Friends, this document is about the mercy of God. It is hard to see, I know, but believe me friends, Jesus is never closer. In this world we are living in today God’s mercy seems to be all but gone, but friends, it is still there, it hasn’t left, it is merely being overshadowed by the widespread evil prevalent in the world today. We are closer than ever before to the end of time when Jesus will reveal Himself and take us home, we are also in the ‘darkness just before dawn’. Friends, never before has the world been in such chaos, destruction and devastation is running rampant and the world can no longer sustain the damage that man is throwing at it. In short, this world of ours is falling apart, but before it does I can assure you my friends that Jesus will come and take His loved ones home to heaven.
Let’s dive into today’s message about the ‘Mercy of God’, but first let’s take a quick look at ‘love’. It is the ‘love’ of God that bequests ‘mercy’.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Let’s go to the dictionary:-
Bequest:- “The act of giving or leaving something by will.”
Friends, Jesus loves us so much and it is by this love that He ‘bequests’ His mercy to us. He ‘gives’ it to us by His will. Let’s go to the Bible.
Psalms 145:9 “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
Psalms 103:8 “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.”
The Bible makes it quite plain that Jesus is full of tender mercy and He loves us dearly. But I believe in order to understand it completely we need to delve into the other side, Satan, the tormenter of the nations and the master of deceit. We have touched before on his wily ways but let’s go into it again so we can ascertain the differences in the two masters we have to chose between. It is also important to understand exactly how the two of them work so we can get a clear, untainted look into both characteristics and natures, Jesus as a God of mercy and love, and the devil as a usurped ruler of evil, hate, and torment.
One of the main problems we have with Satan is his use of deceit. So craftily over the generations has he crafted his skill that he can now hold kings and queens, priests and popes, paupers and noblemen at his disposal – all beguiled of Satan. But friends, we don’t have to be. Jesus has made it quite plain in His word that Satan is the master of deceit and we need to be wary of his deceptions.
1st Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”.
Let’s take a look at how Satan manipulates his victims and turns God’s truths into lies.
John 8:44 “…he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
Friends, we now know that when Satan comes in he is more often than not enforcing distressing thoughts through our minds, we have also learnt by now that he (Satan) tells us terrible lies and makes us believe them. Let’s go through it as I want to cement this in your mind.
Yes friends, everyone gets it (that’s tormenting lies from the devil) in one form or another, and yes, we can hear ourselves saying that what the devil is telling us isn’t true and it doesn’t ring true to a God of love, we ‘hear’ all that but what we need to address is the ‘after effect’.
But let’s digress here for a moment.
Basically, the devil comes in enforcing these accusations and insinuations through us. Now often in the dark of the storm we just ‘roll with the punches’ desperately holding onto Jesus. (These moments I am referring to is when we are ‘wrestling with Satan’ for the love of our lives.)
Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Now don’t get me wrong here Jesus would never leave us to fight with Satan alone:-
Isaiah 41:10 “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
Deuteronomy 31:8 “And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.”
And He (Jesus) will never allow us to be overcome:-
1st Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
But friends, this is war, the devil is out to destroy any and everyone he can, and yes, sometimes we have to fight. But Jesus is never going to leave us to fight alone, He is constantly by our side, and friends, in this warfare with the devil the best weapon we have is knowledge. If we have a understanding of the devil’s tactics and of the love and mercy of Jesus we can win this war hands down. The devil has no power to force us, it is our choice and armed with the armour of God mentioned in Ephesians we cannot fail.
Ephesians 6:11-18 “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always… ”
Jesus is all powerful and if we put our hand in His and our faith in Him He (Jesus) will lead us through.
But friends, let’s go back to the crux of our message ‘The Mercy of God.’ Now just where do we stand in these battles with the devil? Do we stand condemned? Let’s take a quick peek at a very prevalent Bible verse:-
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Now it is made quite plain here that Jesus readily forgives us, but what about it. See it works like this – Satan is in our ear forcing obscene words and thoughts into our minds, sometimes in the heat of battle we turn round and re-utter those very words Satan is screaming at us, then we say we’re sorry and ask forgiveness. But what we need to realise is that there is a difference between us ‘venting’ and Satan forcing us to ‘vent’. See friends, sometimes Satan’s attacks are so fierce that we cannot withstand him (now don’t get me wrong here please, Jesus is constantly with us and will not allow us to be overwhelmed, but to the growth of faith and the test of faith these battles are fought, it is through the fires of affliction that we come out shining like gold, but Jesus wants to make it quite plain that while we may be in the furnace we are not in there alone) and we re-utter his (Satan’s) fearful lies. Well, I want to make it clear here that heaven never holds it against us when we re-utter the words Satan is forcing through us, after all they can ‘see’ the devil tormenting us and they hear the words Satan is screaming at us, so heaven does know the difference – if we are being tormented by the devil or if we are just a vengeful person (I pray not). Friends, at these times we need to throw ourselves on the mercy of God and pray for His sustaining help. Jesus will send help and strength to defeat the devil and Jesus will bring peace to the soul – all by Jesus’ love and mercy.
Let’s try to understand and to realise exactly what happens when the devil walks in the room and find a way to avoid his insinuations and lies. The devil is the master of disguise and not just in physical form but with words as well, he is very ‘orate’ and can twist words into a totally different meaning, like for instance, heaven would say “the lazy brown fox caught a rabbit for dinner”, the devil would say “the rabbit died because of the fox”. Both statements are true but look closer, heaven’s statement said the fox caught the rabbit but it doesn’t say the rabbit died, (it actually got away). Satan has twisted the sentence into meaning something that was not initially intended, he has turned our statement into a lie and that is where the problem lies. So many people, friends, don’t listen to heaven or they don’t listen carefully and when the devil comes in twisting what heaven say’s into lies, well, people believe him (Satan) and this is why so many good people are being deceived today, they are believing Satan’s lies. Satan is so good at turning the word of God upside down that entire religions have been set up on his lies. So where does this stand for us? Well, for starters it should give us the advantage in these fights with Satan. We need to realise that Satan is lying to us, if someone came to us and said to your face these lies Satan tells us would we believe them? No, we wouldn’t and we would be quite horrified that someone would mention it.
