A Sermon Published on Thursday, August 29, 1912,
Delivered by C.H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“He delighteth in mercy.” — Micah 7:18.
Sons of men, rejoice that such God has revealed himself to you! This should cause a universal Hallelujah, the whole world over, as soon as ever it is hard. “He delighteth in mercy.” Clap your hands, and rejoice before him; yea, exceedingly rejoice! The heathen did not find out this. Although they had gods many, differing one from another in character, none of them were ever gods of mercy. They were usually fierce demons, some of them only rejoicing in the exaction of human blood. Go at this very day to Hindostan, and see what gods man maketh unto himself — gods more beastly, more cruel, more devilish than himself. Such is not the living and true God. Far from taking pleasure in the sufferings of creatures, he tells us plainly that he delights in mercy. It is not enough that he is merciful, but he delights in this high prerogative. While we may well suppose that every attribute of God gives him pleasure in the exercise, mercy is supremely singled out as being especially his favourite. Mercy is the last attribute openly manifested; he exercised his power in making men before they sinned, or needed mercy; and he displayed his wisdom in balancing the clouds and piling the hills before he needed to show mercy, for sin as yet had not come into the world. If I may so say, mercy is God’s Benjamin, and he delighteth most of all in it. It is the son of his right hand, though, alas! in bringing it forth, it might well have been called the son of sorrow too, for mercy came into this world through the sorrows of the only-begotten Son of God. He delights in mercy, just as some men delight in trade, some in the arts, some in professions; and each man, according to his delight, becomes proficient in pursuing a work for the very love thereof. So God is proficient in memory. He addicts himself to it. He is most Godlike, most happy, if such a thing may be said of him; when he is stretching out his right hand with his golden scepter in it, and saying to the guilty, “Come to me, touch this scepter, and you shall live!” He delighteth in mercy.
Now, surely it would suffice were I to sound this trumpet again and again with its celestial monotone. If you heard nothing but the same unvarying notes and did but remember them, believe them, and come to God in consequence of them — there would be enough of sermon in the text, without further exposition or comment. “He delighteth in mercy.” Nevertheless, as you are willing to listen, it will not be grievous to me to speak on such a lovely theme. Let me therefore mention some facts which prove it; answer some objections that are raised to it; warn you against some perversions of it; and then endeavor to push home the great lessons which spring from it.
I. Facts Which Prove That God Delighteth In Mercy.
This is clear, from the first dawn of promise. When our first parents sinned, he might, if he had pleased, without straining the words which he had spoken, have destroyed them both, and so at once have put an end to the race of rebels. He had said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” If he had chosen to give to that a literal as well as a spiritual meaning, he might surely have put on the black cap, and condemned our parents to perish on the spot. But why did he permit them to live and to become the parents of an innumerable race? Why, from that single pair, has he suffered he millions of the race to spring? Because every man that is born becomes a sinner, and in every one of these millions there is a space for God’s mercy — these all furnish so many platforms I might say, on which God might display his mercy; so many millions of black foils against which God shall put the sparkling sapphire of his mercy, that its brightness may be more clearly seen. Surely, it is only because he delighteth in mercy that he spares this earth to swarm with sinners, and to be covered over with multitudes of transgressors.
That he delighteth in mercy is clear, from the fact that oftentimes after his anger has waxed hot, he has spared the offender when he has repented. God determined to destroy the race of Israel in the wilderness. “Let me alone that I may destroy them.” But the prayer of Moses touched the tender part of God, namely, his mercy; and he said that he would spare the people for his covenant and for his prophet’s sake. Even Ahab, that most cruel of kings, when he had been threatened, humbled himself; and God said to Elijah, “Go and say unto Ahab, Because he hath humbled himself, this thing shall not be in his day.” And that great city of Nineveh, which has been given up o all manner of evil, God had said to John, “Go and cry, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown;” but, when they put themselves in sackcloth, and repented at the prophet’s warning, the Lord would not destroy the city, but spared the multitude for a season. Oh! I tell you the tears and cries of men move the heart of the Most High. Not a prayer ever comes from the most guilty breast, if it be but sincere, fails to enter into the ear of the God of Mercy. The tears of penitents forge their way into his soul. He hath a bottle for those precious drops; he hath a ready record for all their groans and sighs. He has proved this in innumerable cases. He has drawn the sword from its scabbard and put it back again when the man has repented. He has lifted the axe, yet laid it down again when the husbandman has pleaded, and said, “Let it alone this year also.” His sparing, even when his anger has waxed hot, proves that he delighteth in mercy.
