Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment
by Nathan Whitley
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: James 1:2, James 1:5, James 1:12, James 1:13-14, James 2:2-4, James 2:8, James 2:13, James 3:1-2, James 4:1, James 4:6, James 5:13-16

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/nathan-whitley--mercy-triumphs-over-judgment
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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you start making your way back to your seats and you can be seated when you turn there I want to First say thank you to Pastor mul for preaching today was that not a timely word today I'm so thankful for a timely word that we heard this morning and he was all over my sermon for tonight and so I'll say ditto to the majority I could just probably say ditto and you're dismissed because there was so much in that that he said want you to turn with me to James and uh we're going to get right into it tonight the last five years I've been asked to teach through a new testament letter in my hometown in bulington Indiana I was there last week teaching and we take three nights to teach through a letter um and so this year I decided to teach through James so I usually take 10 to 12 months from the time that we finish to study and to write pray and prepare for it and so I want to share a couple things with you I want to share a couple things with you brother Caleb thank you so much but I'm I'm I think I'm go ahead and start is that okay all right we're going to start at chapter number one and uh I want to just kind of walk through this letter tonight just going to walk through this letter I want you to see a few things um and share those things with you and uh pray that you get something from it but I believe the Lord is trying to say something to us considering what pastor preached today and what I believe that he has given me tonight James opens up his letter and he says that he is writing to the 12 tribes scattered abroad these are Jewish Christians scattered throughout the Mediterranean through the Middle East through Africa Europe these are predominantly Jewish Christians Chans who have began their faith in Christ in the first century this new faith and he he tells them first of all count it all joy when you fall into diverse Temptations count it all joy when you fall into divers Temptations now brother Derek is going to be helping me tonight but there are three things that James is going to address and if we're not careful we can read through this letter in this uh very piy and very Punchy letter that has lots of great imperatives throughout it we can miss what he's trying to say Underneath It All That There's Something Happening Here number one that there are always going to be conflicts without conflicts without this church or churches that he is writing to are a new a new group of believers they have started the Christian faith the first century and with that there's going to be pressure and persecution trials that come along with it being one that they're Jewish Christians that their fellow Jews their family members those that they've been in faith with all of their lives and are connected to throughout the Old Testament have rejected them because they believe that Jesus is the Messiah and so there are these pressures within their uh from in their own people that they don't necessarily fit in anymore and obviously Paul would deal with most of that too we see that throughout this letter in James who is the half brother of Jesus deals with that in Acts 15 and tells them that uh even these Gentiles that have come into this Faith aren't to keep the law so now you have them that they're Jewish Christians and you have Gentile Christians and they all sorts of pressures that the Jews reject them and even the Gentiles reject them because they don't believe that Caesar is Lord and they don't believe that uh they don't follow and worship the pantheon of gods that the Greeks follow and so they don't necessarily fit in so there's economic pressures and there's all sorts of social pressures and they are suffering and they are dealing with these things these conflicts without and he says count it all joy when you fall into diverse Temptations now this phrase in the Greek means multicolored or multi-shaded it means that all of us can go through conflicts and suffering and trials and temptations and what and and what might seem difficult to you might not seem difficult to somebody else and what somebody else is going through could be difficult and hard to them but to somebody else over here it's not that difficult so you can be facing conflicts without and all of us will face that and all of us will have multicolored views of that different types you can have health issues you can have Financial issues uh you can have all sorts of suffering that you can go through in this world because there's always going to be conflicts without out and he says to count it all joy when you meet these divers or various kinds of Trials and so what he's saying is you need to have a different perspective of your suffering than everybody else you realize that God is trying to do something in you in the midst of all of your suffering that you count it all joy it's not he does not he's not saying that you enjoy your suffering it's that you consider your suffering Joy for you know that God is going to work it out for you and he's trying to develop something in you whether it be patience or steadfastness but what God is trying to do inside of you you realize it's for your good and so he says so if you don't understand that he continues on he says if any of you lack wisdom let him ask God because sometimes we need wisdom to understand why we're going through what we're going through we might not understand it's hard for us to count at all joy when we're suffering it's hard to to to find joy in something that's hard a trial