Good evening. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones
are vexed. Psalm 6-2. Remember not the sins
of my youth, nor my transgressions, According to thy mercy, remember
thou me for thy goodness sake, O Lord. Psalm 25, 7. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Psalm 30, verse 10. I've been teaching through the
Psalms in the adolescent Sunday school class. We just finished
Psalm 71 recently, and one thing that we've seen a lot is this
word, mercy. I counted them on my last flight,
and there was 31 times we've read the word mercy, seven times
mercies, and nine times merciful, and we're only halfway
through the Psalms. And so tonight, I want to bring
a message on the mercy of God. I want to spend tonight, and
I've divided the message into four parts. First, I want us
to see what is the mercy of God? When we read mercy, how does
the Bible define the mercy of God? And then I want us to see
mercy in action. There's a couple of examples
I want us to see from the scriptures. And then, in light of God's mercy,
a word to believers. And then, in light of God's mercy,
a word to those who have not come to Christ. So let's start
off by, what does the scriptures say, how does the scriptures
define the mercy of God? And a simple definition that
you might have heard before about what is mercy is God not giving
us what we have earned or what we deserve. So mercy is God not
giving us what we deserve, what we have earned. For example,
in Psalm 51, we read, this is David saying, have mercy upon
me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."
What is David saying here? David is saying, Lord, don't
give me what I deserve. Don't give me what I deserve.
You see, David, of course, y'all are familiar. He had committed
murder and committed adultery. And the Lord sent a prophet to
him and told him the story about this rich man who had taken a
sheep from a poor man. And of course, you'll know David
had been a shepherd, so this really pricked him. And when
David heard that story, he was so angry. He was so angry when
he heard that story, and he said, that man is going to die. Because
David, as king, he was judge over Israel. And his judgment
was, this man deserves to die. This is terrible. This man deserves
to die. And the prophet tells him, thou
art the man. Whoa. And David pens this psalm. David knew what he deserved. Lost men, they use the word mercy,
but they don't use it with the correct definition because they'll
say something like, have mercy because I'm doing this, or have
mercy because I'm trying to do this, or I deserve mercy. But that's not the type of mercy
that David was asking for. Right? David was asking for God
to deal with him in mercy, the type of mercy that only God is
capable of. Have mercy on me because of who
you are. Because of who you are, because
of your loving kindness, because of your capacity and magnitude
of your tender mercies, because of Christ. Don't give me what
I deserve. deal with me in mercy. Now, mercy is different than
grace. Mercy is different than grace,
and I think a helpful way to see the difference is when you
think about the unfallen angels. The angels which did not fall
with Satan have never experienced the mercy of God. The angels
that did not fall have never experienced the mercy of God. They have not sinned. Nor are
they under the effects of the curse of sin, and as such do
not need mercy. But they have experienced grace,
right? Because in the scriptures, we
read that they are elect angels. So you see, when the angels fell,
there are some angels that didn't fall, and we're told it's because
they are elect angels, because Christ is their head, because
they are kept in Christ. They didn't fall. So angels have
experienced grace, but not mercy. And when we read of grace, grace
is never brought up in association with all of mankind in general.
When you're reading through the scriptures and you come across
grace, it's always in connection with the elect. It's always in
connection with the people of God. But we do read that his
tender mercies are over all of his creation. So when we're trying
to define the mercy of God, when we're looking at the scriptures,
what is the mercy of God? We find that there are temporal
mercies. Right? Think of things that are
physical in nature, physical mercies. And then there are mercies
that endure forever. There are spiritual mercies. And both of these spring forth
from the fact that He is a merciful God. God is merciful. In 2 Corinthians 1, 3, it says,
blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and God of all comfort." Now, temporal mercies,
for example, the verse that I just quoted, Psalm 145 verse 9 says,
the Lord is good to all. He is. God is good. The Lord is good to all and his
tender mercies are over all his works. Psalm 136 verse 25, who
giveth food to all flesh, for his mercy endureth forever. Matthew
5 45 says, pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute
you. Why should you do that? That
ye may be the children of your father, which is in heaven, for
he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. The point is,
what would this world be like if it wasn't for God's mercy?
