anchored in His unchanging nature. In Micah 7:20, the text emphasizes that God will perform the truth He has sworn to Jacob and His promises to Abraham. The Bible repeatedly affirms that God's word is reliable; as seen in Hebrews 6:18, it is impossible for God to lie. This faithfulness is historically rooted in His covenants with His people, starting from Abraham to the present day, where the fulfillment is ultimately found in Jesus Christ, who brings all promises to fruition. Our assurance lies in God’s character and His ability to fulfill His word, as He does not change or falter.

Q: Why is the concept of mercy important for Christians?

Mercy is vital for Christians as it reflects God's character and is foundational for our salvation and relationships. The concept of mercy holds profound significance within the Christian faith as it exemplifies God's compassionate nature. Mercy is essential because it is through God’s mercy that believers experience forgiveness and salvation. In Micah 7:18, we see that God delights in mercy, showcasing His desire to forgive and restore. For Christians, understanding God’s mercy encourages humility and gratitude, as we realize our unworthiness and dependence upon His grace. This realization compels us to extend mercy to others, as we are called to imitate Christ, who embodied mercy in His life and sacrificial death. Therefore, mercy shapes our identity, our worship, and our behavior towards others.

Good morning. I was telling the men in the prayer time this morning that that was our theme on Friday with the Vacation Bible School with our children, that the Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. And so I asked the children, I said, well, who provides for you?

And took them a minute to figure out what I was getting at. But finally, they realized that it was mom and dad that provided for them. And so I asked them, I said, why does mom and dad provide for you? And one of them spoke up quickly and said, cuz they have to. And finally got them to understand that mom and dad provide for them because they love them. And secondly, because they know that they cannot provide for themselves.

The Lord will provide, provide what we need. for the same reason. And if we being evil know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more shall your heavenly father give us all that we need? He provides because he loves us, and he provides because he knows we cannot provide for ourselves. And lest you become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord will provide.

What a merciful, gracious God we serve. Let's go before his throne and ask his blessings on our time together. Our gracious, merciful, glorious, and great Heavenly Father, Thank you for the blessing of wanting to be here. Thank you for the blessing of having a place where we can come. Thank you for the blessing of thy word. Thank you for the great gift of salvation that you've given us in thy dear son. Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of worship.

We know that our worship adds nothing to thee, but oh, how needful we are to see you as you are and to offer to you praise and worship that only you are worthy of. We are very hopeful in the fulfillment of your promise as we gather in this place today that you would meet with us, that you would send your Holy Spirit in power, that you would draw us into thy presence, that you would reveal to us a glimpse of your glory. That you would give us the grace and the faith to set aside all of those things that distract us in this life and in this world. That we might be able, by your Holy Spirit, to set our affections on things above where Christ is seated at thy right hand. Lord, enable us to see him. Turn us, Lord, and we shall be turned. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

Let's open our Bibles together to the book of Micah, the little prophet Micah towards the end of your Old Testament. Between Jonah and Nahum, you'll find a seven chapter book of Micah. I think we were in this last Sunday before last. By the way, I forgot to say that your brethren in Pennsylvania send their love.

I'm so encouraged. Before Caleb went up there, they listened and watched our services faithfully. We were their church, and I was their pastor for many years. And a lot of them still do regularly. They listen to all the messages from here. And so they know you, and they know us very well. And they're just sweet brethren that you haven't met yet, but one day we'll be together. and they want you to know that they love you and they're thankful for you.

Micah's name translated means who is like God. That's a question, not a statement. Who is like God? And he ends his letter with a declaration of God's glory. By using his name in verse 18, who is a God like unto thee? There's no God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity, puts away our sin, that passes over the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage, that's the elect.

How does he pass over that? When I see the blood, I'll pass by you. He retaineth not his anger forever. God is holy, he is in the heavens, we are upon the earth. He is righteous, we are sinful. His justice demands judgment and wrath. And if God did not provide for us a savior, then we would be the objects of his judgment. But he retaineth not his anger forever, why? because he delights in showing mercy.

Any reluctance that we have of being saved is on our part. Men don't come to Christ because they don't want to come to Christ. The Lord is not reluctant to show forth his mercy. He delights in showing mercy. And we have to bear the responsibility for whatever Whatever of God's mercy, we don't know. That's on us, not on God. He delights in showing mercy. He will turn again. He turns to us, causes us to turn to him. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities.

Peter says that the exceeding great and precious promises of God are what the Lord has given us that we might be partakers of his divine nature. Now, being a partaker of his divine nature is being found in Christ, being found in Christ. I am in him. My hope of being able to stand before the throne of God in the day of judgment, my boldness in that day of judgment, is that as he is, so are we. This is being a partaker of the divine nature. Having the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as all of my righteousness before God Almighty.

