God’s Mercy and Grace Various Texts

Last week, we looked at God's justice and wrath, as we're looking at the attributes of God.

Two attributes that are not widely talked about, not very popular, but are so very important not to be overlooked because of the clarity of Scripture.

What we learned last week was that God punishes every sin, either at the cross of Jesus Christ or in hell.

Those two places. As we ponder this reality, we should be grateful that we worship a

God that punishes sin, that rights every wrong. If he did not, he would not be worthy of our worship.

But since God is perfect, of course he brings about justice. What we have seen over the summer is that God has many attributes, many wonderful attributes, and every one of them is worthy of our worship.

As we saw God's justice and wrath last week, today we are going to see his mercy and grace.

It is fearful to be opposed to God, and it is such a delight to be allied with him.

Many of you are familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia, the children's books and recently the movies that have come out.

Aslan, the lion from the Chronicles of Narnia, is a good illustration of what

God is like. In this children's story, when one was an enemy of Aslan, they were opposed to a ferocious lion that you were to be fearful of.

But to be allied with him was to enjoy wonderful fellowship with this powerful yet gentle lion.

It is this way with God. You do not want to face the fury of God as one is still in your sin.

But what a blessing to be allied with God, where you enjoy fellowship with the wonderful God of the universe.

We saw the ferocious side last week, and today we are going to see his mercy and his grace.

We are going to see how wonderful it is. As we continue our Summer in Sermon series, the ultimate pursuit of knowing

God, we are going to be looking at the attributes of God's mercy and grace. And our big idea this morning is we see

God's goodness demonstrated abundantly in Scripture. We see his goodness demonstrated abundantly in Scripture.

And we are going to look at two ways how. This is not an exhaustive list of how God is good and how that is revealed in Scripture.

But we are going to look at two ways how this morning. And the first is his mercy towards sinners.

When we look at God's mercy and grace, these are two attributes that come from his goodness.

And two weeks ago, if you remember the sermon that I gave about God's holiness and his goodness, we looked at this attribute.

And what we learned is that everything that God approves is good. He is the final standard of what is good.

God is good and he does good acts to those who do not deserve it. God can show his goodness towards sinners as long as his justice has been satisfied.

And that, of course, comes through the cross of Jesus Christ. So God makes a way through Jesus to do good to sinners.

He delights in doing good to us. Now, mercy and grace are often mentioned together in Scripture.

So they are very related but also a little bit different. Moses mentions them together in Exodus 34 .6.

And I read this at the beginning of our service, but I'll read it again. Exodus 34 .6. This is what the

Lord says about himself. So you see there, mercy and grace are mentioned together.

While they are often mentioned together, they are used in different ways as we look at the whole of Scripture.

The way that Scripture uses mercy in many places is God helping those in distress.

God helping those in times of trouble. And here are some examples.

During Christ's ministry on earth, he had pity on those who had physical ailments and were outcasts in society.

I know many women in the church read a gospel this past month. And that's one thing you saw, the pity that he had on those who were hurting.

One example of this is Matthew 9 .27. And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud,

The Apostle Paul talks about God comforting us when we face affliction in our lives.

In 2 Corinthians 1 .3. With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

So, Paul here calls God the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Because that's who he is.

When we face trials in our lives, the Bible commands us to go to God. Because he is a

God of mercy. Hebrews 4 .16 highlights this.

That we are to go to him in time of need. Because he helps those who are in times of crisis.

And we go to him because he is merciful. So, these are a few examples of the ways that we see

God's mercy show up in Scripture and in our lives. Now, we need to reflect

God in this way. There are many attributes of God we cannot reflect.

We talked about this already. We can't be all -powerful. We can't be all -present. We can't be all -knowing.

But we can reflect God in some ways. And we can reflect

God in this way. We can be merciful to other people. How do we do this?

When people are suffering, we help them. Recently, a few months ago, Brianna had a procedure.

And this church showed us mercy in time of need. And we were so grateful for that.

And that's the kind of church we need to be at Eureka Baptist. The church where when people are facing difficult times, we help them.

