Well, we continue this morning in the Beatitudes, and it brings us this morning to Matthew chapter five, verse seven. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. We saw last time that hungering and thirsting after righteousness is a very broad desire. And it includes our need of justification. God should no longer hold us accountable for our iniquities, but on account of his son and his righteousness, account us righteous and declare us to be such and to give us the spirit of adoption and seal us with the spirit and confirm the reality of our new position that we have in Christ Jesus. Yes. And then beyond that, and really flowing out of that, having this knowledge, the power of it, and having the Holy Spirit and His power within, and the quickening power of understanding the Word of God, and now having a desire to obey it, well, we want ultimately, actually, to be Christ-like. We want to be Christ-like. In the respect of how some interpret that, that we should therefore all be performing signs and wonders, We're wanting something deeper than that. We want to be like Him, in His attitude, in His responses, in His love for God, in His love for His neighbor. And actually nothing less than that satisfies. We're hungering and thirsting after that. We're now so absorbed in Him, can see no other good but in Him, that we want nothing less than to be like Him. And that means, therefore, not simply actions. We don't just simply do something. It's what we are that counts. And we're looking here to have a hunger and a thirst that is what our attitudes are about, what our dispositions, our inner dispositions amount to. That there's something going on fundamentally in the very core of our being. that is reaching towards wanting to be Christ-like. Whereas before we had an inner bias towards sin, now we are looking to have an inner bias towards righteousness, to want to do the things that are pleasing to God, to have favor in the sight of God. Well, we have favor indeed, we are forgiven. And there is huge, huge thing that's happened. But then, from the security of that, as his children with that benefit, we want to be like him. And now, as the Beatitudes develop and as the themes kind of begin to flow one to the next and on from there, we're beginning to fill out what it means to be Christ-like. And the first of the sort of content-rich thoughts, concepts, that here our Lord taught about is the showing of mercy. And with it, with the idea of showing mercy, there is, as with all these beatitudes, a promise, a reward attached that no man is going to miss out through having been merciful as God intends them to be. For in fact, they're going to find divine help and divine benefit as we'll see towards the end of the sermon. And then my first heading is this. This is God's character. mercy. This is God's character. And because we are saying that, we will of course, therefore, obviously, necessarily be saying it of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there is no kind of distinction to be made in the Godhead, as though, well, Christ is merciful. Not so sure about the Father. No, each member, we include the Holy Spirit, each person, the Godhead, equally merciful. And we see this writ large throughout scripture. We'll quote a few in a minute. This is intrinsic to God's character to show mercy. And it links up with other words that have part of this sort of family of words, each slightly different, bringing out some other aspects of God's dealings with us, his treatment of us. Words like grace, words like pity, words like compassion, words like love, words like goodness, the goodness of God. And if we then just step back from those words and just try to hold before us mercy, word mercy as we have it in English, well we are seeing here that when we're merciful, when God is merciful, It means that we are not giving to people what really they deserve by the law. They've committed an offence, it's a noted offence, it is true, it's on the record, it's not a matter of dispute, but though by law one might be able to exact a punishment, then the person showing mercy steps back from that and doesn't do that. willingly, very expressly, very deliberately, with open eyes, refuses to implement punishment that they are entitled to implement, but instead withholds that, and instead meets the offender with kindness and warmth. It's a warm mercy. Some people might show mercy, but comes over a bit cold, a little unfeeling, but not with God. And it's not as if he turns a blind eye to what's been done that is wrong, as though he kind of brushes over the offense as though it was nothing. No, the offense was something and needs something to be done about the offense. But the offender, here before God, it's us, isn't it? God says, but no, the offender is not gonna have to pay what they deserve here I am going to do something to ensure that I show them mercy, that I am able to refrain from implementing what I could impose. And I step back from that willingly and deliberately and without having the law fall to the ground. Though the law will be uphold, there will be a payment for all those offences. Mercy is not a blindness, not a kind of, oh, it was