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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
April 26, 2020
Biblical Correctness: Battling Man’s Perversions of Justice
Selected Scriptures
Introduction
This is a sermon that I wanted to assign to my son, Jonathan, and let him run with it since a significant amount of his time in the last couple of years has been spent battling various perversions of justice that are wrecking havoc in our society and in churches. He could easily do a short series on all the various specific issues that are involved with this general topic. But since he lives in Virginia and the panic most of our nation is in over COVID-19 has made it difficult to travel, I cannot have him come as much as I want to do that. I heartily recommend Jonathan’s website and video blogs to you for detailed information about the negative effects these things are having in our society and in the evangelical church. He identifies the roots of these issues, who is pushing them and why, but more important, he explains them and how to stand firm against them. Perhaps at some point in the future when Jonathan is able to come up for a visit I can have him preach on some particular aspects of this subject.
This morning I am going to focus on what I do well, and that is to lay out a Biblical foundation for you about these subjects. As Christians, our priority is knowing and walking with God, and that requires us to understand what He has revealed in His word according to its historical and grammatical context. Only then can we respond in true godliness because only then will we have the truth, and truth makes the musings and opinions of men irrelevant. Truth makes us free to do what is right before God instead of being enslaved by the lies and deceptions of sin whether that is our own or that of others including the devil. I stressed the importance of truth in my sermon last week. (See: Truth in a Post Modern Society) Truth is crucial for not only knowing and following God, but also for having the wisdom to be able to live a successful life as defined by God. Since truth and political correctness are seldom in harmony, what I have to say today will be very politically incorrect, and hence the title of this sermon: “Biblical Correctness: Battling Man’s Perversions of Justice.”
The Biblical View of Justice
A strategy that is often used by Satan and those under his influence is to use language in a way to deceive people with a different meaning. This can even result in changing the meaning of a word by its incorrect usage. For example, the 1890’s and the 1990’s could both be called the “gay 90’s,” but with two very different meanings. As a word is used in association with something else, it can take on new meanings even to the point of meaning the opposite of its original meaning. When I was a kid, bad meant bad, but in my late teens and early 20’s, bad became slang for good or great in the sense of being wicked in a gnarly but not evil way. If that made sense to you, then you also remember how confusing it became. If that did not make sense to you, then be glad that particular slang usage of the word “bad” became less popular.
These kind of word deceptions can be quite serious. Anyone that has had to deal with legal issues knows that the verbiage in such documents are often very confusing. That is purposefully done for two opposite reasons. Legal contracts are often tedious in the effort to be very precise so that it cannot be twisted to mean something else, for that is often the quest of the opposing attorney. Government laws and regulations are confusing on purpose so that they can be interpreted very broadly in multiple directions by those in authority. A friend summarized Gov. Cuomo’s COVID-19 Executive Orders as, “Basically, you can’t leave the house for any reason, but if you have to, then you can.” And “Stores are closed, except those that are open.” And, “You can’t see your older mother or grandmother, but you can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.” And I will add, “what is essential is determined by the whim of the Governor.”
Far more serious are theological deceptions such as the same word being used by different groups with different meanings so that you assume incorrectly what is being said. For example, the word “grace” means unmerited favor and therefore something that is given as a gift to someone undeserving. However, in Roman Catholicism, grace is God’s favor merited by participation in their Sacraments. Protestants and Roman Catholics alike claim to believe that salvation from sin is by God’s grace alone, but they have two opposite meanings in the statement. I pointed out years ago that Sarah Young’s heretical book, “Jesus Calling,” gained widespread acceptance in Christian circles due to wrong assumptions about what she means. (See A Review of Sarah Young’s Book, Jesus Calling)
A similar problem has now developed in the usage of the word “justice.” It does not always mean what you would normally assume. It is often coupled with other words to give credibility to concepts that are actually unjust. For example, “social justice” is not about equity for all people, but rather it refers to the Marxist idea of “equality of outcome.” What then is justice as defined by God?
True Justice: The Hebrew word for justice, fp5v5m / mishpat, is part of the fp8v2 / shaphat word group which encompasses the ideas of govern, judge, judgment, justice and ordinance. The Greek word used to translate this is krisivV / krisis, which is most often translated as judgment in English. Because our governments split responsibility between executive, legislative and judicial branches, it seems odd to us to combine these aspects of government, but in the ancient world, the king held all authority. The king could make and carry out his law making judgments according to his justice, but he himself would be held accountable to God, the ultimate judge of the universe.
