WEBVTT 00:00:05.649 --> 00:00:06.229 Hello everyone. 00:00:06.229 --> 00:00:07.251 This is Pastor Damian. 00:00:07.251 --> 00:00:10.236 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. 00:00:10.236 --> 00:00:14.789 At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. 00:00:14.789 --> 00:00:18.807 For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. 00:00:18.807 --> 00:00:19.710 Thanks for listening. 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:22.940 Please join me in praying the prayer of illumination. 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:24.120 Please join me in praying the prayer of illumination. 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:33.045 Heavenly Father, may your word be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. 00:00:33.045 --> 00:00:40.048 Today's scripture reading is from Psalm 37, verses 27 and 28. 00:00:40.048 --> 00:00:48.853 Turn away from evil and do good, so shall you dwell forever, for the Lord loves justice. 00:00:48.853 --> 00:00:51.414 He will not forsake his saints. 00:00:51.414 --> 00:00:53.375 They are preserved forever. 00:00:53.375 --> 00:00:56.578 But the children of the wicked shall be cut off. 00:00:56.578 --> 00:00:59.783 This is God's word. 00:00:59.783 --> 00:01:00.805 Please be seated. 00:01:01.347 --> 00:01:02.970 I would like to believe in God. 00:01:02.970 --> 00:01:06.001 I simply can't. 00:01:06.001 --> 00:01:24.123 That's a line from Ta-Nehisi Coates' book which is entitled we Were Eight Years in Power, and the reason he gives why he can't believe in God is he says that when I was nine, some kid beat me up for amusement and when I came home crying to my father, he said fight that boy or fight me. 00:01:24.123 --> 00:01:33.460 He goes on to say at that moment my dad taught me that we live in a godless world and that there was no justice in the world except the justice we dish out with our own hands. 00:01:33.460 --> 00:01:35.644 Happy Father's Day. 00:01:35.644 --> 00:01:38.891 Welcome to Worship with New City. 00:01:38.891 --> 00:01:40.334 We're going to talk about justice today. 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:49.186 Now, if that feels like that doesn't go hand in hand, consider this the Lord in Genesis 18, 19 says that he called Father Abraham. 00:01:49.186 --> 00:01:55.266 He chose him to teach his children to keep the way of the Lord by doing justice and righteousness. 00:01:55.266 --> 00:02:00.623 In other words, integral to being a father is teaching your children to do justice. 00:02:00.623 --> 00:02:05.090 This is actually deeply relevant from a biblical worldview. 00:02:05.090 --> 00:02:06.873 So what is justice? 00:02:06.873 --> 00:02:12.792 Well, thomas Aquinas famously defined justice as to render to each what each is due. 00:02:12.792 --> 00:02:15.144 To render to each what each is due. 00:02:15.144 --> 00:02:15.585 That's good. 00:02:15.585 --> 00:02:18.600 To expound that a little bit what justice is really. 00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:27.326 It's giving people what they are due, whether provision or protection or punishment, whether provision or protection or punishment Surrender to each what each is due. 00:02:27.326 --> 00:02:34.424 And so, listen, I want to do justice to justice, but I can't say everything there is to say this morning. 00:02:34.424 --> 00:02:47.966 So next week will be kind of a part two of sorts, but this morning, really, what I want to get at is that I personally feel a growing ache to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with my God, and I want that for you too. 00:02:47.966 --> 00:03:06.627 But if you're anything like me, there's something that happens when you sense that a call to do justice, you sense that call, but then you also hear and feel that something's a little bit off in our society's calls for justice, and so you feel conflicted a little bit. 00:03:06.627 --> 00:03:18.032 And so what I want for you is I don't want you to give up on God's call to do justice just because there's probably some injustice in our secular society's calls to justice, tracking with that. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:31.764 And so my intent for the sermon is to contrast Psalm 37's biblical vision of justice with our cultural moment, secular social justice models. 00:03:31.764 --> 00:03:39.312 It's important for me because I don't want you to think that you're not able to do justice just because you disagree with what you see on your news feed. 00:03:39.312 --> 00:03:51.070 And so what that means is, as we look at Psalm 37, we're going to see that justice belongs to the Lord, that he loves it, he defines it and he will bring it about. 