nothing. No, it wasn't nothing. These offences against God were a lot, and there's something that has to be done about them. But the transgressor is enabled to walk away from that situation, to now be in a relationship with God, where they have received mercy. Well, It's there in the Scriptures, in the Old Testament. It's not as if God suddenly discovered how to be merciful with the coming of Christ. It's everywhere in the Scriptures. Just a few to illustrate that in Exodus chapter 34 in verse 6. Very, very important verses these in grounding our understanding about the character of God, the revelation given to Moses as the Lord passed by him proclaiming the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. So we could read on by no means clearing the guilty, right? The guilty have to have payment given. There has to be a reckoning, but of course, We know where that's going to be leading us. Or say Psalm 145, and there in verse nine. Psalm 145, verse nine. About the Lord, well, we could read in verse eight. Gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and great in mercy, the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. All those words in the Hebrew, aren't they there? They come to us in the English, there's grace, he's gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, great in mercy. The mercy is not a kind of very, very slow to give it, very just a little bit of mercy and not given with much warmth and not much affection behind it. No, this is great. And it's called tender mercies, tender mercies. Oh, it's something so warm, so gentle about how he administers this. And it's over all his works, everywhere, everywhere you look, over mankind, over nature, over all the aspects of his relationship with humankind and how he has treated us. Tender mercies over all his works. And then the reading that we had Earlier from the Old Testament in Micah chapter seven and verse 18. Here's the question, isn't it? The prophet is given to ask, who is a God like you? Pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. Delights in mercy. that it comes so instinctively from him, that there's no reservation in it, there's no holding back in it, and what he will express to these transgressors, these iniquities and transgressions he's passed over, and that there he is who could retain his anger. There are these offenses. I remain in a state of feeling wroth toward you and requiring a penalty to be paid to me for the offenses against me. Not so. He delights in mercy. It comes so quickly from him, so long-suffering he is toward us, that he delights instead to show mercy. And then in the New Testament now, Luke 6 verse 36, therefore, really covers the land we're looking at here with this beatitude, therefore, be merciful. just as your Father also is merciful, because that's who he is, and it's unmistakable, isn't it? And it's unmistakable and all the more when we see it being so clearly, so visibly worked out in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, there we see tender mercies over all God's works, and here in the works of his Son, in him coming into the world, in him being in the world. There we see tender mercies. There we see God is merciful indeed. How do we know this? Well, we can see the cross, can't we? Very, very evidently there we are being shown firstly that God is not going to acquit the guilty, that he is not going to refrain from having the law and its demands withheld entirely, as though he wasn't really serious about the law anyway, just threatened it, well, I wasn't really going to do it ever, was I? No, he shows us, I am going to do it, and all who refuse what I give will face a penalty. But look, there is my son upon the cross, If you want to know how seriously I treat sin, look at him, what he's having to experience, look at his anguish of soul, look at his pain, look at his grief, look at his sorrows, there, there you will see, there is sin being punished and I have chosen to punish my son. And you'll see, that's the law. That's how seriously I take the law, that my own precious son, whom I love and in whom is all my delight, that I am prepared for him to have to receive this, which in a way is so contrary to what is the normal state of relations between the father and the son, and the son and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit to the son. that that rich communion of life within the Trinity, something happens here. Something that's never happened before, never will happen again. That the Son, now in the human nature, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, has withheld from Him the compassion. He doesn't need mercy, but the compassion and the love and the goodness of God toward Him. And that that is removed from him at the cross, because that is what sin deserves. That's the penalty the law demands. And he dies, doesn't he, physically? Because physical death is that wages of sin paid out in our life here in the human body, and it's subject to decay. We sung the hymn, the blessings are going to abound far as the curse is found. Yes, one day all gone, death as well, but not yet. And we still live with the effects of that, that sentence, that offense of