All true justice will be tied back to God as the sovereign ruler who judges according to His own law and character. In other words, true justice extends from God through the rulers – judges – He has chosen and will be held accountable to Him. This is seen in Deuteronomy 1:16-17 in Moses’ charge to the seventy that were to help him judge the people, “Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him. 17 ‘You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God’s. . .” This is also seen in Psalm 72:1-2, “Give the king Your judgments, O God, And Your righteousness to the king’s son. 2 May he judge Your people with righteousness And Your afflicted with justice.” Jesus remarks in John 5:27 that the Father has given Him the authority to execute judgment / justice.
True justice is therefore tied to God’s character and attributes and is to reflect Him in both the judgments and the manner in which justice is carried out. Psalm 89:13 proclaims of the Lord, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You,” and Psalm 9:8, “And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.” Justice is tied to wisdom which guards the paths of justice and enables discernment of righteousness and justice and equity and every good course (Prov. 2:8-9).
God does not show partiality nor take a bribe (Deut. 10:17, 1 Peter 1:17) and He commands those that will judge others to do the same. Deuteronomy 16:19-20, “You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20 “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that you may live and possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you.” The word for justice in verse 20 is qd6x / tsedeq which refers to what is accurate, correct, right, honest and therefore a fitting contrast to distorted justice which brings God’s curse (Deut. 27:19). The Greek word used to translate this word is dikaiovw / dikaioō which is more often translated as justify meaning to declare righteous, vindicate or acquit. No flesh can be justified before God by works of the law (Romans 3:20). God’s justice is carried out by Him justifying by His grace those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24, 28).
Another Greek word translated as justice is ejdivkhsiV / ekdikēsis which is part of the dikaiovw / dikaioō word group. It is giving justice to someone who has been wronged, and so is also translated as vengeance, retribution and penalty. It is used in Luke 18:7-8 of God bringing about justice for His elect. It is used in Romans 12:19 and Hebrews 10:30 both of which quote Deuteronomy 32:35, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” So again, we see that justice in all its forms and nuances still come back to God. True justice is bound up in God.
Perversions of Justice. There are many ways that justice can be perverted, but what all of them have in common is making justice man centered and according to his own sense of right and wrong instead of what God has declared, but that is the way of a fool and ends in death (Proverbs 12:15; 16:25). Bribes pervert justice because they seek to gain a favorable judgment for self benefit instead of decisions based on what is actually true and right before God. Both the one who offers a bribe and the one that receives it are wicked (Prov. 17:23). Threats pervert justice by the negative motivation of avoiding harm to self. Threats are effective because people naturally want to prevent pain if possible, but the godly appeal to the Lord about such threats and then trust Him (Isaiah 37:17-20; Acts 4:29)
The worst perversions of justice are those that are done in the name of God or in the quest for righteousness based on human works. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this. Worse that just failing to do God’s stated will, they purposely substituted their own self-serving traditions of self righteousness such as corban (Mark 7:11-13) for God’s commands. The rebukes Jesus gave to the scribes and Pharisees in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) were of the same nature and worse because they taught others to replace God’s actual commands with their own teachings and practices.
At the present time, the church is once again assailed by false and aberrant teachers offering humanistic porridge to those who should be feasting on the Word of God. Just like the devil, they twist Scripture to support meanings that contradict what God has actually said, and because so many professing Christians remain ignorant of even Biblical basics, they get away with it. Don’t you be among them. Learn the Scriptures for yourself and stand firm on the truth. Do not be led astray by the doctrine of demons or the teachings of any man.
I am going to give a brief overview of what the Bible teaches in three specific areas so that you can protect yourself from the current dangers of false ideas of justice in economics, human sexuality and relationships between nations and ethnic groups.
The Biblical View of Economics
The Bible has a lot to say about economics. I preached a seven part series on finances and stewardship in 2006 and only scratched the surface. (The notes are on our website – link). Today, I will only be pointing out a few things about economics that are relevant to our broader topic of justice. Those claiming economic justice requires an equal distribution of wealth contradict what God has said about economics and they require injustice to be done to achieve their desired outcome. What does the Bible say about the rich and the poor?
