Amazing Mercy (Part 1)

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Amazing Mercy (Part 2)

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew.
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When you get there, turn to chapter 5 and hold your place there at verse 7.
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In 1779, John Newton published what would go on to become the most recognizable hymn in the history of the Christian church.
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In fact, I would say it's probably the most recognizable song in the history of mankind, and that is the hymn Amazing Grace.
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It is the song most likely sung in worship services and funerals, and it has been updated, changed and remade countless times throughout the years.
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In fact, this morning we did a version of it which was recently remade.
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It is so popular because it proclaims the fountainhead of all mankind's blessings.
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The grace of God.
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That is where all of our blessings come from.
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In fact, the very fact that we desire to follow God is an act of His grace.
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We wouldn't desire Him if He did not give us His grace, the Word of God tells us.
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Well, this morning we're going to be talking about a subject which is akin to the topic of grace, and that is the subject of mercy.
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And what I wanted to talk about in the introduction is that it is easy to confuse the two.
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It's easy to use one and the other together and to sort of use them interrelated and sometimes to use them as synonyms of one another, and they are inextricably linked.
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However, it's important that we understand the difference between grace and our subject of the morning, which is mercy.
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Like I said, it's easy to confuse the two, but I wanted to sort of start out with a simple definition to kind of help you understand that when we talk about grace and we talk about mercy, they're inextricably linked, but they are different, and they are different in this way.
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Grace is the giving of a gift that is not deserved.
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That's what the term grace means.
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It is an unmerited gift.
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Grace is salvation.
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Grace is heaven.
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Grace is Christ.
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Grace is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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Grace are all the gifts that we receive from God.
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All of that is grace.
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However, mercy is different.
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Mercy is the holding back or the removal of a punishment which is deserved.
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Mercy is the removal of a punishment which is deserved.
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Mercy is God not killing us every time we commit a sin.
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It really is.
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That's what mercy is.
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It's God not taking our life the moment we commit a sin.
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Mercy is not being sent to hell because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, and it's not talking about just physical death.
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It's talking about death and hell, and that's what we've earned.
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But mercy is the fact that we don't have to go there.
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Mercy is the holding back of that punishment.
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So we understand grace is the gift given.
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Mercy is the punishment withheld.
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And as I said, these two things cannot be necessarily separated.
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They are forever linked.
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But it's important that we understand both because while we sing about amazing grace, and we should, we should never forget that beside that amazing grace sits also something else that's equally as amazing, and that's God's amazing mercy.
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Not only does He have an amazing grace, but He also has an amazing mercy.
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And this morning, I want us to understand His mercy because it will help us to understand the commandment that we have in the beatitude that we're going to be studying.
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So as we continue in our study of the beatitudes, and as you guys know who have been here, we've been going verse by verse and line by line, and we've been looking at one beatitude at a time.
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And I do want to warn you, this is the first beatitude that I'm not going to be able to finish in one sermon.
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I was looking at my notes last night, I was putting my notes together, and I was finalizing everything, and I said, you know what, if I did this all in one sermon, it's not that you couldn't endure it, because I think you could, but I don't think you would be able to remember all the information.
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And I said, you know what, I'm going to take and split it.
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So what we're going to do, we're going to talk about two sides of mercy.
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We're going to talk about what mercy is not today, and then next week we'll deal with what mercy is.
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But that being said, let's stand together and read the word that we're going to be studying.
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This is the beatitude, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 7.
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Matthew chapter 5 and verse 7.
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Jesus commends this to us.
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He says, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to be about the business of studying your word.
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I pray first and foremost, Lord, that you would keep me from error.
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For I certainly am capable of preaching error.
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And I pray that you would keep me from that and protect your people from that.
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And God, also, that you would open the hearts of the people to the truth.
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That those who are believers would be edified by this message.
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And Lord God, if there are those among us who do not believe in Christ, if there are those among us who have maybe just paid lip service to him, but not truly trusted him with their heart, that God, this morning, that you would use this message as a time of conviction and conversion.
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And Lord, we know that that is a power that only your Holy Spirit can do.
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So we leave that to you and we just pray that this message would be in your approval, in accordance with your word, in accordance with your divine will.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Now, for those of you who have not been here, and even those who have, I want to begin by talking about the fact that over the last few weeks, we have been going through a progression of the Beatitudes and we have seen a pattern emerge.
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The Beatitudes, you know, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek.
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That's the Beatitudes.
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The Beatitudes are not a list of independent character traits, which are meant to describe different people.