sin, then death. And moreover, in the sun's anguish, we see where hell is going to be, what that's all about, what that's going to look like, feel like, what we're going to have there. And we can see that that indeed is pain, darkness, and hopelessness, and despair, because that is what sinners merited. That's where the offense takes us, under the sore displeasure of God, receiving his anger and his wrath. There is the Son bearing those things, if you will, like spiritual ruin, spiritual death, the ongoing experience of it. But then, of course, beyond that, and at the same time as that. Here we see this guilty world kissed in love. Here we see that there is mercy, because that is happening to the Son. And it means if we believe in the Son and what He is doing in doing that, then there is a transfer away from us of all of our guilt. we deserve, and how for us, literal crucifixion, but whatever is happening in the depths of the soul of the God-man there on the cross, well that's to be expected in hell. But look, he's having that, and he's experiencing that, that you and I don't have to have that. And as to him, our trespasses are accounted and our unrighteousness is imputed, to use that very Bible word there, then in return flowing to us is imputed all the perfections of Christ and all of the power of that blood to forgive sin, to answer for us there is a death, the death of Christ. Well, in Him, God's own blood. puts it there in Acts chapter 20. That is God's own blood that is being offered. That's the price of it. That's the value of it. That's the merit that's in it. And that's where we look and we say, well that then, that blood can atone for our sin, for your sin, my sin. For all evil heartedness that we have, for all the things we've done and said, if we still remember them now, we regret and in some sense we regret till we die. But we'll know this, but I've been forgiven it. God has pardoned me because what I deserve for that, he has taken instead. There is the mercy. God is saying, yes, I bring the law. What the law demands, my son will receive. Yes, I'm going to show mercy. And I'm not going to hold you accountable for it. I'm going to punish you for it. I'll punish him instead. And there is everything tidy. correct the law is honoured and God who delights in showing mercy shows us how much he delights in it that he did not spare his own son but gave him up freely for us all. So there we see it, and as God is the one who has been wronged, well, God, as it were, deals with that wrong within himself by his son bearing that wrong. God himself bearing the wrong that was done against God. What a wonder that that is. And we can see that mercy required Christmas, didn't it? It had to happen. He had to be born. He had to be born in the flesh. He had to be one with us in that respect. He had to be born without sin. And so how the man of the conception was so carefully and supernaturally constructed, all he had to live, had to live a full life amongst people, real people. Wasn't sort of cocooned away and never heard a bad word and never had to live among grumpy, complaining people and cheats and frauds and all the rest of it, no. He had to be right there in the midst of the lot of it. had to come through it, didn't he? And then had to take all of the glory to the cross and have it nailed there on our behalf. And he has to rise from the dead so we can see and know that truly indeed this is the Son of God. And he has to ascend because that's the reward for his work and service, for his humbling of himself, for his bearing sin. That is the promise. And so he goes with our human nature, intact, glorified, and he's now set at the right hand of God on high. And it was God's mercy that you and I should hear this and believe it, that this should happen, that our eyes should be opened. Well, how many of us are here this morning? How many people in this community? A fair few people we spoke in the hearing of in Belper yesterday. Well, they're not here, are they? But you are, and I am. And somewhere in that, there's been mercy. The Spirit has given you and me life and given us eyes to see that you can be bringing such jewels to people, hoarding forth life to people. No, thank you. I'm all right. No. Glad for you. Definite no's yesterday. Don't want that. Well, choose death. That's what they're doing, isn't it? Choose death then. What more can we tell you? What more can we offer you? This is the most astonishing thing that there is, and we would agree with Peter's statement at the beginning of his first letter, chapter one, first Peter, verses three to five, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And he goes on, in this you greatly rejoice. That's it, you greatly rejoice in this. I hope you are this morning. I hope I am greatly rejoicing, notwithstanding the gloom in the world and all the news that there is, that we're greatly rejoicing, because we know this, we've seen this, we understood this, because he's shown us this, that's what we receive, mercy. that God acquits us, and God pardons us, and God covers over our transgressions. We've got hope. Well, that there's got none, I can tell you that, nothing. We've got hope. We