In this episode, Rick Hughes shares his reflections on mercy as a divine gift. From the Apostle Paul’s transformation on his path to Damascus to the timeless truths contained in Psalms and Ephesians, discover how mercy manifests as grace in action. As Rick unveils the spiritual journey from ignorance to enlightenment, understand how God’s compassion extends across generations, inviting us to accept the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few minutes please stay with me. It’ll be 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education and no manipulation. We don’t try to con you. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re not going to ask you to join anything. But we would like for you to listen. Listen as I try to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. Remember that adversity is inevitable, but stress is always optional. Because adversity is what those circumstances do to you, and stress, well, that’s what you do to yourself. That’s why you have a FLOT line in your soul, F-L-O-T, the name of our radio show. FLOT line centers around 10 unique problem-solving devices taught in the Word of God. FLOT stands for the Forward Line of Troops. It’s a military analogy. If you learn these 10 unique problem-solving devices, And you can stop the outside source of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress. So think about that, okay? You can stop stress from forming in your soul. You don’t have to be worried. You don’t have to have anger. You don’t have to have fear. You don’t have to have all these other mental attitude sins that pop up in your life sometimes. If you don’t know what these 10 problem-solving devices are, We have a book called Christian Problem Solving. It’s free. You can order it from our website, along with many other books that we offer, all free of charge. Unlike most people, we don’t sell books. We give them away. We’re now up to 1,015 Sundays on the radio. You can figure out how many years that is, but I’m very thankful. that God has given me this honor and privilege to come into your home, into your car, and speak to you this morning. And I thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time. I’d like to talk to you about a subject this morning that’s very dear to my heart, something I’ve been studying lately, and I think the Lord has given me some insight on it. And I think it’ll be a challenge for you to listen and learn what I’m about to tell you. Because I want to talk about one simple word called mercy. M-E-R-C-Y, mercy. A wonderful thing that God has for us, mercy. In Psalm 103, verse eight, the Bible says the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. Yes, he is. He has a lot of mercy for us, and that’s a wonderful thing about God. One of his most loving characteristics of our God is his wonderful mercy to us. Notice how he demonstrates mercy towards us. Would you like to know how he does that? He demonstrates that mercy in 1 Peter 1, 3, where the Bible says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, there it is again, his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ is a reflection of the mercy of God to us. He’s provided salvation free of charge, and that’s a wonderful thing. The original Greek word for the word mercy in the original Greek manuscripts is the word eleos, E-L-E-O-S, eleos, and it’s a noun. And it simply means the outward manifestation of pity or kindness or goodwill towards those that are miserable or toward the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them out. In the New Testament writer, the Apostle Paul wrote these words about God’s mercy. In Ephesians 2, 6 through 7, he said, God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him. He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us. That’s mercy. His generosity to us in order to show His extremely rich kindness in the world to come. So listen to these principles. One, God’s mercy is demonstrated through the gift of eternal life provided through the sacrifice of His own Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Two, mercy from God results in salvation, and it’s a characteristic of his unfailing love for each one of us. Mercy from God resulting in salvation is a characteristic of his unfailing love for each one of us. In 2 Peter 3.9, the Bible says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but he is longsuffering. There’s a key to God’s mercy. He’s longsuffering towards us, not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The word longsuffering in that passage in 2 Peter 3, 9 implies that every individual on this planet has every opportunity to be saved up until their very last breath. The Apostle Paul recognized his conversion, that it was a demonstration of God’s mercy, and he wrote about it in 1 Timothy 1.12. He said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who made me strong because he considered me faithful, putting me into the ministry. And even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor with a violent aggressor, I have received mercy. Wow, there it is again. I’ve received mercy because being ignorant, I did it in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was superabundant with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Paul admitted he received mercy. He had been a killer of Christians, persecutor of Christians, and he said he did it in ignorance. He didn’t realize what he was doing until that road to Damascus when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him and confronted him. And that was his appointment with destiny with the Lord Jesus Christ. So mercy is a wonderful thing. Mercy is simply grace in action. Mercy is grace in action. Did you hear that? A reflection of God’s infinite love and action towards every one of us. In Titus 3, 5, he saved us. not on the basis of deeds which we’ve done in righteousness, here, now listen, but on the basis of his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. His mercy is grace in action. In Ephesians 2, 4, but God who is rich in mercy, there it is again, rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us. Yes, God loves you and he loves me and he’s extended to you and I, both of us, mercy in the form of grace because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did. Mercy is a wonderful human virtue. And if you have mercy, it’s generally demonstrated by compassion, feeling of pity, The Bible uses the word compassion and there’s a Greek word for it. It’s kind of hard for me to pronounce, but it’s called and it’s directed towards other people. Compassion directed towards other people. But maybe you never thought about the fact that God has wonderful, great, amazing compassion. In Psalms 145 verse eight, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, there it is, slow to anger and of great mercy. There are three words in that passage you need to identify. He’s gracious, that’s grace. He’s full of compassion, that’s our subject, and slow to anger and of great mercy. So principle, it is God’s compassion that generates his mercy and it’s his mercy towards us that offers grace or freedom