Where can you go on a Sunday morning and just hear about God's mercy? Not a lecture on the mechanics of grace. Not a systematic theology class. Not five points this and three steps that, but just mercy. Where can you go and hear about the love of Christ instead of another sermon about what you need to do for God? Where can you hear about what Christ has done instead of what you need to accomplish? That's the question I want to wrestle with today, and I think it's a question a lot of us are asking, even if we don't say it out loud.

By the way, welcome to the show. My name is Brandon Kraft, and I am tickled that you're here with me today. If you're new here, I'd love for you to subscribe and check out my website at pristinegrace.org. And if you're wondering why I'm wearing the same clothes as the last episode, well, it's because I'm recording these two episodes back-to-back.

Alright, so today we're going to talk about something that I think has become lost in a lot of churches and a lot of preaching. We're going to talk about the difference between hearing the mercy of God and hearing the mechanics of grace. Between hearing the love of Christ and hearing about all the laws you need to keep. Between hearing about Christ's righteousness and hearing about your own performance. And as always, I want to say up front, I don't rush through these things. I don't rush through topics like this. So get comfortable and pour yourself a drink, your favorite drink, and we're going to take our time as we go through this.

Because I think there are a lot of hungry people out there. There are people who are hurting, people who are weary, people who are burdened, and they go to church on Sunday morning looking for bread. and instead they get a stone. They're looking for mercy, and they get mechanics. They're looking for Christ, and they get themselves. And they leave just as hungry as they came in those doors.

Now let me tell you where this question came from. I was reading a sermon from Henry Mahan, a wonderful preacher who's gone on to be with the Lord, and in the sermon he asked this question, Where can I go this Lord's Day and hear the mercy of God and not the mechanics of grace? And that question hit me and it stuck with me. And it hit me hard because I think it describes exactly what's wrong with so much of our preaching today.

We've become experts at explaining the mechanics. We can outline the order of salvation and we can diagram the covenant of grace. We can debate the finer points of doctrine, and we can give you five points this, and three steps that, and seven principles on top. Okay? But somewhere along the way, we forgot to talk about mercy. We forgot to talk about a Savior who loves sinners, who died for the ungodly, who welcomes the weary and the heavy laden. And we've straightened out people's heads, but we've neglected their hearts. And we've made them theologically precise, but spiritually dry. And we've given them the mechanics of grace, but they've never tasted the mercy of God. And I think that's a tragedy.

Now, before I go any further, let me be clear about something. I'm not against doctrine. I'm not against theology. I'm not against understanding how God saves. Sound doctrine matters. Truth matters. And I'm going to repeat that from here on out, because I get accused of not believing that. And we need to know what we believe and why we believe it, okay? But doctrine is supposed to serve something. It's supposed to point us to someone. all those mechanics of grace, they're supposed to lead us to the mercy of God. And when the mechanics become the message, when the system becomes the substance, when knowing about how God replaces knowing God, Well, we've lost something precious.

Let me give you an example. I've been in churches, and I've been guilty of this myself, where we spend 45 minutes explaining election, predestination, effectual calling, justification, sanctification, and glorification. Okay, the Orders salute us. We go through it all. We define every term. We make every distinction, and we answer every objection. At the end, everyone walks out knowing the mechanics. They can explain the order, they can defend the doctrine, and they can argue the points. But they don't feel loved, and they don't feel comforted. They don't feel like they've encountered the mercy of God. They've had a theology lesson, but they haven't met a Savior.

And I think that's what Henry Mahan was getting at with this question. Where can you go and just hear mercy? Where can you go and meet Jesus? Where can you go and be reminded that God loves you, that Christ died for you, and that you're secure in him? Not because you've mastered the mechanics and not because you figured out all the points, but because he's merciful.

Now, let me show you something from Scripture, because I think Jesus addressed this exact problem with the religious leaders of his day. Matthew 23, verses 23 and 24. Jesus says to the Pharisees, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithes and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

All right, you pay your tithes. You're so careful about the little details. You've got all the mechanics figured out. You're precise about every tiny thing. But you've omitted the weightier matters, judgment, mercy, and faith. You've missed what really matters. You strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel. And I think we do the same thing today. We're so careful about our theological precision. We're so concerned about getting every point exactly right. We're so worried about defending our system. But we've omitted mercy. We've forgotten to talk about God's love and we've neglected to comfort hurting people. And we're tithing mint and anise and cumin and we're swallowing camels. And Jesus says that's backwards. He's not saying don't care about doctrine. He's saying don't miss what really matters. The mechanics serve the mercy. The system points to the Savior and the doctrine declares God's love. And when we get so caught up in the mechanics that we forget the mercy, well, we've become Pharisees. We've become Pharisees.