look beyond the rising cost of living. We look beyond troubles that we have, the cold houses, perhaps we're all sitting in at the moment. We look beyond it, and we see something far greater. We're going to heaven, aren't we? That's what it tells us here. All this is reserved in heaven for you. kept there, it's all safe, it's all secure, because you're going to be kept by the power of God anyway. Notwithstanding, when we wobble, when we're all at sea spiritually, well, God is still hemming us in, he's still got his hand upon us. We come back the next Sunday, I don't know what kind of a week you've had, where you've been, what it's been like, and here you are, you're back, and you want to be back, and you want to worship God, because God is keeping you, he's keeping me, by the power of God. And all that hope, all that joy, all that life is because of his mercy. Well, interesting, isn't it? That in a sense, it only becomes operative as mercy if people recognize it as such. Oh, they are being shown mercy, aren't they, the people here? Day by day, isn't it? In a sense, God sending us out to preach the word in Belper yesterday was mercy. That was mercy. But I can tell you this, that was mercy rejected and spurned. Who stopped? Who listened? Who cared? That was mercy that was spurned. Oh, each time the sun rises and people do not give thanks to God, it's mercy spurned. Each time the rain is falling upon the heads of the, well, the righteous, the unrighteous. And the unrighteous don't think there's anything to be had from this, just grumble about the weather problems actually it was mercy. Mercy that the rain falls at all. Mercy that the sun shines at all. Mercy that we have air to breathe. Mercy that we've got food to enjoy, which we hope to do together in a little while there. But we will give thanks. We will give thanks for those things. The world won't. And that's mercy that is being spurned. Because it's not in the hearts of people to ask for mercy. Because they do not think they actually need mercy. They think they're okay. And they think they're actually, in many ways, a bit superior to the Bible. And if they could meet with God, they'd have a few things they want to say to him. Well, they will have a few things to say to him, but they won't be the things they're expecting to say to him. So mercy spurned is a reprieve. God doesn't judge. That's a reprieve. That's long-suffering. That is still extending mercy. calling upon people, recognize that you're getting actually something which I could withhold from you. You do not deserve it, but I'm giving it to you. And one day, of course, Mercy Spurned will earn a judgment. And the more mercy that's been spurned, the greater the judgment. And so for our nation, sadly, the fact is, which has been in the past steeped in the Bible, steeped in Christian heritage, where you can go and town halls you might look at might still have a plinth with a Bible verse or something like that there. Still some remnant of it, but we spurned it. And mercy spurned earns judgments. The worst, both in this life and in the next. Poor nations that haven't heard of Christ. Places where it's hard to be able to hear of Him. And where those people, when they do hear of Him, discard Islam like that. They've heard mercy. Well, Allah is not that. He's not the same God. God of the Bible, Allah, not the same thing. Despite what some people say, not the same thing. There's no mercy in Allah. I can tell you that. But there isn't this God. No wonder those dear people, when the light shines on them, receive it with joy. Mercy, they welcome it. Whereas our nation, they spurn it. Mercy spurn is judgment. Second heading, our calling. Well, our calling is to try and follow that. That's what God is like. That's what he does. Oh, and the offenses against him are so huge. willingness to show mercy, that which comes from him like an ever-flowing fountain. Well, that is our very high calling. Colossians chapter three, just reading from verse 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. There it is. And there are those words, and they're all beautiful words, and each one's a slightly different to the other, but kind of building up a great picture there of the goodness of God toward the undeserving. Here's the thing, isn't it? that when your eyes are open to the mercy of God, when you realize what an act it was of God to transfer all the weight of our sin and all his demerit and filth and pollution onto his son, well, you're never the same again, are you? You never can look at yourself the same, you can never think about yourself the same, you can never think about other people the same. There's been a revolution within, there's been a shake up and things are never ever the same again because that mercy, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good is unforgettable and it leads to a change of heart, leads to a change of heart. Sometimes that change of heart is suppressed, Sometimes it struggles to express itself, but it's there. And it's happened. A fundamental change rising out of the new birth within us. And because we have received mercy, we look out on the world differently. We're gentler. We are milder. We're