A God of Mercy and Love

And they're getting ready to go there. You'll find Lamentations chapter three, in your Bible. Lamentations chapter three. Alright. Yeah.

Right there. There you go. Alright. Awesome. Okay.

Lamentations, that's after Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. It is also up here on the screen, but little background to the book of Lamentations and this passage that, we are looking at today. This is written by Jeremiah, the prophet. Jeremiah had been warning the people of Israel that the judgment of God was coming and to prepare themselves, to turn to the Lord, to seek his forgiveness, to to seek his service, to turn from their wicked ways, and to prepare themselves. For the most part, his message went unheeded and judgment did come and most were unprepared for it.

The city of Jerusalem was laid waste. Their temple completely destroyed. Their city burned, a lot of their people were killed, others were taken captive. It was a sad day in the nation of Israel. However, Jeremiah did not want them to be without hope because God did not want them to be without hope.

Because God, despite the discipline and chastening that the nation of Israel required, God was not through with them. God would save a remnant. God would begin to work again. God had not forgotten his people. For God is a God of love and mercy even in judgment.

So Jeremiah wrote here in chapter three, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning great is thy faithfulness. The morning would dawn upon Israel. They would have a new opportunity to turn in faith to the Lord and to reap the blessings of God. Seventy years later, Jeremiah said God would bring them back to rebuild their city because it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.

We are not destroyed altogether because even in judgment, he is a a merciful God. And his mercies are new what? Are new every day. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for your word today and thank you for the message we find therein.

We pray, Lord, that you would impress upon our hearts not only that you are a merciful God, but we are to be a merciful people. We are to reflect the love and mercy and compassion of our God out into a world around us. May you work in our hearts, conform us more to your image today. May you draw lost souls to the savior that they might be saved. And may you be magnified in our presence.

In Jesus name we do pray. Amen. We have learned in this series that God is almighty. He is the almighty creator and sovereign Lord of the universe. We learned he is omniscient.

There is not anything that happens in this world that God is not aware of. He knows it all. He sees it all. Even, as David says, our downsitting and our uprising, even the thoughts of our mind and the words before they come out of our mouth. We learned he is a righteous and holy God, a humble God.

And last week, a God jealous for his own. He is also a God of love and mercy and a God who expects the same attitude from his children. He writes in Ephesians four thirty two, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Here Paul writes, as God has forgiven us of so much, and I think sometimes we underestimate the so much. Every day, we we fall short in some in some fashion.

Thoughts that travel through our mind and some that we act upon. Half truths that we tell. Days go by that we don't talk with our Lord or read his word. Opportunities missed to tell others about Jesus. But in all of this, we have a forgiving and a patient and a merciful God.

A merciful God who sent his son to die for us when we were yet sinners and had no way of reaching up to him. He reached down to us to pull us up out of the the miry clay, out of the the pit of sin and to save our souls. A god who is merciful and patient with us every day as we grow and as we learn and as we flounder at times, he picks us back up and he says, let's try that again. As God has shown such mercy to us, ought not we show mercy to others? As God is a forgiving God, He desires that we be a forgiving people.

One of the ways in which we demonstrate to others around us that we serve the true and living God is by being a merciful people as he is merciful. Paul wrote this in con in making a contrast here between the attitude of the world and the attitude of a Christian. One which needs to reflect that of our God and our savior of our father in heaven. And that attitude that should be, obvious in the life of the child of God is one of love and mercy because it is definitely an attribute of our God. Luke six thirty six, be therefore merciful as your father also is merciful.

How more straightforward can you get? How about Psalm one thirty six one? Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good. And what is He good? How is He good?

His mercy what? His mercy endureth forever and praise God it does because if it didn't endure forever, I would be in big, big trouble. But it does. And nothing can separate us in Christ Jesus from the love of God. Our God indeed is a merciful God.

The world around us reacts differently. It perceives responds to unfair treatment or at least what it perceives to be unfair treatment, often with anger and malice, with bitterness and a vengeful spirit. Those things reside in our human nature that has been marred by sin. They reflect that nature, man's nature. But we are in Christ have a what?