The Lord has to subdue our iniquities. He has to subdue our sin and our unbelief. And here's the precious promise that makes us a partaker of his divine nature. He will subdue our iniquities. We can't make ourselves believe. We can't overcome that barrier that is between us and God called sin. But the Lord can, and when he gives us the breath of life, he makes us to believe by subduing our iniquities.

He cast all our sins into the depths of the sea, never to be found again. He separates them from us as far as the east is from the west, and he remembers them no more. The Lord Jesus bore in his body upon that tree all of the sins of all of God's people and put them all away by the sacrifice of himself once and for all.

There's my hope. My hope is Christ, his person and his accomplished work of redemption. Verse 20. Verse 20, this is where I want us to spend a little time. I've titled this message Truth and Mercy. Truth and Mercy. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob.

Now the church is often called the Sons of Jacob. Jacob, you remember, had 12 sons. And that's the 12 tribes of Israel. And we have the number 12 in the New Testament apostles. And by the scriptures of the old covenant and the new covenant, God has revealed to us his work of salvation in Christ.

He's revealed himself to us. And so he says, I will perform the truth to Jacob, to the whole church. They will know the truth. They will know the truth concerning who I am. They will know the truth concerning who they are. And they will know the truth concerning how it is that God's pleased to save sinners like us. How can God be just and justify us at the same time?

That's the gospel. And he says, he will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Turn with me to Psalm 105, Psalm 105. Micah is prophesying that all that God had promised all the way back in the covenant of grace, The promise that the father made to the son to give him a bride, the promise that the son made to his father to redeem his bride, and the promise that the Holy Spirit made to the father and the son to regenerate them in the day of his power. That's a promise that you and I had nothing to do with. That's a promise that God made to God.

Our God is faithful to his promises. And then Abraham came and God confirmed that promise to Abraham. And then he confirmed it again to Jacob, to Isaac and to Jacob. And the Lord, knowing that we are foolish and that we are slow of heart to believe, has given us these great and precious promises over and over and over again.

All he had to do is say it one time, and we would have been responsible, accountable to believe what God said one time. But he didn't just say it one time. He said it hundreds of times, maybe thousands of times. All of his word is his promise to his people. And if we don't believe God, that is all on us. Not because God hasn't been clear. But if we do believe God, here will be our declaration of faith.

Oh, verse Psalm 105, oh, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people, sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all of his wondrous works. What a blessing it is for us to be able to gather right now and to be able to talk about his wondrous works. And what a great blessing it is for believers to be able to gather together and speak of the wondrous works of our great God and all that he did to fulfill that which he promised.

Verse three, glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face evermore. Oh, Paul said that I might know Him. I am on a life long pursuit of seeking to know God.

I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press towards the mark for the price of the high calling in Christ Jesus. He is the price. Abraham, I am thy shield, and I am thine exceeding great reward. I'm your price, and faith has a glimpse of that. I'm not going to say that we fully understand it, but we believe it.

And having tasted of the heavenly gift, we want more. We want more, kind of like an appetizer before. That's what the idea is, that you had an appetizer, and you want the meat of the gospel. You want that bread that comes down from heaven. You want to know him. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. This is the believer's pursuit in life, to know God. seeking his face evermore.

Verse five, remember his marvelous works that he had done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. All that he has said, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, is a light unto my path, it's honey to my lips. When the prophet ate the scroll, it was sweet to his taste. And when he swallowed it, it was bitter to his belly.

What does that mean? The belly is our flesh. The belly is mentioned in the scriptures as the physical evidence of the cravings of the sinful flesh. And just as the belly has to be fed, so our old man is always seeking to be fed with the flesh and the husk of this world. And when the word of God, when the word of God comes, it is so sweet to the taste.

But when it's digested, it has an adverse effect on the flesh. It exposes the flesh for what it is. It's bitter to the belly. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing because it reminds us of how toxic sin is, of how poisonous the flesh is. And it reminds us to reckon ourselves again and again and again to be dead to be dead in the flesh. That's what we are, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

Verse six, O ye seed of Abraham, his servants, ye children of Jacob, his chosen. Here's what Michael was talking about. Here's what, here's what the Psalmist is declaring. This is This is God's promise. It's to the sons of Jacob. It's to the seed of Abraham. Now the scripture tells us that a true Jew, a true descendant of Abraham, you remember the Pharisees, when the Lord rebuked them for telling them that their father was the devil, they stood and boasted and said, we'd be the children of Abraham. What did the Lord Jesus say? God can raise up children of Abraham from these stones. He pointed to the stones on the ground. He said, God's going to raise up children of Abraham from these stones. You're not the children of Abraham. Maybe according to the flesh you are. Maybe you can trace your lineage back to Abraham.

