DATE: – SUNDAY 7TH JUNE, 2020
TOPIC: – THE MERCY OF GOD (Part 2)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Micah 6: 1 – 9
MEMORY VERSE: – “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to work humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8)
INTRODUCTION: – Jesus Christ in the beatitudes says, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matt.5:7).
To receive mercy from God, one must show mercy to others (Luke 6:8). Shakespeare said “The quality of mercy is not strained: it drops as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blast; it blesses him that gives and him that takes: it is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. His scepter shows the force of temporal power, the attribute to awe and majesty, wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings: But mercy is above this sceptered sway; it is enthroned in the hearts of kings, it is an attribute to God Himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.
LESSON OUTLINES
1) Mercy From Us To Others : –
It is extremely important to view ourselves anothers as desperately in need of God’s mercy.
Two parables in the Bible help us to see this clearly. In one the Lord describes two men with debts – one owing 500 denarii, the other only 50 denarii. But both debts may as well have been five million denarii, because none could pay anything. The only recourse they had was the mercy of the creditor, who, in fact, did forgive them both (Lk.7:41-42). The more we realize that our debt is totally beyond our ability to pay, the more we will value the mercy of God.
Unless we view ourselves this way, we will find ourselves described in the other parable, in which a debtor, who owed his master a phenomenal amount of money, was sentenced to lifetime slavery because he could not pay.
When he asked for more time to pay , he got something even better – MERCY – as the master forgave him his debt.
But the servant didn’t personally value that mercy shown him. Instead, he went to find a man who owed him only a small insignificant faction of what he owed and was released from. He grabbed the man in the prison because he could not pay. This unmerciful servant is a warning that we should not receive mercy from God and then act in an unmerciful way with others. This parable should touch us deeply, telling us that we should be willing to do without what we could rightfully demand. Both creditors in the parables offered mercy and forgiveness, which meant they chose not to collect what they deserved to have.
But showing mercy sometimes costs something. When we are wronged, we are to show mercy without seeking to carryout justice ourselves. God takes responsibility of maintaining justice (Rom.12:19; 13:3-4). Beyond that, we must be very careful when trying to get something we feel we deserve. A merciful mindset is described in 1Corint.6:7, when Paul asked believers who were sueing each other. “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?
This is difficult to achieve. For example, it is appropriate for me to expect the correct wages from my employer or to seek restitution from a thief who robbed me. How will mercy be expressed in these or other situations? Although God does not ignore these injustices in His Word and wants them to be righted (Corint.4:1; Eph.4:28), He may also indicate to me a way to show mercy, taking note of the needs or weakness of the other party.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Each one of us needs to pay for direction in situations like these – a position which implies we are humble enough to accept that direction if mercy and personal cost will be involved. If we will receive and continue to enjoy the mercy of God, then we must be willing to give mercy to others.
QUESTIONS
- How are we expected to view ourselves if we must continue to enjoy the mercy og God?
“Showing mercy sometimes costs something”. Explain.
DATE: – SUNDAY 14TH JUNE, 2020
TOPIC: – THE MERCY OF GOD (Part 3)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Hosea 6: 1 – 11
MEMORY VERSE: – “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).
INTRODUCTION: – What God desires from us as His children is to show mercy just as He shows us as His children is to show mercy just as He shows us. God expects that our door of mercy be continually opened to others irrespective of who they are or what they have or have not done to us. Mercy is an attribute of God that He expects us to also have. This type of mercy should affect the way we respond to God (with greater trust and devotion) and also how we respond to others (with greater kindness and compassion).
LESSON OUTLINES
1) Mercy, Not Sacrifice
Showing mercy in spiritual matters is a powerful consideration. This is because the desire to glorify God is often presented from the view point of upholding His righteousness, His justice and His holiness. The Pharisees shares this desire, and twice in the gospel, confronted the Lord Jesus and His disciples about it. First, they experienced disapproval to the disciple that Jesus was eating with sinners (Matt.9:9-13); next, they expressed disapproval to Jesus that His disciples were picking grain on Sabbath day (Matt.12:1-7).