Brethren and sisters, I appeal to all of you in this present assembly. The fact that we are here to-night after all the provocations which we have given to God, proves that he delights in mercy. Ah! I need not begin with the worst, the openly worst; let me mention some of you who have been trained from your childhood in the paths of piety, and yet you forgot God. You lived without him; prayer was neglected; his day was a weariness; to go up to his house was a toil. And yet you have been spared though you were useless and unprofitable servants; he might have chased you out of the house, and given you your portion among the tormenters, but he has borne with your ill manners, and spared you to this hour. Ah, but there are some who have gone farther. They have broken his laws; they have trampled on his statutes. Some have cursed his name; some here have done it. They have dared to imprecate damnation on themselves, and have done it often. They have spoken against God, perhaps with impious and infidel lips. They have done worse than that — if worse can be they have persecuted God’s children, and that is to touch the apple of his eye, and to hurt him in the tenderest place. We seemed, some of us, in the days of our sin, as if we would ride steeplechase to perdition, as if nothing could stop the insanity of our suicidal resolve. We would sin, even if sin were bitter to us. We would pursue our ruin at all risks and hazards, and yet he cried, “How can I give thee up?” He turned to plead with us. A mother’s voice pleaded; from the grave she pleaded. The fever came and preached to us on the sickbed, and he heard it. The cholera came and preached; we heard its voice in the street; we saw its power in the frequent funerals that passed along through the city. The preacher came and spoke as best he could, and besought you, as a brother, that you would turn; that you would not perish, but would turn to God, and all theses entreaties — these stretchings out of the hand, these wooings, and these tears which God has used upon you have been all in vain to now, and you have sinned and revolted yet more and more. Doth he not delight in mercy to continue still to invite, still to mourn, and not to cut it short by destroying you altogether?
And the very best proof that God delighteth in mercy methinks is to be found in the great number of persons who are saved. I say the great number of those who are saved, for he who says they be but few, contorts some passages of God’s Word, and understands it not as a whole. Look yonder, if your eyes can see as mine can, by faith: you can no more count the spirits that rejoice before the throne than you can count the stars in the sky, or the upon the sea shore. Their music yonder is like great thunders, or like the mighty waves of the sea, for they are ten thousand times ten thousand, a company that no man can number, all having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of Jesus, all saved by the mercy of our God. And here below, how many there are of us who are making our way to the Celestial city, led by the precious Christ who is our Captain, and in every one of our cases the mercy of God is seen.
Nor is the mercy of God to be discovered only in the numbers, but it is seen also in the character of those who are saved, for God does not select the most virtuous, the most chaste, the most honest, the most talented. He often takes, to make them monuments of his mercy, the vilest, the most abased and blasphemous. He lays hold upon the polluted publican instead of the proud Pharisee. He singles out the wandering prodigal before many who thought themselves far better. He lifteth the poor out of the dunghill, and setteth him among princes. Glory be to the infinite majesty of eternal grace that has snatched brands out of the burning, that has lifted men from the very gates of hell and passed them through the gates of heaven. The guilt of one soul might sink a world; the accumulated guilt of all the millions whom Christ redeemed will stand for ever as a proof that God delighteth in mercy.
Reflect a moment upon the conduct of those saved after they have tasted that the Lord is gracious, for albeit they are renewed yet they are not perfect. Oh! brethren and sisters, we ought to be ashamed to have to confess it tonight, blushes should scarlet our cheeks, that we have been ungrateful, unbelieving, unfaithful. We have sinned against the gracious Father who has taken us into his family, sinned against the love of God, against the blood of Christ, against the sweet comforts of the Holy Ghost; and yet no child of his was ever cast away; no believer in Christ was ever disowned of God. The mercy which once flowed to them flows on for ever, never pausing for an instant, because he delighteth in mercy.