00:03:51.070 --> 00:03:57.805 And so, to that end, I have three points the motive of justice, the standard of justice and the goal of justice. 00:03:57.805 --> 00:04:03.046 If you have a Bible or a device or your worship guide, go ahead and get Psalm 37 in front of you. 00:04:03.046 --> 00:04:06.169 We're going to look closely at this text together this morning. 00:04:07.741 --> 00:04:12.812 I want to begin in Psalm 37, verse 27, where our scripture reading started this morning. 00:04:12.812 --> 00:04:15.228 This is what it says Psalm 37, 27. 00:04:15.228 --> 00:04:24.531 Turn away from evil and do good, so shall you dwell forever, for the Lord loves justice. 00:04:24.531 --> 00:04:30.685 So when we ask the question of the motive of justice, we're saying for what reason? 00:04:30.685 --> 00:04:33.973 What should be the motivating principle as we do justice? 00:04:33.973 --> 00:04:44.209 Well, I'm helped because Johannes Kepler, the 17th century astronomer, he wrote that in all of his science he was simply thinking God's thoughts after him. 00:04:44.209 --> 00:04:45.992 I love that language. 00:04:45.992 --> 00:04:49.072 That's a really great way to talk about the motive of disciples. 00:04:49.072 --> 00:04:57.762 We, as disciples of Jesus, we're simply trying to think God's thoughts after him, feel what God feels after him, what makes God mad and sad and glad. 00:04:57.762 --> 00:04:59.884 I want that to resonate in my own heart. 00:04:59.884 --> 00:05:04.651 But we also want to love what God loves and hate what God hates. 00:05:05.151 --> 00:05:08.576 And in Psalm 37, verse 28,. 00:05:08.576 --> 00:05:11.843 It says the Lord loves justice. 00:05:11.843 --> 00:05:14.447 Do you love justice? 00:05:14.447 --> 00:05:18.031 Do I Like? 00:05:18.031 --> 00:05:24.367 When you watch the news or scroll your feed, do you hear the cries for justice among your neighbors? 00:05:24.367 --> 00:05:26.233 Does it move you? 00:05:26.233 --> 00:05:35.732 This dates me a little bit, but the song that was a big deal when I became a follower of Jesus had a line in there which I loved which was break my heart for what breaks yours. 00:05:35.732 --> 00:05:42.649 But instead we often plug our ears to the cries of justice because it's too hard for our own hearts to bear. 00:05:42.649 --> 00:05:46.855 But the Lord loves justice. 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:52.088 This matters deeply to God and so therefore it ought to matter deeply to us. 00:05:52.088 --> 00:05:56.329 But there is a limit to feeling God's feelings after him. 00:05:56.329 --> 00:05:58.163 Look with me at verse eight. 00:05:58.163 --> 00:06:03.290 It says this refrain from anger and forsake wrath. 00:06:03.290 --> 00:06:04.987 He can be wrathful at injustice, but you all refrain from anger and forsake wrath. 00:06:04.987 --> 00:06:08.509 He can be wrathful at injustice, but you all refrain from anger and forsake wrath. 00:06:08.509 --> 00:06:09.882 Fret not yourself. 00:06:09.882 --> 00:06:11.288 It tends only to evil. 00:06:11.288 --> 00:06:17.271 Let me make that plain you can be unjust in your pursuit of justice. 00:06:19.305 --> 00:06:28.610 The motive of secular social justice is often vengeance, bitterness, resentment and rage, but this text says that that tends only to evil. 00:06:28.610 --> 00:06:36.533 Instead, christians are to never avenge ourselves but leave it to the wrath of God. 00:06:36.533 --> 00:06:39.084 For it is written vengeance is mine. 00:06:39.084 --> 00:06:41.451 I shall repay, says the Lord. 00:06:41.451 --> 00:06:46.552 So how do you avoid vengeance in your pursuit of justice? 00:06:46.552 --> 00:06:47.440 What does that look like? 00:06:47.440 --> 00:06:53.814 Well, verse 5 puts it like this Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act. 00:06:53.814 --> 00:07:08.946 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday On June 1st, rev Reynolds was up here teaching us that commit your way to the Lord means to roll your life onto him. 00:07:08.946 --> 00:07:10.810 So what does that mean? 00:07:10.810 --> 00:07:16.271 What does it actually look like in practice to roll your life unto the Lord when it comes to our pursuit of justice? 00:07:16.271 --> 00:07:18.541 Let me tell you a story about that. 00:07:19.843 --> 00:07:39.533 Martin Lloyd-Jones was a pastor in the 20th century in London and one time, during World War II, lloyd-jones was preaching at Westminster Chapel and as he was preaching, a bomb was dropped by the Nazi Air Force, the Luftwaffe, and it was dropped on a building across the street. 00:07:39.533 --> 00:07:47.353 But it was such an intense explosion that it caused dust from the ceiling to fall down on the congregation where he was praying. 