Much Mercy Lamentations 3:21-26 Nehemiah 9:29-31 Psalms 25:4-6 Isaiah 63:9 Matthew 9:12-13 Ephesians 2:1-5 Romans 12:1-2 Jude 1:20-23 05.17.21

 

MUCH MERCY

BREAD

²¹ Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. ²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”  ²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; ²⁶ it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.   Lamentations 3:21-26 (NIV)

 

²⁹ “You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. ³⁰ For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. ³¹ But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.”  Nehemiah 9:29-31 (NIV)

 

⁴ Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; ⁵ guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.  ⁶ Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.  Psalms 25:4-6 (NIV)

 

⁹ In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.  Isaiah 63:9 (NIV)

 

¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Matthew 9:12-13 (NIV)

 

¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.  Ephesians 2:1-5 (NIV)

 

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. ² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.  Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

 

²⁰ But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. ²¹ Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. ²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.   Jude 1:20-23 (NIV)

 

BUTTER

“God’s mercies are new every morning because each day only has enough mercy in it for that day. God appoints every day’s troubles. And God appoints every day’s mercies. In the life of his children, they are perfectly appointed. Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). Every day has its own trouble. Every day has its own mercies. Each is new every morning.”  John Piper

“Christian, believe this and think on it; you will be eternally embraced in the arms of everlasting love.  The love that brought the Son from heaven to earth, from the earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the glory; the love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crucified; that love will eternally embrace you.  What shall we say to these things?  No wonder the angels desire to peer into this mystery.  All of Christ’s ways of mercy end in the saints’ joy; He wept, sorrowed, suffered that we might rejoice; He sent the Spirit to be our Comforter, He multiplied His promises that our joy might be full.  It is not our joy only, but mutual joy and mutual love.  If there is joy in heaven at your salvation, will there not be joy at your glorification?  Will not the angels welcome you there and congratulate your safe arrival?  Christ Jesus rejoices at the outcome of His suffering, and is admired by those that believe.  We are the fruit of His soul’s travail.”  Richard Baxter    

“Do we honor God by placing our trust in Him?  Sometimes, God permits us no other options, no other way out, and that indeed is a great mercy if it brings us to Him.”  BHY

“Sometimes we wonder if we will have the mercy to stand in terrible testing. Yes, we will. Peter says, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). When the reviling comes, the Spirit of glory comes. It happened for Stephen as he was being stoned. It will happen for you. When the Spirit and the glory are needed, they will come.”  John Piper

“He shall lead you on with courage, and bring you off with honour.  He lived and died for you.  For mercy and tenderness to His soldiers, there is none like Him.”  William Gurnall

“The manna in the wilderness was given one day at a time. There was no storing up. That is the way we must depend on God’s mercy. You do not receive today the strength to bear tomorrow’s burdens. You are given mercies today for today’s troubles. Tomorrow the mercies will be new. ‘God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Corinthians 1:9).”  John Piper

“He who makes a small matter of small sins is in danger of falling into the greater.  Even the godly are subject to a fall.  Yet a truly regenerate soul rooted in Christ can never fall away totally or finally…How can we keep from falling so we do not crucify afresh the Son of God and tread on His blood?  Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation.  Keep your conscience tender and flee the first motion and occasion of sin.  Don’t think of sin as a little thing and don’t take mercy for granted.  Don’t trust in your own strength.  Don’t trust in light repentance.  True repentance flees further stumblings.  Remember that yielding to sin increases its power to rise higher.  Every time the bone is broken, the mending is more difficult and the limp more pronounced.”   John Sheffield    

“Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.”  John Bunyan

“Nothing graces the Christian soul as much as mercy.”   Ambrose

 

“Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan.”   John Chrysostom

 

“We judge things by their present appearance; but the Lord sees them in their consequences.  If we could do the same we would be perfectly of His mind; but since we can’t, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is regarded as one of His heaviest judgments when He gives any person up to the way of their own hearts, and to walk according to their own wisdom.”  John Newton

 

“There is a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea.”  Frederick William Faber

HEART SAVOR

• ·         God’s mercies are new every morning – great is His faithfulness.
• ·         Sometimes in His mercy we are placed in circumstances “far beyond our ability to endure” (2 Corinthians 1:8).  These happen “so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine” (1 Peter 1:7).
• ·         Sin is the rape of His mercy.