to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Compassion is part of a mental attitude of anyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit. If you’re a Christian and you’re in fellowship with God and you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, part of what the Holy Spirit will do and give you compassion towards other people. When you look at a lost person, do you feel pity? Do you have any concern for them? Do you have any concern about their ultimate destiny? You can’t let your disapproval of their lifestyle destroy your compassion for their deliverance. This can only be accomplished by impersonal love on your behalf because it may be a weird, obnoxious jerk and you may not like this person. You might not like the way they live or what they stand for, who they voted for, how many tattoos they have on them, but do you have compassion for their soul? Are you willing to go out of your way to rescue them from a life of sin by giving them the gospel, the freedom they can have through the Lord Jesus Christ? Genuine compassion, if you have that, is best demonstrated with your effort to reach out to the lost and concerned for their eternal destiny. But there’s also a false compassion used by some people, and that’s kind of a weapon, that’s a system, and they use it to manipulate people. Organized religion of humanism often uses this attitude to prove its concern for the perverted And for the immoral, claiming to, we want to protect their rights for such attitudes rather than having a concern for their salvation. It’s amazing how some of these religious organizations will fight for their rights to be some weird sort of lifestyle, but they don’t fight for the right to give them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Probably never even mention it most of the time when I hear them speak. The objective of that false compassion, having compassion for the perverted, having compassion for the immoral, claiming that you want to protect their rights, the objective of that is guilt. It’s used as a weapon, a weapon of manipulation, especially in socialism. Why do they use it? Trying to achieve a political power and a political objective which is contrary to the plan of God. I’m not talking about that false political compassion. I’m talking about true, genuine compassion that comes from the Holy Spirit as you feel for the life of the lost person and his eternal destiny. You know, God extends his mercy from generation to generation to those that love him and those that obey him. Did you realize that? From generation to generation, his mercy is extended to those who love him and obey him. Where did I get something like that? Exodus 20, verse six, listen carefully. And showing mercy, there’s our word, unto thousands of them that love me and keep my mandates. The Hebrew word for mercy is hesed, H-E-S-E-D, hesed, and it means kindness or love or loyalty. Again, in Luke 1.50, talking about from generation to generation. and his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. The Greek word alias again giving undesired kindness or forgiveness to those that don’t even deserve it. So both Exodus 20 verse six and Luke 1 50 demonstrate that God’s mercy is available to generation after generation to thousands of people that love him and keep his mandates. To grasp the full appreciation for God’s mercy, you have to first of all understand how undeserving we really are. Because if you’re under the illusion that you can earn God’s mercy, then you’re confused. Listen carefully as I read these scriptures to you. In Romans 3, 10 through 12, as it is written, there are none that are righteous, no, not even one. There are none that understand. There are none, the Bible goes on to say, there are none that seek after God. They all have gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There’s none that doeth good, no, not even one. And then in Isaiah 55, verse eight and nine, to demonstrate again that there’s no way you can earn God’s mercy by your own acts or your own deeds. In Isaiah 55, eight and nine, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts, they’re higher than your thoughts. If you think for one minute you can earn the mercy of God by being good, you are sadly mistaken. The scriptures tell you just the opposite. In Isaiah 64, 6, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all of our manufactured righteousnesses are like a filthy rag. and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. What that verse is telling you, and I can’t even admit it to you in the Hebrew because it would embarrass you, is that the greatest nicest most wonderful thing that you could do is nothing but a filthy rag in god’s eyes it doesn’t impress him you’re not going to earn god’s mercy because you don’t cuss or because you don’t drink or because you don’t smoke god’s mercy is free it’s available through the lord jesus christ so since we are totally incapable of earning god’s forgiveness It’s not even possible for us to do that. We’re totally incapable of establishing our own righteousness. You and I must seek mercy. If we don’t, we will be cast into the lake of fire. It’s God’s mercy that provides this grace, point one, because grace is the mercy in action. You hear me? God’s grace is his mercy in action. And why does he have mercy? Because he shows compassion on you. He’s a God of compassion. What does that mean? It means he loves you. And in his compassion, he has demonstrated mercy. That means he didn’t judge you for your sins. He judged the Lord Jesus Christ in your place. And he provided grace, which is free, salvation freely. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. What a wonderful thing grace is. And we have grace compliments of the mercy of God that flows from his compassion for you and for me. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ is the anointed son of God, and he provided that mercy for us on the cross. In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he has made him to be sin for us, the one who knew no sin, that we might be made righteous in God’s eyes. How is that even possible? Well, when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he didn’t die for what he did wrong. He didn’t do anything wrong. He made sin for us. In other words, every sin you and I ever did, and the fact that we are born in Adam’s original sin, was placed on Christ, and he paid the penalty for it. That’s God’s mercy in action. He judged his own son rather than judging you and I. And what? So that we can be made the righteousness of God in him. Was Christ righteous? Yes. Was he totally free of sin? Yes. And so what the justice of God rejects, what the righteousness of God rejects, I mean to say to you, then the justice of God would have to judge. And God judged his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, because of his compassion for you and I and his mercy on us is extended in grace. In Romans 6, 14, the Bible tells us now we are free to bask in God’s wonderful grace because of his mercy towards us. For sin shall not have dominion over you, You are no longer under the law, but you are under