On both cases, Christ quoted Hosea 6:6 to answer them, saying the learned Pharisees should have learned what this verse meant. Then following the second event, He went into the Synagogue and healed a man on the Sabbath contrary to the law. At that time, He asked in effect, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? (Matt.12:11).
These examples suggest that the principle of mercy may, at times, contradict the so-called “standard operating procedure”. We may be sure the Lord did not purposely dis regard the Sabbath; but mercy saw a need, so it acted in accordance with its character.
Furthermore, since the Pharisees had defined some of rules themselves, an even better example is the one the Lord used about David eating the show bread, which only the Priests were lawfully supposed to eat (Matt.13:3-4; 1Sam.2:3-6). In that instance, David did not demand “I want the showbread” but he needed food so the principle of mercy, taking note of the needs of the situation, mad an allowance for him. Mercy is willing to meet needs based not on the letter of the law but on right motives before God. Because the Pharisees held to justice as their guiding principles, they had “condemned them for not glorifying God by showing mercy.
“Mercy prevails over judgment” (James 2:13).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
God’s character is always complete. Every one of His attributes is present in every one of His actions. Consider how Psalm 136 describes His creational power, His stern judgment, His gracious provision and His complete salvation and odds after every verse, “for His mercy endures forever”. Let’s not belittle mercy. It is one of god’s “weightier matters”, and showing mercy we help both unbelievers and the people of God.
QUESTIONS
- What did Jesus wanted the Pharisees to learn?
- On what basis does mercy meets needs?
DATE: – SUNDAY 21ST JUNE, 2020
TOPIC: – MERCY OF GOD (Part 4)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Titus 3: 1 – 11
MEMORY VERSE: – “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” (Titus 3:5).
INTRODUCTION: – The foundation stone of all we receive from God our Saviour is His ineffable love. This is the fountain head from which all our blessing has come and it is well for us to be reminded that our salvation, our cleansing, our justification, our sanctification, our inheritance and our hope are all based upon the mercy of God, and not our works of righteousness, which we have done.
LESSON OUTLINES
Attributes Of Mercy
1) Mercy Stoops Down: – It seems that the mercy of God singles each one of us out as individuals, marking specially our particular needs as sinners. We are all saved by grace but it is the mercy of God that stoops down, comes to the very place where the devil, the great thief, has left us wounded, bruised and broken. It is our Lord’s mercy that finds each one of our wounds and binds them up, pouring in oil and wine. It is our Lords’ mercy that gathers us up in His own beast of burden gives us the power of the Holy Spirit that we might journey with Him to the place of shelter, under the shadow of His own loving kindness and care until He comes again and receives us to Himself that where He is we may also be. That’s the mercy of the Lord (Lk.10:30-37).
Most of us readily admit that our salvation is by grace, but now few of us realize that it is “according to His mercy” that He saved us.
It was the mercy of God looked into our hearts; saw our every weakness and our every need. It was His mercy that scanned our records from the day we were born onward through the years, every page of which was stained by the crimson dye of our own particular sin. Maybe we were not blasphemers, prosecutors and insolent men like Paul, but each one of us was guilty in his/her own way. Nevertheless, God’s mercy took note and forgave us.
2) Mercy Meets Our Needs
Mercy is perhaps one of the most endearing attributes of our Saviour God. It is something even more intimated than grace. It seems to take account of the depths of misery and need in which a sinner was found when the Lord Jesus Christ sought him. Mercy has more to do with a particular detailed need of the sinner than grace. Grace is the sunshine of the love of God toward all men, but mercy takes account of the individual and his specific need. We have this borne out of the scripture on more than one occasion.
It is interesting to note what Paul writes about unconverted days: “I was formally a blasphemer, a prosecutor, and an indolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (1Tim.1:13-14). It was the magnanimous grace of God that saved Saul of Tarsus, but it was mercy of God that met him in the dark night of his rebellion, and took account of him as one ‘lone individual, a rebel against the kindness of his God and forgave him the iniquity of his sin.
3) Mercy Sustains
The mercy of God did not end the moment we were converted. It is God’s mercy that has sustained us down through the years, has provided for us in “the inn”, sheltered by His everlasting love, has guaranteed our sustenance all the way through until the Lord Jesus returns to take us to be with Him. That is the truth that comes home to heart from this often overtook expression, “according to His mercy He saved us” (Tit.3:5).
