The Joy of Mercy

18 verses 1 through 8. As T.J. reminded me, our friend
used to call our attention to these readings by reminding us
that this is the inspired word of the living God. After these
things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great
authority and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he tried
out of the mighty boy saying fallen fallen is battling the
grief. She has become a dwelling place
of demons in the prison of every unclean spirit and a prison of
every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk
of the wine of the passion of her immorality and the kings
of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her and the
merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. I heard another voice from heaven
saying come out of her my people so that you will not participate
in her sins and receive her place for her sins have piled up as
high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities pay her back even
as she has paid and give back to her double according to her
deeds in the cup which she has mixed mixed twice as much for
her to the degree that she has glorified herself and lives sensuously
to the same degree as her torment and mourning, for she says in
her heart, I sit as a queen, I am not a widow, and will never
see mourning. For this reason, in one day,
her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and
she will be burned up with fire, for the Lord God who judges her
is strong. This ends the word, the reading
of the word of God. You would once again take your
bulletins and let’s stand as we sing before Ron comes and
brings us the Word and God’s Word. My heart is filled with
gratefulness to Him who bore my pain. Who flung the depths of my disgrace,
and gave me life again. Who crushed my curse of sinfulness,
and clothed me in His light. And improved His law of righteousness,
with power upon my heart. My heart is filled with thankfulness
to Him who walks beside, who floods my weakness as with strength
and causes fear supply. Those every promise is enough
for every step I take. Sustaining me with arms of love
and crowning me with grace. My heart is filled with thankfulness
to Him who reigns above, whose wisdom is my perfect peace, whose
every thought is love. For every day I have learned
is given by the King. So I will give my life, my all
to love and follow Him. For the last number of weeks,
we’ve been considering the great subject of God’s mercy, God’s
sovereign mercy. My question to God’s people today
is, do you know God’s mercy? And I specifically ask it in
that fashion because I’m not particularly curious to discover
whether you’ve experienced His mercy because that much is true.
I know that you have experienced His mercy by virtue of the fact
that you’re here this morning. Not a single one of us has ever
received what we really fully deserve. Every one of us has
been granted an abundant measure of mercy and the fact that we’re
here this morning means that we’re literally basking in it.
We are enjoying God’s mercy even as we sit and breathe. But do
we know His mercy? And by that I mean, have we experienced
it in its fullness? We have been engaged in considering
one of the most deep and difficult passages of Scripture, difficult
to process by any stretch. And my fear is that in considering
this subject of mercy, we are considering it academically.
that it’s a subject that’s out here, that we can ponder and
read it, and intellectually savor the concept of mercy, and never
once really ponder the question, do I know this mercy? Turn, if you would, to the book
of Romans, even if briefly. Romans chapter 9. In Romans chapter
9, Paul has taken up the subject of God’s sovereignty. And Paul
has begun to articulate some of those elements of God’s sovereignty. And Paul has done so by way of
essentially asking questions and then answering them, defending
them. Paul takes up the question in
verse 14, what should we say then? There is no injustice with
God. This exercise of sovereignty,
this freedom of God to do as he chooses, as he wills. It smacks to us, in this democratic
society in which we live, this seems to us to be quite unfair.
And so Paul anticipates the question, and not only anticipates it,
but does not shy away from it, and he launches immediately into
it. Even the way that he asks the question, there is, there
can’t possibly be any injustice with God. Is there? There’s no
injustice with God. Is there? May it never be. He
immediately answers the question. There’s no way. Don’t even think
the thought. Don’t even complete. Don’t let
that thought rattle around in your skull. Don’t savor that
thought. It’s not true. For He says to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. There’s sovereignty.
