Mercy Expected Of The Children Of God

As all of you know, we've been focusing on the weightier matters of the law. We've been encouraged to be thinking about those, not only at our conference, but here as we go through the remainder of our year. We all know what Matthew 23 says about the weightier matters of the law being judgment and mercy and faith. We went over the topic of judgment a couple of weeks ago. I want us to look in Luke 11 because you see a corollary account of what Matthew wrote in Matthew 23 here in Luke 11. This is his writing of what it is that Jesus was telling the Pharisees. Of course, the Pharisees were not receptive. They didn't want to hear anything about Jesus. They didn't want to believe who he was. They certainly didn't want to be corrected or, in a sense, put down by him. Not that he was putting them down, but he was clearly straightening them out. But he says in verse 37, while he was speaking, the Pharisee invited him to dine with him. And in verse 38, the Pharisee was amazed to see that he didn't first wash before dinner. And so they started into a discussion about, should you do this, should you do that? And down in verse 42, he says, Woe! Not woe man, but just woe to you Pharisees. For you tithe of mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and yet you neglect justice. And as Matthew says, mercy and faith, here he says, you neglect justice and the love of God. Describing the love of God as coming to truly understand mercy and truly understanding what it is to live by faith, which all of us are expected to do. And he says, it is these, justice and the love of God, that you ought to have practiced, and without neglecting the other, and without neglecting tithing and the other things that they actually correctly were doing, or at least they were observing the law as they understood it. Now, I want to talk about the aspect of the weightier matters of the law being mercy today. And if we'll back up to chapter 10, we see in Luke's Gospel here a parable that is not listed anywhere else. It's not listed in the other Gospels. It's listed here only in the Book of Luke. But starting in verse 25, you see a discussion, and that it's going to lead into a parable about the Good Samaritan. And I tie this in with what we're wanting to study today, because as Jesus answered the question here in verse 29, wanting to justify himself, the Pharisee in this case, or lawyer, asking, well, who is my neighbor? And this was a point of dispute in the verses right before it. Who is my neighbor? Who do I have to take care of? Who do I have to learn to love? Who do I have to be concerned about? Who do I need to show love and care and concern and mercy toward?

And then verse 30, Jesus tells his parable. The man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell in the hands of thieves or robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and sent him away, or went away, leaving him half dead. Now, in verse 31, by chance, a priest was going down the road, and when he saw him, he passed away on the other side.

Clearly, you know, not an appropriate response in this case. The priest probably had many excuses for why he did that. Maybe some of them legitimate. Maybe some who were not.

Maybe he didn't really care. He was supposed to care. The priest, in a sense, a minister of God, was supposed to be caring for the people. Now, in verse 31, or that's what we read, verse 32, likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place, saw him, passed by on the other side. Both of them had the same response. The Levite would assist the priests in their duties at the temple.

And so, again, they were supposed to be having love and care and concern for people, but clearly, in this case, they didn't in this parable. But in verse 33 said of Samaritan, One of the hated people, people of another area that was north of Jerusalem, people that were not really cooperating with or believing the same thing, or even of the same race or racial background of the people of Judah, the Samaritan, while traveling, came near this man.

And when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. He was moved with pity. He saw the plight the man was in. He saw he was in a very compromised state. He was greatly in need. And so he went to him and ventured the wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. And he put him on his own animal, brought him to an end to a caravans. The next day he told the innkeeper he gave him some money and said, Take care of him when I come back.

I'll repay you whatever more you need to spend. Clearly he was showing love for his neighbor. And in verse 36 Jesus ends his parable with this question. Which of these three, the priest of the Levite or the Samaritan, which of these three was neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? Well, even the lawyer could say, well, the one who showed him mercy. See, that was what he was doing. He was expressing concern, pity, compassion, love.

But the way that Luke describes it is the one who showed him mercy. So is it important to be growing in a weightier manner of the law of mercy? I think you can conclude, well, sure, it is. It may be something we take for granted. I hope to point out a few things that maybe we've not thought of today.

But you see Jesus saying in verse 37, or they responded, the one who showed mercy, and Jesus responded saying, well, I want you to go and do likewise. And he, of course, pointed out how that showing mercy, being compassionate, being concerned, is what he is wanting to see in his children. Now, I have to say, in light of the world we live in today, we also need to be somewhat on guard and not just be irresponsible.

