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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
March 20, 2022
Trusting God, Part 5 – The Righteous God of Justice
Selected Scriptures
Introduction
As someone that much prefers warmer weather to colder weather, I am glad to see the last day of Winter end with temperatures above freezing! My crocus started blooming a week ago and my daffodils are growing rapidly. Spring is on its way and with it come flowers and much lower heating bills! Whatever troubles you may be facing, the arrival of Spring is to be counted a blessing.
This morning I will be continuing our series on Trusting God. Your ability to trust God is directly related to your understanding and believing the truth that God has revealed about Himself in His word. Any wrong ideas and beliefs you have about God will diminish your ability to trust Him, and since what the vast majority of people think they know about God comes from sources other than the Bible, most people do not trust Him. It is to be expected that those raised in a false religion or secular philosophy of some sort would not trust God at all since they do not know Him at all. It is expected that those influenced by cults would trust God in some areas since they will have some interaction with the Bible, but the heresies taught will either pervert or diminish that trust or both. Sadly, the majority of professing Christians also have a wide mix in their ability to trust God due to personal ignorance of the Scriptures and the proliferation of false teaching. Then there is the fact I pointed out last week that syncretistic worldviews have increased to the point that the dominate and especially so among the younger generations. Individuals develop their belief systems by picking and choosing from a wide variety of religions and philosophies which are mixed with personal experience. The latest Barna polls indicate that only about 2% of the younger American millennials – 18-24 years old – have a Biblical worldview.
Review
This is the fifth sermon in this series. We have already covered the fact that God is the Creator and therefore has the right do whatever He desires with what He has created. We can trust God because as our Creator, He designed us and knows what is best for us. (See: God, The Creator). God is also self-existent which contrasts Him with everything else which has their origin in something outside themselves. God’s origin is Himself. He is the uncaused cause. We can trust God. There is no force outside Himself to direct Him, so He can act completely according to His own character and will.
Arising from God’s self-existence is His self-sufficiency. He is neither dependent on nor has need of anything outside Himself. Everything He has created – which is everything – and everything He does is for His own good pleasure. And while it is humbling to be confronted with the fact that God does not need you, it magnifies God’s attributes that He desires a relationship with you anyway, and even more so that He would redeem you from your sin at the cost of the life of Jesus Christ. God’s self-sufficiency enables you to trust Him for it also means He has no need for anything outside Himself. He is completely sufficient to carry out His will.
God is also immutable. He is unchanging in His nature and attributes. Because He is all knowing, there is no knowledge He can gain that can change His mind, and because He is already perfect in all His attributes, there is no possible improvement that can occur in Him. You can trust God because He is immutable and unlike man who is constantly changing. (See The Self-Existent, Self-Sufficient, & Immutable God).
God is also infinite in all respects – space, time, knowledge, power, and ability. The only limit upon God is Himself for He will always act according to His character and nature. The word eternal describes Him being infinite with respect time. God is before, after and throughout time. God is not entrapped within the box of the time-space continuum in which we exist. You can trust the infinite God. (See: God is Infinite & Eternal).
All of these factors are part of the reason that God is very different from humans or anything in Creation. He is something “other,” and the word we use to describe that is “holy.” He is set apart from everything else because He is not like anything else. That was the subject of last week’s sermon. God cannot be understood according to human experience and philosophy. He can only be known through what He has declared about Himself and what He has done. (See: The Holy God).
While God made man in His image, man only reflects that image at best to a small degree, and because humans are sinful, even that is badly marred. To the degree a person understands God in terms of being a reflection of human characteristics is the degree to which they will have wrong understanding of God, and wrong beliefs about God result in wrong actions toward God. That is the origin of irreverence to God. God can be your Father and Jesus can be your friend, but neither are your “good buddy.” He is the Creator God who is surrounded by Seraphim calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come” (Revelation 4:8). He is to be treated with the reverence and awe He is due as our holy Creator.
