Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Let us pray this morning. Father, you are a great and mighty God. You sent your son to lay, to be strong upon that ugly cross. His blood ran, his bones were not broken. Scripture was kept to the T, so to speak. Yet he is not on that cross anymore. He was put in the grave. He is resurrected. He lives. You live, Jesus, today by the right hand of the Father, waiting to come back when that trumpet blows. God, help us as we try to understand what mercy is on this day from you. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Will you let me just for a moment to repeat a few of the words of a song that we just sang? Behold the man. upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders. Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. O glorious words! O glorious Christ! We are in Christ's Sermon on the Mount. For the last several weeks we have been going through the Beatitudes. Each one of these verses begins with a blessing, or at least the word blessing. And it's not specifically saying, oh, you'll be blessed if you do this. It's how blessed is the person whose life is characterized by, and then it fills in the blank. We began at verse number three. We've now progressed to verse number seven. And as We are in verse number seven. I want to draw your attention back real briefly to the preceding verses, beginning in verse three again. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And then last week we saw, blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. That is a pivotal, pivotal verse in these Beatitudes. For verse 3, 4, and 5 are leading up to verse number 6. These are not just any order. Jesus Christ had a specific order in mind when he gave these to us. It's not a list of, here, do this, and oh, don't forget to do that, and oh, while you're at it, pick up a dozen eggs. This is systematically laid out for us in an important progression. And we see that being poor in spirit is understanding our utter depravity in the sight of God. He alone is holy. He alone is righteous. We are not. And because we are not holy, because we are not righteous, we are poor in spirit, but many people do not even know that. Many people fail to recognize that. Many refuse to recognize their spiritual bankruptcy before God. Because they do not recognize that spiritual bankruptcy before God, they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. It goes on to verse number four. Blessed are they that mourn. And I had mentioned to you this was not just walking around weepy and crying all the time, but that this was a specific mourning. And that was mourning over our spiritual state. I recognize that I'm bankrupt and now I mourn over the fact that I cannot, in my own power, produce holiness and righteousness. And when I try, it only makes it worse. It only digs down deeper into a pit. And I mourn that my sin has separated me from my God. And when we mourn, we'll be comforted. We'll be comforted with the fact that God will forgive those who have not only come to an understanding of their spiritual depravity, but have mourned over that sin and confessed their sin to God. And not just confessing sin to God, but verse 5, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And that meekness I mentioned to you was not being a doormat, but that it was strength under control. And not just our control, not self-control, control of the master. Oh, as I have mourned over my sin, I recognize that by me being the master of myself, I am forcing myself deeper and deeper into my depravity And when I have come to mourning over my sin, and I have given over complete control to God, the Master, oh then, then there comes freedom. He's our Lord, He's our Master. And then and only then am I now able, as verse number six showed us last week, to hunger and thirst and to pursue righteousness. And we saw last week that when we pursue righteousness, God's righteousness, He gives it to us freely. Isn't that awesome? Now, when we come to verse number seven, it is the natural outpouring of verse six. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness and God satisfies with Himself, and His righteousness, we will naturally begin to live Righteous and holy for God. That doesn't mean that we'll be perfect. Oh, no, that won't happen until one day in heaven when we are finally glorified in his sight. But here in this world, he is changing us little by little, sanctifying us here and there until one day we will naturally and completely be holy and righteous in his sight. And one of those things that we see here in this passage is that we become merciful. And if you were to go back to verse number three and see blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful is a natural reaction to being poor in spirit. When I recognize my spiritual bankruptcy before God, I have acknowledged my sin, I mourn over my sin, I have humbled myself before God and claimed Him to be my master, my Lord. You are in control now. And I am hungering, thirsting for righteousness. Now I will tend to be merciful to others who are in that exact same state as I, poor in spirit. And so today as we look into this very simple, yet very complex at the same time verse, I want you to notice with me that we must be merciful because God has been merciful to us. Let's first look at this verse again, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. And let us look at the explanation