The Magnificence of Mercy | Part 1

Have you considered the magnificence of mercy?

Welcome to Love Worth Finding. Acclaimed pastor and beloved Bible teacher Adrian Rogers said, God doesn't deal with us on the basis of fairness. God deals with us on the basis of mercy. As we just heard, mercy is not just softness or mere sentiment. It's compassion in action. That's a Godly characteristic, one that resides in the hearts and minds of those who've accepted salvation from Jesus Christ. And it actively reveals itself as compassion for others. If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 5, look at verse 7, as Adrian Rogers reveals more about the magnificence of mercy.

Would you find again the Beatitudes? Matthew chapter 5, we're calling these the keys to the kingdom. And these are statements that Jesus Christ has made, and he begins each one of them with the word blessed. The word blessed is almost hard to translate. We could say happy, but it means more than happy. It means fulfilled. It means with joy. It means complete.

It may mean to be congratulated. All of those things and more are wrapped up in that Greek word, makarios. Listen, as the Lord Jesus Christ gives these Beatitudes.

We've said almost every Sunday, Beatitudes, that ought to be. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. When he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And there he meant blessed are those who see their spiritual condition, that they see that they are bankrupt paupers in the sight of a righteous and a holy God. The word poor here doesn't mean just without much.

It means without anything. Then verse 4, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And so you see, when we see what we are in and of ourselves spiritually, in our hands we have nothing to offer to God, then the next step for blessedness is to be broken over our bankruptcy.

Blessed are they that mourn genuine, godly sorrow that brings repentance. That brings us to the next blessedness. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I've already told you that meekness means submission to the will of God. It is strength that has been conquered and now controlled, because when I see what I am in and of myself, and then when I repent of that sin with godly sorrow, then I yield myself to God.

And then look, if you will, in verse 6, the last one that we talked about. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And that righteousness is Jesus Christ himself, not our own righteousness, not self-righteousness, but the righteousness that comes by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when I see that I'm a lost sinner, and when I repent of my sin, and when I yield my heart to God, and when I hunger and thirst for Jesus, then God does something in my heart. I am born again.

And then I begin to act like a born-again person. And that brings us to the beatitude for today, verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

This is a God-like characteristic that is in the heart and mind of those who have been born again. And the way it shows is by having a heart full of mercy. Those who have received mercy, beyond the shadow of any doubt of preadventure, will show mercy. Now, what is mercy? Well, mercy is not just softness. There are some people who are so soft, they wouldn't hurt a fly. I was in a meeting the other day, and they were discussing somebody that they wanted to do something that took a little courage, and they said, don't get him.

He wouldn't kill a snake in a nursery. I said, well, that's soft enough, but that's not necessarily mercy. And then mercy is not just mere sentiment. It's not seeing somebody hurting and somebody in trouble and shedding crocodile tears. That may be sentiment, but it is not mercy.

I heard of a preacher who was preaching, and he was talking about how we need to be compassionate. And he said, I was walking down the streets of a town, and I looked over there in a doorway, and there was a derelict, and the sand and the newspapers were blowing up around his body. He was, he'd passed out. He was just lying there. And he said, all down that busy street, people were walking, well-dressed, going about their business. And they looked down there, and there was a piece of humanity on the ground. And he said, nobody was stopping. Nobody did anything. And then he said, after we had gone to dinner and came back, he was still there, and nobody had done anything. Oh, isn't it amazing?

Isn't it amazing how we always think that the other man ought to do it? And there he had not only softness, but maybe sentiment, but he did not have mercy. What is mercy? What is this quality of mercy? My dear friend, it is compassion in action. That's what mercy is.

Not softness, not sentiment, but compassion in action. Now, I want us to think about this beatitude, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. First of all, think with me, if you would, think about the beauties of mercy. Did you know that the quality of mercy is one of the most beautiful characteristics of God? And when you're merciful, you're acting like God. Lamentations chapter 3 and verse 22, it is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed.

You think about it. Because his compassions fail not. God links mercy with compassion.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. His compassions, they fail not, and then he goes on to say they are new every morning. Every morning you can wake up and greet the mercy of God. Have you ever thought about the fact that for you to fail to live this day, God doesn't have to take your life?

All he has to do is stop giving it. Every day is a gift from God. His mercies are new every morning. It is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed.

And then put this verse in your margin. Ephesians 2, verse 4 and following, But God, but God, who is rich in mercy, for or because of his great love, wherewith he loved us. Do you know how God counts his riches? Not in silver and gold, but in his mercies.

And so, my dear friend, what are the beauties of mercy? When you're merciful, you're God-like. To be unmerciful is not to be like God. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1, Therefore be imitators of God. Imitators of God, not in the bad sense of imitation, but actually the King James says, Be ye therefore followers of God.

And the word literally means imitators of God. Be God-like. And my dear friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, illustrated that so much in the Gospel of Luke. In the Gospel of Luke, there was a lawyer who came. Luke chapter 10, I think most of you know it. And he said, Good Master, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

What do I have to do to be saved? Well, Jesus said, You know the law. What does the law say?

