1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,480 My name is Sherry Mudford. Today's scripture is reading from Isaiah 58 5 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:11,800 through 10, page 637 in the Bible's In the Back of the Peaks. 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:18,000 Will the fast I choose be like this, a day for a person to deny himself, to bow 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,980 his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a 5 00:00:22,980 --> 00:00:28,840 fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? Isn't this the fast I choose to break 6 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:33,960 the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed 7 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:39,220 free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, 8 00:00:39,220 --> 00:00:44,200 to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see 9 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:49,480 him, and not ignore your own flesh and blood? Then your light will appear like 10 00:00:49,480 --> 00:00:54,440 the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. Your righteousness will go 11 00:00:54,440 --> 00:01:00,080 before you, and the Lord's glory will be your rearguard. At that time when you 12 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:06,080 call, the Lord will answer. When you cry out, he will say, here I am. If you get 13 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:11,120 rid of the yoke among you, the finger pointing and malicious speaking, and if 14 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:16,000 you offer yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted one, then your 15 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,760 light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday. This is 16 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:32,120 God's word. Thank you. Did you guys know that half of all 17 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:38,520 births, of all panda births, a panda birth, yes, let's start that one over. Did you 18 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:44,280 know that all, half of all panda births result in twins? I didn't know this. I'm 19 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:52,000 getting some feedback. Lots of feedback in the room. Half of all panda births 20 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:57,000 result in twins, but did you also know that it is extremely unlikely for both 21 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:04,560 of the cubs to survive? Well why? Why is it extremely, well it's because pandas 22 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:10,560 almost always abandon one cub in favor of another one, so that they can pour 23 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:15,000 their resources and give all that they have to the one, and they leave the other 24 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:25,360 one to die. Or consider hyenas. We're talking animal kingdom this morning. 25 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:32,280 They're one of the only predator animals that don't kill their prey before they 26 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:42,920 start eating it. They will begin to eat their prey while it's still alive. Or how 27 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:48,920 many guys have heard of meerkats, right, from the movies, right? Cute, fluffy 28 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:56,200 little meerkats, right? Well roughly 20% of all meerkat deaths come at the hands 29 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:02,680 of other meerkats. They'll fight and they'll kill each other for dominance. 30 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:06,920 They'll kill each other, they'll kill if they're young to maintain that level of 31 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:13,240 dominance within their faction. Meerkats are also not above eating them one 32 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:23,960 another. The animal kingdom is wild, and if or sadly when humans do any of these 33 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:33,400 things, wouldn't we call it wrong or unjust? Well why would we call it 34 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:38,720 wrong or unjust? Why do we even care about something that might be right or 35 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:46,920 wrong? Have you ever thought that? Or why is something just or unjust? Why can't I 36 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:56,680 dominate, oppress, and destroy? Why shouldn't I if I can? Why do we care at 37 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:03,600 all? For the season of Lent we have been in a series called Ashes, the glory of 38 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:09,720 the gospel, and we have been examining some themes that help us to better 39 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:15,200 understand three particular things, and that is the gravity of the fallen human 40 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:21,520 condition, the goodness of the character of God, and the glory of the gospel of 41 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:27,640 Jesus Christ. In the first week we looked at death. What the Bible says is the great 42 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:35,840 enemy of humankind, but in Christ we can proclaim what? Oh death, where is your 43 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:42,920 sting? Last week we had the opportunity to receive a word from our brother Ben, 44 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:52,080 and he had us considering mankind. Why is God mindful of him? Why does God care for 45 00:04:52,080 --> 00:05:00,040 us? And we saw that he made us. He didn't just say let there be, but it says let us 46 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:08,200 make mankind in our own image, in the image of God. Today we will be 47 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:16,600 considering Isaiah 58, and today's theme is the theme of justice. This passage in 48 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:21,040 Isaiah 58 is all about justice. You may have noticed the idea of fasting, which 49 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:25,520 is definitely