A new nature. The flesh is not merciful toward those who commit trespasses against it. It is not patient. It is not tenderhearted, and it is not very forgiving. But we who are in Christ have a divine nature that reflects the nature of our God.

And one that by all means should be patient, tender hearted, understanding, and forgiving. The gods designed by the imaginations of men reflect the nature of man. Those gods are often angry and bitter vengeful spirits who take out their frustrations on mankind, often take glee in persecuting mankind for little reason at all. If you've ever studied Greek mythology at all, this explains it all. Those imaginations designed by man reflect the unforgiving nature of man.

But the true and living God is not like them. The true and living God is a God of mercy. He is the God of the second chance who despite our sinful, selfish, wicked, and rebellious ways offers us a way to escape the fate that we have justly earned. And by his grace, receive both forgiveness and eternal life. What mercy.

Because we all have earned death for the wages of sin is death. None of us are without guilt. The Bible says if you've violated one of his laws, you are guilty of what? Guilty of all. And who among you here has only violated one or two or three.

We are guilty, but a God of mercy and love has made a way for the guiltiest among us to be redeemed, to be forgiven. He accepts the most vile of sinners who choose to repent and trust in him and promises despite ourselves to never abandon those who choose him by faith Even though at times they might be confused or misled or struggle to do what's right. A god of mercy and patience that is our God. Doesn't turn his back on his children. I have a home in heaven not thanks to my faithfulness but thanks to whose, but thanks to his.

I pray that each day I am growing more faithful, But my home is there based on the faithfulness of Jesus who gave his life for me and who will not let me go. He even gives life and many wonderful things to those who refuse and oppose him and many opportunities to have a change of heart to accept him. He causes it to rain on the what? The the just and the and the unjust. He gives life to the sinner and he gives them time to repent.

I think of the the Amorites. Now, knows about the Amorites, right? Maybe not. You know, maybe Amorites is not one of those people groups that you've talked about late recently. How about Canaanites?

Canaanites, Amorites, basically the same group of people. When God came to Abraham after God led Abraham to the promised land and Abraham was in the promised land, God said to Abraham, I make this covenant with you. I'm going to give this land to your descendants, but not not yet. A matter of fact, your descendants are gonna go and serve in another country for four hundred years before they come back and they take this land. And then God, at the end of the verse says this, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

What is God saying to Abraham? God's saying to Abraham, I've given you this land. I've given it to your descendants. However, I'm giving the Amorites nearly five hundred more years to get it right before I send your descendants back in judgment upon them. Five hundred more years God gave to the Amorites.

He gave them generations of life and and rain and beauty an opportunity to turn from their idolatry to the Lord because that that's the kind of God he is. He is not quick to judge. He is not up in heaven waiting to crush us. No. He wants to redeem us.

He wants to save us. He wants to help us. He does not require us to clean up our act and then come to him to forgiveness, but to come in faith as the messed up wretches that we are, that he might forgive us and clean us up and make us a vessel fit for the master's use. God doesn't say, okay, I'll accept you if you you you clean all this up first, then you come to me. I mean, that's the way a lot of times we treat other people.

Yeah, I'll I'll I'll take you in. I'll I'll help you. First, you got to do A, B and C and D then I'll think about it. But that isn't our God. We sing a song just as I am.

What does that mean? God says, come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. He that cometh to me, I will in no wise, what? Cast out. For whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be what?

Saved. God doesn't say clean up your act first. You have to go to church for three years before you come to me and then maybe I'll accept you. You have to quit that lion thing you do and then after you've done that for a while, then then we'll try this again. No, that's not the God of mercy and love and patience.

That's not our God. Our God says, come to me just as you are in repentance and faith and I will what? I will clean you up and I will forgive all your sin and I will make you a a vessel fit for the glory of God and the use of the God who made you. Reminds me of a story in the Old Testament of this prophet, his name was Hosea. And God told Hosea, you go find yourself a wife and you marry this woman who is unfaithful.