What should be amazing to every human is that God our Creator who is self-existent, self-sufficient, immutable, infinite, eternal and holy wants us to be holy so that we can have a relationship with Him, and He has provided a way for that to happen through Jesus Christ. That creates a two-fold dilemma. First, how can beings that are not holy become holy? We cannot clean ourselves up for even our righteous deeds are filthy rags before our holy God (Isaiah 64:6). Worse than that, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), so the just punishment ends our lives and with it any hope of escaping eternal condemnation. Second, how can God who is so holy and pure that He cannot behold evil or look upon wickedness (Habakkuk 1:13) reconcile sinners to Himself and maintain His characteristics of being both righteous and just. That is the subject for the rest of today’s sermon.
God is Righteous
Corresponding to God being holy is that He is righteous. Holiness refers to God’s separation from what He has created by both His infinite nature and by His perfect character of righteousness. I pointed out last week that the Greek word, o[sioV / hosios, translated as “Holy One” carries this idea of being of a superior moral quality that separates from the common and profane. Moses proclaimed in Deut. 32:4 in speaking of the Lord, “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” Similar declarations of the Lord’s righteousness are made in Ezra 9:15, Nehemiah 9:8 and ten times in the Psalms as well as in Isaiah 24:16; 45:21; Jeremiah 12:1; Daniel 9:14; Zephaniah 3:5 & Zechariah 9:9. The Hebrew word translated as righteousness, qyD3z1 / tsaddiq, and its cognates refer to an ethical, moral standard, and in the Hebrew Scriptures, that standard is the Lord Himself as revealed in His nature and will and demonstrated as stated in Psalm 145:17, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.”
The Greek word for righteousness, divkaioV / dikaios, and its cognates, is similar in meaning for its root, divkh / dik , traces back to the divine law of the goddess of justice who is called by that same name. In a society, divkaioV / dikaios referred to “one who conforms, who is civilised, who observes custom” of that society. In Biblical usage that conformity to custom refers to the standards of the Law which comes from God Himself. Righteousness is an attribute of God with Jesus even calling Him, “righteous Father,” in His high priestly prayer in John 17:25. God is righteous and so all that He does is righteous as declared in the song of Moses which is sung in Revelation 15:3-4, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!” Whatever and whomever conforms to the ways of the Lord is declared to be righteous. It is a description specifically given to Abel (Matt. 23:35), Joseph (Matt. 1:19), Zachrias & Elizabeth (Luke 1:6); John the Baptist (Mark 6:20), Simeon (Luke 2:25), Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 23:50), Cornelius (Acts 10:22) and Jesus (1 John 2:1) who is even given the title, The Righteous One (Acts 7:52, Hebrews 10:38). It is also a general descriptive title for all the saints (Matthew 13:17; 25:46; Galatians 3:11).
That the Lord is the standard for righteousness is an important point to keep in mind. God sets the standards of what is right and what is wrong by His own character and the commands He has given to man all of which are in complete unity and harmony with that character. Man is responsible to both learn God’s standards and live according to them. Failure to live according God’s standard is sin. It is missing the mark of righteousness and therefore falling into unrighteousness which results in God’s judgment and condemnation.
Proverbs 14:12 warns, “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” Man has always wanted to use his own ideas and desires as the standard for what is right and wrong. That is the essence of sin. It is the essential reason Adam & Eve succumbed to temptation and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. Though He had given them a strong warning against it, Eve listened to the slander against God’s righteous command and decided it would be good to do what she thought best. Adam then joined her in doing the same and plummeted mankind into sin. All of their descendants have done the same ever since. People want to do what they think is best and they will even judge God as something less than righteous in that pursuit. Have you ever noticed how quickly a sinner to whom you are proclaiming the gospel will try to deflect their own sinfulness by accusing God of being unrighteous because He does not meet their standard. The accusations against God usually follow one of two tracks or both.
People often accuse God of being unrighteous because He allows something they believe to be evil to happen. Often they are correct that it is a great evil that has happened, but in accusing God they miss two very important points. First, they fail to attribute the evil to its actual source in man. That God tolerates evil demonstrates His longsuffering patience and not any deficiency on His part. People want God to quickly judge when it comes to other people, but they would not want that for themselves. Lets face it, if God judged you or me quickly afer we sinned, we all would have already been cast into eternal hell. In fact, there would be no humans on earth for Adam & Eve would not have lived to have had children. But God is patient and longsuffering because it glorifies Him to bring about redemption to sinners – and for that you and I both need to be very thankful.