Think about that. Think about the temporal mercies
of God and what this world would be like if it wasn't for His
mercy. Because you see, when Adam fell,
not only did he die spiritually and put all of human race at
risk of eternal death. Not only did that come, but also
all kinds of suffering came along with sin. All kinds of sickness,
hatred one toward another, all the things that we experience
in this world that are because of the curse. The ground was
cursed. Everything was impacted by sin. But God is merciful. And as I said, there's a lot
of suffering in this world because of us. There's a lot of suffering
in this world because, as the scriptures say, every thought
and imagination of the heart of man is only evil continually.
So think about that. Everybody in this world is only
imagining evil things. That's all we want to do. If
it wasn't for the mercy of God, this place would be hell. Right? And you think about this, people
that continue to rebel and benefit from everything that God is providing
and never come to Christ, never come to Him, never thank God,
God's capacity for mercy, it's amazing. But as I said, those
are temporal. Those are temporal mercies. But
then, and this is what I want to talk about, but then there's
mercy that God has for His people. There is a special type of mercy. So when you're reading in the
scriptures and you read the word mercy, that's why I wanted to
mention this, there is a special type of mercy for His people.
The mercy that I want to talk about now, a good example of
this is in Hebrews 8.12. I'll read it to you. Four, I
will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses. You see that? I will be merciful
to their unrighteousnesses. That's unconditional. Sarah and I have been talking
about the covenants a lot lately. Covenants. The covenant of grace
and what's so wonderful about God's covenant is there's no
condition there. The mercy that God has for his
people, he says, I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses. No
condition. I'm going to do it because of
who I am, because of his capacity for mercy. And their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more. That's mercy for his
people. Three more things about this
mercy before we look at some examples. Turn with me to Romans
chapter 9. So now we're looking at the mercy
that God has for his people. Romans chapter 9, verse 15. For he saith to Moses, this is
God speaking, 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. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." Did I read that correctly? First of all, God's mercy, the
mercy for his people is sovereign. It's sovereign. He declares here
very plainly, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. This
is a sovereign act of God Almighty. So first of all, this type of
mercy is sovereign. Second of all, God's mercy to
his people comes towards us from him because of who he is and
not because of anything in us. Look over here in Titus chapter
3. Titus chapter 3. This is the
Apostle Paul. writing to Titus and he includes
himself here and we can include all of ourselves here in verse
number three. Four, we ourselves also were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done. But according to His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost."
You see that it has not by works of righteousness which we have
done. God's mercy towards us comes to us not because of anything
that we do. It's not because of anything
that we do, it's because He is merciful. Now, one last thing,
God's saving mercy is through Christ. We need to read the next
verse, though. Look at verse number six, which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Every spiritual blessing, y'all
know this, every spiritual blessing that we have only comes to us
through because of the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, so that's what mercy
is. Now, I want us to see mercy in action because examples teach
us a lot. Turn over here to Genesis chapter
19. Genesis chapter 19. And as we turn there, we're turning
here because we're going to see this is the first time that we
see the word mercy is in Genesis 19. And it's with regards to
Lot. Now, let me remind you of a few
things about Lot while you turn there. Lot was Abraham's nephew,
and he had a good relationship, obviously, with his uncle in
that he followed him when they left Haran. And they came into
the land of Canaan. And over time, both Lot and Abraham
became very wealthy. They had accumulated a significant
amount of wealth. Both of them had obviously a
tremendous amount of cattle and flocks. The land at which they were at
became too small for both of them. Basically, Lot had a bunch
of servants that worked for him, Abraham had servants, and they
would come and complain about each other and they were fighting.