And there's many ways we can help people. We just need to find out how can we help this family. And so, during that time, we were so grateful.

This church is also set up to help those in need. We have many ministry teams that make up this church.

We have a compassion ministry in this church as well that's designed for this very purpose. It is the

Compassion and Care Ministry Team. The responsibility of this team is to support someone in the hospital with meals to the family, reception and food for memorial services, flowers and a card sent when someone is in the hospital, and also visiting them as well.

At the business meeting two weeks ago, Susan, who's on this committee or this team, shared with us some of the things that she's been doing to encourage those in difficult times.

And it was great to hear from her and what she's been doing. Susan and Ann are the two that are on this team right now.

And if you would like to join it, please talk to me. We're always looking to add help where we can.

So this is a very important ministry in our church. And God expects that we have a ministry like this, and I'm grateful that we do have a ministry that helps those in distress.

And not only should our church as a whole do this, but we as individuals need to show mercy to others as well.

There is a fascinating passage in Scripture about the final judgment in Matthew 25, verses 31 through 40.

And as I read this, you will see the importance of showing mercy to all people, and especially those who are believers.

So if you'd like to, you could follow along with me as I read Matthew 25, verses 31 through 40.

Otherwise, just listen to me here and see the mercy in this passage.

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right,

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did to one of the least of these brothers, you did it to me.

Listen to that. That's profound, what we just read there. You are saved by grace through faith alone and not by works.

If you were just to read this passage without reading the rest of the Bible, you would say, Well, we're saved by works. Okay, I do these good things to people, and Jesus says,

Okay, the good outweighs the bad, I'll let you into heaven. But that's not what the Bible says. What the

Bible says is that you are saved by grace through faith alone and not by your works.

But true faith is always accompanied by works. And this is something I will never tire of saying because it's so important.

We're saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone. But our works prove our salvation.

We don't earn salvation with our works. We evidence that we are saved by our works.

Christians are going to look a certain way. And so, as we look at this passage, Christians are those who show mercy to people.

These were people who had the Holy Spirit with them. And it was overflowing in their lives. And they were showing mercy to people.

So my question to you is, is mercy to others seen in your life? The list

Jesus gave may not be exact to the opportunities that are before you to show mercy.

But some of them may be the same. Do you feed the hungry? Do you help a stranger in need?

Do you provide clothing for those less fortunate? Do you visit those who are sick? Do you visit someone you know in prison?

Do you pray for someone's needs to be provided for? Are you a friend to the friendless?

Do you reach out to your grandparents or great -grandparents? They loved when you visit.

Do you take the time to go see them or other elderly people? Just this week,

I saw two women who were a part of this church for a long time, Opal and Dolores.

And they're always so grateful when someone from our church comes to see them. And I know

Dennis is another one of those people as well. Do we reach out to these people?

How about when you come across a homeless person? What do you do? It can often be a convenient excuse to say, well, they're just going to go spend it on alcohol.

Well, maybe not. Maybe they need help. And find out how you can help that person. How about when someone's car breaks down on the side of the road?

About six weeks ago, I got a flat tire, and a guy pulled off to the side to help me.

And he was a believer. And I was so grateful for his help. And you know what he said to me? He said to me, you know,

I drive by people on the side of the road all the time, and I always feel convicted that I didn't stop to help.

And he's like, you know what? Today, I'm going to stop to help. And I was like, yeah, I'm actually a pastor up the road. And so he thought that was interesting.

So I'm not telling you that you need to do everything that I just mentioned. But the point is clear.

Are you helping those in need with the opportunities that are before you? People who are grieving, are you helping those people?

There's so many different examples that I could give. Everyone should reflect on how we can help others in our lives and show mercy.

God's people show mercy to those in need. These are marks of genuine faith in Christ.

Now, in this account of Matthew 25 at the final judgment, these people were surprised because they thought, when did we do these things to you,

Jesus? I don't remember doing any of these things to you. And Jesus says, well, you didn't literally do them to me, but you did them to fellow believers.

Because that's what Jesus says here. Whatever you did to these brothers of mine. So we should be doing good to all people, but especially those who belong to the household of God.

