If you turn with me as well,
please, to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. And look at verse 7. Matthew chapter
5 and verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ taught
his people the true nature of happiness, the true nature of
blessedness, in this world. Not the pleasure of sin for a
season. It only lasts a little while. It's a short season. Not the
praise of men, which is always self-serving and deceitful. And not the getting of treasures
which the world desires to accrue to itself. There is no blessedness
in these things, not for those who seek righteousness, not for
those who seek the Lord's blessing. True happiness, says the Lord,
is to be found in Him, to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. True happiness is to know that
our sins are forgiven. The forgiveness of sins, that
is the greatest blessing that the Lord could ever give. And that is the first gift of
grace in the experience of a sinner. I do not say it is the first
gift of grace in the secret workings of God, for he has been planning
and working out and executing grace long before any individual
begins to know that grace in their own life. But in the experience
of those who are strangers to God and strangers to grace, the
forgiveness of sin is the first Blessing that the Lord Jesus
Christ bestows upon his own. Psalm 32 and verse 1 reads, Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. True happiness, true blessedness
in this world flows from a knowledge of our sins forgiven. There's not one of us here who
can claim to be without sin. Those who imagine themselves
without sin deceive themselves. The truth is not in them. But
the greatest gift that the Lord gives us to show us the kind
of people that we are and to open our awareness that he alone
can make the change that is necessary and bring the peace with God
that pardon and forgiveness bestows. Blessed is the people. whom he
hath chosen for his own inheritance. Blessed is that people that he
is pleased to bestow his graces upon, that he is pleased to cleanse
their sin, purge their iniquities. And every spiritual blessing
that we have in our Christian pilgrim life is built upon the
foundation that Jesus Christ has forgiven our sins. The first taste of forgiveness
of sin, the first experience of what it is to know our sins
forgiven, comes when we receive mercy from on high. When we are granted that awareness
that a peace and a reconciliation has been forged between God,
the offended one, and man, this man, the offender. When we understand that a way
of reconciliation has been opened, a road of peace, a way of access
has been opened, For a sinner like me, through the blood of
Jesus Christ, then we begin to see what true happiness and blessedness
is in this world. The psalmist again says in Psalm
94, verse 18, when I said, my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord,
held me up. Have you ever found yourself
in that place? Let us be honest. Let us reflect
upon our lives. Let us think about those paths
that we have trodden, those places we have frequented, those words
that we have spoken, those deceits which we have peddled. Let us
think about the pursuit after lust that we have engaged upon
all the days of our life. And then let us say, when my
foot slipped, when my foot slipped, when I saw the awfulness of my
condition, when I saw that I had no foundation, when I saw that
my standing was so fragile and feeble, Then thy mercy, O Lord,
reached out and held me up. Blessed people, blessed people
who have discovered the hand of the Lord holding us up when
our feet have slipped because of sin. I look around We're not much
to look at, we Christians. We're not very strong as far
as this world is concerned. We're not very mighty as far
as the powers of this earth. We don't have very much in the
way of the resources of this world or have much clout as far
as the management of the affairs of this world are concerned.
But oh, we have something that this world can never have if
we have tasted the mercy of God in our souls. If we have been
granted that purity of heart, if that cleansing blood has flowed
in upon us, If we have been given that desire after righteousness,
that hunger and that thirst, if we have a pursuit of holiness
in the front of our thoughts, if we seek that purity which
Christ alone can give and desire to be conformed to His image,
then blessed are we amongst men. Romans chapter 7 and verse 22
says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. That inward man, recognizing
that God is holy and recognizing that his ways are holy and discovering
that we have unholiness in the Lord Jesus Christ because of
his mercy towards us. The people of God have tasted
something sweet if they have tasted the mercy of God. And we rejoice, we rejoice in
our hearts. We are glad and thankful to discover
this principle attribute of God at work in our own life's experience. The Lord God, he is merciful. In Psalm 103, verse 17, we read,
the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. There at the very beginning,
before time was, when the love of God was first revealed in
the covenant purposes of grace. There, cohabiting those eternal
dimensions with the love of God was the mercy of God. There,
forging that great plan of salvation, setting out and establishing
the means by which God's purposes would be secured, was an elective
purpose which drew in the attributes of God, all of the attributes
of God. His holiness, His justice, His
goodness, His wrath, his mercy and brought together such a plan
of salvation and established a way of forgiveness to a people
that were wayward, hard-hearted and stiff-necked. With the psalmist The people
of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ discover that the
whole history of this world is marked by the enduring mercy
of the Lord. There could be, there would be
no history in this world if it were not for the mercy of God.