Well, he said, and this man was a good lawyer. Well, he said, The law says, You're to love God with all of your being, and you're to love your neighbors yourself. Jesus said, You've got it right. You've got it right.

You just do this, and you'll be all right. Well, this man, he was not only a good lawyer, but he was a bad lawyer. I mean, he got the answer right, but he didn't know the Lord, and Jesus knew he wasn't saved. You see, he was looking for a loophole in the law. And so did you know that you can be 100% right and still die and go to hell?

Did you know that? I mean, if I were to ask you how to be saved, you could give it to me just like that. If you die, you're going to hell. You say, well, now, wait a minute, pastor. I know the plan of salvation. You're not saved by the plan of salvation.

You're saved by the man of salvation. Have you ever thought about it when Herod wanted to know where Jesus Christ was going to be born? He went and asked the scribes, Where is Messiah to be born? Oh, they said, You go right down there to Bethlehem.

That's where he's going to be born. He went down there to bow the knee to him. They knew, and yet they missed him. Here was a man, this lawyer. He had it all just right.

He was a good lawyer, but he was a very bad lawyer. So he says, But now wait a minute. Who is my neighbor?

Just who is my neighbor? In other words, I don't want to love anybody I don't have to love. I don't want to show mercy to anybody I don't have to show mercy to. I mean, as far as he was concerned, God wasn't really around. He didn't have to worry about God but his neighbor. And Jesus told him that story, the good Samaritan.

You remember that story? Jesus said, A man went from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves. Now, if you know anything about the topography of the Holy Land, you know that Jerusalem is set on a hill. Jericho is down in the Dead Sea, the rift there on the banks of the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below sea level.

Here's a man, he starts on a mountaintop. He's going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jericho was a heathen city. Remember, it's where Rahab lived. Jerusalem was the holy city. And this man pictures mankind going away from God from the holy city to the hellish city.

He's going down, down, down. And Jesus said that on that road he fell among thieves. Now, a lot of limestone caves there and precipitous places, a lot of wild animals used to be there, and it was a place where marauders and muggers and robbers and thieves, cutthroats. They would stay in those caves just waiting for someone to come along. And this man came along, and the Bible says that they beat him, they stripped him, they robbed him, and they left him half dead. And then Jesus said to this lawyer, who wanted to know about who his neighbor was, Jesus said to him, he said, then there came along that day a certain priest. And the priest saw him, and he passed by on the other side. Now, you know, the priests, they were the religious people of that day.

They were the teachers, and they performed all of the rituals and the sacrifices. He represents ritualism. Oh, there's so many churches today that are so filled with ritualism, they stand, they sit, they kneel, they pray, they sing, they do this, they do that.

Then they go out just as lost as a goose in a snowstorm. This priest represented ritualism, and he just passed by. Then Jesus said, another man, this time a Levite, he walked by, he saw him, and he passed by. Well, they were keepers of the law. So if the priest represented ritual, he represented rules.

You know, the law can condemn us, and the law can describe us, but the law can't redeem us. Maybe this Levite said, look at you. Boy, you're in a mess. What were you doing down here anyway?

That's not a safe place to be traveling alone. You should never have been here. It's what you deserve, and he went on past. And that's what the law does, dear friend. All the rules in the Old Testament, they can describe us.

They can condemn us, but they don't save us. And then Jesus said a third man came along. He was what? A Samaritan. Do you know who the Samaritans were? They were a mongrel race.

They were the ones that were left behind after the captivity, and they intermarried against heathen people around them, and the Jews despised them. Jesus said a certain Samaritan. I know who he had in mind. He had in mind himself, because Jesus was despised, rejected, hated of men. And this man, this hated one, this despised one, he's coming along, and Jesus said he saw the man. He saw him where he was, and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.

He went to him. He found the man's wounds, and Jesus said he poured in oil, and he poured in wine. You know what oil represents in the Bible? Symbolically.

This is a parable. This is a... All of this is highly symbolical. What does oil represent? The Holy Spirit.

Comfort. He's the comforter. This man needed comfort, and there was the oil in the balm, the healing oil. Then he poured in wine. What does wine represent?

The blood of Jesus Christ. It was the wine to cleanse the oil to comfort, representing the precious, I believe, blood of Jesus, representing the wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit, and then the Bible says that the good Samaritan took this man and set him upon his beast and brought him to an end. Now, when the good Samaritan met that man to begin with, the good Samaritan was riding, and the man was on the ground. But after the good Samaritan met him, the man was riding, and the Samaritan is walking.

What a picture of substitution. Jesus takes my place, and I take his. He set him upon his beast, and he brought him to an end, and he said, you take care of him.

Here's some money, and whatever else it costs, when I come again, I will pay the price. What a picture of salvation. I'm so grateful that Jesus came to where I was. I'm so grateful that he had compassion upon me. I am so grateful that he has brought me to his house of mercy. I'm so grateful that Jesus Christ paid the price, and in that same chapter, verse 37, Jesus asked that lawyer a question. He said, now, which of these showed mercy? Which of these showed mercy? My dear friend, listen. Jesus Christ has shown every one of us mercy, and mercy is not softness. It's not sentiment.