a Temptation it's difficult to do that but when you realize that God is with you in that you say Lord I know I don't I may not understand it but I know your word says you're working these things out for us and in us and so if you lack wisdom ask of God and so what wisdom does wisdom is a teacher through that we learn through experience and there are some things that you will never understand without experience I think it was laan who said this to Jacob he said I have learned by experience I have I have learned by experience by being around you Jacob I realize that even though we don't get along I understand I learn by experience that I'm blessed because of you and sometimes God will use the suffering to bring blessing in our life and that takes wisdom and it also brings Joy so there's conflicts without go to the next one here not only do we have conflicts without James says we're going to have conflicts within conflicts without out in the world World suffering pressures compromise but then he says there's conflicts within he says in verse number 12 blessed is the man that endureth Temptation for when he has tried he shall receive the crown of life so we realize that God is trying to do something here while we are here in this life but also in us for the next life eternity that he will give us the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised to them that love him look at verse 13 let no man say when he is tempted I'm tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither temp the any man but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed so what he's saying is that if you don't allow God to develop wisdom in you during your trial you can become susceptible to let down your guard and sin yes you can say well God doesn't care about me right now God's not in this so I'll go ahead and do whatever it is that pleases me and so he what he wants us to understand is that there's conflicts without but don't let the conflicts without harm the conflict or the inner man of your soul and of your heart you must keep your guard up you must keep your spiritual life vital and healthy you must realize you got to take care of your mind and your heart and your inner God is is concerned about the outward man but he's also concerned about the inner man it's also the inner life that God is concerned about and what he's trying to do with the conflicts without is develop the is to try to develop the man or The Woman Within and so he says we can be lured we can be enticed it's like a fish and we talked about fishing before I'm not I'm not a Fishman I think I fish like two or three times in my life I'm not great at it long L of type of fishing I like to do is when I go through Long John Silvers I like fishing when I go to chesapeakes with my wife for our anniversary service that's what that's the kind of fishing I like the kind that's caught killed and fried someone said preach I felt the Holy Ghost is thin but in us we can be lured we don't see that the bait is that has the bait or The Lure has a hook to it and so when we take the bait there is a hook and sin will always try to dress itself up but it'll hook us it will connect to us it will harm us and said then we dragged away we have to be careful not to let our guard down when there are conflicts without and conflicts within now I've been studying literally studying this letter for almost a year now some call it the Proverbs of the New Testament and you can read it that way and you can glean some information little text here and there and put it in your profile on social media and that's okay but James is trying to do something now James's letter is unlike that of some of Paul's letters like Galatians and Romans Colossians Paul is dealing with theological and doctrinal errors he's trying to correct it or warn those of false teachers now I believe this is just my opinion I'm I can I'm wrong a lot I don't I just don't believe the majority of our Apostolic churches are under the threat of false Doctrine now there's preferences and opinions and all that stuff I'm not saying it's not a threat but I'm saying the majority of our churches are probably not struggling with doctrinal issues there's some sure but I believe that the majority of Apostolic Pentecostal Oneness churches and the majority of most Christian churches the major problem is conflicts with others James starts it off and says there's conflicts without and then he says there's conflicts Within but James is really trying to say something in his letter and if we read too fast and we skim over it we're going to miss what he's trying to deal with now he he he touches on certain theological issues but he doesn't he doesn't stay there for long I'm not saying it's not a deep book it certainly is I've been studying it for a long time now but I want us to realize that James wants us to see that the conflicts without are a real threat and the conflicts within are a real threat but the real threat to harming relationships families churches organizations and teams is the conflicts with others and so while chapter number one serves as a sort of table of contents of what he is going to unpack in the rest of the letter so he says things early on the in the introduction that he will bring to full bloom in the rest of his letter and you say well that sounds familiar because it is he wants them to realize what he is saying and he begins to unpack these things as he goes along this is not some he he's not being willy-nilly just shooting all over the tree trying to get all these ideas out and help these people no he's wanting them to see that you can be doctrinally correct and socially corrupt you can get the doctrine right and get your relationships wrong that God is concerned that we have sound Doctrine but Paul would say make sure you also Adorn the doctrine Titus that how you live it will bring glory to the truth that is in it my God I feel it right