In the peace of heaven friends, these horrible ‘thoughts’ and ‘feelings’ just don’t exist and this is because the devil isn’t around. (He was banished from heaven long ago.) If friends, we stop and analyse our ‘forced in thoughts or feelings’ carefully, do they really matter? Or is the devil just making a mountain out of a molehill because trust me friends, nothing is too hard or too big for Jesus:-
Isaiah 43:2 “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
Now I probably do need to put in a disclaimer here, I am not trying to belittle your pain, oh no, far from it, I just want to point out that nothing is impossible with Jesus:-
Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
Mark 10:27 “And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”
So friends, when we put our faith in Jesus and feel the peace of heaven that Jesus showers us with these tormenting ‘thoughts’ from the devil just don’t matter, Jesus is in control and He will hold our hand and guide us through. So when it doesn’t ‘matter’ when Satan is not in the room why does it ‘matter’ when he is? I’ll tell you, it is because he is the devil and he has you deceived and believing a lie, watch out for him friends, he is evil indeed.
Let’s move forward. So the love of God bequests mercy and the mercy of God comes from compassion.
The dictionary’s definition of compassion is:-
“…sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.”
“…a deep awareness of and sympathy for another’s suffering.”
Compassion comes from experience.
The dictionary’s definition of experience is:-
“…practical contact with and observation of facts or events.”
“an event or occurrence which leaves an impression on someone.”
Jesus experienced first hand the brutality of the devil, He (Jesus) felt each blow and it was by His experience we are saved today. Jesus ‘experienced’ anything and everything the devil puts us through. Jesus loves us dearly and by this love He bequests mercy which in turn is compassion in the tenderest form. It is by our experience that we learn to understand the sufferings and pain of others, and in turn we learn to have mercy. By experience we gain a deeper understanding of the mercy of God.
Let’s look at it from heaven’s point of view. Heaven is very sorry about our pain and suffering, it was never meant to be this way. Jesus and His Father have cried many tears at this turn of events, pain was never a part of their plan, but Satan rebelled and a whole new world of pain came falling down around us. We are only tasting a minute fraction of the pain that this world has seen, but understanding and compassion can only come after the storm is over. Without feeling the pain from sin one cannot have compassion on others whether they deserve it or not. This experience can come in two different forms, one – from ‘feeling’ it yourself, or two – from ‘watching’ a loved one pass through the fires of pain wishing desperately that it was you and not them. That is how God the Father felt watching Jesus traverse the path of the cross, many a tear was shed and many a time He wished to trade places with His Son. It was by ‘watching’ that God the Father came into the knowledge of intense pain, and it was by ‘feeling’ that Jesus came to the same knowledge. Yes, both ‘knew’ of the pain but till it was experienced, the far reaching depths of the pain was unknown, unfelt. It is by this experience that Jesus and God the Father came into such compassion and tender mercies today, how they love the sinner and the just alike and have uttermost compassion and forgiveness to the length and breadth of forgiving any sin as long as the sinner is repentant. Jesus and His Father knew there would be pain but they could never have imagined just how it felt till they experienced it themselves. It is by their experience that we stand today, they know exactly what we are going through and they have the most tender compassion for us, especially in our weakened form. This, friends, is how we can now have this same compassion for others, compassion without judgement, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)”, and it is by experience that we also can stand next to Jesus, we can love others which in turn bequests mercy and shows compassion, maybe not to the same degree Jesus does but in our own circles, within our ‘field of reach’ we can show others the mercy of God. We can be ambassadors for God, we have felt the sting of Satan and lived to tell the tale, and once in heaven we can stand ever foremost in the courts of heaven as a testimony to the pain and distress that the devil caused. We can stand as living proof that his (Satan’s) torments could be withstood by the grace, mercy and compassion of God. People will ‘see’ that God’s law is just. We have proven that Satan’s rule is cruel, he cares nothing for his subjects and he only tosses them aside when they cease to be useful to him. We have learnt of the compassion and love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We learnt that Jesus has the power and strength to carry us through. We have learnt of the love and tender mercy, power and strength and righteousness of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. In the darkness of the storm that rages around us, when we can feel the strength of the devil pushing us down, remember that Jesus is our life vest and He will not let us drown. Jesus is holding onto us and by His mercy He will carry us to shore.
Though the tempest blows I will hold onto my Saviour.
Though the storm winds blow I will cling to Jesus.
Throughout the darkness of the night Jesus will be my light.
Though the fight may bring me to my knees, I will not yield to the devil.
Jesus is my sword and shield, Jesus is my stay.
He will not fail me nor forsake me and in Jesus’ name I go.
Through His power and strength I stand.
And together, hand in hand, we will vanquish the devil.
Join me friends, Jesus is a tower of strength and tho the billows roll Jesus will pilot our boat and it is by the strength, love, mercy and compassion of our Saviour Jesus Christ that we stand today. Friends, I encourage you to put your hand in His today and let Him steer your boat, He knows every wave, every billow and He knows if it is safe on the other side or if we take a detour – either way Jesus will guide us home, please friends, come to Him today and rest in His mercy.
Psalms 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Psalms 23:1-6 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
And I ever long for this day, it is my prayer morning, noon and night:-
John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Revelation 21:4 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
But friends, let’s ever remember ‘The Mercy of God’.
Psalms 91:4 “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
And
Psalms 91:11 “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”