But think, and here is the main point, think with regard to these guilty ones who have been saved, at what an expense it was all done. He spared not his own Son. A son is most dear to a father, yet God so loved mercy that he gave the only-begotten to the smart, and to the death-pang, to the cross and the sepulchre, that mercy might ride on the milk-white steed, a queen amongst the sons of men. Behold the Saviour bleeding! I pray you let me portray him to you, with hands and feet pierced with nails. Mark you his sufferings; view you his agonies; and let me tell you that this was all for the sons of men, that the mercy of the everlasting Father, without bound and limit, might come to those who seek his face through Jesus Christ. Farther proof surely is not needed. This is proof, overwhelming proof, that should confound despair, proof that should make unbelief impossible. He who gave his son to die must be a God that delighteth in mercy.
II. SOME OBJECTIONS ARE OFTEN RAISED, which I shall very briefly meet.
“If he delighteth in mercy, “saith one, “why are some men lost?” Surely, sir, God does not so delight in mercy as to tarnish his justice. If he did, there would be a slur upon his mercy, for sometimes it is not mercy to the many to forgive the few. It were no mercy to London to set free all the burglars and garrotters. It were no mercy to England if every man who had committed murder were suffered to go red-handed without punishment. Punishment for the guilty is required even by mercy itself. Remember, of all the lost, there is not one brute has simply and barely the due reward of his sins, and if that had been roughly and evenly given to him, he would have known no reprieve that allowed him, to, live here after his first offence. To full many of them, certainly to all of you, if finally lost, you will have had mercy presented to you. You have had Christ preached to you; you have been bidden to come to him; you have been assured, on God’s own authority, that if you trust Jesus you shall to saved. Then if you do it not, lay not your ruin at the door of God’s mercy, but at the door of your own folly. If a man die of fever because he will not take the medicine, who but himself is at fault? If a man leap over a precipice willfully, let him blame no one if he dashed himself to pieces. On the head of every lost one, his own condemnation lies, as yours will, except you turn to God and repent.
“Ah!” saith another, “but God is not always merciful, look at his severity sometimes: Korah, Dathan, and Abiram are swallowed up; Sodom is destroyed by fire from heaven.” Yes, sir, and even mercy saw this done without a tear in her eye. What, should Sodom go unpunished? Shall the Shall the bestial vice of which Sodom was guilty never be checked? Why, if this should spread amongst the sons of men, it would bring in its infernal train ten thousand times more damage than the destruction of Sodom, and Gomorrah. The sin itself is infinitely worse than the fire which burned it up. There is mercy in the physician if he sees poison in the hand when he cuts it out and cauterizes the wound, and this is what God did with Sodom. He did, as it were, cut out the plague-spot and cauterize it, lest that filthy sin should overspread all mankind. As for Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, their death was the life of others, they were pestilent traitors against the dominion of God, and unless they had died, others would have revolted and have perished too. Many of those things which we call severe judgments are only mercies in disguise. The great fire of London — how the preachers preached about that! I suppose there are hundreds of sermons extant to prove that the great fire of London was a punishment upon London for its gluttony and covetousness. Why, what greater blessing ever befell the city than that fire, burning up as it did all those fever and pest dens where all kinds of malaria and disease would constantly lie festering? Nothing could have been better. The deaths of some in the plague before the fire, had called attention to the evil, and then the fire came and swept the evil away. I do not doubt that even cholera in our own times has been simply God’s great sanitary commissioner, sent to London to warn us to cleanse this and sweep away that, that so on the whole life may last longer and mercy may prevail. Judge not go, then, by your feeble sense, wait awhile till you see his judgments in the long run, and then you shall discern how they are always seasoned with mercy, and love holds the sword.
