Grosey's Messages

The Lord Jesus clearly chose these Beatitudes carefully. He did not speak haphazardly. There is a definite progression in the thought; there is a logical sequence. This particular Beatitude comes out of all the others, and especially is it to be noted that it is in a very sharp and well defined logical connection with the immediately preceding one, `Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.'

`Blessed are the merciful.' What a searching statement that is! What a test of each one of us, of our whole standing and of our profession of the Christian faith! Those are the happy people, says Christ, those are the people to be congratulated. That is what man should be like-merciful.

Our Lord is depicting and delineating the Christian man and the Christian character. He is obviously searching us and testing us, and it is good that we should realize that, if we take the Beatitudes as a whole, it is a kind of general test to which we are being subjected.

The Source of Mercy

I have seen hundreds of rivers in my time, but there is one that fills  my mind when I think of the mercy of God. In the Blue Mountains at various spots the  soft and silvery plash of water falling into water.  A thickly wooded natural grotto, over which the ferns climbed luxuriantly,  thick green mosses covered every stone. The song of the birds on all the branches about us blended harmoniously with the music of the mountain spring. A natural spring gurgles down a channel that it had worn for itself in the solid rock, to pour itself into the shining pool. It all flows down through the mountains to the fresh water Grose River which meets the mighty and salty Hawkesbury river below which then flows into the immensities of the blue Pacific Ocean. Out of God's mercies that flow toward us as His created beings, flows His mercy to us in the redemption that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The cross speaks to us of the mercy of God in the greatest way.   Christ died for our sins, and we have freeness of forgiveness and pardon through His shed blood at the cross.   

One said it was like a spring in the mountains.  The spring pours forth beautiful fresh water which flows down from stream to pool to pool, making fertile and lush the land around it.

In the same way God's mercy in His character is that which pours down into our lives, then out from our lives into others lives. And that mercy has the repercussion back of changing the society.

O give thanks unto the LORD: for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever" (Psa 136:1)

For this perfection of the Divine character God is greatly to be praised. Three times over in as many verses does the Psalmist here call upon the saints to give thanks unto the Lord for this adorable attribute. And surely this is the least that can be asked for from those who have been recipients of such bounty. When we contemplate the characteristics of this Divine excellency, we cannot do otherwise than bless God for it. His mercy is "great" (1 Kings 3:6), "plenteous" (Psa 86:5), "tender" (Luke 1:78), "abundant" (1 Pet 1:3); it is "from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him" (Psa 103:17). Well may we say with the Psalmist, "I will sing aloud of Thy mercy" (59:16).

"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 show mercy on whom I will show mercy" (Exo 33:19). Wherein differs the mercy of God from His grace? The mercy of God has its spring in the Divine goodness. The first issue of God's goodness is his benignity or bounty, by which He gives liberally to His creatures as creatures; thus has He given being and life to all things. The second issue of God's goodness is His mercy, which denotes the ready inclination of God to relieve the misery of fallen creatures. Thus, "mercy" presupposes sin.

Lamentations 3: 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." 25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

 

Salvation is by Grace.  Grace is getting what we don't deserve.   Mercy is not getting what we do deserve.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Titus 3: 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

His mercy flows even to you and I the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2: 1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience---3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ---by grace you have been saved

As the mountain spring is the source of the pools and the river, so God's mercy is the source of His rich Redemption and Salvation for us.  His grace reaches down to us and applies it to us as individuals. Have you received this gift of grace and mercy personally? It is for you to receive.

And it all flows into the ocean of God's goodness where in eternity we are always the objects of His mercy and grace.

Oh the love that drew salvation's plan     Oh the grace  That brought it down to man

Oh the mighty gulf that God did span  At Calvary

Mercy there was great  And grace was free

Pardon there was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty  At Calvary

The Streams Of Mercy

The Christian gospel places all its primary emphasis upon being, rather than doing. The gospel puts a greater weight upon our attitude than upon our actions.

Being Before Doing         Attitudes of Gratitude         Recipients of grace overflow with grace

Matthew 18 :33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. 35 "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses

Ephesians 4  31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Mercifulness is essentially a Christian grace.

Nobody can travel far without being impressed by the gulf that yawns, at this point, between the sentiments that prevail in a Christian country on the one hand and in heathen lands on the other. You may, of course, see the most revolting cruelty under the shadow of a church spire, and you may be treated with the most wonderful kindness amid pagan temples, but the general trend of things is in the opposite direction.

