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08/14/2025
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Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open up your Bibles, please, to the Old Testament, to Lamentations, the third chapter. Lamentations is a series of five laments over the destruction of Israel. And embedded there in the book of Lamentations is this beautiful, beautiful message of hope. That's what I want to highlight with you this morning.
Take a look, please, at chapter three, picking up in verse 22. "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness."
The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. Isn't that a glorious portion of Scripture? As we study Gods' Word there are a host, of course, of important words for us. To understand what they mean, I want to highlight three words this morning.
Justice, grace and mercy. So I want to explore what does it mean in verse 22 where it says, "His mercies never come to an end? They are new every morning." What are the mercies of God? What is God's mercy?
Well, let's take a look then at those three words, justice, grace and mercy. Justice is getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. And mercy is not getting what you deserve. So justice getting what you deserve, grace, getting what you don't deserve, and mercy not getting what you do deserve.
There is incredible, incredible depth to this word, mercy again in verse 22. "His mercies never come to an end. They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness"...not getting what we deserve. And that word, it's a communication of the sympathy and compassion that expresses itself in action.
What's the mercy of God? What's it born out of? Scripture tells us. Look back at verse 22, the very first part. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end. I'm reminded of Ephesians, the second chapter. There Paul, writing into the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes, "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead, through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved."
What a glorious, glorious word that mercy is. And mercy and grace, they're two sides of the same coin, aren't they?
God's justice was satisfied by the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The just wrath of God was laid upon Jesus on the cross. That just wrath of God, for all of our sins, and all of our sins, past, present and future, were all laid upon Jesus at the cross. What did we receive? But we received what we didn't deserve.
That's the grace of God. We received the forgiveness of God. That forgiveness won through the cross. And we received the mercy of God. We didn't get what we deserved.
Justice, grace and mercy. And the mercy of God. That sympathy and compassion of God put into action as he sends his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to the cross to die and to rise for us, for storing the relationship broken by sin. And we are the recipients of that great, great victory of the cross. In the empty tomb, in the waters of baptism.
Lamentations the Third chapter: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." And in the mercy of God, we live each and every day as he continues to give us what we don't deserve.
He doesn't give us what we do deserve. He gives us what we don't deserve. His forgiveness, his love, his presence. On and on goes the list. And not receiving what we should have perceived, we live in the mercy of God.
Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for this time in your Word. Your Word is truth. Lord, we thank you for how Scripture instructs with regard to justice, with regard to grace, and with regard to mercy. And we thank you, Lord. We thank you for this wonderful, wonderful promise embedded in the book of Lamentations. We give you thanks that your mercies are new every morning. And we thank you that we live in that mercy. In Jesus strong and holy name we pray. Amen.
God bless you. Encourage someone.
Pastor Eibel
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