And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then
it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs
but on God who has mercy. And he uses the illustration
of Pharaoh. Verse 17 for the scripture says to Pharaoh for
this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in
you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
God had a purpose for Pharaoh. God had a cause. God would be
God. God would do what God wanted
to do with Pharaoh. Paul draws a conclusion in verse
18. So then he has mercy on whom he desires. He’s not obligated
to extend mercy to every person. He’s not obligated to give it
in every measure to every person. So then he has mercy on whom
he desires and he hardens whom he desires. He will say to me
then, why does he still find fault? or who resists his will. And
this is what has led me to conclude that perhaps even we as a congregation,
we who have feasted on these verses for many weeks, maybe
we are just entertaining this whole subject far too intellectually,
far too academic in our pursuit of an understanding of this truth. And for that purpose, I would
have us go To find out whether we know God’s mercy, to the book
of Titus. Titus chapter 3. In Titus chapter 3, you know
the situation well. Paul is writing to this young
servant of God, left on the island of Crete for the purpose of establishing
a great variety of churches. and establishing and appointing
elders in those particular local churches, Paul’s admonition to
Titus was clear. Set in order what remains and
appoint elders in every church. That was Titus’ job description. But Titus was in a heathen area. Paul was writing to him to encourage
him, to strengthen him, to seal him in the ministry. And he had
need of it, because he was in a very difficult place. Paul
was writing to him to remind him how grave the consequences
were, how great the cost was of a faulty life lived before
a watching world. And for that very reason, Paul
takes Titus aside, as it were, And he gives him some additional
marching orders, some additional instructions there in chapter
3. Look at verse 1. Where Paul says, remind them,
that is his congregation, and not just his local congregation,
but everyone on the island. Everyone who professed faith
must hear this message. Remind them to be subject to
rulers, to authorities. Now Paul would take up this subject
in much greater detail in Romans chapter 13. Paul isn’t saying that we obey
the government if they are prompting us or urging us to sin. We obey
unless the government forbids what God commands or commands
what God forbids. But certainly, speed limits and
stop signs, not anything that Titus had to worry about in his
day, but those are the kinds of things where the government
establishes a law. We as Christians are called to
obey it. That’s the kind of subjection
that he’s urging. Remind them to be subject to
rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every
good deed. Shouldn’t Christians in society
be the salt and light that they’re admonished to be by the Lord
Jesus? to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one,
to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for
all men.” Paul said, this is your evangelism. This is your
witness. You stand before a watching world
and they watch everything that you do. I wonder, I wonder how
many of the neighbors that we have, of our co-workers, of our
family members, of those people that we just come across. Those
who know me best know that one day I purpose to write a book.
It’s a simple title. How not to be a pain in the neck. How not to be a pain in the neck.
If we only used our role as a customer, if we ever just walked in and
were gracious and pleasant, and helpful, and good customers to
everyone that waits upon us, everyone that serves us in any
capacity, from the cashier to the waitress. We’ve forgotten that. We’ve forgotten
that they’re watching. We’ve forgotten that they watch
our every move, and that once they know that we’re Christians,
we indeed have a target, but it’s a good target. That’s a
role we can take up, can’t we? Since we have the Word of God
and the power of God, God’s people with whom to walk, the admonition
of the Lord to be salt and light, we can take that up, can’t we? Paul says, remember, you’ve got
a witness. You’ve got a witness to live.
And it’s a day-to-day thing. It’s not just a moment thing.
It’s not just a profession thing. It’s certainly not a Sunday morning
only thing, is it? What good is Christianity if
that’s all it is? And then he says, I want you
to remember. Remember what you were like. Remember what you
were like. Paul takes him back. And not to malign him, not to
scold them, not to shame them. He says, look back on who you
were. Look how far, in a sense, God
has brought you. But it should humble you. It
should cause you to have compassion on those who are around you.
