We continue now our study in the Word of God, in the words of our Lord Jesus, at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 7. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 7. And here we read this: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." As we have seen from week to week, there is so much riches that the Lord Jesus compresses into these few words. And because there is so much riches there, I am really puzzled when I look at some commentaries to find how they have apparently rather little to say about any of these Beatitudes, as they are called, these blessings. And some of the commentaries require more comments than the passage. I find that truly sometimes it is quite frustrating, and that is why I very rarely ever look at a commentary. I have to confess that I have no great inclination to look at commentaries, but whenever I do, often I end up with more questions than answers. Because these words are so deep, they are so precious.
Now what does it mean? Let us, first of all, notice this. Let us begin at the end: "For they shall obtain mercy." What does it mean to obtain mercy? Now in all these places, what it means to obtain mercy is quite simply to obtain salvation. And the meaning of this will become clear as we proceed. In other words, we are talking about salvation, or rather the Lord Jesus is talking about salvation. "They shall obtain mercy." They shall receive mercy from God. That is, they shall be saved.
So, the question then again is: who are the people who shall be saved? And the Lord's answer to this is: the merciful. They are the ones who shall be saved. And let me stress again — for I shall not tire of stressing this point — that the Lord's teaching on salvation is based not upon a salvation by a profession of faith, nor is it a salvation that can be earned by works, but it is a salvation promised to a certain kind of person, in this case described as the merciful. A certain kind of person. If you desire to be saved, you must become that kind of person. And as we look at the kind of person the Lord Jesus is talking about, we realize that we simply of ourselves cannot become this kind of person, but for the grace of God. That is, only by God's saving grace — more specifically, by God's transforming grace — can we become this kind of person. We are not saved by faith alone, neither are we saved by works, but we are saved, in other words, by God's transforming grace in our lives, who makes us the kind of person that we, by our own nature, cannot be.
Now, by nature, we are not merciful. We are not merciful. Nobody who puts himself first, and his own interests first, is likely to be merciful when his interests are threatened. I mean, this is a common everyday experience. We see it from the point of how you get into a bus, where it's you who get in the bus, rather than the other guy who gets in the bus. So it's a free fight for all. It's a free-for-all business. And those who are from Hong Kong know this business, a free-for-all. As I many times said, I never wondered — when I was staying and enjoying the hospitality of Taki and Shirley in Shatin, and I was lining up there to get in the bus, and I thought, "Wow, since the last time I came, Hong Kong people are so changed. They are so well-behaved. They actually line up." And then the bus arrives, and then the line disappears. What happened to the line? I thought we were all going to march up along the line, and suddenly the last ones rush to the front, the front ones are still trying to maintain their position with the elbow, and the line has disappeared. Merciful? No, no, no. I saw some elderly people, and they — I mean, the survival of the fittest. Mercy doesn't come into the discussion. Of course, don't despise the elderly. The elderly have had a great deal of practice in Hong Kong with the use of the elbow. So, when it comes to surviving, I guess they would not be elderly if they had not learned the art of survival to this point. Mercy is not in the discussion. By nature, we cannot be merciful. But God — and the whole point of salvation — is that he changes us to become people like this. People who become merciful.
So, it is through this faith — and I'm scared of this word "faith" because it's so misused. By faith, we mean commitment. By commitment, we mean the kind of faith in which a patient puts himself in the hands of a doctor. That is faith. Because what a doctor will do to him, only doctors will tell you what they do to the patient. But that is faith, because you need to have this kind of commitment. Faith is not just believing that this doctor is good and believing that he can do something, but it is putting yourself — that is, testing that faith — putting yourself fully into that doctor's hands and letting that doctor do whatever he sees fit with you. That is faith. Faith, then, is putting ourselves totally in God's hands, committing yourself totally to him, to let him transform you, heal you spiritually. Anything short of that is merely a profession of faith. And a profession of faith heals nobody any more than a profession that you believe the doctor can heal you. Isn't it? That belief will not heal you until you put yourself into his hands, wholly and without reserve. Today, the hospitals go even further. Before they perform the operation, they make you sign a statement, which means that even if the operation fails, you will not sue them. They are free of every responsibility. They will try their best — and hopefully they will try their best — and if they do not succeed, well, don't take them to court. Faith means this kind of utter commitment in which you put yourself without reserve into God's hands.
Now, I say again, let's be very clear about this. The biblical teaching of salvation is not a salvation by a profession of faith, nor is it a salvation by works. It is a salvation by transformation through a faith which is total commitment. Totally putting yourself into the hands of God that he may do with you whatever it is necessary to do. I cannot be merciful, but God can make me merciful. That is very important to understand.
