Mercy

Hello. I was a little while ago, I suppose, maybe a couple of months ago, that I had a member send me a link of the tsunami that happened in Japan. And you may remember that. That happened a little over a couple of years ago, I think it was March of 2011, a major, major catastrophe in that particular country. And he showed some video that I hadn't seen. I hadn't seen it on the news. It was a private video that had been taken, of course, by one of the citizens. And he had gotten into a place where he was safe. He'd gotten up kind of on a high hill along with, oh, it looked like there was at least a half dozen people that were to his left or to his right. Not a lot.

And then you could look down below, and you could see the city, and you could see the buildings, and you could see people and cars that were still traveling on the road. And in the very large farthest part of the horizon, you could see the wave. It was kind of hard because it was quite a wave away, but you could see movement. And then you could see free-standing buildings far off on the horizon begin to move. You know, like this wave. And it was rather overwhelming and frightening because you could sense, by the way that people were talking, because he had the audio on as well as the video, and that you could sense, well, I guess, the anxiousness.

You know, that they realized the brevity of what was happening.

And as we were peering, you know, having the eyes that they had as we were looking through the camera, seeing what the camera was showing, you could sense that there were people that didn't realize it was coming.

They didn't know it was coming. There were people that were just walking on the street. They couldn't see what he could see.

And there were vehicles that were still traveling down the road, and you knew that they were headed in the wrong direction because they couldn't see what was coming, which we could see through the camera lens.

And as the wave continued to work its way, because it actually eventually comes crashing up and the water's lapping up, you know, almost at his feet, in a sense.

But as it was coming, then you could see people could see that, you know, all of a sudden people started to run away from the wave.

And in the distance the buildings were moving, and then they were toppling, and then there were fire, and then there was smoke as gas lines, I suppose, were exploding, and there was flame, and there was smoke and all of that type of thing.

And they began to realize what was happening. And for some they were able to get away, and others they could not.

You know, all of a sudden the traffic that was heading away from the tsunami, you know, somehow people sensed what was happening, and all of a sudden the roads were getting crowded, they were heading out, and some vehicles were getting out, and then you could see others were being overwhelmed by this particular wave, this tsunami wave that was caused by an incredibly powerful earthquake.

When it came to this particular earthquake, some of you may know these facts, and I thought I'd review it with you, it was a magnitude of 9.0, 9.0 on the Richter scale.

It was the most powerful known earthquake ever to hit Japan, ever, of all time, since records have been kept, beginning back in the 1900s.

You know how high some of these waves were of this tsunami wave?

The tallest one, or the highest one that they know of, was 133 feet tall. It's 133 feet.

The earthquake moved the main island of Japan eight feet, eight feet to the east, and it shifted the earth on its axis by an estimate of anywhere from 4 to 10 inches.

It shifted the earth on its axis.

You know, Japan, which is probably a nation that is probably one of the most prepared nations on the face of the earth for something like this, because they've had earthquakes in the past.

One of the most prepared nations, by the way they build their buildings, by the way they try to design things, to be able to handle some of this type of thing, was just overwhelmed.

They were just overwhelmed.

We touched on this, I think, through various things, through messages and announcements and what have you, about how natural disasters around the world in their frequency are beginning to change, beginning to become more common.

Major catastrophes.

You know, we can talk about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans back in 2005. That was the, of that particular season, that was the most damaging earthquake.

And to this day, the costliest, the most expensive, I guess you could say, a financial catastrophe, which damages, of course, the nation in other ways. But the costliest hurricane in the history of the United States, and by the way, this tsunami that we were talking about with Japan was the costliest disaster that they have ever had.

We could talk about Hurricane Sandy with so many unusual things that happened up on the East Coast, that happened in 2012, where all these weather systems were working together. And that is, you know, as it hit New York and other states, New Jersey, the second costliest hurricane in the history of the United States.

And these two were within just a few years of each other.

We could go on to talk about what's happening in the Middle East and various nations around the world, and Korea, and Iran, and Egypt, and all of those things that are happening right now.