connected in some ways to the season of Lent. Many traditions 50 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:33,120 observe Lent with fasting and abstaining from something, but underneath there's 51 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:38,680 something more to this passage. This passage is much more than just a religious 52 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:46,520 observance like fasting. Instead it's about justice, and it begins in verse 5 53 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:53,120 with, will the fast I choose be like this? A day for a person to deny himself, to 54 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:59,240 bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sat cloth and ashes. Will you call 55 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:07,640 this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? He begins with this rhetorical 56 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:15,400 question. He's going to answer it, and he says something over the course of this 57 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:23,520 passage to the effect of, is this the God that you've come to know? Is this who 58 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:31,360 you think God is? Do you think that what pleases God most is a day of denying 59 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:36,720 yourself and hanging in your head and sitting and mourning? Is this what an 60 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:47,040 acceptable set apart life looks like? What are you mourning over? Why is your 61 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:55,240 head hanging low? But with any scripture, to get a little more context we have to 62 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:59,200 go a little bit before. I'm gonna go ahead and read this out, it's not on the 63 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:05,640 screen, but you could go, if you have your Bibles, go back to verse 1. Verse 1 64 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:11,560 begins with God speaking to the prophet, and he says this, he says, cry out loudly, 65 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:17,800 don't hold back, raise your voice like a ram's horn, tell my people their 66 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:23,200 transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day 67 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:29,280 and delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and does 68 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:36,000 not abandon the justice of their God. They ask me for righteous judgments, they 69 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:44,480 delight in the nearness of God. Then verse 3 begins with the people talking 70 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:52,760 to God and they say, why have we fasted but you have not seen? We've 71 00:07:52,760 --> 00:08:00,240 denied ourselves but you haven't noticed. And then God speaking to the people, 72 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:08,400 look, you do as you please on the day of your fast and oppress all your workers. 73 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:14,160 You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fists. You 74 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:23,960 cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high. They seek 75 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:29,800 me day after day. They're going to the temple, they're saying their prayers, 76 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:36,160 they're worshiping, they're breathing, bringing their tithe, they're good. Day 77 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:45,360 after day they seem eager. They do worship, they do it passionately, they 78 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:52,320 raise their hands higher, they bow their face lower than anyone else. They delight 79 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:59,840 in the nearness of God. All that sounds really good, right? I mean that sounds 80 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:08,000 like great priorities, stellar morality. But verse 3 says that they say to 81 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:16,520 God, but why have we fasted? You haven't noticed us. Why have we denied ourselves 82 00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:24,920 some really good things and you didn't see us? What gives God? What gives? Why 83 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:35,000 aren't you listening to us? What is the answer? Hasn't the answer already kind of 84 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:43,240 presented itself here? What is the fatal flaw in their religious behavior? It was 85 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:52,320 all for earning benefits from God. It was all done for show and not for love. It 86 00:09:52,320 --> 00:10:01,040 was all done to be seen and noticed, not done in sincerity. And just look at the 87 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:08,800 results of their type of fasting. They do as they please, it says. This sacred day 88 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:17,120 for the employer is toilsome and painful day for their employee. In fact the same 89 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:21,680 verb for oppress there, they oppress their workers, is used of the task 90 00:10:21,680 --> 00:10:28,000 masters in Egypt. When the people of Israel were slaves, they have become the 91 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:34,280 enslaved people, they have become the enslaver. They are now the task 92 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:41,720 master. They are the one who wants enslaved to them. God is accusing them. 93 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:48,480 And instead of being humbled by a day of fasting and seeking God, they top it off 94 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:59,600 with strife, with striking one another viciously. God says this will not do. Did 95 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:05,520 you know that it is possible to avoid God by hiding behind religious 96 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:13,400 observance? It is possible to avoid God or to avoid obedience by hiding behind 97 