I have great respect for Martin Lloyd-Jones, who used to be the pastor of a church that I attended for many years, but I frankly do not understand him at all when he says that if this is true, then nobody can be saved. That if it is necessary to be forgiving or merciful in order to be saved, then no one can be saved. I do not understand what he means by this at all. For of course, no one can be saved in his own strength. Nobody can be saved. But what is grace, if it is not God's transforming power to be able to do what I cannot do in my own strength? God's grace is not — to be saved? So when Lloyd-Jones says that if salvation depends on my being merciful, then no one can be saved, the statement is true and false at the same time, depending on what exactly one means by this. If I cannot be saved unless I, as a natural man, through my own striving and energy, am to be merciful, then of course that is hopeless, because we, as we have seen, as natural man, cannot do it. But Lloyd-Jones wants to say more than that. He wants to say that under no circumstances could this work. I regard this, I must say, very respectfully and thoroughly, as a denial of grace. It denies that God's grace can be effective. That God's grace can be so effective as to make an unmerciful person merciful, an unforgiving person forgiving, an unkind person to be kind.
Now unless God's grace can do this, then what is grace at all? What is this transforming grace? What does it mean to become a new person? Has it got any kind of meaning left? I must say that on Lloyd-Jones' definition, it has no further meaning, because this grace does not transform anyone at all. If so, I have no gospel to preach, and I don't know what there is left to preach. To preach a forgiveness and that's all — that Lloyd-Jones wants to say that grace is simply forgiveness without changing anyone. I must say I cannot regard that as scriptural teaching. I don't find that in Scripture, and we shall continue our examination of this in a moment.
No, no. I am confident in a grace of God which effectively — and I say effectively — can change you and can change me. I rejoice and glory in the gospel because God can change a person. He can take even a sinner who is as degraded as they come. I have seen and I have heard the testimony of gangsters and criminals being utterly transformed by this grace. I glory in a grace that can transform a person, not just forgive him and leave him as he is, so that he continues sinning day after day and day after day with no hope of change. That is not grace. Grace is that which transforms a person. Is that not the gospel? And therefore I must say I am disappointed in Lloyd-Jones at this point, although I have great regard for him, that his concept of grace goes no further than forgiveness. My concept of grace, I hope, is rooted in the word of God, which goes beyond forgiveness to transformation. It both forgives and transforms, so that you don't have to be constantly doing the same sins over and over again.
Anyone who has tried seriously to live the Christian life will know that if that is all that the gospel has to offer, you have nothing but a lifelong expectation of frustration, because you will be forever committing the same sins and forever going back and saying, "Sorry, I wish I didn't have to do it, but I have done it again." I mean, what kind of a gospel is this? Why do we need the Holy Spirit then? What does the Holy Spirit do for me? Does he do nothing for me? If the Holy Spirit lives in me, does the Holy Spirit do anything at all? Because he doesn't have to live in me at all if all I have to do is be forgiven all the time. I don't need the Holy Spirit. I just have to go back every day and say, "God, I'm sorry I did it again." And tomorrow I go back and I say, "I'm sorry again, and I'm sorry again, and I'm sorry again." And what does the Holy Spirit do? Does he do anything? And what, according to Lloyd-Jones, does the Holy Spirit do? I would be interested to know. Now if the Holy Spirit does anything at all, then he must be causing his fruit to grow in me. And the fruit of the Spirit, according to Galatians 5, verses 22 onwards, is love, joy, peace, and all these things. Do you think that is transformation? If he can make an unmerciful person merciful, then that is transformation. How then can we say that we cannot be saved if being merciful is the condition? We can be saved. I have seen this work truly.
And then, strangely enough, and uncharacteristically of Lloyd-Jones — when I'm talking about his message on the Sermon on the Mount — he contradicts himself two paragraphs later. And I say uncharacteristic, because Lloyd-Jones is normally very, very sharp and not given to this kind of self-contradiction, if indeed it is a self-contradiction. For he goes on to say, two paragraphs later, that if we have been forgiven by God, then we must of necessity forgive others who transgress against us. "We must of necessity" — that is his words — "forgive those." If we must of necessity forgive others, then what does the necessity mean? What does he mean by "of necessity"? Then we can forgive, or can we not forgive? If we can forgive, then we are simply fulfilling what the Scripture here is teaching.
We must come to a day in which we clearly understand — I stress this again, and I have spent some moments on this — we must clearly understand that salvation in Scripture is God's grace effectively transforming the sinner into a saint. And I say effectively transforming the sinner into a saint. And that is why his teaching is possible, because his power is available. Without the power, the teaching would be simply vague ideals. "Blessed are the merciful." Well, we can't be merciful, so there is nothing left to talk about. So who is going to be blessed? Since, according to Lloyd-Jones, nobody can be merciful, then nobody will be blessed, then the statement is irrelevant. I think that somehow our dear Lloyd-Jones has missed the mark here. It is possible because God's power can do it. God's grace is sufficient for us. That's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12. His grace is sufficient for us, and his power is made perfect in our weakness. That is the glory of the gospel.
