Study Notes

I.      What is mercy?

A.    Colossians 3:12-We are told to put on bowels of mercies

1.      Bowels-Seat of the tenderer affections, especially kindness, benevolence, compassion; A heart in which mercy resides

2.      Mercies-Mercy, Compassion, Bowels in which compassion resides, a heart of compassion

3.      Put on a heart in which rich mercy resides, a heart of compassion

B.     Mercy is: To be gracious, to have mercy, to spare (A criminal begs mercy of his judge)

1.      Matthew 18:21-33

a.    22-When someone sins against you there’s a wage for sin, a penalty for sin, judgment

1)       How many times should I not make him pay and let it him go and loose him of his debt?

2)       Jesus is telling us rather than judgment give mercy, rather than making him pay free him and let him go

b.    23-You want to function in the Kingdom and seek first the kingdom then you have to operate in mercy

c.     24,25-He owes money that he does not have and judgment for such an act was to sell him as a slave, sell his wife and his children as slaves and sell everything he has and the money of it would go towards that debt

1)       “The payment to be made” is not mercy it’s judgment

d.    26-He ask for patience-mild and slow in avenging (He’s asking for time)

1)       The guy is repenting and judging himself and this is a major key to not getting judged

e.    27-The Lord was moved with compassion which is mercy and spared him judgment (To be moved as to one’s bowels, hence to be moved with compassion for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity, a heart in which mercy resides)

1)       That heart of mercy that moved him said no to judgment, let him go, forgive him of the debt, mercy

2)       Rather than getting judgment for his behavior he got mercy and was spared judgment

f.      28-The guy that got forgiven is being hard and harsh and severe about a much smaller debt

1)       Judgment wants payment; Pay me what you owe

2)       Mercy doesn’t want payment, mercy wants forgiveness

g.    29-The man who owed him money asked for the same thing that he asked his lord for

1)       He’s judging himself and repenting

2)       He ask for patience-mild and slow in avenging (He’s asking for time), this guy would not, he was merciless

3)       30-Rather than give mercy, this guy gave judgment rather than sparing judgment

h.     33-The word compassion and pity is the Greek word for mercy

i.       34-Because he didn’t give mercy he didn’t get mercy and the judgment that he judged with he was then judged by

2.      What happened to all that sin you committed before you got saved – The wages of that was death, the judgment for that was death, but you didn’t get the judgment, you got mercy, you were spared judgment-Titus 3:5

a.    Ephesians 2:4-God who is rich in mercy (We were living in all that carnality but we didn’t get judgment we got mercy)

b.    1 Timothy 1:13,16-He’s saying I didn’t get judgment for those things I got mercy, I was spared

1)       His obtaining mercy from Jesus was a pattern for us of how merciful Jesus is and how merciful we are to be

C.    Mercy is: A readiness to help those in trouble; Kindness or good will towards the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them

1.      Luke 10:30-37

a.    27-29-Jesus connects the importance of mercy in loving your neighbor; he starts with loving your neighbor but ends on mercy

b.    30-This guy is in a miserable and afflicted condition, but why is in he this condition? It doesn’t say because mercy doesn’t care why it just wants to help

c.     31,32-There’s a lack of readiness to help, a lack of kindness towards the miserable and a lack of desire to relieve him

d.    33-The Samaritan had mercy on him, a desire to help somebody in a miserable condition

e.    37-Go and do likewise

f.      When we see people on the side of the road of life who The Thief as stripped and wounded and beat mercy says I want to help

1)       The tendency of the flesh is to see people in this condition and look down upon them and judge them

2)       Judgment will look down upon and feel superior to and make statements like the made their bed and now they got to sleep in it; Yeah and you made some beds to and never slept in them because of the mercy of God so about mercy for them

2.      We haven’t been known to have readiness to help, we’ve had a readiness to judge

a.    You see somebody that’s struggling in this game of life, maybe spiritually, maybe in their finances, maybe in their family so what do you want to do? You want to look down upon them, feel superior to them, judge them or do you want to help them?

D.    Mercy is: To have mercy on, to aid, support and help one afflicted or seeking aid, to bring help to the wretched, to show mercy

1.      Matthew 9:27-To blind men followed him, crying, saying, Son of David have mercy on us

2.      Matthew 15:22-The woman with the daughter who was vexed said have mercy on me and later she said help me

3.      Matthew 17:15-The man with the sick son said Lord have mercy on my son

4.      Matthew 20:30-The two blind guys kept crying for mercy

5.      Mark 5:19-When the guy got delivered from that devil Jesus called it an act of mercy

6.      Luke 17:13-The lepers said Jesus have mercy on us

7.      Philippians 2:27-He was sick nigh unto deal: but God had mercy on him

E.     To feel sympathy with the misery of another and such sympathy usually manifests itself in act; The inward feeling of compassion which abides in the heart

1.      The picture is that if somebody is acting in wrong way then punishment for wrong behavior is death because the wages of sin is death and so this person acting wrong should be judged for their wrong behavior with punishment

2.      For these people in these wretched condition who are not doing everything right, mercy is wanting to see them spared and get the help they need and not be judged

II.     The opposite of mercy is judgment or judging

A.    James 2:13-How are we going to overcome judging by clothing ourselves in mercy and developing in mercy

1.      NIRV-To show mercy is better than to judge

2.      WE-It is better to be kind than it is to judge people

3.      TNIV-Mercy triumphs over judgment

4.      MSG-For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins out over harsh judgment every time.

5.      BBE-Mercy takes pleasure in overcoming judging

6.      PHIL-The man who makes no allowances for others will find none made for him. It is still true that, “mercy smiles in the face of judgment.”