grace. God’s wonderful grace to you and me is amazing. Because of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, the justice of God is satisfied, and you and I are now free from the curse of the law. And we can now receive God’s mercy and the forgiveness of our sins, the sin of unbelief. No one goes to hell for drinking or smoking or gambling. They go to hell because they reject Christ as Savior. The Bible clearly says, he that believes in him shall not perish, but he that believeth not, the wrath of God abides on him already. So because of that sacrifice that Christ made on the cross, dying in our place, demonstrating mercy, then God’s justice is satisfied and we are free to be out from under the curse of the law. and we now live in mercy and the forgiveness of our sin of unbelief due to the fact that God demonstrated his grace to us. Hebrews 4.16, let us therefore come, what? Boldly unto the throne of grace so that we may obtain, what? Mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Mercy flows from the throne of grace. Mercy is given by God because of his compassion for you and I and for our eternal destiny. In eternity past, God looked down into the future and he saw you and he saw your name and he saw your history. He saw your life and he had compassion on you. He doesn’t want you to go to the lake of fire. He didn’t intend for you to go to the lake of fire. That’s designed for Satan and the fallen angels. And because of his mercy through sacrificing his own son, that grace has been demonstrated to you so that you may freely have eternal life. In eternity past, God looked down on you and had compassion. compassion due to your condemnation because you are associated with Adam’s original sin. Romans 5, 12 says, wherefore as by one man sin at an end of the world and death by sin and so death is passed upon all for all have sinned. You were born physically alive but spiritually dead. That’s why you’ve been told to be born again and you’re born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since the righteousness of God was forced to reject us, the justice of God judges us. In Acts 17, 31, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, wherefore he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. Everybody will be judged in accordance to the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you receive him or did you reject him? Is your name in the book of life or has your name been blotted out because you died the first death? See, there are two deaths, the physical death and the spiritual death. The second death is when you’re cast into the lake of fire. It’s called the second death in Revelation 20. And there’s two births. The first birth is your physical birth. The second birth is your spiritual birth. And if you are not born again, if you don’t receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, then you will be compared to the righteousness of Christ and you will find out that you cannot measure up. You did not accept the mercy of God. You did not accept the grace of God. You thought you could earn it. You thought you could work your way to God’s acceptance and work your way to heaven, be a good person, and you’re not. You know, because of his unfailing love, he had compassion on our situation. And he provided this forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a verse you’ve heard thousands of times. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. There it is. That’s the mercy demonstrated to you. That’s the grace that’s available to you because of God’s compassion looking into your life and seeing your need. This act of God through the Lord Jesus Christ suffering on our behalf was a demonstration of his mercy towards everyone. towards every person. Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness which we’ve done, there it is, you can’t earn it yourself, but according to his mercy, there it is again, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. According to his mercy, he saved us. Not because you’re a good person, not because you don’t sin, but because of what Christ did on the cross for you. This act of mercy provided grace. grace towards us, and that gift of eternal life is now freely, freely, freely given through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. In Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, the Bible says, in whom we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Remember what grace is. It’s the result of his mercy that is motivated because of his compassion for you. Remember this today as you listen to this radio show. God loves you. And God has provided an opportunity for you to have a new life in Christ. A new beginning simply by placing your faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. It’s a wonderful free gift of eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says clearly in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. This new life that I’m talking about is free compliments of the grace of God bestowed on us because of God’s mercy. Free. God’s mercy and grace has provided it for us. You know, there’s an old song that I used to hear years ago. I don’t sing much myself, but I remember hearing this song. And Johnny Cash sang it, Pat Boone sang it, Sandy Patty sang it. I mean, a lot of great celebrities have done this song, Dodie Rambo. It says, Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise. For it was grace that brought my liberty. You hear that? Grace that bought my liberty. The song goes on to say, I do not know just why he came to love me so, but he looked beyond my faults and he saw my needs. There’s no doubt that I have a lot of faults and you have a lot of faults. And God looked beyond those faults in his compassion and his mercy. And he gave us free grace. Grace that we may go to be with him in eternity. And so the writer of this song wrote these words. I shall forever lift my eyes to Calvary to view the cross where Jesus died for me. How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul. He looked beyond my faults and he saw them all of my needs. You have need today. You have need to begin a new life in Christ Jesus. You have a need to begin a new life. Start it all over and you can. It’s free. It’s a free gift of God because of his mercy and his grace. What a wonderful thing to remember today. God is a God of mercy. God abounds in mercy. Abounding in mercy for you and for us. Psalm 103 verse eight is where we started out. The Lord is merciful and gracious. There they are, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. Thank you, God, for your mercy. Thank you, God, for your grace. Thank you that you loved me even before I was even born. I hope you’ve listened today. I hope you’ve learned today. And I hope you will experience the grace of God through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving him as your Savior. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us, rick at rickhughesministries.org. Until next week, same time, same place, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you so much for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