Now let me ask you something. When you go to church, what are you hungry for? What do you need to hear? Maybe you're going through a hard time. Maybe you're struggling with doubt. Maybe you're battling temptation or the same sin stuck on in an endless loop on repeat. Or maybe you're grieving or maybe you're just weary from the weight of life. What do you need? Do you need a lecture on the finer points of theology? Do you need another lesson on the mechanics of grace? Or do we need to hear that God loves sinners, that Christ died for his people, that you're forgiven in Christ, that you're secure, that there's mercy to be had for you? And I think most of us need the mercy, not the mechanics.

Let me tell you about some of the conversations I've had with people online over the years. As you know, I run my website, pristinegrace.org, and quite often people reach out to me looking for help. And I've had people come in, they've contacted me with their dire problems. And I remember one time this person came in and they said, I know about election. I know all about election. I know all about predestination. I can explain all the five points of Tulip, of Calvinism, but I don't feel loved by God. I don't feel secure. And I just feel empty. And that breaks my heart. That broke my heart because this person had learned all the mechanics, but they weren't tasting the mercy.

And it's not just about this person. It's been several men and women, young and old, that have repeatedly told me the same thing. And these people, they know about God, but they have their doubts whether they truly know God. And I realize as I reflect in those moments, plenty of preachers have failed them. We give people systems, but we often fail to preach the Savior. We've explained how God saves, but we've never helped people experience by being loved by God. And I think that's happening in a lot of places, even our sovereign grace churches, even our reformed churches, okay, even in so-called grace centered churches. We're producing people who are theologically educated, but spiritually they're starving to death. People who can debate doctrine, but can't rest in God's love. People who know the mechanics, but have never encountered the mercy of Christ.

Now, Henry Mahan, he asked another question in that same sermon. He asked, where can I go and hear the love of Christ and not the law of God for saints? Okay, and that's another thing we've gotten backwards. We're so concerned about telling Christians what they need to do, what they need to accomplish, what standards they need to meet, what laws they need to keep. But we forget to tell them about Christ's love. We forget to remind them that they're not under law, but under grace. That Christ has fulfilled the law for them, that they don't have to earn God's favor. They already have it in Christ.

Romans chapter 5 verse 8 says, I love that passage. While we were yet sinners, and that gives me relief. Not after we cleaned up our act, not after we started keeping the rules, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And that's love, that's mercy, and that's what weary sinners need to hear. But so often, what do we give them instead? We give them law. We give them standards. We give them expectations. We give them things to do. And they leave feeling more burdened than when they came.

I remember when I was younger, I used to read and write a lot about what Christians should do, how they should live, what they should accomplish, and what standards they should meet. And you know what happened? I left people, including myself, feeling guilty, feeling inadequate, feeling like they were failing. Because I was giving them law when they really needed love. I was giving them mechanics when they needed mercy. And finally, through God's mercy on me, He impressed upon me that people know what they're supposed to do. And He didn't use audible words, but He showed me through the scriptures that what they need to know is that God loves His people, and even when they fail, that they need to hear about Christ, not about themselves. And that changed everything for me because God was right. People don't need more law, they need more love. They don't need more mechanics, they need more mercy. And they don't need to hear what they should do, they need to know, they need to hear what Christ has done.

1 John 4, verses 9 and 10 say, And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." That means Christ took the place of his people. He bore their punishment, and he satisfied God's wrath, and he died the death we deserved. That's the gospel. That's what people need to hear, not what they need to do, but what Christ has done.

Now let me show you one more thing from Henry Mahan's question. He asked, Where can I go and hear of the righteousness of God fulfilled by Christ and not the righteousness of the creature to be rewarded by God? And right there, that right there is the heart of the gospel, the righteousness of God fulfilled by Christ. Not your righteousness, not your performance, not your accomplishment, not your decisions, not your prayers, but Christ's righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We are made the righteousness of God in Him, in Christ, not in ourselves, not in our own efforts, not through our performance. In Him, through what He's done, by His perfect life and His substitutionary death. And that's imputed righteousness. That's the great exchange. Our sin was given to Christ to bear in His own body, and His righteousness was given to us, and all of this took place before we were even born. And that's what people need to hear. Not how they can build their own righteousness. Not how they can improve their performance. Not how they can earn God's favor. But how Christ has already secured their righteousness. How His perfect obedience is theirs. How they stand before God clothed in His merit, not their own.