Now I'm mentioning this about Lloyd-Jones because he treats of this very passage in his Sermon on the Mount, on this very verse, and in case you are reading it, I'm expecting that some of you might have been reading it or might read it in the future, and therefore I made my comments upon Lloyd-Jones' comments on this passage.
And Watchman Nee also has some comments. But in Watchman Nee's case, I'm afraid that he requires more commentary than anything else, for I frankly do not know what he is saying, much to my disappointment. And again, with due regard for Watchman Nee, he says that mercy is that which gives to someone who does not have a right to it. "It is to have mercy — to show mercy — is to give that to which a person has no right." What that means, I frankly do not know. Frankly, some commentaries require more commentary. A statement like this — what is it? What is that which we give to a person to which he has no right? What does that mean? Does that mean kindness? Does it mean love? I mean, it seems to apply to a whole range of things, not just to mercy. And what is that which a person has no right to, but that which I will give to him? What is it? I would to God that when someone writes a commentary, he will write intelligibly so that one knows exactly what one is talking about. In the next sentence he goes on to say that Christians should not seek to gain the advantage over others in this world. So what has that got to do with showing mercy? I'm not too clear. What does he mean by gaining advantage over others? This requires a great deal more clarity of definition than vague statements of this sort. And so I simply say this because, unfortunately, as many of you may have discovered, looking at a commentary can be a very frustrating process, because you are more confused after reading the commentary than before it. And I know a good friend in England who specializes in reading commentaries, and he has often protested that after reading many commentaries he is utterly confused.
Now the reason why I want to say this is because so much of the weakness of the church today lies in the fact that we don't really understand what the word of God means, and our teachers don't help us much either, and leave us in still further confusion by the time they have pronounced upon it.
In Luke chapter 6, verse 36, the Lord Jesus says, "You must be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. You must be merciful as your Father is merciful." Now in order to obey this command, I must understand what merciful means, isn't it not so? How shall I obey a command, the meaning of which I don't understand? I don't understand what it means to be merciful. And nor am I being helped when I'm told that to show mercy is to give to somebody that which he has no right to. I don't know what that means. In what circumstances do I give to somebody that to which he has no right? What is it he doesn't have a right to? And what then is it that I give to that person? I pray to God that when you preach the gospel, you will preach with some greater degree of clarity than that. And when leaders of churches are speaking like this, you suspect that they themselves don't really understand what the Lord Jesus is saying. And that really is the root of the problem, when church leaders themselves don't know what they are talking about, when pastors themselves are speaking in this kind of vague terms. Then how are any of us going to be able to obey God's word?
So let us get to the word of God. Let us aim to understand clearly what the Lord Jesus is saying to us here. What does it mean, without beating around the bush, without being vague? What does it mean to be merciful in the light of Scripture?
Well, the way to study any passage in the word of God is not just to open a dictionary and look under the word "merciful," because that in itself will not take you very far. The way to study the meaning of any particular word in Scripture is to see how that word is used in the Scripture itself. How is this word used in the New Testament? Now you will realize that, in order to do this, the value of a concordance begins to emerge. A concordance is not useful just to locate a particular passage, the reference to which you have forgotten. You can't remember where this passage is, and you look it up in a concordance. That is one of the uses of a concordance. But a concordance has a much more important use. And I'm explaining this because I don't just want to explain a passage to you, but I would like you to know how to understand a passage. I don't want just to give you a fish, but to teach you how to fish, so that you know how to feed yourself in the future. A concordance is valuable because you can check every reference of a particular word and how that word is used. Studying the use of that word will give you the definition far better than any dictionary can do. And when you go to the expense of buying a theological dictionary, all that a theological dictionary is doing is doing just that. What the writer of a theological dictionary does is simply he checks every reference of a particular word in a concordance and sums it up for you. That's all he does for you. And you can very well do that for yourself. But if you don't want to do it, or you're too lazy to do it, or you don't think you have time to do it, then you can spend half an hour or one hour reading the theological dictionary. And if you're any clearer at the end of it, then that's fine. If you're not any clearer, then that's too bad. The theological dictionary does simply that. That's all it does.
Now when we look at this word "mercy" and how it is used in the New Testament, we begin to observe one very important factor. We observe that the word "mercy" is always used in a context in Scripture which deals with the consequences of sin. That is, God's antidote to the poison of sin is mercy. The way God deals with sin in the New Testament is by his mercy. Now, for example, it is used in connection where a blind man is unable to see, and he cries out to the Lord Jesus and says, "Son of David, have mercy upon me." Now what is he asking for? In his mind, he is asking for healing. But the Lord Jesus is showing mercy in the sense that every physical ailment is a consequence of sin.