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It's not as if Jesus is saying, well, some of you will be poor in spirit, some of you will be mourning, some of you will be meek, some of you will hunger and thirst for righteousness and you're all blessed.
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No.
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The Beatitudes build on one another and they describe for us what we have become, to coin the term, the blessed man, or if you will, the blessed woman, the blessed person.
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The blessed man first understands his spiritual poverty before God.
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This is when Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit.
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He understands that he has nothing to bring to God that should cause God to look upon him with favor.
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He has nothing to bring to God.
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The Bible says that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
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We have nothing that we can hand to God and say, here God, this is why I deserve your grace.
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We have nothing.
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And that's why it says blessed are the poor in spirit, because they are the ones who recognize that.
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But what's the result of that? Mourning.
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And that's why it says blessed are those who mourn, because the result of our realization that we have nothing to bring to God puts us in a state of what? Oh, no, I have nothing to present to God.
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What can I do? I mourn.
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I mourn over my sin.
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I mourn over my lack of righteousness.
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And as I said in that sermon weeks ago, if we have never had our hearts broken over our sin, we've never been saved.
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That's why so much of what is preached today is not gospel preaching, because it says nothing to our sinful condition.
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And if we don't understand our sinful condition, we cannot understand the glory and majesty of the gospel of Christ.
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So the man mourns over his sin.
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And there is a natural humility which comes out of that.
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And that's why Jesus said, blessed are the meek, because that meekness is the humility which comes before God.
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We are poor.
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We have an impoverished spirit.
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We're poor in spirit.
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We're broken over our sins.
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We mourn over that.
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We are humbled before God.
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And then what? We hunger and thirst for something.
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For righteousness.
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Again, this is not different people.
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This is a progression.
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Because the natural state of the man who is meek before God is that he wants for something that he doesn't have.
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Righteousness.
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And he knows the only place that it can come from is from God.
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So he hungers and he thirsts for that which only God can provide.
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Righteousness.
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True righteousness.
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And it's one individual.
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It's the blessed person.
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It's a picture of every person who has ever truly been converted to Christ.
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It's the experience of every person who has come to Christ.
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They've recognized their need for salvation.
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And they recognize that God is the only one who can fill that need.
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So that is the first four Beatitudes.
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And they all deal with our attitude in relation to God.
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We are poor in spirit before God.
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We mourn before God.
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We are meek before God.
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We hunger and thirst for righteousness which only God can provide.
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But then we come to the fifth Beatitude.
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And there is a change in perspective.
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Because the first Beatitude have dealt with our attitudes.
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But now it begins to deal with our behavior.
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It's gone from dealing with our attitude before God to dealing with our behavior in the world.
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Because it begins to talk about mercy.
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Our responsibility to be merciful.
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The first characteristic of the blessed man's behavior is that his life is marked by a spirit of mercy.
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Now we are going to study two things about mercy.
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We are going to study two things about the biblical idea of mercy.
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We're going to study what it is not.
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And that's today.
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And the next week we're going to study what it is.
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So let's begin today with what biblical mercy is not.
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And I've chosen to begin with the negatives.
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Because I know most of us have at least some idea of what mercy is.
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And I would venture to guess that some of us have been influenced improperly by the world's view of mercy.
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And see, that's the key.
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Sometimes to learn something right, you have to unlearn something wrong.
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You ever notice that? Sometimes before you can really get on the right track, you've got to get off the wrong track.
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And that's the key.
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Before we can really study biblical mercy, we've got to deconstruct some of what the world has told us that mercy is.
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And we've got to alleviate some of the confusion which the world has caused.
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Because the world loves to miscommunicate and twist, especially biblical concepts.
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If you don't believe that, the next time a Jehovah Witness comes to your door, and they want to talk to you, you listen.
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They're using words, mercy, gospel, Christ.
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And they're using these words, and you say, man, those are the same words we use, but they have taken the meaning, and they have twisted that meaning to something totally foreign to what the Bible teaches.
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And the world does that all the time.
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I see it all the time.
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People say, you know, well, judge not lest ye be judged.
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Isn't that the modern mantra of the sinful nation? I can do what I want.
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Nobody can judge me.
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Because, hey, the Bible says, judge not lest ye be judged.
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But yet, so we can't preach on sin anymore.
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Because they've taken that one statement of Christ, they've ripped it out of its context, they've applied to it their own context, and now no one can say a thing about sin because, oh, you're just a backwards, judgmental, Bible-thumping whatever.