The Rich. There are many warnings in the Bible about the pursuit of wealth (Proverbs 23:4-5), seeking it in an ungodly manner (Proverbs 13:11; 28:8), making it your treasure or master (Matthew 6:18-24), using it for ungodly purposes (Neh. 5:7; Psalm 73:3-12, 17-20), and to not to be conceited if you have riches or to fix your hope on it (1 Timothy 6:17). The proud conceit of the rich is why it is so difficult for the rich to be saved (Matthew 19:23-24). However, no Scripture passages condemn the rich just because they are wealthy. In fact, quite the opposite, wealth is often tied to wisdom (Proverbs 8:18,20; 14:24) and God’s blessing as seen in the lives of people such as Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Boaz, David, Solomon, Joseph of Arimathea and Barnabas.
In Deuteronomy 28, the blessings God would grant to the Israelites if they obeyed Him included wealth. Proverbs 3:5-10 gives the general principle for trusting God and the blessings that follow, 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. 8 It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones. 9 Honor the LORD from your wealth And from the first of all your produce; 10 So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine.
Those who condemn the rich just because they are wealthy only reveal their own sin as Romans 2:1 explains, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Envy blinds them to their own wealth compared to those with even less. Instead of rejoicing for someone who is so blessed, they curse them just as warned about in James 3:9-10.
The Poor. There are those that cite Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20 or James 2:5 and then claim poverty is a blessing because it provides a way into the kingdom of heaven. No, salvation is only by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. The only advantage of the poor is that it is easier to be humble when you are poor and God gives grace to the humble. James 2:5 is set in a context of rebuke to those that show partiality to the rich, and James is pointing out that the poor are not lesser members in the church, for they are also blessed by God. Matthew 5:3 is specifically being “poor in spirit.”
People are poor for a lot of reasons ranging from the righteous being persecuted by evil people, to natural disasters, to man made catastrophes such as war and government regulations, to consequences of their own personal sin. The poor should be shown compassion (Proverbs 22:9; Psalm 72:13; 1 John 3:17), but showing partiality to either the rich or poor is injustice (Leviticus 19:15), and great care must be taken in how to respond to those who are poor due to their own sin and laziness. You do not want to remove God’s reproof that comes through the natural consequences of sin (Proverbs 24:30-34). Paul even commanded that “if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either” (2 Thess. 3:12). In Deuteronomy 28, the Lord warned they would be cursed if they did not obey Him, and poverty is included in the curses. The cure for it would be humility, repentance and seeking the Lord.
The Myth of Equality. Marxism advocates achieving economic equality of outcome by redistribution of wealth saying, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” In reality, it is a system that takes from the rich to give to the poor, or more accurately, it steals from the diligent who work to give to those who are sluggards. That is why communism and socialism collapse and cause such misery. Sooner or later, all the wealth of the rich is stolen, and the diligent finally quit trying.
Christian socialists cite Acts 2:44 and 4:32 which records that the early church in Jerusalem “had all things in common.” They usually fail to note that this was all done voluntarily because they were of one heart and this was a practical expression of their love for God and one another. In Acts 5:3-4 Peter is direct that the price of the land sold was completely under the control of Ananias to do as he pleased, but he and his wife Sapphira died because they lied about it. Voluntary sharing of resources is wonderful, but required redistribution is sin.
The quest for economic equality is a myth used to mobilize the poor out of greed and envy by those who want political power. Moses said “The poor will never cease to be in the land” (Deut. 15:11) and Jesus stated it directly in Matthew 26:11, “for you always have the poor with you.” Why? Simply because people vary in their physical and mental abilities, attained skills, opportunities available to them, and character qualities including how money is spent. This point is brought out in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. Each received according to their abilities and what they achieved reflected those abilities and faithfulness. Then there is 1 Samuel 2:7, “The LORD makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts.” A truth in Hannah’s prayer recognizing God’s sovereignty. God exalts the humble (1 Peter 5:6) and He humbles the proud (Matt. 23:12; 1 Peter 5:5).