There could not be a day, an hour, a minute, a moment, if
it were not for the forbearance, for the patience, for the long-suffering,
for the mercy of our God. Justice demands that the soul
that sins shall die. And this whole world would have
been long ago blotted out with such a comprehensiveness that
Noah's Ark would be a small thing and the destruction of the whole
of humanity would be utter and complete. But mercy endures forever. There is mercy with the Lord. There is forgiveness with the
Lord. Do yourself a favour. When you
get home, read Psalm 136. Psalm 136. And remember this, that the mercy
of the Lord endureth forever. We've already remarked recently
about the psalmist David, how he declared Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. The mercy of
the Lord. If the Lord were not merciful,
this world could not exist. And this fifth beatitude that
we have before us here in the book of Matthew and the fifth
chapter, this beatitude speaks of the mercy of God. And it speaks of the exercise
of that mercy in the lives of his people. We have seen, as
we've considered, some of these statements, we call them beatitudes,
that speak of the blessedness of the Lord's people. We have
seen how verse 3 said, blessed are the poor in spirit. And verse
4, blessed are they that mourn. And verse 5, blessed are the
meek. And verse 6, blessed are they
which hunger and thirst after righteousness. And these Beatitudes. Speak to us of a spiritual working
in the soul of the sinner by which he is made to see the need
that he has. It is an awakening It is a calling
forth of spiritual understanding by which those that were blind
to God and blind to their own state are made to see that they
are sinners before a holy God and there must be a way of salvation
provided for them. And they long for that experience. They desire that experience.
They hunger and thirst because they have seen the poverty of
their own spirit. And they have been brought to
that place of humbly seeking the face of God and the mercy
of God. But here in this fifth beatitude,
perhaps we can detect a slight change. Perhaps we can see a
slight alteration. There is, as it were, more of
an outward look in this beatitude than perhaps there has been hitherto. More of an active aspect in the
life of God's people. There are these inward groanings
of the spirit because of our sin and a desire after righteousness. That is truly a blessed mark
in a sinner's soul. And that sinner receives the
promises of Christ's grace and mercy to them. The spirit that
inspires the desire for the graces of God also applies those graces
to the soul of the needy sinner. But here in this fifth beatitude,
another strand is arising before us. For we see that those who
have thus tasted the grace of God, have tasted the blessings
of God, have been brought by the Spirit to the throne of grace,
and who bow before God humbly seeking His mercy, They are possessed
by the Holy Spirit, and they exhibit the qualities and the
attributes that characterize their Savior. See the point that
I'm stressing here? Here in this beatitude, We're
now talking about the way in which the indwelling power of
the Lord Jesus Christ affects and changes and alters the believer. That hungering and thirst is
the state of the believer. But now we are speaking of those
who exhibit the qualities of God's mercy in their life, for
they are made like unto their Savior. And as he is merciful
to them, so they exhibit those attributes that characterize
their Lord and Savior. And I think that this is really
quite an extraordinary thing. This is a wonderful thing for
us to dwell upon this evening. Philippians 2 verse 7 says this,
Christ made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form
of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Paul says,
God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. See what he's
saying. Christ became like us. Christ became like us. He became
like us by taking the likeness of sinful flesh. He became like
us by making himself of no reputation and being made in the likeness
of men. Christ made himself like us.
But for this reason, that he might make us like him. That's why he did it. That's
why he came. He made himself like us that
we might be like him. Paul says in Romans 6, we have
been planted together in the likeness of his death. When he
died, we died with him. And we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection, as he is raised from the dead. So we rise
with him in the same likeness. We're told in Ephesians that
we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God the Son. So it is, therefore, that when
we have known mercy, we exercise mercy. When we have known grace,
we shall be gracious. When we have those qualities,
those attributes, of the goodness of God granted to us, we will
endeavor to be good in our service to him. Have we known forgiveness? Then
should we not forgive others? Have we known something of the
love of God in our souls? Shall we then be cruel or cold
or hard-hearted to our brothers and sisters in Christ? These
are incompatible. When we have the blessings of
grace bestowed in our souls, when God, the Holy Spirit, when
the very Christ himself comes and dwells within us and goes
with us all the days of our life, should we not see the evidences
of his presence in our own souls? So the Lord says, blessed are the merciful. Blessed are those who have the
mercy of God in their soul and you see it in the transformation
that has taken place in their life. Love, joy, temperance,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, All these graces characterize
our beloved Savior, and all those graces are part and parcel of
His blessed presence with His people. It identifies the people,
oh, we know and we believe that His grace is free. He gives it to us bountifully.
