The Mercy of God

                We have started a study of the attributes of God. This is a study that will take the rest of my life and eternity and even then I will still not be able to grasp but a small portion of who God is.  The first few attributes of God that I have been studying have been those that are manifested in the salvation of man.

                In times past we have studied the sovereignty of God and most recently we have studied the holiness, justice and wrath of God. Now my focus is turned to the mercy of God. We have seen that God is holy. He transcends above all His creation. He is pure and cannot even look upon sin. He hates sin and His wrath is stirred up against sinners. He will deal justly with them. His just nature demands that sin be dealt with.

Ezekiel 18:20  The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:

Ecclesiastes 7:20   For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

                Man is in trouble! God has pronounced His judgment on man for his sin…man shall die. He will suffer the full wrath of God for an eternity in Hell.  All of us…every single one of us have sinned and we have the sentence of death upon us. We all are condemned.  As we saw in our study on the justice of God, if God is just then He cannot forgive us.

Exodus 23:7   Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

Proverbs 17:15  He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.

                This is the greatest problem for man in all the Scripture. What hope can a man have?  MERCY!  The attribute of God’s mercy…it is the attribute that should cause us to be the most thankful.

                What is mercy?

Definition of “Mercy” from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.

Mercy

n. [L. misericordia.]

1. That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; the disposition that tempers justice, and induces an injured person to forgive trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment, or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. In this sense, there is perhaps no word in our language precisely synonymous with mercy. That which comes nearest to it is grace. It implies benevolence, tenderness, mildness, pity or compassion, and clemency, but exercised only towards offenders. Mercy is a distinguishing attribute of the Supreme Being.

                Some may argue that in salvation God’s justice and mercy are at odds with one another. Not so! All His attributes flow from within Him in perfect harmony.

Exodus 34:5-7

5   And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

6   And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7   Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

Numbers  14:18   The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, any by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

                Notice that God is of great mercy and yet He will not clear the guilty. God is merciful and just at the same time.  When studying God’s mercy in the Scriptures, we see three distinct aspects.  First we see a general mercy which is extended to all of His creation.

Psalm 145:9  The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

                Second we see a special mercy which God gives exercises specifically toward men, both the wicked and the righteous.

Matthew 5:45   That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:  for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

                Finally, there is a sovereign mercy which He has reserved only for His elect. This is the mercy we cry out for as the publican did when he saw himself as he was before Holy God as seen in the parable in Luke 18:9-14.  The Pharisee prided himself in all his religious activity…

Luke 18:13-14

13   And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,  but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14   I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other:

                Think about it. Is God not merciful to both the just and unjust? Were God not merciful how could we even draw our next breath? What keeps our hearts beating? What keeps our minds working? It is God who keeps our minds working, who keeps our hearts beating, who allows us to draw our next breath by His mercy. There is no law above God constraining Him to keep us alive. He is a merciful God to the just and unjust…

Daniel 5:22-23

22  And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

23  But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords,  thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified;

                Something to note is that God’s mercy which is bestowed on the wicked is only of a temporal nature. By that is meant that God’s mercy on the wicked is confined only to this present life.  He will extend no mercy to them after they die.

Isaiah 27:11  …it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

               

                Some may argue that God’s mercy will not end…after all in Psalm 136, David pens some 26 times in as many verses that “His mercy endureth forever.” How then can God show mercy on the unjust and cut it off?  God is a merciful God and will never stop being merciful, for mercy is one of His attributes, qualities, characteristics.  It is who He is, yet His mercy is controlled by His Sovereign will. It must be, because there is nothing else outside Him which causes Him to act. Do the Scriptures not verify this very truth?

Exodus 33:17-19

17   And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

18   And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

19   And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

               

Romans 9:15-16

15   For he saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

16   So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

                God is just and His justice demands sin be dealt with. God also is a God of mercy and has chosen to extend that mercy to some of Adam’s fallen race. Were He not merciful, we all would have already been annihilated.

                This question came to mind as I studied of God’s mercy… Is God unjust to extend everlasting mercy to some but  not all men? Always remember, God is just. There is no injustice with God. He can do nothing that is unjust because by His very nature He is just. He is the judge of all the earth and He will do that which is right in His judgments. 

                Due to our sins, we all deserve the full wrath of God. According to the law of God, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. God is not unjust to exact upon a man that which he rightly deserves. Does God do wrong when He extends His mercy to some? He can do no wrong! By His mercy He saves whom He will and it has absolutely nothing to do with anything He saw in us. It was only because it pleased Him to do so. 

Titus 3:5  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.

                Was He wrong to forgive them their sin? No!  Here’s why not. Their sin was justly dealt with on the Cross of Calvary. They didn’t get a free pass for their sins. Jesus Christ paid the full price for their sin, and now they are no longer a servant to sin, nor are they the master of their own ship…they are a servant to Christ.

                On Calvary, Christ was substituted for some of Adams’ fallen race. Why some and not all?  For reasons only known to God Himself, He chose to extend His mercy to some and his wrath to the rest.   We all deserved the full measure of His wrath for our sins. Is God merciless to punish some men of their sins? No!

                Casting the rebellious reprobate into hell is an act of His mercy. Now there is something you don’t hear every day. In doing so, His mercy does endure forever.  This is not an easy topic, but one that should be considered nonetheless. 

               

                You have to consider the punishment of the wicked from three different points of view. First, we begin with God. Casting the wicked into hell is an act of His justice. Second, from the point of view of the reprobate, he is made to suffer the just reward for his sin. He cannot argue that God is being unjust. He is getting what he deserves. Finally, from the point of view of those who are saved, it is an act of mercy that God casts unrepentant sinners into hell. We who are saved will no longer be dwelling among a people of unclean lips.  Heaven would not be heaven if we had to listen to the vile language of the lost.

                Our God is a God of justice as well as mercy and He has clearly stated in Exodus 34:7 that He will by no means clear the guilty.

Psalm 9:17  The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

                This is a warning to all those rebellious sinners who do not want God to rule over them, yet in vain think that somehow God, because of His mercy, will not cast them into hell.

Deuteronomy 29:18-20

18  Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

19  And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

20  The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

                This is a warning to those who falsely teach there is no hell. Even today there are many who do not believe in hell and sadly one day they will step into eternity and find hell to be a place of great torments.

                It is a grave thing to presume upon God’s mercy and believe you can live any way you want and when all is said and done, God will extend His mercy to you and bring you into His glory. God will not be unjust to Himself. God shows mercy to the truly repentant soul, but not so with the one that does not repent.

Luke 13:3  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

                For those who been given the gift of eternal life by Jesus Christ through repentance of your sins and faith in Him, Romans 9:23 designates us as “vessels of mercy.”

                Consider A.W. Pink’s words on mercy…

“It is mercy that quickened them when they were dead in sins (Ephesians 2:4-5), It is mercy that saves them (Titus 3:5). It is His abundant mercy which begat them unto an eternal inheritance (1 Peter1:3). Unto His own, God is the “Father of mercies” 2 Corinthians 1:3.”

                Concerning God’s mercy, A.W. Tozer wrote, “To receive mercy we must first know that God is merciful. And it is not enough to believe that He once showed mercy to Noah or Abraham or David and will again show mercy in some happy future day. We must believe that God’s mercy is boundless, free and, through Jesus Christ our Lord, available to us now in our present situation.”

                 

               

                I close with a few words from the Hymn, Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy.

“Let not conscience make you linger

Nor of fitness fondly dream

All the fitness He requireth

Is to feel your need of Him.

If you tarry ‘til your better, you will never come at all.”

Sinner, do you feel your need of Him, then come to Christ…He will not cast you out.