The Biblical View of Sex & Gender
We also live in a time in which there is a cry out for so called “gender equality.” If that meant treating both men and women fairly according to individual abilities, then who could reasonably disagree? But that is not what is meant. This is a direct attack on God’s design of mankind.
Sex. The terms sex and gender are usually interchangeable with the nuance of difference being that sex refers to biological traits and gender refers to the cultural or social traits associated with the particular sex. Let me cut through the confusion and be absolutely direct with you. People are either male or female and nothing else.
First, Genesis 1:27 states directly than on the sixth day of Creation, God created man (md2a / adam), as male (rk2z2 / zakar), and female (hb2q34n52 / neqebah). Jesus quotes this in Matthew 19:4 that God made them male (a[rshn / arsēn) and female (qh:luV / thēlus). There are two, and only two sexes according to the scriptures.
Second, my Bachelor of Science degree is in agricultural biology, so I am well acquainted with the differences in sexes in both animals and plants. While many plants do have both male and female organs on the same plant – stamens and pistils, and there are some weird animals that are sexual hermaphrodites or can change between them, in humans, it is a very simple matter of genetics. You are either XX – a female, or XY – a male, and even in those individuals that have multiple sets of chromosomes, if you have a Y, then you are male. If you castrate a man, he is still a male. If a woman has a hysterectomy, she is still a female. Sex is biologically determined by the chromosomes. There are not multiple sexes. Efforts to change physical sex characteristics are dangerous. So called “sex change” operations only result in physically mutilated men and women. Hormone therapies are also medically dangerous.
Gender. In the Scriptures, gender and sex are directly tied to each other with your sex determining your gender and God defining the roles of each gender. The most defining gender difference in every society is the fact that females have the potential to bear and suckle children and men do not. The primary roles of both men and women extend from that reality.
The quest to destroy gender differences in society, whether it is the effort to claim there should not be any gender differences or going to the other extreme of creating all sorts of new genders according to the whim of the individual, is all out of rebellion against God’s stated design and roles for men and women. That is the quest of the advocates of the LGBTQXYZ agenda. As I pointed out last week, humans are natural born liars, but truth remains truth even if people believe their own lies and get others to go along with them. God holds people accountable to His commands and that includes in the areas of human sexuality and gender roles. While God allows plenty of room for societal differences in the expression of gender differences such as clothing and ornamentation, the basic roles are well defined in the Bible and are to be upheld in every society. In addition, purposeful gender confusion is forbidden which was the reason for the prohibition on cross dressing in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 22:5). I have given many sermons which address this subject, but I challenge you to do your own study by looking up God’s commands given specifically to men and comparing those to His commands given specifically to women.
Finally, those who cite Galatians 3:28 as evidence there is not to be gender differences among Christians because “there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” are foolish pawns of the devil. Learn to read in context and then compare the passage to the rest of the Scriptures. The “gender equality” of Galatians 3:28 is your standing before God as a saved individual who is a child in His family. It has nothing to do with the responsibilities and privileges God has given to you according to your gender.
The Biblical View of Different People Groups
The final category of so called “social justice” I want to address is what God says about nations and ethnic groups. The call for “racial justice” is actually the exact opposite of what you might otherwise think the phrase is talking about. It is a demand by racists for injustice to be carried out based on skin color. What is called “critical race theory” is thoroughly racist in the most negative meaning of that word. This travesty is made worse by those who try to tie it to the gospel, except it is a different gospel with a different means and goal of salvation, and Paul was clear in Galatians that anyone preaching a gospel contrary to what He preached is to be accursed.
Revelation 14:6 states that one day an angel will proclaim an eternal gospel “to those who live on the earth, and to every nation, and tribe and tongue and people.” Revelation 7:9 uses the same four terms to describe the all encompassing range of different people groups that will stand before God’s throne.
Nations is the translation of e[qnoV / ethnos from which we also get our term, ethnic. Its root meaning is “a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus” (GELNT) and so it is the term for “the largest unit into which the people of the world are divided on the basis of their constituting a socio-political community” (Louw-Nida). It is often translated as “Gentiles” in making a distinction between all other people and Jews. However, it is also used for people from a geographical area as in Acts 2:5 in which Jews “from every nation” had gathered in Jerusalem, with verses 9-11 listing some of the countries from which they came.