He gives it to us graciously, freely given, freely received. These graces that come from the
Lord are graces which are evident in the lives of His people. For
we who have experienced personally the graces of our God, exercise
those graces. We can do not else and we endeavour
to live and emulate and copy and conform to those things that
we see in our Saviour. It is the mark of our thanksgiving
and gratitude. I think it's not As far as language
is concerned, it is not entirely unconnected that the word mercy,
or as the French might say, merci, is to do with the experience
of the grace of God. and a response of gratitude and
thankfulness as we see that pity that he has shown to us and we
exercise that pity to one and another. The wonderful thing
about these graces that the Lord is pleased to give is that the
supply of them will never be depleted. The fullness of God's
grace towards his people will never expire. It's like that
widow's cruise, ever flowing while the need remains. How she took that cruise of oil
and she poured it. And long after it ought to have
come to an end, pouring she was still. And there was sufficient
for every need. Brethren, sisters, We will never
be without sin in this world, not as this flesh continues. And we will struggle all the
days of our life with temptation. We will know trial. We will know
discouragement. We will know doubt. We will know
failure. We will know the active presence
of sin in our life. We will Shame ourselves with
the things that we say and do. We will frighten ourselves with
the doubts that we harbour in our own hearts and minds. We will be challenged in the
depths of our soul that we have any reason to believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ's blood avails for us at all. And we will doubt
the efficacy of his sacrifice and the preciousness of his blood. That is the legacy of the man
of sin in our lives. And he will rail and he will
fight and he will kick and he will scratch and bite as much
as he is able to detract from the things of God and the testimony
that we have been given of God's grace and mercy towards us. But
the reality is that the Lord Jesus Christ himself owns his
people as his own. We are his workmanship. It is
his glory that is at stake, not ours. It is his witness that
would be impugned if he lost one of his people. And we can
turn to him all the days of our life in the face of this railing
old man, this man of sin, this fleshy man that exists in our
experience. And we can commit to Christ the
well-being of our soul. The inward man is holy and pure
and perfect and righteous. But that holiness is not in our
works or in our abilities, but in our abiding in Christ. Peter says in 2 Peter 1, verse
4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. That by these, by these promises,
by these commitments that God has made, this covenant, this
agreement that He has entered into, by these promises that
we have, we might be partakers of the divine nature. not in
our strength, not in our works, not in our abilities, nor in
the exercise of our graces, but in the promises of God, these
blessings are ours, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. And so I say again, blessed are
the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. We have blessings
here, aplenty, in the promises of the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ. A bounty of grace. Grace that
is never ending. Grace that is everlasting. Grace
that is an ocean depth of goodness from God to his people. Are we poor? Are we needy? Are we helpless sinners? Yes,
it is so, and we can all testify to it. But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. In Exodus 34, we read
the portion of the chapter a little bit earlier in verse 6 and 7. We've been talking, haven't we,
about the Lord Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount. When the Lord gave that Sermon
on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, that wasn't the original Sermon
on the Mount. He had spoken before on a mountaintop. He spoke to Moses on the mountaintop. He came and stood there with
Moses, our blessed Lord, and he spoke. It is the Lord who
proclaimed these things that are written in verse six and
seven. What does he say? He says, the
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands. Oh, what a blessed privilege
we have to be numbered amongst those thousands. Broad is the
way and narrow is the way. There are many on the broad way,
but few there be. But there are thousands. And
it's a blessing to be numbered amongst those for whom the Lord
has reserved mercy, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin. Do you know this experience of
the mercy of God in your own soul this evening? Can you testify
to having come to that point where your own sin so weighed
upon you that you cried out to God, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. Do you feel it? Do you believe
that this mercy avails for you Has the Lord been merciful? Then
if he has, we are blessed indeed. And as that mercy reveals itself
in our lives, as it flows in and flows out, more will be granted. There's more to be had. There's more to be experienced. There's more to fuel and fire
our usefulness in the service of God as we seek to honor Him
in the exercise of these gifts and graces that He has bestowed
upon us. He calls us to be merciful. And
He says, blessed are the merciful. for they shall receive mercy. Our usefulness in the kingdom
of God is that we exercise these graces that the Lord has so freely
and liberally bestowed upon us. Why are you still here? Why are
you still here tonight? Why is the Lord not taking you
home already? Why hasn't He translated you
from this world into the next? You who are blood-bought children
of Christ. Because your usefulness to Him
is not yet completed. We have a labour to perform.
We have service to render. We have honor to give, we have
gratitude to express. We are to be His servants here
in this world. And what a privilege that is
that He should use someone like you and someone like me. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things, these things of the world, these things of our
lusts, these things of the meager, small things of this world, which
are so full of wickedness and deceitfulness. Flee these things
and follow after righteousness, goodness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life whereunto
thou art also called and hath professed a good profession before
many witnesses. There is a call to arms. There
is a call to labor. There is a call to engage in
order to serve the Lord. not with things that are commanded
in law, but in the graces that flow from a transformed, converted
life. The Apostle John writes in his
epistle, behold, look, observe, behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew not him. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Purifyeth himself even as he
is pure. The Lord gives grace for grace. He has given us mercy. Let us
be merciful and he will give us more mercy. Blessed are the
merciful for they shall receive mercy. He has shown us his love. Let us love one another and he
will give us more love. He has shown us forgiveness.
Let us forgive one another, and he will grant us greater forgiveness
in our own life's experience. Here is a circle of bounty. Here is the Lord himself promising
grace upon grace. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Father God, grant us thy mercy. and cause us to follow after
him who is all merciful towards us in our life and walk and conversation. And as we struggle and labor
and lament our weakness in the exercise of our faith, grant
us more mercy and more grace, grace for grace until thy workmanship
is completed. And we are presented holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in thy sight. Amen.