It should cause you to pause and to bow on your knees in prayer
for their behalf. Look at verse 3. Remind them
to be subject, to be obedient. Why? For we also once were foolish
ourselves. We were so wayward, we were so
hellbound, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and
pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful,
hating one another. That’s who we were. And it doesn’t
get any worse than that. We were in desperate need of
a Savior. We desperately needed God to
move. We were hopeless and helpless. We hated God. We hated everything
to do with Him. We hated people. There was strife
in our life and envy and bitterness and frustration. We were enslaved
to sins that we had no way out of. No power in ourselves could
extract us from the things in which we are engaged. Everywhere we looked, we hated
other people because of what they had, because of who they
were, because of what they did. And then Paul interjects the most
amazing phrase, but God saved us. It’s an amazing phrase. Given
the course, given what Paul had just laid out, he told them what
the stakes are, that everybody’s watching them, he told them what
their old life used to be, and then he gives them the reminder,
but God saved us. Things are different now. Things
are supposed to be different. Read with me, if you would, the
entirety of verses 1 through 7. where Paul says, remind them
to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for
every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle,
showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were
foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various
lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy,
hateful, hating one another. When the kindness of our God
and Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on
the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according
to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing
by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus
Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
We might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Paul reminds us of our salvation. The first thing I want to ask
you this morning, if you have not received God’s mercy, you’re
not saved. The first thing that I want to
point out this morning is that’s what the essence of mercy is,
is the enjoyment of full salvation before God. And what Paul reminds his readers,
those who had professed faith in Christ, he reminds them, you’re
saved. You have been saved and set apart. Note the simple sentence. And
for those of you who are new, this is where I start. This is
the simplest way for a simple guy to take on a deep subject.
And a simple guy like me looks at the passage, and I just say,
all I want to see, what’s the simplest statement that Paul
breaks up? I’ve already pointed it out to you. But he saves us. He saves us. It’s a simple equation. But it’s profound in its meaning
and its significance. In its entirety, this passage,
verses 1 through 7, calls us to a godly, Christ-testifying
life before an evil, fallen world. And this is urged upon us in
light of the salvation that we already enjoy, if we are believers
in the Lord Jesus. But note this. In the Greek, everything in verse
4, and much of verse 5, proceeds the verb The sentence isn’t completed
until almost the end of verse 5 in the Greek. But he saved
us. This emphasis that Paul puts
upon this subject of salvation is so completely up front. It
points so completely to God’s sovereign character that Paul
in essence pushes all of the detail up front. And he says, look at what God
has done in saving us. This pattern of Paul introducing
the horrible effects of sin and the grave condition in which
we stand and then interjecting, but God, is a pattern in scripture.
We have it in Ephesians chapter 2 as well. You were dead in your
trespasses and sins, but God. It’s the good news. It’s the
good news of the practical application of the gospel. See, sin, Paul
knew, Paul had pointed out to them, sin had ruined their lives.
As one pastor said, sin disrupted our relation to God and estranged
us from him. And what Paul is pointing to
is you must know the bad news. You must remember the bad news
before you ever hear the good. Sin disrupted our relation to
God and estranged us from Him. But when we received Christ our
Savior, we were justified, declared righteous, given the standing
before God as just, and brought Him to His favor. I want to look this morning in
the time that remains of four aspects of this salvation that
God has declared. That God is reminding us that
you have placed your faith in Christ You already know His mercy. That’s what it is to know the
mercy of God, is to know salvation. Look first of all at the timing
of our salvation. Look at verse 4. But, when the
kindness of our God and Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
that’s the timing of it. That’s when salvation came to
mankind. when God showed His kindness,
when God showed us a practical example of His love. This word
kindness just points to God’s graciousness, to the graciousness
of God and His care for mankind. It is beyond just kindness, it’s
a compassionate kindness. It is the kindness that is endemic. It is part of God’s character.
It is God, in a sense, being God as He shows us this kindness. It is translated in many versions
as graciousness or goodness. Where God is seen as always ready
to bestow His blessings and eager to forgive. But not just God’s
kindness. is pictured here with his love. We have this word. We still use
this word. Philanthropy. But for us it’s
a paltry word. We can show philanthropy just
for reaching into our pocket and giving whatever bill is in
our pocket to whoever asks. That’s not what the word means.
It goes far beyond that. We’ve cheapened it and softened
it and ruined it. It’s pity. It’s pity and from
God it’s pity for man’s condition and man’s state. God looked at
us and he had compassion and pity and he wanted to do something
about it. He knew he must. It’s kindness to individuals
in distress, but it’s a practical kindness. It’s not just well-wishing.
This is God being God. This is God taking matters into
his hand. This is God doing for us what
he knew we couldn’t do for ourselves. That’s why one referred to it
as a communicated goodness. It’s a participated goodness.