All of these things ought to teach us something that's quite clear, that we're not in control.

We are not in control. These forces are overwhelming. They're much too big for us to be able to handle in any way.

They're beyond our control. And we're not in control. And that would also, hopefully, remind us clearly of a couple of things.

Number one, not only that we're not in control, but number two is that we need God. We do. We need Him. We need His protection. And we need His mercy.

Because those things that extend outside of our lives in various ways and come in different places, we have no control. But God does. He has the ability to do that.

I'm going to talk about mercy today. I'm going to talk about mercy.

And you know, as we rehearse every year the plan of God and His salvation, the first one, the first festival that we keep is Passover.

And that begins to teach us about the mercy of God, of what God was willing to do in order to restore a right relationship with us.

Let's notice 2 Chronicles 7 and 12 as we start the topic today of mercy. 2 Chronicles 7 and 12. Kind of a keynote scripture, I think, as we go along in the topic today.

2 Chronicles 7 and 12. We have an account here where God is addressing Solomon after the temple of God has been dedicated through quite a long prayer of Solomon.

And God heard that prayer. And then God appears to Solomon. And this is what it says in 2 Chronicles 7. He says, The Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

God said, I've heard. You've made, you've dedicated this temple to me. And it was an inspiring prayer. We're not going to take the time to read it, but it was very inspiring.

In fact, God answered it in some miraculous ways so that all the people that were also listening to Solomon's prayer realized that God heard his prayer as well.

And God comes to Solomon that very night and says, I've heard it. And I have chosen this place, verse 12, for myself as a house of sacrifice.

And then he goes on to say in verse 13, And when I shut up the heaven, and there is no rain, or I command the locust to devour the land, or I send disease or pestilence among my people, Then verse 14, You know, God seemed to know ahead of time. Here they're kind of at the peak. You know, they're at a time when Israel is united, all 12 tribes are all under the same king. You know, that happened with Saul, that happened with David, and that happened with Solomon. And then after that, you know, two of the tribes split off. The kingdom became divided. We had the kingdom of Judah with two tribes and the kingdom of Israel with ten. But they're all united. Things are very exciting. But God knew. He knew ahead of time that his people would stray.

And so he says, if they do turn back to me in verse 14, and he's basically a pretty famous scripture, I think. In fact, it's one that I think a lot of you have maybe sung before. There's a hymn that has these words in it. And maybe at the Feast of Tabernacles and the Dells, I remember that. And maybe some of you sang those very words here that we see in verse 14.

Now, I didn't sing it anywhere near as well as you guys did, but we sang that. But, brethren, I think what's important to see and we're going to cover today is that God deals with us in mercy. He doesn't give us what we deserve. He doesn't give us what we have coming. And when we examine ourselves, we do come up short, and sometimes we get discouraged, don't we? We do. We get discouraged when we look at ourselves. We do things that we shouldn't have done, or we fail to do some of the things that we should have done. And as we examine ourselves and we see we've fallen short, we seek God's mercy. Not what we deserve, but we seek His mercy. Specifically, what I'd like to do today in the time that we've got left is I want to review with you from Scriptures today just how desirous God is to offer His mercy. Just how desirous God is of showing us His mercy. Let's notice Matthew 23, verse 23. Some of you may know where I'm going here. Matthew 23, verse 23. But Jesus Christ is talking to the religious leaders of this time, His day, when He walked the earth in the flesh. And let's see what He has to say here.

We know He brought a message from His Father. Let's see what it has to say in Matthew 23. And verse 23. Jesus says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and coming, and you've neglected the weightier matters of the law. We haven't thought about the things that are about to follow that are part of God's law. And in fact, there's part of the weightier matters of God's law. As it says in verse 23, that they are justice and mercy and faith. He lists three things there. Justice and mercy and faith. Let's notice Psalm 103, verse 6. We're going to cover quite a few scriptures today, but I'll try to make it interesting here for you as we go along.

In Psalm 103, verse 6. How desirous that God is. It's a weightier matter of His law. It's an important truth to you and to me from God Himself. Psalm 103, verse 6. Psalm 103, verse 6. The psalmist here is talking a little bit about God, our Creator, how He operates, how He thinks, and some of His ways.

