Sunday 10th March 2024
The mercy of God is our advantage
Say this with me; “This is my month, the month of March, when mercy became my overwhelming advantage, rewriting my story.”
He has made us vessels of mercy!
Ephesians 2:1-4
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,…”
Paul here is speaking concerning our life before salvation, before we received the message of the gospel. Everything we did was under the domain and the authority of darkness, “…the spirit that now worketh…”
By nature we were children of wrath, destined unto wrath. Then God showed up on the scene and the story changed…
But God, who is rich in mercy!
Paul was not just speaking about an act of sin in verses 1-3. He was speaking about a nature, a character of sin, that made us the children of wrath. If the story was going to change in verse 4, it would not be based on our action, but based on our nature. Salvation was a means to an end. Mercy showed up, Jesus died in our behalf – a beautiful story but that was not the end
Romans 9:22-23
“What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,”
Paul here describes man as vessels of wrath, with an example in verse 17 – Pharaoh. Pharaoh was standing in the way of God’s people, and God’s wrath – 10 plagues – was released on an entire nation just to deliver Israel. Think of it – the river turning to blood, the frogs and flies, in one night all the first born sons died! We celebrate God’s power in these events, but the Bible tells us that this was not God’s priority. God “…endured [this] with much long-suffering…” In other words this was not the nature and character of God. God only did it because He had to, not because He wanted to, because Pharaoh was standing in the way.
Now read verse 23 again.
If God displayed His power so much that we are still in awe of what He did in His vessels of wrath, how much more in His vessels of mercy? In other words, there is such a display of God’s power that is expected in our lives that will leave the world in wonder!
What is the essence of all God displayed in Ephesians 2:4? That the vessels and the children of wrath might become vessels and children of mercy. Salvation was a means to this end. God had to do it to give Himself the legality for what He really wants to do – which is to show us mercy. The question of sin was literally standing in the way. Salvation was effected by God so that God can be God! He is rich in mercy, not rich in wrath!
It is quite difficult to define the word mercy, it is best to describe it. The word ‘mercy’ is taken from the same Hebrew root word as bowels. That’s why many times in scripture it is called the bowels of mercy, not the heart of mercy.
When your bowels are pressed for a release, you can do nothing else but release! In salvation God was trying to take out the only thing that stood in His way of being who He wants to be to you. Man moved from being a vessel of wrath to being a vessel of mercy. Now God’s eternal disposition is to do him good. We are talking about the overwhelming disposition and desire of God, where God is pressed just to do you good and to show himself strong in your behalf. God will break all rules and all protocol if need be just to display His mercy in your behalf!
God introduced salvation as a means to an end – to get you into that place where it is legal for Him to display His mercy in your behalf even when you don’t meet up, because your qualification will never be you; it’s now Jesus. He has made Jesus the standard and your qualification.
Say this; I am a vessel fitted unto the mercy of God.
If you can explain everything you see in your life, then it’s not God. If it is going to be God, there must be something that brings the glory back to Him. By this I mean that you have done this and done that, but you go, “I still can’t explain how this worked out.” How would Esther explain her story? What church service did she go for? In fact the book of Esther is the only book in the Bible where God is not mentioned. The entire plot of the story is about the mercy of God! The mercy of God writes the most beautiful stories, and it is time that the body of Christ again awakens to the power of mercy.
The highest demonstration of faith is faith in the mercy of God.
Hebrews 4:16
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
The most powerful prayer you can pray on earth is ‘God, have mercy on me.’ It says let’s come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy FIRST. It is after we have obtained mercy that we can find grace to help in time of need.
In our disposition towards God, our attitude and our relationship must be from an understanding and consciousness of mercy. In our disposition towards the world, we stand in faith.
You see, if one is not careful, there’s a way the revelation of the new creation can be received such that it almost pits you against God. Faith is not all there is to God. When you study through scriptures you find that the greatest demonstration of the power of God was when people were not even in faith. The widow of Nain who’s son was raised from dead, the man by the pool of Bethesda, the raising of Lazarus. Even Jesus was raised by the sure mercies of David (Acts 13:34), because God had sworn to David, “You will never lack a son to sit on your throne.” Faith has its place, but that is not all there is to God. Faith is not God – God has faith, but God is rich in mercy. The true nature of God is mercy.