So that's what the least of these is. Fellow believers who need help, and so when help comes, mercy is shown to them as they are facing some kind of misery in their life.

So does this show in your life? It is important to examine this because genuine believers have these marks.

This is shown in their life. It's just an outflow of their life. Now, this is probably the most common way that mercy is used in the

Bible, but it's not the only way that mercy is used. And so if we were to stop right here, this would be an incomplete definition.

Mercy is also used in reference to eternal salvation. Namely, God shows mercy to sinners by not giving them the punishment that they deserve.

And I will show you this here. In the Old Testament, there was a place in the tabernacle, and then later in the temple, known as the mercy seat.

This was commanded by the Lord to Israel to be set up in Exodus chapter 25. This was a place where sin was atoned for.

Now when I say the word atone, to atone for something means that a payment is made for a wrong that has been committed.

That payment makes up for the punishment and wipes it away. Now in the Old Testament, animals were offered as sacrifices.

But the sacrifice of an animal could never take away sins. This was just pointing ahead to the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So we are shown mercy through Jesus. And this is what Hebrews 9 .23 -26 says.

Thus it was necessary for the copies, so the temple, the tabernacle, the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites.

But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy place every year with blood not his own.

For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Okay, so you see this? In the Old Testament, the high priest, they were the only ones who could offer these sacrifices for the people of Israel.

So they had to offer sacrifices for the people of Israel and for themselves because they were sinners too.

And they would offer animals. Now Jesus doesn't offer any animals.

He offers himself. He is the once for all sacrifice that pays for our sins.

You see how the Old Testament points ahead to Jesus. And God punishes those who remain unrepentant to the end and he shows mercy to those who believe in Jesus.

This is what Romans 9, 22, and 23 says. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory?

So God looks down on sinners and shows them mercy by not treating them as their sins deserve.

And he forgives them in Christ. So his justice is upheld through the sacrifice of Christ and he's able to forgive.

He's able to show mercy. So God shows mercy by helping those in need and he shows mercy to sinners in salvation as well.

So this is the first way that we see God's goodness demonstrated abundantly in Scripture. That he shows mercy towards sinners.

The second way that we see God's goodness demonstrated abundantly in Scripture is his grace toward sinners.

So we looked at mercy. Now we're going to look at grace. Not only does God show mercy to sinners, but he also shows grace.

And we are going to see that mercy and grace are very similar. Oftentimes they're used interchangeably.

But they are a little bit different. I had a professor in seminary who said this very well.

Listen to me closely as I say this. He said, Let me say that again.

So mercy is him withholding punishment. Forgiving your sins.

Grace is him giving you eternal life. See, he doesn't give you this.

He gives you this. I hope that makes sense. Theologian Wayne Grudem defines grace in a similar way.

God shows us grace by sending Jesus to die for our sins. To satisfy God's holy wrath as our substitute.

Last week I explained the prison illustration. Imagine yourself going to prison. And the judge sentences you to life in prison.

And before you serve one day in jail, he says, You know what? I'm going to wipe out your sentence. Okay, so that's mercy.

You don't have to serve a day. And not only that, I'm going to send you to your family and to do what you always wanted to do.

Okay, that's grace. He gives you, the judge gives you what you do not deserve.

Okay, so we see that here. One important point to make is that God does not have to show us grace in salvation.

He is free to do what he wants. But he freely chooses to show us grace. And this is so wonderful about the character of God.

You want to know how great God is? He joyfully shows us grace.

He freely shows us grace. In Exodus 33, 19, the Lord says, I will be gracious to whom

I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And if you belong to Jesus today,

God has freely shown you grace. Grace is such an important aspect of God's character.

The psalmist in Psalm 119, 132, that's a big psalm, says this,

Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name.

The Apostle Paul calls God the God of all grace. In 1 Peter 5, 10, grace is described as a gift throughout the

New Testament. I mentioned that grace is a gift that God gives to you that you do not deserve.

He gives it. Gifts are given. Think about Christmas time. You give gifts to people.

Romans 3, 23 and 24 says, So Jesus is offered.

And anybody can receive it. If you believe, you have it. You have the grace of God. And you don't have to pay for your sins.