We must never say, "You are sick because you have sinned." That is not the connection at all. This kind of a conclusion is wrong. That is why when the disciples asked concerning the blind man in John chapter 9, "Who sinned? He or his parents?" the Lord Jesus said, "Neither he nor his parents sinned." The question is: he is blind, not because he sinned, nor is he blind because his parents sinned. He is blind because there is sin in the world. Sin in the world generally. There is disease in the world, and we, being partakers of mankind, must suffer this common disease. For example, there is an epidemic of a flu going around. If you catch the flu, the question is not to ask, "What sin did I commit that I caught the flu?" And therefore the quick way to get rid of the flu is simply quickly to kneel down and repent, and the moment you rise up, the flu is gone. And that is not quite as quick as this. No, no, no. The flu is in the world, and you get the flu, not because you sinned necessarily, but because there is such a thing as flu in the world. And because somebody sneezed next to you, and blew all the germs in the air, and you inhaled it all in, and so you got the flu. That is a quick way. Nothing to do with whether you sinned or not. Otherwise, of course, if there is a direct connection, we should be very happy, because all the mafia people would all be dead by now, because they would all be stricken with the most horrible diseases. While those of us who committed much less sins should be inflicted with much lighter diseases. Things like small things like colds. Whereas all these gangsters would all be crawling around with the most dreadful diseases. Unfortunately, of course, the gangsters all go around driving their Cadillacs in very good health, while all these good people are limping around with illnesses. It just doesn't work out like this at all. There is not a direct connection between disease and sin. But there is an indirect connection, in the sense that all disease is present in the world because there is sin. If there were no sin, there would be no disease.
Now, I must spend a little time explaining on this, because there is still a very foolish notion, among Christians even, that when somebody is sick, you ask, "What sin did he commit?" This is ridiculous. This is utterly ridiculous. And this error is still being committed among some very good people, notably the Pentecostal brothers and sisters, who put a lot of emphasis on spiritual healing. We must not fall into this error. But having said this, we must understand that mercy is God's antidote to sin. God's antidote to sin. So, when the Lord Jesus shows mercy to the blind person, he is removing a consequence of sin from that person. Not that he sinned, but there is a consequence of sin — blindness, disease, and all these things. And that is why you'll find that the Lord Jesus, when he embarked upon his ministry, and when he explained his ministry to John the Baptist, he said to them, "Look, the blind have their eyesight restored, the deaf hear again, the lame are healed, because the gospel is being preached." The connection is this: that the effects of sin are now being undone through the saving power of Christ.
But now, to make it more specific, we find that mercy in the New Testament refers most specifically to the forgiveness of sins. Most specifically. And the examples of this are simply so numerous, too numerous to cite in detail. For example, in 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 13 and 16, Paul says that he received mercy from God when he persecuted the Christians and put some of them to death. He received mercy because he did these things ignorantly, when he persecuted the church. Now, mercy here clearly means forgiveness. He received mercy, that is, he was forgiven, because he persecuted the Christians in ignorance. He acted ignorantly. He did not realize that Jesus was the Christ. And as soon as he realized these things, he repented.
In Luke chapter 1, verses 77 and 78, you find this parallel of forgiveness of sins mentioned in verse 77, paralleled with mercy in verse 78. That makes it very specific and very clear. Again, in Romans chapter 11, verses 31 and 32, when Paul says that the Gentiles received mercy, it means that they have been saved, that they have been forgiven. Or again, in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4, Paul speaks about God's forgiving mercy by which we are saved. Or in Titus chapter 3, verse 5, he says that God saved us, not in virtue of works of righteousness which we have done, but out of his own mercy he saved us. He was merciful to forgive us our sins and save us.
So when we examine this, there is nothing very difficult or confusing to observe. The word "mercy" does not have to be defined in vague and unintelligible terms, like "giving to somebody what he does not have a right to." This is unintelligible. We simply can put it very specifically. Thank God for Scripture that is so specific. Mercy is simply forgiveness. To be merciful is to be forgiving. What's so difficult to understand about this, when we study it from Scripture? "Blessed are the merciful," that is, the forgiving, "for they shall receive mercy." They shall be forgiven. The meaning is so lucid, so clear. Why do we have to resort to vague and unintelligible expressions, unless, of course, in the first place, we didn't understand it ourselves?
Now this is a fundamental teaching of the Lord Jesus: that we are forgiven when and if we forgive. But if we don't forgive, neither shall we be forgiven. That is, the Lord Jesus says this in so many plain words. In Matthew chapter 6, he says, here in comment on verse 12, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors," in the Lord's Prayer. And then in verse 14 he says this: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Now more plain than that, we cannot get. That is putting it in black and white. None of this vagueness of our church leaders who talk in terms we hardly comprehend. Assuming that they comprehend what they are saying. The Lord Jesus is very specific. If you don't forgive, you will not be forgiven. Exactly contradicting our dear friend Lloyd-Jones' words. Whether or not you are forgiven, the Lord Jesus says specifically, depends on whether or not you forgive. And whether or not I forgive depends on whether or not I have been transformed. Because if I have not been transformed, you are not going to get any forgiveness from me, that's for sure. Because, granted, my natural man — I'm quitting number one, first. You don't stand a chance with me. Because if you owe me anything, I will see to it that you will pay me my dues to the last cent. But because God has transformed my life, he has changed me. I don't insist that you pay me the last cent, or maybe that you pay me anything at all. As God has freely forgiven me, so I freely forgive you. You see, it is God's transforming grace that makes this teaching at all possible. But we must not dilute that teaching. We have not the right to dilute this teaching. But God can change us.