Second, people would have no means of determining what is good or evil except that God has already set the standards for them. Without a righteous God, then there is no means to determine right or wrong. Everything would be amoral. On what basis could you say that lying, stealing, adultery or even murder was wrong? If evolution was true, then doing or not doing any of those things would just be different approaches to the survival of the fittest. Does society set the standards? If so, then which society at which time sets the standard? Is it determined by might makes right? It is because as pointed out in Romans 1 & 2 that God has already put a knowledge of Himself in man and given people a conscience that morality exists and there are standards of right and wrong.
Keeping in mind that the Lord is the standard for righteousness also both prevents and cures the evils of both legalism and licentiousness. The former makes rules beyond what God has said while the latter seeks to lessen or even remove the commands God has given. But it is God, not man, that sets the standard for righteousness, and that standard is God Himself.
There is another aspect to both the Hebrew and Greek words for righteousness that ties it directly to the concept of being just. qyD3z1 / tsaddiq, and its cognates are often directly tied to what is just because what is righteous is also just, and what is truly just is also morally righteous. It is used in Leviticus 19:15 in relationship to the work of judges to be righteous, fair, and without partiality – “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” The word is used three times in Isaiah 5:23 translated three different ways in warning those who would be unjust by perverting what is right – “Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!” It is translated as just in Leviticus 19:36 to describe weights and measures that are morally right – “You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt.”
In a similar way, divkaioV / dikaios, and its cognates can be directly tied to being just to such a degree that it is often translated as that. For example, in John 5:30 Jesus states, “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” In 2 Thessalonians 1:6, Paul explain to them, “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you.” Romans 3:26 uses divkaioV / dikaios and two cognates saying, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
That last verse brings up another important tie between the idea of righteousness and justice for the theme of the book of Romans is the display of God’s righteousness in both His condemnation of unrepentant sinners and in bringing about the redemption of sinful man through justification by faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In regards to the unrepentant, Paul warns in Romans 2:5–6, 5 “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who will render to each person according to his deeds.” In Romans 3:5–6 Paul warns unbelieving Jews, 5 “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) 6 May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?”
God is righteous in His condemnation of those that fail to meet His standard of righteousness, but God also demonstrates His righteousness in Jesus being the just and justifier of those that have faith in Him as I pointed out from Romans 3:26 a few minutes ago. Paul points out in Romans 4:3-6 that God credits or imputes righteousness to those that believe God’s promises. Or as stated succinctly in Romans 1:17 that in the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous / just man shall live by faith.” Paul explains how this works in Romans 10:6–13, 6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Because God is righteous, you can trust Him. This is far more than Him meeting a standard of morality, for the standard of morality arises from Him for He is perfect in all of His ways. God is righteous in His very character so He can be trusted to always do what is right. There is no evil in Him. Furthermore, out of His righteousness comes both His condemnation of the unrepentant unrighteous and His redemption and justification of those who believe in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ so they are made righteous in Him and have a holy standing before God. If God was not righteous, then He could not be trusted to do what is right and be just in His judgments of man. This brings up the closely related issue of justice.
God is Just
As already explained in the words for righteousness, there is a sense of justice within them for true justice must arise from righteousness otherwise there would be injustice. The connection is seen even in the meaning of our English word, justice. The Oxford dictionary defines justice as “The quality of being morally right and fair – the administration of the law or authority in maintaining what is morally right and fair.” Webster’s definition is “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair . . . the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.”
Even those simple definitions demonstrate the necessity of having a true standard of what is morally right bound in God Himself otherwise people will make up standards that fit their own desires which will vary from person to person and group to group and change with the particular situation. We have seen that a lot in the last few years. The invading nation or rebelling group within a nation will argue they are morally justified in their actions while those being attacked will argue that what is being done to them is morally evil. What communists, socialists and thieves all have in common is the claim that they are morally justified to forcibly take from you the fruits of your labor and give them to someone they favor. Communists and dictators will even go far as putting those that do not agree with them into forced labor camps. They would argue that is for the good of the greater society.