And you have eternal life. It's offered. It's a gift. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

So it's a gift. It's offered to you. Jesus, his once -for -all sacrifice is offered to you.

I've said this many times, and I will say it again. Salvation is not dependent on works, but on grace that has been given through Jesus Christ.

The Bible could not be more clear. And 500 years ago, the church was fighting over this. There was this conflict between the

Catholic Church and the Reformers, Martin Luther and John Calvin.

And Martin Luther was reading, he was teaching through Romans, and he's saying, what they're teaching, this works salvation, is not what the

Bible is saying. And so that's what started the Reformation 500 years ago. And he came to that conclusion through digging into the

Word of God. The Bible is crystal clear on this. So works cannot go with grace in order to earn

God's favor. But something does go with grace, and that is faith.

Faith. Faith is not a work. Faith here means that I can't do it.

So I need to trust someone outside of me to accomplish this for me. So it's actually the opposite of a work.

You're saying, you know what, I can't do it. I need someone else to do this for me.

That's faith. And the someone else who does it for you is God through Jesus Christ.

And this is what Paul is getting at in Romans 4 .16. He says, that is why grace depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace.

So that's why we say we are saved by grace through faith.

By having faith, you are not striving for salvation with human effort. So as Christians, we say that I am trusting

God's free gift of grace alone in Jesus, and I am not depending on my own merit. And that's how we would define faith.

And as I just mentioned, we're saved by grace through faith. So we have just seen that God's grace is shown in salvation through Jesus Christ.

Now that is not the only way that grace is used in the New Testament. And if I were to stop here, this would also be an incomplete definition.

Grace is also used to describe the strength that God gives you during the Christian life.

Have you ever thought about it that way? The New Testament is full of places where grace is described as power in your life.

My old pastor probably says this best. Grace is not just pardon, it's power.

So it's pardon by Jesus being offered to you and your sins being forgiven and you receiving eternal life.

It's power by God strengthening you to live the Christian life. And let me show you this used in the

Bible and how God keeps you in the faith through grace and strengthens you. The Apostle Paul described grace in this way in 1

Corinthians 15. You know what he said? He said, In other words, he's saying

I couldn't do this without the grace of God. But with the grace of God, I could be faithful to God.

Luke also used the word grace in this way in Acts 14 .26. And from there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled.

The success that Paul and Barnabas had was dependent upon the grace of God and that's why

Luke writes that here in Acts 14 .26. Now I'm going to go back to Paul here to unfold what the grace of God is a little more.

Paul wrote 13 letters in the New Testament. There's 27 letters, there's 27 books in the New Testament. Paul wrote 13 of them.

And in his letters he blesses them by saying the grace of God is with them. And if you look at his letters, he does this over and over again.

And I'll read one example here, Romans 1 .6. He says there,

At the end of services, sometimes I give the benediction. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.

The way the word grace is used there is a blessing that the Lord will be gracious to you, that He would sustain you each day to keep walking with Him, that He would strengthen you.

You may ask, what is the grace that is being given to you? Have you ever wondered that?

Sometimes it can be so vague. What is this grace that is being given to you? Well, I was thinking about that question this week, and here's my answer.

Paul uses the phrase grace and peace in his letters. Do you know where he got that from? He got it from the

Old Testament. He got it from numbers. This was a priestly blessing, that the

Lord may bless you and keep you, and so forth. And I say that at the end of some of our services.

Paul sees his letters as the grace. We were talking about this in Sunday school a couple months back with Barb and Sean and Gordy about how grace, in Paul's letters he says grace to you at the beginning of his letters.

And then at the end he says grace with you. So in other words, what he wrote to these churches and to all of us is the grace.

So the grace is the content of what he already told them, whether it be what they need to believe or what they need to obey.

So when I say may the Lord be gracious to you in the benediction, that is what I mean. One thing

I really want to stress at this church is we don't just do things because it's tradition. We do things for a reason.

It's because Scripture tells us to do it, and we need this in our lives. to believe or to obey it.