It’s not just God wishing us well, hoping we find our way
out of this dreadful maze in which we’ve found ourselves.
It’s a communicated goodness. It’s God saying, I am going to
bestow a kindness upon you. And His love towards mankind
tells us of the fact that God had a pity upon us and it moved
God. And although God hated sin, He
loved sinners. And He could not wait to move
in their direction to minister to their sin. Paul writing to the Galatians, reminded them as well, that so
we, while we were children, we were held in bondage under the
elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of time
came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the
law. You see, God’s goodness, his
philanthropy, wasn’t just in wealth, wasn’t just in opportunity,
God could have given us the directions for the maze, and we still would
have made it out. God knew that more than anything
in the world, we needed a Savior. We needed the Lord Jesus. We
needed a perfect, spotless Lamb to come and pay for our sin. And God sent Him. That’s the
kindness. That’s the love that moved God. And that’s the time of our salvation.
Those who are waiting for Christ in the Old Testament look forward
to exactly that. Those who now sit in pews across
this country, they look back upon the finished work of Christ
today. That’s the time of it. That’s
when God moved. That’s when salvation came to
mankind, when God sent the Lord Jesus. And He died on the cross
and He raised Him again from the dead. That’s the time of
our salvation. What about the cause of it? What
about the cause of it? Could we lay hold of these things
ourselves? Could we perhaps find our way
out of this maze? Could we secure our own salvation? Look at the passage. But when
the kindness of God, our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared,
He saved us. And remember in the Greek, that
word hasn’t even appeared yet. Everything that I say from this
point forth in verse 5 precedes that little phrase, He saved
us. He saved us not on the basis
of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according
to His mercy. See, we like that. We like those
deeds. We like some kind of opportunity
for effort to show God how good we are, how good we can be, that
we can reform ourselves, we can adjust, make some adjustments,
and move in God’s direction. We like that thought. It’s just
not true. That’s not me. That’s what God
is saying here. That he saved us not on the basis
of thieves. It didn’t matter how good we
were, and it certainly didn’t matter how bad we were. These works that were done in
an attempt to secure our salvation, Whether it’s church attendance
or whatever else, some kind of good deeds, philanthropy in our
own rights, didn’t merit our salvation at all. As one commentator pointed out,
the negative belongs to the entire announcement. We had not been
in righteousness. In other words, we weren’t good
people to begin with. So to think that we could do
good deeds is foolish thought. We have not been in righteousness.
We have not done works in righteousness. We possess no works through which
we could be saved. None. See, Paul points out the great
fallacy that there are two religions in the world. The religion, as
you know, of human achievement. and the religion of what God
has already accomplished. The religion of human achievement,
attempting to earn God’s favor by our deeds, Isaiah pronounced,
is nothing more than filthy rags. Our efforts, our goodness, our
philanthropy, nothing more than filthy rags in God’s sight if
we don’t know and place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One
pastor said, many attempt many works with a view to secure a
safe standing before God. That’s our pattern as humans. We want to appease God. We want
to kind of show up for God, perform for God. But these works are
tainted by an inward corruption. They are accompanied by ceaseless
transgression and can therefore never blot out the sins of the
past nor provide for the future. That’s what Paul says. That’s
an echo of what Paul says. He saved us not on the basis
of deeds, which we have done in righteousness. We didn’t have
any to begin with. How then? How then were we saved? Because Paul announces here to
at least a portion of the people on this heathen island that they
were saved. That they had come to know The
Lord Jesus Christ and now we’re in safe standing with almighty
God. How are they saved. If they didn’t commend themselves
to God by their good deeds how then were they saved. Paul tells
us he saved us not on the basis of deeds but according to his
mercy and that’s why I asked you do you know God’s mercy.
I’m not a person in the room that isn’t sitting here enjoying
God’s mercy at this very moment. But you don’t know how long it
will last. Will you be here tomorrow? Will you be here next week? You
don’t know. God’s mercy is what one Puritan said is the
element that restrains the speedy execution of God’s justice. And
we all deserve God’s justice. And it is not a pleasant experience
to fall out of the mighty hand of God. We all deserve it. And it’s only God’s mercy that
holds back that which we most deserve. And it’s only that mercy that
extends towards us the salvation that we enjoy. As one pastor
said, the wellspring of salvation is represented here as lying
in the kind and loving tendencies of God toward men. Coming forth
in the character of provisions and overtures of mercy in behalf
of the undeserving, the sinful. And that’s the first thing that
you have to remember of the nature of mercy. We don’t deserve it.