You marry somebody who's already unfaithful and will likely be unfaithful. And so, Hosea does what God oddly tells him to do. It is definitely what God tells most people to do. Hosea was a special case. You go marry this woman and she is going to betray you.

And guess what? She betrayed him. Oddly enough, her name was Gomer. I'm sure that's a beautiful name in Hebrew, but it always reminds me of Gomer Pyle. Yeah.

So anyway but but she she betrayed him. She was unfaithful. She sold herself to some other man. After a time, God said, okay, Hosea, now you go get her. You go get her and you buy her back, literally buy her back from the man she's living with.

And you redeem her, and you bring her home, and you clean her up, and you take her back in. Because that's what God did for Israel again and again, and I believe we'll do again. And one day, it's going to stick when Christ returns. And that is what God has done with me, and that is what God wants to do with you. If you will come to him, he is a merciful and loving God.

He says, come to me and I will clean you up. But you must come to Christ and repentance and faith believing that he can do that very thing for you, forgive your sins and change your life and give you eternal life in him. He will. And if you know him, he is. We still fail.

He's still working on me. I sing a song I learned as a kid. He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient he must be for he's still working on me.

The Bible tells the story of God's love, compassion for fallen man from Genesis to Revelation. His grace and mercy is the theme of the Bible. He is a righteous and holy God whose love compels him to find a way that we might be forgiven and redeemed. And that way was the death of his son on the cross. I said it was God's theme from from Genesis to Revelation.

Give me just a few minutes to give you a few examples from Genesis to Revelation, in addition to the ones I've already mentioned. Let's start with Adam and Eve. God said, don't eat the what? Don't eat the fruit off the tree. They ate the fruit off the tree.

That was it, end of story. Or was it? Was it the end of the story? No. God gave them a second chance.

God even told them in the garden, I will send the seed of the woman who disobeyed me and he will come and crush the head of the serpent so that I might buy you back. He he killed an animal and shed its blood to use its skins to clothe them before he sent them out of the garden. He showed them love and mercy despite what they had done to him. And he gave them a second chance. Cain, their son, Cain, first son.

Oh, Eve was so happy when Cain was born but Cain was a bad seed. Then was born Abel. Abel was a son of faith They brought sacrifices and I kind of infer from the story that they were told ahead of time what God was expecting but Cain didn't bring a blood sacrifice, he brought the works of his hands, his vegetables. Not that God does not appreciate vegetables or bread like the table of showbread and but it wasn't what they were supposed to bring in faith. And God didn't accept Cain's sacrifice and Cain got all mad and upset and frustrated and and God said, don't don't it's okay, Cain.

Just just go back and get the right one and let's try this. Try this again. Don't let sin win. Don't let anger win. I will give you a second chance.

Sadly, Cain did not take it. He gave the world a second chance in the family of Noah. The Bible says the imagines of man's heart was only wicked continually, and I'm sure Noah wasn't perfect, but he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And God gave Noah and his family a second chance, and we're here today because of it. Abraham and Sarah.

Abraham, hero of the faith, left his homeland to follow the Lord. Abraham never messed up. Right? Yeah. No.

No. Abraham, he made some big blunders. He went to Egypt and he told the Egyptians that his wife was his sister because they didn't wanna he didn't want them to kill him to take his wife. And so she ended up getting taken because, well, they didn't think she was his wife because he said that she was his sister and he put her in harm's way. And God had to come to his rescue and her rescue.

He did that twice. And then when he didn't have a child, because God said, I'm a make of you a great nation and they didn't have a child and he's a 100 years old, Sarah comes and says, well, you know, maybe God wants you to have a child with my handmaid over here, Hagar. And he agreed. Dumb. Should have never agreed.

Should have known better. Should have just trusted who? Trust the Lord to do in his time, but he jumped in. Listen to the advice of his wife, and that didn't end well. But it didn't didn't end things altogether.

