One of the reasons the Bible is so precious to us is because it reveals who we are in light of God. There is no other source we can go to to show us this truth. The world can't show us who we really are in light of God or who we are before God in His presence. The advertising industry only inflates our imagined self-worth. It only tells us how much we need a particular company's product. And we just owe it to ourselves to buy that product. That's what we're told. After all, we earned it. We deserve it. We can't go to psychology to reveal who we really are inside. Much of psychology tells us that man is basically good and that those who are struggling emotionally are victims of their past or their present or their surroundings or their parents or something. Nothing is ever the fault of the individual. Everything today is a disease. If you're a famous Hollywood movie producer who has sexually assaulted or raped dozens of women, you have a disease and need professional psychological help and rehabilitation. So we can't go to psychology. Anything that man produces about himself is always going to be more self-flattering, more self-promoting, and more self-congratulatory than anything we find in the Bible. And the reason is because we're sinners. Our sin blinds us to who we really are. Because of our sin, we always see ourselves in a better light than God does. But this is the best that sinners can do, because apart from the Holy Spirit, our sin will never condemn us. Sin is always self-deceiving. The well-known passage in Jeremiah 17, you may want to look at that with me. Jeremiah 17 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Most of us are familiar with the verse. I'm not sure how familiar we are with the context. In verse 1, God is dealing with Judah, the sin of Judah. Verse 1 says, "...the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of your altars." while their children remember their altars and their wooden images by the green trees and on the high hills. O my mountain, in the field I will give as plunder your wealth and all your treasures and your high places of sin within all your borders. and you even yourself shall let go of your heritage which I gave you and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever." God is indicting Judah for their sin of idolatry. They're worshiping on every green hill. And God says, because of that, I'm taking you into captivity. I'm going to cause you to serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, as he says in verse 4. The sin of idolatry is deep in their hearts and God is about to deliver them to the idolatrous enemies whom they chose to follow in their worship. Those in Judah who went after the way of idolatry will be like those in a desert." If you look at verse 5, "'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, who start the parts from the Lord. He shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited.'" They're just going to be like a bramble bush in the desert, shrivels up, blows away. But then in verse 7, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord, for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes. But her leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. The one who trusts in the Lord is contrasted with the one who doesn't. The one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree, a firmly planted tree by a river. It's really a canal. It's an irrigation ditch in the desert. And of course, those not planted by the irrigation ditch are just going to wither up and blow away. The heart of those who trust in themselves are deceitful and desperately wicked, according to verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. This is in the context of verses 1 through 8. Those who trust in themselves, their hearts are wicked. They mask their sins so that no one will know how bad their hearts are. They don't even know how bad their hearts are themselves. That's how bad sin is. So if we can't know our own hearts, if we can't know the hearts of those people around us, it could all be a charade according to this. How will we ever know? Well, we don't, but God does. Verse 10, I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. We don't know the hearts of others. We don't even know our own hearts. The hearts, the others don't know their own hearts. Nobody knows what's in the heart. The heart is too deceitful, and we are too gullible. Oh, isn't she a wonderful Christian? Isn't he a wonderful Christian? Well, we always give people the benefit of the doubt, but they may not be. Only God knows. The heart always tricks us. That's why we can't rely on it. God sees through the deceit, exposes the heart of a sinner, no matter how well that sinner thinks of himself or how well he deceives others around him about himself and how good he is. God cuts right through all that. So if our hearts are that wicked, how can we know how we really stand before God? Well, that's why we have the rest of this. It tells us. And by the way, standing before God is not relative. You're either in good favor or bad favor with God. God doesn't work on sliding scales. Without the Scriptures, we would all try to convince ourselves and others around us that we are far better human beings than we really are. That's what sin does in the heart. It inflates the ego. That's just what sin does in a human heart. So it's the Bible that gives us honest feedback. It alone tells us from an objective perspective what our hearts are really like and what it is from God's perspective who we really are. And really, bottom line is, we're sinners before God. We're all sinners before God. And in a general sense, there's no greater sinner or lesser sinner before God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Now to many people, being a sinner is not a major concern. When I was in Dallas, doing my internship at the seminary and