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Because they've misused language.
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They've misused Jesus's intent.
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And the word mercy has been heavily misunderstood, heavily misinterpreted.
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So we're going to look at three things.
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If you're taking notes, I know some of you like to write the notes out before we start.
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So here they are.
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Number one, biblical mercy is not just a natural affection for others.
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That's the easiest way I could write that.
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I try to make them pithy because I know people take notes, but that's the easiest way I could tell them.
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It's not just a natural affection for others.
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That's number one.
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Number two, biblical mercy is not permissiveness.
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Biblical mercy is not permissiveness.
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And number three, biblical mercy is not a meritorious work.
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Now, I'm going to explain all these, but I know some of you write the outlines out and you want it beforehand so you don't miss anything, and I appreciate that.
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People have their notes after church, and that just warms my heart.
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So I appreciate it.
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I want to give you the opportunity to write those three down.
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Okay, that's the outline for today.
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That's the three parts.
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So now let's go back and let's break them down.
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Number one, biblical mercy is not just a natural affection for others.
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Because there are some people, I am going to admit this, and I hope that there's no arguing, maybe you might feel differently, but I have found that there are some people who are naturally nicer than others.
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Does everybody pretty much agree that there are some people? I mean, I think it's obvious if you go out and watch kids on a playground.
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You'll see that some kids seem to have a natural inclination towards bullying, while other children seem to have a more natural inclination of sharing.
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And there seems to be, you know, there are some that just sort of have this, don't look at each other or cut eyes.
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It just seems that some folks have a natural inclination towards being nice.
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And many of us probably know unbelievers.
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And by unbelievers, I don't mean just ranked atheists.
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I mean people who are caught in false religions, caught in cults.
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You probably know people that are generally nice folks.
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I mean, most people I've talked to, well, I've got this neighbor and he's an atheist, but man, he's so nice.
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Right? Have we all experienced this? We've all experienced somebody who's an unbeliever, who's, you know, maybe pretty philanthropic in his behavior.
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They serve in the soup kitchens.
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They give to the poor.
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They support charitable works.
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And some of us may look at that and say, man, what a merciful individual, because they're willing to help other people.
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And that's the attitude that they have there.
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They're just nice folk.
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But beloved, I have to be clear this morning, that while I concede that such people do exist, they are not in view when Jesus says, blessed are the merciful.
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They're not.
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Because the mercy that an unbeliever extends towards other people is not inspired by faith in Christ.
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I don't know what inspires it, but it's not inspired by faith.
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And mercy that is devoid of faith in Christ is mere humanism.
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Mercy which is devoid of faith in Christ is mere humanism.
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It is not done to glorify God.
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It is done in some way to glorify the creature.
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Some people do it for their own glory.
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Some people do it to glorify others.
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In either case, it's wrong, because no one deserves the glory.
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No one deserves the glory to God alone.
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That's hard for some people to accept.
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Because some people don't like to hear that.
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Because when I tell you that the Bible says that that which is not of faith is sin.
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Do you remember that passage from Romans 14? It's so clear.
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And I use it so often to remind people that that which is not done in faith is sin.
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Which means this.
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Everything that the unbeliever does is sin.
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Because everything that they do is in rebellion towards God.
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Have you ever thought about that? Oh, that's really hard to think about.
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Because I know unbelievers who do nice things.
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And Pastor, are you telling me that these nice things are sins? I'm telling you that everything that is not done in faith is sin.
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The Bible says so.
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That's hard to consider.
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That's hard to accept.
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But that's why Isaiah can clearly say that all of our righteousnesses are smelty rags.
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That's why he can say such a thing.
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Because that which is not done in faith is not pleasing to God.
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No matter how much is given.
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No matter how much is shared.
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No matter how much is sacrificed.
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If it is done devoid of Christ, it is not to glorify God.
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It is to glorify human beings.
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And human beings do not deserve glory.
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I may sound like a nutcase.
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But the reality is the reality from Scripture, not from me.
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That the Bible is so clear that the mercy that Jesus is referring to, the mercy that Jesus is talking to, is not a natural mercy which comes from a natural inclination.
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It is a supernatural inclination from a heart that has been changed by the Gospel of Christ.
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That's the mercy that Jesus is talking about.
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It is a converted heart that is desiring to follow after Christ.
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Biblical mercy is the work of the Holy Spirit within the heart of the believer.
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It is not just a pleasant disposition.
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It is a mercy which is supernatural.