Tribes is from fulhv / phulē and refers a subgroup of a nation that is more closely related due to common descent or blood relationship. An example of this would be the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.
Peoples is from laovV / laos which in its most general meaning refers to a union of people ranging from a crowd to a social group defined in the context of its usage.
Tongues is from glw:ssa / glōssa and is fairly self explanatory as those who share the same language. But that in itself has a tie back to people who are related to each other and came from the same geographical location since it was by the confusion of languages at Babel that God caused the people to spread out over the earth forming nations in various places.
My point here is simply that there are many ways to separate people into different groups. People tend to naturally divide according to language, similar appearance, customs and social class. The political correctness of social justice plays on those sinful tendencies to produce division and contention in order to create political power though the creation of voting blocks that can be manipulated.
America was once considered to be a melting pot in which common ideals and values held us together in unity while also enjoying the wide variety of differences in the many subcultures. Social justice seeks to destroy that by using multiculturalism to create anarchy as groups gang up on whoever is perceived to have power and drag them down. It is a massive social game of king of the hill, except at the present, those with the greatest number of minority status positions wins – that is called intersectionality.
This is bad enough in a nation where there should be unity, but it is far worse when it enters into the church where it causes division, perverts the gospel itself, and demands that the Bible be interpreted and applied according to your own culture instead of what the author intended to communicate to those to whom he was writing. That is becoming increasingly common even in churches that are supposed to be evangelical. Bible study by eisegesis (reading into the text) instead of exegesis (interpreting out of the text) is done at the risk of your soul as the doctrine of men replaces the doctrine of God.
Harmony in the church, racial and otherwise, comes from the unity of being of one body, one Spirit, one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father (Eph. 4:4-6). Every Christian is to extend to others the same forgiveness we received from Christ (Eph. 4:32). We are responsible only for our own sin (Ezekiel 18:20), so whatever may or may not have happened between our kin, ancient or contemporary, is to be irrelevant to us. The gospel of Jesus Christ frees us from past sins through forgiveness received by faith in the person and work of Jesus, while the gospel of social justice only offers the quest for earned forgiveness which can never be achieved.
The true, universal church, is made up of individuals that come from every possible human group to form just one group, the people of God. That is God’s view of people. He divides them between saints and sinners, sheep and goats.
Every Christian should consider every other Christian as a brother or sister in Christ and treat them accordingly. Frankly, the only difference that should take some work to overcome is language. Every other difference, whether physical or cultural, should be of no consequence to those that love Christ and are seeking to be conformed into His image. God changes us by His word and His spirit so that we increase in our outward expression of our internal righteousness, and that in turn changes our cultural practices. God’s view of a superior or inferior culture is evaluated only by its conformity to His standards of righteousness. Christians desire to take the best of every culture in bringing the greatest praise and glory to our God. Christians are also to be color blind in the sense that the melanin count in your skin, hair and eyes are to be irrelevant to our love for each other whether we have a little or a lot. Keep in mind, that prejudice is just as prevalent in minority groups as it is in majority groups regardless of the country in which you live.
The God of Justice & Grace
A few last quick points to show that God’s concern is the demonstration of His own attributes and not equality of outcome.
First, God is longsuffering and patient, but He is also holy and just. He brings His justice to bear upon sinners when He judges them according to His own will and timing. In Genesis 6-9, God finally destroyed the world with a flood because every intent of the hearts of man were only evil continually, yet in mercy and grace, God spared Noah and His family and all the animals in the ark to repopulate the earth. God is just in His judgment, but also gracious to individuals.
In Genesis 15 God condemned the nations of Canaan, yet waited four hundred years before that destruction would take place under Joshua because “the iniquity of the Amorite was not yet complete.” Some claim that God was not fair in wiping those nations out, but such people forget that He is also a God of vengeance and wrath against His enemies. All deserve such judgment for there are none who are righteous and all sin deserves its wages of death (Romans 3:10, 23:6:23). God was just in their destruction, but He was also merciful in delaying it for four centuries and also gracious to individuals among the Canaanites such as Rahab who became a mother in the ancestry of the Messiah.