now you have to understand that faith when he says faith without works he's not talking about baptism he's not talking about repentance that's not what he's talking about he is talking about how we treat one another that your faith that your belief must instruct your behavior some of us want to stay on on belief and I'm for that we have to have the right belief the foundation but I I want you to understand this is what James is trying to say is that you can have the belief right and have the behavior wrong so he goes he he jumps right into it chapter number two we're going to fly over it we'll pit stop and fly out of here he says in chapter number two my brethren have not the Faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ the lord of Glory with respect of person what he's saying is this don't say I have faith in Jesus and then show favoritism to people don't have respect of persons and show partiality and favoritism if you're going to say you're a Christ follower because he has come to bring Salvation to everybody and we can't start becoming so exclusive that we treat one group of people different than other group of people I'm I'm telling you this is what he's saying here don't miss it and he says he gives the example now first of all I need to say this as a teacher you need to get a highlighter a notebook or something and write and and make note of every time he says my brethren or brothers because that is a clue that he is dealing with people and their churches he's not now listen there are conflicts without but the major conflict in our churches is not the government the political system the other nations our real problem could be how we treat one another in the church that's always going to be a threat to Revival that's always going to be a problem if we want to grow if we're not healthy on the inside doesn't matter trying to reach people on the outside if mama ain't healthy the baby ain't going to be healthy either he says if they're coming to your assembly synagogue this is the word for synagogue in the Greek a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel and they com in off o a poor men in Vile reignment and you have respect to him that wearth the gay clothing and say unto him sit thou here in a good place and say to the poor stand thou here and or you sit under my feet so he says you see somebody in their Gucci and their faace well they're pulling up in their Tesla cyber truck and if you got one I'll take a ride okay but he says you see that and you come on in brother oh oh I see how you oh come on in have the best seat in the house and somebody comes in with their Walmart attire or their Goodwill attire and they come in they walked here and you say oh we don't need you around here you sit in the back corner don't let anybody know about you I'm telling you right now listen we can have the doctrine right but if we don't love people our words our belief are in vain we we got to love everybody we got to welcome everybody whether they got a big bank account or no bank account we need to make sure that we're welcoming everybody and say listen this is for everyone because if he can save me he can save [Applause] them are you that impartial in yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts judgmental he's saying if you show favoritism or partiality to one group over another group you're doing evil something that we must watch out for in the church is clicks that we got this group over here and this is how this is what we do over here we got all of our things over here and then you guys will stay over there it's all of a sudden we've got like we got gangs we got little little clicks over here and this is what we do and nobody's it's our four and no more we've got it together and if you don't you what are your credentials to come into our group it's James said it evil and when somebody comes in we don't need to make sure that we're trying to check off the checklist and see oh you got it all together you've not had issues you not had problems you're my age you're my color you're my [Music] race Brothers and Sisters I don't care if you're young or old I don't care if you're Eastern European I don't care if you're Hispanic or black I don't care but let me tell you something we need everybody in this church because it's his church it's for the Jew and the Gentile male or female circumcised uncircumcised we need Revival and we need to bring everybody I wish somebody would give him some praise right now oh Hallelujah this is not an old church this is not a young church this is Christ Church and we're a multigenerational church a multi-racial multi ethnic church we got Blended families we got broken families we got interracial families let me let me tell you you are welcome [Applause] here I'm going somewhere I'm only in chapter two I'm telling it's deep look what he says if you look at verse eight if you fulfill the Royal law according to the scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself someone asked Jesus the Bold question who's my neighbor and Jesus told him a parable and he said basically everyone everyone's your neighbor that means if you love God you love your neighbor but they don't vote like me listen I'm not after somebody's vote I'm after somebody's soul and you can vote however you want to as long as you have faith in Christ and you repent of your sins and you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ oh y'all going to hear me now come on somebody I want Republicans I want Democrats I want liberals I want conservatives I want the man I want them all I want the libertarian and you're all welcome here now y'all were shouting when I talked about race we are not going to be divided based on politics the world is divided based on politics we need to be United upon the word of God and you are welcome here whether you agree with me or disagree with me I want you to make it to Heaven because