Here's what He writes here. He says, God said, I'm going to reveal things to you. And I'm hoping that you'll eventually reveal them to others, I think was the ultimate plan. But He said in verse 7, I'm going to make my ways known to Moses and my acts to the children of Israel. What are some of those ways and some of those acts? Well, the very next verse, verse 8. The Lord is merciful. Wow, of all the things that He could have listed. When He said, I'm going to reveal my ways to my people, He said, I want you to know that I'm merciful and gracious. And that I'm slow to anger. And I abound in mercy. Abounding means it just overflows, a cup that overflows. He goes on to say, in verse number 9, God's not always going to strive with us. Now, He's not going to keep His anger forever. He's dealt with us according to our sins. He hasn't punished us according to our iniquities. Brethren, we don't get what we deserve. God says, I don't do that. I'm going to show you some examples from the Bible, I think, today, that I think illustrates that. That God is desirous to give mercy, and He doesn't desire to give us what we deserve. I'm going to contrast a few examples of people that receive mercy from Scripture. People like Hezekiah is the first example we're going to turn to. Let's notice that in 2 Kings chapter 18. Hezekiah was a righteous king, one of the few of Judah, the kingdom of Judah. By this time, the kingdoms had split. There were the 10 tribes that were the kingdom of Israel, and the two tribes that were the kingdom of Judah. Hezekiah was one of the kings of Judah. He was a righteous king, a good king. He strove to obey God, to serve God. He only had his shortcomings, as most of us do. In fact, probably all of us. And then later on, we're going to contrast the example of Hezekiah receiving mercy with his son, Manasseh, who came on the scene after his father's death, and that he received mercy as well. You know, we might reason it's easy to understand that a righteous man would receive mercy. But would God not also be merciful to an evil man if he humbled himself and prayed and repented of his ways? So I want to contrast it in that way. So let's pick it up in 2 Kings 18, verse 1.

It began to worship it as a falsietal, in other words. Verse 5, He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah. There wasn't anyone quite like him. He was a righteous man, a righteous king, a righteous leader. And I want to show those that are portrayed as righteous more than any other king. And then I'm going to contrast that with a king that was evil more than any other king. So we're going to have some pretty drastic contrast here as we go through Scriptures. Well, let's start with Hezekiah. We started, let's continue on. Verse number 6.

So he wasn't going to serve the king of Assyria. And I guess you can know maybe where that's going to go with the next chapter. Because if you rebel against the king of Assyria who's begun to become powerful and began to eat up a lot of the other kingdoms that were around Assyria, and they want to be served, and they see that this kingdom of Judah is ready for the taking, you know, Assyria become powerful, and you see maybe what's going to happen. There's going to be an attack that's going to follow with Assyria. Well, let's read 2 Kings chapter 19, verse 10. Pick up some of that story. 2 Kings chapter 19. And we'll pick it up here in verse number 10. We're going to see here God's deliverance. There's a great act of mercy here. 2 Kings chapter 19. We'll pick it up in verse number 10. The context here is that there's an Assyrian representative that's come to speak before the king. They're almost at the wall in the public area. People can listen to what this person from Assyria has to say. He says, You know, tell your king Hezekiah that don't let anyone tell him that we, as Assyrians, aren't going to come in, and this city Jerusalem's going to fall. We're coming. It's going to fall. Verse number 11.

And the people of Eden who were in Telisar, he says, you know, did their gods protect them? Look at all these nations that have fallen and now are part of the Assyrian Empire. Why do you think you'll be any different? Verse number 12. Have the gods of the nations... Oh, I've read that. Verse 13. Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arpod and the king of the city of Seraphim and Hina and Iba?

They're all part of the Assyrian Empire. In other words, what he's saying... Verse 14. And Hezekiah received the letter from the hands of the messengers and he read it. And what did Hezekiah do? He went up to the house of the Lord and he spread it before God, before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and he said, O Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the carobim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth, incline your ear, O Lord, and hear, and open your eyes, O Lord, and see.

