SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Brand Fork, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: I'm conflicted this morning because a part of me can't wait to preach and a part of me wants to keep on singing.
SPEAKER_01: Love be able to worship with you.
SPEAKER_01: I encourage you to take your Bible this morning to the Gospel of Matthew as we spend a few moments together, continuing to look at, to study, to think about, to be challenged by the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where the where'd my web go.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a clicker, guys, so that's not up here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 5, we've been working our way through the Beatitudes, and I'd like to just read those again this morning to get them fresh in our minds so that we are aware of what we're talking about, aware of the context in which we find our passage this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And so Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 2, Jesus opens his mouth and teaches the crowds and his disciples, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come before you this morning asking that you would open up your word to us.
SPEAKER_01: That by the work of your Spirit in our hearts and minds you would convict us, you would challenge us, and cause us to be more like you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it is, thank you, sir, it is a dangerous thing to do an internet search these days, because you never know what will come up in your search.
SPEAKER_01: But recently I did a web search based on the words merciful and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I was looking for current examples of mercy that might exist in our world.
SPEAKER_01: Three categories of results came back.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that we'll be surprised by any of these, but here are the three categories.
SPEAKER_01: The most prominent category was names or titles.
SPEAKER_01: So, for example, an organization might have the word mercy in their title.
SPEAKER_01: For example, like a hospital.
SPEAKER_01: Teams or schools were prevalent with the word mercy in their title or name.
SPEAKER_01: There were even movies and plays, multitudes of them, things I've never heard of, that came up with the word mercy in their title or their name.
SPEAKER_01: That was the first category of results.
SPEAKER_01: The second category referred to actions of sports teams toward their opponents.
SPEAKER_01: Think you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: They were being merciful to those that they were pounding into the dirt.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we sometimes call it in sports there's a mercy rule, right?
SPEAKER_01: We are kind to those who just can't keep up, can't stay with us.
SPEAKER_01: The third category of results referred to legal cases where there was a granting of a lesser or lower punishment to those who had been found guilty.
SPEAKER_01: One in particular was a recent case in which a news article said a jury mercifully gave life in prison instead of the death penalty.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the three primary categories.
SPEAKER_01: And I was surprised to have such a hard time finding anything really outside of those categories.
SPEAKER_01: And I still don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: Is it because we don't exercise mercy in our world?
SPEAKER_01: Is it because we aren't truly at our core merciful people?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Is that really all that mercy means to be kind and gracious to an opponent that you are pounding into submission in a contest?
SPEAKER_01: To give punishment that is less than perhaps what is deserved.
SPEAKER_01: Is that the extent of mercy in our world?
SPEAKER_01: Well, beginning in verse 3 of Matthew chapter 5, with the first beatitude.
SPEAKER_01: In case you don't understand, if you're new to Christianity or new to the Bible, beatitude is simply a word that we've attached to the word blessed.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we refer to these lists as.
SPEAKER_01: The first beatitude begins with a heart problem.
SPEAKER_01: It recognizes that we as human beings have a distinct and identifiable problem in our hearts that needs to be repaired.
SPEAKER_01: And that means of repair is by coming to the king himself, to Jesus, as poor beggars in need of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: As poor, broken beggars, we recognize our sin, and so that moves us to mourn over it in humility before his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, we begin to crave his righteousness, something that we don't have in our own being.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't come from our own religiosity, but from Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And that place is where we find blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Those who come to Jesus in that way are blessed.
SPEAKER_01: They come into the kingdom of the Son of God, they find comfort.
SPEAKER_01: They will inherit the earth, they find satisfaction in him.
SPEAKER_01: And those who come to Jesus in that way, on his terms, are changed people.
SPEAKER_01: They have a new heart.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they are the ones who, according to 2 Corinthians 5.17, are new creations.
SPEAKER_01: And so with new hearts, as new creations, they begin to treat others as they've been treated.
SPEAKER_01: With mercy.
SPEAKER_01: With great mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Christians are merciful because of the mercy they have received.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want to talk to you about for a few moments.
SPEAKER_01: Christians are merciful because of the mercy that they have received.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as we think about that, we consider that subject of being merciful or of receiving mercy, a good place to start is with God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: It's always a good place to start, right?