But so often, what do we preach instead? We preach creature righteousness. We preach performance. We preach what you need to do to please God, what you need to accomplish, how you need to measure up. We preach a scoreboard, meaning we preach theology and mechanics rather than mercy and grace. And people leave thinking their acceptance with God depends on them, on how well they perform. on how well they measure up or whether theology is right and precise. And they're right back under the law, right back under performance, right back under burden. Because we've forgotten to preach Christ's righteousness. We've forgotten to preach the mercy of God.

And let me tell you what I think has happened. I think we've become so concerned with being theologically precise that we've forgotten to be helpful. We want to make sure we can explain everything correctly. We want to make sure we defend the right positions. We want to make sure we're sound. And those are good desires, but somewhere along the way, we started caring more about being right than about being helpful. more about defending our system than about feeding hungry souls, and more about mechanics than about mercy. And the result is churches full of people who know these systems, but they don't know the Savior. Churches are filled with people who can explain the mechanics, but have never tasted the mercy, who are theologically educated, but inside they're spiritually starving to death.

Now let me paint a picture for you. Imagine you're sitting in a pew on a Sunday morning. You've had a hard week and you're struggling and you're weary. The job, the pressures of the job have you down and you're burdened and you're doubting and you're hurting. What do you need? Do you need a 45-minute lecture on what theologians call the Ordo Salutis, which is Latin for the order of salvation? Or do you need an explanation of inferlapsarianism versus subperlapsarianism? No. Do you need a defense of limited atonement against its critics? No. You don't need that, especially if you've believed it for most of your life. What you need to hear, though, is that God loves you, right? That Christ died for you? That your sins are forgiven? That you're secure in Him and that there's mercy for you today and tomorrow and for the rest of your life? I think you know the answer to that.

Now, don't misunderstand me. There's a place for teaching doctrine, there's a place for explaining theology, and quite often it's from the pulpit. There's nothing wrong with teaching theology from the pulpit. There's a place for systematic presentation of truth, and you're going to see me involved in that. I preach systematic theology. But that place, the pulpit's not the only place, and that's certainly not the most important place. The most important place is the place where mercy meets the sinner, where love embraces the hurting, where relief is found for burdened sinners, where Christ is lifted up so that weary souls can find rest in Him.

John chapter 12 verse 32 says, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. If I be lifted up, not if the system is explained, not if the mechanics are defended, not if the doctrine is outlined. If I be lifted up, if Christ is exalted, if the Savior is proclaimed, if mercy is declared, That's what draws people. That's what satisfies hungry souls. And that's what gives rest to the weary. Not mechanics. Mercy. Not a system. The Savior. And not doctrine about Christ, but Christ himself.

And let me tell you something I've noticed over the years. The preachers who have had the greatest impact on my life, the ones whose sermons I remember decades later, They weren't the ones who gave me the most information. They were the ones that helped me to see Christ, who made me feel loved by God, who gave me mercy when I was hurting. And I remember one sermon I heard maybe 20 years ago. I don't remember the outline. I couldn't tell you the three points, and I don't recall the systematic structure, but I remember walking out of that service feeling loved by God, feeling secure in Christ, feeling like I'd encountered mercy. It was a Don Fortner sermon. And that's what stayed with me. Not the mechanics, the mercy.

Now, let me get practical for a minute. If you're a preacher, if you're a teacher, if you're someone who speaks about the things of God to others, let me ask you something. What are people getting from you? Are they getting mechanics or mercy? Are they getting system or Savior? Are they getting doctrine about Christ or Christ himself? And are you so concerned with being theologically precise that you've forgotten to be pastorally helpful? Are you so worried about defending your positions that you've forgotten to feed hungry souls? Are you giving people what they need or just what you want to teach?

And here's a test, and Henry Mahan suggested this in his sermon, I think is brilliant. Record your next sermon or Bible study and then sit down and listen to it as if you were someone else. Imagine you're different people listening. Imagine you're a new believer who doesn't understand all the theological terms. What's there for you? Imagine you're someone facing death tomorrow. What comforter is there for you? Imagine you're struggling with doubt about your salvation. What assurance is there for you? Imagine you're weary from battling sin. What help is there for you? Imagine you're grieving. What comfort is there for you? And imagine you're lonely. What hope is there for you?