And hear the words of Sennacherib, which ye has sent to reproach the living God. Yes, truly, Lord. Verse 17. Hezekiah can't deny all these other kingdoms did fall. He says, truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but they were the work of men's hands, they were wood and stone, therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord, our God, I pray, save us from His hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God, you alone.

That's quite a prayer. He's beseeching God. He's saying, you know, God, you are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. Yes, they were able to destroy all the other gods because they weren't gods of those nations. You are our God. They can't destroy you. Let's pick it up here as we go on and pick it up to verse 32. It's quite a long story. We'll pick it up here in verse number 32. God answers and He says, therefore thus says the Lord, concerning the king of Assyria, He is not going to come into this city, for into Jerusalem here.

He's not going to shoot an arrow there. He's not going to come before it with a shield. He's not going to build a siege mound against it. If you're familiar with some of those things, that they, you know, you've got the thick city walls, but they were thicker at the base, and as they got higher, they got thinner, so they would build these mounds. They'd put earth and stone and whatever, so that their battering rams could come and destroy the thinner parts of the wall.

Part of warfare at that time. God says they're not going to build a siege mound at the latter part of verse 32 against Jerusalem. Verse 33, by the way that He came, by the same way He shall return. He shall not come into this city, says the Lord, because I, personally, in other words, I'm going to defend it. I'm going to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. And how did it happen? What's the end of the story? Verse 35, and it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and he killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 soldiers, I would imagine.

185,000. And when the people arose in the morning, there were corpses, corpses. They were all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, I would think so. And he went away. Without them even firing a shot, without them even being able to come to the city, even get close to the city walls, more people that are in, I suppose, the city of Rochester, I think, a little over 100,000.

You can imagine that 185,000 people just died because of an angel of God. The lesson here, I think, is that God showed Hezekiah and his people mercy. He showed them mercy. They turned to him. Now, in chapter 20, we have a new situation. Let's note a 2nd Kings chapter 20. Hezekiah besieged God. God delivered them from Assyria. And now we'll look at a different situation here.

This prayer was also very dramatic. 2nd Kings chapter 20 and verse 1. Hezekiah is sick, we'll see. Verse 1, it says, In those days Hezekiah was sick, and he was near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, This is what God says. God says, Sit your house in order, because you're not going to survive. From this sickness you shall die and not live.

Verse 2, He turned his face toward the wall and began to pray to the Lord. He said, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth, and with a loyal heart. And I have done what was good in your sight, and Hezekiah wept bitterly.

And it happened before Isaiah had even gone out of the middle of the court that God's word came to him and he said, Return. Go back to Hezekiah. I know you've just given him this message, but I want you to go back to him.

He says, Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears, and surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I'm going to add to your life 15 years.

I'm going to deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. God says that I'm not only going to take care of you, I'm going to deliver my people from the king of Assyria.

It's like it's going to continue on an ongoing basis. I'll defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.

Now the fact is, this kingdom eventually did go into captivity, but it went into captivity in Babylon. It didn't go into captivity of Assyria.

And so Assyria never did overcome the king of Judah, and God's promise was kept.

Let's notice verse 20.

Now the rest of the Acts of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made a pool and a tunnel, and he brought water into the city, aren't they?

Written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah, so Hezekiah rested with his fathers.

And then Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place.

So what's the lesson of Hezekiah? I believe the lesson of Hezekiah is really a fundamental one, is that God is a God of mercy. He shows great acts of mercy. He cried out to God, and God heard his prayer and delivered him and the people from the Assyrians.

Now let's go to chapter 21, go and look at a different example.

This is a contrasting example because this is Hezekiah's son Manasseh, and we'll see that Manasseh is a very different man than his father.

He's an evil man, and God, you know, we know God shows mercy to a righteous man, but what's he going to do with a man who is almost totally wicked and evil?

Will he show mercy to someone like that?

Let's notice verse 1 of 2 Kings chapter 21.

It says, Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hephazba.

