Brother Gary Sunday Morning 2/2/14

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 2/2/14

Thank God there is a foundation of justice!

Deu 32:4  He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

You have heard the song: there’s a wideness in God’s mercy.  Page 32

There is a wideness in God’s mercy:  Consider how wide it was that it included me.  I thought of the prayer request and the request for the sister’s son.  She already travailed 35 years ago to bring that boy into the world.  She preached my message:

There is a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea.
There is a kindness in His justice;
Which is more than liberty.

He is calling unto me;
Lord I’ll gladly follow thee.

I wish I was gifted in a greater way to help this audience to know that there is a foundation of justice.  We have tasted the other side of it in our own personal lives, in the lives of our family, and in other individuals that are trying to survive without God and in fact it is not survival at all.

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

There is not one on this prayer request list that God cannot save.  We thank and praise God.  It is a wonderful blessing to know that His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear.  God still hears the prayers of every lamb and of every sheep.

Sometimes we must show the negative so that we can see the positive.  If this message does for you what it did for me it will burden you for everyone that is not saved and not building their house on the foundation of justice.

Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

We see that it is sin and iniquity that separates individuals from God.  Sin hides His face.  We are privileged to be able to see His face and feel His smile.  We are privileged to be able to know that He is looking toward us with tender compassion.

Isa 59:3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

This world is full of perverseness.  If men and women don’t serve God, pretty soon their thinking, their attitude toward others, their thoughts of those things that are valuable and of great worth become perverse.  They change to an individual that is just interested in themselves and what they can get from that.

Isa 59:4  None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

Sin thrives in vanity.  You don’t have to live very long and you see that in lives around us.  Vanity, that which the flesh lusts after, desires, goes for, and feeds on at any cost, is not worth it, “A moment of pleasure for a lifetime of sorrow.”  We have a world, sad but true, that is engulfed in things that profit not themselves, others, nor their lives. 

Isa 59:5  They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

The monsters that people create:  People get things clear out of proportion in their life.  People look at the life of being saved and being men of valor wrong.  We preach hard on proverbs 31 “Who can find a virtuous woman,” but we also need to preach on “Who can find a man of valor.” 

Sometimes the monster that they create is themselves.  The world revolves around them.

The monster they see is what they think the life of being saved is.  We see people groping for a wall trying to find something to build their life on because they have no foundation.  Thank God for the foundation of Justice.

Isa 59:6  Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Isa 59:7  Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

They are on a crooked path.  The dangers that that path winds around!  “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way the leads to life.”  That crooked path leads always to the position of temptation, sin, and greater and more sin. 

The straight and the narrow is as a highway, the Highway of Holiness.  I am anxious to preach, “There is a way to get on the Highway of Holiness.”  Individuals may be messed up and have made wrong choices but there is a way to get on the highway.

Isa 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

Isa 59:9  Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

You have had sinners tell you, “Things didn’t work out very good but I am thinking that this next time it will work out better.”  That is not scriptural but it is a good thought.  People will turn around and make the same mistakes again. 

What makes you think that something different will happen?  Someone may have said to your grandmother, “Oh he is a cute little thing.”  That doesn’t change the rules for you.  Justice doesn’t come until you are on the foundation of safety. 

“We wait for light…”  May God help me to pray.  God help me to learn to travail.  I am not a master at it.  Travail. 

Where do they think the light will happen from?  All of us are as kind as we can be but these precious souls that we are praying for need to turn to God.  We may not know what they have been involved in, but I know Jesus and He is the only hope of His justice and of a decent life here and in eternity.

You may ask, “Don’t you think that things will really turn around for him?  Maybe next year an industry will come in…” Wait, we need jobs but jobs don’t take care of souls. 

We wait for justice but justice is obscured.  It takes the foundation of Justice to know what we are building on, what we came from, and what we are headed to.

Looking for brightness hoping that something will happen but the reality is that they walk on in darkness.

Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

I guarantee that some of the people that are on this very prayer request list are groping for something that will be sure.  “What can I do?  How can I get this thing to come together?”  Some of it is for their family, for their job, for their health.  “I wonder if this will work, or this, or this?”

We grope as if we have no eyes, we are in desolate places...  I quote Mary St John, “There is nothing sadder in all creation than a soul in isolation away from God and home.”

Desolate… tried this, tried that, been here, done that…

Isa 59:11  We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

This world does not have the answer. 

Speaking of God:

Isa 59:16  And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

God Himself provided an intercessor and made a plan for mankind. 

Isa 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Isa 53:11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

I thank God from the depths of my heart that I got saved and got saved when I did.  I look back and I see the value of salvation greater than I could have possibly seen that it was when I got saved.  I was fully described in Isaiah 59:2-  I was trying to find justice, security, a satisfaction in life.  It never was found in sin.

What is so amazing is that God saw clear back and designed the plan of salvation which is more of justice and liberty than our mind can fathom.  He allowed His son to be bruised, to know the travail of His soul. 

In my mind, Jesus didn’t have to go to Calvary.  He was the son of God.  He had the option of calling ten thousand angels.  The father so desired that there would be a way for mankind to be saved from all of their sin and be sanctified wholly that the father Himself provided the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

Because of Jesus, “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities.”