00:07:47.353 --> 00:07:51.687 He was praying in that moment, so what did he do? 00:07:51.687 --> 00:07:54.572 He paused and then he just kept praying. 00:07:54.572 --> 00:08:00.778 Later, in another sermon, he said about this particular instance. 00:08:00.778 --> 00:08:04.007 He said I was never worried for a second about a man like Hitler. 00:08:04.007 --> 00:08:07.223 It was enough for me to read Psalm 37. 00:08:07.223 --> 00:08:09.507 That is so punk rock. 00:08:09.507 --> 00:08:10.269 I love that. 00:08:10.269 --> 00:08:11.872 We need preachers like that this day. 00:08:11.872 --> 00:08:13.081 Where are they? 00:08:13.081 --> 00:08:15.968 Listen, he was talking about verse 35. 00:08:15.968 --> 00:08:25.052 He says this I have seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree, but he passed away and behold, he was no more. 00:08:25.052 --> 00:08:28.141 Though I sought him, he could not be found. 00:08:28.141 --> 00:08:29.725 Where is Hitler now? 00:08:29.725 --> 00:08:35.077 Or Stalin, or Nero, or Herod, or Mao. 00:08:35.077 --> 00:08:36.480 Where are they now? 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:40.467 Verse 36, quote behold, he was no more. 00:08:40.467 --> 00:08:50.107 You see, imagine what it would take for Nazis to be dropping bombs on your city and saying I was never afraid of Hitler because I read Psalm 37. 00:08:50.107 --> 00:08:52.174 What would that take? 00:08:52.174 --> 00:08:54.923 How did Martin Lloyd-Jones do that? 00:08:54.923 --> 00:08:55.846 How do we do that? 00:08:57.110 --> 00:09:00.261 Well, in psychology there's this concept called a mutual mind state. 00:09:00.261 --> 00:09:09.370 A mutual mind state is when you're like seeing your kids play and they fall and they skin their knees, and then they look at you to figure out if they should freak out or not. 00:09:09.370 --> 00:09:17.806 In that moment, what's happening is their mind is syncing up with your mind, and your mind, if it's calm, regulates their mind and makes it calm. 00:09:17.806 --> 00:09:19.750 Look at verse 13. 00:09:19.750 --> 00:09:24.528 It says this in our text the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. 00:09:24.528 --> 00:09:30.764 Listen, if the Lord isn't worried about the future, neither should we. 00:09:30.764 --> 00:09:32.006 Now the Lord looks to the future. 00:09:32.006 --> 00:09:33.750 We want to feel his feelings after him. 00:09:33.750 --> 00:09:34.652 He's not fretting. 00:09:34.652 --> 00:09:42.400 Why are we? 00:09:42.400 --> 00:09:46.000 But here's the reality is that God looks to the future and laughs, not because evil is funny, but because it has an expiration date. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:58.942 And so we look at our father's face and we say you're not anxious, I'm not anxious Mutual mind state, but the ultimate freedom from anger, vengeance and anxiety is actually found somewhere else. 00:09:58.942 --> 00:10:01.806 It's found in the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:10:03.067 --> 00:10:06.634 I've been apprenticed under Rachel Denhollander in this way. 00:10:06.634 --> 00:10:20.201 She was a gymnast and, in 2018, was the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar of his heinous abuse, if you know that story, which led to hundreds of other women to come forward and share their own stories. 00:10:20.201 --> 00:10:29.394 Now, after Denhollander did this, she actually wrote an article with her husband called Justice the Foundation of a Christian Approach to Abuse. 00:10:29.394 --> 00:10:30.438 You see, she's a Christian. 00:10:30.438 --> 00:10:36.032 I actually think she's in the PCA, our denomination, and she said she argues in this article. 00:10:36.032 --> 00:10:36.572 I would read it. 00:10:36.572 --> 00:10:37.061 It's great. 00:10:37.140 --> 00:10:49.426 She says the way forward really is through this classic doctrine of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus, which says that on the cross, jesus took the penalty for our sins so we could be forgiven. 00:10:49.426 --> 00:10:53.663 She's saying that's the way forward for justice for victims of abuse. 00:10:53.663 --> 00:10:55.967 I don't know if your mind went there. 00:10:55.967 --> 00:11:01.446 Hers did, because she's trained and deeply immersed in a biblical imagination. 00:11:02.729 --> 00:11:10.802 Now she gives four reasons why that's the case, why the cross of Christ can give both comfort and vindication for victims, and she says this? 00:11:10.802 --> 00:11:17.529 Number one the reason is because the cross means that God hates evil and the injustice of abuse. 00:11:17.529 --> 00:11:19.966 The cross says that. 00:11:19.966 --> 00:11:26.568 So then, a victim's sense of injustice and desire for vindication it's actually upheld at the cross. 