In our own land we have seen the rise of groups touting these same Marxist philosophies try to claim the moral high ground by calling it social justice or the pursuit of diversity, equity and inclusion. They have succeeded in capturing the reigns of power in most of education, main-stream media and government, but they still face the same problem. Putting lipstick and jewelry on a pig doesn’t make it a beautiful woman. What they call good God declares to be evil and so the warning in Isaiah 5:20 applies, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” They may be in positions by which they can punish those that peacefully protest against them – such as the Canadian truckers last month and the current Freedom Convoy in Washington D.C. – while praising those that violently protest in favor of their policies such as antifa and BLM. But our God is both righteous and just, and those that claim that Amos 5:24 – “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” – fits the fight for social justice will be very surprised to find that Hebrews 10:31 and 12:29 is what will apply to them – “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and “our God is a consuming fire.”
We have seen that righteousness and justice are closely related to each other so that the words for righteousness in some contexts can even be translated as being just. But Isaiah 30:18 states that “the Lord is a God of justice,” and Deuteronomy 32:4 describes His character, “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” What then is justice?
The word “justice” occurs 129 times in NASB95 Old Testament usually for the Hebrew word, fP2v5m3 / mishpat, which occurs 421 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. This word along with its cognate verb, fp1v2 / shaphat which occurs 203 times, is translated variously as justice, judgment, judge, govern, decision, regulation and custom. depending on the context. According to TWOT, the word group encompasses all the functions of government – legislative, executive and judicial. In addition, the ancients tied law to the ruler and not a separate entity. That is why it was so important for the Law of Moses to be tied to God Himself who would rule the theocracy through His law with the Levites handling the judicial functions among the people. Because the people would “do what was right in their own eyes” instead of following God’s law, God appointed judges and then later kings to rule over the people and be responsible to administer His law.
The tie between righteousness (qyD3z1 / tsaddiq) and justice (fP2v5m3 / mishpat) is seen in the many passages in which both words are used. In Genesis 18:16 we learn that the Lord chose Abraham to keep His way “by doing righteousness and justice.” The judges and officers in Israel were specifically commanded in Deuteronomy 16:19
“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.”
References are made about David and other kings that they “administered justice and righteousness” (2 Samuel 8:15; 1 Kings 10:9). Job defended himself saying “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban (Job 29:14 ). All of these are simply reflections of God who is just and righteous as declared in Deuteronomy 32:4 for the Lord “loves righteousness and justice” (Psalm 33:5) and “righteousness and justice are the foundations of [His] throne” (Psalm 89:14). A simple way to think of the tie and the difference between these two words is that righteousness is the standard and justice is the application of that standard to life.
I have already pointed out that the Greek word group divkaioV / dikaios can be translated as justice or righteousness depending on the context. Justice is conformity to the standards of righteousness. Another Greek word that can be translated as justice is krivsiV / krisis which is often used for fP2v5m3 / mishpat, in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. This word and its verb form emphasize the administration of justice, the application of the standard of righteousness to the situation or upon the individual and so is most often translated as judge or judgment.
As with the Hebrew words, the use of the Greek words for righteousness and justice show their tie to one another and the differences when used in the same sentence and paragraph. An example of this is John 16:8–11 which Jesus speaks about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” The Holy Spirit convicts people concerning a departure from God’s standard of righteousness which brings guilt; what are God’s standards which will serve as the guide to what is right and wrong before Him; and the application of that standard in determining who has or has not kept it. The Spirit will bring a sense of guilt upon those who do not uphold God’s standard of righteousness, the righteous will be guided by God’s standard of righteousness, and God’s standard of righteousness will be the basis of the condemnation of those that violated His standard which includes Satan.
Social and political movements often try to claim the moral high ground with their clamoring for justice. The blind fools do not realize they are crying out for their own condemnation because the standard of righteousness is set by God and not by any man or group of people. As Romans 2 explains, their condemnation of others condemns themselves because the hypocrites do not even meet their own standards. The unrighteous are unrighteous regardless of their outward appearance by human standards by which they may appear immoral, moral or religious, for they fail to meet God’s standard of righteousness and therefore will be justly condemned by Him (Romans 1-3). The problem for all mankind is that there none righteous and none that does good (Psalm 14:1-3; Romans 3:10-12) for all sin and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Unregenerate unbelievers who cry out for justice will find themselves condemned when justice is applied to them.