Should anyone say, with blank surprise, “If God delighteth in mercy, why is there such a thing as the unpardonable sin ?” Methinks I should reply, with a burst of gratitude, “Is it not a great mercy that there is only one sin that is unpardonable?” There might have been a catalogue of crimes for which forgiveness was impossible; there is but one; that one is only unpardonable because the person who commits it has so seared his conscience that he never sues for pardon. Any of you, man or woman, that asks for mercy sincerely, shall have it, whatever sin you may have committed. But that one sin strikes a cold chill about the heart, and henceforth the man never desires mercy, but perishes an impenitent and a careless sinner.
Should another say, “How is God merciful, when I feel in my own self that he cannot have mercy upon me?“ I should reply, Your feelings are not to be trusted. Whatever despair may whisper or doubts may suggest, one text of Scripture is worth fifty fears and doubts, or fifty thousand either. You may be a black sinner, but he delights to wash you. You may have offended him, year after year, and done despite to his grace, but his arm is still not shortened that he cannot save. I care not how far you may have gone, I am sure he can come after you. Lost sheep, bleating on the mountains, the Shepherd can hear you, and the Shepherd can reach you. You may fall into a pit but it shall not be so deep that he cannot bring you out. While life remains there is hope. Sin as you may have sinned, there is abundance of pardon with a gracious God. Oh, put not your thought so in opposition to the declaration of heaven, but believe to-night that God is able and willing to forgive you, and come with a penitent prayer, and find forgiveness now. All objections to the delight of God in mercy are but illusions of your brain, or delusions of your heart.
III. THERE IS PERIL OF MISUSING THIS MERCY OF GOD, lest instead of leading us to repentance, it should plunge us deeper into sin.
Though God delights in mercy, sin is no trifle in his estimation. Sin is an enormous evil, an evil so great that it never could have prevented from destroying us all, except by God himself coming into this world, taking upon himself our nature, and offering to the very death in our stead. Calvary tells us that sin is not a thing to be laughed at. It cost our Saviour groans unutterable, and griefs that never can be measured, to deliver us from our guilt, and if the sinner come not to Christ it shall cost him endless tears; it shall cost him everlasting misery; his sins shall sink him to perdition forever. Oh! trifle not with sin because God is merciful. This is a cruel, brutal thing to do, to sin because grace doth abound. If you do so, you shall find that there is no grace for you.
Say not that because God is merciful a prayer or two on your dying bed will suffice. How do you know you may ever have a dying bed? Men fall dead in the streets. There was one who always said, “I shall set it all right at last; I shall say, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me,’ and it will be all right.” Returning home drunk one night, he spurred his horse over the parapet of a bridge into a deep river, and the last word he was heard to say was a sentence too blasphemous for me to repeat. And why may not you die so? You cannot tell. Put no trust in death-bed repentances; they are of all things the most deceitful. Every thief repents when he comes to the prison, and every murderer will leave a word of repentance on his pathway to the gallows. It is a sign of the heart being set right to cry and groan when you are coming near to your punishment. God is merciful to these who seek him early, but procrastinators will find that he is just. “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, lest he swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest.”
Though God is merciful you are not therefore at liberty to despise the Lord Jesus and his salvation, for all his mercy flows to us through the silver pipe of Jesus Christ the Mediator. I speak advisedly, there is no mercy in heaven or earth in the shape of saving mercy, except through Jesus Christ. Unless you come to the cross for it you shall not have it. God has nailed up every other door but this. This one alone is left open, the door sprinkled with blood on the lintel and the two side-posts, and on which is written, “Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ shall never perish, but have everlasting life.” There is an alternative. It is, “He that believeth not shall be condemned.” What, if he do this and that, or if he humble himself, if he be virtuous? Yes, yes, God makes no exception. The sentence comes to kings and queens and emperor, as well as to crossing-sweepers, paupers, or even to convicts, “He that believeth not shall be condemned.” They shall take which they will. If they will have Christ and God’s mercy, so be it; God’s grace has constrained them to take that. But if they will not have Christ, there is no mercy no, not a drop of mercy, but wrath, righteous wrath, against those that despise the Son of God.