It is compassion, compassion in action, and oh, how we need to learn the message of mercy, not with the indifference of the priest and the Levite, not with the iniquity of those who beat up the man, but with the involvement that life calls for. I don't know where you live, my dear friend, but in your city, I want to tell you, there are three classes of people. Let me tell you what they are. They are the beater uppers, the passer uppers, and the picker uppers. That's all the world is made out of, the beater uppers. Those people who would rob and kill and destroy, every pornographer is one of them. Every beer baron and liquor dealer, as far as I'm concerned, is one of them. Every abortionist is one of them.

Those are the beater uppers. I'm telling you, we have people today who have been bruised and battered. Some are wounded domestically. Some are wounded psychologically. Little children who have been abused and battered, some of them sexually abused. Some of them are wounded economically. They're victims of slum lords, unfair economical practices. Some are wounded spiritually. They've been caught up in the cults and false doctrine and liberalism.

When they're gotten into those movements, they're twice full, the child of hell. I'm telling you, the bruised and the battered and the beat up are all around us. There are the beater uppers, they're the passer uppers, and many of them, God help us, have their names on church rolls somewhere, but then they're the picker uppers. You're one of the three, my dear friend. Either you like those thieves who said, what's yours is mine and I'm going to get it, or you're like the priest and the Levite who said, what's mine is mine and I'm going to keep it, or you're going to be like the Good Samaritan who says, what's mine is mine, but you can have it if you need it. And I'm here to share and I'm here to serve and I'm here to minister. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Quickly now, I want you to think with me not only about the beauties of mercy. I'm telling you, my dear friend, that mercy is a beautiful thing because it is God-like. But what is the basis of mercy, the basis of mercy? How do you show mercy? Well, my dear friend, let me say this. There can be no mercy without proof.

Did that sink in? There can be no mercy without truth. I'm talking to you about the basis of mercy.

Now let me give you a verse. Psalm 85 and verse 10, mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. I took my concordance and I looked up place after place where God links mercy and truth together. I knew it was there, but I was amazed at the verses in the Bible where God conjoins mercy and truth. All real mercy is rooted in truth. Now what I mean by that is to show mercy is not to minimize sin. Mercy is not sentiment. When you show mercy, you withhold judgment. And when you withhold judgment, that means that judgment is really needed, really expected. Mercy is the withholding of judgment. Have you ever heard anybody say, is it fair for God to do this or fair for God to do that?

Or have they ever gotten in the silly discussion with you about whether God is fair or whether God is not fair? Praying God is not fair. Don't ever expect God to be fair. God is not fair.

Now wait a minute. I'm not finished yet. God is not fair. Do you know when I expect somebody to be fair to me, that means I have it coming to me.

Give me what I have coming. Be fair. In other words, I deserve this. See, that's fairness. You give me my part.

It's like children arguing about a will. It's not fair that you get this and I don't get that. That's fairness. God doesn't deal with us on the basis of fairness.

God deals with us on the basis of mercy. We don't deserve anything. When a man is looking for fairness, he's not happy when he gets what he deserves because he figures I deserve it. He's only mad because he didn't get it sooner and doubly mad if somebody else gets more.

I mean, that's the object. That's fairness. God is not fair. God is just and merciful.

Think about that concept. God is not fair. He is just and merciful. Coming up next time, we'll hear part two of this important message, but maybe today you have questions regarding your faith in Jesus. We'd love to offer you an insightful resource on the website. It's our Discover Jesus page. You'll find answers you may need about your faith, as well as a response section. You can share how this message has affected your life. Just go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus at the top of the page. Again, lwf.org slash radio.

We can't wait to hear from you. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and request the title, The Magnificence of Mercy. This message is also part of the insightful Sermon on the Mount series, The Keys to the Kingdom for the complete collection, all eight powerful messages. Call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD or go to lwf.org slash radio to order.

Or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Well, thanks for studying in God's word with us today. Do you have a heart full of compassion in action?

If God has forgiven us, how much more should we forgive one another? Remember this beatitude today, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. We hope you'll tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of The Magnificence of Mercy right here on Love Worth Finding. A Facebook friend wrote recently on our wall with an encouraging word. I quote, I cannot listen to Pastor Rogers without feeling his genuine love for God. I am so thankful his messages will live on through Love Worth Finding for years to come. You know, in spite of the global pandemic, the social unrest and all the political division we've seen in 2020, this has been a fruitful year for Love Worth Finding. Because of your generosity, we've even seen projects and programs launched this year, including our My LWF app, Faithful 31 Moms and Conversations That Matter each Tuesday evening online. And to thank you for your generosity, we'd love to send you our brand new Names of God card set. Call with a gift right now at 1-877-LOVEGOD and we'll send you the new Names of God card set.