When we think, then, of the beauty and glory of the mercy of our God stooping down in loving kindness to bind up our wounds, to pour in the oil of the power of the Holy Spirit and the wine of the joy of Heaven into our hearts, what a misconception to think that our own works of righteousness could improve the handwork of our Lord in grace and mercy. Yet there are many today who think that while they are saved by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, they must work to keep their salvation. This seams an insult to the excellence of the grace and mercy of our God.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Our salvation is not attained by our works. It never can be! Paul writes and tells us that it is brought to us in the kindness and love of God our Saviour according to His Mercy” and “by His Grace” (Tit.3:6,7). Are you appreciating god’s mercy as well as His grace?
QUESTIONS
- Mention the attributes of mercy?
- Relate the story of the good Samaritan to mercy
DATE: – SUNDAY 28TH JUNE, 2020
TOPIC: – THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD (Part 1)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Psalm 119: 1 – 24
MEMORY VERSE: – “Thy Word have I hid inn mine heart that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11).
INTRODUCTION: – God’s Word represents His general revelation to us as well as His specific commands, instructions, counsels and promises as revealed in His written Word.
Our spiritual man is in daily need of replenishing just as our physical body. He never ceases to feel his utter dependence upon God. God provides for His renewal. The man who is saved by the truth of God’s Word is also sanctified by it. The stature and strength of the spiritual man will be in exact proportion to his faithful continuance in the Word of the Lord. The study of God’s Word is the divinely ordained method of spiritual growth.
LESSON OUTLINES
1) The Word Of God Brings Spiritual Life
A careful study of the Scriptural names of the Word of God reveals His intended use of it in renewing the Christian’s life. In these Scriptural names are also revealed the power of the Word of God in the Christian life.
a) The Word Of God Is A Mirror To Reveal (James 1:23-25)
A mirror reveals the personal appearance of the one who looks into it. The Bible is just such a revelation of man. In it we see the human heart mirrored exactly as it is in the sight of God. We have in the Word full length portraits of the natural, the carnal and the spiritual man.
As one studies the Bible he finds himself; mirrored in the lives of men and women who lived centuries ago, he sees himself. In the covetousness of Achan, the backsliding of David, the despondency of Elijah, the avarice of Jacob, the falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira, the denial of Peter, the self-righteousness of Saul of Tarsus, and the jealousy, unbelief and self-seeking of the disciples, he looks into his own sinful heart and his own way ward life. The Bible takes the covering of the inmost spirit and unveils its secret thoughts and motives. It slows us to ourselves as we are.
But it does not stop there. The Word of god as a mirror unfolds to man’s vision the perfect man.
He “beholds as in a glass the glory of the Lord “for in the Word God gives “the Light of the knowledge if God’s glory” (2Corint.3:18; 4:6). Then the Bible challenges him who has seen himself as he is and as he may become, to act upon vision, to become a doer of the Word in order that he may be conformed to the image of Christ.
b) The Word Of God Is Water That Cleanse and Refresh
Walking as pilgrims through a world reeking in sin we are in constant contact with its defilement and in constant need of cleansing (Ps.119:9). In olden times the Priests who were cleansed by the blood at the brazen altar, still needed the washing of water at the laver to move them fit for the worship and the work of the tabernacle. So we, though cleansed from the guilt of sin through the blood of the living Word, yet need daily washing by water of the written Word (Eph.5:25-26). The Christian life is kept pure and clean only in the proportion to which the Word of God is hid in the heart and applied to the life (John 17:17).
Water also refreshes. Countless believers could testify the removal of weariness of spirit, discouragement of soul and even exhaustion upon the Word.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Just like a woman constantly looks up herself in the mirror so are we as Christians ought to constantly look up ourselves in the mirror of the Word of God. And where and where ever any spot or blemish or wrinkle or any such thing is seen in our lives we quickly submit for cleansing by the living Word of God.
QUESTIONS
- How does the Word of God cleanses?
- Why is it necessary for a Christian to constantly look up himself/herself in the mirror of God’s Word?