If someone wants to complain God is not fair, then they should point out that He extends His mercy as He desires (Exodus 33:19). God is just and fair in His judgment of sinners, but He extends His unmerited favor – grace – to whom He chooses. The nation of Israel is the greatest example of this for He choose them to be His people as a favored nation simply because of the promise He made to their forefathers and not anything in them for they were stubborn (Deuteronomy 7:7; 9:6).
Those who advocate for an equality of outcome are either ignorant of God’s nature and revelation, or they are purposely defiant of it. Even those who go heaven will find it will not be equal because each man’s works will have been judged as to whether it was built on a proper foundation to receive a reward or was built on something that is burned up and loss is suffered (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
Conclusion
Social justice warriors pride themselves as advocates for the rights of minorities, but in the end they will be part of the majority for Jesus warned that the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few that find it, but the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it (Matthew 7:13-14). Do not let such people lead you astray and exchange the glorious doctrines of God for the foolish musings of men. Pursue true justice as defined by God and reject socialism’s ungodly injustice required for equality of outcome whether that is economic, gender or racial. Proclaim the pure and gracious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ untainted by works righteousness or any other perversion of it.
Sermon Notes – April 26, 2020
Biblical Correctness: Battling Man’s Perversions of Justice – Selected Scriptures
Introduction
We are to know & walk with God according to His word interpreted in its historical & grammatical _______
_________ is crucial for knowing & following God and having wisdom to live life successfully
The Biblical View of Justice
A method of deception is to ___________ and change the meaning of words and language
Theological deception by _________ confusion is serious – example: is grace unmerited or earned favor?
Justice is being distorted – while justice is equitable, equality of outcome is inherently ___________
True Justice
fp5v5m / mishpat & krisivV / krisis – govern, judge, judgment, justice, ordinance,
All true justice is tied to and extends from _____as the sovereign ruler – Deut. 1:16-17; Ps 72:1-2; John 5:27
All true justice reflects God’s ___________ and attributes – Psalm 89:13; 9:8; Prov. 2:8-9
All true justice is __________and honest – Deut. 10:17; 1 Peter 1:17 – qd6x6 / tsedeq & dikaiovw/ dikaioō
God’s justice includes righteous ____________, penalty: ejdivkhsiV/ ekdikēsis – Luke 18:7-8, Romans 12:19
Perversions of Justice: Whenever justice is ______centered & according to his own sense of right & wrong
________(Prov. 17:23), threats, traditions that substitute for God’s commands (Mark 7:11-13; Matthew 5-7)
Humanistic Scripture ____________to support contradictions of what God has actually said.
The Biblical View of Economics
The Rich: The Bible gives many ____________ about ungodly pursuit, use and attitudes toward wealth
No Scripture ____________ the rich for being wealthy itself
Wealth is linked with ______(Prov. 8:18,20; 14:24) & God’s blessing: godly people, Deut. 28, Prov. 3:5-10
Condemning the rich for their wealth is ______________ (Rom. 2:1)
The Poor: Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20 & James 2:5 do not make poverty another means to _____________
People are poor for _____reasons & should be shown compassion (Prov. 22:9), but never partiality (Lev 19)
Do not remove God’s ___________ of natural consequences – Prov. 24:30-34; 2 Thess. 3:12; Deut. 28
The Myth of Equality – Marxism results in __________ from the rich and diligent to give to sluggards
Acts 2:44; 4:32 do not support Christian socialism since their sharing was _______, not mandatory (Acts 5)
The quest for economic equality uses greed & ________to mobilize the poor in order to gain political power
There will always be the poor (Dt. 15:11; Mt. 26:11) because people ____in ability, opportunity & character
The Biblical View of Sex & Gender
: Sex refers to ___________traits. Gender refers to cultural traits of a sex
Genesis 1:27; Matt. 19:4. God created man (adam), as male (rk2z2 /arsēn) & female (hb2q34n /thēlus)
There are _______ , and only two sexes according to the scriptures
While variation exists in plants & some animals, in humans you are either _____ (female) or ______ (male)
Sex is biologically determined by the _________________, and there are only two possibilities, not multiple
Gender. In the Scriptures, gender and sex are directly _____together & God defines the roles of each gender
The most defining gender differences in all societies arise from the ability of women to ____& suckle babies
Any effort to either redefine gender by unifying them or multiplying them is _____________ against God
The basic gender roles given by ____are for all societies even if there is cultural variation in their expression