That’s the starting place for consideration of what mercy is.
We don’t deserve it. And as soon as you think that
you do, as soon as you think that you’ve secured a slice of
God’s mercy, you can be sure that’s not mercy. Because mercy
is kindness, God’s kindness bestowed to those who absolutely do not
deserve it. They don’t. See, the movement, the motivation,
the cause, if you will, of our salvation lies completely in
God. It had nothing to do with us.
It wasn’t because we were good guys. It wasn’t because we had
something to bring to the table. It wasn’t because we had some
real potential. That if only God could get a
hold of us for a few years, 10 or 20, He could really make something
of us and really make an impact. The cause of our salvation is
God, not us. The mercy of God is out of God,
unmoved. He is self-moved. He’s unmoved
by anything in us. He’s moved only by his own desires
and will. It is what one referred to as
a spontaneous compassion for sinful men. There wasn’t anything
in us that moved God in our particular direction. No wonder Paul said it equally
clearly to the Ephesians. When he said, by grace you have
been saved through faith and that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as
a result of works that no one should boast. God knew our hearts. God knew that boasting was right
on the tip of our tongue. That if only God would accept
our efforts, if only God would accept our potential, if only
God would accept our Denominational position. If only God would accept
our rich heritage of a Christian family in which we were born. If only God would accept any
of those things, and He doesn’t. It doesn’t matter a bit to God.
Purely because of His mercy. So, how then, were we saved? We know the time that it’s absolutely
tied to the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ, practical mercy.
We know the cause, and it had nothing to do with us, that it
was purely because of God moving in His mercy. How then, by what
means were we saved? Look again at the text. But He
saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy, By the washing of regeneration and
renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, essentially regeneration
and renewing. If you want to break it down
simply, let’s draw a circle around those two terms. That’s what
Paul’s talking about. That’s what Paul’s saying. Here’s
how you’re saved. This is the means for salvation.
Regeneration, the washing of regeneration, and renewal. Well,
that’s simple. Notice it. He basically points to the fact
that it’s God doing a work, a couple of works. And it’s an amazing
thing to me, especially as one, I absolutely believe in believer’s
baptism. that when a believer comes to
Christ, one of the first things he does, an act of obedience,
he places his faith in Christ. He goes before the congregation
and he is baptized, immersed in water. That’s who I am. That’s what I believe. But it’s amazing to me how many
people took this to refer to water baptism. It’s not talking
about that at all. The washing of regeneration is
not talking about baptism. It’s not talking about being
dipped or washed or scrubbed or any other water at all. Not even symbolically. The washing of regeneration refers
to a spiritual work of God. It’s God who washes us. And He
gets far more than just the skin. He washes the soul. He washes
every part of our being. He washes our mind and our hearts. Not being washed in water, even
symbolically, that washes our sins away, as some of the old
Baptist hymns say it. It’s a spiritual work of God.
And it essentially answers the question, how can God possibly
save us if we’re spiritually dead? Which is what the scriptures
identify. The washing here is completely
a spiritual work of God. It just means to give birth again,
to rebirth. Puritans refer to it as vivification,
enlivening. You are brought literally to
life. As one commentator described
regeneration, regeneration is that act of God by which the
principle of the new life is implanted in man. You are literally
brought to life from the dead. The governing disposition of
the soul is made holy, and the first exercise of that new disposition
is secured. And so the act of regeneration
is a work of God. That’s what Peter is referring
to in his opening verses of his first epistle. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His
great mercy, has caused us to be born again. God who? God awakened
us from the dead. The idea, as I already indicated,
is clearly expressed by Paul in Ephesians. When we were yet
dead in our trespasses and sins, but God being rich in mercy because
of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were
dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. One of my favorite passages of
scripture is John chapter 3. In John chapter 3, Jesus knew
who was coming. He knew exactly that Nicodemus
was not only coming, he knew exactly what Nicodemus’ heart
was. He was a deceitful man, sneaking around, skulking around
at night, trying to get Jesus aside when no one was watching.