had to do some kind of ministry at the church, so I chose to do discipleship and evangelism. And I was discipling some folks and on one of the nights of the week, I can't remember which night it was, we went out and knocked on doors and presented the gospel. And one of the first questions we asked people is, do you believe that you're a sinner? Oh yeah, I believe that. But what they didn't believe is how bad they were. I mean, experience tells us that we're sinners. That's not a big revelation. Most people will readily admit that they're sinners. Honestly, I don't think I've ever run into a person who didn't know that they were a sinner. The problem is, although they don't think their sin is much of a problem or big deal, they just don't understand how bad it is before God. They don't understand that they are in desperate need of His mercy. Most people don't know that. They're blind to their need of mercy. They're oblivious to it. They don't have a clue that they need it. You know, it's interesting that we never see anywhere in the Bible any of God's physical creation. the mountains, the oceans, the trees, vegetation, even animals. We don't see any of that in need of God's mercy. It's not mentioned in the Bible. The only objects of mercy in the Bible are sinners. And that's what we want to focus on this morning. Our need for God's mercy and how merciful of a God He is towards sinners who recognize our need for it. So, let's begin with first a need for God's mercy. I want to go through this. A need for God's mercy. God's mercy is not a hard concept to understand. It's not some theological abstract concept. Simply put, God's mercy is His pity on those who are in a miserable and desperate condition and who need His mercy. That's what mercy is, people in a desperate condition whom God has pity on. Mercy is really given to pathetic people, really, if you look in scripture. It's not given to the proud, it's not given to the wealthy. Based on those merits alone, obviously there's wealthy people who receive God's mercy. There are plenty of wealthy people in the Bible who receive God's mercy, but that's not the condition for it. The condition is, number one, being miserable in your sin before God, and number two, recognizing it. From a theological perspective, sinners are in a spiritually miserable condition and in desperate need of God's mercy. So, what is hard for us to understand, as I said a moment ago, is we just don't naturally recognize that we're in misery. We don't recognize that we're poor, miserable creatures. and need God's pity. Most people don't see themselves in a miserable condition before God and surely don't think they need His pity on them, but the Bible gives a different story, different perspective, an objective perspective. It tells us that although God created men without sin and in perfect fellowship with Him, just read Genesis 1 and 2, When man chose to rebel against God, God immediately plunged him and his entire posterity into the consequence of physical death and eternal condemnation. That's a pretty miserable condition to be in. If you turn to Romans 5, Paul tells us here in verse 12, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin. That's not hard to understand. Why do people die? Because Adam sinned in the garden. That's why every single person dies. I don't know how much time you've spent around dying people, but physically that's pretty miserable. I'm not looking forward to it. I mean, I started praying a few years ago that I would be ready for that. I pray it on a regular basis. It's coming. I'm not getting further away from it. I'm getting closer to it. Verse 16 says, "...for the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation." So now we move from the physical to the eternal. The temporal to the eternal. So, one man's sin caused every human being to die. Now, one man's sin caused every human being to be eternally condemned. Do you realize you don't have to commit one sin to go to hell? Seriously, that's what this says. The only thing your personal sin does is increase the punishment in hell. Unless, of course, you've trusted in Jesus Christ, which there is therefore no no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. But for those who aren't, that's why Paul says in Romans 2 a few chapters earlier, if you don't repent and trust Christ, you're just treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. You just keep piling it up and you're increasing the wrath that's coming upon you. Verse 18 says, therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all. These aren't hard concepts to understand. They're just hard concepts to swallow. The average person is clueless about this. He has no idea he's under God's eternal condemnation because of Adam's sin along with his own sin. For all intents and purposes, he thinks he's doing just fine. I mean, the average person, you know, at least around here, got a pretty nice house, couple cars and a garage. Good job. Plenty of time for vacation and fun and play. That's why we have all the ski areas and we have all the movie theaters and all that because there's a demand for it. Most people think they're doing just great. But this is why all of us need the Bible. Otherwise, we would be clueless, right? We wouldn't know where we stand before God. You see, man needs to know that he's a sinner. He needs to know that the Lord sees that the wickedness of man is great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. Genesis 6, 5. We're told in the first couple chapters of the Bible how bad we are. God didn't stick it at the end. He put it right at the beginning. That's why we had the flood. Man needs to know that the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth, Genesis 8.21. Or Job 15.16, that man drinks iniquity like water. Or as I mentioned, Romans 3.23, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But