Galatians 3:28 describes equal standing before God, but does not support “gender _________” in the church
The Biblical View of Different People Groups
– “Social justice” is ___________ and demands injustice
Tying “social justice” (including Critical Race Theory) to the gospel is a ____________- a different gospel
Revelation 7:9; 14:6 – God’s people will be made up of __________ nation, tribe, tongue and people
Nation = e[qnoV / ethnos: a large socio-political community / often translated as Gentiles
Tribe = fulhv/ phulē : subgroup of a nation closely __________ by common descent / 12 tribes of Israel
People = laovV / laos: a union of people ranging from a crowd to a social group defined by context
Tongue = glw:ssa / glōssa: those who share the same __________ (but this traces back to Babel)
“Social justice” destroys by playing on the sinful tendency of man to _______& be prejudicial against others
“Social justice” divides the church, perverts the gospel & demands ___________ interpretation of the Bible
Harmony in the church comes from our unity as saved ___________ in Christ – Ephesians 4:4-6
Christ grants forgiveness by faith in Him. Forgiveness in “Social Justice” is _________, but never achieved
Every Christian should consider every other Christian as a ________or sister in Christ & treat them as such
God _________every culture by its adherence to His commands – Christians change culture toward that goal
The God of Justice & Grace
God is longsuffering and patient, but He is also holy and just bringing ____________ in His own timing
Genesis 6-9; 15 – God destroyed the world and later the Canaanites – but was gracious to ______________
God is just & fair in judging sinners, but He extends His unmerited favor, _________, to whom He chooses
Equality of outcome is ___________to God’s nature and revelation
Conclusion
– Social justice warriors will be with the ________in eternity – only the few enter heaven (Mt. 7)
Pursue true justice & proclaim the pure and gracious __________of Christ untainted by any perversion of it
KIDS KORNER
Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children: – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Write down all the verses mentioned in the sermon and look them up. 2) Count how many times justice is mentioned. Talk with your parents God’s definition of justice and why equality of outcome (economic, gender or racial) is contrary to that.
THINK ABOUT IT!
Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. How does the misuse of language contribute to deception? Why are legal contracts and laws usually so wordy? Why does grace have a different meaning in the Roman Catholic Church? How is the word “justice” being changed in current usage? What is justice according to the Scriptures? What is the relationship between justice and God? How is justice perverted by bribes? Threats? Substitution of man’s traditions for God’s commands? What warnings do the Scriptures give about wealth and to those that are rich? Does God against people being wealthy? Explain. What is the relationship between wealth and wisdom? Obedience to God? Why is it hypocritical to condemn the rich for being wealthy? What are some of the reasons that people are poor? What should the general response be to those who are poor? What response should there be to someone who is poor because of their own sin? Why is Marxism inherently unjustice? Can Acts 2:44 or 4:32 be used to justify Christian socialism? Why or why not? Why is the quest for economic equality of outcome a myth? What is the difference and relationship between sex and gender? How many sexes are there in humans? Explain. How many genders are there in humans? Explain. Why is there an effort to distort / confuse gender? In what ways can males and females be equal to each other? In what ways is gender equality impossible? Explain. What do each of these terms from Revelation 14:6 mean: nation, tribe, tongue, people? To what are they referring when taken all together? How does “social justice” cause division in society? In the church? What is “intersectionality” and why is it evil? What is multiculturalism and why is it evil? What is wrong with interpreting the Scriptures according to your culture? What criteria should a Christian use to evaluate whether elements in a culture are good or bad? What effect should Christians have upon culture? How does a person attain forgiveness according to the gospel of Christ? How is a person forgiven of past generational sin according to the gospel as interpreted by “social justice” and is that forgiveness ever actually attained? Why is “social justice” inherently racist? How should Christians treat one another regardless of differences in nation, tribe, language or people group? Why is that often not true? What can change it? Why is God just and fair in His punishment of sinners – including the flood and the destruction of the nations of Canaan? Upon what basis does God save some from that destruction? Why has God given the nation and people of Israel special favor in His eyes? Will there be differences among those that will be in heaven or will they be equal in all respects? Explain.
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