Now, it just caught me the other day when I was reading this, I'm thinking, oh, Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign.

So, because of God's mercy with Hezekiah, adding 15 years, Manasseh came into life. He was born.

If Hezekiah would have died, Manasseh never would have lived, because he was only 12 when he began to reign, and God had added 15 years to Hezekiah's life.

But let's notice verse number 2, in referring to Manasseh, it says, He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So now, God's people are going back. They're leaving him, and they're going back to the nations that were around them, or that were there before they came into the Promised Land. It says in verse 3, And he put in idols and altars. In verse 5, So he's bringing false gods into the temple of God. And it says in verse 6, In verse 7, So he's bringing in a different name, Asherah, into the house of God.

So let's go on. Verse number 8, So now we see that we have a different man, a different king, and he seduced God's people to do worse than the nations that were there before they got there.

So the Amorites and the Canaanites that were cast out because of the evil that they had done, where God said, The evil of the Amorites isn't yet full, I'm going to remove them eventually. They were removed. God says now under Manasseh, it's done even worse.

I want to go over to 2 Chronicles, chapter 33. Same story here, but it brings out a few different things here in 2 Chronicles, chapter 33. Pick it up in verse number 10. 2 Chronicles, chapter 33 and verse 10.

It says, So God doesn't leave people wondering. He speaks to them ahead of time.

It says, Now notice verse number 12. Now here's a man that had done evil worse than the nations that had been there before Israel came.

Notice verse 12. Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord as God. He began to pray.

He turned to God, and he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed to him.

And notice, and he, referring to God, received his entreaty.

He heard his supplication, and he brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom.

Wow! Wow! And then, Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

You know, God actually restored him back to his office.

He brought him back out of Babylon and brought him back to Jerusalem, and restored the kingdom back to him.

You know, that is amazing. That is truly amazing.

Basically, it says, even in his evil deeds, because God confronted him, and then he implored God, and he humbled himself greatly, that God heard his prayer.

Just exactly like he did with Hezekiah, who had a good record, but when Manasseh, who had a bad record, humbled himself, God listened.

As we said in the keynote Scripture, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, I'm going to hear.

I'm going to forgive, and I'm going to heal.

Let's go back to 1 Kings. Back up a little bit. 1 Kings 16.

Another example here, this isn't the only example of a very evil leader that received mercy.

There's another example we're going to look at. This time it's not an example of one of the kings of Judah. Now we're going to look at one of the kings of Israel, those ten tribes, a different kingdom, where they'd split.

We're going to look at the example of King Ahab.

Now Judah had had a few righteous kings, but the kingdom of Israel had not had any, not even a single one.

And Ahab may have been one of the worst. So let's take a look at this.

1 Kings 16. We'll pick it up in verse 29.

1 Kings 16. It says, In the thirty-eighth year of Esa, king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Amri, became king over Israel. In Ahab, the son of Amri, reigned over Israel and Samaria for twenty-two years.

Samaria was in the northern part of Israel, so we have what we call the northern kingdom of the ten tribes and the southern kingdom of Judah with the two tribes.

It says, And it came to pass, verse 31. Let's pick it up in verse 30. Now Ahab, the son of Amri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.

And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing, for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbael, king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal, and he worshipped him, and he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab also made a wooden image, and he did more to provoke the God of Israel to anger than all of the kings of Israel who were before him.

And it just goes on and on in this story to describe of how evil that he was.

We could go on and read the story about the confrontations between Elijah and Ahab, where they had the two sacrifices, the priests of Baal and then God's prophet Elijah. Most of you probably remember that story.

Well, Ahab was provoked by his wife. And if you remember the story of Naboth, remember the story of Naboth and Ahab? Some of you will recognize this story where Naboth had a vineyard that was adjacent right to the palace. And Ahab said, I'd sure like to have that vineyard. You know, it fit well with my landscaping and my scheme and my palace. And so he confronted Naboth. And that story is in 1 Kings chapter 21. He confronted Naboth and said, you know, I'll pay you a fair price. You just tell me what you want and I'll pay it. And Naboth said, well, you know, this has been in my family for a long time. And I just as soon keep it in the family. So thanks for the offer, but I just really don't want to sell.