And you could have people try to trick you into harm or injury. Unfortunately, that's the world we live in today. But the lesson itself is still what we need to think about. The type of mercy that God is expecting his children to have. See, and that's really the title of what I want to talk about today. Mercy expected of the children of God. All of us wish to be children of God. We wish to be a part of his divine family. And yet, are we growing, not only in judgment, in understanding what God's laws and rules are, in understanding how to apply them, and understanding to have wisdom, to grow in understanding and doing that, and having right judgment, but also be merciful.

The mercy expected of God's children. Now, there are four things I want to point out about this, and I hope that they're clear. I know I gave this last week, and after telling people there were four things I was covering, my wife said I couldn't even figure out what two or three of them were. So, I'm pretty sure I didn't do a very good job last week, as far as providing that information clearly.

I know I went over the information, but it must not have been very clear. But the first point I want to make is just simply, you know, we're expected to extend mercy to others. Mercy toward our neighbor, because we are simply following the example of God. The mercy of God. It is what causes each one of us, personally and individually, to be seated here in the Church of God. The mercy of God has been extended to each of us individually. Now, sometimes we think about that in other ways. We think about our calling. We think about being drawn to Jesus Christ. We think about being, say, a part of the Church. But at least the descriptions that we can easily read here are going to show that it is out of God's— and, of course, you can—John 3, 16 says it's the love of God, that He sent Jesus to the earth, and we have a Redeemer.

We can have eternal life through Him. But it's also the mercy of God to reach down and to touch our lives. Whether we are a young person, like some of our young girls are here today, whether we're a little bit older, whether we're in our 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or more, it's the mercy of God that caused us to know about the relationship with God that comes through the Holy Spirit. See, the Holy Spirit is what empowers us to understand the traits of God. Here in 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, this chapter tells us about what it is to be a part of the Church of God.

What it is to have acknowledged our need for Jesus Christ in our lives. And it talks about us accepting Him. Verse 4, come to Him. Be a living stone, well rejected, or a living stone being rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like our Savior Jesus Christ, we should be living stones. Let yourself be built into a spiritual house to be a royal priesthood or holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.

So that's what we're being told to do. But in verse 9, we often read or we have thought about you talking to the Church in general, that's who Peter was writing to. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people. So here he makes a number of different qualifying statements about how God has drawn you together.

He has allowed us to be a part of the Church of God. He says we're to be a priesthood, a holy nation, the people of God, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And so even that is an incredible verse itself when you think about what God has done. But what I want to focus on is in verse 10. Because in verse 10, he says in the past, once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

See, prior to coming to a knowledge of God and the Church, the truth, the purpose of God for our lives, you know, we were not meeting together. We didn't even know each other. We didn't know anything about what the work of God or Church of God was like. But here he says, once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. And then he qualifies that. What else does he say?

Once you have not received mercy, but now, now you have received the mercy of God. See, that's what draws us to be a part of the work that God is doing today.

To be shaped and molded, to be changed. We do that because of God's mercy. Now, Paul writes about this in other of his books. This is Peter, of course, but Paul, in Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2, describes us living in this world. Chapter 2, verse 1, you were dead through your trespasses and sins in which you once lived.

Ephesians 2, verse 2, you once lived following the course of this world, following the ruler and the power of the air, the spirit that has now worked among those who are disobedient, the children of disobedience. See, that's why I said earlier, it seems like the whole world is being agitated. The whole world is being stirred up to not have any respect, not have any kindness, not have any appreciation and ability to, in a sense, work together at all.

But this is a description that Paul gives of the world. All of us in verse 3 once lived among them in the same passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature the children of wrath, just like everyone else.

But, and this is, of course, what I'm getting to, God who is rich in mercy, our Heavenly Father who loves us, who is concerned about us, who wants us to succeed, who wants us to be a part of his family. Does he realize that we, at times, fail? Sure. He knows that. But he's still there to help us. He's still there to pick us up. And that, this is simply saying God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love that he loved us, even when we were dead, through our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.