even knowing how bad he is, the average sinner would still see no need for God's mercy. Okay, you show me from the Bible that I'm a sinner. So what? So he needs to understand something else. He needs to understand that God will by no means clear the guilty. Exodus 34, 7. He needs to know that the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and He will destroy its sinners from it. Isaiah 13, 9. He needs to know, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble, and the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch, Malachi 4.1. Or, as Psalm 21.8.9 says, God's hand will find all His enemies. His right hand will find those who hate Him. He shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of His anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. He needs to know, as John 3.36 says, he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Every unsaved person, the wrath of God is just hanging over their head. It's like John the Baptist says, the axe is laid at the root of the tree. All you have to do is swing it. 2 Thessalonians 1, 7-9, "...the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." Or as Revelation 6 says, When the Lord returns, the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every free man, will hide themselves in caves and in the rocks of the mountains and say to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" If we didn't have the Bible, we wouldn't know any of this. You're not going to get it on the news. You're not going to get it in the newspaper. Hollywood's not going to tell you. So not only is man a sinner, he needs to understand how bad of a sinner he is. and what the consequences of his sin are. But there's one more thing he needs to understand. He must also understand that by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in God's sight. Romans 3.20. See, we're all sinners. We all start out under God's wrath because of our sin, but we need to understand the next thing. We can't do anything about it. God doesn't give us a personal recipe for me to get rid of my sin. I can't keep His law perfectly. to remove my sin, to pay for my sin, to atone for my sin. I can't do that. Nothing. I can do nothing. Psalm 49, 7 and 9. No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him. The ransom for his life is costly. No payment is ever enough that he should live on forever and not see decay. You can't redeem yourself. You can't redeem your brother. too expensive. We don't have the right currency. Because of God's absolute holiness, man has come with nothing to God for his sin. As Malachi asked the rhetorical question, with what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, 10,000 rivers of oil? Is that what's gonna take away my sin? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? These are all rhetorical questions. The answer is no. Malachi 6, 6 and 7. None of us can come before God with anything for our sin. So not only does man need to understand he's a sinner, he must also understand how bad of a sinner he is. He's bad enough to warrant God's eternal wrath against him. So he's a sinner. He's a miserably condemned sinner. And he is a miserably condemned, helpless sinner. Now, if that doesn't need pity, I don't know what does. But because man is in this despairing and dire condition, because he's in desperate need of God's mercy, because he can't save himself, the question is, can he find such a merciful God? So let's look at the history of God's mercy. That's second, the history of God's mercy. We saw the need, now let's look at the history. Because God is an eternally loving God, each person of the Trinity loving the other persons of the Trinity from eternity. God, after creating man and then man falling into sin, shows that He's a merciful God. Now we understand before God created anything, there was no need for mercy. All there was was the Father, Son, and Spirit. Surely, Father didn't need to have mercy on the Son, the Son didn't need to have mercy on the Spirit, and Spirit need to, you understand. Neither was there any need for mercy in the garden before Adam fell into sin. He was in perfect fellowship with God, didn't need any mercy. Mercy is a biblical concept and it's only reserved for sinners. So mercy entered in in Genesis chapter 3. As soon as Adam fell into sin, God's judgment came upon him and he was immediately in desperate need of God's mercy. Likewise, when God's people are glorified, when we go to heaven and we have the sin condition eradicated from us, that means we're never going to sin again. Can you understand that? Can you wrap your head around it? I can't. I live with sin 24-7, 365. What that's going to be like to get rid of that, I have no idea. It's like being blind from birth. It's like having cancer from childhood. What is it like to live without sin? I have no idea. But one day we're going to live without sin. And in that day, there won't be any need for mercy. So God's mercy is only exercised towards sinners. And we have an abundance of examples in scripture of God being merciful to sinners. I'm just going to give you a couple, just because it's almost on every page. But we'll start with number one. God's mercy on Adam in the garden, if you want to go to Genesis 2. God was merciful in the garden to Adam after he sinned. You remember the command that God gave Adam in Genesis chapter 2 after he created him, he placed him in the garden, told him to till the ground. This was before Adam sinned. He said in verse 16, the Lord commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Absolute. The same day that you eat that fruit, you're going to die. And of course, God was talking about physical death. Up until this point, nothing had died because there was no sin in the world. I'm not sure Adam even understood what God meant by die. He must have had some concept of it. God may have explained it to