You know, I've preached a lot of sermons in the last six months here, and when I say may the Lord be gracious to you,

I hope that what I've preached to you has stuck with you. And I realize that you're going to forget a lot, which is why

I repeat things. But I hope that over time, you know, things will just start to click and you'll say, okay, that is the grace that God is going to use in my life.

And he's going to strengthen you. First Peter 4 .10 and 11 says this. As good stewards of God's very grace, whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies.

Okay, so grace is the strength of God. May we live in obedience by the strength that he supplies.

So grace is described in this way. And this is not really physical strength.

This is spiritual strength that God gives you. And let me give you an example here of how this might be used in your life.

Imagine yourself driving down the road and you see this beautiful home on a lake.

And you say, I would love to have that home. And then you start to covet it.

You start to desire what is not yours. And you start thinking, well my home really isn't that great compared to this home.

And so you're tempted to sin by wanting something that's not yours.

But in that moment, you remember what the Bible says. You remember what the

Holy Spirit has shown you. And 1 Timothy 6 says we're supposed to be, there is great gain in godliness with contentment.

And then Philippians 4 .13 says that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, which means that we can do everything in the circumstances that he has put us.

And that he's going to strengthen us in the circumstances that we have, including the possessions that we have.

And then you're reminded, okay, I don't want that house anymore. Because I'm content with what

God has done in my life. I'm content with where he has me. And he's going to strengthen me in whatever circumstance that he has put me.

So the Holy Spirit reminds you of what you've already learned from the Bible. So you see the importance of knowing

Scripture. That's an example of God giving you grace. And so he strengthens you in that way.

God strengthens you to be faithful, to carry out his word. Colossians 1 .28 and 29, this is such a wonderful verse.

It says, So Paul is saying here that I can only do my ministry as God empowers me with his energy.

God is the one who gives you the ability to be faithful. He is the decisive actor.

And because he acts, you are able to act. Grace is such an important word.

And we see that it is God's free gift in salvation. That's the first aspect of it. And his grace empowers us to live the

Christian life. So this is the second way that we see God's goodness demonstrated abundantly in Scripture.

We see his goodness in his grace toward sinners. What we have seen this morning is

God's goodness is shown in his mercy and his grace toward those who do not deserve it. Every week as we have looked at the different attributes of God, each attribute is worthy of our praise.

And I hope we do that every single week. We praise God for the different attributes that we see.

Last week we looked at his justice, and this week his grace and his mercy. It is incredible that God, the creator of all things, is merciful and gracious toward us.

He doesn't have to be. But he delights in doing that. Many in this room have received the grace of God and the mercy of God.

But some of you may not. And so I want to take this time to encourage you to do so, to believe. And you may ask, well, how do

I do this? Well, you pray. You invite Christ into your life by saying,

Jesus, I know I am a sinner, and I am deserving of punishment for my sin.

And I know that you died for my sins, and so I receive you into my life. Forgive me of my sins and give me eternal life that I do not deserve.

And if you do that, if you mean that, then you are forgiven. And then you're heaven -bound, and you have eternal life, and your sins are erased.

The offer of God's mercy and grace, provided through Christ, dying for our sins and being raised from the dead, is there for everyone who will receive it.

And so will you receive it? And if you ask him for it sincerely, you have it. Jesus says, anyone who comes to me

I will never cast out. And so if you want this, you have it. And how great is this compared to being under God's just wrath?

As we saw last week. And so we looked at grace and mercy this morning.

Next week, we're going to look at God's love, which is probably the most talked about attribute of God in our world today.

And so I look forward to opening up that to you. Let's pray. Father in heaven,

I praise you for your mercy and your grace that you give toward those who do not deserve it.

Father, we praise you for this. And it's wonderful, Lord, that the creator of all things is merciful and gracious.

As Moses wrote in Exodus, you are merciful and gracious. And thank you for the clarity of the

Bible, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

What a clear promise that if we receive Jesus, we have eternal life. Our sins are paid for, and we have life forever with the one for whom we were created.

And what a joy that is, Lord. There is no greater joy in life than being in fellowship with the one for whom we were created.

And so, Father, I praise you for giving us that in Jesus. And it's in his name we pray.