SPEAKER_01: So let's think about what the Bible might have to say about God and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And there's so much that we just can't cover this morning, so I've highlighted four passages for us.
SPEAKER_01: The first is Exodus 34, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Moses is on the mountaintop wanting to see the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, No, you can't see my glory, because if you see it, you will be consumed.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk more about that next week.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed his character.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture says, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: So very early on in the scriptures, we find that mercy is an attribute, a characteristic of God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: We go forward a little bit to Deuteronomy chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Moses is recounting to the people of Israel what they learned at Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, the Lord your God is a merciful God.
SPEAKER_01: How do we see his mercy?
SPEAKER_01: He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
SPEAKER_01: God is merciful in that he doesn't forget to do what he said he was going to do.
SPEAKER_01: He is merciful because he never leaves us.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever think of that as an attribute of God's mercy?
SPEAKER_01: The fact that God is merciful means he will never leave you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's jump forward to the Psalms.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 86, verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta tell you, I was convicted about this when I put this in my notes for this week.
SPEAKER_01: Because I felt over and over this week that I was not slow to anger with my son.
SPEAKER_01: And if I was not slow to anger with my son, then I was not exhibiting the character of God of being merciful.
SPEAKER_01: But what a what a wonderful and comforting thought it is that our God is merciful and that he is slow to anger.
SPEAKER_01: And not just slow to anger, but he abounds, he overflows in consistent, loyal love and faithfulness to his people.
SPEAKER_01: One more.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 116, verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious is the Lord and righteous our God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: How much clearer can you get than that?
SPEAKER_01: Our God is, by his very nature, by his very character, a God of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Now that is that is in direct contrast to how we often hear of the Old Testament, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Some people don't like to read the Old Testament, don't like to know the Old Testament because all they think it is is filled with a God of judgment and justice and anger.
SPEAKER_01: But over and over and over again we seek.
SPEAKER_01: God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: He is full of mercy, rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what that means for us is that because God is merciful, that is who he is, that is his character, that is his nature, whatever we mean by mercy, must apply to God.
SPEAKER_01: If we define mercy in a way that does not apply to God, then our definition is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever we mean by being merciful must also be true of God.
SPEAKER_01: That means that mercy, God's mercy, is much, much more than simply going easy on a competitor.
SPEAKER_01: There's far more to it than that.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy is a concept found throughout the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find it in Genesis all the way to Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And as in this passage in Psalm 116, verse 5, it's often found in conjunction with grace, with being gracious.
SPEAKER_01: But it's distinct from grace.
SPEAKER_01: You will often hear that grace is being given something that you do not deserve.
SPEAKER_01: But mercy is not being given something that you do deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Grace is giving, mercy is withholding.
SPEAKER_01: Grace is giving a blessing, a benefit, something good, mercy is withholding something that you should not have.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we often hear.
SPEAKER_01: But even that is sort of deficient when we look at all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You see, at its core, mercy has to do with being concerned about people.
SPEAKER_01: It's being concerned about people's needs.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a feeling that we have inside.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it does include pity and compassion and sympathy.
SPEAKER_01: All of those things that we feel are included in mercy, but it's not simply a feeling that we have.
SPEAKER_01: In the Bible, mercy is always connected to an action.
SPEAKER_01: So it may indeed be something that we feel inside, but it's something that we feel so closely and so intensely that it motivates us to act.
SPEAKER_01: One commentator writes, Jesus is not speaking here of a detached or powerless sentiment that is unwilling or unable to help those for whom there is sympathy.
SPEAKER_01: Nor is he speaking of false mercy that gives help only to salve a guilty conscience or to impress another with its appearance of virtue.
SPEAKER_01: It's not passive, silent concern, which, though genuine, is unable to give tangible help.
SPEAKER_01: It is genuine compassion expressed in genuine help, selfless concern expressed in selfless deeds.
SPEAKER_01: Now we know.
SPEAKER_01: We know that mercy is an attribute of God.
SPEAKER_01: What else can we know about mercy?
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to show you.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews is all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you want, you want to know the theme of Hebrews?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: It's true.
