I. “‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy’…So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy”—Rom. 9:15a, 16:
A.
Mercy is the most far-reaching of God's attributes, going further than His grace and love—Matt. 9:13:
1.
According to our natural condition, we were far removed from God, totally unworthy of His grace; we were eligible only to receive His mercy—Eph. 2:4.
2.
Our disobedience affords God's mercy an opportunity, and God's mercy brings us to salvation—Rom. 11:32.
B.
Our concept is that the one who wills will gain what he wills to obtain and that the one who runs will gain what he runs after—9:16:
1.
If this were the case, God's selection would be according to our effort and labor.
2.
On the contrary, God's selection is of God who shows mercy; we do not need to will or to run, for God has mercy on us.
3.
If we know God's mercy, we will neither trust in our effort nor be disappointed by our failures; the hope for our wretched condition is in God's mercy—Eph. 2:4.
C.
If we would serve God in His New Testament economy, we need to know that it is wholly a matter of God's sovereign mercy—Rom. 9:15-16; Heb. 4:16:
1.
If we know God's sovereignty, we will thank Him for His mercy:
a.
The expression sovereign mercy means that God's mercy is absolutely a matter of God's sovereignty.
b.
Being a vessel of mercy is not the result of our choice; it originates with God's sovereignty—Rom. 9:18, 23.
c.
God's mercy is in His sovereignty; the only thing we can say to explain God's mercy to us is that in His sovereignty, He has chosen to be merciful to us—vv. 15-16, 23.
2.
In God's sovereign mercy, our hearts are inclined toward Him; because of His mercy to us, we seek Him day by day—Jer. 29:13; Deut. 4:29; Isa. 55:6.
3.
The more we see that everything related to us is a matter of God's mercy, the more we will bear our responsibility before the Lord; however, even our willingness to bear responsibility is of God's mercy.
4.
Because of God's mercy, we responded to His gospel when others did not, we received a word about Christ as life when others refused to receive it, and we took the way of the Lord's recovery when others drew back from taking this way.
5.
Regarding His recovery, God has mercy on whom He will have mercy.
D.
Romans 9 reveals the principle that everything depends on God's mercy—vv. 15-16:
1.
The apostle Paul applies this principle to the Israelites, showing us that everything that happened to them was of God's mercy—vv. 16, 23.
2.
There must be at least one time when we see God's mercy and definitely touch His mercy—Eph. 2:4; Matt. 9:13:
a.
Concerning this matter, our eyes need to be opened to see that everything depends on God's mercy.
b.
Whether we see this all at once, or we realize it through a process, the minute we touch this matter, we touch not a feeling but a fact; this fact is that everything depends on God's mercy.
E.
“Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help”—Heb. 4:16:
1.
Both God's mercy and His grace are the expression of His love.
2.
When we are in a pitiful condition, first His mercy reaches us and brings us into a state where God is able to favor us with His grace.
3.
God's mercy and grace are always available to us; however, we need to receive and find them by exercising our spirit to come forward to the throne of grace—v. 16.
F.
In His sovereignty God the Father has had mercy on us; therefore, we must praise and worship Him for His sovereign mercy:
1.
“Father, we enjoy Thy mercy, / Ever fresh and ever new; / Every morning shed upon us, / It refreshes as the dew. / How we taste it! How we taste it! / Giving Thee the praises due”—Hymns, #26, stanza 5.
2.
“Father, Thy mercy with Thy love and grace / Did we obtain; / And in Thy mercy, with Thee face to face, / We'll e'er remain; / And for Thy mercy we would worship Thee / Through all our days and through eternity”—Hymns, #25, stanza 3.
II. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy”—Matt. 5:7:
A.
To be righteous is to give one what he deserves, whereas to be merciful is to give someone better than he deserves.
B.
For the kingdom of the heavens, we need to be not only righteous but also merciful.
C.
To receive mercy is to receive what we do not deserve.
D.
If we are merciful to others, the Lord will give us mercy (2 Tim. 1:16, 18), especially at His judgment seat—James 2:12-13.
E.
We must learn to be righteous with ourselves and merciful toward others.
III. “Grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord”—2 Tim. 1:2:
A.
Only in 1 and 2 Timothy, among all his Epistles, did the apostle include God's mercy in the opening greeting.
B.
God's mercy reaches farther than His grace.
C.
In the degraded situation of the churches, God's mercy is needed.
D.
This mercy brings in God's rich grace, which is sufficient to deal with any degradation.
IV. “The judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment”—James 2:13:
A.
To despise a poor brother is to have no mercy.
B.
Anyone who despises a poor brother in this way will not receive mercy when he appears before the judgment seat of Christ—Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10:
1.
When we come before the Lord to be judged, He will not show mercy to us, because we have not shown mercy to our brother.
2.
We need to show mercy, for mercy triumphs over judgment.
3.
If we have mercy on our brother today, we will receive mercy from the Lord at His judgment seat.
V. We should bow down before the Lord and worship Him for His mercy—Psa. 145; Isa. 63:9; John 10:10; Rom. 3:24; 11:32; 2 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 2:4-5:
A.
The more we worship the Lord for His mercy, the more we will be uplifted.
B.
What a mercy that God has selected us, predestinated us, called us, and placed us in His recovery!
C.
For the future we trust not in ourselves but in Him and in His marvelous mercy.
D.
Our going on with the Lord is a matter not of our willing or running but of God's mercy.
E.
God's mercy works in a wonderful way.