But the true Jew, The true Jew is not the one who is circumcised outwardly in the flesh. The true Jew is the one who's been circumcised inwardly by the spirit, for the circumcision of the heart is what makes one a true descendant of Abraham, a true child of Jacob.

What is the circumcision of the heart? It's when God cuts from your heart any hope of salvation that is the product of your efforts, of your flesh, of your works, or of your will. He has stripped you naked. That's the circumcision of the heart. Paul put it like this, we are the true circumcision, the true circumcision that worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. That's the circumcision of the heart. We have no confidence in the flesh.

There was a time when we had confidence in what we did. We had confidence that something about us was admirable, something about us was acceptable to God. We were capable in the power of our own will and the power of our own works to produce something that would obligate God to save us. That's the natural man.

And when God does a work of grace in the heart, he cuts all of that away. And now we have no confidence in the flesh. We worship God in the power of the spirit, and we rejoice only in the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself is all our confidence. All our confidence. That's faith. And that's a work of grace in the heart that only God can do.

And that's what identifies the children of Abraham. Verse seven, he is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, which covenant he made with Abraham and his oath with Isaac. and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant. God has confirmed this covenant over and over and over again. We wouldn't have known anything about the eternal covenant of grace that was made before the foundation of the world unless God had shared that covenant with a man. unless he had confirmed it with an oath.

And that's what he did. He did it for Abraham. And he said, this promise is for you and for your seed. And then in the book of Galatians, the Lord reminds us that the Lord did not say to Abraham and your seeds. He said unto your seed and your seed is Christ. So the fulfillment of all the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And only those who are found in him have the confidence and the blessing and the assurance that what God promised, he performed for me. He performed for me. Because I'm not looking to my lineage, I'm not looking to anything I've done, I'm looking to Christ and rejoicing in Him. And He is all of my hope and He is all of my salvation.

Go back with me to our text, the last verse in the book of Micah. Thou wilt perform. Thou wilt perform. This word perform is often translated in the Old Testament to the word give. Give. If God's going to perform the truth for me, he's going to have to give it to me.

I can't buy it. I can't learn it. I can't obligate God for it. I don't deserve it. I can't discover it. If the Lord doesn't give me the truth, I will be like the rest of the world. I will imagine a lie to be true. and live my whole life to my dying breath, holding on to it as truth. That's what I'll do. I know I'll do that. It's what the natural man does.

Do you think our Muslim neighbors across the parking lot don't believe that what they believe is true? Do you think our friends that are gathering together in religious meetings all over the city Don't believe that what they believe is true? Why do they believe that?

Because the Lord has not performed for them. He has not given them. Because they have no love for the truth, and that truth is Christ, who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And that God has to give us. He has to perform that for us. We don't earn the truth because we love the truth. The Lord has to give us a love for the truth.

Otherwise, we will embrace the strong delusion that is sent by God, and we will believe the lie. We will believe the lie, just like everybody else will believe the lie. And we'll be We'll be content with believing the lie. We'll draw our last breath on our deathbed believing the lie.

If God doesn't perform the truth, if he doesn't give us the truth, a man can receive nothing except it be given to him from heaven. Gift, that's grace. You don't earn a gift. You don't pay for a gift. You don't deserve a gift. A gift from God is given. And James put it like this, every good gift and every perfect gift.

And Christ said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but God. When the rich young euler called the Lord Jesus good master, the Lord was saying, do you understand what you're saying? Do you have any comprehension of what you just called me? There's none good but God. There's none that do with good. No, not one. There's only one who's without sin.

And when the Lord took Moses up on Mount Sinai, he said, I'm going to cause my goodness to pass before you. And the Lord Jesus passed before Moses while he was hid in Christ in the cleft of the rock. Every good gift and every perfect gift, there's none perfect but Him. And what God requires is perfection.

I hear people say all the time, well, I'm doing my best. You know, our best is not good enough, is it? It's not. Our best falls so far short of what God requires. He requires perfection. And every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights. It's the way James puts it.

God, the Father, who is the Father of lights. He's the one who said, let there be light. And there was light. And that light was Christ. You go all the way back to creation in Genesis chapter one. The sun, the moon, the stars weren't created the fourth day, the light came on the first.

And God separated the day from the night, the light from darkness, and he called the light day and he called the darkness night. And we'll be left in the darkness if the father of lights did not shine the light of the gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts. He will perform. He will give.