SPEAKER_01: The theme of Hebrews is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, over and over again about different things about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So in chapter 2 of Hebrews, we're being told that Jesus is our great high priest.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus came to die, to be buried, to rise again, so that he might be our high priest, that he might stand before God the Father and intercede for us as a high priest does.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to what Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17 says.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers, like us, in every respect, talking about his suffering to death, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation or satisfaction for the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: And it is identified to his interceding for us, to doing something on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy is used in Psalm 25 as well, in the connection to forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Psalmist says, Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
SPEAKER_01: Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions.
SPEAKER_01: Psalmist is saying, God, show me your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: How are you going to show me your mercy?
SPEAKER_01: By not remembering everything that I've sinned, every way that I've sinned, everything that I've done against you.
SPEAKER_01: That is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter chapter 2, Peter uses mercy as a picture of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Once you, speaking to the local church, once you were not a people.
SPEAKER_01: You did not belong to God.
SPEAKER_01: He did not identify you as his, but now you've received mercy.
SPEAKER_01: There was a time when you didn't receive mercy.
SPEAKER_01: There was a time when God's mercy was not shown to you, but now you have received mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of salvation, there are other passages as well.
SPEAKER_01: There are some whom the Holy Spirit has specifically gifted to be merciful people, above and beyond what he calls all of us to be.
SPEAKER_01: You can see that in Romans chapter 12, verse 8, where mercy is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 3, it's part of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be wise?
SPEAKER_01: Be merciful.
SPEAKER_01: If you are wise, then you will show mercy.
SPEAKER_01: All of these things.
SPEAKER_01: And what I really want us to now begin to hone in on is that mercy is something that God expects of his people.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that God expects of his people.
SPEAKER_01: A little bit later, in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus is sort of bantering with the religious leaders of his day.
SPEAKER_01: And in Matthew chapter 9, verse 13, he says something challenging to them.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Go and learn what this means.
SPEAKER_01: And he's quoting from a passage of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: I came not to call the righteous but sinners.
SPEAKER_01: I desire mercy.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know what God's will is for your life?
SPEAKER_01: It's to be merciful.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to be merciful.
SPEAKER_01: It is what God desires from each one of his people.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just a feeling of pity for someone else.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a feeling of sympathy, it's an action performed in a response to another person's need.
SPEAKER_01: There's a special blessing, Jesus says, for those people who have a changed heart, who have come to the King for His grace, for His mercy, have received that and have been changed to be like Him.
SPEAKER_01: Those who have not been changed by God's grace, sure, they can have a moment of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: They can display mercy in an action, but they're not merciful by nature.
SPEAKER_01: Only those who have gained entrance into God's kingdom are changed to be like Him.
SPEAKER_01: Let me put it a different way.
SPEAKER_01: If you have come to Christ, and if you have placed your faith and trust in Him alone, you have been saved by His grace so that His mercy might be displayed through your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: We don't earn our way into Christ's kingdom by being merciful.
SPEAKER_01: We are saved by God's mercy so that we might be merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are new creations in Christ will have a craving here for Christ's righteousness in chapter 5, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: We have a craving for Christ's righteousness, and when in his mercy that is granted to the poor in spirit, those who have received his mercy will then go out into the world and be merciful.
SPEAKER_01: That is who we are.
SPEAKER_01: Christians are to be merciful people.
SPEAKER_01: And there's an eternal blessing.
SPEAKER_01: For they shall receive mercy.
SPEAKER_01: It's an eternal blessing.
SPEAKER_01: God will always be merciful to us in our sins for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a blessing which we now begin to benefit.
SPEAKER_01: But let's not misunderstand.
SPEAKER_01: Just because God has changed our hearts and made us new creations because of our faith in Jesus, that does not mean that mercy is easy.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it might be.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it might be a struggle.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it might be very painful to reach out beyond yourself to be merciful to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: It's an act of reliance upon the Spirit of God to work in and through us.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it hard to be merciful to those you don't really like?
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01: It's because in every act of mercy, someone pays a price.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are the one being merciful, you are paying the price.
SPEAKER_01: The one who extends mercy is the one who bears the price.
SPEAKER_01: So when God says that He has been mercy to you in your sins, He has borne the price of your sins.
SPEAKER_01: To be merciful means to carry the load for someone else.
SPEAKER_01: That's about as simple as we can get.