more willing to say, well, wait a minute, God had all those rights. God could have insisted on this, this and this, his pound of flesh, but he did not. And he stood back and he had compassion upon us. Well, that tells us something about how we should look on others. What are my rights? Was that offence really so important? I really have to require this? And we might stand back and refrain from that. Who, who, who are we? Well, we had that famous parable with the unforgiving servant. There it is, of course, it's a picture of the kingdom of heaven. It's telling us in Matthew 18 verses 21 to 35 how we should be. And then you bring in the word forgiveness, that God forgives as an act of mercy. He didn't have to forgive, but he chose to forgive. That followed out of abundant mercy and patience and goodness. Well, that's the king settling debts, isn't it there? And the servant comes, oh, this is a debt, isn't it? 10,000 talents. The parable's making its point. That's exaggerated. That's huge. The people are gasped. What else is he going to do? How on earth can he ever pay that? They're meant to think that. They're meant to be astonished. So the master began, didn't he? imposing the penalty. This is my right. So I should have my money back. So your wife and children are going to be sold into kind of servanthood. They're going to sort of pay back that way through their labor and everything. It's going to continue that way till I have had full payment. Look what the servant does. He realizes that he needs mercy. Everything's gone. How have he gotten this huge debt? But it's all gone for him. And so he pleads, master have patience with me and I will pay you all. Well, I don't know how he thought he was going to do that, but it didn't matter because the master, the servant, verse 27, was moved with compassion. Moved with compassion. That's God you see. Released him from the debt and forgave him the debt. Change of heart should follow, should it not. That amount forgiven when really the game was up and you have forfeited everything. Why your wife, your children would all have to go into sort of slavery here to work how many years to, in a sense there, give back in kind what was owed. That's a lifetime of servitude. But he doesn't impose that. And he has patience. He has compassion. and he helps that servant. So the servant should then find, shouldn't he? Ah, there's that fellow, owes me a hundred naira. That's nothing, is it? 10,000 talents. Well, this is nothing. This is small change that the fellow is owed here. You might think that he'll look at that fellow and think, let's not, he's perhaps having a hard time. He might not have been well. He might've had a few business ventures went under. If I talked to him, I'd say, well, you know, how's it going? Are you able to pay me the 100 denarii back? Look, don't worry if you can't today, leave it for a week, leave it for a month or so, when you can. He could have spoken like that. He could have kind of looked for his 100 denarii, but kind of done it in a way that was sort of gentler and milder. Oh, instead. isn't the Lord Jesus the master storyteller how he sets up the story doesn't he just so what does the fellow do well he sees this man he found it sounds as if he's looking for him doesn't it he hasn't learned anything he's looking for him he found him He's kind of came away from the king, from the master, that death, you know, he should have been reeling of this compassion. It should have just have melted him. No, no, no. He's looking for this other fellow servant who owed him this small amount. And what is it? He laid hands on him. He didn't just sort of say, oh, you know, can you pay that back sometime there? Remember you owe me that? Oh yeah, I do. Sorry, I forgot more. No, no, he laid hands on him and took him by the throat. You see how the Lord just sort of generates, doesn't he? This Cenarius grabs him by the throat. I want my money back. That's the whole way of it. No change of heart. And of course, the servants who see this unfolded, very grieved. What has this fellow done? He's spurned the mercy of his master, who's been so kind to him, and he's learned nothing from it. Look at him here, kind of got this guy in a chokehold until he gets his money back. And when the man says exactly what he himself had said to his master, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. And this fellow has also said in verse 29, have patience with me and I will pay you all. At which point, the master was moved with compassion. Not this fella, he would not, didn't listen to it. That's what we read there in verse 30, but went and threw him into prison, did as you paid the debt. So he did nothing. And in the end, of course, he is treated accordingly. So our calling is not to be like that, basically, isn't it? It is not to be like that. Peter, at the beginning, was looking to kind of get a calculation about forgiveness. He was kind of dishing it out. Well, that's one, right? You've got six more turns, six more goes before I pack this up. I don't even want the pound of flesh or whatever. It's not as if the Lord is saying, well, actually this is the amount. It's 70 times seven. Oh, right. So 