So the story Ahab starts to mourn and mumble and carry on that he can't have this. And his wife said, well, aren't you the king? Don't you have all the power of the country to do anything? So she comes up with a scheme to throw this major festival and have Naboth put in this special place of honor and then have a couple of scoundrels on either side of him that basically falsely witness and testify that Naboth has spoke evil of the king. And Naboth ends up losing his life. And then King Ahab ends up with the property.

So God addresses the issue here in 1 Kings 21, verse 17.

It says, And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, I want you to go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who lives in Samaria.

There he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he had gone to take possession of it.

So he's already immediately taken possession. He's grabbed the fruits of his corruption in a way. Verse number 19. You shall speak to him and say, This is what I say as the Lord. Have you murdered and also taken possession? And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus is the Lord in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs are going to lick your blood, even yours.

So Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, O my enemy?

And Elijah answered, I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord.

Quite an interesting phrase. You have sold yourself to do evil.

You've become a slave to it, in other words. You sold yourself into slavery. So you've sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. Verse 21. And behold, I'm going to bring calamity on you. I'm going to take away your posterity. I'm going to take away your descendants. God says, I'm going to cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, whether he's bond or whether he's free. I'm going to make your house like the house of Jeroboam. If you remember that story, all of Jeroboam's progeny were killed.

He had no descendants. Eventually, they all lost their lives. I'm going to make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Beyashah, the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger and you have made Israel to sin.

And concerning Jezebel, the Lord said, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air will eat whoever dies in the field. But there was no one like Ahab who had sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord because Jezebel, his wife, stirred him up. And he behaved very abominably in the following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So it was when Ahab heard those words, what did he do? A fascinating response here.

It says that when he heard these words in verse 27 and up to this point, he'd say, are you my enemy, Elijah? You've come to trouble me. But after God speaks through Elijah and tells him exactly what's going to happen to him and to his family, it seems like God gets through.

It says, verse 27, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and he put sackcloth on his body, and he fasted, and he lay in sackcloth, and he went about mourning. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, and he said, do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? You know, God knows us. We're transparent to him, so he knows whether someone's really humbling himself before him or not. He knows, and he knew that Ahab truly was repenting. He was humbling himself. And he says to Elijah, do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I'm not going to bring the calamity in his days.

In the days of his son, I'll bring it, but I won't bring it in his days.

You know, to me, this is just an incredible story, an example. God desires to give mercy, doesn't he? He's really looking for a reason to give mercy. He doesn't want to do some of the things that he says he'll do if we don't change. He wants to give it. He desires to give it.

You know, not that Ahab was converted here, you know, we don't know if that for sure. He didn't necessarily turn around and become completely righteous. But you know, even an evil man that humbles himself before God, God says, I will give mercy.

Let's look at the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah, chapter 3, verse 1.

In this case, we've got a case of not an example of a human being, but a whole people, a whole city, the city of Nineveh. Not actually Jonah himself, although I guess in a way that he was part of the process.

I think most of us know the story of Jonah well enough that I don't have to go into all the details, but I want to bring a certain part of it out here. Jonah, chapter 3, verse 1. You know, in the prior examples, we were talking about a king of Judah, a couple of kings of Judah, and a king of Israel. Now we are talking about not even people of God, a Gentile people.

Not even people of God here, people of Israel. We're not talking about Hezekiah or Manasseh.

We're talking about a Gentile people. Let's pick it up in Jonah, chapter 3, verse 1.

Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, so he'd gotten Jonah's attention the first time, and now the second time. And he says, I want you to go to Nineveh, verse 2, that great city, and preach it the message that I tell you.

Verse 3, so Jonah arose. He went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-days journey. In verse 4, and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk.

And he cried out, and he said, yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown.

And the people of Nineveh, verse 5, believed God.

They believed Him. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

You know, we're not even talking about people that God had been working with. And we've been working with His people, the children of Israel. And now, He's seen this evil is so bad, He said, that's it, forty days.

