Sermon #19 Series: Who Is God?
Title: The Mercy of God
Text: Psalm 136:1
Reading:
Subject:
Date: Tuesday Evening - June 1, 1990
Tape #
Introduction:
In Psalm 136 David declares that God’s
“mercy endureth forever” twenty-six
times. In these 26 verses he traces all the works of redemption, grace, and
providence to the everlasting mercy of our God. He begins his psalm of praise
with these words, “O give thanks unto the
LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever” (v. 1). And he ends
his song with the same exhortation, “O
give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth forever” (v.
26). Tonight I want to proclaim The
Mercy of God. In doing so I hope to inspire your heart and mine to
thanksgiving and praise. “O gave thanks
to the LORD, to the God of gods, to the Lord of lords, to the God of heaven;
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever.”
“A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Christ’s righteousness on,
My person and offering to bring!
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.”
- Toplady
Proposition:
The mercyof God is his readiness to relieve the miserable,
pardon the quilty, and save the fallen.
We often speak of the love, mercy, and
grace of God as if they were synonyms, as if love, mercy, and grace were three
words describing one attribute. But they
are not. The mercy of God is, in some respects, different from both his love
and his grace. Unlike love and grace, God’s mercy toward us presupposes our
misery. God loved us with an everlasting love and chose us as the objects of
his grace without any consideration of anything we might do or be, either good
or evil (Rom. 9:11). But his mercy toward us anticipated our sin and fall in
Adam. Mercy anticipated the miserable condition into which sin has brought us.
Mercy presupposed our ruin, our spiritual death, our misery, and our desperate
need. So God’s mercy to us arises from the goodness of his Being and from the
love of his heart toward his elect. Paul declares that “God, who is rich in mercy, for (because of) his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;) and hath
raised us up together and made us set together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus (Eph. 2:4-6).
1.
God’s love for
us is the commitment of his Being to our eternal welfare.
2.
God’s grace is
the exercise of his love, power, goodness, and holiness for the accomplishment
of our salvation.
3.
And God’s mercy is the disposition of his
heart and willto pity and relieve those who are in trouble and to pass by their
crimes and offences without wrath and anger.
It is the mercy of God which David
describes in Psalm 103, when he says, “Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For
he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust” (vv. 13-14). A
father may love his son simply because he is his son; but if that son falls
into misery, love causes him to be filled with pity and compassion. Then love
is turned into mercy. Mercy is taking
another’s misery to heart. And God’s mercy is God, because of his great
love, taking our misery to heart! No wonder David wrote, “O give thanks unto the God of heaven; for his mercy endureth forever!”
Tonight, I want to show you 7 things about The Mercy of God, as it is setforth in
the Scriptures.
I. THE MERCY OF GOD IS BOTH
UNIVERSAL AND SPECIAL.
If we would rightly divide the Word of
Truth, we must recognize that the Bible distinguishes God’s special, saving
mercy toward his elect from his common, universal mercy toward all his
creatures.
A. There is a
sense in which God is merciful to all his creatures as his creatures (Psa. 145:9, 15, 16).
The love of God is not universal.
God’s love is reserved for his elect only. And the grace of God is not
universal. The Lord is gracious to none but those who are saved by his grace.
But the mercy of God is universal. God is merciful to all his creatures. “The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy” (Psa.
119:64).
There is not a bird in the air, a
beast in the forest, a creeping insect in the ground, a creature of the sea, or
a man in the world to whom God is not merciful!
1.
It is by God’s
mercy that all creatures are preserved in their beings (Psa. 36:5-6).
2.
All creatures
cry to God for their food, and he feeds them because he is merciful (Job 38:41;
Psa. 147:9; 104:27-28; Joel 1:18-20).
NOTE:
If God is so merciful to birds and beasts and to worms and fish, he will
never forget to be merciful to his own elect (Matt. 6:25-34; 10:29-31).
3.
All men, both righteous and wicked, partake of the providential goodness and
mercy of God.