And he goes on to describe more about his concern about us, but the point I'm making is simply, it is out of God's mercy that he brings us out of the setting of being the children of disobedience to become the people of God, the people who have been extended his mercy. Here in Titus, in Titus, another book that Paul wrote, in this case, to one of the younger ministers, Titus chapter 3, Titus chapter 3, he talks about, in the beginning of the chapter, things that we need to be doing. In verse 3, we ourselves, we were once foolish and disobedient, just like he had said in the other writing that we read there in Ephesians.

But he says, in verse 4, when the goodness and the loving-kindness of mercy of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done. But what? According to his mercy. According to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

See, again, it's God who extends mercy to us to be able to fulfill His purpose for our lives, if we back up again to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. I think you could find this in many of the different introductions or even in the descriptions that Paul or others in the New Testament give. But in 1 Peter chapter 1, he says in verse 3, 2b, By His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading. See, again, it's over and over written that God is the one who extends mercy to us.

He has an unlimited supply. He is able to deal with us even when we were dead in our sins. And that's a point that I want to make to all of us because who should we extend mercy to? Well, as we read in Luke 10, well, we should extend mercy to our neighbor. But, you know, in essence, we should extend mercy to all. Mercy to all as far as people, even those, and I'll show you this more, even those who don't like us, even those who, in a sense, despise us.

Because, in essence, that's what God was doing. Out of mercy from God, He was bringing us into a reconciled state with Him. And we should be very, very thankful, you know, that He was willing to do that. The second point, so I'm going to go for point number two here, see if I can make this clear. You see a statement in James that says, mercy triumphs over judgment. Now, we need to understand, in a sense, what that means. In a sense, it points out that forgiveness from God is able to remove and resolve sin.

He's able to do that. Now, I know many times we find it hard. We find it hard to even believe that God is that merciful. We find it hard because we still remember, and we haven't totally forgotten. And perhaps it's good that we do kind of remember, but we do want to remember that God is the one who is able to remove sin through His mercy. Here in James chapter 2, and this is what I was referencing with this second point, mercy triumphs over judgment.

You see the description here, and we read part of this the other day, where James was discussing how if we're going to have proper judgment, we shouldn't be affected by being partial and looking at physical appearances and saying, okay, I'm judging this person good, that person somewhat good, that person bad, just because of appearance. That's what he said you need to avoid. And of course, he makes that really clear. But I want to start in verse 8, here in James chapter 2, he says, you do well if you fulfill the royal wall, according to the Scripture, that you should love your neighbor as yourself.

And so obviously, James is talking about how we're to be toward each other, not only toward God, but toward our neighbor, love your neighbor as yourself. But, he says, if you show partiality, you commit sin, and you are convicted by the law as transgressors. And so here he's pointing out the significance of the royal wall, and we will see him numerate a couple of the Ten Commandments. He says, verse 10, whoever keeps the whole wall, but fails in one point, has become accountable for all of it.

For the one who said, you shall not commit adultery, has also said, you shall not murder. And we might add, you shall not lie. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Those all fall into the accounting of the Ten Commandments. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but if you commit murder, then you become a transgressor of the law. And so, he was showing the complexity of the law, and that one sin is certainly significant, but another sin is significant, and they don't negate or counteract each other.

If you break one of the Ten Commandments, then we're breaking them all. So, he says, verse 12, so speak, and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. So here he talks about the royal law. James 2, verse 12, speak, and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. And so we understand that, well, that is the rule whereby God is going to judge us, and we have to learn to judge ourselves. And we have to learn then to properly apply that in our lives, but he says in verse 13, judgment will be without mercy to anyone who shows no mercy.

And so he ties in with judging ourselves, understanding our sins, moving away from them. He says, for judgment will be withheld, or those who are without mercy will be shown no mercy, because mercy triumphs over judgment. Again, what he is pointing out is that, well, judgment is going to come upon all of us, and we need to recognize our sins, repent of them, and move away from them as God directs us to do.

And we need to be thankful that the mercy of God is more powerful. It is able to rule over the errors, the judgment that is against us. You know, we had a fast day several weeks ago, and on that day we went over parts of the book of Daniel. And Daniel, of course, is a perfect example, or a great example, in Daniel 9, of someone who was fasting, someone who was seeking God's face, who wanted his understanding, who wanted his mercy, wanted his forgiveness.

