This afternoon my primary interest is not in the things that people hate in this chapter. My main interest is continuing in something that most people love – the mercy of God. But, there are parts of that mercy, which a lot of people, even Christian people, don’t understand very well. Sometimes they don’t even WANT to know about them. And that is a shame. Again, there is never any reason to fear what God says about things, especially if our hearts are right about them. We all need to know about God’s mercy. We need to know….. so that we can enjoy. We need to know so that we will want more, and more, and more of it. And we need to know about God’s mercy so that we can love God better for it.
This afternoon let’s think about the Virtues, the Vessels and the Value of God’s mercy.
And what is the virtue of the mercy of God? Doubling up on my words, mercy describes the good things that God does for those who are in misery. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” “It is of Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” “Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.” The Lord “retaineth not his anger for every, because he delighteth in mercy.” “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”
Mercy comes out of God the way that perfume comes out of a rose. When the rose is perfectly ready, mother goes out, cuts it and brings it into the house. The wonderful smell of that rose fills the room, then sometimes the whole house. It is the nature of the rose to smell wonderful. But some people are allergic to roses. And there are others who just don’t like the smell of roses. But their opinion doesn’t hurt the rose, just the people who don’t like them. Now here is something I want you to remember; this is important: We cannot force the smell of the rose come out and fill the room. It does it all by itself. A moment ago I said that mercy describes the good things that God does for those who are in misery. But, God’s mercy comes from His own heart, not from the misery of the people to whom He shows mercy.
There aren’t a lot of people who like rats. How many of you like rats? I don’t mean, nice white, raised in a pet store – pet rats. I mean the black, dirty, Norwegian, rotting-meat-eating, disease-carrying, hissing and jumping at you kind of rats. Let’s say that a pack of dogs – mean, ugly snarling vicious dogs – have cornered a mean ugly hissing, snarling rat. And let’s say that you take a stick and drive away the dogs, and rescue that black, dirty, rotten-meat-eating, disease-carrying rat. You have showed mercy toward that rat the way that God often shows mercy toward evil people. You haven’t shown mercy because of the dogs, nor because of the nature of the rat. You have shown mercy, only because you wanted to show mercy.
God is merciful because God is loving. It is because of God’s love that He shows mercy. But again, there is no reason for the Lord to love that rat, or to love sinners like us.
But here is something else that is very important: God is not merciful to every rat, or even to all the rats that are cornered by dogs. It wasn’t John Calvin who said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” – it was Jehovah. “Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom he will he harderenth.” It is like this: I believe that God has so much power that He can heal any, and every, disease. He could take away my need for glasses, and He could have healed Mrs. Knowles without surgery. But the fact is, often times – even most of the time – God doesn’t directly heal people. And why? Because He has mercy on those whom He chooses, and when he chooses. He can do that because He is God. And the Lord can show mercy in salvation, in just the same way that He shows mercy in healing people. Unfortunately, some people don’t like God to be God. But it is merciful for God to show mercy even if it was just once. The Lord doesn’t ever have to show mercy. We must learn to be thankful whenever He does any good thing to those in misery.
Something that I didn’t do this morning was to look at the original source of Paul’s quotation. Please turn to Exodus 33. It is almost as if this statement comes unprovoked right out of the blue. Moses had been telling the Lord that he didn’t feel qualified to lead God’s chosen nation. He felt personal inferiority, and he certainly didn’t feel like a real prophet of God. Finally the Lord made Himself better known to His chosen leader. Exodus 33:17 – “And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” If God was at the point of destroying a certain body of sinners, or if he was about to open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessings that no one on earth was capable of understanding, then might this statement about sovereign mercy make better sense. But the Lord is simply describing Himself and making a general statement – “It is a part of my nature and prerogative to manage my mercy as I see fit.” That statement doesn’t have to be in the context of anything else – it is simply a matter of eternal fact.
And yet God IS merciful. And when He is eternally merciful; He is merciful for ever. “Remember O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old” – Psalm 25:6. “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built up for ever; thy faithfulness hath thou established in the very heavens” – Psalm 89:1-2. Listen to Isaiah 54:6-10 – “For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.” Do you know what that means? God is not an indian-giver when it comes to His mercy. When God mercifully makes us a vessel of mercy, we are forever a vessel of mercy.
A vessel is something that we carry stuff in. A ship is sometimes called an ocean-going vessel – carrying goods from one place to another. The Lord Jesus was angry that people were carrying vessels – baskets – through the temple just to take a short-cut to the market. And when He hung on the cross, there was a vessel – a bowl – full of vinegar nearby to give to people. A Christians is a kind of vessel, a vessel filled with God’s mercy.
But this chapter teaches several things about these vessels of mercy. For example, it says that not everyone in the world is a vessel of mercy. There are a great many people who are vessels of wrath – containers for God’s anger. This chapter says that those vessels of wrath have been made in order to be destroyed. I know that the thought is offensive to people like us, but it is true, and it is not offensive to God. This chapter also says that God’s vessels of mercy have been made to be glorified. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.” The saints of God have been called or chosen by the Lord to become those vessels of mercy – verse 24.
God is like a glass-maker or a potter – making lots of different kinds of containers or vessels. Some of them are made to be honored and displayed, by filling them with His mercy. “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” But besides the Christian there are also other vessels that are made for dishonor and destruction. It may be sad to us, and it makes some people absolutely furious, but only true Christians are vessels filled with mercy.
But didn’t I say that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above? God has a kind of mercy which is for all His creation generally. When God sends rain down, it falls on the rose garden of the atheist and the devil-worshipper, just as it does on the rose garden of your mother. But for many that rain is merely sprinkling down over the vessels of wrath. It is not filling up the vessels of wrath and it’s not changing them into vessels of mercy. Can you see the difference between falling on and filling up?
I want to be a vessel of mercy. I want you to be a vessel of mercy.
Let me put together a handful of verses for you: I Peter 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Titus 3:5 – “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Luke 1:76-79 – “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Daniel 9:9 – “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him.” Psalm 51:1-2 – “Have mercy upon me O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
What does it mean to be a vessel of mercy? It means that God has mercifully forgiven someone of all his sins. It means that person has been redeemed and miraculously changed him from being a vessel of wrath. It means that God has given that person new life, and that he, or she, has been regenerated. To be a vessel of mercy is to have received God’s compete salvation.
I would rather be an ugly pot, but filled with God’s mercy, than to be the most beautiful vase in all the world, but filled with the filth of sin. Are you a vessel of mercy? If you are unsure, then why don’t you find out? Humbly bow before the cross of Christ – repent of your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.