of this word mercy. Those who are merciful, this verse says, will receive mercy. And that's a straightforward statement. And it should cause me to sit up, it should cause me to take notice, and it should cause me to wonder. It should cause me to ask a question. Am I merciful? Well, if I'm supposed to be merciful, I need to know what mercy is, and I need to know what it's not. But most importantly, I need to know what God's Word says that it is. Now, we're not naturally inclined to being merciful. In fact, in our world, it's often viewed as a weakness. It's hard to get ahead in this world when you're constantly stopping to help others. This world says, don't do that. Step on people, do what you have to do to get ahead. You don't have time to waste on others. No one's gonna take care of you. You gotta take care of yourself. And even in the Roman world in which Jesus lived, mercy was despised. It was considered to be one of the lowest of, well, one of the lowest of human frailties. And this was seen in the Roman Colosseum. They delighted in torture. They delighted in debasing their enemies. They certainly would never have conquered the civilized world by being merciful. They ruled with an iron fist. And even the myth of Rome's founding. Maybe you've heard the myth of Romulus and Remus. Romulus and Remus were brothers that had been orphaned and then raised by a wild wolf and then eventually came to founding the city of Rome and Remus, well he didn't like what Romulus was doing and so he began to mock Romulus and Romulus got angry and killed his brother. That's how he got ahead. That's how Romulus became the top dog And even though that was only a myth, it shows the very nature and mindset of the Roman world in that day. You get ahead by destroying everyone else around you and it doesn't matter who they are. So of course, here comes Jesus' teaching and it was and is still very much today counter-cultural. And let's dismiss a popular teaching about this verse right now. And that verse, that popular teaching is this. If you're merciful, people will be merciful to you in return. In fact, I've heard it taught many times. You should be merciful because, you know, if you are, then people will be merciful to you in return. And maybe you've heard that same thing. That is not true. If you are merciful, people will walk on you. They will step on you. They will crush you in their attempts to moving forward. You know, Jesus Christ was mercy incarnate. And you know what it got him? Crucifixion. No, we sinful beings are not naturally inclined towards being merciful. We want revenge. We want justice. We want our way. We don't care what's gonna happen to other people. We don't want to be merciful. So mercy must come from outside of us. And not just any place, it must only come from the source, and that is God. And the scripture speaks oftenly of God as being that source. He is full of mercy. He is full of pity. He is full of compassion for us. And I believe that Psalm 103 is one of the most clear presentations of God's amazing mercy toward us. In Psalm 103, verse 8, It says this, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. Now listen to this statement right here. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are but dust. Mercy originates with God. He alone is its source. But let me say that there is a difference between mercy and grace. Now many people think that these are simply synonymous, that they're the same thing. And yes, they go hand in hand with each other, but they are very different and there are different nuances to them. Grace, simply put, is getting something you don't deserve. You don't deserve God's forgiveness. You don't deserve his love. You don't deserve eternal life. You don't deserve heaven. But God's grace says, I will give you forgiveness. I will give you love. I will give you eternal life. I will give you heaven. Mercy, on the other hand, simply put, is not getting what you deserve. Thank God for that. You do deserve condemnation. You do deserve eternal damnation and God's wrath. You deserve hell. But God's mercy says, I'll not condemn you. I'll not show you my wrath. I'll not damn you to hell for all of eternity. Pastor John MacArthur said this, in relation to salvation, mercy says no hell, whereas grace says heaven. Mercy says I pity you. Grace says I pardon you. Do you see how mercilessness is a characteristic of those who have rejected God's mercy. God is the source. He's the one who gives us mercy. And we are not naturally inclined to give mercy to unpeople unless we have experienced God's mercy firsthand. Mercy flows out of a heart of love. While it's true that I can be loving and reserve mercy, there are times where it is loving to say, no, you need to suffer the consequences of this. True mercy, however, is never divorced from love. It's love that sees someone in need and sees their suffering and desires to alleviate their pain. But it seeks more than just easing someone's pain, It seeks to change the entire situation for the betterment of that person who is suffering. Mercy is an eye of pity, a heart of love, and feet and hands that move to help. It doesn't just sit back and watch and say, oh, I feel bad. Mercy has a cost, and we need to know that. We need to understand that. It's not free. Oh, it's free to the recipient. It's free to the one who will receive that mercy. But to the one who is merciful, the one who's giving mercy, there is