SPEAKER_01: To be merciful means to bear the load that someone else should be bearing, but you are taking it off of them and bearing it yourself.
SPEAKER_01: There's some very clear and practical examples in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think of them together.
SPEAKER_01: First, in the book of Genesis, we find Abraham and his nephew Lot.
SPEAKER_01: And you remember the story?
SPEAKER_01: They decided to part ways when all of their belongings became too much to live together.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham, being the humble one, decided to give his nephew first choice.
SPEAKER_01: And so Lot chose the best of the land down in the valley where it was rich and green and lush for all of his flocks and his herds.
SPEAKER_01: So he moved down into the valley.
SPEAKER_01: But down in the valley, there were a couple of cities called Sodom and Gomorrah that were very evil.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham chose the hill country.
SPEAKER_01: Not as lush, not as green, but that's what he chose.
SPEAKER_01: As time goes on, Lot became ingrained into the culture of.
SPEAKER_01: Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_01: The time came when God said, Enough is enough.
SPEAKER_01: I've had enough of that evil city, and I'm going to destroy it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to wipe it off the face of the planet.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham says to God, Hey, hey, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: I know somebody down there.
SPEAKER_01: If we find some righteous people there, will you spare the city?
SPEAKER_01: And in the end, God spares the righteous but destroys the city.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 19, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: God sent his angels to rescue Lot and his family, but it says Lot lingered.
SPEAKER_01: He had become so caught up, so ingrained in the culture of his world, of his sinful world, that he didn't want to leave.
SPEAKER_01: So the men, the angels, seized him, seized his wife and his two daughters by the hand, because the Lord was merciful.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought him out and set him outside the city.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's telling us, Lot, because you became so ingrained in the city, I ought to just leave you there and destroy you with the rest of it.
SPEAKER_01: But no, I'm going to bear the burden here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to rescue you out of that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know you need it, but I'm going to bring you out of it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want my mercy, but I'm going to give it to you anyway.
SPEAKER_01: And he rescues him out of that.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps one that might be more familiar to you is Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: You remember Jonah, right?
SPEAKER_01: That racist prophet?
SPEAKER_01: Racist prophet who didn't want to go to the Assyrians, perhaps the equivalent of modern-day ISIS.
SPEAKER_01: I forgot to turn Syria off.
SPEAKER_01: My apologies.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah was racist.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't want to go to the Assyrians to preach God's mercy to them.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah knew that if he went and preached the good news of God's salvation to an evil people, he knew that God would rescue them.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that God would save them and he hated them and didn't want them to receive God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: And so he ran away.
SPEAKER_01: He went down from the mountains of Judea and he went down to the seaside and he got a ticket on a boat and said, Let's get out of here as fast as we can.
SPEAKER_01: God corrected that through a large fish.
SPEAKER_01: God said, I'm not letting you go.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to have a fish spitch you up on the shoreline so that you go to Nineveh.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah went to Nineveh and he preached the good news of God's grace and salvation to those evil people.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what happened?
SPEAKER_01: They repented.
SPEAKER_01: They repented and God was gracious to them.
SPEAKER_01: And Jonah sulked.
SPEAKER_01: He went outside of the city and he got up on a hillside and he said, God, I'm just going to wait for the fireworks.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm waiting for you to destroy these people, just like you did Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_01: That's how evil they were.
SPEAKER_01: But God said, No, Jonah, I'm going to be gracious to them.
SPEAKER_01: So Jonah was mad.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah, in fact, says that he was so mad that he wanted to die.
SPEAKER_01: He just wanted God to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't kind enough, gracious enough, merciful enough to those people to have them receive God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, God, just kill me.
SPEAKER_01: Just take me now.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Jonah's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, isn't this what I told you when I was still at home?
SPEAKER_01: I told you that this is what would happen.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I fled to Tarshish.
SPEAKER_01: Because I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah knew that God was merciful.
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't want his enemies to receive God's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: But doesn't that say so much about the extent of God's mercy that he is willing to extend his mercy to those whom we hate, whom we despise.
SPEAKER_01: That says a ton that we can't even delve into this morning about the riches of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me at Matthew 18, at another example.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, our good friend Peter, came up to Jesus and said, Lord, you know, my brother sins against me all the time.