00:11:26.568 --> 00:11:31.408 Injustice and unrighteousness are real and God hates them. 00:11:31.408 --> 00:11:33.052 That's what the cross of Christ says. 00:11:33.052 --> 00:11:39.331 But number two the cross shows us that forgiveness and justice can be friends, not enemies. 00:11:39.331 --> 00:11:45.231 You see, jesus bore the divine wrath against sin on the cross. 00:11:45.231 --> 00:11:59.567 So then, we are freed to forgive, because we know that every sin against you, every evil done against you, every injustice against you is either going to get what it deserves on the cross of Jesus Christ or in hell for an eternity. 00:11:59.567 --> 00:12:03.590 That means that justice and forgiveness can go together. 00:12:03.590 --> 00:12:05.447 They're not enemies, they're friends. 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:09.708 Number three the cross redeems power dynamics. 00:12:09.708 --> 00:12:13.850 Think about the misuse of power in abuse. 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:20.850 But the cross redeems it because the strong God becomes weak to strengthen weak sinners. 00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:40.153 You see, at the cross, the son of God sets aside his divine prerogatives and the strong becomes weak, so that at the cross, god can act for others, using his power to act for others to overcome evil, to uphold justice, to free the enslaved, to restore creation. 00:12:40.153 --> 00:12:46.653 God himself perfectly identifies with the victim on the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:12:49.061 --> 00:12:59.828 Fourth and finally, in her article she says the cross shows that both victim and perpetrator need forgiveness and justice, something often missing in secular social justice. 00:12:59.828 --> 00:13:03.870 Both oppressor and oppressed need forgiveness and justice. 00:13:03.870 --> 00:13:07.155 Both oppressor and oppressed need forgiveness and justice. 00:13:07.155 --> 00:13:20.312 You see, the cross actually helps Christians to refrain from viewing criminals and abusers as the other and as fundamentally different from ourselves, because we know the seeds of every sin dwell in every human heart. 00:13:20.312 --> 00:13:43.912 Den Hollander actually put this theology to work in the courtroom when she looked at her abuser in the eyes and she said quote I pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt so that you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me, though I extend that to you as well. 00:13:43.912 --> 00:13:49.063 More than forgiveness from me, though I extend that to you as well. 00:13:49.063 --> 00:13:49.946 Where did she learn to do justice like this? 00:13:49.946 --> 00:13:55.326 Well, she learned it from the only true standard of justice, which is the point two, the standard of justice. 00:13:55.326 --> 00:13:56.870 Look at verse 27 with me again. 00:13:56.870 --> 00:14:05.089 It says this turn away from evil and do good, so shall you dwell forever. 00:14:05.089 --> 00:14:07.453 What is good and evil? 00:14:07.453 --> 00:14:09.525 Who has that knowledge. 00:14:10.419 --> 00:14:14.508 We all know that there is right and wrong, but we disagree where it comes from. 00:14:14.508 --> 00:14:19.530 If we've evolved, then where do we get this sense of justice? 00:14:19.530 --> 00:14:24.128 Vladimir Soloyev says it like this. 00:14:24.128 --> 00:14:28.981 Vladimir Soloyev says it like this man descended from apes. 00:14:28.981 --> 00:14:30.988 Therefore, let us love one another. 00:14:30.988 --> 00:14:32.350 Do you hear the silliness of that? 00:14:32.350 --> 00:14:36.221 We laugh, but that's what we're being told. 00:14:36.221 --> 00:14:40.389 Why is it wrong to be violent, arrogant or oppressive? 00:14:40.389 --> 00:14:52.255 If we live in a world ruled by the survival of the fittest, where the strong eat the weak, then why do we feel outraged when people use power to oppress others? 00:14:52.255 --> 00:14:52.336 Why? 00:14:52.336 --> 00:14:56.523 Who are you to tell me what's right and wrong for me? 00:14:56.523 --> 00:14:58.886 Where do you get this idea of fairness or justice, of rights, if there is no God? 00:14:58.886 --> 00:15:03.274 You see, secular social justice cannot give what it offers. 00:15:03.274 --> 00:15:05.648 Let me just give you one example as a case study. 00:15:05.648 --> 00:15:12.048 The best-selling author, yuval Noah Harari, says it like this in an interview with NPR. 00:15:12.048 --> 00:15:16.667 The title of the interview is this why did humans become the most successful species on earth? 00:15:16.667 --> 00:15:18.672 This is what he says. 00:15:19.179 --> 00:15:23.207 Quote most legal systems today in the world are based on a belief in human rights. 