He is kind to the unthankful and
unholy. He causes his sun to shine upon the good and the evil. He pours out his
rain upon the just and the unjust (Lk. 6:35; Matt. 5:45).
4.
God, in his mercy, preserves, supports, and provides the necessities of life to
all men. He is the Savior of all men, and especially of them that believe (I
Tim. 4:10).
Life in this world is mercy! Anything
short of hell is mercy. In that sense, God’s mercy is common to all. It is a
general and universal blessing to all that God is merciful.
B.
But the special, saving mercy of God is bestowed only upon his own elect.
Others partake of mercy, but God’s elect are “vessels of mercy” (Rom. 9:23). Child of
God, ;you are a vessel of mercy, a vessel filled with mercy, a vessel filled
with nothing but mercy! And by that mercy you are prepared for glory (Eph.
1:3-4; 1 Pet. 1:2-5; 2:9-10).
“There is a sovereign mercy reserved
for the heirs of salvation, which is communicated to them in a covenant way
through the Mediator,” Christ Jesus. (A. W. Pink).
NOTE:
Though mercy is an attributed of God, essential to his Being, his mercy is
guided and governed by his sovereign will (Rom. 9:15, 18).
1. There are some to whom God will not
be merciful in a saving way (Isa. 27:11).
God will not be merciful to any who
refuse to confess their sins and trust his Son. God will not be merciful to you
who hear his Word, but harden your hearts. God will not be merciful to any who
are without Christ in the last day.
2. But, blessed be God, there are some
to whom he will be merciful! (Read Heb. 8:8-12).
To
whom will God be merciful?
·
His own elect!
·
His redeemed
ones!
·
Allwho call
upon his name!
II. THE MERCY OF GOD IS FREE.
Because mercy is an attribute of God,
essential to his Being (Ex. 34:6-7), it is obvious that nothing outside of God
can be the cause of his mercy. To say that something other than God himself is
the cause of his mercy is to say that something is the cause of God. And that
is absurd. God’s mercy is free, unmerited, and undeserved.
A.
Our misery is not the cause of God’s mercy.
Though God’s everlasting mercy presupposed and anticipated
our sin and misery, that was not the cause of God’s mercy. Mercy is God’s
readiness to save. Mercy was there before sin ever had any existence.But as
soon as sin entered intothe world, mercy was revealed.
1.
Adam and Eve
were not slain immediately.
2.
Mercy sought
out the fallen pair.
3.
Mercy promised
a Savior.
4.
Mercy met the
needs of their miserable condition by a Substitutionary Sacrifice.
B.
It is certain that the merits of sinful creatures cannot be the cause of God’s
mercy (Tit. 3:5).
Some will suggest that mercy is shown
to those who are more deserving and less vile than others. But just the
opposite if true. God’s mercy is reserved for the vilest and most miserable of
his creatures (Rom. 3:9; Eph. 2:3; 1 Cor. 6:11; 1 Tim. 1:13).
C.
Not even the merits of Christ’s obedience and death are the cause of God’s
mercy.
The incarnation, life, righteousness, and death of Christ as
our Substitute are the results of God’s mercy (Lk. 1:78).
1.
Mercy foresaw
our need.
2.
Mercy provided
a Redeemer.
3.
Mercy sent
Christ into the world.
4.
Mercy
accomplished our redemption by the satisfaction of justice (Psa. 85:10-11;
Prov. 16:6).
Mercy arises from the goodness of
God’s nature and is directed by the unerring wisdom of his sovereign will (Rom.
9:15-18; Ex. 33:19). It is altogether free.
III. THE MERCY OF GOD IS
IMMUTABLE.
Twenty-six times David repeats it, “His mercy endureth forever!” (Mal. 3:6; Lk. 1:50). The mercy of
God never departs from his people. Nothing can change it. It is invariably the
same. It was laid up in store for us in Christ our Mediator in the covenant of
grace from eternity. Therefore, all God’s saving mercies are called “the sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3).