SPEAKER_01: How many times do I have to forgive him?
SPEAKER_01: Seven times?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that enough?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to Peter, Peter, well you never get it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, No, Peter, you don't count.
SPEAKER_01: You just keep on forgiving.
SPEAKER_01: And so then Jesus tells him a story.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, this is Matthew 18, verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
SPEAKER_01: And when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.
SPEAKER_01: That is more than more than many lifetimes he could earn.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's a symbol for saying more than he could ever, ever, ever, ever, ever begin to pay off, even in the slightest.
SPEAKER_01: Since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made.
SPEAKER_01: That was a common experience.
SPEAKER_01: So the slave fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.
SPEAKER_01: It's impossible, but he says he's going to try.
SPEAKER_01: And out of mercy for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
SPEAKER_01: What if your bank came to you and said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We feel sorry for you, and we're just going to forgive your mortgage.
SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's over, it's gone.
SPEAKER_01: Let's have a mortgage burning.
SPEAKER_01: It's over.
SPEAKER_01: But when that slave went out, he found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii.
SPEAKER_01: It's about a hundred days' wages, a fraction of what he owed his master.
SPEAKER_01: And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe.
SPEAKER_01: So his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, Have patience, and I will pay you.
SPEAKER_01: And he refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
SPEAKER_01: When his fellow slaves saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
SPEAKER_01: Then the master summoned him and said to him, You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
SPEAKER_01: Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave as I have had mercy on you?
SPEAKER_01: That whole account is a parable about salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It's a parable of God saying, I forgave you all your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Ought you not to have mercy on someone else?
SPEAKER_01: Consider the depth of my mercy and what I've done for you.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 10, we see the parable of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_01: Sure you remember the story.
SPEAKER_01: Man was traveling on the rough roads of that time, and he was besieged by robbers, and he was beaten and left for dead, and everything was taken from him.
SPEAKER_01: And the religious, the righteous people of the day come by, traveling on that same road one by one, one after another, and they all kind of pass by, making a wide, giving him a wide birth.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to touch that guy.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the Samaritan, that the half-breed, hated person, who comes and bandages up his wounds, takes him to a location, pays for his room and board, pays for his care, so that he will be okay.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 10, verse 35 describes that.
SPEAKER_01: The next day he took out two dinari and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever more you spend, I, look, he's bearing the burden of the mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I will repay you when I come back.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus then stops the story and he asks his listeners, which of these people, which of these quote-unquote neighbors who passed by, which of them do you think proved to be a neighbor to that man?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, it was the one who showed him mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Who did everything he could for the person who had a need?
SPEAKER_01: So you go, Jesus said, and do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: When you see people in need, meet the need.
SPEAKER_01: What we need to understand from all of this in the context of the Sermon on the Mount here is that we see mercy in many, many ways.
SPEAKER_01: But the greatest, the greatest of all mercies was what God did for us in providing salvation.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God did for us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the greatest mercy that we could ever conceive of.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not easy, but for those who have received God's mercy, there is no choice but to be merciful.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a characteristic of the proud, self-righteous, religious people.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the key to our passage here in the Sermon on the Mount is chapter 5, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Unless your righteousness, unless your mercy exceeds that of the Pharisees and the scribes, you don't have a chance of getting into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus begins with poor, broken beggars realizing they need someone else's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: If someone were to write an article for the Grand Forks Herald about mercy, and you, you were the sole source for their article on mercy.
SPEAKER_01: All they had for sources for their article on mercy was you and your life and your knowledge and your understanding.
SPEAKER_01: If you were the only source for that article, how would they describe mercy?
SPEAKER_01: Would they be able to see mercy displayed in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Would they know anything of the mercy of God because of you?
SPEAKER_01: Or do they see you thinking and talking about others?
SPEAKER_01: Saying things like, why would they ever do that?
SPEAKER_01: How do you get caught up in that sort of stuff?
SPEAKER_01: I like the way author and pastor Daniel Doriani says it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Christians learn to be tender, empathetic, patient, and compassionate with the failings of others.
SPEAKER_01: Because then we no longer condescend to others asking, what's wrong with him?
SPEAKER_01: Or how could she ever do that?
