Sister Sue Snead Sunday School 11/4/12

Sister Sue Snead Sunday School 11/4/12

Mic 6:8  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?

This is the requirement that God has and I love it.

Gen 18:19  For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

The Lord had said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I will do?”  God knows us. 

It is wonderful when you have saved children that are adults.  The Saints children are very close to all of us.  Any that have chosen to stay saved I feel like are a part of our family.  We love them.  Everyone is special to us. 

I’m sorry that my children and some of yours are not here, but we did our best.  We are all creatures of choice.  We can either feel sorry for ourselves because our pew is empty or we can enjoy someone else.

We all need to learn to do justice and judgment.  Abram knew this.  This is true religion: to teach your children in the ways of the Lord.  God’s way is that in which God walks himself and His followers walk.  This is true religion to walk as God walks.

Not only to preach it but to maintain it in your practice: practice what you preach.  Others are watching our lives to see how we live and walk.

Deu 10:12  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

Fear Him as Jehovah, your God.  He is the God who made and governs.  Fear is to reverence, awe, honor and respect. 

Walk in all His ways.  We’ve received His precepts and the Laws of God; they are all good and excellent with a reason and a purpose.  Some are principals and others are commands.  We want to walk in all His ways. 

Walk in God’s ways; not your own and not in the ways of the people of the land.  We don’t want to walk as the world walks.  They are either miserable… a lot of them, more than you realize are miserable.  There are a lot of hurting people out there.  We don’t want to walk with the wicked or in the ways of the world; we want to walk as God walks.

It is so wonderful to have a friend.  God is our friend.  Have confidence in Him as your father and your friend.  Have recourse to Him in all your necessities and love Him in return for how wonderful He has been to us.

Love the Lord.  Give Him worship as He requires.  Sometimes we are distracted or sick and don’t feel that we can give our all, but don’t you love it when you can come in and give your all in the service?  Worship God with all your energy and all your understanding.

Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

Isa 1:17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Isa 1:19  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

Isa 1:20  But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

We can only do Verse 17 well if we do verse 18.  The oppressed are those oppressed by sin, by accusation, by bad choices, by bad health, or disappointed in themselves, or in the events of life.  We need an anointing of God to help them to see that they don’t need to live under oppression but under the influence and anointing of God. 

Listening, show kindness and love; put forth yourselves to be that neighbor to help the oppressed.  We need to have God; it is the spirit of God that works.  Charity never fails.  Pray first and have your scriptures ready.  There is nothing like getting something in the mail, it is very personal.

To do justly means to give all their due; give God what is due Him first.  Your heart, your body, your soul, your wisdom, your understanding, your judgment must all be given to God.  Ours may be skewed but if given to God then He can check them over and help us out.

Give your neighbor his due never working ill toward him.  The golden rule: do unto others as you’d have them to do unto you.

Give yourself your due; don’t deprive your soul of what God has provided for us.  Keep your body in temperance.  Be sober, not ‘be grumpy and don’t have any fun’ but sober minded about what is important.

Control what you do and love and have nothing in excess.

Luk 23:39  And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

Luk 23:40  But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?

Luk 23:41  And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.

Justly is the due reward of our deeds.

1Th 2:10  Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:

We are witnesses one of another and so is God.  What a consciousness of his own integrity Paul had to say this!  He knew where he’d been living and how he’d been acting.  He said, “I’m an open epistle to you.”  He had behaved himself holily.  Holily refers to God, justly refers to him, unblameably refers to his actions among others.

Mic 6:8  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?

We want to love mercy.  It is the Divine goodness exercised toward the wretched and guilty.  The soul that has received God’s mercy is able to have mercy for others.  We can comprehend and are able to understand mercy.  As we’ve forgiven we need to be able to forgive.  We need the Spirit of God working in us in order to do it. 

Justice works in the picture and there is that balance there.  With the Love of God working through us, we can properly balance justice and mercy. 

Pro 3:3  Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

 Let mercy and truth be your companion through life. 

Pro 11:17  The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.

It makes your soul feel good when you are merciful.  He that is cruel troubles his own flesh.  Every gracious disposition is increased when we exercise showing mercy.  Sometimes we must make the choice to show mercy when it doesn’t come naturally.  It doesn’t come naturally always to show mercy. 

Mat 5:7  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

The merciful will obtain mercy.  This is how important it is.  We love to obtain mercy when we need it.

Luk 6:36  Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

God has been so merciful to us.  We cannot serve him long enough to ever repay Him for all He has done.

Mercy here means pardon of injuries and almsgiving.  A merciful man easily forgets injuries, pardons without being asked to, and doesn’t let repeated ingratitude keep him from doing good.  He does good even to the unthankful and the unholy. 

Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

He shall have judgment without mercy that has shown no mercy.  This is serious.  Whatever we need to do to be merciful, however much time on our knees we need to spend, we need to pursue it.

Compassion for the miserable. 

Adam Clark:  By the atoning sacrifice for Christ, a way is opened for the exercise of mercy towards men in harmony with the demands of truth and righteousness. 

We need mercy, judgment, and truth, God opened this up so that we could have harmony with the use of the three.  When they were stoning Stephen he said, “Father forgive them.”  Mercy is the supernatural gift from God that made that possible.