B.     The opposite of being spared is being judged

1.      Judgment is seeing that person in that wretched condition and having no desire to help and wanting them to pay

III.   What about judging?

A.    Nearly every Christian and non-Christian know they are not supposed to judge and nearly ever on of them thinks they don’t judge

1.      When people thinking about judging they think about DON’T JUDGE ME

a.    If somebody did get corrected about judging their response would almost always be, “Well, I’m not judging, I’m just saying.”

b.    If you were to listen to each individual person who would think that nobody is judging and you’d wonder why Jesus even said this

2.      When is the last time you’ve repented because you were judging? Is that because you never do it? Or is it because you’re not recognizing it?

a.    Most people are judging, but they are not calling it judging they call it something else so that they can keep doing it

3.      We live in a society that has perfected judging people for judging

a.    People who say, “Don’t judge me, you’re judging me and shouldn’t be judging me.” They are judging people for judging them and are guilty of what they are judging people for doing, which is judging

1)       Anytime you hear somebody say “You’re judging me and you shouldn’t be,” those are the words of a hypocrite

b.    Usually when someone accuses somebody of judging them it is because they themselves are in rebellion and don’t want to repent and want to take the focus off of their rebellion and put it on your judging-Acts 7:27, 35

B.     What is judging?

1.      Judging is examining, deciding and pronouncing

a.    Examining (Examining is looking at to make a call)

1)       To judge is to examine a person’s life, what they said, what they did and then pass judgment (they are right, they are wrong)

2)       Jugged-To be judged, summoned to trial that one’s case may be examined and judgment may be passed upon it

b.    Deciding

1)       A judge, arbitrator, umpire – You’re going to make the call whether it’s right or wrong

2)       You’re going to look at people and you are going to decide what’s right and wrong in their life; You the judge are going to look into their life and decide guilty or not guilty

c.     Pronouncing an opinion concerning right and wrong

1)       Judgment-An opinion or decision given concerning anything, especially concerning justice and injustice, right and wrong; To be of opinion, to deem, to think

2)       A judge is one who passes judgment on anything; One who tries and decides a case

3)       In my opinion, Well I think – You make those statements and often times judging is about to follow

4)       There are so many things that you don’t need to have an opinion about and say what YOU think

5)       If you pronounce them wrong then you are saying they should be judged

6)       If the judge pronounces someone wrong or guilty he then passes judgment/what the need to do to pay for what they did

2.      Judging is speaking against-James 4:11-If you speak evil of your brother you are judging your brother

a.    That means you are speaking against them; Mercy is for them, mercy wants them to get help

b.    When you judge you are speaking against them, you are not speaking for them

1)       What you said did it help them? Was it for them? Was it in favor of them?

2)       Was what you said about them good, was it uplifting, did it minister grace to them?

c.     Words matter, words are spiritual, they release things, life and death is in the power of the tongue and when are speaking ill of somebody you are releasing spiritual force against them; it’s not going to edify them and help them, it can hurt them

1)       Every word you say about people either helped them and was for them or it was against them

2)       You can feel people talking against you – It’s spiritual and it’s real

3)       When you’ve been talking bad about people behind their back, don’t think that you can hide it when you get in front of their face because you can’t and they’ll pick up on it

3.      Judging is decreeing

a.    When you say I’m not judging, I’m just saying, saying is what judging is

1)       The act of condemning and decreeing penalty on one; Pronounce judgment

b.    If they are wrong and you said they are then you’re saying they need to pay the penalty and punishment

1)       If you say they are wrong then the next thing that comes is judgment, penalty, punishment for being wrong

2)       The wages of wrong is judgment and if you said they are wrong you’ve pronounced judgment, not mercy, not being spared

4.      Judging is pointing out peoples faults – Matthew 7:1-5-Pointing out faults that people have is judging

a.    This is a graphic illustration of judging and it is finding and pointing out peoples faults

b.    Judging-Of those who judge severely (unfairly) finding fault with this or that in others  

c.     Judging-To subject to censure (The act of finding fault and condemning as wrong)

IV.   Jesus wants mercy over judgment and so should we

A.    Matthew 9:11

1.      They are judging Jesus; they don’t think it’s right for Jesus to eat with sinners

2.      They are judging the sinners as inferior people, looking down upon them

3.      Jesus says rather than judging I will to have mercy; they want judgment Jesus wants mercy

a.    Mercy wants to them to get the help they need and to get that help they need to repent

b.    Jesus didn’t say oh I’m fine with their sin, he said they need to repent

B.     Matthew 12

1.      When the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him – They are examining, deciding, and pronouncing – JUDGING

2.      Most people who are judging aren’t reading

3.      Jesus is showing them that they are being hypocritical because while they are saying it’s wrong for his disciples they are saying it’s okay for David and it’s okay for the Priests

4.      Jesus has mercy on his mind but all they have on their mind is judging and judgment

C.    Luke 12,13

1.      58-They only way to get mercy is to repent and if you don’t repent and judge yourself you’re going to pay and be judged

2.      13:2-5-They got judged not because they were worse sinners, but because they wouldn’t judge themselves and repent

3.      8-Be this person who’s heart’s cry is mercy for people

a.    Mercy wants to help so rather than find fault it intercedes

b.    Judgment wants payment, mercy wants to help