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:24,760 your religious observance. God says, instead let me tell you what it really 98 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:34,960 means to seek me. Verse 6, isn't this the fast I choose? Isn't this the 99 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:40,840 religious observance I choose? To break the chains of wickedness, to untie 100 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:46,720 the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to tear off every yoke. Is 101 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:50,440 it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and the 102 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:55,440 homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore 103 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:03,400 your own flesh and blood? Wait though, what about the five songs that we're 104 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:13,080 supposed to sing? Doesn't he want those too? Or what about the altar call? If we 105 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:19,640 could fill the altars, wouldn't he be happy? What about a skillfully crafted 106 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:29,000 sermon? Wouldn't that make him pleased? Well what does he say? He says, don't you 107 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:41,120 even know who I am? Don't you even know me? If you did, you would do as I do. You 108 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:48,200 would reflect who I am. And you might say, well wait a sec though, that list, man, 109 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:55,560 that sounds like one big like socialist program. Like that sounds 110 00:12:55,560 --> 00:13:00,720 almost kind of liberal and maybe a little progressive and maybe very much 111 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:12,440 so political. Proverbs 14, 31 says, the one who oppresses the poor, the one who 112 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:20,000 oppresses the poor person insults his maker, but one who is kind to the needy 113 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:32,200 honors him. Proverbs 19, 17 says, kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord and he 114 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:37,960 will give a reward to the lender. Kindness to the poor is a loan to the 115 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:46,160 Lord and he will give a reward to the lender. This is but a small sampling of 116 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:53,280 scriptures I could have pulled, but I would have gone over my word count. Look 117 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:59,160 at James. Look in the book of Job. Continue to look in Proverbs and see if 118 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:04,880 you can't find more and more scriptures. Look in Matthew chapter 25 which Ben 119 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:14,080 read last week, verses 31 through 46. It's called the sheep and the goats. 120 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:18,720 God says that on a judgment day, he's gonna put a group over here and he's 121 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:22,640 gonna put a group over there. One will be sheep, one will be goats, and do you know 122 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:35,800 what the determining factor is? What you did to the least, the hungry, the thirsty, 123 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:43,720 the naked, the homeless, the ones in prison, and the sick. What you did to them, 124 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:57,000 you did to me, either well done, good, and faithful, reflector of my goodness, or to 125 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:08,200 judgment, you're a goat. It's powerful. It's powerful and it's shocking, but it's 126 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:18,360 true. If you don't love the least of these, you do not love God. The way you 127 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:28,760 treat the poor speaks to the reality of how you view God. Do you actually see him? 128 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:37,960 When COVID, it's not so much a bad word after four years now or whatever. We used 129 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:46,520 to whisper it and we'd hide every single cough. When COVID was at its height, 130 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:51,560 some of the symptoms, I'm sure many of you experienced it, these flu-like 131 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:56,400 symptoms, but there was one that was kind of peculiar to COVID, a loss 132 00:15:56,400 --> 00:16:05,880 of taste. Sometimes that could last for some time after having caught COVID. 133 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:15,440 Well, what is the symptom of a proper relationship with God? What is the symptom 134 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:25,040 of actually knowing God? How do you know if you've caught God? One symptom for 135 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:34,520 sure is that you will exhibit the utmost care and concern for those listed above, 136 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:46,680 the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the homeless, the prisoner, and the sick. 137 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:57,240 Isaiah chapter one, the very beginning of the book, verse 17, God speaking to Judah 138 00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:00,600 and he's trying to tell them how to purify themselves in the face of their 139 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:06,160 wickedness and their sin. This is what he says to them. He says, learn to do what 140 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:13,000 is good. My friends, learn to do what is good. And he follows that. He connects 141 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:20,960 that with pursue justice, correct the oppressor, defend the rights of the 142 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:32,040 fatherless, plead the widow's case for her. Learn to do good, pursue justice. 