God forgave him. Again and again, God forgave him. And even though he laughed and later Sarah laughed when God said, you're gonna have a child even though your wife is now 90. They did laugh, and they named their son laughter as God told them when he was finally born. God is the God of the second chance.

The Canaanites, I already mentioned, the Amorites, one in particular. God told Israel five hundred years later when they came back, it's time to judge these people. You go in and you you take them out. I don't want them here. This is now your land.

They're not to remain here. Kill them or run them out. And so they sent in spies. This is with Joshua when they came back the second time, only two spies. This time, they sent the spies to Jericho.

And the spies were on the run-in Jericho and they ran into a lady and the lady said, come in here, I'll hide you. Her name was what? Her name was Rahab. Though God had pronounced judgment on the Canaanites, he made an exception for who? He made an exception for Rahab because of her faith in God.

Because of her faith, she hid the spies. Because of her faith, she asked when they returned if God could spare her. And they said, just put this red cord out of your window, and everybody that's in your home, they'll be spared. What was her profession? Not only was she a Canaanite, she was a was a harlot.

But God saved her soul, and God saved her family. And she became the mother of Boaz, who became the husband of Ruth, who became the great grandmother of king David. That is the God of the second chance. That is a god of mercy. The nation of Israel, again and again, God delivered them from Egypt, and they threatened to kill Moses and go back.

They made themselves a golden calf to worship while he was up on the mountain. They refused to trust God and go into the land. They didn't take care of the enemy like they should have when they went into the land. They didn't finish the job. And time and time again, God blessed them and God delivered them and they would turn and their back on him.

But God is a God of mercy. He sent them prophet after prophet of which they often chose not to listen. But Israel still exists today because, well, God is a merciful God. David and Bathsheba, God is a merciful God who made Bathsheba's second son. First one died.

The king in David's stead, Solomon. How about Jonah? God said, Jonah, you go speak, you go preach the people of Nineveh. And what did Jonah do? Did he go preach the people of Nineveh?

Did he tell them about the coming judgment? No. He didn't want to because he wanted them to be he didn't wanna give them any chance because Jonah was not a prophet of mercy. So he ran the other what? The other direction.

What did God do? Well, God sent a storm and they threw him off the ship. And God could have been done with them and said, I'll just go find another prophet, but no, that's not what God did. He sent a fish. The fish swallowed Jonah, the fish swam back, spit Jonah back up on shore and said, let's try this.

God said, not the fish. God said, let's try this again. Because a God is a God of mercy. Mercy on Jonah, mercy on Nineveh When they repented and put off their judgment for nearly a hundred and fifty years. Nebuchadnezzar, Wicked is one of the most wicked kings, tyrants that's ever walked the face of the earth.

But God sent him a man named Daniel. And three men named Hananiah, Meshach, and Azariah, or you may know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They thought they kidnapped them, but really God sent them. God sent them into the court of Nebuchadnezzar. And by time God was done with Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar was praising the God of heaven and making decrees for his old kingdom that they worship the true and living God.

Seven years of insanity, Nebuchadnezzar endured because he refused to acknowledge God. After seven years, he looked up to heaven and he cried out to God and God restored him because he's the God of the second chance. He is a merciful and loving God. The woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus. The religious leaders wanted Jesus to make an example of her.

He did make an example of her. He made an example of his mercy. He did not condone her sin. He didn't condone theirs either. But he did say to her, go and what?

Go and sin no more. Why? Because he's a God of mercy. Levi, Levi, in the in the New Testament, he was a tax collector. You might know him by the name of what?

Matthew, the writer of the first gospel of our in our New Testament. Levi was a traitor. Levi was a thief. What did Jesus do? We walked up to where he was taking taxes and he said, come follow me.

And Levi dropped everything he did and he came and he followed Christ and he became one of his 12 disciples. How about Peter? Peter, you're gonna deny me. No, I'm not. Peter, you're gonna you're gonna run away and hide.

No, I'm not. I can handle it. Peter, before the cock crows twice, you're gonna deny me three times. What did Peter do? Peter did exactly what Jesus told him he would do, and he denied his he he swore up and down.