And they're going to be overthrown. And the people believed the message of a true prophet of God. They believed that God was going to do it. Verse number 6, then the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne, and he laid aside his robe, and he covered himself with sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.

And then he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, and said, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. We're all fasting. Don't let them eat. Don't let them drink water. Verse 8, But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God.

Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands, then who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not die? And verse 10, Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that he said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. What a merciful God that we have!

Way to your matters of the law, when someone humbles themselves, and God says, and they seek me, God says, I'm going to relent. I'm going to change, whether they're Jew or Gentile, whether they're slave or free, whether they're children of Israel or people of Nineveh. It doesn't make any difference. Revelation 2, verse 18. Revelation 2, verse 18. There's a prophecy here about God's people, and it goes back in time to the church of Thyatira, and it begins to talk about some of the good things that they'd done, and then some of the sins that they had been tolerating.

Revelation 2, verse 18. And the message to that church, and maybe to us as we listen in as well, and to the angel of the church of Thyatira, write, These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass, I know your works, your love, your service, your faith, and your patience, and as for your works, that the last are more than the first.

So there they've been bearing more fruit in this particular time than they had earlier. Verse 20, Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants, and to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things that are sacrificed to idols. And he says in verse 21, and I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality. You know, God desired to give mercy. He's giving them time.

Time to repent of some of the shortcomings that they had. So there was actually a time when God was tolerating evil for a while, because he desired to give mercy. So he gave them time to repent of their sexual immorality, but she did not repent. God says in verse 22, Indeed, I'm going to cast her into a sick bed. Doesn't sound like a good place to be cast into. I'm going to cast her into a sick bed. And those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. You know, the message of the church is it's historical as well, but it can also apply to every age, and it also can apply to the future as well.

God says I gave her time. Gave her time to repent. If she would have humbled herself before me and prayed to me, God said I would hear their prayer. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 6, this goes back to the second giving, I guess, of the Ten Commandments. Something I want to bring out here in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 6. God says I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage or slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a grave image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water underneath the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, and I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those that hate me.

But I show mercy to thousands, or it could be thousands generations in this context here, to those who love me. So he's comparing one group with another here. And I guess the point that I'm trying to make here is, you know, we count generations and how much is it, but the point is that God says my anger is short for those that love me.

Excuse me. My anger is short and my mercy is long. The fact is I keep myself confused. In fact, God's mercy is beyond the imagination. My anger is short and my mercy is long. You know, it's to the third and fourth generation my anger, but to my mercy, it's the thousand generations to those that love me.

God's formula for mercy is pretty simple. Pretty simple and pretty powerful. The 2 Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 12. It's our keynote scripture. 2 Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 12. To humble ourselves, to pray, to seek Him, and to turn from our own ways.

2 Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 12. How do we humble ourselves before God? I think we've touched on it. We've seen some examples.