143 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:38,040 Well, what does the Bible mean when it says justice? Today we're talking about 144 00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:44,160 justice because I think we all would say that we live in a world where we want 145 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:52,520 justice, but we see injustice all the time, all the time around us. Well, let's 146 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:55,880 find out what the Bible has to say. And Dr. Tim Keller actually wrote a great 147 00:17:55,880 --> 00:18:01,000 book on this called Generous Justice. And in that book, he talks about how the 148 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:10,760 background behind the idea of justice is the idea of peace or shalom in the Hebrew. 149 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:19,880 In ancient times, family was everything. And progress was weighed with your 150 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:25,840 family in sight. You didn't move beyond your family to have progress. 151 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:30,200 Progress was if your family advanced or progressed, this was good. 152 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:37,720 And if it didn't, it was not good. Blood was everything back then. 153 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:43,040 And here in these passages in Isaiah, God is coming to the people of Israel and 154 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:48,080 he's saying, race and blood are not everything. Where you grew up or who you 155 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:55,560 were a part of is not everything. In fact, you must care for the stranger. 156 00:18:55,560 --> 00:19:02,400 You must care for the stranger because God has created the whole world to be 157 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:09,640 like a fabric, like a fabric which is interdependent, interdependent on all the 158 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:14,800 threads and strands within that fabric for its strength and its stability. 159 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:22,520 That's what makes it interdependent. Woven together and all the billions of 160 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:29,520 entities in this world were created to be interdependent upon one another, 161 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:41,360 woven together with one another. And when we are woven together, shalom, peace. 162 00:19:41,360 --> 00:19:46,320 Think of the body. Some of you are young, probably, and healthy. 163 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:55,040 Some of you know every pain and ache. Like it hurts here, right here. 164 00:19:55,040 --> 00:20:01,360 No, no, point. No, right here it hurts. We experience pain through the body. 165 00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:10,040 And we know that if one part is off, lots of things are off. 166 00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:17,480 The body is interdependent. And only when all of the parts are working together, 167 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:24,600 only then does the body experience shalom, peace, flourishing. 168 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:29,960 And this goes beyond just the physical part. When the mind, the spirit all work 169 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:33,200 according to how they were made, we can experience shalom. 170 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:37,480 But we don't experience that. We oftentimes experience rebellion within 171 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:46,480 our own bodies. My knees are against me. When people have resources, 172 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:51,320 when people have money, and dare I say, if it's not a bad word in here, 173 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:56,120 when some people have advantages, others people don't have. 174 00:20:56,120 --> 00:21:02,840 When they take those money and resources and advantages and they plunge them into 175 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:09,680 human community, human communities oftentimes experience a level of peace 176 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:14,120 or shalom. We see this all the time with our collaborative 177 00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:18,280 effort through government for roads and laws and ordinances, 178 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:24,080 the giving of money to nonprofits to help to address certain people's needs 179 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,880 and issues. When we come together and we interweave 180 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:31,920 our resources and our time and even the advantages we have in this life, 181 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:39,600 we can help to create at least partially, shalom. 182 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,840 But the opposite is true too. When you withhold something from the 183 00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:51,040 community, when you hold a resource back or an advantage or money, 184 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,520 then you're withholding the ability for the community, 185 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:58,800 the interdependent community to experience peace as it's intended to 186 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:02,360 experience. So what is the ideal? 187 00:22:02,360 --> 00:22:10,240 Isn't it that God, humankind, and all of creation is to exist together in shalom? 188 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,480 Isn't that His intended purpose at the beginning? 189 00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:17,880 Don't we see that in the garden, that there was a shalom? 