The beauty of mercy is found in the patience and loving kindness of our God. While Grace is the extension of His righteousness to us in Christ, Mercy is rooted in His compassion to NOT treat us as we deserve. While death is our just deserves for our sins, God is patient with us to draw men and women into a new relationship whose foundation is built on mercy and by that mercy will keep us into eternity with Him.
Grace is getting what we DO NOT deserve
Mercy is NOT getting what we DO deserve
I need MERCY
- Mercy identifies and empathizes with the individual
- Mercy is an expectation of Christian obedience
- Mercy is to be delivered in the future
- Mercy is only needed by those who deserve destruction
I need to show MERCY
1. to the Doubters
Justice diverted
2. to the Endangered
Justice deferred
3. to the Depraved
Justice delayed
Conclusion & Application
- Act justly
- Love mercy
- Walk humbly
Hebrews 2:14-18
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself shared in their humanity… he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
1 Peter 5:5-6
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
Matthew 5:7
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
Luke 6:36
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
1 Peter 1:3-4
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”
Ephesians 2:3-5
“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
Hebrews 10:26-27
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”
Psalm 146:7-9
The Lord executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; The Lord raises up those who are bowed down; The Lord loves the righteous; The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked.
James 2:12-13
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Micah 6:8
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?”