00:15:23.207 --> 00:15:25.865 But what are human rights? 00:15:25.865 --> 00:15:34.024 Take a human being, cut him open, look inside you'll find a heart, kidneys, neurons, hormones, dna, but you won't find any rights. 00:15:34.024 --> 00:15:41.365 The only place you find rights is in the stories that we have invented and spread around over the last few centuries. 00:15:41.365 --> 00:15:46.514 They may be very good stories, but they're still just fictional stories that we've invented. 00:15:46.514 --> 00:15:48.845 Did you catch that? 00:15:48.845 --> 00:15:53.525 Without God, human rights are a fiction that we've invented. 00:15:53.525 --> 00:15:58.668 Dostoevsky puts it like this if God doesn't exist, everything is permitted. 00:15:58.668 --> 00:16:09.610 If all moral values are relative and social constructs, then how can you make the case that we all ought to treat others with love and not exploit them? 00:16:09.610 --> 00:16:12.321 You cannot, if you'd rather. 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:14.924 Another philosopher, homer Simpson. 00:16:14.924 --> 00:16:20.654 He says the truth is more of a hunch that you're willing to die for. 00:16:20.654 --> 00:16:27.562 That's the basis of secular social justice a hunch that you're willing to die for, because rights don't exist. 00:16:27.562 --> 00:16:29.788 You can't cut a human open and find them there. 00:16:29.788 --> 00:16:32.082 They're just in the fictional stories that we tell. 00:16:32.563 --> 00:16:38.225 Listen, since Genesis 3, human beings have been grasping for what's called the knowledge of good and evil. 00:16:38.225 --> 00:16:46.091 In other words, secular social justice is built on this right to determine good and evil for ourselves. 00:16:46.091 --> 00:16:59.168 But here's the problem Resistance to submit to God's definition of good and evil is itself the source of all evil and injustice in the world. 00:16:59.168 --> 00:17:02.254 So what is the standard of justice? 00:17:02.254 --> 00:17:04.565 Look with me at verse 30. 00:17:04.565 --> 00:17:12.130 It says this the mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice. 00:17:12.130 --> 00:17:15.000 The law of his God is in his heart. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.164 His steps do not slip. 00:17:17.164 --> 00:17:22.320 Jesus taught us that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. 00:17:22.320 --> 00:17:26.109 So how do we quote speak justice, verse 30? 00:17:26.109 --> 00:17:29.904 Well, we need the law of God in our heart, verse 31. 00:17:29.904 --> 00:17:35.520 You see, we need a transcendent moral reference point of good and evil. 00:17:36.442 --> 00:17:42.623 Francis Schaeffer said if there is no absolute by which to judge society, society is absolute. 00:17:42.623 --> 00:17:50.791 One of the questions I ask when I'm talking to people about the Christian faith and moral relativism is hey, do you think the Nuremberg trials were a good idea? 00:17:50.791 --> 00:17:57.913 That's when Nazis were judged for their crimes against humanity by non-German cultures. 00:17:57.913 --> 00:18:03.268 If everything's relativistic, how can one culture impose its values on another culture? 00:18:03.268 --> 00:18:04.691 How can one culture impose its values on another culture? 00:18:04.691 --> 00:18:06.433 That's the principle of multiculturalism. 00:18:06.433 --> 00:18:13.101 It doesn't work. 00:18:13.101 --> 00:18:17.112 If there's no transcendent reference point by which all cultures can be judged, then right and wrong is just whatever the society discerns it to be. 00:18:19.101 --> 00:18:19.622 Here's the thing. 00:18:19.622 --> 00:18:26.404 I think we don't want a standard outside of ourselves, because if there was one, we would realize we haven't lived up to it. 00:18:26.404 --> 00:18:36.622 It's like that moment when you're driving in the car and you realize that you're speeding in a school zone and you do that little panic move, maybe slam on the brakes real quick. 00:18:36.622 --> 00:18:45.851 That's what all of us experience existentially, if there's a transcendent moral absolute outside of ourselves by which we all must be judged. 00:18:45.851 --> 00:18:48.244 Now, some of you might not agree with that. 00:18:48.244 --> 00:18:49.424 I understand it, that's okay. 00:18:49.424 --> 00:18:54.126 But I just want you to consider that maybe you haven't even lived up to your own standards of justice. 00:18:55.579 --> 00:18:59.713 There's this illustration about if you had let's just imagine your whole life. 00:18:59.713 --> 00:19:14.624 You were born and you had a voice recorder hanging around your neck and every time you made a moral judgment by which you bound someone else she shouldn't do that, he should really do this it just clicked on and started recording your own voice. 