there's not going to be a white part of Heaven there's not going to be a black part of Heaven there's not going to be a republican part of Heaven there's going to be heaven and we're going to Rejoice that we made [Applause] it conflicts with others look good no I didn't brother know you didn't give a title tonight here's my title verse 13 for he shall have judgment without Mercy that hath showed no mercy mercy and mercy rejoiceth against judgment that's confusing so I'm going to give you the new King James version for judgment is without Mercy to the one who has shown no mercy so if you don't show Mercy judgment's coming Mercy triumphs over judgment judement that's my title tonight Mercy triumphs over judgment this is what James is trying to get to and we must understand in our spirit is that we must show Mercy if we want Mercy now I I've been around for a while and I understand something that there are those who want Mercy for their kids and judgment for everybody else's kids or they want Mercy for their faults and judgments for yours but Jesus make sure he he he was very clear if you want Mercy you show Mercy but here's where I'm where James is getting to is that and this is my opinion and I I I don't mean to make you upset but we can be more merciful to the pro aete who makes a mistake and we could show Mercy to the celebrity that makes a mistake but if somebody in our church makes a mistake cast them out Exile them get them out of here let me tell you something if you want Mercy you better show Mercy because one of these days you might need Mercy oh I wish somebody Mercy Mercy triumphs over Mercy wins Mercy wins Mercy wins judgment never [Applause] wins Mercy for my kids how about this I almost preach it like this Mercy for me but not for thee get them Pastor what you gonna do with them Mercy then it happens to your kid please have mercy I'm going I'm going somewhere I promise Mercy triumphs over judgment now look at ver chapter number three we're going flying over tonight okay flying over now remember we're talking about conflicts with each other my brethen chapter number 3 verse one remember highlight it Circle it this is this is not for The Outsiders for the Brethren be not many Masters or teachers knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation now this is not just for teachers because like the office of a teacher that's important yes but Jesus said to Go Make Disciples of all men teaching them to observe what I've taught you so all of us are teachers he says for in many things we offend all If any man offend not in word the same as a perfect man and able also to brittle the whole body now James is coming with the Gusto here in a second he is saying if you want to know what causes conflicts with with each other it is your tongue now anytime I have a sore throat when I was a kid I had a sore throat I told Mom mama got sore throat I almost didn't want to tell her because she would take me to Dr Pew's office and Dr Pew was the ear nose and throat doctor and he wore that little light over his head and I I I was just trembling it was worse than having having a sore throat because I knew when I got there what he was going to do he was going to get out the popsicle stick that he always had plenty of and he would say open your mouth stick out your tongue then he would shove that popsicle stick down my gullet he's like got STP throat like yeah I do now yeah definitely do now this is worse than the sore throat you have given me strep throat shoving that thing down my throat the tongue is an indicator of the health of your body they have you they don't want to know the symptoms yet don't tell me the simp stick out your tongue because your tongue is going to indicate whether there is something going on in your body James is saying if you want to know why you have conflicts with each other stick out your tongue and let me examine better yet let me see your text messages let listen we're living in a day where if James was writing this in the 21st century he would also not say tongues he also say thumbs because our thumbs have become an extension of our tongues and some of us can't control our tongue and some of us also cannot control our thumbs and that our words our tongues will cause more conflict with each other than the world and all of their nonsense according to scientists the jaw is the strongest muscle in the human body the force can be upwards of 170 pounds on each Moler when chewing not far from your jaw muscle and Mo and MERS is another one of the strongest muscles in your body and that is your tongue James uses Vivid metaphors to illustrate the power of the tongue and he says this it cannot be tamed the word tame is the same word used in Mark chapter number five when Jesus confronts the the the the demoniac at gdar and they try to tame him this is what James is trying to say he says it's easier for you to tame a demoniac than it is for you to try to tame your tongue and I just believe that there are too many who have conflicts with each other because they don't know how to control their mouth death and life are in the power of the tongue so the same tongue brings encouragement can also be the same tongue that brings condemnation to somebody you're not hearing me I'm telling you we can have conflicts without but we but we have a the real problem lies in with our conflicts with each other was when we don't know how to talk to each other he says that the the course of nature is set Ablaze by the Tongue it's an unruly member it is nothing but a fire and there are some in this room who set Ablaze your marriages by how you talk to each other you you set Ablaze your co-workers and your teams where you work because of your tongue you can set Ablaze the church with gossip and backbiting and causing Division and sewing Discord he also says it's like a deadly poison and we can poison our kids by how we talk to them but we can also