SPEAKER_01: Because we know that we could or have done the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we see a troubled friend, we empathize.
SPEAKER_01: We ask, how can I help?
SPEAKER_01: Not, how did he ever get into that ridiculous situation?
SPEAKER_01: The feeling of compassion, he says, leads to action.
SPEAKER_01: The poor in spirit are merciful.
SPEAKER_01: We offer help to others, whether they have a claim on us or not.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy is a gift to mankind, yet it's a demand from God, for he says, I desire mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says, Blessed are the merciful.
SPEAKER_01: For they will receive mercy.
SPEAKER_01: As we wrap this up, I'd like to address three groups for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: First, those of you who haven't made the choice yet to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're curious, maybe you're interested, and you just haven't made that plunge yet.
SPEAKER_01: You need to know that God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: And he desires for you to come to him for his mercy, for the full and complete forgiveness of your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, we all look good in here, but we're all broken.
SPEAKER_01: We're all broken, hurting, in pain in some way.
SPEAKER_01: We're not perfect people.
SPEAKER_01: We are full of sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus says, come to him and acknowledge your brokenness and your need for him, because he longs for you to be have and to possess his mercy for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: I really like what an old hymnist wrote, Frederick Faber in the early 1800s.
SPEAKER_01: He said, There's a wideness in God's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: A wideness that is like the wideness of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: There's a kindness in his justice, which is more than liberty.
SPEAKER_01: There is welcome for the sinner and more gracious for the good.
SPEAKER_01: There is mercy with the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: There is healing in his blood.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, come to him for his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: He won't cast you out.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you are a follower of Jesus, I want you to hear Luke 6, 36.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to you, if you are a follower of his, be merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: If you are a follower of Jesus, you have been shown mercy.
SPEAKER_01: You're not consumed in your sin.
SPEAKER_01: You're forgiven forever.
SPEAKER_01: The debt of your sin has been wiped away by his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Your Lord is compassionate and kind to you hour by hour.
SPEAKER_01: Are you then merciful?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you a pretender?
SPEAKER_01: Do you say one thing and do another?
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I want you to do if you are a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think of that person, or maybe it's more than one person.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a group of people.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe like Jonah, you have some evil in your heart that's towards a particular group of people.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think of those that you find hard to love.
SPEAKER_01: Those that you struggle to show mercy to.
SPEAKER_01: We all have them.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't, you're just lying.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to identify that person in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Make a mental note or write it down if you wish.
SPEAKER_01: And commit right now to pray for them every day this week.
SPEAKER_01: Every day, day after day after day, and ask the Lord to change your heart so that you might show them mercy as you have been shown mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe even ask the Lord to give you an opportunity to be merciful to them.
SPEAKER_01: And then do it.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a third group that I want to speak to.
SPEAKER_01: That's all of us together as the Lord's church.
SPEAKER_01: Do we show mercy to one another?
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a sad, sad saying that is often true that the church is the only group that shoots its wounded.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that's really sadly true.
SPEAKER_01: Are we merciful to one another?
SPEAKER_01: When we see a need, do we step in ourselves to bear the burden and meet the need?
SPEAKER_01: Do we consider ourselves as quick to forgive an offense?
SPEAKER_01: Do we keep a record of wrongs?
SPEAKER_01: Do we remember what so-and-so has done to us, how they've mistreated us over and over again?
SPEAKER_01: Do we reach out and greet those whom we find hard to love?
SPEAKER_01: Are we known as a church as a merciful people?
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the deal, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: God is merciful, and those who have come to him in the bankruptcy of their souls, seeking his life, will be merciful because he lives in them.
SPEAKER_01: And in the end, we will be blessed with the most incredible mercy of our Lord to us.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, forgive us.
SPEAKER_01: I think too often we are we are in our own ways too much like Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: There are people that we we just don't like.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we even run from them.
SPEAKER_01: We see them in the in the store aisle and we turn and go the other way because we don't want to face them.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we've been hurt, maybe, maybe we've we've been cultured to think a certain way.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, forgive us.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive us and thank you for not condemning us in our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we give you praise for your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that your mercy is always more.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that you, by your grace and by your spirit within us, would make us people that we're not.
SPEAKER_01: You would make us into people who show your mercy, who live out your mercy, so that people can see you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.