always a cost. Mercy gives. For God to give us mercy, for him to say, no hell, it cost him the death of his son, Jesus Christ. It cost him everything. He gave His Holy Son to become not only stained with our sin, but to actually become our sin. He became sin for us and received God's wrath in our place. And when we show mercy, it will cost us something as well. It may cost you time. It may cost you money. It may cost resources. It may cost you your dignity. It may ultimately cost your life. But mercy has counted the cost. And mercy out of a motivation of love moves forward anyway. As I said, mercy is not a natural human quality. Mercy originates with the Supreme Merciful One, and that's God. It's motivated by love. It's not free, it costs the merciful, and mercy cannot sit idly by and watch others suffer. It seeks to alleviate suffering when it sees it. Now before I ask if you are merciful, let me give you a biblical example of this type of mercy. This example was given by Jesus when he told us about one who personified mercy in action, and this was found in the story or the parable of the Good Samaritan. In Luke chapter 10, I'm gonna encourage you maybe to flip there, because we're gonna read 12 verses there, which is the entire story, and so I want you to be able to kind of see what I'm seeing here. But in Luke chapter 10, I'll begin to read in verse 25, and you can kind of follow along whenever you get there. It says this. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him, speaking of Jesus, to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength and all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. That pretty much sums up the entire Ten Commandments. The first four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship with God and that we love Him above all, that we place Him in His rightful place as being supreme, as preeminent over everything, and we love Him more than anything else. And then the last six deal with our earthly or human relationships and how we relate with others. Do we love them as ourselves? Do we respect them? Do we hold them up in high regard? And if we follow the law, You can be kind of reduced down to this statement that this young man gave, you shall love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And so verse 28, Jesus says to him, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live. Now is Jesus here telling this young man, obey the 10 commandments and you're good, you're going to heaven. Well, The answer is yes and no. Yes, if you were able to completely, 100%, obey all of the 10 commandments, you would indeed be perfect and be on your way to heaven. But Jesus taught that that is impossible for us to do. In fact, the law has never really been there to be a checklist for us to read and to say, hey, I'm doing great. I'm not committing adultery, I'm not stealing, I'm not... In fact, later on in the Sermon on the Mount, we will go through that in detail and Jesus will show us that we have not only broken one, not only two, not only three, but all ten. Every person in their life will have broken all of God's law. So verse 29, this young man says to him, and he's desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, but who's my neighbor? Jesus replies, and here's the story. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed leaving him half dead. That road from Jerusalem to Jericho is a very steep road as it descends down several thousand feet into the valley of the Jordan River. It's a treacherous, rocky place, and it was known in those times, in the ancient times, to be a place where robbers and thieves would hang out and wait for people to come along, and they would, of course, ambush travelers and steal everything. And here we see a man here that not only was he stripped down, naked, and everything stolen from him, but they beat him half to death. Verse 31. now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side so likewise a Levite when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side You need to understand that a priest and Levites were of the religious elite in their day. This would have been like a pastor and an associate pastor on their way to lunch, seeing someone drive off into the ditch, the car flip over on its side, people hanging out, one arm severed, and think, oh, that was horrible. Let's go get that lunch now. That's seriously exactly what Jesus is, the picture he's painting here. Verse 33, and this is an interesting word. Stark contrast, but, but a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? What a story. He paints this amazing picture of a man who steps out of his way to help. And then he says, which of these three? The priest, the Levite, the Samaritan. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor? Well, in verse 37, this man says to Jesus, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. I want you to notice again the progression that we saw in this story. There is a man going down through a rough part of the country and is ambushed and left for half dead. There are two religious people, seemingly good people, that have come by and looked at this man and thought, don't have time or ooh, don't want to get involved with that. I might become ceremoniously unclean for touching him. What if I turn him over and he's dead? Oh, I'll be in trouble then. No, I will go on my way. I feel horrible for him, but hopefully he can figure something out. And then a Samaritan comes. This is a man who was unconcerned with human barriers. You need to know that Samaritans were despised in ancient Israel. The Jews looked down upon them for they were, as they called them, half-breeds. They weren't 100% Jewish, and so because of that, they were less than human, almost, in their opinion. I know in our nation, we have had times in our past where we've looked at other human beings and said, somewhat less than human. Oh, how horrible that is. This man was unconcerned about human barriers. He didn't care about the fact that this man that was in stress was a Jew, a different race, that this Jew normally on every day would look at him and spit at him and say, get out of here. No, all he saw was a man in trouble. You see, mercy doesn't see race. Mercy doesn't see religion. Mercy does not see political party. Mercy does not see social standing. Mercy doesn't look at a woman who is a single mom and says, you're just a welfare mom. And we could go on and give you plenty of more examples. Mercy is unconcerned with human barriers. And mercy here sees this man in distress. In fact, if you were to look once again at verse 33, he journeys and he came to where he was and when he saw him. In order for me to have mercy upon someone, I need to be able to see the need. If I shut myself up in my office, if I shut myself up in my ivory palace, I will never know or see the needs. All you need to do is get in your car and go for a drive. And get out of your car once in a while and meet people and you will see the needs. Watch the news. Watch the news. Mercy. Mercy sees the need. But it doesn't stop there. It says he had compassion. This man saw a need and he had compassion. pity in his heart. There's love that wells up there. It doesn't see this man and say, oh, yuck, look at that. It says, oh, what if I were in that spot? What if I was that man laying in the ditch? What if I was the one that was left half dead? But once again, mercy does not finish here. Mercy does not just see a need and have or feel bad for this person. No, mercy takes practical steps to relieving the distress that it sees. And we see that in verse 34. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. This was the medicine, oil and wine. This would have been olive oil. This would have been a wine that was probably a little closer to vinegar. And this would have killed the bacteria. It would have soothed the wounds. And he takes him and puts him on his own animal. I'm assuming it's a donkey, puts him on his own animal, and he walks the rest of the way down to the inn in Jericho, and he takes care of him. This man has taken practical steps into relieving the distress, and it costs him something. It costs him time. It causes him inconvenience. It costs him money. Look at verse 35, the next day he takes out two denarii, he gives it to the innkeeper saying, take care of him and if you spend more, I'll be back and I'll pay you then. So which of the three travelers on that road that saw this man in the ditch was merciful? And the obvious answer here was the one who stopped and did something. Isn't this an awesome story? Even more than that, this is a story that was told by Christ, but I believe it's a story about Christ. You see, we are the man in distress. We have been left by the side of the road in our sin, wallowing in sin that is going to lead to death. And others have passed us by feeling sorry, doing nothing. But Jesus, Oh, he's the Samaritan. He comes. He comes to us. He sees our distress. He has pity and compassion, and he takes action steps to relieve our distress. And it cost him everything. It cost him his life. And Jesus turns to the man that he's telling the story to and says, you go now and do likewise. We must follow his example and we must exercise mercy. Like I said before, mercy is not content to stand still and only feel sorry, it must act. And for those of us who have been redeemed, we have experienced God's mercy. We can't but help ourselves to act out in mercy towards others. A person who truly has been a recipient of God's mercy is not going to have to be told, now get out there and be merciful. They naturally will do it. It's a mark of true followers of Jesus. Let me give you a few passages that illustrate this or explain or prove that this mercy is a mark of true follower of Christ. 1 John 3 verses 16 and 17. We know verse 16 quite well. We like to quote this verse. And then we stop short of going to the next verse. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, catch this now, yet closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him? This is what John is saying here. There's no way that guy is a Christian. He says that he loves God. He claims that he is a follower of Jesus. He said he'd be willing to lay down his life for the others. But when a poor person came in, he said, I'm sorry, I got something going on right now. How does God's love abide in him? And the answer to that rhetorical question is, It doesn't. James also, who, by the way, was Jesus' half-brother. James 2, verses 14 through 17. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body. What good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead. So listen to the words of James as he says, that so-called faith is fake, it's dead. You say you love God, you say you're a follower of Christ, and someone comes and they have a great need, and you say, oh, I hope it works out for you, and you do nothing for them. What good is that? Your faith, without evidence of God, working in and through you is dead. It's fake. There's a lot of so-called Christians who can tell you everything you want to know about the theology of the Bible. Oh, they can give you all the facts, and they can argue theology and debate it like no one else, but their faith is dead. It's not real. It's fake. Why? Because they do not have the fruits of mercy in their life. And Jesus is telling us in this verse that an authentic follower of His, a person who has received the mercy of God for themselves, will naturally have an outpouring of mercy from their lives. Another passage, it's a little lengthy so I'm going to encourage you to turn there later on in Matthew chapter number 25. Matthew 25 verse 31. And this is another one of Jesus' discourses in the book of Matthew. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne And before him will be gathered all the nations. And he will separate people one from the other, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed of 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 to 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. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when do we see you a stranger and welcome you? Or naked and clothe you? And when do we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Wouldn't it be nice if that story ends right there? There is a reality that follows in verse 41. He will say to those on his left, the goats, depart from me. You cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them saying, 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. He that has an ear, let him hear the word of God. Jesus says here that the sheep will act like Him. They will be merciful. They will be merciful without contingency. They won't care about where the person's from, what they look like, what their social status is, who they vote for in the presidential election. They don't care about any of that stuff. They will be merciful for the sake of Jesus Christ because he has been merciful to them. It will be a natural outpouring of their life. But the goats, the ones who say they follow Christ, well, they act like their father, not God, but Satan. These will go away into eternal punishment. This is not something to joke about. And this is nothing to fool around with. Either you're merciful or you're not. Either you're a sheep or you're a goat. Either you are going to be with Christ for all of eternity or you will be separated from Christ for all of eternity. And just in case you think that this is only a New Testament teaching, you need to know that mercy has always been what God has wanted for us. He wants to be merciful to us, but he also wants us to be merciful to others. In Hosea 6, beginning in verse 4, What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. What an indictment! You know what morning clouds do? They dissipate when the sun comes up. The dew that goes away when the sun comes up, it dries out. It's there for a short time and gone. He says, your love is fake. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of my mouth and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love. And by the way, that is the same word that is translated for mercy in other places. Steadfast love, continual, faithful to be merciful to others and not sacrifice. I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. And if you truly knew God, you would have his merciful heart towards others. And then Micah, chapter six, verses seven through eight. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and with 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. What shall I give, this man is saying. Micah says, do you wanna know what God desires from you? Verse eight, he has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, that's righteousness, and to love, kindness, and that once again is translated in other places as mercy, and to walk, humbly before your God. Does this not sound like the Beatitudes? What does God want from me? How does he desire to be worshiped? With doing a bunch of things for him? Living a certain way? And I'm not trying to discount living righteous before him, because he wants that from us. But more than anything else, he wants us to live and to exercise mercy. The greatest way that we can worship our Savior, our Master, our Lord, our Creator is to emulate Him. And Jesus had some tough words against those who were all about the external good things and not about having a heart after God and a heart after mercy. Look at verse 23 through 24 of Matthew 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin. These guys were all about making sure they had every little thing right, even down to spices. When was the last time you tithed on your spice rack? Hey, you're a hypocrite, he says, and you've neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Oh, you are so enamored with trivial, temporal things, and it causes you to get distracted from Eternal things it causes you to forsake Christ's example and command of mercy. Hey, I'm sorry I don't have time for you right now. I've got to get down to church to go to worship Hope someone comes along and helps you These you have ought to have done without neglecting the others he says You've strained out a gnat and you swallowed the camel Jesus wants us to forget about the things of this world that would distract us from ministering