THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Brothers, sisters, chapter 25 in the book of Deuteronomy. We're going to be reading these 19 verses, I think it is, 19 verses.

And brother and dear sister here or online, what I want to share with you is a meditation on the justice of the Lord. We have spoken about the justice of the Lord extensively in the past. And in a sense, every time that we preach the gospel, we're speaking about the justice of the Lord. But I want us to meditate upon the justice of the Lord or the justice of God. from the instructions that are given here to the people of Israel.

The Lord is just, and he gave commandments and instructions to the people of Israel. And in those instructions and those commandments given to the people of Israel, we do not only see what God requires of the people of Israel, but also we see the character of the Lord in those laws and in those instructions. topic, or if you want, of the attribute of the Lord that I want us to think about from these instructions given to the people of Israel is the justice of God. So let us read together, brother and sister, Deuteronomy chapter 25, and let's pay careful attention to the different commandments and the different instructions that Moses continues to give to the people of Israel as they approach and enter into the Jordan or into the promised land through the Jordan. And let us see here how the justice of the Lord is given to the people of Israel and manifested in his character.

Let us read together Deuteronomy chapter 25 and paying attention to each one of the words and by faith and with the help of the Holy Spirit, beloved brothers and sisters, let us read together. This is Deuteronomy chapter 25. If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge will curse him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. You shall know muscle and ox when it is treading out to the grain.

If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son, whom she bears, shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.

Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he persists saying, I do not wish to take her, then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house. and the name of his house shall be called in Israel the house of him who had his sandal pulled off. When men fight with one another and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand.

Your eye shall have no pity. You shall not have in your back two kinds of weights. a large and a small. You shall now have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you.

For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you in the land that the Lord your God has given you for as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. Amen.

This is the word of the Lord. Now, brothers and sisters, as we read through the Old Testament and as we read the stories of Israel and of the people of God and even moving into the New Testament, we see that God speaks of his justice and communicates his justice, if you want, in instructions and in commandments and in statutes to his people in two different ways. The first way in which God communicates His justice through His statutes and His commandments, all of His ordinances and instructions given to the people of Israel or the New Covenant, is in a gracious, peaceful, condescending way in which He only speaks and gives instructions, and He expects that people, either humans or the people of Israel or the Church, will obey. The justice of the Lord is revealed in a peaceful, condescending, gracious way, in which before humans, or the people of Israel, or the church, or the people of God in general, before they disobey, the Lord comes to them condescendingly, and He manifests that which is just, and that which is unjust, and that which is righteous, that which is unrighteous, and He gives the commandment. That is the first way.

But there's also a second way that is not in less importance, but it follows sometimes that first way. And that is when people, when they have received the commandment and the instruction of the Lord, and they know what they are expected to do, they are supposed to do, and they disobey that commandment and that instruction, going against the justice of the Lord, then many times the Lord will use punishment or discipline or judgment to remind the world, or Israel, or the Church, that there is the justice of the Lord manifested in His commandments and His work and His statutes that they have deviated from. That way, sometimes, it's not that peaceful, it's not that condescending in the sense of the peaceful presence of the Lord, but it will come with discipline, with judgment or any word that we want to give to that. Two ways. The one is first, and the second, of course, comes after that.

As we read through the Old Testament, we see many times the examples with the people of Israel who had received the instructions and the commandments of the Lord given in a condescended, peaceful, and gracious way of what they were supposed to do. And we also see how many times the Lord in his also gracious condescension, but not so peaceful for them, remind them of the commandments that they had broken and the consequences of breaking the commandments that belong to the justice of the Lord. Someone said once that if you want to see the brightness of the stars and the whiteness and the light of the stars, then you need to have a black and dark night. Because the darker and the more black that the night is, the easier that will be for you to see the light of the stars, the light of the moon, and the whiteness of all of these things. Sometimes it happens like that with the justice of the Lord.

We harden our heart in such a way, or humanity hardens their heart in such a way, or even the people of Israel harden their hearts in such a way, that they are so deviated from the justice and the righteous standard of the Lord, that it only takes that the justice of men is manifested, and the blackness and the unrighteousness of men is manifested, so that we will remember that the ways of the Lord are always good, that the instructions of the Lord are not to be burdensome to the soul, that the words of the Lord are perfect and our soul finds peace in the instructions of the Lord. Because when it's men, the one that is taking justice, when it's men, the one that is commending the warriors into justice, then the blackness of the unrighteousness that is inherent to our nature is clearly manifested. So may the spirit of the Lord help us to see in this chapter that we have here in front of us four things that I want to show you of the justice of the Lord. Opposite in contrast, just like the stars against the blackness of the sky at nighttime, to the justice of men. Completely opposite in nature to that which man calls justice.

the justice of our God, the justice of our Savior. Four things that I want to show you in different places from this chapter. And the first characteristic of the first principle or attribute, if you want, of God's justice that I want to give you is that God's justice has a perfect standard. We are told in verses 13 through 16 of the expectation that God had for the people of Israel, and that is that they will not have double measure, that they will not have different ways, that they will not have different ways to approach and to come to justice of decisions, because it says in verse 16, for all who do such things, for all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord. You shall not have in your back two kinds of weights, a large and a small.