I was very touched. And I'm going to tell you about Dennis Dio, since he used to speak for our summer camp, we should know something about him. Dennis, as many of you will know, he's an engineer working with nuclear fuel in Westinghouse in the United States. Dennis grew up never knowing his father. Why? Because his father was murdered by the Japanese in the Second World War in Singapore. He was from Singapore, by the way. And his father was out on a mercy mission. We are speaking of mercy. Because his father was a Red Cross worker, and he was out on a mercy mission, driving an ambulance clearly marked with a Red Cross on it. And when the Japanese were bombarding Singapore, as many of you know, they used long-range guns and artillery, bombarding from the Malaysian side onto Singapore. There were heavy casualties all around. And Dennis' father was going around picking up the wounded, rushing them to hospital, trying to save their lives. But when the Japanese crossed the channel between Malaysia and Singapore — and as you know, the Japanese had no respect for any kind of international law. They had no respect for Red Cross or any other kind of cross. And so they went around and just shot and murdered everyone in sight. And Dennis' father, who went out on a mercy mission, was last seen taken away by the Japanese. He was never seen again. And so Dennis grew up without ever having seen his father, because he was only a baby at the time.
And I said I was very touched, because clearly, what would you feel about the Japanese who brutally murdered your father and
# The Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Merciful (Part 2)
Well, one day he came to our apartment in London, in England, and I had a Japanese friend in our apartment. And this Japanese is a Christian. And so Dennis, whom you shall meet, God willing, in a few weeks' time at the summer camp, he came to my place and I thought, "Oh no." I didn't know he was coming to visit me and there was this Japanese sitting in my apartment. And I thought, what would his reaction be when I told him that there's a Japanese in my apartment? So as he was coming up the stairs, I said to Dennis, I said, "Look, Dennis, I know that the Japanese have done a lot of terrible things to you and your family" — and his uncle had been arrested and beaten and all kinds of other things. And I said, "Well, there is a Japanese in my apartment right now, but he's a Christian." Dennis said to me, he paused and thought for a moment and he said, "Alright. Alright."
And then, so when he came in, Dennis took his hand and greeted him. And then after a little while Dennis said, "You know, I might as well tell you truthfully. My father was killed by the Japanese." And I thought, "Oh no, what's going to happen in this discussion?" And this Japanese brother looked very, very sorrowful about this. And then Dennis went on to say, "But don't be worried," he said. "The love of Christ has changed my heart. I love you in the Lord. I love you in the Lord." And that is the transforming grace of God. You can look at a person whom by nature you would have hated to the depth of his being. And "I love you in the name of Christ. All is forgiven." Now this is the transforming grace. He had mercy, mercy upon those whom he would by nature have hated. Unless you forgive, you shall not be forgiven. Why does Lloyd-Jones say that if it depends on us to forgive, we should not be saved? How pitifully he has underestimated the grace of God. Does he really mean to say that? Surely, it is not impossible. Because with God all things are possible. He can make us to be forgiving.
I say frankly of myself, I also couldn't stand the Japanese. I mean, how many Chinese can stand the Japanese after what we suffered in the Second World War? We suffered lots of things. My home was broken up. I nearly didn't recognize my father anymore. My father went into the interior, determined to fight the Japanese to the last man if that had to be done. He determined that if we could not win, he would never see our face again. We were left behind the Japanese lines. I had no love for the Japanese. But I could learn to forgive because God changed my heart. Today, I love the Japanese. I can honestly say I do love them. Not just I forgive them in some sense to say, "Okay, forget it." But I do really love them. I do love them, with the love of Christ that even I find hard to understand. I don't know why I love them, but I do. Love them as the enemy. And that is what mercy is about.
You see, anyone who offends against you, by that very fact, becomes your enemy. Even if for no matter how short a time. If, say, your wife offends against you, or your husband offends against you — even your husband and your wife — for that moment in which they have offended against you, they become your enemies. Is that not so? And so you need to forgive your wife, or your husband, or your friend, who has offended against you. Because during that moment in which they have offended against you, they have become your enemies. Even a disciple can become the enemy of his Lord. So you remember what Peter did. When the Lord Jesus said he was going to the cross, Peter said, "Lord, let this never happen to you. This should not happen to you." He tried to stand in the way of the Lord Jesus' progress to the cross. And the Lord Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan!" The very word Satan means adversary. The word Satan is simply the word "enemy." "Get behind me, Satan!" Because at that moment, Peter had become Satan, had become his enemy. It is therefore — mercy means loving your enemy. That's what it means. Because forgiving a person — at that moment, if he did not offend against you, he wouldn't be your enemy. You wouldn't have to forgive him. But because he has offended against you, you need to forgive. And God gives us the grace to forgive all of the damage that people have done to us. People who have spoken wrongly against you. Can you forgive? You must forgive. You must forgive if you are to receive mercy. As he has forgiven, so you must forgive.
In fact, so important is this that the Lord Jesus dedicates an entire parable to teaching this very point. This parable is known as the parable of the unforgiving servant. And this parable you need to read in Matthew chapter 18 for yourself. In Matthew chapter 18, verses 23 following. And there you find, in this very parable, the word "mercy" occurring, in verse 33. This whole parable of the unforgiving servant is there to illustrate the very teaching that the Lord Jesus has said in Matthew chapter 6: that if you don't forgive, you will not be forgiven.
Now I have preached on this parable and I shall not go into detail again on this parable. But the message of this parable is exceedingly clear beyond any shadow of doubt. And let me quickly sum it up for you. You remember that there was a government official who owed millions of dollars to his lord, his king. And he could not pay up these millions of dollars. And so he had to be sold into slavery. His family had to be sold into slavery. This was the standard thing that would be done for high officials of government in those days who failed to do their jobs. Maybe they should do that to high officials today too, who mess up their jobs. But this person came before the king and begged forgiveness. He said, "I can't pay up. Have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon my family. Have mercy." And the king said, "Okay, I forgive you. I forgive you. Since you repent, I forgive you freely."
And then you know the rest of the parable. This person went out and found a fellow official who owed him a few dollars. And he grabbed this fellow by the scruff of the neck and said, "Where is the money you owe me? You owe me $20. Dish up the $20." The fellow didn't have $20 to dish up, so this fellow threw him into jail. Now when the news of this came back to the king, the king called this official and said, "I forgave you. I had mercy upon you. Should you not also have had mercy upon the other person?" Now, because you did not have mercy upon that person, therefore the forgiveness you have received is revoked. Because you did not forgive, neither shall you be forgiven, even though he had already been forgiven. Notice this carefully. Very hard on a once-saved-always-saved doctrine. Although he had already been forgiven — revoked. Revoked. And he now is cast into jail, and it is said, "delivered to the tormentors, until he should pay the very last farthing." Which, of course, means he will never be able to pay up. Because in jail you don't earn a cent anyway. There's no way you're going to pay up. He is finished. That's another way to say that he is absolutely finished. Because he did not forgive, neither would he be forgiven. And though he had already been forgiven, his forgiveness was revoked because he proved to be unworthy of that forgiveness.
The Lord's teaching is absolutely clear. There's no way you can twist it around or fool around with these words. Very clear. So then, let's sum up on this first point. To be merciful means quite simply to be forgiving. And if you do not forgive, neither shall you be forgiven. But if you are merciful to others, you will receive mercy. And how can we be merciful? God can change us. So may he transform us, that we become merciful persons by his grace. His transforming grace.
Now the second thing. And this is the other part of it. When we study the use of Scripture, we see two ways the word "mercy" is used. And if we stop at the first point, we would not have seen the full riches of it. The first point speaks about God's forgiveness of our sins. But that doesn't mean that the only time we need mercy was when we first became Christians. The only time we needed God's mercy was when we repented of our sins, we were baptized, we came to Christ. And after that, we don't need mercy anymore, do we? Now if we think like this, we are seriously mistaken. Because then we have missed out the other half of the meaning of mercy. It is exceedingly precious. And you will find this other half of the use of the word "mercy" many times in the New Testament, where Paul speaks of "grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father." Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father. We still need his continuing mercy. In what way do we need?
And this we see in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 2, for example, where Paul speaks to Timothy and says, "Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father." We still need grace, we still need mercy, we still need peace. And then also in 2 John, verse 3, for example, we find exactly the same thing: grace, mercy, and peace. Also in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 16, Paul speaks of "peace and mercy to the Israel of God." So, I am citing these instances to show that mercy is not just something you need in the past when you were forgiven, but mercy is something we continue to need in the present. Why? Why do we still need mercy? Because we are still struggling against sin. And remember I said that the scriptural teaching is that mercy is God's antidote to sin. We are still battling against sin. And because we are constantly battling against sin, we need God's sustaining mercy in the struggle against sin.
We see this used, for example, in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16, in precisely this way. And this is what we read in Hebrews 4:16, and I shall read it here to you. Hebrews 4:16 reads like this: "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." That we may receive mercy now, not just in the past. Why do we draw near to the throne of grace? Why do we come to God in prayer? That we may receive mercy. And what is the context? The context, in verse 15, for example, tells us, is because we are tempted by sin and we are very weak. We are weak. Because we are weak and tempted by sin, we need this sustaining mercy to hold us up day by day. This mercy of God is God's wonderful answer to sin, and to our spiritual weakness, upholding us and sustaining us. So mercy is that grace of God — that specific grace of God — because grace is a very wide word, but we are narrowing mercy to God's grace in the specific sense of helping us to victory over sin. Very precise in Scripture. Nothing vague and woolly about it.