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And you know what? It can change anybody.
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The person who is naturally inclined towards niceness continues to be naturally inclined towards niceness.
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But the change that the Holy Spirit can bring can take somebody who is not naturally inclined to niceness and change them into a merciful heart.
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You see, that's the miracle.
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Nothing for a nice person to be nice.
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But you take a rebel sinner whose heart has been callous towards his fellow man, has been callous towards God, has been callous towards the church, and God breaks open that callous, He rips it off, and He exposes that heart.
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That's the change.
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That is the power of God.
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And we see that.
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So we know biblical mercy is not mere humanism.
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It's not just a natural inclination.
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Number two.
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Biblical mercy is not permissiveness.
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Biblical mercy is not permissiveness.
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And that is actually the word that the world often improperly ascribes to mercy, but in doing so, distorts the message.
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For instance, I'll give you some examples.
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Maybe this will help get across what I'm saying.
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When I say biblical mercy is not permissiveness, let me paint a picture.
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A father who holds back discipline from his child is often seen by the world as merciful.
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But the reality is that's not biblical mercy.
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And it's dangerous for the child.
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Would you agree? That a father who does not discipline his child, you know what the Bible says? It says he hates his child.
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So the father that doesn't discipline his child actually hates his child.
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And a lot of people have trouble with that.
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You know why he hates his child? Because he loves himself more.
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People say, well, I love my child too much to discipline him.
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No, you don't.
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You love yourself too much to discipline your child.
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Because you don't like the bad feeling that you get when you discipline your child.
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You don't like the feeling of the child not thinking you're cool or hip or whatever.
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I don't know.
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You don't like that feeling.
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So you choose not to discipline.
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And as a result, your child grows up and we end up with a society like we see today where people are so undisciplined.
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People are so lacking of respect.
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And it's been birthed out of this.
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We don't discipline our children anymore.
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We let them grow up as free spirits.
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And you know, what happens? We see what happens.
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So it's not permissiveness.
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A judge who refuses to pronounce the death penalty on a murderer.
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Oh, he's so merciful.
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But that's not biblical mercy.
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That's not biblical mercy.
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The holding back of justice is not necessarily biblical mercy.
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And it's dangerous to society because it sets a precedence that evil is accepted and glorified.
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A church that looks the other way when one of its members is living in sin.
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Oh, that church is so merciful.
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No, it's not.
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That's not mercy.
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And it's dangerous to the sanctity of the church.
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A government, you'll like this one, a government which takes money from some taxpayers to support others in an attempt to redistribute wealth is seen as merciful.
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But it's not.
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That type of forced charity is not biblical mercy.
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And it sets a dangerous precedent for those who are deliberately lazy.
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By the way, forced charity is an oxymoron.
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It's not mercy.
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It's not biblical mercy.
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I like this quote from Brian Schwartzley.
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I think I'm saying the same right.
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He said, a concept of mercy that is not held in conjunction with God's moral law and biblical concept of justice, punishment and discipline is nothing more than subjective feeling and sentimentality.
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A concept of mercy, which doesn't include God's justice and his law, is just sentimentality.
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It's not biblical mercy.
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Always remember this.
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Christian mercy does not compromise biblical truth and biblical justice.
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And some of you may say, whoa now, Pastor.
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What about that woman who was thrown at Jesus's feet? What about that woman who was thrown at Jesus's feet? And the Pharisees came to Jesus.
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And they threw her down at Jesus's feet.
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And hey, she had committed a capital offense.
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In the days of Christ, adultery was a capital crime.
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And she was thrown at the feet of Jesus.
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But remember the whole story.
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Why did those men throw that woman at the feet of Jesus? Well, first let's ask this question.
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Why did they throw just the woman? Where was the man? That's an important question.
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Because nobody commits adultery by themselves.
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Where was the man? And when they brought that woman to Jesus, it says in the text, they did it to trap him.
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Because there was no way Jesus could give an answer without being condemned.
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If Jesus said, let her go free, he's denying the law of Moses.
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And every one of them would have said, he's a blasphemer.
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He denied the law of Moses.
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If he said, condemn her, he would have been denying the law of Rome.
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Because the law of Rome did not give the power of the Jews the right to enact that execution.
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That's why when Jesus was executed, they had to take him before Pilate.
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So they could have run off to the Jews and said, hey, this guy is trying to get this woman killed.
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He said, kill her.
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He's against Rome.
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And then, of course, Jesus would have been in trouble with Rome.
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It was in text 22.