poison our relationships with each other by constantly being sarcastic and cynical and clothing and clouding how we really feel with mean jokes and backhanded compliments come on somebody you want to know why we have conflicts with each other is because we don't know how to control our tongues he says with the same tongue we bless and we also curse this is what he's saying he said we can bless God we can come in here and we can shout and we can praise and we can worship and we can talk about breakthrough and we can talk about Revival then we can walk right out of this church and begin to gossip about your brother and your sister and curse your wife and curse your kids because we don't know how to it's like word boming you just don't know when to stop and you wonder why you have more trouble with relationships I know this is not deep preaching but I want you to understand something what James is trying to say is if we want Revival if we want growth if we want to see our world turn upside down it's going to have to start with how we talk to each other we can bless God and he says then you can curse those who are made in the image of God he talked earlier about being double-minded some of us are double tonged we need to curse double-mindedness we also need to curse double toness how we can come in here and bless God worship shout speak in tongues and go right out here and get into an argument with our wife y'all yall okay this is what this is what he's saying here that conflicts yes are on the out conflicts are in the in but the real issue here is how we treat one another now look at this look at verse chapter number four we moving fast verse number one from whence come Wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lust that you wore in your members he says you want to know what the real problem is you you have gone through more jobs in the last year than Elizabeth Taylor had husbands it's the manager it's the boss everywhere you go it's them it's somebody else it might not be what kind of manager are you looking for what kind of boss you or you've had more relationships young person he says here's the problem it's on the inside and a lot of our quarreling and strife and fighting comes from our hearts and the reason why we get ourselves into so much conflict with each other is we've not learned how to subdue the Inner Man our desires and our lust are out of control we want our desires met and will sacrifice everybody else's comfort for it you're not hearing me we want everybody to do because the world revolves around you right God made this world just for you he says you have got it turned around that the issue what strife and envying and confusion and every evil work bitter envying Strife is from our desires and so we end up listen to I'm going fast I'm almost done we end up spiritually sick and we can even become physically sick you carry around your hurt you carry around your wound you carry around your bitterness and that's why you can't sleep at night that's why you can't get along with anybody because you've not learned how to get healing on the inner man so the conflicts without are a real are a real threat but the real threat James is getting to is that we've got a problem in the inward man and if we don't get the inward man healed and right our relationships are going to be wrong so we fool ourselves into believing that we are in right standing with God but we're not in right standing with each other so vertically we think we're good but horizontally we not but Jesus said this he said before you offer your gift on the Altar and you have something going on with your brother whether it's an a with you or an A with them he said leave your gift leave the vertical to go get the horizontal right so if we want healing and we want restoration we're going to have to learn how to forgive let's go to chapter number five coming to an end I'm going to show you something that I'd never seen before I I I've been studying this and when it it came to me it just punched me right in the gut look at chapter number five we quote this every Sunday just about we did tonight I believe chapter 5 verse number 13 is any among you Afflicted let me pray is any marry let him sing songs Look at 14 is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord look at verse 15 and the prayer of faith shall save now look this can you put that up there verse for 14 15 16 please chapter number five don't you see something he says and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if you have committed sins they shall be forgiven him now stop he says is any sick among you let him call for the elders pray anoint them with oil if they have committed any sins they will be forgiven stop look at verse number 16 can you put verse number 16 up there please now I have heard and I have thought this way he says confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man aileth much now I have heard this talk I have believe this that what he is saying is confess your sins to one like hey if you know I had a bad day today I looked at something I said something I looked at you know and I I shouldn't have done that so I'm confessing my confess your faults now listen this he does not have Roman Catholicism in in in view here to go can I'm not your priest you don't have to confess your sins to me because already he said he already said that he will forgive but here's what he's trying to get to is that if you want healing to confess your faults to one another because this is the problem he's not saying go confess some some secret sin to somebody he's saying if you have offended somebody go confess it and get healing you a hear me if you want healing in your life you need to go make something right with somebody that the tongue that cursed needs to also be the tongue that can confess Jesus help me that if you can bless him you can confess your faults to one another and get healing