SUNDAY 31ST MAY, 2020

MEMORY VERSE: - “I desired mercy. And not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).

INTRODUCTION: - The Pharisees liked details. These prominent and influential Jewish leaders developed a detailed set of instructions on how to please God, emphasizing even the smallest items. Among other things, they concerned themselves with making sure that God got His tithe of everything, even the herbs and spices in their homes.

But the Lord Jesus rebuked them for wrong priorities – concentrating on little things while ignoring the big things. The Lord though commended them for their desire to honour God even in littlest things but rebuked them for neglecting the “weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith” (Matt.23:23; Micah 6:8)

 1) Mercy From God to Us

To understand the mercy of God towards us we need to first understand what mercy is.

In Luke 18:9-14, the Lord Jesus gave a parable to illustrate what mercy is. According to the parable, the Pharisee trusted that his own righteousness would merit the blessing of God, while the tax collector, knowing he deserved punishment, trusted God for mercy. This illustrates that mercy acts by withholding punishment, even though it is deserved.

This is our starting point with God. It would have been perfectly understandable if God sent each of us to hell.

This is what we all deserved, since we were “by nature children of wrath” and since “there is none that does good, no not one” (Eph.23; Rom.3:12). But mercy steps in just at the point of established guilt. God declares that every human being is disobedient – not so He can pour out judgment but so “that He might have mercy on all” (Rom.11:32). This is tremendous! It is as if we are in court facing the Judge of all the earth, with all the evidence proving that we are miserable and wretched sinners. Then just as we are about to be sentenced, the Judge smiles, and says “Now that we all know you are guilty. I can show mercy”.

The big question is can God overlook our sinful condition? The answer is NO, He can’t because that wouldn’t be true to His character of justice and holiness. Instead, He allowed His Son, Jesus Christ, to become the sacrifice which, covered our need and satisfied God’s holy demands (Gen.2:20).

The blood which Christ shed on the cross for our sins allows God to be just, and it also allows Him to justify anyone who has faith in His Son (Rom.3:26).

We should mention that it was God’s grace which allowed Him to give His Son for us this way.

Generally speaking, we can say that grace gives us what we do not deserve, while mercy does not give us what we deserve.

So far we have observed that mercy chooses to withhold punishment when seeing our need before the Judge. But mercy does not stop there. Instead, mercy continues to recognize our need by taking notice of our daily needs and weaknesses while we are trying to serve the Lord. This is presented clearly in Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:15-16, how Christ became flesh and endured temptation, He is a “merciful and faithful High Priest, who can help us when we are tempted and who invites us to the Throne of grace to “obtain mercy” when we are in need.

The coming of the Lord to take us (believers) to heaven is by mercy (Jude 21) since ultimately our needs and weaknesses will be dealt with when He takes us away from them. At that point, we will never again give in to temptation or disappoint Him in our services.

Mercy is an attribute of God. It precedes grace in salvation of mankind. Mercy covers our sins protecting us against judgment which grace saves from sin and offers us eternal life. Most of us do not know how to recognize mercy when we see it but it speaks louder than any other voice.

1) What are the weightier matters of the law?

2) Where is our starting point with God?