God’s righteousness and justice would condemn all humans except that those same attributes are satisfied in the exercise of other attributes of God – mercy, grace and love – to provide the means of salvation of sinners from that condemnation. As I pointed out earlier, God’s righteousness is displayed in the satisfaction of His just wrath against sin in the voluntary, substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. As 1 Peter 3:18 explains, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 put it this way, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus is the demonstration of the righteousness of God for He is the just and justifier of those who have faith in Him (Romans 3:24-26).
The righteous Lord is the God of justice. While that should strike fear in the hearts of sinners, it is the source of comfort and trust for those who are saved by faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are comforted by the fact that Jesus has satisfied God’s justice on our behalf so that we are made righteous before Him and therefore welcomed into His presence, and that enables us to trust Him for our eternal future. The fact that the judgments of the Lord God, the Almighty, are true and righteous (Rev. 16:7) means that He will make right the wrongs we currently experience on this earth. His justice will prevail and the evil that is done and those who do it will receive just condemnation and punishment. We recognize like Asaph in Psalm 73 that because God is longsuffering, that justice may not be fully carried out until that person dies, but it will surely be carried out in eternity. The unrighteous will not escape God’s justice unless they are made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. Our part is to wait patiently for the coming of the new heavens and earth in which righteousness dwells (1 Peter 3:13).
Summary & Conclusions
God is righteous for He is the source of and standard for all righteousness. He determines what is right and what is wrong, not man. Righteousness arises from within God’s character and it cannot change because God Himself is immutable in all His attributes and perfections and nothing outside of God can influence Him to change His standard. That means I can always trust God to do what is right according to His own unchanging standard.
The Lord is the God of justice. He faithfully applies His standard of righteousness to all of creation and judges it accordingly. That should cause unbelievers to tremble in fear for it means they will face God’s wrath and His eternal condemnation and punishment for their sin if they do not repent and place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God can be trusted to bring about justice even if His longsuffering nature does not allow you see it carried out in reference to all the evils you may experience in your own lifetime on this earth.
If you currently fear God’s justice, that can be changed for God’s justice is satisfied in Jesus’ atonement for sin. That enables Christians to have no fear of God’s justice for we are made righteous – justified – by faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can trust God to fulfill His promise that being forgiven of our sins and adopted into His family that our eternal future will be with Him in heaven. We rejoice in God’s justice and find it to be a source of comfort and trust in Him. So whether you fear God’s justice or rejoice in it is a matter of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For those of you who rejoice in God’s justice, then give Him praise, tell others and let its truth increase your faith and trust in Him. For those of you who fear it, today is the day of salvation. Give serious consideration of the claims of Jesus Christ that you may believe what is true. Talk to myself or any of our church leaders. We would love to help you know our Savior.
Revelation 16:7 – “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
Sermon Notes -3/20/2022
Trusting God, Part 5: The Righteous God of Justice – Selected Scriptures
Introduction
Your ability to trust God is directly related to your understanding & believing the _________about God
Most people have false beliefs about God because they look to sources for belief _________the Bible
Review
God is the ______- the only uncaused cause – He can act completely according to His own character & will
God is self-existent & ___________________and so has no need for anything outside Himself
God is ____________- unchanging in His nature and attributes
God is __________in all respects. The only limit on God is Himself
God is ___________- infinite in respect to time – He is not entrapped in the time-space continuum
God is _____- set apart from all of Creation because He is something “other” than everything He has created
God wants _________to be holy – set apart to Him – and become righteous
God is Righteous
God’s holiness (o{sioV / hosios) of superior __________quality separates Him from the common & profane
The Lord is proclaimed to be __________ – Deut. 32:4; Ezra 9:15, Neh. 9:8, Psalms, Isa, 24:16; 45:21; etc.
