When it comes to His mercy, God is not afraid or ashamed to get his hands dirty. His salvation is not extended to a bunch of good people, with good morals and good intentions who have a couple short comings. His mercy is extended to the wretched, filthy sinner who slapped Him in the face with their blasphemies, mockeries and lifestyle of sin. In Romans 5:6-8 it says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So we are about to check out some of the Filthy situations where God poured out mercy on His children.
First, let’s go to the Old Testament, you know the first half of the Bible that’s full of God’s judgment and anger toward the Children of Israel.
In Ezekiel chapter 16 God is rebuking Israel for “her” (the bible usually refers to Israel as a woman) rebellion. But look at the language He uses in the midst of it… starting in verse 1 it says, “…confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices and say, ‘…On the day your were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.
Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’
WOW! Now that’s not normally what you would here on a Sunday morning service. It’s even kind of gross. But that is the mercy of God, it’s not always nice and neat. It meets us where we are and sometimes we are not beautiful, sometimes when God finds us, He finds us kicking in our blood. It goes to say, ‘You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of Jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare. Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine. I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.’
Again in Ezekiel, chapter 37 we see a familiar passage. Starting in verse 1 it says, The hand of the lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘O, Sovereign Lord, You alone know.’ Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
This story is worse off than the story above. In Ezekiel 16, the child was left for dead and God had mercy and said, “Live!” In this story, these bones are not just left for dead, they’re not just dead, they are old, dead, dry, disassembled, destroyed! And God sees them and tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and tell them to live! If you read on you see that this, again, is the children of Israel. God, in His mercy, brought their dry bones to life.
Let’s do another one, also in the Old Testament. This one’s in the book of Hosea. God, once again, is rebuking Israel for sinning. Many times, especially in the Old Testament God paints the picture of His and Israel’s relationship as a marriage… and a lot of times Israel is committing adultery. God paints this picture again in Hosea 1:2-3. He tells Hosea, “…Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing form the Lord. So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” God is saying that Israel has been unfaithful to Him, but He has always remained faithful to her, though she is a whore and deserves for Him to divorce her.
It goes on to say that God is going to punish her because she has been unfaithful, but in the midst of all of that, we get to 2:14, “There fore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.” He says He is going to try to romance her and win her back and, “In that day… you will call Me, ‘My Husband’”. SHE’S AN ADULTEROUS! She has been cheating and yet God says that He’s going to romance her! What!
In chapter 3 God tells Hosea again, Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the secret raisin cakes.”
That’s the filthy mercy of God!
Let’s go to the New Testament. It is plain to see the mercy of Christ in the gospels, and I might as well copy all 4 books down word for word to show all the merciful acts that Jesus did. But in focusing on the Filthy Mercy of God, I want to highlight a few…
In Matthew chapter 8:2, we see a man with leprosy come to Jesus and kneel before Him and say, “Lord if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus reached out His hand, touched the guy and said, “I am willing, Be Clean!” The guy was immediately healed. We’ve heard the story a million times, but we need to remember what leprosy is. People got kicked out of the city and had to live in “Leper Colonies” because Leprosy was so gross, so disgusting, and so “Unclean” that anyone who came in contact with it was considered unclean. Jesus touched the man and healed him. I think even most men of faith would pray, but wouldn’t touch the guy. But that’s the filthy mercy of Jesus.
Go to the book of Mark 5:2 and we see Jesus encounter a demon possessed man. The bible says, “This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.” This isn’t some nice guy that just doesn’t know Jesus yet This is a crazy dude. In Luke’s account of this story it says that when Jesus asked what the demon’s name was it replied, “My name is Legion for we are many!” This dude is insane, and what so many would call hopeless, but through the mercy of Jesus, nobody is hopeless. Jesus cast’s the demon out and the guy is delivered. In fact, the bible says he wanted to stay with Jesus!
Now we go to Luke 15. Jesus tells the parable of what we know as “The Prodigal Son”. The story goes, “There was a man who had 2 sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there, he squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he cam to his senses, he said, ’How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
This parable is a metaphor about our heavenly Father’s mercy toward us, His wayward children. It is not about an obedient son, but about a son who could care less weather his father was dead or alive. You don’t get the birthright until your father dies and the son asked for his early. He might as well have told his dad to die. He didn’t care about him. He didn’t even deserve for his dad to make him a servant, he was going to beg for mercy just for that, but God in His great mercy, threw His arms around this dirty, disobedient, slop covered, wayward son and said, “Put a robe around him, a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, and kill the fattened calf. We’re going to celebrate that my son is home!”
Another famous story is the one about the woman caught in adultery in John 8:3-11. It reads, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older one first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus Declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’”
WOW! This is one of my favorites. I am amazed at the filthy mercy of Jesus. Think about it… this girl was JUST CAUGHT IN ADULTRY! Like 5 minutes ago she was on top of a married guy! Now, completely embarrassed, shamed in front of everybody and about to die a very painful and shameful death, she is thrown down by the leaders Israel before Jesus. They are about to stone her, and according to the Law, they should have! She fully deserved what she was about to get. But God, in His great mercy, got His hands dirty. He didn’t forgive a nice, respectful, sweet girl. He forgave an adulterous, a “home wrecker”, a whore, a wretched sinner! His mercy cause Him to get down in the dirt and save her! That is the beautiful, filthy mercy of Jesus!
The last one I’m going to mention is Paul the apostle. He rightfully called himself the “chief of all sinners”. He persecuted the church of God! And didn’t apologize for it. No one was going to stop him, and he was adamantly against Jesus and all who followed him. And there he was on the road to Damascus, on his way specifically to find Christians and throw them into prison. This was a dirty sinner! But in Acts 9:3-6 Jesus literally knocked him off his high horse, and in His great mercy saved him. And Paul became one of the main pillars of the church, and the main preacher to the Gentiles. Thank you Jesus for Your mercy!
Ephesians 2:1-9 sums up everything I am saying here perfectly:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Alll of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.
Thank you Jesus for Your mercy! Thank You that You are not afraid to get Your hands dirty. That You take our trash and give us glory. That You take our sin and give us righteousness. That You take our pain and give us peace. You are good, Your love endures forever. Praise You Father for Your mercy
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