THE KINDEST ACTS OF THE WICKED ARE CRUEL

THE KINDEST ACTS OF THE WICKED ARE CRUEL
By Becky Puckett

When I spoke with Flip this week, he began to share with me the living parable that was unfolding before his very eyes. He told me about the horse, Judgement, and reminded me of how at the leadership meeting the leaders laughed at him. He was sickly, lame and sway back. Yet, this was the horse that God had chosen and Flip knew it. He watched a beautiful transformation begin to take place in Judgement as Ms. Sherry Gray of Concord, NC nursed the horse back to health. As they started out on their journey, Judgement began to look like the horse that he really was. On the other hand the donkey Mercy, who began the trip as a beautiful picture of health, was now looking terrible. She looked ragged and beaten; she had a nail through her hoof and didn’t even resemble a donkey. "This is a picture of the kind of mercy the American Church is dispensing today. We have made mercy unrecognizable." says Flip.

We have dispensed a false mercy to the homosexual allowing them to come in and sodomize our children. We have distorted the Word of God and deceived our people into believing in a cheapened grace that issues us a license to sin. Resulting in such comments as, "I am covered in the blood of Jesus and He has already forgiven me." We hear this as a mother enters an abortion clinic to kill the child within her womb. We have grossly enabled the Church and this nation to rest in an empty salvation that is not rooted in repentance and bears no fruit of the life of Christ within them.

"Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given unto you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." This is love. Don’t judge. Don’t condemn. Turn the other cheek. Give and it will be given unto you. We are not allowed to judge sin or condemn the sinner. The American Church today has taken Luke 6:27-35, 37-38 out of context and she has made it the gospel. When we have kids killed in our schools, the first thing the reporter asks is "Do you forgive them?" We have exchanged the truth of God’s mercy for a lie and made it something it is not. There is no justice! We can’t extend God’s mercy without justice. We cannot forgive everybody for everything without Justice.

"Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him." Isaiah 59:14-16.

Righteousness and Justice are still the habitation of God’s throne. I would never have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus if Jesus had not become sin for me. He became the propitiation for my sin and appeased God’s righteous anger toward me. It is not God who needs to be reconciled unto man, but man who needs to be reconciled unto God. Though my position in Christ is righteousness, I cannot walk righteously apart from justice in my life. If justice is driven back, righteousness stands at a distance. When we minimize sin in order to appear compassionate, we minimize the very mercy that God can dispense. "

The kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." Prov. 12:10. God’s love is unconditional for everybody, for the homosexual as much as for the greatest saint on the mission field. But God’s mercy is contingent upon repentance. "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." Prov. 28:13. What God is looking for are those who will rightly stand upon His Word and wield the "Sword of the Spirit" so that we might repent and find His glorious mercy. Our society has been liberally dishing out unconditional mercy to everyone. In our seeker-friendly evangelism, we extend mercy before judgement is allowed to do its work. Mercy triumphs over judgement (James 2:13) because judgement now is no longer the last word, but mercy can never be dispensed apart from judgment," states Flip.

Let’s put Luke chapter 6 back into context. This is how Jesus describes his disciples. "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. " Jesus goes on to tell us to "Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful andwicked."

Why would the world hate us for being kind? The answer lies in Luke 6 verse 36. "Be mercifuljust as your Father is merciful."In the parable of the Good Samaritan there was a man on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho . There are many that leave Jerusalem to travel down to Jericho, a city that never should have been rebuilt. It was rebuilt at the cost of the firstborn son and the last born son of the man who would rebuild it, according to Joshua. On the way he was stripped of his clothes, beaten and left to die.

There were three men who were aware of this man’s condition. Two of these men, the Priest and the Levite, passed by on the other side of the road. The Samaritan, who was despised by the Jews, took pity on the man. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. It is interesting to see that he did not leave the man in the state that he was in. He first addressed the man’s injury and if we care to be specific he poured on him the Holy Spirit (oil) and new birth (wine). He made provision for the man out of his own wealth (God’s grace). Jesus asks this question, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The expert in the lawreplied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’" Genuine mercy does not pass by on the other side of the road leaving those who have been ravaged by sins power to death. No! Genuine mercy goes to those who are fallen, addresses the injury of sin and takes them to God’s provision, Jesus, who gives them all that they need for life and godliness.

We must put Luke 6:37-38 back into context. We are to make right judgements in a spirit of humility that forgiveness may be extended. We must show genuine mercy in true measure. The blind cannot lead the blind. We have to take the log out of our own eye so that we can take the speck out of our brothers. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness: considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:1-2

"Am I my brothers keeper?" Yes! We are accountable to God in our own lives and accountable for each other. Paul goes on to say in the Galatian passage that we are to bear each others burdens and that each man is to bear his own burden. We are to take up and bear the moral burdens and weaknesses of our brothers leading the one that has fallen into purity and restoration. We must also, each of us, bear our own burdens. For we will each stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ and give an account for the deeds done in the body. "Be merciful just as your Father in heaven is merciful."