With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
(Psalm 18:25-26 ESV)
Spurgeon has this encouragement for us today:
Note that even the merciful need mercy; no amount of generosity to the poor, or forgiveness to enemies, can set us beyond the need of mercy. Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.
Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” —Daniel 9:17-19 ESV
Daniel is interceding in prayer for his people, the people of Israel, who are called by God’s name. He knows that God is committed to holding up the honor of His name. So Daniel pleads for God to act for the sake of His name. He pleads for mercy and is confident that God will respond to uphold His reputation, His glory.
Yesterday we read the first few verses of Jude, which was addressed to
To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. —Jude 1:1-2 ESV
Daniel is praying, “we are called by your name and we live by your name. You name gets the glory. Please give us mercy.” This sounds similar to what David prayed:
Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?” —Psalm 115:1-2 ESV
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God FOR US. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. —Hebrews 9:23-28
John Piper, in a sermon “What Christ Did at the End of the Age”
This is troubling at first and then tremendously comforting. It’s troubling because it raises the question why the heavenly holy place would need to be cleansed You see verse 23 says that the copies of heaven must be cleansed with the blood of animals, but “the heavenly things themselves [have to be cleansed] with better sacrifices.” Why is that? Is heaven defiled? Is there sin in heaven? Some have suggested that it’s because Satan has been there. Others have suggested that it’s because there are “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Maybe. But I think the most important thing to see is what verse 24 focuses on. Why did Christ enter [that heavenly] holy place with his better sacrifice the sacrifice of himself? It was “now to appear in the presence of God for us.” The words “for us” give the key to why there has to be cleansing in heaven. We are going to be there.
Here is a great comfort and encouragement to us. It is not complimentary. But it is wonderfully hope-giving. If you want to be made much of, rather than having the mercy of God made much of, you will not want to listen to this. But if you love the mercy of God and admit the misery of your own condition, you will love this. Verse 24 says that Christ enters the holy place of heaven with his better sacrifice “to appear in the presence of God for us.” This means that he will cleanse us there. We are what needs cleansing. And to the degree that we might defile heaven, Christ in that sense cleanses heaven.
Now listen to this. He is speaking to those of you (all of us, in our clear moments) who feel so dirty and so deeply bad that you would only pollute heaven if you got there. O how many people are kept away from Christ because of this! I pray that you will see what an invitation this is. This is God’s way of saying: “Come, you dirty ones. Come, you defiled, you deeply evil ones. Come, you who have soiled yourselves and who have been stained by others. Come to my heaven! For my Son is there. And he has not died in vain. He stands guard over my holy place, not to keep you out, but to make you clean so that you can be with me in perfect holiness forever. Come.
This is why he died. I did not send him to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners (Luke 5:32). Come.” Underline those words at the end of verse 24 “for us.” “Now to appear in the presence of God for us.”
Luke 1:57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
Look at the ripple effects of God’s mercy….
In the same way, when God shows us His incredibly mercy, HE gets the glory as people HEAR, REJOICE, WONDER and FEAR…and KEEP TALKING ABOUT GOD and HIS MERCY!
What’s the difference between the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46? How they treated his brothers, that is his disciples. Mercy is the difference Jesus focuses on.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’……‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
John Piper explains ministries of mercy:
What Are Ministries of Mercy?
And what are ministries of mercy? Of course, in one sense all true ministry is mercy. None of us deserves anything good. But we are using the term “ministries of mercy” for practical, Christ-dependent, Christ-exalting steps to relieve suffering now and forever through Christ, especially among those who have the fewest resources.
The word mercy is meant to point us with compassion to people’s felt miseries. We know that it is merciful to point a rich person to Christ as his true treasure. We must do that. Yes. Amen. But we are not using the term “ministries of mercy” for Bible studies among the well-to-do. We are using it, for the sake of clarity, to refer to practical relief and ongoing help for those who are suffering and have little that they can do about it without help. And we don’t mean to limit that to the urban core of our cities. That can be very rural and sometimes very suburban. The key thing about mercy ministries is that they are a response to conscious misery or suffering.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Thus begins Psalm 53, our passage for today.
In “The Treasury of David”, Spurgeon condenses Matthew Henry:
God, in this Psalm, “speaketh twice,” for this is the same almost verbatim with the fourteenth Psalm. The scope of it is to convince us of our sins, to set us blushing, and to set us trembling because of them: there is need of “line upon line” to this purpose. God, by the psalmist, here shows—
1. The fact of sin. God is a witness to it. He looks down from heaven and sees all the sinfulness of men’s hearts and lives. All this is open and naked before him.
2. The fault of sin. It is iniquity (Ps 53:1,4); it is an unrighteous thing; it is that in which there is no good (Ps 53:1,3); it is going back from God (Ps 53:3).
3. The fountain of sin. How comes it that men are so bad? Surely, it is because there is no fear of God before their eyes; they say in their hearts, there is no God at all to call us to account, none that we need to stand in awe of. Men’s bad practices flow from their bad principles.
4. The folly of sin. He is a fool (in the account of God, whose judgment we are sure is right) who harbours such corrupt thoughts. The “workers of iniquity, “whatever they pretend to, “have no knowledge; “they may truly be said to know nothing that do not know God. Ps 53:4.
5. The filthiness of sin. Sinners are “corrupt” (Ps 53:1); their nature is vitiated and spoiled; their iniquity is “abominable; “it is odious to the holy God, and renders them so; whereas, otherwise he “hates nothing that he has made.” What neatness soever proud sinners pretend to, it is certain that wickedness is the greatest nastiness in the world.