And we've got, of course, this scripture that we've been covering. It's known as Revelation, chapter 4, verse 9. Revelation, chapter 4, verse 9. One way is to acknowledge God's majesty and His divinity. To acknowledge God for who He is. I think that helps us in our perspective. Revelation, chapter 4, here in verse 9. It describes a little bit the throne of God and the angels about the throne. It describes what they're saying and how they worship before God. Revelation, chapter 4, verse 9. It says, Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever, they cast their crowns before the throne and they say, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For You have created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. It's God's will that we exist and we were created. Our lives will be over. It was God's will that they be over. He wants us to live, though. But we be just like dust, dust that ceases to exist. Let's notice Psalm 144, verse 3. Psalm 144, verse 3. I think God wants us to recognize also our own humanity and our sin. I think sometimes we have to see the true God first before we can see ourselves more clearly. Psalm 144, verse 3. I think it's interesting here that David says this. Psalm 144, verse 3. David says, Lord, what's man? What is man that You even take knowledge of him, or the Son of man that You are mindful of him? He says, you know, God, man's just like a breath. His days are like a passing shadow. I think you've been outside on a cold winter day where you just exhale and you see this breath, and that disappears. It doesn't last very long. And then it's gone. It says, we're just like that. Isaiah, chapter 40, I won't turn there for time, but you can write that down. It talks about all flesh is like grass. And when God breathes, it just withers. God says, I want you to stop and think sometimes how you are and how I am. That affects our relationship with God. Realize who he is, how powerful he is. Job, chapter 42, verse 1. Job describes this process, I think. Job started to lift himself up a little bit. In his suffering with God, he cried out. Yet he didn't quite understand and started to maybe make some subtle accusations that God wasn't just in dealing with him. And then God appears to Job and begins to explain to him and his power and his majesty. And Job began to understand the true God, that his Maker, and he began to understand himself the way that he was. Job, chapter 42, verse 1, says, then Job answered the Lord and he said, I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked me, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I've uttered what I didn't understand and things that were too wonderful for me which I didn't know. Listen, please, and let me speak. You said, I will question you and you shall answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. So when he saw God's majesty, when he began to understand more perfectly, this is what he says in verse number 6. Therefore I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. So this was a step that Job had to go through, something that he learned from. God says we need to seek his mercy and his forgiveness and that he's wanting to give it. He's great in mercy, abounding in mercy, overflowing in mercy.

God says to you and me, he said submit to me and cast aside your way and I'll hear your prayer. You know, I don't think we have any Ehabs in the room. I don't think we have any Manassas in the room. I don't know if we've got any Hezekiahs in the room. Hopefully we do. But God says he hears the prayer of every single person, no matter what. A couple more scriptures. Daniel 9 and verse 3. Daniel 9 and verse 3. I wanted to use Daniel's prayer because it walks through and connects some of these points here. It's a remarkable prayer, actually. Daniel 9 and verse 3. We covered in one of our Bible studies here, but I'd like to cover it in this context of the message today. Daniel's praying, he says, then I set my face, began to seek God in a sense, I set my face towards the Lord to make requests by prayer and by supplications with fasting, with sackcloth and with ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and I made confession and I said, O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments. So he begins to focus on God's majesty and his greatness and his divinity. Verse number 5. We have sinned and committed iniquity. You know, he doesn't exclude himself. He uses the pronoun we. And Daniel's listed as one of the most righteous men in Scripture. Daniel says we have sinned and committed iniquity and we have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. So now he begins to focus on his own humanity. First, he focuses on God's majesticness and divinity. And now he begins to look at himself and he focuses on his own humanity in his sin. Verse number 6.

Verse number 8. To us belong shame. I guess I read that. Verse number 9. And to the Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness. He's appealing to God, isn't he? He's appealing to God. You know, to us belongs shame. But you have a great desire. It's the weightier matter of the law to give mercy when someone truly humbles themselves. Let's go over to verse 16. It's a long prayer. Let's jump to verse number 16. O Lord, according to all your righteousness, I pray, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city, Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because of our sins. And for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to everyone around us. So now he's crying for all for mercy. He's asking for God's mercy. Verse 17. Now therefore our God hear the prayer of your servant in his supplications, and for the Lord's sake, cause your face to shine on your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by your name. For we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act. Don't delay for your own sake, my God, for your city, and your people are called by your name. Wow! What a prayer! You think God heard that prayer? You know, if we were to follow what happens after the Scripture, God begins to pour out his whole plan of human history after he heard that prayer. He talks about where it was going to go and a progression of nations all the way up to the kingdom of God.

Psalm 103, verse 11. Psalm 103, verse 11.

Brethren, we do want God's mercy. We don't want what we deserve. And God is more than desires to give it to us. Psalm 103, picking up here in verse 11, we'll read through verse 18.

As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes, and then the wind passes over it, and it's gone.

And its place is remembered no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. In other words, it doesn't end. On those who fear him and on his righteousness to children's children, to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them.

Brethren, God desires to give all of us mercy. He calls on us to follow that blueprint of 2 Chronicles 7. To humble ourselves, to submit ourselves, and to bow before him. But what he offers to us is an abundance of mercy.