The Wednesday Word ~ 15 November, 2023 A.D.

 THE LORD'S MERCIES

by D.G. Miles McKee
 

^“It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness." -Lamentations 3:22-23 [KJV]
 
What a blessing it is to know that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning. The following are but a few of them.

1. SAVING MERCIES.  A good illustration of these is found in the story of Lot.  Despite his multiplied imperfections, Lot was one of God's people. But Lot lived in Sodom and because of the wickedness of its people, the Lord purposed to destroy that city.  However, by mercy the Lord saved Lot from destruction. From then on, Lot was able to say, “Thou hast magnified Thy mercy, which Thou hast showed unto me in saving my life" (Genesis 19:19).

Salvation is due to His mercies.  Do we know this?  The Lord Jesus Himself is our salvation.  He is both our spiritual and temporal salvation.  Remember, it is because of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed. Or as Paul tells us it’s, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5).
 
2. COMFORTING MERCY.   Joseph needed comforting mercy when his character was maligned, and he was thrown in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph, showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison (See Genesis 39: 21).  Joseph knew the comforting mercy of the Lord.

Consider this, the Lord Jesus was maligned and lied about continually.  But, in His humanity, He received comforting mercy from "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort" (II Corinthians 1:3). May we, like the Lord Jesus know the Father of mercies and God of all comfort as we pass through each trial.
 
3 GUIDING MERCY.  “Thou in Thy mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed: You have guided them in Your strength unto Your holy habitation" (Exodus 15:13).

If we are saved by the precious blood of Christ, we can take comfort from this truth.  The Lord shall guide us continually (Isaiah 58:11).  We may sometimes stray away from Him, but, in His mercy, He has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13: 5).  By mercy He will guide us back to Himself. As John Newton said, “The storms of our life are guided by the Hands that were nailed to the cross.”
 
4. FORGIVING MERCY.  The Lord God is described as .. "keeping mercy for thousands. forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodos 34:7).

 Is there ever a time when the believer is not in need of the mercy of forgiveness? No there isn’t!  We, therefore, need to avoid any teaching which suggests we do not need God's forgiving mercy at all times. The Scriptures tell us that ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. and the truth is not in us" (I John 1:8-9). The flesh continually lusts against the Spirit (Romans 7: 25) but the Lord Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

At one moment in his life, King David sinned with Bathsheba and then made sure her husband was killed in war. When the prophet Nathan confronted Him about his sin, David had a gut reaction and boldly declared, “The man who did this deserves to die” (II Samuel 12:5). Then the prophet reminded him, he was that man.  David was mightily convicted and subsequently wrote this beautiful verse, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (See Psalm 51).

May we discover like David that there is more mercy in Christ Jesus than there is guilt in our sin. He chose us. He pursued us, He saved us, He has kept us. This indeed is mercy!

And that’s the Gospel Truth!