It is wonderful that as deplorable as sin made mankind, God himself provided a plan to clean the slate and bring us into communion with God.

Isa 53:12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

On the cross He knew what it was to separated from the Father He tasted it for you and for me. 

Do you remember what it was like to be separated from God and to be desolate?  Remember what it was like to feel alone in a huge crowd? 

We can know what it is like to never be alone and to know that He is always there. 

He was numbered with the transgressors, a thief on both sides.  He bare our sin, oh what a savior!  He made intercession for the transgressors.

Mic 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?

Mic 6:7  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?

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?

The prophet asked the question, “How shall I come before God?”  It is a very good question.  Does God want a hundred sheep or calves?  Would God be satisfied with 10,000 rivers of oil?  This would be impossible to fulfill. 

Is God asking for a huge sum of money or a huge resource?  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression?  The children of Israel backslid so far that they took up this heathen practice but that is not what God was looking for.

“He has showed thee what is good.”  The Lord requires that you do justly.  In reality God has made it easy to be saved.  He has provided the sacrifice.  He is asking that you and I do justice.  That justice is that we repent and we do justly afterwards toward our fellowman. 

For us brothers it means that we do justly toward our wife, for the sisters do justly toward your husband.  That we do justly toward our employers, toward our grandchildren, toward our brothers and sisters.  I’m talking of encouraging of laying down our life for our brother and sister, “I had this plan but I’m going to lay it down to help.”

Do justly… I pondered this, this morning.  Having been forgiven so much, we would desire mercy for every soul.  It doesn’t take away from justice or the responsibility for returning that which needs to be returned or begging forgiveness for any wrong that has been done.

God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.  He is God and can show mercy to an individual until they have rejected it to the point that their heart is hardened. 

Can you image this morning God showing mercy and mercy and mercy and an individual telling God, “God if you will get me back on American soil I’ll serve you.” 

Imagine a man saying, “God if you will help me,” where ever it might be, “I’ll serve you” and God helps and then mercy comes back again and again and they say, “Well not yet.”  Oh may God help souls to never presume on the mercy of God!

Loving mercy! 

Walk humbly with God.  I often ponder the statement and teaching:  it is a benefit, a blessing, an honor, and a privilege to walk humbly with God.  There are those that look upon that one that chooses to walk humbly with God with disdain as if to say, “You are crazy to not enjoy the world and what sin has to offer.” 

Moses left the testimony that he chose rather to suffer with the children rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.  Someone wrote a song that when you are drifting with worldly pleasure it seems to be all thrill and fun but God in His mercy comes back and convicts and says, “This will come to an end.”

The wise man Solomon in Proverbs said, (Pr 4:18) the path of the just is as a shining light…

You can know the way.  You can know what God wants you to do.  You don’t have to be trying to grope and feel if this will be a place of security or “Do you think I can build my life on this, do you think that my wife and children will find a place of togetherness and companionship here?  I wonder if this will be the answer.  Will I find love, happiness, a job, and all those things?”

Think soberly.  The path of the just is as a shining light.  He knows the way that each one of us ought to take.  He knows how to lead us and He knows how to keep us where He leads us.  He knows how to guide us and how to keep us where He has directed us to go.

The path of the just is as a shining light that shines more and more.

Some of us in this audience have gone over the edge as far as being young.  That will not lessen what God will do.  This is what God requires: to love mercy and walk humbly with thy God.

I read of ministers of the days gone by in Anderson that would work hard until they were 65 and then there was no place for them anymore.  If you are under 65 there is a place for you in God’s church.  If you are over 65 there is a valuable place.  The requirements are the same, do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

This is the promise that I would give, “The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

In any decision you might make, this word holds true.  God will shine His light.  You will not reach a certain point and then He turns the light off.  It shines more and more unto a perfect day.

There will be in the days ahead of us probably a dozen in this audience that tell us, “Someday I will be getting married.”  I would like to greet you in that day and you tell me, “The shining light led me to this perfect day.” 

There would be those in a few months or years who become mothers and fathers.  I would like to visit you in that day and you tell Karen and I, “I was led to this perfect day.”

Some day the brethren may pack me as they did John in to the morning service on a cot.  I want to meet you at that back door and tell you, “IT is a perfect day; I am where I love to be.”

There will be sad farewells.  That is how life is.  One of these days there will be those that God says, “You have had enough of earth, come on up.”  If I am the next one, I want to have followed that light in such a way that I say, “This is a perfect day.”

There is a foundation of justice.  It was not instituted by man but man can have it instituted in their life.  You can have it.  He is a God of justice.

You can know that things will get better if you are on the foundation of Justice which is Jesus Christ.  The Lord requires that we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.

God met with us this morning; perhaps it was to encourage the pastor, perhaps to encourage the saints.  Perhaps there are those in this audience this morning that feel a keen conviction, “I can say that I want to do justly, I love mercy, and I want to walk humbly with my God, but there is a distance between the ideal and the real.”  That is why we are here.