You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full weight, a fair weight you shall have. You are not to have a dishonest weight. That was the expectation of God for the people of Israel, that their ways, not only in the house, but also in the covenant community, will be honest and transparent. That is that the standard by which they will live will be full and complete, honest and transparent.

The standard of the Lord given to humanity, given to the people of Israel and given to the church is also, my dear brother and sister, a justice that has a standard that is righteous. And the righteous standard of the Lord is not seen in our ability to obey him, but rather that happened actually in the garden. The garden gave Adam and Eve a standard of how they were supposed to behave, that they were able to fulfill and submit to and follow the instruction of the Lord. After the fall, we are unable to do so. But the righteousness of the righteous standard of the Lord manifested to humanity is seen in something that we have inside of us that testifies to all humans and to every single creature that when we do something that goes against the work of the Lord that is written in our hearts, then we know.

The Lord has not left himself without a witness in the mind and in the heart of people. So he communicates to them his righteous standard of what they are expected to do. And when they break that standard, they know that they deserve death, according to Romans 1, verse 32. And many times people, because of the hardening of their hearts, they will be given over to that particular unrighteousness, and many times celebrate those who partake in that unrighteousness. The justice of the Lord has a perfect standard.

He knows the depths of the heart of all people, and He is going to give each one according to what they deserve. The second thing that I want to show you, if you come to the first verses, is that the justice of the Lord is fair, or is just, one could say. He gives to each one according to what they deserve. If two men come with a complaint before the judges, then one of them, if he is found innocent, then the one that is found guilty will receive the punishment that he deserved. The justice of the Lord, my dear brother and sister, is fair.

There will be one that is found innocent, and there is one that is found guilty. And the one that is found innocent is let go. But the one that is found guilty will receive a punishment. And the punishment is not led just simply to the opinion, or it's just not left to the perceptions of those who are to judge him, but the punishment of the Lord is even instructed. no more than 40 stripes you will inflict on the one who is found guilty.

Because my dear brother, my dear sister, the justice of the Lord does not only have a perfect and fair standard, but it's also measured. He gives to each one according to what they deserve. And we have this very interesting verse there, verse 4 in the first section of chapter 25, that gives us another characteristic of this justice of the Lord. That it's not only that it's fair that he gives each one according to what they deserve, a dear brother and dear sister, That which we deserve from the justice of God is what we need. You see that verse 4 there?

It seems that it's just taken out of somewhere and that it's difficult just to put it into the context of what the author of Deuteronomy is trying to say. But we get a little bit of light when the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 second Corinthians chapter 9. First Corinthians chapter 9, when he's explaining this verse here, speaking, it says, You shall not muscle an ox when it is treading out the grain. In other words, you are to give to each one according to what they deserve. And many times what they deserve is what they need.

That is, the justice of the Lord is not only what each person deserves, or the judgment of the Lord, what each person deserves according to what they have done, but also the justice of the Lord is what we need. The punishment for the one who has broken the commandment is not only what he deserves, but it's also what he or she needs. A commandment that is broken and that is just let broken without the punishment of the Lord, without the judgment of justice, is something done against the person who has broken the commandment. The law is just in that the person that breaks the commandment receives what he or she deserves, and that is what he or she needs, just as when the ox is working and needs to eat from what he is working, also the one who receives the justice of the Lord receives something that they need, because the justice of the Lord, my dear brother and sister, does not only have a perfect righteous standard that he gives each one according to what they deserve. You can see the explanation of that in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, when the apostle is speaking, saying, this is not written only for the animals, but it is also written for the provision of those who work of the gospel.

Why? Because the one who works and ministers in the gospel is supposed to receive what he deserves. And what he deserves is not only what he deserves, but what he needs. because this is the justice of the law. Third thing that I want to show you, and that is that the justice of the law is to be remembered.

The justice of the Lord, my dear brother and sister, is to be remembered. You will see how many times, as you go through the Old Testament, you will see the words of Moses written to the parents of Israel, telling them that they are to remind their children, that they are to diligently teach their children about all the stipulations and the statutes and the instructions of the covenant that has been given. that they will teach them day and night, and these commandments will be in the minds of their children constantly and ongoingly. And even he said that when they ask about the different things that they perform in their religion, why do we do this, specifically speaking of the Passover? The parents were to tell their children.

Because when we were slaves in the land of Egypt, our Lord came down and come descended. He visited us, He removed the bandage and the chains that we had in Egypt, and He took us to this promised land in which now we belong to. The justice of the Lord is to be remembered. And the way that the people of Israel were supposed to remembered the justice of the Lord was by going back to what the Lord did in the land of Egypt and the promise of the giving of the land. This remembrance was based in two things.