And so Abraham tells Lot, I don't want there to be any strife between
me and you and your servants, my servants. Let's distance ourselves. Let's give ourselves some space."
And Abraham told Lot, you go out and survey and you pick the
land that you're going to take and I'll go and I'll take the
opposite side. Let's not have any strife between
the two of us. And y'all know the scripture.
Lot saw that the plain of Jordan was well watered. So obviously
there was a part of this land that looked financially probably
more profitable. Maybe he thought he could grow
bigger if he went. So he chooses that side and Abraham
says that's fine. And it says that Lot dwelled
in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent towards Sodom.
And then the scriptures say, but the men of Sodom were wicked
and sinners before the Lord. Now, the next time we see Lot,
he's actually living in Sodom. He's living in Sodom, and more
or less that gets us here to chapter 19. But there's one other
thing I want to mention before we read it. In the New Testament,
in 2 Peter, we see that the Scriptures declare that Lot was just and
righteous. So the New Testament tells us
that Lot is a just man, Lot is a righteous man. Everything that is recorded about
Lot in the Old Testament points to his flaws, his failures, but
this man believed God. He's a fellow believer. He's
a fellow believer saved and washed by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But let's read about this here
in Genesis 19. And there came two angels to
Sodom at Even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Now, when
you read this, for us, it's kind of like, that's a strange place
to be. Why would you be sitting at the gate of a city? That's
kind of a weird thing. But back then, in biblical times,
this is where business used to take place. So important business
deals, or if you were going to arrange a marriage, or important
government things were going to happen. If the king was going
to address his people, they did it at the gate. So Lot being
here, it's like him being at the town square. And what this
tells us about Lot is he was very much involved in Sodom.
He wasn't just kind of living there and keeping to himself.
He was very much involved in Sodom. He's living there, he's
sitting at the gate, and these two angels come in. These angels,
they didn't appear like, you know, angels with, you know,
wings and they look like men. Okay, so these two men walk in,
clearly they're not from Sodom, and Lot sees them. And Lot, seeing
them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face
toward the ground. And he said, Behold now, my lords,
turn in, I pray you, into your servants' house and tarry all
night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early and go
on your ways. And they said, Nay, but we will
abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly,
and they turned unto him, and entered into his house, and he
made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did
eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the
men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all
the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot and
said unto him, Where are the men which came into thee this
night? Bring them out unto us, that
we may know them. And Lot went out at the door
unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you,
brethren, do not sow wickedly. Behold, now I have two daughters
which have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them
out unto you, and do you to them as is good in your eyes, only
unto these men do nothing. For therefore came they under
the shadow of my roof, and they said, Stand back. And they said
again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs
be a judge. Now we will deal worse with thee
than with them. And they pressed sore upon the
man even lot. and came near to break the door.
But the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house
to them and shut the door. And they smote the men that were
at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great,
so that they wearied themselves to find the door. What a wicked place. What a wicked
place. You notice I tried to pause there. It says the young and the old
and the people from all around the city. Everybody was involved
with this. Everybody came to Lott's house
to try to get these men to come out so they could abuse them. And Lot knew that this was a
regular occurrence. This is why Lot was so insistent
about them coming to his house. I mean, this is why Lot was so
concerned about these people. No, you do not want to stay out
in the street tonight. You definitely need to come to
my house. And these men all gather around to abuse these two people, these
angels. Why was Lot living here? Why
was Lot living here? Read verse 12. And the men said
unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides, son-in-law, and thy
sons, and thy daughters? And whatsoever thou hast in the
city, bring them out of this place. For we will destroy this
place, because the cry of them is waxing great before the face
of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. And Lot
went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters,
and said, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will
destroy this city. But he seemeth as one that mocked
unto his son-in-law. And when the morning arose, then
the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy
two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the
iniquity of the city. Now, Lott obviously believed
the message, right? So think about what just happened. All these men were surrounding
the house. The angels blinded everybody so that they couldn't
get in because they were pressing to get into the city. And the
angels tell him, we're going to destroy this city. You need
to get everybody that is yours out of this city because we're
going to destroy it. So Lot goes over to his son-in-law's house,
and he's telling them the story. And I imagine he was still very
shaken up about this. I mean, so he gets there and
he's telling his son-in-law, look, the Lord's going to destroy
this place. We have to get out. We need to
leave now. This is terrible. He tells them
about this. This city is so wicked. Look
what they've done again. The Lord's going to destroy this.