my Lord have mercy right now that some of us in this room need to learn how to go and humble yourself before somebody and say I was wrong God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble that's what he says earlier can I tell you if you will humble yourself and go to your brother and go to your sister and say listen I messed up I wronged you I said that I went there will you forgive me I want you to know that healing is coming to your soul would you stand to your feet if we could ever listen to me now I know listen I know it is hard it is humiliating to go to somebody and ask them to forgive you my bad my bad that's what we say my bad no that's not confessing your fault migraines got sickness in your body now I'm I saying am I saying all of that's because of of harboring some Sour feelings and some wounds in your life but it might be and the reason why you can't lift up your hands in a church service because you know them over there offended you and you're not going to let it go and there's some listen to me now if you won't forgive your spouse your kids won't forgive you because if Mom and Dad don't get along what you are showing them is that as Pastor said today you are being a child like them and why should I grow up if Mom and Dad can't get along and ask for forgiveness I try to live by rule I can't say I've been 100% perfect with this I'm not a perfect man but if Ashley and I have a heated debate I try say try and say always before I go to bed I try to say I'm sorry I don't say I'm sorry you took it that way that is not being you're now you're trying to be sorry for her and she ought to slap you no if you would humble yourself I believe there's some healing going to take place tonight I believe there is a spirit of healing in this room and I believe there's going to be some Elders who've got some experience who've walked through some things who going to lay their hands upon us come on it's not just a formal time in prayer that we do I'm talking about when we lay our hands upon somebody and we can see real forgiveness and real healing but I'm going to tell you something you're not going to get it until you learn Le how to confess I'm sorry if you can go to Jesus and say I'm sorry you can go to your brother and say I'm sorry but what if they don't forgive me it's on them now it's on them they're the ones going to have to carry that now you're free but if somebody ask you for forgiveness I want to withhold that and see if they really mean it did Jesus do that to you Mercy triumphs over judgment did he say oh I mean to see how you really feel no no no no when you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and when that sister comes to you and says I'm sorry for doing that you better forgive and say it's over I'm moving on I'm free you're free I'm not going to hold this over your head because if he forgave me I can forgive would you lift up your hands right now I don't know who needs this but I believe there's somebody who's needing some healing and your healing might just come your emotional healing your physical healing your spiritual healing might just come when you realize that I've got a conflict I've got a conflict that I need resolved I wonder if you lift up your hands right now lift up your hearts come on somebody I believe the Holy Ghost is in the room tonight that there is some real healing and there's some real hope and I know it's hard but if you can swallow your pride if you will swallow your pride I wonder if somebody would leave their seat right now leave their seat leave their Pew come on this is beautiful this we're not going to judge come on Mercy triumps over Jud we're not judging nobody we're not judging anything we don't know come on somebody would you leave your Pew would you come now because here here among the Brethren here among the sisters is healing and hope and forgiveness I'm not judging you I'm not showing favoritism come on if he can forgive me he can forgive you come on would you just lift up your heart if you have to go and get something right do it we're not going to judge we're not going to hold that Li because we want you to be healed I want to be healed come on would you begin to pray and they begin to sing would you lift up your voice right now would you find Healing would you find restoration for me let myor car now I free by the mercy of God was the gra for me where my still L there now I and Redeemed by the mercy of God so was the cross for me that my savior cared oh I been made free by the mercy of God was the grave for me where my stand L there now I stand redeem by the mercy of God now I'm to tell the story how I've overcome it's his goodness and mercy and the power of the blood I'm so glad that my freed wasn't based on what I've done goodness and mercy and the power of the blood it's his goodness and mercy and the power of the blood this is goodness and mercy and the power of the blood so was the cross meant for me that my saor car now I been made free by the mercy of God was the grave for me where my still lay now I stand redeemed by the mercy of God the cross for me that my saor car all been made free by the mercy of God was the grace for me where my L now I stand redeemed by the mercy of God now I'm alive to tell the story how i' overcome it's his goodness and mercy and the power of the blood I'm so glad that my freedom wasn't bed for what I've done it's is goodness and mercy and the power of the blood this is goodness and mercy and the power of the blood goodness and mercy and the power of the BL would you lift your hands and love Jesus and would you thank him for his mercy and for his word that has so beautifully been revealed to us tonight Lord Jesus I thank you for your mercy I thank you for your forgiveness God let me exemplify you in my life Lord let my spirit be your spirit Lord let me be a forgiver Lord let me be the one God that you would be pleased with savior we