00:19:14.624 --> 00:19:20.951 And then you die and on that great day when you stand before God as your judge, all he does is says can I see your voice recorder? 00:19:20.951 --> 00:19:30.650 And he simply presses, play and plays back every one of your own moral judgments, every time you bound somebody else by what they should or shouldn't do. 00:19:30.650 --> 00:19:34.044 And then he just looked at you and pointed at it. 00:19:34.044 --> 00:19:36.269 How would you fare in that moment? 00:19:36.269 --> 00:19:38.532 How do you feel right now? 00:19:38.532 --> 00:19:51.733 That's our own standard of justice, not even God's standard of justice, which is much higher, much more exacting, much more pervasive in its assessment of our existence. 00:19:52.958 --> 00:20:05.593 In our call to worship in Romans 3, it put this forward that Christianity believes that before God, every mouth will be stopped and the whole world will be held accountable to God. 00:20:05.593 --> 00:20:06.961 That day is coming. 00:20:06.961 --> 00:20:11.051 But listen, that day is not only just, it's actually humane. 00:20:11.051 --> 00:20:20.852 It's humane because what it means is that there is no elitism before God, and if there's no moral elitism before God, then there ought not be any before man. 00:20:20.852 --> 00:20:31.932 In other words, male and female, black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, oppressor and oppressed, all stand before God as lawbreakers in need of his mercy. 00:20:31.932 --> 00:20:40.362 You know that you've received this just mercy because it will make you merciful in your pursuit of justice. 00:20:40.362 --> 00:20:46.862 Augustine of Hippo says it like this there is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future. 00:20:46.862 --> 00:20:51.512 Let's look at that future together when we look at the goal of justice. 00:20:51.512 --> 00:20:53.201 This is where we'll close. 00:20:53.201 --> 00:21:02.868 Look at verse 27 with me Turn away from evil and do good, so shall you dwell forever, for the Lord loves justice. 00:21:02.868 --> 00:21:04.794 He will not forsake his saints. 00:21:04.794 --> 00:21:07.380 They are preserved forever. 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:10.488 But the children of the wicked shall be cut off. 00:21:11.872 --> 00:21:13.596 Where is justice headed? 00:21:13.596 --> 00:21:17.847 This is a good question to ask your not yet disciple friends and neighbors. 00:21:17.847 --> 00:21:25.791 You ask them a question, something like if your religion or your ideology was perfectly attained, what would that look like? 00:21:25.791 --> 00:21:27.461 What's the end game? 00:21:27.461 --> 00:21:32.192 That's the question we ask when we talk about the aim of justice, the goal of justice. 00:21:32.192 --> 00:21:39.882 Now, secular social justice can't agree on this, because for libertarians, justice means individual freedom. 00:21:39.882 --> 00:21:42.711 For progressives, justice means fairness for all. 00:21:42.711 --> 00:21:46.226 For utilitarians, it's maximum happiness for the maximum amount of people. 00:21:46.226 --> 00:21:49.287 For postmoderns, it's subversing oppressive power. 00:21:49.287 --> 00:22:02.307 Who's right, you see, for followers of Jesus, justice is heading somewhere far more beautiful than any of those, because it's not about a utopia that we build, it's about a kingdom that we inherit. 00:22:03.520 --> 00:22:04.464 Look at verse 28. 00:22:04.464 --> 00:22:06.501 It says this the Lord loves justice. 00:22:06.501 --> 00:22:11.329 He will not forsake his saints, his saints. 00:22:11.329 --> 00:22:14.535 They are preserved forever. 00:22:14.535 --> 00:22:23.144 Because biblical justice believes that the goal of justice is actually the glory of God and the healing of all things under his reign. 00:22:23.144 --> 00:22:25.470 That's the goal we're after. 00:22:25.470 --> 00:22:35.544 That's the aim, the end, the telos of justice for followers of Jesus, and the Bible gives us a picture of that in that future in Revelation 7-9. 00:22:35.544 --> 00:22:51.087 It says this there's a great multitude that no one could number, from every tribe, every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice. 00:22:51.087 --> 00:22:55.548 Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the lamb. 00:22:55.548 --> 00:23:09.542 This is where biblical justice is going Not merely peace, not only equity, but a multi-ethnic, multilingual, united people, forever reconciled around the throne of God Almighty. 00:23:09.542 --> 00:23:13.450 That's the end, the goal of justice. 