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Either way, either answer Jesus gave would have been the wrong answer.
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Because they thought they could trick the Lord of Glory.
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So they threw on his feet, what shall we do with this woman who's caught in adultery? Jesus doesn't even answer.
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He reaches down and starts writing in the dirt.
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He starts writing in the dirt with his finger.
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By the way, that's the only place in the Bible where Jesus was ever known to have written anything.
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Nothing in the Bible was written by Christ.
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The only thing we ever know of him writing was with his finger in the dirt.
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And we don't know what he wrote.
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But we do know this.
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They said, are you going to answer us? He stands up.
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He says, whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone.
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And then he went back to the ground and started writing in the dirt again.
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One by one, it says they dropped their stones and went away.
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I always thought maybe he was writing the names of their girlfriends.
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I don't know.
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Because you know, he doesn't say what he wrote.
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But I imagine it had something.
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Maybe he was writing the commandments to remind them that they were all guilty.
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But here's the point that I wanted to get to.
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Because people say, here's the point where Jesus is being mercy.
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He lets this woman go free.
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Remember the last part of the story.
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This woman is crying.
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She's been thrown down.
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She's expecting a stone to strike her dead at any moment.
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And Jesus lifts her up and he says what? Go and keep on sinning the way you've been sinning.
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Yeah, right.
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It's not what he said.
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Not even close.
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He said, go and sin no more.
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Beloved, biblical mercy is not permissiveness.
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It always accompanies the call to repentance.
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When we find somebody in sin, we don't say, hey, you know what? Keep on doing what you're doing.
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No, we call for their repentance.
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It's not permissiveness.
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And those churches who think they are doing good by permitting sin, by allowing sin in the church and not saying anything about it and not calling it to account and not calling rebuke on those who live and playing unrepentant sin are not extending mercy.
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They are extending judgment on their people because they are not telling them the truth.
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Biblical mercy is not permissiveness.
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Finally, that doesn't mean I'm anywhere close to being done, but let me say, thirdly, biblical mercy is not a meritorious work.
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Now, we've seen that it's not a natural affection.
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We've seen that it's not permissiveness, but it's also not a meritorious work.
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And I think that is the most important misunderstanding of this beatitude.
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People read the phrase, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
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And they somehow in their mind take that as Jesus saying that somehow our mercy towards other people earns the mercy of God.
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In fact, this is a favorite verse of the faith plus works equals salvation movement.
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There are many that teach that.
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Faith plus works equals salvation.
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We believe that faith alone is how we are justified, the Bible says.
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But there are those who believe faith plus works equals salvation.
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And, you know, this verse is a favorite of those groups because, well, here it is.
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You know, unless you do this work of mercy, you won't receive mercy.
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And they use it as a proof text.
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Roman Catholics use it.
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Jehovah's Witnesses use it.
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Any group that wants to make salvation something that they have earned by their merits, they run to Matthew 5.
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Here it is.
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This is proof that we earn it by our works.
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Our works of mercy earn the mercy of God.
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And that is not so.
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Our mercy towards others does not earn our mercy from God.
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We cannot purchase mercy.
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We cannot earn mercy.
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It is a gift because mercy is bound up in our salvation.
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And the Bible is so clear that salvation itself is not a work but is a gift of God.
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I just want to put a couple of verses out there.
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I know you probably know some of these, but just as a clear reminder, Ephesians 2, 8.
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For by grace you've been saved through faith and that is not your own doing.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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I don't know how anyone can...
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You can't mess that up.
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Not of works.
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Not a result of works so that no one may boast.
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By grace you are saved through faith and that is not of you.
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Seems clear to me.
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Romans 3, verse 20 says, For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
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But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
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The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
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Again, it's the gift of God.
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We are justified by His grace as a gift.
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Anything that you do, that you earn, is not a gift.
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And any gift that you have been given, you don't have to earn.
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It is so clear.
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It's sort of like the old thing, the old illustration.
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If you work 40 hours in a week and your employer comes to you at the end of that week and he hands you a check and he says, here's your gift.
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You say, this isn't a gift.
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I earn this.
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When you face God on judgment, you will face Him having earned nothing.
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Only the gift of Christ will save you.
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And that's so important for us to understand.
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Galatians 2.16, Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
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So we have also believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.
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That's it.
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Philippians 3.8 and 9, Indeed, Paul says, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
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For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things.
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Count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own.
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This is so important.
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Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God, which depends on faith.
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My righteousness depends on God.
