155 / 298
The Mercy of God
149
This is really uglier than people think it is. What you are saying is that the blood of Jesus is not
enough to completely cleanse you and make you holy and righteous again. You have to beat
yourself over the head and add some of your little, pitiful works to it to prove how serious you
are, or how serious your sin was, and then you’ve got to feel bad for a few years to prove it. The
only thing you’re proving is your ignorance and rebellion and that you don’t believe God forgave
you. If He forgave you, He forgave you. You’re either clean or you’re not, and if you are, there’s
no need bowing your head around and poking your lip out. “I’m so sad, and I’ve messed up, and
I can’t get my life back.” Listen, we serve a God Who created the heavens and the earth. Nothing
is too hard for Him, and He is the God of mercies. He is the Father of mercies.
In Matthew 14:14, it says, “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude…” How many
people are in a great multitude? Well, we see places where a multitude was thousands of people,
and this was a
great
multitude. “[Jesus] was moved with compassion toward them…” This word
for compassion is not the word for just feeling sorry for someone. It means “to be moved as to
one’s insides.”
The love of God has been shed abroad in our heart. That doesn’t mean your blood pump. “Heart”
means the core of your being. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and the love of God
rose up in Him and moved Him to do something about their hurting. It moved Him to do
something about their pain and their weakness. So He “was moved with compassion toward
them,” and what was the result? “He healed their sick,” not
part
of the sick, and not
some
of the
sick, but
their
sick, which was the sick of the great multitude.
You understand, among thousands of people and thousands of sick, there have to be some people
there who don’t deserve it. I mean, these meetings weren’t held at a church house. They were
held where anyone could walk up, and they did. We have examples of prostitutes, street-walkers
washing Jesus’ feet. They had people coming up who were tax collectors, sinners. They are
having these meetings out in the open country and out in the streets, so street people and crooks
are coming up. How many of them were healed? If you look at the other places in the Word, it
says it sometimes. “And He healed them all.” “And He healed them, everyone.”
Among this great multitude and multitudes, are you telling me there wasn’t even one really mean
guy? There wasn’t one really low, low, sinner person that didn’t deserve to be healed? It never
was about deserving anything. It never was about anyone deserving or meriting anything. The
love of God is what healed these people, the mercy of God. It isn’t “come get paid” time. Come
let’s see how good you’ve been. Come let’s see if you can deserve it. No, the mercy of God
healed them all. Drunks, drug addicts, prostitutes, murderers, rapists, all were healed in these
meetings.
It is so sad that people will stay away from churches because they think, “Well, I’m not good
enough to go in there.” That’s exactly why they should be in there. None of us are good enough
to be in there, except by His grace and His mercy. He has made us that way. Not by what we’ve
done, but by faith in Him.
So when the devil comes and lies to you and says, “Well, if you would have done everything
right, then maybe you could be healed.” “Well, if you knew enough…” and “You didn’t fully