The world would have been a pitiless place if Jesus had never entered it. It is, of course, true that millions of men and women who make no profession of Christianity perform deeds of mercy every day. That pleasing circumstance in no way affects the issue. It simply proves that as a result of fifty generations of Christianity, something of the spirit of Jesus has become ingrained. Ideas of mercy and justice in Western culture are the result of Christ's sermon on the mount and His highlighting of these values. The idea of showing consideration or pity to a stranger or a foe never entered the world until Christianity emphasized the obligation; and it has only been found in the track of Christian apostles and teachers ever since. We can never forget that the neglect, exposure, and murder of new-born babies was a common practice throughout the world—even in cultured Rome or Greece. There is no trace of such an institution as a hospital prior to the dawn of the Christian era. And not one has ever been established since save under the direct or indirect influence of Christian teaching. Christless-ness in any society means mercilessness. Rome, in the pomp of her glory, and in the climax of her culture, had for her chief amusement and delight the blood thirsty combat in the Colosseum.

The Lord will later show how being merciful works itself out in actions:

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

But the Christian faith is not something on the surface of a man's life, it is not merely a kind of coating or veneer. No, it is something that has been happening in the very centre of his personality. That is why the New Testament talks about rebirth and being born again, about a new creation and about receiving a new nature. It is something that happens in the very centre of your being; it controls all your thoughts, all your outlook,  and, as a result, all your actions as well. All our activities, therefore, are the result of this new nature, this new disposition which we have received from God through the Holy Spirit.

By the way we react we manifest what is really going on within us.   Are we really Christians in the core of our being?

I am often challenged by the illustration of a spilled cup.  When you shake the cup, what spills out? Only what's inside the cup!  Water, poison or what?

When you get all shook up what do your reactions reveal about you?  

What are the marks of a gracious heart?

1.Are you a gracious hearted person who considers the poor

Psalm 41: 1 Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him; 2 the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies. 3 The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.

Dionysius' the former bishop of Alexandria sent into desert exile, wrote to Eusebius of the plague in Alexandria.

After these things war and famine followed, which we endured in common with the heathen. But we bore alone those things with which they afflicted us, and at the same time we experienced also the effects of what they inflicted upon and suffered from one another; and again, we rejoiced in the peace of Christ, which he gave to us alone. "But after both we and they had enjoyed a very brief season of rest this pestilence assailed us; to them more dreadful than any dread, and more intolerable than any other calamity; and, as one of their own writers has said, the only thing which prevails over all hope. But to us this was not so, but no less than the other things was it an exercise and probation. For it did not keep aloof even from us, but the heathen it assailed more severely."

Farther on he adds: "The most of our brethren were unsparing in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness. They held fast to each other and visited the sick fearlessly, and ministered to them continually, serving them in Christ. And they died with them most joyfully, taking the affliction of others, and drawing the sickness from their neighbors to themselves and willingly receiving their pains. And many who cared for the sick and gave strength to others died themselves having transferred to themselves their death… "But with the heathen everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out into the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead like refuse, unburied. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death; which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape."

Eusebius, recorded in "The Church History" that during the plague, All day long some of them [the Christians] tended to the dying and to their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them.  Others gathered together from all parts of the city a multitude of those withered from famine and distributed bread to them all. Eusebius goes on to state that because of their compassion in the midst of the plague, the Christians' "deeds were on everyone's lips, and they glorified the God of the Christians.  Such actions convinced them that they alone were pious and truly reverent to God."  A few decades after Eusebius, the last pagan emperor, Julian the Apostate, recognized that the Christian practice of compassion was one cause behind the transformation of the faith from a small movement on the edge of the empire, to cultural ascendancy.  Writing to a pagan priest he said: "when it came about that the poor were neglected and overlooked by the [pagan] priests, then I think the impious Galilaeans [i.e., Christians] observed this fact and devoted themselves to philanthropy." * "[They] support not only their poor, but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us."

"There was a man, and some did count him mad,  The more he gave away the more he had."

2.Are you a gracious hearted person who DEMONSTRATES LOVE TO YOUR ENEMIES?

Injured? Don't retaliate (your cheek)

Insulted? Don't resent (your cloak)

3. Are you a gracious hearted person who LENDS TO OTHERS WITHOUT EXPECTING A RETURN?

Like the others, these verses have been greatly misinterpreted. In verse 34 Jesus asks, "And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit (grace) is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners' expecting to be repaid in full." Then in verse 35 He repeats how to show kindness, "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back."

4.Are you a gracious hearted person who SHOWS MERCY TO THOSE WHO DON'T DESERVE IT?

Look again at the last part of verse 35. Jesus says categorically we should show kindness "because He (the Father) is kind to (notice the two groups) the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful."