A SAGA OF SUMMITS

Psa 85:10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Introduction: The Summits of the Sixties brought together the Big 4!

A. Earth wore a tired face & furrowed brow of concern.

1. The endless nuclear posturing & positioning brought Fear & fatigue to an confused & hurting planet.

2. It was a Race of Risk, with the world power as the prize.

3. Kept our world of conflicting cultures, & ideologies on the brink of imminent disaster.

4. When the Olympiad of Earth no longer provided the superpowers with a worthy stage to demonstrate their
prowess at genocide....

a. The heavens, created to declare the glory of God...

b. Was soon included among to stage & props of war.

4. World resources were being ravaged by superpowers..

a. Like the frenzied feeding of hungry sharks.....

b. Excited by the fresh smell of victims blood.

B. The nuclear cloud that first hung over a Nevada desert...

1. Soon darkened the devastated cities of Nagasaki & Hiroshima.

2. Clouds that threatened a rain of holocaust for all the earth.

C. Plowshares of another era, were beaten into missiles.

1. Hornets with fire in their tails & chilling death in their heads...

2. Were aimed at the heart & soul of every nation, people, &	tongue.

D. With childish diplomatic wrangling over protocol, place, & preeminence.....

1. Under- secretaries, for endless months, laid the framework for a meeting of officials with full credential.

2. The second round of meetings were as fatiguingly absurd as those that had preceded.

3. Finally, often after months, and sometimes years, did the	heads of state finally gather...

a. To the blinding flash of camera, the patriotic percussion	of bands,

b. and endless miles of smiles and red

carpet...

c. All chronicled in bold headlines was the Saga of Summits... mans fruitless search for peace.

E. Only eternity books, when opened, will the validity & veracity	of these summits be fully known.

1. But the greatest Saga of Summits.....

2. Are not a story of any modern era....

3. They of another time and place....

a. When in the space of thirty-three short years..

b. The Saga of Summits is told...

I. It was at Bethlehem that the ground rules of Grace were first laid.

A. The Big Four held their meeting in an innkeepers' stable.

1. Righteousness, Truth, Mercy & Peace met together.

2. Millennia of discussion had preceded this night..

3. Let's eavesdrop on this timeless debate.

B. "hast thou made all men in vain?", enquired Mercy.

1. "The soul that sinneth shall surely die", answered Truth.

2. "The wages of sin is Death", enjoined Righteousness.

3. To which Peace replied, "and the work of righteousness shall be peace."

4. Only to have Righteousness answer, "all the commandments	are righteousness."

a. "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."

b. With added emphasis said Truth,
"he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his
truth."

5. Then Righteousness & Truth spoke in unison, " What use is	law, if God will not judge?"

C. Mercy was heard to passionately lament, "What use of man, if God spare not sinners?"

1. Then with conviction stated, "By mercy and truth iniquity is	purged."

2. "As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign	through righteousness."

3. But righteousness pointedly remarked, "truth endureth to all	generations"

a. To which confused men have responded again & again,	"What is Truth?"

b. However Mercy stood resolute in the disheartening	reality of mans hopeless plight because of, "God who is rich in mercy."

II. For long centuries Truth had been in exile from the earth.

A. Only at, "divers times and sundry manners", had its voice been heard.

1. Though the ministry of Righteousness had been of old ordained, " righteousness shall look down from heaven", as guardian of man....

2. For these years of mans history, Righteousness hid tearful	eyes from a wretched planet.

3. Watching mans plunge to self-
destruction.

B. Often, but especially on that appointed Day of Atonement..

1. From between the wings of the Cherubim, Mercy hummed a	song....

2. A song, finally written in ages future, but hummed first beneath wings in a wilderness....

3. "Amazing Grace how sweet the sound...." etc.

C. Peace sought for a solution for this painful and seemingly	hopeless dilemma.

1. But where could such a Summit take place?

2. On what grounds could reconciliation be made?

a. From the garden, Righteousness had witnessed the unending struggle...

b. "The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do........ O wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

3. How could Peace or Mercy ever bridge this impossible	reality?

4. Judgement could not be postponed forever, delayed year	after year.

a. The evidence was overwhelming against men.

b. The case was conclusive, beyond reasonable doubt.

c. Would there ever really be, Peace on earth."

D. More than forgiveness was necessary.

1. How could such conflicting interest as these play a part.

2. How could such divergent ideologies ever meet in Summit and agree to the solution of the dilemma of mans'
imminent damnation?

III. What can man offer to appease?

A. It is not possible, that the blood of bulls & goats should take away sin."

1. Even the righteous prophet Micah pondered the possibility, "the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

2. May a man offer himself?

a. Is that the intent when the Spirit speaks, "I beseech you	therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

b. No -" there was no man..... there was no intercessor"

B. Perhaps the Law.........

1. Peace carefully and diligently searched the genealogy of law keepers...

2. Every tribe, every family, every lineage....

a. Levites included.....

3. Do you know what Peace concluded?

a. "for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

b. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak	through the flesh...."

c. Law was not an answer, but a complication.

IV. Where? How? What Terms? On what Grounds?

A. Perhaps Job was deluded when he cried joyfully, "I have found a ransom."

1. While the Big 4 made fruitless search....

2. For they saw, "there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor:"

3. God intervened, prophetically proclaiming, " his arm	brought salvation"

B. What a Summit Bethlehem provided!

1. "Righteousness looked down from heaven."

2. That heavenly world was stirred!

a. "Truth shall spring out of the earth."

3. Something happened here, that COULD NOT have happened in heaven!!!!

4. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,"

C. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the	flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:"

1. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

2. He is Mercy - Truth - Righteousness - Peace!

3. They gather and harmonize in no other..

V. Truth hurried to the promising summit.

A. There was a long ledger of legalities to be satisfied.

1. The integrity of prophecy must be kept.

2. Carefully, meticulously Truth measured line - line, precept - precept..

3. Prophecy has been fully honored....

4. Jesus Christ is certified beyond reservation as the "womans	seed."

B. Righteousness solemnly speaks, "His birth is clean, but will His	life be holy, and His death innocent?"

1. Adding further, "His spirit & mouth without guile, His body, soul, and spirit without sin."

2. While there was much hope, the verdict must be postponed,	Until a future Summit.

a. Date, time, & place was agreed upon by the Big 4.

C. Righteousness & Truth stood vigil for those 33 years.

1. Truth chronicled those 33 years carefully.

a. The chronicle's last entry read,
"Tempted in all point yet without sin.."

2. Righteousness & Truth certified that the impasse had been	broken in a manger.

a. Emmanuel had come!

b. God is with us!

c. And, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

d. " It is joy unspeakable ......."

D. Peace now stood at the final Summit.

1. As the long shadow of a man laden cross darken Golgotha..

2. The stage prepared for the Saga of Summits last attempt at	peace.

3. "And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha,"

a. Who were they?

b. Without controversy,Righteousness, Truth, Mercy & Peace were among the crowds that day...

4. Just before the One on the cross, the Reconciler speaks His final words....

E. Peace is heard to whisper, "And, having made peace through	the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."

1. The Saga of Summits is not about a place.....

2. The failure of mans summits is that they are associated with	a place...

a. Yalta Treaty

b. Camp David Agreement

c. Dayton Accord

3. "The chastisment of our peace was upon Him.."

a. "of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto	us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption."

b. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

c. ".....I am the Truth...."

4. The Summit could never have occured at some place.

a. Mercy and Truth met not on a cross.... "for in him should all fulness dwell."

b. Righteousness & Peace kissed, not behind the veil.......	" ye are complete in Him."

VI. Those same Four meet daily now...

A. They meet at every New Birth, "God adding to the church	daily, such as should be saved."

1. What is message of Righteousness since that Summit?

a. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

2. Listen as Truth answers, "If weconfess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness."

B. When I cry, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner"

1. I return home justified.

C. For Mercy leads me to Truth.

1. Truth introduces me to Righteousness.

2. Righteousness leaves me in the care of the innkeeper of Peace.

D. Mercy without Truth is mere pity, for it was mercy without truth that destroyed Absalom.

* Mercy does not condone sin, it seeks to	repair its ravages.

1. Truth without Mercy is tyranny.

2. Peace without Righteousness is like breaking my arm...

a. The physician gives me something to deaden my pain.

b. Yet fails to reset the bone so my arm will be straight and strong once again.

E. What a Saga of Summits!

1. "In sin I wandered sore & sad.."