He didn't know the man. And Jesus sat on the shore line of the Sea Of Galilee with Peter and said, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. In other words, Peter, guess what? I forgive you.

Now let's get back to work. Saul of Tarsus, you might know him as Paul. This is the last example on my list here. Okay? Saul of Tarsus.

He was a very religious man, but he didn't believe in who? He didn't believe in Jesus. Matter of fact, he thought Christians were a a cancer within his religion. And so he was going to be a good doctor and he was going to eradicate the cancer from Judaism by arresting and killing off Christians. But God stopped him in his tracks on the road to Damascus and God opened his eyes and God saved his soul and God made him apostle to the Gentiles because God is a merciful, loving, patient God.

God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. But God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Matthew nine thirteen, written by Levi. But go ye and learn what that meaneth.

I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Jesus said, if you will accept that you are a sinner and you'll come to me to be washed in the blood of the lamb, I will cleanse you and change you and forgive you because I'm a god of mercy and we may you may not be a Saul or you may not be a Peter, you may not be a Rahab, but you know something, you are a sinner. God loved you anyway. And Christ died for you anyway. And if you've come to him, he saved you anyway.

And if you'll come, he will. That's the kind of God he is. Titus three five says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. If you're trying to get to heaven on your own good works, you're gonna fall what? Short.

You won't make it. But you can make it on the work of Christ. His finished work is my assurance. His mercy is my way of escape. Paul wrote, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

And Paul on that road one day as he looked up into the sky blinded by the light that shone down, a voice that spoke from heaven had to humble himself and admit that he was wrong and that Christ was right. There've been a day when you looked up to heaven in faith and admitted to God that you were wrong, he is right, That you're the sinner and he's the savior and come to him relying not on your works but on his mercy. And he asks us to do likewise and to forgive others. If necessary, 70 times what? 70 times seven.

He asks us to tell them of his gracious and loving offer. As the father has sent me, so send I you. To give our time and energy and intellect, our finances in the pursuit of reaching others, other sinners with the gospel that they might be saved also. Missions conference next week. What's it about?

It's about reaching the world for Jesus Christ. And it starts with your neighbor and it starts with your coworker and it starts with the person that sits at your table that you're serving, Ashley. Couple sitting behind her this morning came because she invited them. They know the Lord. Praise the Lord.

She keeps at it. Someone's gonna come that doesn't. It's about reaching the world for Jesus whether it's next door or the other side of the world. Next week, we'll have ten ten flags up here or more that represent our missionaries at different places in the world where they minister and where we minister through them. They're also represented by that map on the back wall back there.

It tells you who they are and where they are so that you might pray for them, so that you might know as you give specifically to missions that you're giving to bring people to Christ and all many other parts of the world. It is our privilege to be a merciful people and to show the mercy and to share the mercy and love of God with others who need it just as badly as we do. To love those who do not love us, to pray for those who wish evil upon us, and even persecute us, Christ said. Be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful. Forgive others as Christ has forgiven you.

Forgive your friend. Forgive your child. Forgive your parent. Forgive your neighbor. Forgive your coworker.

Forgive them. Let it go. Don't walk around a bitter soul. Don't hold things over people's heads. Let it go.

Be merciful as your father is merciful. He is a God of mercy who wants to save you, giving you another chance today. If you're here today and don't know Christ as savior, don't pass up another opportunity. And he is a merciful God who loves the lost around you and asks you to care for them as much as he cares for you, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your love and your mercy that has brought us to this opportunity today to stand here and praise your name and worship the one who gave his life for us, to give our lives in service that that we might reflect the light of Christ and the mercy of God to a world around us, that we might show it in our everyday interactions, that we might show it by sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ, that we might show it by praying for our missionaries and contributing to their mission work that they might be able to tell others also. And Lord, we pray if there's one here today that is yet to receive Christ as savior, that they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation. That we might be able to show them from God's word how they can be saved and know it today. In Jesus precious name, we pray. Amen.