6. The fruit of sin. See to what a degree of barbarity it brings men at last! See their cruelty to their brethren! They “eat them up as they eat bread.” As if they had not only become beasts, but beasts of prey. See their contempt of God at the same time—they have not called upon him, but scorn to be beholden to him.
7. The fear and shame that attends sin (Ps 53:5). “There were they in great fear” who had made God their enemy; their own guilty consciences frightened them and filled them with horror. This enables the virgin, the daughter of Zion, to put them to shame and expose them, “because God hath despised them.”
8. The faith of the saints, and their hope and power touching this great evil (Ps 53:6). There will come a Saviour, a great salvation, a salvation from sin. O that it might be hastened! for it will bring in glorious and joyful times. There were those in Old Testament times that looked and hoped, that prayed and waited for this redemption. Such salvations were often wrought, and all typical of the everlasting triumphs of the glorious church.
Condensed from Matthew Henry,1662-1714.
And the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest? Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it? Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it, and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything? Behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything! Therefore thus says the Lord God: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.” —Ezekiel 15:1
Charles H. Spurgeon, in a sermon preached in 1857, “The Fruitless Vine”:
The Jewish nation had arrogant ideas of themselves; when they sinned against God, they supposed that on account of the superior sanctity of their forefathers, or by reason of some special sanctity in themselves, they would be delivered, sin as they pleased. In consequence of the infinite mercy of Jehovah, which he had displayed toward them, in delivering them our of so many distresses, they gradually came to imagine that they were the favorite children of Providence, and that God could by no means ever cast them away. God, therefore, in order to humble their pride, tells them that they in themselves were nothing more than any other nation; and he asks them what there was about them to recommend them? “I have often called you a vine; I have planted you, and nurtured you in a very fruitful hill, but now you bring forth no fruit; what is there in you why I should continue you in my favor? If you imagine there is any thing about you more than about any other nation, you are mightily mistaken.” “What is the vine-tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?”
Let us remember that these things might be said without implying that God in the least degree alters his eternal purpose toward any chosen vessel of mercy; for the Israelitish nation was not chosen to eternal salvation, as a nation, but chosen to special privileges; a type and shadow of that eternal personal election which Christ has given to his church. From his own elect church God will never withdraw his love; but from the outward and visible church he sometimes may. From his own people he never will take away his affection, but from professors, from those who merely stand in his people’s external condition, and are not his children, he may, yea and he will, withdraw every token of his favor. God humbles Israel, by reminding them that they had nothing which other nations had not; that, in fact, they were a contemptible nation, not worthy to be set side by side with the cedar of Babylon, or with the oak of Samaria; they were of no use, they were worthless, unless they brought forth fruit to him. He checks their pride and humbles them, with the parable we have here before us.
“In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve” (Jeremiah 50:20).
Charles H Spurgeon, in “Faith’s Checkbook”
A glorious word indeed! What a perfect pardon is here promised to the sinful nations of Israel and Judah! Sin is to be so removed that it shall not be found, so blotted out that there shall be none. Glory be unto the God of pardons! Satan seeks out sins wherewith to accuse us, our enemies seek them that they may lay them to our charge, and our own conscience seeks them even with a morbid eagerness. But when the LORD applies the precious blood of Jesus, we fear no form of search, for “there shall be none”; “they shall not be found.” The LORD hath caused the sins of His people to cease to be: He hath finished transgression and made an end of sin. The sacrifice of Jesus has cast our sins into the depths of the sea. This makes us dance for joy. The reason for the obliteration of sin lies in the fact that Jehovah Himself pardons His chosen ones. His word of grace is not only royal but divine. He speaks absolution, and we are absolved. He applies the atonement, and from that hour His people are beyond all fear of condemnation. Blessed be the name of the sin-annihilating God!
J.C. Ryle comments on the blind beggar in Luke 18:35-43
The miracle described in these verses is rich in instruction. It was one of the great works which witnessed that Christ was sent of the Father. (John 5:36.) But this is not all. It contains also some lively patterns of spiritual things which deserve attentive study.
We see, for one thing, in this passage, the importance of diligence in the use of means. We are told of “a certain blind man who sat by the wayside begging.” He sought the place where his pitiful condition was most likely to attract notice. He did not sit lazily at home, and wait for relief to come to him. He placed himself by the road-side, in order that travelers might see him and give him help. The story before us shows the wisdom of his conduct. Sitting by the wayside, he heard that “Jesus was passing by.” Hearing of Jesus he cried for mercy, and was restored to sight. Let us mark this well! If the blind man had not sat by the wayside that day, he might have remained blind to the hour of his death.
He that desires salvation should remember the example of this blind man. He must attend diligently on every means of grace. He must be found regularly in those places where the Lord Jesus is specially present. He must sit by the wayside, wherever the word is read and the Gospel preached, and God’s people assemble together. To expect grace to be put into our hearts, if we sit idling at home on Sundays, and go to no place of worship, is presumption and not faith. It is true that “God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy;”–but it is no less true that He ordinarily has mercy on those who use means. It is true that Christ is sometimes “found of those who seek Him not;”–but it is also true that He is always found of those who really seek Him. The Sabbath breaker, the Bible-neglecter, and the prayerless man are forsaking their own mercies, and digging graves for their own souls. They are not sitting “by the wayside.”
Mercy Without Borders
Posted: April 4, 2013 by Pam Larson in April, Devotionals/Commentaries, JoshuaTags: Bible, Bible daily, Bible reading, Bible study, daily Bible, grace, Joshua, mercy, Mercy Without Borders, Scripture
Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you dwell among us?Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.” They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it.” So he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place that he should choose.
—Joshua 9:22-27