What is my hope that he would give it to me? It's confessing to God that, Lord, I can't do anything to earn it. Lord, you're going to have to give it to me. If I'm going to have it, it's going to have to be given freely. Let's just stick out your empty hand. Lord, I, you're going to have to, I've got nothing to offer you. I don't know anything. I can't do anything. I don't have anything. Lord, I believe that this truth has to be performed. It has to be given by you. And James went on to say this, the father of lights who sends this good and perfect gift of the gospel in Christ, says without in him there is no variableness.

There's no changing. I change not. The covenant is the same. The promises are the same. Your circumstances don't change me. I am faithful to my promises. I change not and therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The only reason that we have hope that God would show mercy toward us is because he has made a promise that cannot change. There's no variableness. Neither is there any shadow of turning. He doesn't change his mind. The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

He provides them because he promised them. What is faith? It's just casting ourself on what God has promised. Lord, if you said, look at these precious promises. Let's read them again. Look at verse 19. He will turn again. Lord, I'm going to have to have, I will? How many people you hear say, well, I will. I will accept Jesus. I will serve God. I will do this. And we have a temptation to go to God and say, Lord, if you will, I will, and bargain with God. Isaiah put it like this.

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? Come. and drink and eat freely without money and without price. And that word price that Isaiah uses is the word barter. In other words, Not only do we not send our gifts ahead of ourselves to obligate God to save us, but we don't promise God gifts behind us. We don't barter with God and say to God, if you'll save me, this is what I promise I'll do. Without money and without price, freely. That's what this word before means. Lord, if you don't give it to me freely, I won't have it. I won't have it. There's nothing I can do to deserve it or earn it. Lord, I believe what you've said. I believe. I believe that you will do it. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us.

Oh Lord, I need you to do what you did for the multitude when you looked upon them and you had compassion upon them because you saw them as sheep without a shepherd. You saw them faint. You saw them weak, needy, and poor, wretched. And you had compassion upon them.

Lord, I'm not asking for anything. I need compassion. I need mercy. That's the only hope I have. What hope it is. He delights in showing mercy. He delights in it. He will subdue our iniquities. He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. He will perform the truth that he made to Jacob. He will give it. He will perform it.

Paul said in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6, being confident, and that's what faith is. Faith is confident, not in self, but in God. My confidence is in him, being confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You were dependent upon God to give it at the beginning, and as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him.

Lord, I'm dependent upon you to perform it. You're gonna have to give it to me every day. It's not a one-time, but we're always on the receiving end of God's gifts. Lord, you're going to have to perform the truth. You're going to have to reveal Christ to me. You're going to have to cast my sin in the depths of the sea. You're going to have to have compassion upon me. You're going to have to turn me if I'm going to be turned. Turn with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1.

You remember John the Baptist's father, Zechariah? And the Lord spoke to him, and he didn't believe it. And God shut his mouth. He made him where he couldn't speak until Elizabeth's child was carried full term and born into the world. And they wanted to call him Zachariah. And Zachariah, the father, asked for a pen and paper, and they gave it to him. God had already told Zachariah, you call him John. You call him John. And if I remember correctly, John means gift. Zechariah wrote John on the paper. They were all surprised. There's no John in your family. Call him John. God says call him John. And when Zechariah obeyed God by calling him John, his voice came back.

And he used that voice to praise and worship God. And in Luke chapter 1, verse 67, And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people. He hath raised up the horn, a horn of salvation, and Christ is that horn. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which he had been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hands of all them who hate us. Who's your greatest enemy? You know anything about, if the Lord's shown you the truth about who he is and the truth about who you are, you know who your worst enemy is.

Sitting right there in the same seat you're in. Lord, my sin and my unbelief and my rebellion and my obstinance and my doubts and my fears, Lord, nothing bothers me. And no one bothers me more than I bother myself. Look at verse 72. This is what Zechariah is saying when he, when John is born. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, without fear of wrath, without fear of judgment. We serve God. Now there is a fear of God. We'll talk about that in the next hour. But this spirit of fear that would cause us like Adam. Adam was afraid. Tried to cover his nakedness with sewn together fig leaves. That's the evidence of fear. Trying to cover our sin with our own righteousness.

Hiding from God amongst the trees. You know, I can't help but to think about that forest that Adam was in. The Lord calls his sheep. He uses lots of different names for us, but he calls us the trees of righteousness, which are the plantings of the Lord. The church is likened unto a tree that birds flock to and hide themselves in. And Adam, hiding among the trees, The Lord tells us that there's tares among the wheat. There are those in the church that are hiding among the trees that have never known God.