Jesus knows his heart. And Jesus tells him, you must
be born again. You know what the amazing thing
is? He didn’t tell Nicodemus to do anything. He just acknowledges
this is an absolute necessity. God must make you alive. That’s why I love the definition
of regeneration. Regeneration is a creative work
of God, said one. It’s a creative work of God.
In other words, it’s the act of God being God and the act
of creation. God literally making you new.
And therefore, it’s a work in which man is entirely passive.
There’s no human cooperation. It’s holy of God. Charles Spurgeon
loved this doctrine of regeneration. Charles Spurgeon spoke of it
often, and he said this on one occasion. In the salvation of
every person, there is an actual putting forth of divine power.
Isn’t that an amazing thought? That if you are in Christ, God
came to you in a moment, and he raised you up from the dead. He used the same power that he
used to make the world. There is an actual putting forth
of divine power whereby the dead sinner is quickened, the unwilling
sinner is made willing, the desperately hard sinner has his conscience
made tender, and he who rejected God and despised Christ is brought
to cast himself down at the feet of Jesus. Man, I’m glad God woke
us up. I’m glad that God made us alive,
but it’s not over. There’s a twin companion to this
regeneration. We’ve already pointed it out
that it’s not on the basis of deeds and God is in the act of
saving us. That’s the context in which these
words occur. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. You see, so
many people try to reform their lives, clean themselves off.
I’m going to shape up in 2013. I’m going to make a whole bunch
of resolutions. I’m going to become more religious.
And it never works. That’s because they’re taking
matters into their own hands. It’s God that does the renewing.
We cooperate. We do our part, but it’s God
ultimately behind us by virtue of the Holy Spirit cleaning us
up, literally. If regeneration is a work of
God’s Spirit on the human heart, the beginning of salvation, then
renewing is that same Holy Spirit continuing the work of salvation. We call it sanctification. It’s
not that we’re passive. It’s just that unless God does
the work, we’re hopeless and helpless. Sanctification. Sanctification
is that process of God bringing things to our mind and to our
heart and saying, you know, this is sin. And we ponder it for
a season. We push God back. We fight over
it. And then we realize, you know
what? God, I know it’s sin. and we confess it to God and
God begins the process of weeding out those things in our lives
slowly at first. And then God picks up steam and
he begins the mighty work of changing us and it’s never complete
until glory. One describes sanctification
so effectively when he said, sanctification is that gracious
and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit by which he delivers
the justified sinner from the pollution of sin. He renews his
whole nature in the image of God and he enables him to perform
good works. You see, don’t ever let anybody
tell you that as a Christian you’re not called to good works.
You are. You’re not saved by those good works, but you are
called to them. Paul points out in Philippians,
that this is a process that will go on as long as you’re a Christian.
God will continue to prune you. God will continue to show you
your sin. God will continue the process of sanctification, he
says, until the day of Christ Jesus. That renewal is a work of the
Spirit in which we cooperate, and it’s continued. It’s initiated
by faith, but ultimately it’s continued until completion. And so we have this salvation
that we’re entertaining and we see the timing of it. And we
see the cause of it as God’s mercy, not our own works. And
we see the means of it as regeneration and enlivening by God and sanctification
which is a lifelong process. What’s it all mean? What’s the
significance of our salvation? When you ask me if I know mercy,
Pastor, what do you mean by that? What good is it to know God’s
mercy? Just this. Look at the passage
once again. Look at verse 7. He saved us
by the washing and regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit
that so that we might be or pardon me being justified by his grace
we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Here we are Easter Sunday resurrection day. What Paul points to here
is our own resurrection because of Christ. The one day we too
will be raised to be with Christ forever in eternity if we have
placed our faith in him. The equation is so simple. Our sin, the sin of Adam and
Eve in which we were born, separated us. It made us strangers, estranged
literally to God, the Holy God. But when we receive Christ, when
we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are justified. And that means we are declared
by God to be righteous. All of our sin went on Christ.