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My righteousness depends on that faith in Christ.
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It is not from me.
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My mercy to others does not add to my salvation.
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And it certainly doesn't earn it.
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And some people might say, well, pastor, you've just been quoting the Apostle Paul.
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You just Paul Paul this, Paul Paul that.
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Well, I like what R.C.
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Stroll, Jr.
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said.
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He said, if you don't have appalling theology, you have an appalling theology.
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I really like that.
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If you don't have appalling theology, you have an appalling theology.
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But, just in case you need it, Jesus Christ Himself said, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
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He gave His only Son as a gift, that the believers in Him would have eternal life.
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Beloved, salvation, which includes mercy from God, is not a wage which can be earned.
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It is a gift which must be received.
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As a result, mercy is not something a person does to get saved.
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Mercy is something a saved person does.
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And that's the answer.
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I mean, it may sound simple, but don't let simplicity cause you to let it go in one ear and out the other.
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Mercy is not what saves you, but mercy is what you do if you are saved.
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When Jesus said, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
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He might as well have said, Blessed are believers, for they shall receive mercy.
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Because the reality is, the Bible tells us that believers will be ones who are marked by hearts of mercy.
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And I can say this, if our hearts are not marked by mercy, then we can rightly say that we know not Christ.
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And some of you might say, well, I know some people who are believers, and I don't consider them very merciful.
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Well, let me share with you three things, and this is where I'm going to end.
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Because you might say that, you might say, I know some people who I think are believers, but I don't consider them to be very merciful.
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Here's three things for you to consider, because it might be that you're thinking about yourself.
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So let's deal with these three things.
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Number one, you might not have a right understanding of biblical mercy.
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You just might not.
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I mean, you might have come in today thinking something about mercy that was untrue.
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Maybe this sermon has helped you.
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Maybe.
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You might have a wrong understanding of biblical mercy.
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That's one.
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Number two, they may be failing in some instance, and you might need to go to them and call them to repentance.
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Because none of us are perfect, and we do need that iron sharpening iron.
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We need, I have it all the time.
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I never mind if a godly man calls me to account, or a godly woman, but in particular in my life, the men and women who surround me, if somebody calls me to account, if they're right and I'm wrong, then that's the way it's supposed to be.
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I hope that you have that same heart, that you have a teachable spirit.
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That's what we're supposed to have.
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And if they are a believer, and they are not living with a heart of mercy, maybe you need to encourage them in that way.
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Maybe you need to talk to them privately.
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Not talk about them, but talk to them.
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That's a big issue.
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But the third thing is, simply, they just might not be saved.
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That's the part we don't want to consider.
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But it is true.
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A person whose heart is not concerned, and we're going to talk about next week what mercy is.
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We're going to talk about really what it means to be merciful in a biblical sense.
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But if we see a person whose heart is not merciful, it's one of three things.
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Either we don't understand what mercy is, and we're applying to them a standard that the Bible doesn't apply.
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They're in some type of sin that they need to be called to repentance of, or they're just not saved.
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That's really the only three it could be.
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So if you know that person, or if you are that person, and you say, I don't know if my heart is really merciful.
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Now is the time.
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Pray.
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Ask God to show you clearly what you need to change.
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Because if you're a believer, and you're not extending mercy, if you're not a merciful heart, then you need to change.
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And if you're not a believer, I'm going to tell you, only God can change you, and I pray He will.
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I pray He will take out your dead heart and put in you a living heart that wants to follow Him.
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Because that will be the only thing that will bring about true and lasting change.
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That being said, let's pray.
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Father God, we thank you for this opportunity that we've had to discuss the subject of mercy.
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We pray, oh God, that you would first and foremost just remind us all of our responsibility to follow after Christ and to extend mercy and grace to those around us.
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And Lord God, help us to remember that mercy is not just humanistic kindness.
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And mercy is not, oh God, permissiveness of sin.
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And mercy is certainly not something we're doing to earn your favor.
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But Lord God, mercy is what we're called to because we're called to be like Christ.
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We have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.
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And we pray, oh Lord, that you will continue to conform us to His image every day as we grow in our sanctification.
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And Lord God, I pray for anyone in this room who doesn't know Christ.
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I pray that they would understand their sin, their poorness of spirit, that they would mourn for that.
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That they would humble themselves before you and that they would hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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I pray your Holy Spirit be upon us and move in this place.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Beloved, we are going to be singing now, so I encourage you to stand.
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If you have a need for prayer, please come as we sing.