00:23:14.873 --> 00:23:15.961 So I want to pause here for a moment. 00:23:15.961 --> 00:23:19.428 I want to speak to our brothers and sisters of color in this room. 00:23:19.428 --> 00:23:24.726 I simply just want to say I see you, I'm so thankful for you. 00:23:24.726 --> 00:23:34.669 I want to name that because I think that there's a cost, an unseen cost, that you pay to be a part of a church that's majority dominant culture. 00:23:34.669 --> 00:23:43.125 But you pay that cost and the rest of us are so grateful and we bless you, we honor you for being in our midst. 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:45.605 But why would I say that? 00:23:45.605 --> 00:23:51.986 Do I say that because you know, right now, diversity is in vogue in our culture? 00:23:51.986 --> 00:23:59.088 No, because if you study history, you realize that cultural values are fickle and flimsy like anything else. 00:23:59.088 --> 00:24:03.367 I mean, just consider how many DEI departments were developed and ditched in the last five years. 00:24:03.367 --> 00:24:18.711 No, I say that I can say that with joy, because Revelation 7-9 is what we're going for, it's the aim of our existence, all of human history is heading in that same direction and I want New City to get in on it. 00:24:19.779 --> 00:24:28.006 A multi-ethnic, multilingual, united around the throne of God, people of God that are worshiping, saying salvation belongs to the Lord. 00:24:28.006 --> 00:24:48.395 I want us to get in on this and so we can celebrate whatever diversity we have in our midst, because, as one scholar says it, the church does not merely have some kind of relationship to social justice, but rather the church is God's social justice, right here in our midst. 00:24:48.395 --> 00:25:00.692 We are the people, what Martin Luther King Jr called the beloved community, the people who one day will cause mankind to say surely there is a God who judges on earth. 00:25:00.692 --> 00:25:02.563 Psalm 58, verse 11. 00:25:02.563 --> 00:25:12.628 So it's no accident that MLK also said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. 00:25:12.628 --> 00:25:19.411 He believed that deeply, and because he believed in a God who judges the earth and makes all things new. 00:25:19.411 --> 00:25:24.967 That's why three times in Psalm 37, it says for us, to quote wait for the Lord. 00:25:24.967 --> 00:25:29.743 Now, that's not a passivity, that's not an inaction. 00:25:29.743 --> 00:25:36.303 It's rooted in a confidence that we can act because God will act in our pursuit of justice. 00:25:36.303 --> 00:25:43.707 Now, contrast that, because for secular social justice there is no moral arc to the universe. 00:25:43.707 --> 00:25:51.153 If it in any way bends towards justice, it's because we must bend it with enough force from ourselves. 00:25:51.153 --> 00:26:01.365 That's why secular social justice is so militant and unforgiving and belligerent and self-righteous and hypocritical, because it is imminent justice. 00:26:04.132 --> 00:26:10.568 Ta-nehisi Coates said it like this there was no justice in the world except the justice we dish out with our own hands. 00:26:10.568 --> 00:26:12.675 Now let me affirm something here. 00:26:12.675 --> 00:26:16.523 We all share a longing for justice, all of us. 00:26:16.523 --> 00:26:31.401 But Christians believe in a transcendent justice that will roll down like waters, because we believe, as we're going to confess in a little bit here, we believe that one day Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. 00:26:31.401 --> 00:26:39.644 We believe Psalm 37, verse 37, there is a future for the man of peace, but transgressors shall be altogether destroyed. 00:26:39.644 --> 00:26:41.827 The future of the wicked shall be cut off. 00:26:41.827 --> 00:26:45.164 What do we do with the coming judgment of God. 00:26:45.164 --> 00:26:50.410 You can't read this psalm without finding it Verse 9, 10, 20, 22, 28, 34, 38. 00:26:50.410 --> 00:26:52.186 It is all over the Bible. 00:26:53.840 --> 00:27:03.669 The idea that God will not judge evil could only be invented in the secure suburbs buffered from the realities of human evil. 00:27:03.669 --> 00:27:17.044 John Stott says it like this God's judgment is his steady, unrelenting, unremitting, uncompromising antagonism to evil in all its forms and manifestations. 00:27:17.044 --> 00:27:21.773 Only God's judgment can do justice to our cry for justice. 00:27:21.773 --> 00:27:35.471 Someone else said it like this faced with a world of rebellion, a world full of exploitation and wickedness, a good God must be a God of judgment. 