And so we notice that mercy and judgment are contrasted. For example, in James chapter 2, verse 13, we have very much James' own commentary on the Lord's words here in the Beatitude. James chapter 2, verse 13, reads like this: "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy." You see, this is the negative side of the Lord's teaching. It's the same teaching but put in the negative. But here's the positive side: "Yet mercy triumphs over judgment." God's mercy triumphs over judgment. God's mercy is saving grace to us, delivers us from judgment. That's why it triumphs over judgment. Isn't that beautiful? But if you show no mercy to others, then judgment to you will be without mercy. You have to become a certain kind of person to be saved. Namely, a merciful kind of person.
Now this is truly beautiful. We are called to be merciful. We are required to be merciful. It is not optional. Our salvation depends upon it, that God's grace becomes effective in our lives.
But one last thought and we must close. Because I want to show you the beauty of this sustaining mercy of God which we are called to exercise. The Lord Jesus twice quotes the words of Hosea, chapter 6, verse 6. Beautiful words of Hosea, chapter 6, verse 6. He twice quotes it. First in Matthew, chapter 9, verse 13. And then again in Matthew, chapter 12, verse 7. Showing the importance of this verse, that he quotes it twice. And the words are: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." I desire mercy, not sacrifice. What does that mean? Well, sacrifice — these are the outward performances of religion. You slaughter a lamb or a bullock or whatever it is you offer in sacrifice. These are the outward performances of religion. The Lord Jesus is saying, "I desire not these outward performances of religion called sacrifice, but I desire mercy in the heart. I desire you to become a different kind of person from what you are."
There are an awful lot of sinners and hypocrites and terrible people who have a lot of religion. They go around with all their religious performance, and they think that that is the sum total of religion. That you offer sacrifices at the altar, you wave your incense thing, and you mumble in loud religious phraseology and say, punctuate everything you say with a few hallelujahs and praise the Lord, and all this kind of thing is called religion. But the Lord Jesus says, "I don't care about your outward performance of religion and your offering of sacrifices. What I want to see is mercy in the heart." That's what I'm looking for.
And what then is he looking for? Well, we have seen first that it means, if I am merciful, I forgive. By God's grace I forgive. By myself I can't do it. But secondly, it means — what then? God's sustaining grace working through me. What does that mean? What does it mean that God's sustaining grace works for me? Oh, that is very beautiful.
I wonder if any of you have ever been coaches. The other day I was sharing with our sister Margaret how in my youthful days I coached a ball team. And how I decided to build a baseball team, a baseball softball team. And I dragged a bunch of fellows off the streets, many of whom had never seen a baseball in their life. And I pulled these guys off the streets and said, "How about learning to play baseball?" Well, they said, "We will try if we know what this game is." So I got this bunch of green recruits off the street, and I trained these fellows together. Well, after a few months of this training I said, "Well, now is the time to put these guys through the test." So I had a friend who played in a very good ball team in a school called St. Francis Xavier in Shanghai. And they had a very good ball team. It was extremely efficient, extremely well organized, extremely skilled. And here was my bunch of raw recruits coming to play against St. Francis Xavier College. So we went in there and we took a beating of our lives. They really beat the daylights out of us. Because the score was getting to the point of becoming ridiculous. It was hardly worth chalking up the scores anymore when we reached the score of 36 to 2 or 3 points. It was hardly worth left with anyone talking about, in going beyond. It was becoming astronomical as far as we were concerned.
So after the game, we saw a bunch of very dejected fellows throwing their bats and their gloves away. And so, I could have said to these people, "You fellows are absolutely hopeless. I mean, you people are fit for the garbage bin. All we can do is just — you fellows just clear out of here and I don't want to see the likes of you again. You're an absolute disappointment. You waste my time. You're rubbish." Well, if you talk to a team like this, well, that's one way you can talk to the team. Because you probably won't have much of a team left after that. Now, what is mercy? Mercy is when these people have done a terrible job, and after all they've done a terrible job, and they've made a complete mess of it — mercy is when you come to these guys and say, "Look, it was a bad job. We did a bad thing here, and we deserve to be wiped out. But don't lose heart. Let's pull ourselves together. Let's examine our faults. Let's see what went wrong. Let's not cry over spilled milk. We've been humiliated today. They treated us as a carpet. They walked all over us. But this is not yet finished. Let's take heart. Examine our faults and our failings, our weaknesses, and work at it. And surely somehow to improve. And we will have a rematch again."