The first one was the land. And the second one was the name of their ancestors. If you remember, once the people of Israel make it into the promised land, each one of the tribes is going to be allocated or given a specific portion of land. And the commandment of the Lord in Deuteronomy chapter 19 and through the whole Old Testament is that the tribes of Israel were not to relinquish or to give up some of their land to other tribes. They were not to move their boundaries and to take the possession of the land of any other tribe or clan or family.

As the Lord allocated the land to each one of the tribes, families and clans, that was supposed to be kept and passed through the generations because that was meant to be a token through the generations and for their children that this is what the Lord did when he liberated us from the land of Egypt and gave us this portion of land. Of course, that land that was meant to be passed to the generations was also to belong to the same people of the tribe, to the same people of the clan, but to the same people of the family. Hence, it was of vital importance that the offspring of the people of Israel will be preserved through the generations. That those people, those families, those clans that initially took possession of the land, their names and their lands will endure through time, through generations, so that when someone will ask, why my great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather inherited this piece of land, then there will be a token and a testimony of what the Lord had done on behalf of the people of Israel and given to them not only this land, but a name attached to that inheritance. Super important, then, that if someone was going to die without an offspring, that his brother will fulfill that law and then take the wife or the wife will be taken by the brother and then his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

Because, my dear brother, my dear sister, the justice of the Lord is to be remembered. we easily forget the justice and the commandments and the statutes of the Lord. So the justice of the Lord is to be remembered. And then the fourth thing, and finally, that I want you to point your attention to is found in verse 17, that the justice of the Lord does not only have a perfect and righteous standard, and the justice of the Lord is not only measured and gives to each one according to what they deserve, which is what they need, and not only that is to be remembered, but in verse 17, that the justice of the Lord is to be feared. What a fearful thing, a terrifying thing is to fall into the hands of the living God.

The justice of the Lord is to be feared. We are told here in verse 17 of the story on the condition of the Amalekites. Once the Lord had decided that their name was going to be bled out from heaven, there was absolutely no door of escape for the Amalekites to change their destiny. there was absolutely no escape for them to find another alternative for what the Lord had said. Once the Lord decides to bring judgment and discipline or whatever treatment for his people or for the world, then there's absolutely nothing that is going to reverse the decree of the Lord.

And that for the world, and that for the people of Israel, and that for the church in general, is to be a matter of reverence fear. The Analekites had the destiny from the mouth of the Lord. They approached the Israelites and they did not fear the Lord and he attacked the people of the Lord. Then he says these terrifying words in the end. You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

You shall not forget. What a terrifying thing is to fall into the hands of the living God. There's always escape. for the attacks and the oppression of the government. There's always escape for the attacks and the oppression of Satan.

There's always escape for the attacks and the oppressions of the world. There's always escape for the attacks and the oppression of our own flesh. We can always come on our knees and say, Lord, please deliver us from the oppression of this government. Lord, please deliver us from the oppression of this world. Lord, please deliver us from the oppression of our enemies.

Deliver us from the oppression of our flesh. But once the Lord decides that he will bring his judgment or his discipline, he will accomplish the purpose for which he has uttered that decree. And that is what he should do for the people of the world, is to bring them to their knees. Of course he doesn't because of the hardness of our hearts. But this is the fearfulness of the justice of the Lord.

And in the deep meditations of his character of God, dear brother, dear sister, the people of Israel were supposed to behave. They were supposed to behave with a righteous standard, treating one another fairly and honestly. They were supposed to execute the justice of the Lord in fairness, giving the innocent what they deserve and the guilty what they deserve and the punishment that they deserve. That which they deserve is also what they needed. They were supposed to remember and to keep the allocation of the land and to keep the names that were originally given through the generations.

So this will be tokens for the people of Israel. And based on that, they will behave one with the other. They were supposed to open their eyes and to see the justice of the Lord and then to have that in their hearts and to manifest that one to the other. The apostle Paul summarizes this perfectly in Galatians chapter 6. applying this justice of the Lord, or these commandments of the Lord for the church.

If you come with me please to Galatians chapter 6, you will see that Moses, for Israel, they wrote all of these precise and very detailed instructions of behavior rooted on the same God that does not change. These are the same words written under now the light of the new covenant. Through Paul, given to the church in Galatians chapter 6, let's read this together and you will see here the glories of the new covenant in Galatians chapter 6. It says, brothers and sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. In the Old Testament, 40 stripes, no more than 40 stripes.

Here, brothers and sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself. Let you too be tempted. bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who is taught of the Word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

For what everyone sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Commandments given to the people of Israel under the Old Covenant rooted in the justice or in the righteous character of God.

Instructions given to the people of Christ the Church under the New Covenant rooted and established upon the righteous character of the Lord. who gave himself for that church, so that that church, those people, will not be led by the law, by the letter of the commandment, but they will be guided, they will be led by the Spirit of Christ in them, fulfilling the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. The law of the Lord Jesus Christ that will testify to them that once he was a sinner, And I deserve the righteous wrath of God upon me, that he died upon the cross for me. And he took all this wrath that I deserve. And by virtue of the satisfaction of his justice, now I'm to live my life in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

And that is to be manifested one with the other. Amen.