And yet, if you read through that, you'll find that, of course, Daniel was in jail. Now, he looked like he was in a pretty prominent situation. He was in captivity, not so much jail, but captivity, and he was commissioned to work for the king of Babylon. But he was still, he and his people were in captivity. They had been overthrown. The city of Jerusalem had been ransacked. And even in the first part of Daniel 9, he started realizing, well, reading Jeremiah says we're going to be here 70 years.

He figured out this is what we're going to expect. And God, we're going to ask him to relieve us of this burden. But if you read down the middle part of Daniel 9, he clearly acknowledges that I have sinned, we have sinned, and what you brought on us, the judgment that you brought on us was well deserved. You were correct. He even says you were right, we were wrong. And that, of course, is what we have to say about God. God's always going to be correct in his judgment in telling us how we can live.

But here, you just see the fact that James points out how that mercy does triumph over judgment. It rectifies a judgment that can be placed on any of us. And it ties together, of course, with what Jesus said in the model of prayer. He says, pray to our Heavenly Father to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us. And he says later, in the couple of verses below that, he says, well, if we don't forgive each other or others who trespass against us, then God won't extend forgiveness to us.

We want to seek that. We need that in his mercy. And the mercy that we then extend to others is just that powerful. So that's one verse that I wanted to mention here in chapter, or in James chapter 2, that talks about mercy and talks about the value of it. It talks about how important it is. And I hope that that helps us and maybe realize the need to extend mercy.

The third thing that I want to point out is that Jesus explains the high value of mercy. Jesus explains the high value of mercy. Now, I'm taking this from what was recorded back in the book of Hosea, chapter 6.

So if we want to look back there, Hosea, chapter 6, of course you have other statements in the Old Testament. We read a verse during Pentecost, Dr. Housleton did. He read a verse that said, you know, that to obey, this was talking about Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice.

And he was applying it to Saul's situation. Saul didn't obey. He took it into his own hands. He decided for himself what was right and wrong. He was just clearly wrong. And he was told, well, obedience is better than whatever you thought you were doing with these sacrifices.

Now, here in Hosea, in Hosea, chapter 6, you see a section here in Hosea that this is actually describing Israel's failure, describing their need to return to God. In chapter 6, he says in verse 1, come, let us return to the Lord. For it is he who has torn and he will heal.

See, they were running into problems already, and God was actually causing a certain amount of judgment to come upon them. He says in verse 4, what should I say to you, O eat for him? What should I do with you, O Judah?

Talking about two kind of major sections of the people of Israel. And he says in verse 6, I desire mercy. I desire kindness or mercy and not sacrifice. I desire the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

And so here you read this statement in the Old Testament, and then you see it quoted a couple of different times in the New. And so this is where I want to go here, beginning in Matthew 12, because Jesus applied the idea that mercy is what he desires more than sacrifice. Here in Matthew 12, this first section in Matthew 12 is talking about Jesus going through the grain fields and his disciples plucking grain, plucking the heads of wheat, rubbing them out and eating them. And the Pharisees, of course, had a problem with that. In verse 2, they saw it. They said, look, your disciples are doing what's not lawful on the Sabbath. And then Jesus explains, well, this is really not wrong.

He's going to say in verse 8, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. I'm the one who should be explaining to you how you should observe the Sabbath. But he goes ahead to use a couple of examples here in verse 3. Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? Aren't you familiar, he was saying, with what you read about King David and about whenever he was being chased and he and his band were hungry and they went in and they ate something they weren't supposed to.

But under the circumstances, Jesus said, well, that's what they did. He entered the house of God, ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for him or his companions to eat.

And he says in verse 5, have you not read the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet they're guiltless? He says, don't you realize that these priests and those who are dealing with the temple and dealing with the sacrifices and having to wrestle this lamb or this calf, that's quite a bit of work.

And yet, he says, that's not breaking the Sabbath. They're doing what was required of them to do. And I know I've thought about this a lot. I ended up driving a lot on the Sabbath. I had never ever thought about that as being a problem. And yet, it kind of fits into a similar category. Well, if you didn't have to, then you might not drive as much as I do on the Sabbath. But he's saying, well, that's a part of the work that in this case the priests were required to do and they are fine. And I view that as how I look at getting back and forth wherever I need to go.

He follows up these questions that he poses to the Pharisees by saying, I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. Of course, he was using some illustrations of the temple with David going in and eating the showbread and then the priest, in essence, doing their service, doing their work on the Sabbath. And he says, I'm greater than the temple.

Someone greater than the temple is here. But he says in verse 7, if you had known what this means, and again quoting Hosea 6 verse 6, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. He was showing the tremendous high value of being merciful. He wasn't saying be disobedient or belligerently disobedient. He was saying, the value of mercy is so incredible. If you had known what it means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, then you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Now, you see more explanation about this in Luke and more so in Mark as far as this whole incident. But I point this out because Jesus brings it up.

He says mercy is a weightier matter of the law. Mercy may need to be applied in a situation where you might think otherwise, I don't know that I want to do that. But mercy ought to be thought about.

If we go on, or I guess we need to back up here in Matthew to chapter 9. You see Jesus making this same statement again. Matthew chapter 9, the incredible high value that God puts on mercy. Here in Matthew chapter 9 verse 9, He calls Matthew as a tax collector to be a disciple, an apostle.

And it says in verse 9, He saw Matthew at his tax booth and said to him, follow me, and he got up and left. He followed him. Now, that seems like a pretty quick decision on Matthew's part. I'm pretty sure he knew who he was. He knew who Jesus was. He knew what he was committing to. And you see other descriptions. It might have been a little more lengthy, but ultimately this was the outcome.

He followed him. And in verse 10, as he sat at dinner in the house, it seems to be Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him as disciples. So this was Jesus at a dinner that it seems Matthew must have put on for him, and he invited many others, maybe some of his co-workers, maybe many of his friends. He sat at dinner with many tax collectors and sinners. They were sitting with Jesus and his disciples, and when the Pharisees saw this, in verse 11, they said to the disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

And when Jesus heard this, he said, Well, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But I want you to go and learn what this means. So again, Jesus points this out more than once. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I've come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, he was pointing out a bigger principle than simply the fact that the Pharisees didn't want to have anything to do with the sinners. They wanted to cast and push them aside.

And yet Jesus was willing to accept them. He was willing to talk with them. He was willing to eat with them and drink with them and even be criticized for it. And yet he says, This is a part of the mercy of God. The mercy of God reaches out to others as we have opportunity. And of course, he was saying, you know, his whole mission, his whole purpose, the first time he came to earth, was to reach out to others and for the Father to draw some.

And we find that there wasn't all that many. When we get to the day of Pentecost, how many are there? This is 50 days after Jesus had been crucified and then resurrected. The Pentecost comes and there's 120 meeting together. Not a massive crowd yet. Well, in the next few days, there's several thousand. That's up to God. But he points out the high value of mercy in the statement that he drew out of the Old Testament, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. See, I'm not trying to just get you to beat yourself up in order to please me.

I'm wanting you to understand my mind, my way of looking at people as a way of mercy. Now, the last or the fourth thing that I want to mention is that we have several examples of Jesus extending mercy and love to other people. You could read many of them, but I'm only going to cover a couple of them because they directly talk about the mercy that was extended. First of all, he extended mercy in healing others. That's one type of mercy he extended. He also extended mercy in forgiving others. Here in Matthew 20, Matthew 20, we see, for the latter part of the chapter, Jesus encountering two blind men.

Verse 29, as they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus, and there were two blind men sitting by the road. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, Lord, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. Clearly, they had heard about him. They knew who he was. They perhaps knew he was in the area. Probably, they knew he had been healing other people. And yet, being blind, they couldn't follow him around. At least, they had to have help to do that. But whenever he came near to where they were, he says, Lord, have mercy on us. And the crowd, verse 31, sternly ordered them to be quiet. They shouted even more loudly, have mercy on us, Lord, son of David. So Jesus stood still, and he called them and said, well, what do you want me to do?

Now, that seems like an unusual question, except, you know, he was simply pointing out that, well, how can I help you? What do you want me to do? And in a sense, you know, he's also showing that, well, we need to ask God for the mercy that we need, as these men were doing. What do you want me to do? And they said, well, Lord, let our eyes be open. We want to be able to see. And in verse 34, it says, moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes, and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

Now, clearly, you know, Jesus was able to extend forgiveness. He was able to extend mercy. He was able to provide healing in any of these physical circumstances. But in this case, you know, these men were begging for mercy from God, mercy that Jesus could extend. And certainly, we need to realize that God is able to do that. And then I also want to look at the account we have in John chapter 8 that I think we're perhaps very familiar with, an account of a woman who was taken in adultery.

And usually, we read through this, and we often know what it's about. We know what's happening. We know what the Pharisees are doing. They're trying to set Jesus up. They're trying to trip Him up. They're trying to get Him to make a mistake so that they have something to blame Him for. But it says in verse 3, the scribes and Pharisees, John 8, verse 3, they brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, making her stand before all of them.

They said to Him, teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now, in the law of Moses, commanded us to stone such women. What do you say? See, obviously, in verse 6, they were doing this to test Jesus. They weren't trying to find out what the right answer was. They weren't trying to resolve the situation. And as perhaps as you've read this before, you realize that, well, we don't know where the guy went. Somehow, he got away. Somehow, he ran off.

Somehow, he wasn't drug into this. That's kind of a sidelight that we don't know anything about. The other thing is Jesus is crawling on the ground. What's He scrolling? Well, we don't know. We don't know. But yet, sometimes we get caught up in stuff we don't know, instead of the things that are very clear, as far as what this says. Verse 6, they said this, what do you say, to test Him, so that they might have some charge to bring against Jesus, and yet He bent down and broke with His finger on the ground.

Now, you can speculate all you want about what He broke. He was scribbling in the dust. In essence, He was indicting them, saying, if you don't accept who I am, then you're going to be just like dust. That's ultimately what He was saying.

If you tie Jeremiah 17 into this, which may clearly have application. But when He did that, they kept on asking Him. He straightened up and said, well, let anyone among you who is without sin be the first one to throw a stone at her. So, He gave them the answer. The answer was, you know, well, you're the ones who are wanting to stone this woman, or you're wanting me to say, yeah, it would be okay, and yet I'm going to tell you, whoever it is without sin, needs to cast the first stone.

And then, once again, He bent down and wrote on the ground, and they got the point that He was making. It appears they understood clearly what He was saying, because when they heard what He said, they went away one by one, beginning with the elder, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before. So, in essence, you know, they all had not been able to succeed in trapping Jesus in this case.

But, if we're standing when Jesus straightened up and said to her woman, you know, where are they? Where are those who are choosing you? Has no one condemned you? And she said, no one, sir, or Lord. And Jesus said, well, neither do I condemn you, but I want you to go your way, and from now on, do not sin anymore. Go and sin no more. He was simply telling her, you know, I'm not condemning you either, and certainly, you know, there may be more to what He's saying when we think about it, but He says, I want you to repent.

I want you to turn from sin, and I want you to live differently. Now, Barclay's commentary has an interesting...this is out of William Barclay's daily study Bible. It has an interesting description of what was going on in this circumstance. Barclay says it's very important that we understand just what Jesus or how Jesus did treat this woman.

It's easy to draw the wrong lesson altogether, and to gain the impression that Jesus forgave lightly and easily. You know, is that what Jesus was doing? Well, the answer is no, but He says it's easy to think that Jesus forgave lightly and easily as if the sin didn't matter. But what He said was, I'm not going to condemn you just now, but I want you to go and sin no more.

In effect, what He was doing was not to abandon judgment and say, don't worry about it, everything's all right. What He did was saying, I'm going to defer the sentence. He says, I'm going to pass a final...or I'm not going to pass a final judgment now, but I want you to go and prove that you can do better.

You have sinned. Go and sin no more, and I will help you all the time. And at the end of the day, we'll see how you've lived. Now, the basic difference between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees was that the Pharisees and scribes, they wanted to condemn. They wanted to judge and condemn and stone this woman. And of course, Jesus wanted to extend mercy. He wanted to extend forgiveness. That was His desire. If we read between the lines, again, Bartley continues, if we read between the lines of his story, it's quite clear that they wished to stone the woman to death, and they were going to take great pleasure in doing so.

