By Ronald E.
George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church
LOVE, JUSTICE and Mercy were to meet in the courtroom of life at 12
noon.
At
11:58 AM JUSTICE and LOVE were already there.
JUSTICE shouted, "WHERE'S MERCY? He's always Late!" But LOVE
said, "Give him time, he'll be here!"
At 12:15 PM and no
MERCY, JUSTICE said, "I DEMAND THAT HE BE HERE!" LOVE said,
"Please wait".
2:15
came and Mercy still had not shown up. By
this time JUSTICE was fit to be tied. "HE BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLANATION WHY HE HAS KEPT US
WAITING!" LOVE pleaded for
Mercy's sake.
At
4:00 PM JUSTICE was livid and LOVE had all he could do to hold back JUSTICE.
He cried, "I'LL DEMAND FULL PAYMENT!"
At
4:10, as LOVE looked over the hill, here came MERCY. His arm was all bloody, his hair and eyebrows were all
singed, and his legs were all covered with miry clay to his knees.
"Boys,
I'm sorry I'm late but a call came at 11:55 AM from a prophet that was thrown
into a lions den and I had to put my arm in the lion’s mouth.
At 2:00 PM a call came from 3 Hebrew boys who were about to be thrown
into a fiery furnace and I stood as protection for them. At 3:30 a call came
from a "weeping prophet" as they lowered him in a well of
clay."
"And
boys, I don't know how much time I have, as I came over the hill, I saw a man
carrying a cross and I know I'm going to be needed."
At
that time, a call came ringing out from Golgotha Hill, "MERCY! MERCY!
MERCY!"
Scripture Text:
Micah 6:6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself
before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with
calves of a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or
with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of
thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
What
in the world does God want? He
wants you. Do you want him?
First
of all, He doesn’t want burnt offerings, calves of a year old, thousands of
rams, ten thousands of rivers of oil, or your firstborn.
He wants you first and then all the other will fall into place.
With what shall I bring before the Lord assumes three things…
- I
want to come before the Lord
- I
want to bring something to pay for transgressions and the sin of my soul.
- I
want to please the Lord and be accepted by him.
Why
bring an offering, so that I will be accepted.
If I am accepted then I have become pleasing to the Lord.
He
has showed you what is good and what does God want?
He wants you, but you must come to him, his way.
Could we get God to change to come our way instead of our changing? Does
God change? Mal. 3:6 says I am
the Lord I change not. These are
his ways. He wants his people
to…
To
Love Mercy:
1.
What is Mercy? To have pity, compassion,
clemency, forgiveness, kindness, sympathy, understanding, leniency, and
benevolence is to be merciful. The opposite is unkindness, meanness,
nastiness, cruelty, malice, and spite.
Sometimes saying your sorry isn’t good
enough for some, but it should be for all.
What about those who don't say they're sorry?
Can we give to them what they don't deserve?
What else can you do? You
can give to others the mercy that God has given you.
Having received his mercy and grace then you have something to give
away to others. I love mercy for
myself, but too many times we demand Justice for everyone else. Mercy is getting what you don’t deserve.
We don’t deserve love and forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.
Whether or not we accept it or reject it is our choice.
2.
God is Merciful.
Psalm
25:10 All the paths of the LORD [are] mercy and truth unto such as keep his
covenant and his testimonies. Exodus
34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD
God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth, Psalm
103:8 The LORD [is] merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in
mercy. 9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep [his anger] forever.
3.
God’s Mercy is given to all from the mercy seat in the tabernacle to
the cross.
When
you come to the only true living God you can find a place of mercy.
Levi
16:12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the
altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and
bring [it] within the vail: 13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire
before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that
[is] upon the testimony, that he die not:
14 And he shall take of the
blood of the bullock, and sprinkle [it] with his finger upon the mercy seat
eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his
finger seven times. 15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that
[is] for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that
blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy
seat, and before the mercy seat:
God
is gracious, but he will not force the acceptance of His grace and mercy upon
men. In 1829 George Wilson, in Pennsylvania, was sentenced to be hanged by a
United States Court for robbing the mails and for murder. President Andrew
Jackson pardoned him, but this was refused, and Wilson insisted that it was
not a pardon unless he accepted it. That was a point of law never before
raised, and the President called the Supreme Court to decide. Chief Justice
John Marshall gave the following decision: "A pardon is a paper, the
value of which depends upon its acceptance by the person implicated. It is
hardly to be supposed that one under sentence of death would refuse to accept
a pardon, but if it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be
hanged!" And he was hanged.
Provisionally the Gospel of Christ,
which is the power of God unto salvation, is for every one, irrespective of
what he may be or what he may have done. Potentially, it is only to
"every one that believeth." --Sunday School Times
Charles
Evans Hughes, a former Supreme Court Chief Justice advised, "A man has to
live with himself. He should see to it that he always has good company."
4.
Do you love mercy? When
people come to you, can they find mercy?
Can they find God? It is a
personal decision that you make to receive the mercy of God.
When you recognize that you need then you can receive it. Receive it for yourself and give it to others.
Remember that God will not always keep his anger but there will be a
time when his anger will be seen by human beings.
There is a time limit.