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            God’s mercy is beyond our comprehension.  Lamentations 3:22-23 “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”  The apostle says our Titus 3:5 Savior “saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy.  He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit.” 

            And Zacharias prophesied that Jesus would Luke 1:77-78 “give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God.”

            Without God’s mercy, forgiveness, and grace, we would be without hope.  Moses told the people Deuteronomy 4:30-31 “When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you.”  Our responsibility is to love God and trust Him in faith—that is turning to the Lord and obeying His voice.

            It is encouraging to know that God accepts anyone who is willing to believe and to trust Him in faith for every aspect of life—for health and healing—without medication and drugs; for protection and provisions—without following carnal plans of the world; for justice and forgiveness—by letting God take care of any wrongs and trusting Him for a forgiving heart—one that shows mercy toward everyone.  Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

            Even though the Jews deliberately rejected their Messiah, God shows mercy toward them, and is willing to forgive them—if they will believe and repent.  The Jewish people are the natural branches of the olive tree, but Israel was not willing to believe, so these natural branches were broken off. 

            Some Gentiles were willing to believe, so these unnatural branches were grafted in.  Both Jews and Gentiles can be saved if they will believe and trust God.  John 15:2 “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.”

            Because of God’s great mercy, He gave the Gentiles the opportunity to hear the true gospel; therefore, He would be even more ready to accept His own people back, if they would repent and believe and trust Him.  Nehemiah 1:9 “If you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.”  It is always our choice and decision to return to a position of faith and trust—first.

            Romans 11:22-23 “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.  Otherwise you also will be cut off.  And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”  To continue in His goodness is to continue to believe and trust Him.

            Romans 11:24 “After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!”

            We must choose to believe God and trust Him, or to not believe and trust something else.  Malachi 3:7 “‘Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them.  Return to me, and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.”

            Many who say they are Christians, turn away from a position of faith in God, and will trust in anything and everything but God.  The sinful mind is hostile to God—our rebellious heart must be replaced with a submissive one.

            Romans 11:25-27 “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’”

            The apostle said 1 Corinthians 2:7 “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,” so there are some things we do not fully understand, but we do know that God wants everyone to be saved, so He gives His people opportunities to repent.  “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares the LORD” Isaiah 59:20.

            God is not finished with His people, and He will forgive their sins, if they will turn back to Him.  Our free-will choice to decide can never be taken away, but we must respond to God’s offer of salvation by grace through a trusting faith in the Atonement Blood He shed.  God continues to work in the lives of individuals, and He wants to heal, protect, provide, and save those who will believe.

            Romans 11:28 “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. 29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance—[they are permanent and unchanging].”  The divine promises are available to anyone who will believe that the Atonement Blood of Christ is sufficient to forgive the sins of the world.  Hebrews 9:28 “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.”

            The Jews were to be the source of God’s blessing to the Gentiles.  He said to Abram Genesis 12:3 “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  When Israel rejected the Messiah, God offered salvation to Gentiles—but He still loves Israel and He promised that everyone would be blessed through Abraham.  Israel is Zechariah 2:8 “the apple of His eye.”

            Romans 11:30-32 “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”

            Since Adam disobeyed God, everyone born since then is born in sin with a sinful nature.  Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s [Jesus’] obedience many will be made righteous,”—if anyone is willing to believe Him, and willing to put a trusting faith in His Atonement sacrifice—they will be righteous.  The Jews need a Savior as much as every Gentile does.

            God knew from the beginning, that if He gave the power of choice to His creation, they would choose to disobey.  The apostle said 2 Timothy 1:8-9 “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before [the world] began.”

            God will extend His love, mercy, and forgiveness to the Jews—who initially rejected His Son—just as He will show mercy toward all Gentiles who did not know of His Son.  Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

            The personal responsibility and accountability of everyone on earth, is to know God; to let Him teach them, and to then do His will through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Although the Jews initially refused God’s offer of salvation by grace through faith in His Son, God still loves them, and shows mercy toward them, by giving the opportunity to repent and return.

            Romans 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!  For who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has become His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?  For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

            Our purpose on earth is to give glory to God—every time and all the time.  We are to praise and glorify God whenever He has showered some blessing on us.  Every decision we make; every attitude we take—toward anyone or anything, must have God’s approval.  Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to [are the ways of] death.”

            If we will ask God in prayer and hold steady in faith, He promises to give the answer; the wisdom, and the ability to carry through in His will.  When the king’s dream was revealed, Daniel immediately glorified God Daniel 2:20-21 “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His.  And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding.”

            The mercy of God means He will do everything possible to bring us back to Him, so that our soul can be saved—forever.  Our prayer should be the Lord’s prayer Matthew 26:39 Not my will but Thine be done.  It is all about faith in the Atonement Blood of the Cross, and remaining in the will of God—by obeying the Word of God.  Hebrews 10:36 “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”

            We could never praise God too much or too often.  1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”  The angels continually worship God in Heaven, and we should follow their example Revelation 7:12 saying: “Amen!  Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.  Amen!”

            We are totally dependent on God—for everything; which means trusting Him in faith to heal us when we are ill; to deliver us when oppressed; to protect us from harm; to provide our needs each day in a scriptural way; and to guide us in the path of righteousness—keeping our trust on Him.

            Romans 12:1 “I beseech [plead; implore] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  Our spiritual responsibility is to give our life, and definitely place our attitudes before God every day. 

            Lamentations 3:22 “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”