490 or whatever that is. Right. So when I get to 489, right, we're getting the Peter, is is missing the point entirely and there's something different. There's gonna be a change of heart that just changes the whole nature and the whole feel of what forgiving is and showing mercy what it looks like and that there's something happened in us that just leaves us there just kind of willing to overlook small things and trivial things. Oh let's forget that shall we. a preparedness that is there. And that, friends, is our calling. Next heading, I better move on. Roadblocks to excelling in mercifulness. I should have said at the beginning, this is excelling in showing mercy. There's the title. Well, the roadblocks to this. First of all, it may cost. It would cost that fellow 100 denarii. Well, some people, that's fine, forget that. Selfie. Other people think, no, it is something. Oh, that rankles, that does. Because to show mercy, there is cost. You might have to write off time, you might have to write off money. And so in Deuteronomy chapter 15, yes, Deuteronomy chapter 15, there in verse 10, hear what it says there. You shall surely give to him someone who owes, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. When you allow somebody something, when you, you give something there to the poor, don't begrudge it. Don't feel grieved about it. So you go around like a bear with a sore head there. Oh, I'm missing that. What I could have done with that. I could have done this. I could have done that. Well, that can be a roadblock. If the cost is always going to live with us, then it needs to change your heart. Something there needs to happen. It requires discipline. So if you've forgiven somebody, if you've shown mercy to somebody, that every time you see them, you don't suddenly feel, you feel sort of darkened inside, you feel grieved with that person. No, that if they have, and here's a qualification, they recognize that you have actually shown them mercy, That is it. There's been a recognition of it. You see them again. That's fine. You're not sort of got a cash side over their head or, I remember you, I was kind to you, you know, some sort of reaction like that. So it requires discipline not to remember those things. It requires of us to be poor in spirit. My rights, me, enforcing all of that. Well, that's our culture, isn't it? It requires us sometimes to see people in a bigger picture. I sort of hinted at it, right, this poor fellow, earning a hundred denarii, he might have been out of work, he might have been sick, unable to work, he might have had his tools stolen, or some calamity that had befallen him, where there would be compassion and understanding. But that doesn't come, does it? The fellow just lays hold of him, grabs him by the throat, and says, you know, have you been all right? I haven't seen you around, you've owed me that money there, is everything okay? No. That's not there. And sometimes then we have to see the bigger picture. But they're qualifications. And we haven't got the time here because every situation kind of demands a nuanced response. Because mercy can be given, but it can be spurned. A person can think, well, no, actually, I was owed that. You owed me that, the 100 denarii. And they may sort of give reasons why, or kind of assassinate your character, or something like that, to make you feel guilty about yourself, so that you go, well, perhaps I won't require that, or find some previous injury that they felt you had committed against them, to try to kind of dissuade you from thinking of it as mercy, that actually they were the victim. you're an oppressor. And however the debt was incurred and a hundred denarii I owed, that actually you're the oppressor here. And that's just culture, isn't it? That's today. And so it can be rather complex. And if a person doesn't accept that they've done anything wrong, and are more inclined to think, well actually you were the one who's done something wrong, well then we can't show them mercy. They need to recognise that we're withholding, we're refraining, we could have acted in accordance with the law in such and such a way, we could have made their life very difficult in fact, and we refrained, we chose not to, we stepped back from that. But if the person doesn't say, well, wait a minute, that was kind. That was merciful, actually. You could have made life very difficult there. If they don't see that, if they don't get that, then in a sense, well, it's like casting your pearls before swine. It's like showing mercy to the ungrateful. It's a different thing, though. And we may then just step back and think, well, that person's learned nothing here, just like the unforgiving servant in a way, same kind of territory. They've learned nothing here. And we might feel very grieved actually at that. And so we sometimes have to look at people then in a different way, that they do have a kind of mark above them. They do have a downside, a cross above their heads that they acted wrongly. And that maybe you, maybe I have been wronged. maybe we could have implemented some justice, we could have made life pretty difficult actually, and we forbore. We stood back from that, but they've