Nor must you think that the doctrine of God’s free mercy at all comes into conflict with the doctrine of God’s electing love. Nay, rather, by his election it is seen that God delighteth in mercy — thinking mercy, planning mercy before men needed mercy, in the eternal covenant determining the persons upon whom mercy should come; selecting them, not because of any good in themselves, but entirely out of his own God pleasure, and thus proving his mercy. If God had sent into the world a gospel full of conditions and of human doings, it would have been no gospel to anybody, for no man could fulfil the conditions except by divine grace. But he has sent an unconditional gospel. He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion upon whom he will have compassion; and in this great free-grace gospel the mercy of God is magnified to the fullest.
IV. What Is The Lesson From All This?
If God be so merciful let his ministers preach of his mercy. If God delights in mercy and not in sacrifice, do not let his ministers be dressing themselves up, and performing genuflexions, bowing to the east, winking with their eyes, making signs with their fingers, offering incense, and I know not what beside. God is not a child to be amused with toys that are beneath the notice of babes. God delighteth in mercy. Let the pulpit therefore, ring with mercy. Let the preacher be continually telling of mercy through the blood of Jesus, mercy through faith in his name, mercy for crimes of deepest dye, mercy that comes to us through the aborting Saviour. This ought to be our daily message when we preach. We ought to remember that, God delighteth in mercy. As God’s ambassadors let us proclaim most freely that which he has the most pleasure in, his mercy — his mercy — oh, his mercy, it endureth for ever.
Christian people, here is a noble example for you. If God delights in mercy, and you are his children, be like him, let mercy be your delight. Be merciful to the poor. Be merciful to the ignorant. Be merciful to the guilty. Never be the man to cast the first stone at the fallen woman, for your Master did not condemn her. Never be the man to pass by the naked and the poverty-stricken. Your Lord’s eye was quick to detect the lazar. Mercy well becometh the heir of the God of mercy, and if you are not merciful how can you expect to obtain mercy, or think to be numbered among the children of the great merciful One? To all of you I would say — take care, as you expect the mercy of God, to deal it out to other. Never say, “I won’t forgive,” for you seal your own condemnation when you do, and if you forgive not your brother his trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you. You have chosen your own destruction when you shut the door against your child, or against your neighbour, and say, “I will treasure up that enmity as long as I live.” I tell you, sirs, your offerings at God’s altar are an abomination to him until you have forgiven every one of your fellows his trespasses. Your prayers cannot come up before God, they are hindered most effectually. How can you pray when one of the petitions which God puts into your mouth is this: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive them that are indebted unto us”? How canst thou, with one hand on thy brother’s throat, lift thine other hand and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner”? Go your way to-night, and if possible before you close your eyes in sleep make your peace with any whom you have offended or who have offended you. As God delighteth in mercy, let the children of God delight in mercy likewise,
Still, the great lesson I want to bring out is this — if God, delights in mercy then why should those who have offended him be afraid to seek him? He will hear your prayers be they ever so feeble or broken. He is ready to forgive you, however grossly you may have offended. Think of that. If he be so kind, why do you stay away from him?
Oh! come to him, come now. ‘tis all mercy to-day. You are not bidden to come to a judge, nor to advance to the bar where the sentence shall go against you; ‘tis a sweeter note you hear: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Oh! I wish I could lead you to the Lord. It is not in my power. His Spirit alone can do it, but ah! do come, and welcome. There is not a hard word in the whole of the Bible for a coming sinner. There is nothing to keep back a, soul that desires to be at peace with God. God’s house is open; God’s heart is open; God’s table is spread; God waiteth to be gracious — nay, he comes to meet the sinner that comes to him. Are you willing to have him and to have his mercy. If so, you may have it. Come, then; come and welcome, sinner, come!
“Lord thou hast won, at length I yield,
My heart by mighty grace compelled
Surrenders all to thee;
Against thy terrors long I strove,
But who can stand against thy love?
Love conquers even me.
“If thou hadst bid thy thunders roll,
And lighting’s flash to blast my soul,
I still had stubborn been;
But mercy has my heart subdued,
A bleeding Saviour I have viewed,
And now I hate my sin.”