You have your part to play
Romans 9:16
“So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
Please note; God never said not to will or not to run. This is the balance to the message. He actually wants you willing and running.
He didn’t say not to be swift, neither is He saying you should not be strong. He’s not saying don’t go the battle. In fact He told Jehoshaphat, “The battle is not yours, it is the Lords” (2 Chronicles 20:17). But they still had to go to the battle. If the battle is the Lord’s, why don’t I just go home and sleep? Why don’t I stay in the palace, cross my legs, and sip some Arabian tea? Why not? But God said right in the next verse, “Arrange yourselves, get to the cliff of Ziz.” (2 Chronicles 20:18) He told them what to do. I will fight, but you must show up.
He never says you should not run, or fight, but He says in all of it you must understand that you will not get the result because of your labour. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God who showeth mercy.
THE SUPERIORITY OF MERCY
Faith is predicated on exact knowledge, but there are too many things we do not know. Mercy fills the gap of that ignorance and lack of knowledge.
Faith is limited to knowledge. That is why the blind men said, “Thou Son of David, have mercy upon us.” (Matt 9:27,28) They did not ask for sight, they asked for mercy. Because, you see, you can restore sight and the thing that made them go blind in the first place is still there, so they go blind again. Mercy has an answer to everything at any time.
Faith is designed to be exact, but the mercy of God is the hand of God going beyond what you can believe for.
Remember that you cannot believe beyond your knowledge. The mercy of God is God’s hand reaching out to dip into things and places beyond what you can believe. If every story you tell, you are able to say “I believed for this, I got this” you have not entered into God. It is beautiful to have stories like that, but God wants to do far more than what you can believe for. He wants to give you stories you know you can’t take any credit for, where you know this is purely the hand of God.
Faith is now and influences your future. Mercy reaches into your past and influence your future.
Simple example, a young lady who, while in the University, lived a wayward life, and one day had to get an abortion and in the process her womb got ruptured. Somewhere down the line she gets born again. The doctors have told her she can’t have a baby. I hope you know that if the lady had done nothing in her past – perhaps she had PCOS – it would be easier for her to believe God for a baby because she feels she didn’t bring this on herself. But in this case she is plagued with the guilt of the life that she lived before, the guilt of thinking she is living under the consequences of errors past.
Herein lies the power of the mercy of God. Faith is now, will heal the PCOS and give a child, but the mercy of God can reach into your past, and correct whatever effect that would have had on your now and on your future.
There is no loss to the believer, you know why? The mercy of God rewrites stories!
In the mercy of God, past errors have no effect on today. Rather God will take them and bring glory out of them. The mercy of God reaches into the past and every root of the past that is influencing today is removed for the glory of God. I hope you know that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead there were holes in his hands. Resurrection does not remove the holes, no. The mercy of God makes it a glory not to be ashamed of. In essence the very thing that should have brought shame, when mercy shows up, becomes the thing you show to others as a testimony.
The tendency to exalt your works in faith is high, but mercy requires a broken and a contrite heart, and these are the sacrifices of God.
You may spend all night praying, but at the end you say, Lord, I hope in your mercy. It is not this prayer that will bring me results, it is Your mercy. I am running and I am willing, but it is God that shows mercy. Understand this; it is not the greatest prayer warriors that are the greatest healing evangelists. Nor is it the most astute orators that have the largest churches. It is only by the mercy of God. This eliminates every sense of pride.
One day a friend of mine and I were discussing and he said something to me. He said that many times young music ministers come to meet him asking how they can overcome the fear they experience when going up stage to minister. His prayer for them every time is, “O God, keep them afraid, may they not lose that fear!”
Remember I said your walk with God must be two-sided. Towards God, we look for mercy. Having received mercy, we deploy faith in the world. I don’t stand before God bragging on my faith. I stand before Him with a broken and a contrite heart. The mercy of God requires this.
The highest expression of faith is faith in the mercy of God.
Lord I have prayed, I have done everything I know to do. I am leaving this to your mercy Lord. When all is said and done, and you think you have done your best or you are at your wits ends, then cast yourself on the mercy of God.