qyD3z1 / tsaddiq & its cognates – an ethical, moral ___________, which in Scripture is the Lord Himself
divkaioV / dikaios & its cognates – in Biblical usage – ________________to the standards of God’s law
Righteousness is an ____________of God – John 17:25, Revelation 15:3-4, 1 John 2:1
_____sets the standard of righteousness by His own character & commands which man must learn & follow
Man’s desire to set & live by his own standard of righteousness is the essence of ________
Evil in the present time is due to ________ sin nature and God’s longsuffering patience of sinful man
Man has no _________for a moral standard apart from God who has set it
Evolution makes all things ________, and societies & people change their standard to match their desires
The Lord as the standard for righteousness prevents both ___________and licentiousness
The Hebrew & Greek words for righteousness are often directly tied to concepts of ___________
Leviticus 19:15, 36; Isaiah 5:23; John 5:30; 2 Thessalonians 1:6; Romans 3:26
God’s displays His righteousness in ____________sinners – Romans 2:5-6; 3:5-6
God also demonstrates His righteousness in Jesus being the just & _________of those that have faith in Him
Because God is righteous, you can __________Him for He will always do what is right
God is Just
True justice must arise from ______________otherwise there would be injustice
Justice = The quality of being morally ______and fair – the administration of the law or authority (Oxford)
If the standard for justice is not in God Himself, people make up their own standard to fit their __________
The warning of Isaiah 5:20 applies to the ________falsely claiming to seek the moral high ground of justice
“Social justice” warriors claiming Amos 5:24 will experience it in terms of ___________10:31; 12:20
Justice – fP2v5m3 / mishpat and cognates = _____functions of government: legislative, executive & judicial
The Law was tied to _______Himself as its origin and the judge of man
Righteousness & Justice are ____together – Gen. 18:16; Deut. 16:19; 32:4; 2 Sam. 8:15; Job 29:14; Ps. 33:5
Righteousness is the standard and justice is the _____________of that standard to life
divkaioV / dikaios can be translated as justice or righteousness depending on the ___________
krivsiV / krisis is often used for fP2v5m3 / mishpat in the Septuagint
Righteousness & Justice are tied together – John 16:8-11 – the Holy Spirit’s work of ____________
Hypocrites should not clamor for __________because they will receive it upon themselves – Romans 2
God’s righteousness & justice would ________all humans if not for their satisfaction in Jesus (1 Pet. 3:18)
That the Lord is the God of justice should strike ______in the hearts of all sinners and comfort all believers
Summary & Conclusions
God is righteous for He is the source of and ____________for all righteousness
The Lord is the God of justice for He faithfully ______His standard of righteousness to judge all of creation
God’s justice should cause sinners to tremble in fear – but _________is offered through faith in Jesus Christ
The Christian is made righteous – _______- by faith in the person & work of the Lord Jesus Christ – rejoice!
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) Count how many times the words “righteous” and “just” are used. 2) Discuss with your parents the righteousness & justice of God increase trust.
THINK ABOUT IT! Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. Why do most people not trust God? What is needed in order to trust God? Explain the meaning and significance of each of the following attributes of God: He is Creator, Self-existent, Self-sufficient, Immutable, Infinite, Eternal, Holy. What is the relationship between holiness and righteousness? What are the Hebrew & Greek words for righteousness and to what do each refer? Why is it important to keep in mind that the Lord is the standard for righteousness? Why does evil occur? Why does God allow it? If there was no God or if He was not righteous, could there be any true standard for morality? Explain. How does true righteousness prevent both legalism and licentiousness? What is the relationship between the words for righteousness and justice in the Hebrew Scriptures and Greek scriptures? Why is God righteous to condemn those that do not meet His standard? How does the fact that God is righteous affect you ability to trust Him? What is the meaning of justice? Why is it impossible to have justice without a true standard of righteousness? What is meant by those who clamor for “social justice?” Why is that hypocritical and what will happen to them when they face God’s justice? What is the meaning of the Hebrew word , fP2v5m3 / mishpat, and its cognates? What is the tie between it, God’s law and righteousness? The Greek word group divkaioV / dikaios can be translated as justice or righteousness depending on the context. What does the Greek word krivsiV / krisis add to our understanding of God’s justice? God is righteous and just – what then must God do to the unrighteous? How can God’s righteousness and justice be satisfied so that a sinful man can be make righteous before God? What can you personally expect to receive from the righteous God who is just? How does God’s justice enable you to trust Him?
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