Mercy by Pastor Ken "Max" Parks

PRAYER:

Father God, Your wisdom excites our admiration,
Your power fills us with respect and honor,
Your omnipresence turns every spot of earth into holy ground;
But how shall we thank You enough for Your mercy which comes down to the lowest part of our need to give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and for the spirit of heaviness a garment of praise? We bless and magnify Your mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

QUESTION: What is Mercy?

There are several Hebrew words that are associated with God's mercy: 

             Kapporeth – means "ransom," "propitiatory," or "the mercy seat."
            Racham – means "to love," "to have compassion," or "to show mercy."
           Chesed – means "goodness," "kindness," "mercifulness," or "loving-kindness."

These Greek words are associated with mercy in the New Testament: 

Eleemon – means "to show mercy," "to pity," "to have compassion," or "to be merciful."

Oiktirmos – carries the concept of "compassion" or "pity."

What is mercy? Theologians have described mercy this way:

"God's mercy is his tenderhearted, loving compassion for his people. It is his tenderness of heart toward the needy. If grace contemplates humans as sinful, guilty, and condemned, mercy sees them as miserable and needy." – Millard Erickson

"This is the first work of God—that He is merciful to all who are ready to do without their own opinion, right, wisdom, and all spiritual goods, and willing to be poor in spirit." – Martin Luther

"God is pleased to show mercy to his enemies, according to his own sovereign pleasure. Though he is infinitely above all, and stands in no need of creatures; yet he is graciously pleased to take a merciful notice of poor worms in the dust." – Jonathan Edwards
"Mercy is kindness exercised toward the miserable, and includes pity, compassion, forbearance, and gentleness, which the Scriptures so abundantly ascribe to God." – Charles Hodge


Mercy is an attribute of God, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature which disposes God to be actively compassionate. Both the Old and the New Testaments proclaim the mercy of God, but the Old has more than four times as much to say about it as the New.


We should banish from our minds forever the common but erroneous notion that justice and judgment characterize the God of Israel, while mercy and grace belong to the Lord of the EkklesiaChurch. Actually there is in principle no difference between the Old Testament and the New.

In the New Testament Scriptures there is a fuller development of redemptive truth, but one God speaks in both dispensations, and what He speaks agrees with what He is. Wherever and whenever God appears to men, He acts like Himself. Whether in the Garden of Eden or the Garden of Gethsemane, God is merciful as well as just.

He has always dealt in mercy with mankind and will always deal in justice when His mercy is despised. Thus He did in antediluvian times; thus when Christ walked among men; thus He is doing today and will continue always to do for no other reason than that He is God. If we could remember that the divine mercy is not a temporary mood but an attribute of God’s eternal being, we would no longer fear that it will someday cease to be.

Mercy never began to be, but from eternity was; so it will never cease to be. It will never be more since it is itself infinite; and it will never be less because the infinite cannot suffer diminution. Nothing that has occurred or will occur in heaven or earth or hell can change the tender mercies of our God. Forever His mercy stands, a boundless, overwhelming immensity of divine pity and compassion.

With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;	2Sa 22:26  (ESV)
Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.	Mat 5:7
With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;	Psa 18:25
Matthew 9:13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”	Mat 9:13
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.	Pro 3:3
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.	Mat 23:23
Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.	Pro 14:21
Luke 6:36  Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.	Luk 6:36
Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.	Pro 21:21
1 Peter 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (v.4) to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, (v.5) who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.	1Pe 1:3
So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love (chesed, pron “hhesed”) and justice, and wait continually for your God.	Hos 12:6
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate (oiktirmos) hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, (v. 13) bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.	Col 3:12
James 2:12-13  So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.	Jas 2:12