Discovering the Heart of God Part 17 Merciful

1. Discovering the Heart of God Part 17 Merciful

2. Introduction Many people struggle with the transcendent nature of God’s attributes. When it comes to mercy, they feel, “here is an attribute I can relate to”. Yet I believe that it is an attribute we love to talk and sing about, but one that is difficult to truly accept. We all know that we need mercy, but do we really live in the shadow of mercy in our daily lives?

3. God’s Is Merciful Psalm 106:1Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 119:156aGreat are Your tender mercies, O Lord; Revive me according to Your judgments. Mercy can be defined as “the act by which God withholds that which we deserve.”

4. God’s Is Merciful Romans 6:23aFor the wages of sin is death, … ALL sin is against God and is worthy of death (separation from God and all that is good). Each and every sin we commit is worthy of death. If God were to treat us as we deserve, it would be devastating for each of us.

5. God’s Is Merciful Romans 6:23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God’s mercy is not based in ourselves, nor does He ignore our sin. God’s mercy is based on the work of Jesus who paid the price for our sin upon the cross. God’s mercy is available to anyone who will receive the gift of His forgiveness.

6. Man’s Struggle with Mercy Through most Christians are grateful for God’s mercy, they tend to suppress their uneasiness with it. I fear, too often we approach Christ with the attitude of the Rich Young Ruler. We feel we are “good people”. We acknowledge that there is great evil in the world, but we can justify our own shortcomings…

7. Man’s Struggle with Mercy Another area people struggle with is the consequences of sin. People today have a tendency to disregard the consequences of their actions. We want what we desire now, and put off payment for the future.

8. Man’s Struggle with Mercy The seriousness of sin can be offensive. Sure God should punish those really bad people, but I am not really that bad. To think that God would see such things as “stretching the truth”, that “tinge of envy”, a “lustful thought”, or “failing to show compassion” as worthy of death seems out of balance.

9. Man’s Struggle with Mercy Even when we acknowledge our sin, it is hard to simply accept His mercy. We can quote: 1 John 1:9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We can subconsciously justify that we have properly confessed our sins, now God will extend His mercy. We can slip into the idea that we have somehow earned God’s mercy and that we now deserve it.

10. Man’s Struggle with Mercy Worse yet, we can subconsciously make bargains with God over our sin. “Lord you know I messed up today, but I want you to know that I am going to make it up to you. From now on I will ….”

11. Man’s Struggle with Mercy To seek God’s mercy means abandoning any right to mercy and any hope of mercy. To know that we are utterly needy and utterly dependent means to go to God with the frightening realization that He would be perfectly just and right to simply ignore our prayer. This is part of what it means to fear the Lord and why fear is the beginning of wisdom. Fear in the presence of God is an honest realization of where we stand in the cosmos. We are condemned and unworthy.

12. Man’s Struggle with Mercy We should recognize that it is not that our confession and contrition that moves God to show mercy, but that God’s mercy has prompted us to confession and contrition. We could never feel contrition unless the Spirit had already been working mercifully within us. There is no way to say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” that looks for some manipulative payback.

13. Man’s Struggle with Mercy Since we do not take our sin as seriously as God does, we do not fully grasp the depth and extent of His mercy towards us. We need to stop and acknowledge our sin. We need to take each and every one seriously and rejoice that God’s mercy covers ALL our sin - both big and small. In God’s eyes they are all Big.

14. Man’s Struggle with Mercy Israel celebrated the Day of Atonement once a year. The High Priest would take the blood of the sacrifice and enter into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle that blood on the Mercy Seat. This sacrifice was not done for conscious sins as there were sin offerings to cover those. This sacrifice was for the unconscious sins of the nation. These sins were placed under the blood so God could show His mercy.

15. Merciful Men We need to grasp the reality that we are all flawed and the depth of our sin is beyond our own comprehension. God’s mercy is like a protective bubble that we live and move within. Though we need to take our sin seriously, we can find rest from trying to “pay” for our failures. God’s mercy rains down upon us, like Christ’s blood from the cross. It covers us and delivers us from bondage of sin and its “eternal” consequences.

16. Merciful Men If we truly come to grips with God’s mercy and forgiveness, we will extend that same mercy to others. We must not be like the man who was forgiven a great debt, and refused to forgive a small debt.

17. Merciful Men We are entering into the week of Thanksgiving. We will have opportunity to express our thanks for what God has given us. I would encourage you to stop and give thanks for God’s mercy and that we have not received what we deserve. Express that thankful attitude by showing mercy to someone else who does not deserve it (that is true mercy)!