Sunday, November 18, 2012

GOD'S MERCY

Ps 51:1a  Have Mercy on me, O God,
I am not sure if you heard, but a Skunk shut down Fox 21 New station

for a full day in the Springs. Seems the poor little skunk got cold, so

he found his way into the foundation of the TV Station and made his

self-warm and comfy. But somehow he crossed his wires and got a

nasty shock. And well the skunk did what skunks do create a stink. The

spray soaked the transmitter and tripped the breakers causing the

outage. I understand it still smells.

Turning the tide on our sin, man must consider the question what will

God ‘s response be to our stink. Because man does what man does

create a stink of sin. Have you thought of David’s Stink?

What sins was he guilty of? See, we must put our thinking cap on and

ask ourselves what hope do we have to be forgiven if God is Holy and

pure?

Let’s go to scripture to see how creative of an odor he created.

Before we do anything else; let me ask you does David deserve the

mercy he is asking for? We will be in 2 Samuel 11. Let’s just go over

the basics, what we think of as David’s sin is Adultery and Murder

Both are punishable by death in the Old Testament law. David

deserves death, but he is asking for mercy. Let’s begin in verse 1 In

the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab

out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They

destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained

in Jerusalem. What I want you to notice is the tide of sin started by

the single drop of abdicating his responsibility or laziness. He was

supposed to be leading the troops, instead he is lounging on a rooftop

in Jerusalem. Look at verse two One evening David got up from his

bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he

saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful. It is one

thing to look at a beauty, but to look, look and look some more is

another matter. It is obvious David is at this point coveting another

man’s wife. Moving on to verses three and four. . . and David sent

someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this

Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the

Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. The

messengers that David sent, probably did not have flowers, but armed

guards. If a king wanted to bed a woman, if she refused it was her

head. This was more than likely not consensual sex, so add possibly

rape to his sins.

Let’s go on to verses 14-17; In the morning David wrote a letter to

Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the

front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him

so he will be struck down and die.”

So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place

where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of

the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in

David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. What we

often even fail to register, is not only did David kill Uriah, he killed

some of his own men in the process! If you think the Obama’s

administration lies about what went on at Benghazi is a big deal, it is

nothing compared to David’s sin. He is now committed treason and mass

murder to the list.

As a believer I would have to forgive David. But if I was

Bathsheba’s father or the father of one of the men who was killed in

battle; I do not believe I could be merciful?

If I had this laundry list of sins; I would be tempted to run from God!

But David must know something I do not, he runs to the Father instead.

What David knows and we often forget is that God’s Character is

Mercy! In fact the Hebrews words used in this text suggests God’s

mercy is something He feels. He Senses our Shame, our Guilt and

Failure and instead of kicking us while we are down, he extends a hand

to help us up! In fact, in these verses it gives a glimpse of who god is .

God is Mercy! We are Sin!

Let’s look specifically how God extends mercy to David. The word

mercy is from the Hebrew word (chanan), it simply means to be

favorable or act favorably toward, to bless, to come to one's aid." It is

the word used when one would ask, "Would you do me a favor?"

The very fabric of God’s being is merciful. God's mercy is the quality

of his character by which he seeks not to punish the sinner. Because he

is merciful, he withholds punishment. Forgiveness is the act of

canceling guilt, replacing punishment with blessing that is undeserved.

Forgive-ness is mercy in action. ( Jon Weatherly) So I am

not sure what you are trying to hide from God-but from this passage I

can tell you if you would only turn to God He will take your punishment

and turn it into a blessing. He will take your shame and guilt and

resurrect it into life. Please bring your sin to God the Father!

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