190 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:22,880 God walking with humanity, humanity doing the job it had been given, 191 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:27,080 the vocation it had been given to rule over in a good way. 192 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,880 We don't think of rule all the time as good because we live in a fallen sinful 193 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:33,480 world. Humanity was given the task to rule, 194 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:42,200 to do good to the world and all of creation for the sake of shalom so that 195 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:49,720 all things might flourish. So the biblical concept of shalom, 196 00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:55,040 of peace, which as I said, Dr. Tim Keller talks about as the issue behind the issue 197 00:22:55,040 --> 00:23:03,240 of justice. Well, shalom isn't some idea of individualism where it's all about 198 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:07,200 working to greater levels of individualism as you and I have probably 199 00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:12,600 been raised here in the West. We think I have to grow up so I can leave 200 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:22,400 my family, so I can make my own way and I can establish my own name. 201 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:27,240 And everything we do drives us towards individualism. 202 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:33,080 Oh, you're out on your own. Good luck. But the biblical concept of shalom 203 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:39,080 it drives us to interdependence, to say no, we need one another. 204 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:47,080 We are like a woven tapestry. The Bible paints a picture like this. 205 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:51,160 The righteous one. How many of you guys want to be a righteous one? 206 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:55,000 That'd be a pretty cool title to get, right? Righteous one. 207 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,200 Jesus got it. Pretty cool that it was said of us. 208 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:02,560 The righteous one in the Old Testament, the Bible, is someone who is 209 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:08,160 disadvantaging themselves for the good of the community. 210 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:12,200 The righteous one is someone who disadvantages themselves. 211 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:16,200 We call this in the New Testament self-giving love. 212 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:20,280 The righteous one is someone who disadvantages themselves for the good of 213 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,760 the whole community. What's the wicked one? 214 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:30,040 Don't want to be called that. The wicked one is someone who thinks 215 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,640 only of themselves. The New Testament has even parables 216 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,680 that Jesus taught. I'm the one who's looking to accumulate 217 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:45,560 and to build up self. They are the wicked one. 218 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:51,080 Well, the Hebrew word that is behind the word justice is mishpat. 219 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:57,480 And it's the word that means justice. And the word mishpat is in its various 220 00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:02,560 forms. It occurs over 200 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. 221 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:08,000 200 times this word mishpat, which we translate to justice, 200 times in the 222 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,080 Old Testament. And its most basic meaning is to treat 223 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:20,280 people fairly without partiality. And so Leviticus, chapter 24, verse 22, 224 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:25,160 warns Israel to have the same mishpat, the same rule of law, 225 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:30,560 the same justice for the foreigner as they have for the native. 226 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:37,080 Treat the foreigner the same way under the law as you have for the native born. 227 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:43,520 The same mishpat, the same justice. Mishpat means acquitting or punishing 228 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:48,040 every person on the merits of their case, regardless of race, 229 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:53,040 regardless of social status. Anyone who does the same wrong should be 230 00:25:53,040 --> 00:26:01,280 given the same penalty, no favoritism, justice, mishpat. 231 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:06,760 But mishpat means more than just the punishment of wrongdoing. 232 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,960 It also has another meaning in the Old Testament. 233 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:16,960 And that other meaning is to give people their right, to give people what is owed 234 00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:23,880 to them. In Deuteronomy, chapter 18, it directs 235 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:30,480 that the priests of the tabernacle should be supported by a certain percentage 236 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:36,520 of the people's income. And Deuteronomy 18 says that this support 237 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:41,520 that the people are to give to the priests is the priests' mishpat. 238 00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,680 It's the priests' justice. It's owed. 239 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:48,680 It's due to them because God has commanded so. 240 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:55,480 It's their right. And so we read in Proverbs 31, 241 00:26:55,480 --> 00:27:01,960 speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are 242 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:06,720 destitute. Speak up and judge fairly. 243 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:12,920 Defend the rights of the poor and needy. 244 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:20,640 To be just than is to give people what they are due, whether punishment or 245 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:29,880 protection or care or their rights. I believe in our understanding of justice, 246 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:33,520 we totally get the idea of punishment for wrongdoing, right? 