him more than what we have here in the text. But we do know that Adam did sin in a day when Eve offered him the fruit to eat. And in that day, Adam was to die, physically. Now, if you're reading Genesis for the first time, and you're paying attention, and you read Genesis 2, 17, and you get to chapter 5, where it says, or when you get to chapter three where God comes to Adam the same day that he ate of the fruit and he interviews Adam and Eve and the serpent, he doesn't die. And you have to ask yourself the question, has God given him a pass? I mean, what kind of a God is this? He makes a promise and he doesn't keep it. Adam's supposed to be dead. That's a good thing he wasn't because we wouldn't be here. But he was supposed to be dead and he didn't die. I mean, that's a flashing neon light to me when I read Genesis 2 and 3. What happened? Why didn't Adam die? Because God's merciful. You say, well, that doesn't solve the problem of God not keeping His Word. I mean, does that mean that God's mercy violated His justice? Doesn't justice demand that sin be punished? In this case, sin being punished as God said it would be, in the day that you eat of it, you will die. Well, the answer is no. God's justice wasn't violated that day. God didn't give Adam a pass on his sin. He didn't relax his justice. Instead of Adam dying physically that day, look at verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep... I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong chapter. Verse 21 of chapter 3. Right after God pronounced judgment, on the serpent, the woman, and then Adam. It says in verse 21, also for Adam and his wife, the Lord made tunics of skin and clothed them. Where does a tunic of skin come from? It comes from an animal. And to get the skin, you've got to kill the animal. So what did God do? He killed an animal in front of Adam and Eve and He took the skin off the animal and He made clothes for them. That's a picture of substitutionary atonement. God gave Adam a picture of what He would ultimately do in permanently removing his sin. You see, Adam didn't die that day, but something else did. God gave Adam a substitute. God didn't give a pass on sin. Instead of Adam dying, the animal died. God slaughtered the animal in front of Adam and Eve to show them what they deserved. You sinned. This is what you should get. But I'm going to take an innocent animal and kill that animal instead. Now, we know the animal didn't take away the sin. That was postponed until Christ came on the cross. But from that moment, Adam understood that sin deserves death and requires punishment. He also understood at that moment that God is merciful in giving him a substitute God killed the animal instead of him. Adam understood the life of one for the life of another, the death of one in the place of another, the giving of one's life so the other might live. He understood the concept of substitutionary atonement. And on that day, he understood for the very first time that God was a merciful God. He understood what he deserved. He understood how much trouble he was in before God, and how miserable his condition really was before God. And he understood that there was nothing he could give God to atone for his sin. I don't know if you put yourself in the shoes of Adam after hearing what God said he would do in Genesis 2.17. Do you understand now why Adam hid in the garden when he heard God coming? Because he knew God was going to kill him! You'd hide too. So would I. God was merciful. Adam understood his need for divine mercy. So every sinner who truly wants to be saved from God's coming wrath needs to understand his or her need for God's mercy. They need to understand how bad their sin is before a righteous and holy God and how helpless they are in escaping God's wrath. You know, this idea that you can pray a prayer and intellectually acknowledge that you're a sinner, assent to a few biblical facts about Jesus Christ, but have no conviction of your sinful, miserable condition, no realization of the trouble you're in before God, no feeling of your helplessness to escape His coming wrath, on your sin, that's completely foreign to Scripture. If you don't understand those things, you don't understand salvation. You don't know what salvation is. Salvation is being delivered from God's wrath. That's what it means. It's not being delivered from your circumstances or your problems. Relationships that you're not getting along with. That's not what salvation is. We're saved from wrath. It says that over and over again in the Bible. You know, go to Luke 18. Jesus gave us such a graphic illustration of this in a parable. In verse 9, it says that Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. See, this is most of the world. Remember I said sin makes you think that you're better than you really are? That's what this guy's problem was. He trusted in himself that he was righteous and everybody else around him was less than he was. That's this tax collector. Jesus goes on and says in verse 10, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax collector over here. Basically, look how good I am. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. God, you must think that I'm really something. Then you got the tax collector in verse 13. He's standing afar off. Didn't even go inside the temple. Didn't think he was deserving to go into the temple. Would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven. So he's outside the temple looking on the ground. May even be down on his knees. He's too ashamed to look up to heaven. And he's beating on his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Now, look what Jesus said in verse 14. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Does this look like anything like someone who just acknowledges a few facts about Jesus, prays a prayer, and thinks that they're saved when they have no concept of the coming wrath on them. They have no concept of how bad of a sinner they are. They don't know anything about the Bible. They've never read anything of the things that I've shared with you this morning right out of the scriptures. They're just doing what somebody told them to do. Okay, that's Adam in the garden. Let's look at God's mercy, 2nd God's mercy in Israel, in Egypt. Go to Exodus chapter 3. I'll just give you a handful of these just so you get the idea. For over 400 years, Jacob's descendants dwelt in Egypt. And for the latter part of that time, the Egyptians put them under severe oppression, slavery, because God had multiplied them so much. From 70 persons in 400 years to over 2 million people. I mean, that's being pretty prolific. I mean, God's blessing Jacob and his sons like we have never seen before, which is really part of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, right? Because he promised Abraham that he would have a seed that, you know, more than the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. So 70 to over 2 million in 400 years. And Egypt's getting a little worried here. They came in with 70, there's 2 million of them. What if they turn against us? We gotta do something about this. So they put them in bondage. And at the end of 430 years, God came to Moses and he said to him in Exodus chapter 3 in verses 7 and 8, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites." in a nutshell, why did God do this? He pitied His people. He says, I've seen their affliction. They're in misery. He saw their helplessness, that they had no means by which to deliver themselves. They were in a pathetic, miserable condition which really serves as an illustration of all of us who are in bondage to sin. That's not the meaning of the text, but it's a good illustration of it. And this is one of the most vivid examples of God's mercy in the Bible. No people could have been so miserable under slavery and in such desperate need of deliverance than the Israelites. And, of course, Israel constantly prays God for His deliverance of them in Egypt. If you read the Psalms, if you read Chronicles, they said in Psalm 36, 10, and 11 in their worship, to Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever, and brought out Israel from among them, for His mercy endures forever. They constantly talked of God's mercy. Israel understood that God was a merciful God. Every sinner who comes to God for salvation must understand that God is first a God of justice, but that He is also a God of mercy. He will by no means clear the guilty, but He will offer a substitute to those who see their need for mercy. He offers them the person of Jesus Christ to stand in their place. We can look at number three, God's mercy on David and his adultery, right? His adultery and murder. When David sinned with Bathsheba and killed Uriah, her husband, he covered his sin for nine months. He didn't want to deal with it. It's kind of like Adam in the garden. He was hiding from God for nine months. He's a believer. God made David miserable in his sin for nine months. That's usually what he does to a true believer when they don't deal with their sin. David said in Psalm 32, 4, day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I felt like I was in a desert, and I couldn't breathe because your hand was pressing me down so much. That's how bad I was in my sin when I didn't confess it. That's a good illustration for us. If we're not feeling this after we sin, there might be a severe spiritual problem there. In Psalm 51.8, David was so miserable over his sin, he felt as though God had broken his bones. He says, the bones that you have broken. But when Nathan the prophet came to him and confronted him with his sin, nine months after the sin occurred, according to the law, David was supposed to die. In the Mosaic law, If you killed someone or if you had adultery with someone, you were to die. No exceptions. There was no sacrifice for that. It was stoning until you were dead. David knew that. He knew the law. He was required to read through the law once a year, according to Deuteronomy 16. But after Nathan confronted him and after David confessed his sin in 2 Samuel 12, 13, David said, I have sinned against the Lord. Nine months he hadn't dealt with it. We know it was nine months because his baby from Bathsheba had just been born, less than a week old. David knew the law. He expected the death penalty. Kings weren't exempt from the death penalty. But God had mercy on him. David was in a helpless, miserable condition before God with his sin, but God didn't give him what he deserved. Just like God had mercy on Adam in the garden, God had mercy on David after he sinned. That's God's prerogative. Christ died for that sin so David wouldn't have to. But God looked on David with pity. The same way He looks on all people who sincerely confess their sins to Him, He looks on them with pity. As believers, we're no different than David. David sinned terribly against God. We all do the same as believers. And like David, as believers, we all need mercy. Mercy isn't just for unsaved people. God can discipline us severely when we sin, just like He did with David. And that's another thing that the Bible teaches us. If we're truly His and God's disciplining us, we should know when God's disciplining us. David knew several times when God was disciplining him. We shouldn't be any different than David. None of us are above that. You know, in the church at Corinth, many of the believers there had abused the Lord's Supper so much so that God brought sickness and even death, it says, to many in the church. That's New Testament. That's not Old Testament. Does He do the same today? I don't know. He really only has to do it once to show us what He thinks about it or what He can do, right? He doesn't have to do it every single time. Thank God He doesn't