mercy. What in this world could possibly be more important than people who have eternal souls and were created in the image of God? What in this world is more important than telling someone about Jesus Christ? What is more important than helping them come to know God who will save them from eternal damnation? What in the world is more important than that? How could you possibly say that you don't have time to exercise mercy when God took the time to step down into the mire and pull you up by his mercy? You have nothing but time to be merciful. You're already dirty. Get over yourself. Look at Christ. We must exercise mercy because we have ourselves been endowed with mercy. Look at this again. Verse seven of our texts, Matthew five, seven blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Now once again, I draw your attention to that word they, it is emphatic, which means they and only they will receive mercy. Now quickly, I once again wanna look at this verse and ask a question. Is this verse teaching a works-based salvation? Be merciful so then God will have mercy upon you. Is that what this verse is teaching? If you think that it is, you need to read the rest of the Bible. We never interpret a verse by itself. It is always interpreted with the whole. And if you interpret that verse right there as meaning, if you're merciful, God will give mercy to you and you'll go to heaven, you need to read the rest of this, the sermon, let alone the rest of the Bible. To have that opinion, to have that thought, that persuasion of how to interpret this verse, essentially believes in an earned mercy. Does that sound weird to you, earned mercy? It negates mercy. You can't earn mercy. This Samaritan did not look down at the man lying in the ditch half dead and say, what do you got in your pockets? Oh wait, you're not wearing pants, you don't have pockets. What do you got at home? If I pull you out of this ditch, are you gonna be able to pay me back? It's not earned. You can't earn mercy. And so to have this attitude here of, well, if I'm merciful, then God will owe me mercy. Hey, guess what? God doesn't owe you anything but eternal damnation. Be happy He doesn't give you that. If you come to Him, it's not earned. It's not earned at all. What is this verse saying? It's saying this, as I've said before in this Sermon on the Mount, this is not a list of things you must do in order to be in the kingdom. These are a list of characteristics of things that God is doing in the lives of those who are already in the kingdom. You will be merciful because you're in the kingdom. And if you're not in the kingdom, you're not gonna be merciful. So go and do thou likewise. Be merciful as Luke chapter 6 verse 36 says, even as your father is merciful. And so the flip side of that verse would be if your father is not merciful, then you will not be merciful. So who is your father? Is God your father or is Satan your father? If God is your father, then you have been endowed with mercy and now it is your part to not try to pay back God. You can't do that, but as Paul said, a debtor to everyone else now. Your debt is not to God, it's to everyone else to show mercy and love and grace and compassion and pity and not just feel those things, but to act upon them. What has God called you to do? or what is God calling you into? Are you merciful? When you put the mirror of God's word in front of you, do you look merciful? Or do you look like your father, the devil? Now, if you are not merciful, there is mercy that is waiting for you. You are the man that needs to be rescued. You are the woman who needs to be rescued. And He is willing, Jesus Christ is willing to save you of your sin today. I urge you, don't leave today without talking to myself or Pastor Eugene or Pastor Aaron and saying, please, can you show me how I can have Jesus' mercy upon my life? And they will take, or I will take, the Word of God and we will show you, not our opinion, not what some shaman says, but what God Almighty Himself has said. And you will know. And you will have mercy. And for those of us here today that do know Christ, we have experienced His mercy. And you say, well, I don't look very merciful sometimes. Sometimes I am the one who's bogged down with the cares of this life. I got too many things going on. I got this going on. I got to go this way. I got to go that way. I got to get down to the... Pause for a moment and stand Before the mirror of God's word, do you look like your father? Yes, but barely. Okay, okay. Will you submit to his leading? As you go through your day this week, there will be a person that God is bringing across your path that desperately needs mercy. Maybe they're the sick. Maybe they're the ones that are destitute. Maybe they're the ones that need the drink of water. They need to be fed. They need to be clothed. Maybe they're the imprisoned. And the Holy Spirit of God tugs on your heart and says, hey, let's show mercy to this person. Oh, but Lord, you don't understand. They've wronged me. They defrauded me. They've said bad things about me. Can we show mercy and look like our Father in heaven? What are you gonna say? No? Too busy? Sorry God, I'll get back with you later? Oh, that's what we often do. May it not be the case. May it not be true of us going forward. May we not live lives that say the here and now is more important than someone's eternal soul. We must be merciful because God has been merciful to us.