247 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:37,560 In fact, we all think it's probably our right that if someone wrongs me, 248 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:43,920 they need to pay the just punishment for wronging me. 249 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:49,280 However, and that's not wrong at all. That definitely is part of the meaning of 250 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:56,760 justice and mishpat. But God also says that do we see that God 251 00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:02,560 himself says that there are some, there are some in society, 252 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:11,000 some in our neighborhoods, some around this church who in his sight are due 253 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:20,840 special and unique attention from us. In his sight, they're due a certain right 254 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:31,640 from us, from you and me. Your act of care and concern for them 255 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:41,320 is God's ordained portion for them. The Bible tells us this is theirs. 256 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:47,160 Even Proverbs we just read. Now this is why if you look at every place 257 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:51,720 the word is used in the Old Testament, several classes of persons continually 258 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:58,720 come up. Over and over again, mishpat describes taking care of the cause 259 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:06,160 of the widows, the orphans, the immigrants, and the poor. 260 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:14,800 Widows, orphans, immigrants, poor. And these have been called the quartet 261 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:20,360 of the vulnerable. This is what the Lord Almighty says, 262 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,560 administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. 263 00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:29,120 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the immigrant or the poor. 264 00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:38,360 Zechariah chapter seven. So in pre-modern agrarian societies, 265 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:43,360 these four groups, they had no social power whatsoever. 266 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:47,400 The orphan, the widow, the immigrant, the poor. 267 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:51,840 They had no social power and so they lived at this sustenance level where 268 00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:57,160 they were only a few days away from starvation. Only a few days away from 269 00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:01,600 starvation. If a famine came, starvation was inevitable. 270 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:06,280 If an invasion of a foreign army came and cut off supplies, they were the first ones 271 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:14,680 to starve. If even a small minor social unrest broke out in the area that they 272 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:20,480 were, it could clog the lines of commerce and the goods and services that they 273 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:30,040 needed and they would be the first to suffer. And so today, you might expand 274 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:38,440 that quartet as you think about who else might fall into that same category. 275 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:45,800 Who else might be the first to suffer among us? 276 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:56,280 Elderly, fixed income, what happens if there's a market change, prices go up, 277 00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:03,880 single parents trying to make it, homeless depending upon their situation 278 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:07,720 and where they're at and what access they have, depending upon what city they're in. 279 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:13,880 I mean, there's so many variables. The weather, the migrant worker, 280 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:21,760 the refugee, the mish-pat or the justness of a person or a group or a society, 281 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:28,640 according to the Bible, is evaluated in large part by how we treat those groups. 282 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,560 He said, oh, we treat fairly. If I ever came across anyone, 283 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,720 look at the way I treat my family, look at the way I treat my church family. 284 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:43,760 Yes. Good. The Bible highlights, draws out, and says, who are the first to suffer? 285 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:49,320 They're the first to be a president of mine and care. This is just. 286 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:59,320 This is their mish-pat. So what could make us a just people? 287 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:03,720 I don't know about you, but when I drive down the street or I see someone in need, 288 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:11,520 my first thought isn't always or hardly ever, what do I owe them? 289 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:14,400 You guys ever had someone you owed something to? 290 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,640 Like, you see them coming from afar and you run the other way. 291 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,400 It's like, oh, yeah, that's right. I owe that guy some money. 292 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:25,120 Like, I was about to embrace him, but now I'm like, oh, if I have it, 293 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:30,240 I'll pay it. If I don't, I'm running the other way, right? 294 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:35,720 Do we ever look out at the people around us, the people that God has highlighted, 295 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:41,040 the people who are most vulnerable, vulnerable in this world? 