531 – The Mercy of God

God

531 – The Mercy of God

You can follow along with the Scriptures and my notes as I read them.

Righteousness, grace, and mercy are the foundations of the renewed mind. This is the starting point for a renewed mind: knowing that you're righteous, knowing that it comes by grace, and remembering that God is merciful. 

Grace is divine favor. Something given to you that you didn't have to work for. It's a gift from God to you, a favor from God. Here you go, it is yours

Mercy is withholding judgment of something that you have done. It is God who forgives you, and you have mercy. God's mercy is It's bigger than grace because it is not merely giving you something that you didn't earn. Mercy goes deeper into forgiving you for any misdeeds that you may have done, and receiving mercy from God. Just like you have never sinned.

Romans 12:1 & 2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ² And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

By the mercies, meaning many mercies, and in remembering, what our service is. Making ourselves available to God, and by thinking "what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The Story of Lot.

Lot was so human. Like so many humans, you can see around today. Abram was living in Haran, Iran today, God said to him get thee out of thy country, and out of thy father's land. He took Lot with him, his nephew.

And God blessed both Abraham and Lot with great wealth. But their herdsmen began arguing with each other. Both Lot and Abram agreed to separate. Abram said Lot, you choose first.

Lot chose the plains area near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sodom and Gomorrah became a cesspool of inquity. All kinds of depravity, anti-God, and mischief were in the land.

Genesis 18:17 – 33 “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; ¹⁸ Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? ¹⁹ For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. ²⁰ And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; ²¹ I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. ²² And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. ²³ And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? ²⁵ That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? ²⁶ And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. ²⁷ And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: ²⁸ Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. ²⁹ And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. ³⁰ And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. ³¹ And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. ³² And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. ³³ And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.”

You can see here and elsewhere in the Scriptures that it's all right to talk things over with God. It is a form of prayer. But I am sure God knew all along what he would do.

Genesis 19:12 - 16 “And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: ¹³ For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it. ¹⁴ And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. ¹⁵ And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. ¹⁶ And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.”

This is the first time the Merciful or a form of the word mercy is used in the Bible. Lot was not thinking right. He was dim-brained. He could not think things through logically. His brain, his mind, and his thinking had too many thoughts. About all the situations that he was in, and he could not clearly. Why?

2 Peter 2:4 – 8 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; ⁵ And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; ⁷ And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: ⁸ (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)”

Lot could not think straight because his thoughts were vexed by the conversation of the people around him. He could not put his thoughts straight. If you find yourself like this, get help first from God and then from others. We gotta think clearly according to what we know from God's Word whenever we're in fixs. We pray, we ask God, we look to other knowledgeable believers for help.

Genesis 19:17 – 21 “And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. ¹⁸ And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: ¹⁹ Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: ²⁰ Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. ²¹ And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.”

Fear has seized Lot. He's still not thinking right. Here's an example of squeezing God or getting God to change his mind. But if you do, you will not like it. If you squeeze God and get him to change The Revelation, you won't like it. But what God is doing is just saying, "Okay," but it will not be God's primary will. At best, it will be just second best. Why does God do that? Because of God's grace and mercy, God will let you. As we read on, we can see that Lot did not stay there long. Strange things happened to him and his daughters.

Genesis 19:27 – 38 “ And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: ²⁸ And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. ²⁹ And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. ³⁰ And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. ³¹ And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: ³² Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. ³³ And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. ³⁴ And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. ³⁵ And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. ³⁶ Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. ³⁷ And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. ³⁸ And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.”

Lot's daughters' sons became the children of the Moabites and the Amorites. They had an inheritance, like the rest of the children of Israel. But later, God had to kill them because they would have killed the children of Israel. God could not put up with that. Because of the grace of God and the mercy of God.

May God Bless you Abundantly

Steve

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