do it every time. None of us would be here. As believers, we wouldn't be here. So just because we're saved doesn't mean we don't need God's mercy. This is why Paul and John began many of their letters with that salutation, grace and mercy, or grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. We just gloss over those usually. But those phrases are so packed because they understood that all of us as believers need God's mercy. So David understood the mercy of God. I'll give you another one. God's mercy, number four, God's mercy on unbelievers in their sin who never are converted. You say, what are you talking about? Well, I'll show you a couple of them. We see in Scripture on a few occasions where God is merciful on unbelievers who were never saved. One of the examples is Ahab. Ahab was a wicked king in Israel. If you look at 1 Kings, in chapter 21, Ahab's wife Jezebel introduced Israel to Baal worship. Ahab was an idolater, a thief, and a murderer. If you look at 1 Kings 21 beginning in verse 25, But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel." I mean, this was a bad guy. I mean, he led the whole nation into idolatry. He was a participant in his wife killing his neighbor. He stole his neighbor's property. And when Elijah came to Ahab and confronted him with his sin, look at what verse 27 says. So it was when Ahab heard those words that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about mourning. He repented. He's an unsaved man. He repented. And I have no reason to doubt that this wasn't a sincere repentance. Because God could see the heart. Then God said in verse 29 to Elijah, the word of verse 28, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite saying, see how Ahab has humbled himself before me because he has humbled himself before me. I will not bring the calamity in his days, but in the days of his son, I will bring the calamity on his house. He's talking about his house being the son's being executed. his dynasty ending, and eventually Israel going into captivity. He says, I'm not going to do that in his day because he repented. What did God have on Ahab? Mercy. He's an unsaved king. His subsequent behavior proves that he was never saved. For a moment, He was sincere and He repented. And God, for a moment, was sincere and gave Him mercy. Why? Because He's a merciful God. Even toward unbelievers. I mean, how do you know that He's not merciful when the first time you sin, you don't get taken out, right? I mean, He makes His Son come up on the just in the unjust and makes it rain on the evil and the good, right? He's merciful. None of us deserve it, saved or unsaved. So even an unbeliever, God can have mercy on when he repents, even though it's a sincere repentance. In Ahab's case, it wasn't a repentance unto salvation. And Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians 8. God may have mercy on an unbeliever as He did in Ahab's case. Another example of this is in 2 Chronicles with Manasseh. In 2 Chronicles 33, just a couple of books over, in verse 2 it says, Manasseh did evil in the sight of the Lord. You think Ahab was bad. Things just got worse. Ahab really started the party, but Manasseh really finished it. Manasseh 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." And now we have a catalog of his sins. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down. Hezekiah was a good king. He raised up altars for the Baals and made wooden images and he worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said in Jerusalem, shall my name be forever. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He also caused his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, so he sacrificed his sons in the fire. He practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him in anger. You think? He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers." So from this list of evil, Manasseh amassed huge amounts of God's judgment on himself, more than any other wicked king in Israel. And he was so bad that God disciplined him more during his lifetime than any other king. If you look at verse 11, Therefore the Lord brought upon them, that's Israel and Manasseh, the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters and carried him off to Babylon. They took hooks and put it right through his nose and led him to Babylon. That's what they did with kings to humiliate them. But look at verse 12. Now when he was in affliction, when he was in a pitiful, miserable condition, He implored the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed to him, and he received his entreaty." God received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. Manasseh was never saved. So just because someone's sincere about crying out to God, and God has mercy on that person, doesn't mean that they're saved. I mean, you remember Burt Reynolds in the longest yard running down the football field. You know, the closer he got to the goal line, the less he gave to God. God was merciful to him. Look at 2 Kings. This is a commentary on what we just looked at. 2 Kings 21. Because of Manasseh, God took the entire nation into captivity. 2 Kings 21.11 says, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, had done these abominations, he acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who went before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols. The king of Israel was more wicked than the pagan nations around him. That's what this says. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such a calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both of his ears will tingle. This is after. Manasseh had repented. Look at verse 16, his epitaph. Sadly, Manasseh knew that God was a merciful God, but he never truly repented of his sins. at least not in a saving sense. Did you know that you can repent and God have mercy on you and still not be saved? That's scary. You know, there's one more example in the New Testament. If you turn to Matthew 18, actually Jesus gives us the example. It's a parable. After Jesus had just taught His disciples about forgiving a sinning brother, when that brother repented, Peter asked Jesus, well, how many times should I forgive him? Okay, he sinned against me, I'll forgive him. How many times? If he keeps sinning against me, how many times do I forgive him? Do I forgive him up to seven times, verse 21? Jesus says in verse 22, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. There's no limit. If he repents, you forgive him. If it's one time, if it's 70 times seven, if it's a million, it doesn't matter. Why? Because that's what God does. And then you look at verse 23. Jesus teaching his disciples, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. That's two to three hundred million dollars. This guy was in big trouble with his master. or with the king. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. Well, the king knew he couldn't pay the debt. So this is basically, he's in prison until he dies. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Have mercy on me. I'll pay the whole thing." There was no way he could pay the whole thing. What else was he going to say? Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion. He was moved with compassion to have mercy on him. He released him and he forgave him the entire debt. Man, that's great. Verse 28, but that servant went out, found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. $5,000 to $10,000 compared to the $3,000,000 he owed his master, $300,000,000. And he laid hands on him and he took him by the throat saying, pay me what you owe me. Now this guy had just been forgiven the debt that he owed. So his fellow servant fell down on his feet and begged him saying, have patience with me and I'll pay you all. Says exactly the same thing he said to his master. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison that he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were grieved, came and told their master all that he had done. His master, after he called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servants, just as I had pity, as I had mercy on you?" It's a word for mercy. Elo-aho. And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. He couldn't pay it, so he's there until he dies. What does Jesus say to his disciples? so my Heavenly Father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother." It doesn't say he might do it. It says he will. Jesus taught this all the time. He taught it right from the beginning of His ministry. Remember the Beatitudes? Matthew 5, 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Only them. He taught it in the disciples' prayer in Matthew 6, 14 and 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. That's to believers, or at least those who say they're believers. You see, your showing mercy to others proves that you have experienced God's mercy for yourself. You don't have mercy on others, it means you haven't experienced it. And Jesus is talking about in a saving sense here. Remember, we've got a devil in the 12 that He's addressing. But He also addressed Peter. If you don't show mercy to others, it shows that you know nothing of God's mercy yourself. And you can't be redeemed. There's no way the Holy Spirit can be working in your heart. This is so rampant in the church today. This is scary to me. This is horrifying to me. People who will not forgive another believer. I don't know if they've read these passages. James 2.13. for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy." It can't be more clear in the New Testament. Is there ever a time when we don't need God's mercy? No. Is there ever a time when people around us don't need mercy from us? No. God is a God of mercy and we're supposed to be merciful like He is. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that in Luke chapter 6, be merciful like your Father in heaven is merciful. As a believer, do you find yourself crying out for God's mercy? As a believer, we should. David, Psalm 41, have mercy on me and hear my prayer. Psalm 62, have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. Psalm 913, have mercy on me, O Lord, consider my trouble from those who hate me. Psalm 2516, have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. Psalm 27.7, Have mercy also upon me and answer me. Psalm 30.10, Have mercy on me, Lord, be my helper. Psalm 31.9, Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Psalm 51.1, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness. You don't think believers are to cry out for God's mercy? We're supposed to be crying out for His mercy every day. Like David, we all need God's mercy. And thankfully, God is a God of abundant mercy. Psalm 2510 says, all the paths of the Lord are mercy. Thank you, Lord, for this time. I thank you for those who have come to worship, to hear your word. I pray that this would sink deeply into our hearts. Lord, if there's anyone here this morning who knows that they're a sinner, they just don't know how bad their sin is, who knows. at least that they're a sinner. I pray that you would reveal to them how bad it is, how much trouble they're in with you, and how helpless they are to escape the wrath that is coming upon them. I pray that you would open their eyes and that they would cry out to you for mercy like that tax collector in Luke 18. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And then understand that you, at that moment, will apply the work of Jesus Christ as atoning work on the cross on their behalf. I pray, God, that they would understand that Jesus rose to give them new life and they would be yours forever and come into the joy of the Lord. Thank you for this time. Help us to keep these things in our hearts and help us to live for Christ this week. Amen.