Now, I don't say that to cast doubt in the hearts of a child of God, but I know that every time we preach, somebody's hiding in the trees. And it's not our place to try to identify them. I've got nobody in mind. And I would never dare try to pluck out the tares from the wheat or try to identify someone hiding among the trees.

That's between you and the Lord. But that's the evidence of the kind of fear that Zachariah is talking about. Hiding from God amongst the trees. In holiness, verse 75, and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, and thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way peace, to guide our feet into the way of peace, to cause us to look to Christ and to follow after him. This is what Micah is prophesying. will perform. This is our text now, Micah chapter 7, verse 20.

Thou wilt perform, thou wilt give. You delight in showing mercy towards sinners. Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I can't do anything to obligate God in any way. I've got nothing but sin. Are you going to have to perform it? And you have to give it freely. I can't buy it, and I can't barter with you. I know enough about my promises to know that I'm not faithful to my promises. I can't barter with God. He knows every thought. He knows every deed. He knows how unfaithful I am. You've got to perform it. Thou will perform the truth to Jacob. and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn to our fathers. Jacob, I've loved.

Esau, I've hated. Now, you remember the story of Jacob and Esau. They're brothers, twin brothers. Esau was the older, was born first, and then Jacob. But God had already told Rebekah, their mother, that the older would serve the younger. Esau is a picture of our flesh, our firstborn. We come into this world of natural descent, born of the flesh. And Jacob is a picture of that which is born of the Spirit by the power of God. And the Lord told Rebekah, the older is going to serve the younger.

And our old man is painful as he is and as much as we long to rid of him. He serves that, you new man, by reminding us how often that we're sinners and that we've got to have Christ. Esau came in from the field and he was hungry. Again, a picture of the flesh and the belly.

And he saw that Jacob was cooking a meal, a pot of lentils. bowl of soup. And Esau said, give me, I'm famished. And Jacob said, sell me your birthright and I'll give you to eat. And Esau said, what is my birthright? That's of no significance to me. And the scripture says that he despised his birthright by selling it for a bowl of soup to Jacob. And in the book of Hebrews chapter 12, it says that we are to make warning by profane Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

Well, being the firstborn, the birthright was very significant. It didn't just mean that he got a double portion of the inheritance. It meant most significantly that the promises that were made to his father would come through his lineage. And that's salvation. That's the covenant. That's Christ.

And he despised his birthright, much like the children of Israel said of that man that was coming down from heaven. We loathe this light bread. We've got no regard for Christ. We've got no regard for salvation. Our only interest is feeding our belly.

And he sold his birthright. He sold the only hope of his salvation. to satisfy his flesh. And that's what the natural man does every time. Later on, it would be time for Isaac to die. And Isaac would give a blessing to his sons. Now that blessing wasn't the birthright, that blessing was prosperity in the world. That's what the blessing was. Material prosperity. It wasn't just good luck, it was a prophecy given by the father to the sons, securing for them prosperity in this world.

And Jacob deceived his father. And he pretended to be Esau. And Isaac gave the blessing for prosperity to Jacob. And when Esau came in later, the blessing had already been given to Jacob. Jacob had to flee. Esau now was willing to kill his brother because he had stolen the blessing. He gave up the birthright, didn't think anything of it. But the blessing, that's prosperity in the world. And he hated his brother because he stole the blessing. This is, let's close with Romans chapter nine. Turn with me there. Romans chapter nine.

Jacob and Esau, that's the believer and the unbeliever. The unbeliever doesn't think anything of their birthright, doesn't think anything of eternal life. They that are after the flesh, they just mind the things of the flesh. It's all they're interested in. What can feed the belly now?

The blessing of temporal things. That's what I need. Jacob, though he deceived his father, got the birthright and the blessing and the the lineage of Christ. The Messiah came through the sons of Jacob, Judah in particular. Romans chapter 9 Verse 10, and this is the word of promise. Back to the promise. These great and precious, exceedingly great and precious promises whereby we are partakers of the divine nature. This is the promise. At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son.

And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born. neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of works, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. He delights in showing mercy to those who are in need of mercy. He fulfills his promises. He will perform. He will give all of the truth that he promised. It's the promise of God. That's the truth.

I believe what God says. That's all faith is. So many times you hear people talk about faith as if, well, if I believe strong enough, I can make something happen. That's not faith. That's presumption. Faith is just believing God. I believe what you just said, preacher. I saw it in the Bible. I know it's the word of God. And I have no place else to go but to believe God. I just cast myself on him. and on his precious promises. I believe that what he said is the truth. All right. Let's take a break. Yes, that's a good one.

Truth and Mercy

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is the concept of mercy important for Christians?

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Truth and Mercy

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is the concept of mercy important for Christians?

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