But did you notice in the morning it says, and when the morning
arose, then the angels hastened Lot. They hastened and I couldn't
help but notice, you remember when the Lord told Abraham to
offer up his son and Abraham rose up early in the morning?
Not a lot, not a lot. Verse 16, and while he lingered,
he lingered, that word lingered according to Strong's means to
question. to hesitate, to be reluctant, to delay, to tarry. And while
he lingered, the men, that is the angels, laid hold upon his
hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his
two daughters, the Lord being merciful." merciful unto him,
and they brought him forth and set him without the city." There
we have it, the first time we see the word mercy in our Bible. Now, again, from the New Testament,
we know that Lot is a just man. And Peter tells us that in seeing
and hearing how these people lived, it vexed his righteous
soul. That's what the New Testament
says, that Lot seeing how these people lived, it vexed his righteous
soul. So why did he linger? Why did he linger? Why do we
linger? Why do we linger? The flesh. The flesh, think about the flesh,
and obviously there were things that Lot liked about living in
Sodom. And like I said, why do we linger?
We're told to love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life is not
of the Father, but is of the world. Why do we linger? And aren't you thankful for the
mercy of God? I think the takeaway from this
story is, aren't you thankful that God is merciful? Lord, deliver
me from myself. Deliver me from myself. Lord,
deal with me according to your mercy. What did Lot deserve? I mean, really. Now, these next two accounts,
I'm going to just read through them and we'll comment on them
until we get to the next part of the message. But I want you
to read them with me. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 15. Verse 22, And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O LORD, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered
and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread and cast
it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy
faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Turn over to Mark chapter 10,
verse 46. And they came to Jericho, and
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side, begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, saying, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal,
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still
and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he,
casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, What will thou that I should do unto
thee? The blind man said unto him,
Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him,
Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he
received his sight and followed Jesus in the way." So in light
of what we just saw, the mercy of God in action, I have a few
thoughts for believers. In light of God's mercy, a word
to believers. First of all, what a God we worship. What a God we worship. His mercy
towards me and towards you, if you're one of His people, is
new every morning. Every morning. And think about
this, only a merciful God, only a merciful God could be capable
of saving a people who after conversion continue to rebel,
continue to disobey, become indifferent. What a comfort to know that his
capacity for mercy is greater than your capacity for sin. Does that mean that we are indifferent
towards sin? No, no, of course not. If we
could, we would not sin. But seeing it is our nature,
it's a comfort to know how merciful God is. Lot lingered, but God
preserved him. Austin fell again, but God raised
him up. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness." That's what that means. When you read that
verse, think about Lot, think about you. I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
while I remember no more. We can continue to come to God
over and over again when we need mercy and know that because of
who He is and His greatness, we will not be turned away. Psalm
23 verse 6 says, "'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.'" Now, as we have received mercy, we faint not. As we have
received mercy, we faint not. Seeing that God has been merciful
to us, who knows who else He might be merciful to. Yeah? So we don't handle the Word of
God deceitfully or try to manipulate the message. We declare the gospel,
who you are, who I am by nature, who God is, how it is that He
saved sinners. And we wait because God who shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, He might just do that for somebody
else. And maybe for you tonight. And we have loved ones who have
not come to Christ. We have friends. Talk to them. When God gives you the opportunity,
talk to them. You know, this is to me, but
sometimes I go into a conversation just assuming that people are
going to reject it. And I know that unless God does
something for them, the gospel is not going to be gospel for
them. I know that. You know that. But we just go
in with this kind of negativity, like we don't have something.