296 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:49,720 And do we say, God has said, I owe them. He has given me resources, time, talent, 297 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:56,000 treasure, and I owe them before the Lord. He has a portion set aside for them 298 00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:03,640 that's coming out of my portion, which isn't mine to begin with. 299 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:11,880 This is what the people of God have been known for across history. 300 00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:17,320 When, like the pandas, people would set their unwanted babies outside of the city, 301 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:22,600 who would rush in to save them? Who would save them from the garbage heaps? 302 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:27,680 Who would come to rescue the most vulnerable, the orphan? 303 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:37,160 Who had the first social program for widows? Who built the hospitals? 304 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:43,280 So those of the faithful who've come before, they understood the justice of God 305 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:51,520 meant giving people their just due. If I say I know God, do I know him? 306 00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:55,320 Do I know his character, the goodness of his character to the point that it 307 00:33:55,320 --> 00:34:00,080 changes the way that I act toward others? So what would make us do this? 308 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:10,920 Well, Jesus says that if you really have a love relationship with him, 309 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:17,480 you will be just to the poor. And there's a couple of ways you can do that, 310 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:21,840 though. And here's the rub, right? Because some of you may hear what I'm saying 311 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,760 today and what I believe the word of God is saying today, and you may hear it from 312 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:33,520 the point of fear. You may hear, oh crud, I have to do this, otherwise God's going 313 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:39,320 to be mad at me. And out of fear, you might walk out those doors and look for 314 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,400 opportunity to do just that. How do I care for these people? 315 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:46,720 What do I do? I don't even know where to start. Oh my gosh, God's coming down on me. 316 00:34:46,720 --> 00:34:55,640 I'm afraid it won't last and it won't be good. Already, there's a lack of shalom, 317 00:34:55,640 --> 00:35:03,640 even in the way you're processing it. It's anxiety, not peace. Fear is not the 318 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:10,080 place from which we can do it. Well, how about pride? Like, what if I just do it 319 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:15,360 so I feel really good about myself and I build myself up and I enjoy myself a 320 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:21,360 little bit more? Because I'm a really nice myself, right? I like myself. Sorry, 321 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:32,160 if you don't, Jim Gaffigan. Build your kingdom up. Do it for your own pride. Do 322 00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:37,840 it to make yourself righteous. And all you're doing is you're taking that 323 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:41,680 interdependence that God has created and you're turning it inward to build 324 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:45,640 yourself up. You're like the people of Israel who did it for the wrong reasons. 325 00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:50,040 I don't need you to bow your head. I don't need you to set aside a special 326 00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:54,920 day. I don't need any of that, the Lord said to them. What do I need? You to know 327 00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:58,920 who I am and for it to so change you that it affects the way that you treat 328 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:03,520 other people. You can do it out of fear or you can do it out of pride and I don't 329 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:07,880 think either of them last and none of them bring about the shalom and peace. 330 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:14,720 Because we, you know how I know that, we lie out of fear and we lie out of pride 331 00:36:14,720 --> 00:36:19,080 all the time. These are not going to bring about the righteousness that God 332 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:26,920 is in pursuit of in us. Well, what will? I talked about Tim Keller's book earlier 333 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:35,800 and this is his proposition. The only thing that will is beauty. The 334 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:44,080 only thing that will melt your heart and move you to action is beauty. Only out of 335 00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:55,040 delight, not as a means to an end, but it has an end to itself. Only when you see 336 00:36:55,040 --> 00:37:03,880 God as most beautiful and you actually see who he is and you discover more and 337 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:11,200 more in waves of glory, the beauty and glory of who God is, only then can you 338 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,760 appropriately go out and live this out. 339 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:23,200 Beauty is something that is satisfying in and of itself. How do we get to the 340 00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:30,720 place where we do justice for beauty's sake? Well, I think all of our problems 341 00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:35,720 as we have kind of pinned it on is related to our seeing or understanding 342 00:37:35,720 --> 00:37:44,840 the gospel. When we look to God, we see God in Christ in the most perfect way. 343 00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:55,680 The revelation of who God is in the person, Jesus Christ. God identifies with 344 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:59,480 the poor throughout the Bible. I think the scripture is very clear and if you 345 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:08,960 love the poor, you