Because the people you're talking to, those are real people. These are the sheep we're called to feed. These are the ones we're supposed to comfort. And if all they're getting is mechanics, if all they're hearing is a system, if all we're giving them is theological precision without compassion, well, we're failing them. We're giving them stones when they need bread.

And now let me speak to those of you who aren't preachers, who aren't teachers, those of you who sit in the pews on Sunday morning or just listen to podcasts. If you're in a place where all you're getting is mechanics, if your favorite podcaster, if all he's doing is talking about the system but never about the Savior, where it's all theology and no mercy, I understand your hunger. I understand why you're asking the same question Henry Mahan asked, where can I go and just hear mercy? And I wish I could give you an easy answer. I wish I could point you to a church on every corner where Christ is lifted up and mercy is proclaimed. But I can't, because that's not the reality.

What I can tell you is this, though. Don't give up. And don't stop seeking. And don't settle for stones when you need bread. Keep looking for places where Christ is exalted, where the gospel is preached, where mercy is declared, where love is proclaimed. And in the meantime, you go to Scripture yourself, because that's where you'll find what you're hungry for. You don't need a preacher. You need to hear the words of Christ directly from Scripture, directly.

Go to the Gospels and watch Jesus with sinners. Watch him with the woman at the well and watch him with the woman caught in adultery. Watch him with tax collectors and prostitutes and then see how he treats them with mercy, with love, with compassion, with grace. And then you can go to Romans and read about justification by faith. Read about being made righteous through Christ and read about nothing separating you from God's love. And go to Ephesians and read about being chosen before the foundation of the world. About being loved, about being blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

And feed yourself with these truths because this is mercy, not mechanics. This is Christ, not system. And this is love, not law.

Isaiah chapter 55 verses 1 through 3 say,

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money, come ye by and eat. Yea, come by wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me. Here and your soul shall live. Come to the waters, come and drink. Buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Why do you spend your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? Why do you sit under preaching that leaves you hungry? Come and eat that which is good. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. incline your ear and come. Here and your soul shall live."

That's an invitation of mercy to convicted sinners. That's a call to satisfaction. That's God saying, come to me and find what you're hungry for. not come to a system, not come to mechanics, not come to theology class, come to me. Come to mercy, come to love, come to Christ, and you'll find rest for your soul.

Now let me close with this. I started by asking Henry Mahan's question, where can I go this Lord's Day and hear the mercy of God, not the mechanics of grace? And I think the answer is this. You find mercy wherever Christ is lifted up, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, wherever substitutionary atonement is declared, wherever imputed righteousness is celebrated. And you find mercy wherever preachers care more about feeding hungry souls than defending their systems. Where the gospel is not treated as a scoreboard. where teachers care more about exalting Christ than explaining mechanics, wherever the focus is on Him and not on us.

Because here's the thing, the mechanics, they're important, the doctrine is important, the theology is important, but they're not the main thing. Christ is the main thing. Mercy is the main thing. Love is the main thing, and grace is the main thing. And when we get so focused on explaining how it all works that we forget to proclaim who did it all, we've lost the plot. We've become experts at the mechanics, but we've forgotten the mercy.

So let me say this to preachers out there. Preach Christ. Preach mercy. Preach love. And yeah, teach doctrine. Explain theology. Yes, let's be precise. But never, ever let the mechanics overshadow the mercy. Never let the system obscure the Savior. And never let theological precision replace pastoral compassion. Because people are hungry and they don't need more mechanics. They need mercy.

And let me say this to everyone else, if you're hungry, if you're weary, if you're burdened, there is mercy for you. Not because you've mastered the mechanics and not because you understand all the theology, not because you got it all figured out, but because Christ died for sinners. Because he bore the sins of his people in his body on the tree. because he satisfied God's wrath, because he gave his righteousness as a free gift. That's mercy, and it's yours if you're in Christ.

And that's about all I have for you today. I hope it's encouraged you, and I hope it's reminded you that the gospel is about mercy, not just mechanics, about Christ, not just the system, about love, not just law. And if you're struggling to find that kind of preaching, if you're hungry for mercy, I understand. Keep seeking it. Keep looking to Christ and know that He sees you and He loves you.

If you have any questions or need to talk, you can go to my website, pristinegrace.org, and there's a contact form you can fill out there, and I'd love to hear from you. Grace and peace. Good night.