00:27:35.471 --> 00:27:41.808 A God who would not judge, a God who is not angry at injustice, would not be worthy of our worship, because that God would not be good. 00:27:41.808 --> 00:27:49.292 But if God judges evil, where does God stop Systemic injustice? 00:27:49.292 --> 00:27:51.486 What about personal evils? 00:27:51.486 --> 00:27:57.851 What about envy, bitterness, lying lust, gossip, greed? 00:27:57.851 --> 00:28:01.202 Where does God stop For the self-aware among us? 00:28:01.202 --> 00:28:08.888 We realize that if God judges evil, god must judge me, and that gives us a sense of fear of the Lord. 00:28:10.201 --> 00:28:12.950 But in that moment I want to go back to what MLK said. 00:28:12.950 --> 00:28:15.747 Does that mean that the beloved community is just better than everybody else? 00:28:15.747 --> 00:28:21.691 No, we're simply those who have stopped running from God and started running to God. 00:28:21.691 --> 00:28:23.965 This is verse 39. 00:28:23.965 --> 00:28:28.388 The salvation of the righteous is from their own doing. 00:28:28.388 --> 00:28:29.653 It's not what it says. 00:28:29.653 --> 00:28:34.429 The salvation of the righteous is because they're a little bit better than their neighbors. 00:28:34.429 --> 00:28:39.869 No, the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. 00:28:39.869 --> 00:28:42.740 He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. 00:28:42.740 --> 00:28:50.314 He is their stronghold in the time of trouble and with God as our stronghold, we wait patiently, expectantly for justice to roll down like waters. 00:28:50.314 --> 00:28:54.704 Let me give you a picture, as we close here, of what that might look like. 00:28:55.839 --> 00:29:05.931 On January 1st 1863, abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free in the United States of America. 00:29:05.931 --> 00:29:22.886 But in Galveston, texas, slaves wouldn't hear this news until June 19th 1865, over two years later, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived and he read General Order no 3, which says, quote all slaves are free. 00:29:22.886 --> 00:29:27.545 We call that Juneteenth and it's actually coming up this Thursday. 00:29:27.545 --> 00:29:29.148 We'll celebrate it nationally. 00:29:29.148 --> 00:29:29.830 It's a holiday. 00:29:29.830 --> 00:29:39.209 It's worthy of marking and honoring and celebrating, and so what happens here is that freedom had been won, but it took time for the news to spread. 00:29:39.209 --> 00:29:42.721 That's the moment that we live in now. 00:29:43.923 --> 00:29:46.951 We live here and now, where Jesus has already won. 00:29:46.951 --> 00:29:50.119 He has defeated all of the sources of injustice. 00:29:50.119 --> 00:29:56.607 On the cross and in his resurrection, jesus has suffered more injustice than any human in the history of humanity. 00:29:56.607 --> 00:30:05.730 But Jesus will also bring the sword of justice on every human in the history of humanity, except for those who flee to him as their stronghold. 00:30:05.730 --> 00:30:13.451 So God could be both just and the justifier of all who have faith in Jesus. 00:30:13.451 --> 00:30:21.407 But listen, the good news of that victory is still making its way into every corner of this world and into every corner of our hearts. 00:30:21.407 --> 00:30:29.124 We're living right now between proclamation and fulfillment, between the cross and the crown. 00:30:30.346 --> 00:30:31.207 And so what do we do? 00:30:31.207 --> 00:30:35.234 What do we do in the tension of the times that we live in? 00:30:35.234 --> 00:30:40.288 Psalm 37 says it like this we turn away from evil and we do good. 00:30:40.288 --> 00:30:42.673 We commit our way to the Lord. 00:30:42.673 --> 00:30:44.846 We trust in him and he will act. 00:30:44.846 --> 00:30:49.790 He will bring forth our righteousness as the light and our justice as the noonday. 00:30:49.790 --> 00:30:55.265 We live now in light of the king who will bring justice and healing in his wings. 00:30:55.986 --> 00:30:59.833 Let's pray, king Jesus. 00:30:59.833 --> 00:31:03.964 We look to you now because you alone are worthy. 00:31:03.964 --> 00:31:27.568 You alone hold together all of the cries for justice from all creatures on planet earth, you yourself being the victim of the greatest injustice that's ever happened that the perfect, spotless, innocent son of God was slain and murdered on a cross because of an unjust trial. 00:31:27.568 --> 00:31:34.006 But you did it for us and for our salvation, and so we look to you with hope. 00:31:34.006 --> 00:31:48.230 Give us your spirit of justice to enable us to lead us, to give us the motive according to the standard and towards the goal that you have for justice in your world. 00:31:48.230 --> 00:31:50.306 We pray this in your name, Jesus. 00:31:50.306 --> 01:50:19.000 Amen.