love me. If you trample the poor, you trample God. Well, how far 346 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:19,920 did God go to identify with the poor? How far did he go? Do you know that Jesus as 347 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:29,320 a baby was laid in a feeding trough for animals? We dress it up by calling 348 00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:36,600 it a manger. It was a feeding trough for animals. Did you know that when he went 349 00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:42,480 to the temple to offer the sacrifice, his family, they offered the poor family's 350 00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:48,200 sacrifice? They didn't offer the rich one. They didn't have the means. They offered 351 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:57,840 the poor family's sacrifice. When Jesus rode in on his triumphal entry, he rode 352 00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:08,560 in on a borrowed donkey. He had no place to lay his head. When Jesus went on trial, 353 00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:21,760 was that a legal trial? It was trumped up charges, fake witnesses. And Jesus died. 354 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:34,120 Did he go to some mausoleum, some gorgeous tomb? Borrowed. Jesus suffered 355 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:46,200 with us. He knew what it was like to be mobbed, lynched, lashed, and murdered. God 356 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:51,280 in Jesus Christ came under the yoke of oppression that's talked about in Isaiah 357 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:58,280 58. The idea of the yoke of oppression, you guys know what a yoke is, right? We 358 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:04,120 go over the animal, right? Yeah, so the yoke of oppression is when humankind 359 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:10,160 falls under oppression to the point that they're treated like animals. He took on 360 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:17,000 the yoke of oppression, treated like an animal, despised and rejected so that we, 361 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:26,000 we could be free and we could be freed to free others. He came and he was woven 362 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:32,200 into the garment of humanity in his incarnation and he was poor and he was 363 00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:41,520 crushed and bruised. And it's the beauty of Christ and what he's done for us. It's 364 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:49,240 the beauty of the glory of the gospel, which is grace. That should move our 365 00:40:49,240 --> 00:40:58,400 hearts to look and go, how do I reflect such glorious grace in this world? How do 366 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:07,280 I reflect it? By showing grace to the helpless, to the hurting, to the poor. 367 00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:16,720 This isn't political, this isn't left and right, this is biblical, this is God's 368 00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:27,440 heart poured out on the pages for us to read and to say, Lord, I've got to see 369 00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:33,020 that grace in a greater measure because my hard heart doesn't want to move. My 370 00:41:33,020 --> 00:41:38,000 hard heart's got 14,000 excuses why that doesn't apply or that hermeneutic was 371 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:46,760 terrible or whatever it is. Just let the full weight of Scripture weigh on you for 372 00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:54,240 a moment. And then we look to Christ and we see the beauty of the gospel that he 373 00:41:54,240 --> 00:42:00,120 took on flesh and he dwelt among us. He was mistreated. He went to the cross and 374 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:10,000 took on the greatest injustice of all. I am unabashedly pro-life, unabashedly, and 375 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:14,400 I believe that they are one of the classes of the most vulnerable people in 376 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:18,800 here and in fact in our modern day, I go so far as to say I think it is the 377 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:23,960 greatest current injustice there is on the planet based surely on the volume of 378 00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:30,160 deaths, those who are murdered. But that's not the greatest injustice in all the 379 00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:37,040 cosmos. The greatest injustice in all the cosmos is that there are people who do 380 00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:43,160 not bend the knee and acknowledge that God is their creator and they are his 381 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:54,440 servants. They don't bow the knee to God and serve him only. That's the greatest 382 00:42:54,440 --> 00:43:00,880 injustice in all history in all time and Jesus went to the cross and said I'll 383 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:05,240 take that injustice and all the penalties, the just penalty for that and 384 00:43:05,240 --> 00:43:12,400 I'll put it on myself so that they could be free, so that they could be released, 385 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:23,120 so that they can go about loving the most hurt, oppressed, vulnerable people 386 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:28,600 and they can be free because they're freed from the greatest injustice ever 387 00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:40,640 through Jesus Christ. To those people, while we were still enemies, to those 388 00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:48,840 people Christ came and paid the just penalty for the treason himself. He 389 00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:57,320 disadvantaged himself so that we might be made whole and only when we see the 390 00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:04,960 beauty of grace will our heart ever be moved, not out of fear, not out of pride, 391 00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:12,920 but out of love to see others the way God sees them in the way that he has 392 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:36,160 seen us.