They knew the thrill of exercising that power to condemn, but Jesus knew the thrill of exercising the power to forgive. Jesus regarded the sinner with pity that born out of love, but the scribes and Pharisees regarded him with disgust, born out of self-righteousness. See, they looked at Jesus in a condemning way. They looked at the woman in a condemning way. And yet Jesus was looking to be forgiven. He wanted to help her. He wanted to extend mercy. So not only did we find that Jesus answered the blind man's call, had mercy on us, he was also providing, in a sense, spiritual healing.

He was providing forgiveness. He was providing mercy to this woman in John 8. So there are many different, perhaps, examples that we can use. But whenever we think about the fact that God the Father draws us and called us out of his great mercy and love for us, that obviously sets that up as the pattern that we ought to live. And we haven't always done that. We've often been less than merciful.

We've often been very picky about what others do or say. And yet, that's not the mercy that God is wanting us to extend to one another. I know in Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a lot of instructions. And one section there, ending in verse 48, says, You should love your enemies, and you should become perfect like your Father in heaven.

This is Matthew 5, verse 48. Matthew 5, verse 48. Well, we can jump up a little bit earlier. I say to you in verse 44, Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be the children of your Father in heaven. He says in verse 47, if you greet only your brethren, then what are you doing more than others? Even the Gentiles do that. See, sometimes that's easy for us to do. Maybe sometimes it isn't, but we should. Show love for one another. But he says ultimately in verse 48, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I think that's what the King James says, as well as this translation that I use. And we want to understand that that's not talking about being sinless. That's not talking about perfection as far as flawlessness. But it is talking about becoming fully developed by becoming mature like our heavenly Father. And it's actually learning to exercise the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith. And mercy, of course, is what we're talking about today.

And I want us to go over to Luke 6 as we conclude here. Luke 6, of course, is a similar account that Luke gives of some of the things that Jesus said. Some of the things that he said during what we normally think of as the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5 and 6 and 7, that should be pretty common knowledge to all of us. And yet in Luke 6, you see Luke recounting some of that same information.

And I think it's important to see what he says about the instruction that was given. Starting in verse 27, Luke 6, I say to you that listen, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those that curse you. And pray for those who abuse you. He says, if anyone strikes you on the cheek, turn your other cheek.

If anyone takes away your coat, give him your shirt as well. Give to everyone who begs from you. In verse 31, do to others as you would have them to do you. Commonly we know the phrasing in Matthew, but this is what Luke says. Do to others as you would have them do to you. In verse 32, he says, if you love those who love you, what credit is that? For even sinners do that. But if you do good to those, and if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that?

Even sinners do that. If you lend to those to whom you might hope to receive, what credit is that? Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again. And so he talks about it in a little different way, but in clearly a way that is telling us to become like God, to become like the merciful Heavenly Father that loves us and who is fully mature. And of course we see the references in the book of James to that.

How that that's what—or Hebrews, I guess it is—that's what he wants us to do, to become like God. But he says in verse 35, Love your enemies. Do good and win, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be the children of the Most High. For he is kind, even to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Verse 36, Be merciful. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful. Here I think you see Luke's description of what God wants us to be. He wants us to become like our Heavenly Father.

He wants us to be fully mature, to be going on to what he is. He's perfect, and we're not perfect. We're working toward that maturity. But see, a big part of that maturity is in verse 36, Be merciful just as your Father is merciful to you. Now, that's the type of mercy that we talked about to begin with, that God extended to us to begin with.

He wants us to understand what it is to grow in mercy, to grow in how that's to be applied, to grow in how we love one another with that mercy, to grow in how we emulate him, how we follow the example of Jesus, and how we choose to be exercising the weightier matters of the law, because we want him to become like our Heavenly Father. But whenever Luke says, Be merciful just as your Father is merciful, that is the exact same mercy that is expected of the children of God.

See, that's what we're wanting to achieve. That's what we strive for. And so, as Jesus said there in the parable of the Good Samaritan, just go and do likewise. We want to become like God is in his mercy and like Jesus was in his mercy to all of us. The same mercy that's expected of the children of God.