All of Christ’s righteousness comes onto us. It’s an act of God’s grace. This
is salvation itself. And this, too, originates in
God’s free, unmerited favor. One said, to be justified by
the grace of God includes forgiveness, acquittal, welcome into God’s
gracious presence and favor. Yet this new relationship is
bestowed only with a view to a higher privilege. Justification,
precious as it is, is but the preliminary blessing. Do you
hear what he says? Because some of us, man, we still
are trying to get our arms wrapped around the fact that if we placed
our faith in Christ, now we stand before God and all he sees is
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s a head-scratcher. That’s something that we’ve got
to really work at to, are you really You talk about an act
of faith? Justification, precious as it
is, is but the preliminary blessing. You mean there’s more? The child of God being introduced
to the Father and accepted by Him becomes an heir of God and
a joint heir with Christ. That’s good news. That this life
isn’t all that we have. That this, even this life as
a Christian, Well, we’ve come to know Him and we’re growing
in grace. We know Him. But this isn’t it. This isn’t all there is. There’s
eternity. There’s heaven. There’s resurrection
to be with God in Christ forever. And that’s why I started this
morning by saying, do you know mercy? Do you know mercy? Not in election. Not in some
academic way. Many of you could write a much
better definition than some of the ones I’ve even read. What
is mercy? Okay, I’ll tell you what mercy is. Do you acknowledge that God’s
mercy was completely undeserving? If you have placed your faith
in Christ, it’s amazing how quickly, how proud, and how quickly it
happens that some Christians become proud of their faith.
As if it was all them moving in God’s direction. Boy, I found
God. I went seeking him and I found him. Now I have him. Do you acknowledge that God’s
mercy was completely undeserving? Do you realize how great of a
sinner you were? If you have not placed your faith
in Christ, do you realize how great of a sinner you are at
this moment before God? Because if not, you do not, whatever
you have, it isn’t mercy. You don’t know mercy. Was this mercy extended to you
freely by God? Nothing obligating or prompting
Him completely out of His kindness and love? If it isn’t that mercy,
it’s not mercy at all. Because the moment you think
that you’ve obligated God, that’s not mercy. Has God brought you to life?
Has God regenerated you? Have you been made aware? If
you sit here this morning, maybe you’re not a Christian. Maybe
you haven’t placed your faith in Christ yet. But if you’re
aware of your sin, if you’re having this developing awareness
of your need of a Savior, that you’re in desperate condition,
that’s a taste of God’s mercy. That’s a divine work. God may
be awakening you because we never awaken ourselves to those truths. Has God brought you to repentance?
I’m not talking about just sorrow for sin, a hatred for sin that
brings you to your knees where you cry out to God and plead
to Him for mercy. Has God led you to hate your
sin? Has God led you to love the Savior? Where as soon as
you saw Him, you fell as it were at His feet and embraced those
feet. As God led you to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and in Him alone. Not in Christ
plus anything else. If you do not know the Savior,
regardless of whatever you know or what you think you know, you
do not know mercy. Does God’s Spirit Even now, convict
you frequently of sin. Sinful thoughts, sinful tendencies. If so, that’s a sign of life,
not death. It’s a sign that God is moving
in you and bringing things to life. That you may be growing
in grace and growing in holiness if you haven’t already repented
of those sins. Because God blessed you with
the Word. Don’t be silly. I’m not just
talking about a copy of the Bible in front of you. Has God blessed
you with an ability to open that Word and read that Word and understand
that Word? Has He given you an ear to hear
that Word? Is that Word of God eagerly read? Is it faithfully taught? Is it
clearly preached? That’s the mercy of God. Has
God blessed you with fellowship, faithful saints with whom to
follow hard after Christ Do you have a church? That’s the mercy
of God. If you’ve come to know God’s mercy,
do you understand that you now bear the righteousness of Christ
and that’s just the beginning? Do you know that you have an
eternal inheritance? Now you know why I put so much
interest in that question. Do you know mercy? Our gracious God, we humble yourselves.