So we said, "Let's get down to business and analyze all the things we did wrong." And needless to say, that was easy, because we did almost everything wrong. So we studied all the faults and failings and went through point by point, and then we worked out a schedule by which we are going to deliberately improve on every one of these points. Now, next year we said to them, "How about having another game?" We said to St. Francis, "Oh no, not this bunch of guys again. These fellows are ridiculous. I mean, they're wasting our time." So we said, "Okay, okay. Just give us another chance. We'll play you again." "It's okay. We'll see. We are friends." And then for friendship's sake, they'll go and waste another couple of hours. So we came on the field and we played them. And they said, "Hey, this is a different team." Well, they could be beaten. They were beaten. They were beaten 12 to 8. We didn't exactly walk all over them, but we actually beat them. They were the most surprised team. In fact, in 12 months, we could come back and beat them. By the following year, we were playing in the 4th Division in Shanghai, and they were struggling for a place in the 2nd Division, the St. Francis team. We were playing with the best.
This is what I mean by the lesson of mercy. Mercy. It was mercy that did it. We could have written this bunch of guys off and said, "You guys are hopeless. Forget it." But because there was mercy — an atmosphere of mercy. "We made a mess. We're going to learn from our mistakes. We're going to do better." Applied to the spiritual realm, it's very beautiful. A fellow may commit a sin, and you say, "You are a Christian and you do things like this?" You stamp him down. "Christians just don't behave like this. You are just such and such." Okay. So he says, "Okay. Maybe I should stop calling myself a Christian. Maybe I'm not coming to church anymore. I'm a disgrace to God and a disgrace to the church and a disgrace to everybody. Bye-bye. I'm going now." Now how do you help this person? You have, through judgment, crushed the person into the ground.
But with the attitude of mercy: "Okay. You failed. You made a mess of it. And clearly you made a mess. We are not going to mince words. I mean, you made a mess of a mess. But God's grace is sufficient. Don't give up. Let's press forward together. Let's try again. Maybe next time you'll fail, but not as bad as this time. And the time after that you'll fail again. But one day, through God's grace, you're going to come through victorious. After a time, you'll come through victorious. You'll make it again." You give that person hope through mercy. But by condemning the person, you have knocked all hope out of that person. I wonder how many people have actually committed suicide because somebody has judged them and condemned them. They say, "You are hopeless. You are nothing. You are useless." This person has no more hope. Life is not worth living anymore.
God's mercy. God's loving kindness makes us great. David sins. And God could have said, "You are just garbage. I throw you out." But God had mercy upon him. David repented and said, "Lord, I have sinned. I have done horribly." And God judged him, but God had mercy. He didn't wipe him out. And then he sins again, and God had mercy upon him again when he repented. Now this is the attitude. Be merciful. It's the exact opposite of taking a condemning attitude. The Lord Jesus said, and this is the other side of it, in Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 and 2: "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what measure you judge, you will also be judged." Sometimes we are very hard on fellow Christians, because we expect a high standard of them. And I have to confess that sometimes I am very hard on fellow Christians. I expect a high standard. And I am very disappointed, and sometimes frustrated and fed up and angry when Christians fail. But when there is repentance — and there is an attitude of humility — of repenting before God in genuine repentance — we must be merciful. We must be merciful.
When the whole team functions like this, when the whole church functions like this, I am confident that we can build a spiritual team that is going to be victorious. I am amazed what you can do with a scrap of fellows who have never seen a ball in their life. Put them through 12 months of training and they can actually play to astonishing standards. Put them through another 12 months and they can play with the best. It's incredible. Because we constantly encourage them on. Very interesting — in Shanghai, many teams fell apart. Internal bickering, fighting, accusing each other, backbiting. And our team held together in a spirit of compassion. Because we started from the beginning making an awful lot of mistakes and learning to forgive one another for it. And together we grew and advanced until we were among the best. I find this a very precious spiritual lesson. Learning to be merciful to the weak. And so the Scripture teaches us: be merciful to those who fail. Help them along. Help them to stand up again. Help them — don't press them down into the ground.
And let me say this. Sometimes I find that many husband and wife relationships fail because we become very unforgiving as husbands and wives. We finally say, "I am fed up. You have made this mistake 50 times before and I am sick of it." Well, we can go on like this. I'm not sure we get anywhere. But when that happens, the marriage begins to fall apart. And marriage only holds together when you function as a team. And you say, "Okay, that was bad. You made a bad mess of it. Okay, we'll try again. We'll try to do better next time. Don't get discouraged. We're going to win this battle yet." This is the beauty of the Christian life.
And so let us close. To sum up, you see now the meaning of mercy. Mercy means in the first instance to forgive. But it also means continuing to sustain those who are weak, helping them through to victory, and so finally they are able to be victorious over sin. This is the beautiful teaching of the Lord. And when we live in this way — both forgiving our enemies, forgiving those who offend against us, and helping them to victory spiritually — this kind of person can be sure to receive God's mercy on that day. Let us be quiet. Let us pray.