Mercy. The gift given to the guilty. Mercy is a word you will hear used in the legal system. After the conviction has been made, the jury has unanimously declared your guilt, and the sentence is about to be handed down, MERCY is begged for. Your advocate may say, “We would like to throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. My client is a wife and has three children, we beg for mercy.
Mercy is not found in a state of innocence, nor is it sought before the sentence is sure. When an appeal for mercy is invoked, it is your only hope. There is no prayer that your defense argument will prevail, there is no hope that reasonable doubt will be established. The only hope is that the gavel will not come down with the sentence you have now been declared worthy of, that the judge will show mercy.
“The man who refuses to show mercy destroys the bridge over which he himself must cross.” is a quote from a great preacher reflecting the truth of this verse. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Yet we live in a time when hearts have grown cold and insensitive to the needs of others. As we become self-absorbed and not seeing our common plight in the needs of others. Take for instance, the current event that headlined with the Texan lady who ran down a homeless man and did nothing to help him, but ignored his pain and allowed him to die.
I. We must realize our constant need of MERCY
A. We are upheld by the mercy that brought us salvation
B. What it means to live under grace is illustrated by the life of John Newton.
Newton was born in London, half a century before the American Revolution, to a mother of superb spiritual qualities and a nondescript father. His mother died when he was six. Five years later he went to sea with his father who was a ship’s captain. He became a midshipman and for a time led a wild existence, living in utter disgrace. He rejected the God of his mother, he renounced any need of religion and he lived an irresponsible and sinful life. Eventually he became a slave trader, crossing the ocean several times as captain of slave ship, responsible for terrible human degradation among the captives he had crowded on board. But grace was always a factor in his life. He survived a deadly fever in Africa, and his ship survived a terrible storm which almost killed him.
Finally, dissatisfied with his life, he began reading the writings of Thomas a Kempis. Somehow, the Holy Spirit began stirring inside his soul, awakening him from sin, urging him toward salvation until he finally gave his heart to Christ. He was so thoroughly converted, in fact, that he felt a call from God to enter the ministry. He was eventually ordained in 1781 and accepted a pastorate in Olney, England.
You may have heard one of the beautiful songs written by John Newton, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. . .”
C. Our greatest need is for MERCY
"If our greatest need was for information, God would have sent an educator."
"If our greatest need was for technology, God would have sent a scientist."
"If our greatest need was for pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer."
"If our greatest need was for money God would have sent an economist."
BUT SINCE OUR GREATEST NEED IS FOR MERCY, GOD SENT A SAVIOR.
D. I could not be a member, let alone a minister, of a House of Holiness. For I am not always holy. I could not stand to preach before a House of Legalism, a House of Judgment. My ministry is right at home at the House of Mercy, because I need Mercy, you need mercy, the down & out need mercy, the up and out need mercy, the elect need mercy, the lost need mercy – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” Mercy that we all need.
E. C.S. Lewis quoted Augustine, who said, "God gives where he finds empty hands." Then Lewis noted that a man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift. II. To show mercy is to acknowledge our desperate need for MERCY
A. Our mercy on others feels the plight of their pain
B. Rather than blaming guilty for their suffering, we extend the hand of mercy “HANDS OF MERCY @ HOUSE OF MERCY”
C. Good Samaritan, picked up the hurting, helped him, ministered to him. Not the religious “pass on the other side” attitude
III. MERCY is summation of the Law
A. Matthew 22:36-40
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
B. Rather than remembering lists of commandments, ask yourself “Am I motivated by love and compassion, am I loving others the way Christ loved me.”
C. John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
IV. BECOME A CONDUIT OF GOD’S MERCY
A. Freely you have received, freely give
B. Show mercy with acts of kindness
1. Mercy and kindness are the same Greek word from which the name of our church is derived
C. Be a bridge to extend the mercy you have received
D. Evangelism, Outreach must all be touched with the tenor of mercy – Our goal is not to condemn or judge the lost, but extend the love of the Savior – to show the Bridge of Mercy
E. Ernest Hemingway tells a story of a father and his teenage son who had a relationship that had become strained to the point of breaking. Finally the son ran away from home. His father, however, began a journey in search of his rebellious son. Finally, in Madrid, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in the newspaper. The ad read: “DEAR PACO, MEET ME IN FRONT OF THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE AT NOON. ALL IS FORGIVEN. I LOVE YOU. YOUR FATHER.” The next day at noon in front of the newspaper office, 800 “Pacos” showed up.
F. We need to share the good news of God’s Mercy with the guilty, convicted, desperate lives that have only heard judgment, wrath, and condemnation.
G. Dear Abby recorded a powerful story. A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was a custom in their affluent community for parents to give their graduating children a new car, and the boy and his dad had spent weeks visiting one dealership after another. The week before graduation they found the perfect car. They boy was certain it would be in the driveway on graduation night.
One the eve of his graduation, however, his father handed him a small package wrapped in colorful paper. The Father said the package contained the most valuable gift the Father could think of. It was a Bible! The boy was so angry he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again.
Several year later the news of the father’s death finally brought the son home again. Following the funeral, he sat alone one evening, going through his father’s possessions that he was to inherit when he came across the Bible his dad had given him. Overwhelmed by grief, he brushed away the dust and cracked it open for the first time. When he did, a cashier’s check dated the day of his high school graduation fell into his lap --in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together. The gift had been there all along . . . but he had turned away.