And God’s mercy toward us is kept with Christ forever (Psa. 89:24, 28, 30-37).
IV. THE MERCY OF GOD IS INFINITE.
As God himself is infinite, so all his attributes are
infinite, and his mercy is infinite.
A.
Mercy pardons and forgives our sins which have been committed against an
infinitely Holy God.
B.
Mercy saves and delivers us from infinite wrath in hell.
C.
And mercy has bestowed upon us infinite good - Christ! (Lk. 1:78).
“Thanks
be unto God for his unspeakable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15).
V. EVEN THE EVERLASTING
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED IS AN ACT OF GOD’S SPECIAL, SOVEREIGN MERCY TOWARD HIS
ELECT.
The punishment of the reprobate in hell must be viewed from
three directions.
1.
From God’s
point of view it is an act of justice, a vindication of his law and honor.
Though God is merciful, he is also just and true. He will punish sin!
2.
From the point
of view that the damned will have - The
punishment of sin will be a matter of equity. They are made to suffer the
proper wages of their sins.
3.
But from the
standpoint of the redeemed, the punishment of the wicked will be seen as a
matter of unspeakable mercy!
What mercy it is that in the New
Jerusalem “there shall in no wise enter
into it anything that defileth, neither worketh abomination” (Rev. 21:27).
God’s judgment upon our enemies is a matter of mercy to us. In hell he will put
our enemies and his into a prison where they can do no more harm (Psa. 136:15;
143:12; Rev. 19:1-3).
A merciful God our God is. Blessed be
his name! But this great and merciful God, because he is merciful, will punish
sin. He will rid his creation of all who defile it!
Illustration: Old Yeller - A mad dog must be destroyed!
VI. THE MERCY OF GOD IS IN
CHRIST!
“Mercy is displayed only in and through Christ. God out of
Christ is a consuming fire” (John Gill). It is only in Christ that God
proclaims his name to be “gracious and
merciful.” Christ is the mercy-seat in whom sinners obtain mercy. If you
would be saved, you must cast yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ, as the
Publican did (Lk. 18:13).
I’ll go to Jesus though my sin
Hath like a mountain rose;
I know His courts I’ll enter in
Whatever may oppose.
Prostrate I’ll lie before His throne
And there my guilt confess;
I’ll tell Him I’m a wretch undone
Without His sovereign grace.
I can but perish if I go;
I am resolved to try,
For if I stay away I know
I must forever die.
But if I die with mercy sought,
When I the King have tried,
This were to die (delightful thought!)
As sinner never died!
How can I describe the mercy of God in
Christ? “Thy mercy is great unto the
heavens” (Psa. 57:10). God’s mercy transcends our loftiest thoughts. “For as high as heaven is above the earth,
so great is his mercy toward them that fear him” (Psa. 103:11). God’s mercy
to sinners in Christ is infinite, beyond measure, and utterly indescribable.
The Bible tells us that it is great mercy, rich mercy, abundant mercy,
plenteous mercy, and that there are a multitude of mercies from God for sinners
in Christ Jesus. I cannot begin to declare the mercy of God to you. But I can
tell you something of the mercy I have found in Christ. This is what I have experienced -
·
Preventing,
prevenient mercy (Psa. 59:10).
·
Forbearing
mercy (Rom. 2:4).
·
Pardoning
mercy (Isa. 55:6).
·
Comforting
mercy (2 Cor. 1:3-4).
1.
His promises.
2.
His
providence.
3.
His presence.
4.
His
propitiation.
This is my comfort! “Thy mercies are new every morning.”
VII. THE MERCY OF GOD SHALL BE
CELEBRATED BY THE REDEEMED FOREVER IN HEAVEN (Psa.
89:1-2).
·
Eternal,
covenant mercy (Heb. 8:12).
·
Effectual,
redeeming mercy (Isa. 63:9).
·
Everlasting,
saving mercy (Tit. 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:3).
Application: Psalm 136:1-3, 26!
Give thanks to God! He has not
forgotten mercy! His mercy endures forever!