This is amazing. This is amazing. Because we have
received mercy, who knows? God could save anyone. And then number three, let's
not ever forget, ever, ever, ever forget that mercy that is
merited is not mercy. So as long as you live in this
world, you're going to need the free mercy of God. I think when
the Lord saves a person, When the Lord saves somebody and the
Lord blesses that person, that person is going to grow in knowledge.
If the Lord blesses that person, they're going to grow in knowledge.
They're going to grow in grace. They are going to have the fruit
of the Spirit because the Lord is doing that work, not because
you're...because the Lord is doing that work. He's going to
perfect. He's going to perform. He's going to keep it to the
end. So we grow. But I think what happens is when
that happens and you do something that causes
you a lot of discomfort in your conscience, your flesh starts
to insinuate that if you're really a believer, you wouldn't be doing
that anymore. Right? Because again, like I
said, if the Lord has given you a new life, you are growing in
knowledge. You are growing in grace. The
Lord is working in you. He's giving you, he's blessing
you. And I think what happens is sometimes
when we do something, it's like, oh man, I've, I've just really
thrown it away now. I've really messed it up. And
you have, and you're going to continue to do that. You are never going to not need
the free mercy of God. Colossians 2 verse 6 says, As
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him. And how did you receive Christ?
As a broken sinner in need of mercy and grace. Well, are you
still a broken sinner in need of mercy and grace? Yes. Walk
in that. Do you have anything to recommend
you to God now that you've been a believer for one year, five
years, 15 years, 20 years? No. And fourthly, let us be merciful
one to another. The Lord said, be ye therefore
merciful as your father also is merciful. Let's be merciful
one to another. That'll keep a lot of problems
that we can have amongst each other at bay. Alright, in closing, in light
of God's mercy, a word for those who have not come to Christ.
If you have not come to Christ, God is merciful. God is ready
to pardon. He is full of compassion. But don't expect to receive mercy
if you try and approach Him outside of Jesus Christ. If you've never come to Christ and you're hearing this message
and you're seeing, you know, the world talks about the mercy
of God, they talk about the love of God, but remember, the mercy
of God is in Christ Jesus. So if you think that you're just
going to come to God because he's merciful outside of Christ,
you're not going to meet a God of mercy. You're going to meet
a God of strict justice. And then my second question would
be, if you have not come to Christ, what are you waiting for? Remember the two examples that
we just looked at? Well, somebody might say, well,
I don't know if I'm one of the elect. I do not know if I'm one
of the elect. You remember that woman of Canaan
that we read about? What did she do? She came to
the Lord and she said, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David.
And the Lord said, I'm not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him,
saying, Lord, Help me. Well, I don't know if I'm one
of the elect. Well, you're not called to know if you're one
of the elect. Come to the Lord. Ask him for mercy. Somebody might say, well, I don't
know how to come to Christ. I don't know how to come to Christ.
Well, think about blind Bartimaeus. Really, from a physical standpoint,
how could blind Bartimaeus come to Christ? I mean, he was sitting
there in the same place he's always been begging. He doesn't
know where the Lord is. Now, he heard, right? He heard
a message. You're hearing a message. But
he heard a message that Jesus of Nazareth was coming by. Jesus
of Nazareth has done some amazing miracles. I've heard that. You've
heard that. But really, physically, I don't
know how he could have gotten to Christ. So if you're sitting
there thinking, I don't know how to come to Christ, what did
blind Bartimaeus do? He cried out to Jesus, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And what did the scripture say?
Jesus stood still and had him brought to him. That's what's
going to happen to you. The Lord's going to bring you
to him. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Have you ever asked Christ to
show you mercy? May God enable all of us to come
to Him like that.