not learned anything. And so, not quite the same ever again. And they're marked and may indeed choose to avoid them. So there can be roadblocks and at times necessary roadblocks to extending mercy with warmth and with a kind of knowledge and a willingness and an insight because actually it gets thrown back in our faces. So let's have a final heading and be more cheerful in that. Mercy received, because that's the promise, isn't it? that being merciful or being ready to be merciful, having that change of heart, that work within, that sanctification, that's kind of adjusting us to be ready to show mercy and recounting the cost of it and not to be sort of implementing it with your hands around somebody's neck kind of thing. That is what's pleasing to God when we are moving towards Christ's likeness. And we receive mercy. we receive mercy. God, in his dealings with us, we may not even realise this, is being merciful to us. We will obtain mercy. Not that if you don't always get this mercy thing right, you're not always merciful, suddenly your justification is gone. You're back where you were and you've lost it all, you know, your merits of being merciful. And if you don't get enough merits, then whatever you had in the past by way of God's good favour, that's gone. Of course not. It doesn't work like that at all. But it works like this, that His children will be on the receiving end of kind providences. Mercies, small mercies, tender mercies, little things that happen, bigger things that happen. Issues that turn out somehow, somewhere it got steered that way, somewhere God jolted somebody to do something in a different way. You're in the right place at the right time. And so how did that happen? Well, perhaps it's happening because we're happening, we're on the journey, we're growing towards Christ's likeness, we are working hard, the call of vengeance and all the things that bubble away inside, we're saying no to those things, we're looking to Christ's example, the Spirit's help, we're kind of hoarding ourselves to what the Bible says here, and that God's with us in that. How many mistakes do you and I have made that God overruled? that, oh dear, it could have, we could have been nowhere, people. We could have been sidelined. We could have been absolutely benched in the purposes of God. Nothing more from you. No further contribution. Just sit it out there. Don't want to see you again. But he doesn't, and he erupts mistakes and makes mistakes actually work positively in his kind, merciful providences. And if we're showing mercy, then we're standing ourselves in good stead to receive such helps. for our sins, our stubborn, stubborn sins. If God dealt with us according to those, oh dear, we would be toast, wouldn't we, spiritually speaking. We would just be getting raining down upon us chastenings and beatings and corrections. But he doesn't. He's sometimes very kind to us and eases us out of our sins and provides for us, helps and gives us merciful interventions. And we think, well, I could have had a lot worse than that. That could have been very difficult, very painful, very self-injurious. But God overruled that and he's helped me along the way with kindness and gentleness. And we receive mercies like that when we show Mercy, God working behind the scenes, curing our sins more gently. Our prayers are heard. That's mercy as well. It's just showing that mercifulness, that heart towards others. Then I dare say this, God is more ready to hear our prayers. And when he hears our prayers, and often we're so ignorant in our prayers, we do not know what we're asking, but the Spirit is there helping in our infirmities. And God brings us help. Maybe assurance. Maybe you're enjoying assurance. That's a mercy. That's a clearing way of doubt and unbelief, which lives in the sinful heart and comes in. Or maybe it's a bit more subdued. We've seen about that in the early head movies. Subduing those things. Grace subduing. And that again is mercy. And when we are aiming at in our own stumbling and imprecise way towards being merciful, then we're standing in a good place to receive from God helps, undeserved kindnesses and extra help and gentler help. We could have earned a real thrashing if you like, but we missed that. And God instead had a gentle way of dealing with us. into that, fed into our soul, assurance. So we feel more comfortable about our place before him. We feel heaven's a bit more real and our place in this world, this horrible, evil world, but we can see where we are and that we've got Christ with us and we're actually protected by him and preserved by him. And then he'll help us through and he'll take us finally to glory. And that assurance, assurance of hope, is perhaps just something of the gift of God's mercy to us. So we leave it there, excelling in showing mercy. May God help you, help me, help us all to sometimes go well against the grain, where vengeance and desire for this kind of rises up. to be discerning, to distinguish between cases, to realise what mercy is, what it isn't, when it's being spurned, when it's being perhaps honoured. May God give us those sorts of hearts that we may be pleasing to him and obtain mercy.