Weightier Matters Part 3

Looking back over the last two sermons in this series I have found that they have helped me to put things into proper perspective and focus on what Jesus was trying to teach the world two thousand years ago.  I hope they have helped you as well.  These truths are as relevant today as they were when Jesus taught them.   Today we are going to begin to tackle the heart of what Jesus was getting to when in verse 23 of Matthew 23 He mentions Justice, Mercy and Faith.

Last time we finished verse 10 where Jesus was talking about the way the Leaders wanted to be treated and revered by others.  They wanted to be put up on a pedestal and think way too much of themselves.  In verses 11-12 we finish this first part with a statement on humility.

 Matthew 23:11-12   11 "But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.  12 "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

In this first part of Matthew we focused on Love as the basis for all Law and we drew parallels in our lives to what Jesus was trying to teach.  Jesus was setting the stage for those leaders to seek His life but He was also using every opportunity to guide those who had an ear to hear.

To cap off this first section let’s turn to 1 John 4:16 and read John’s encouragement on this topic of Love.

Love is one of those topics that everyone gives lip service to but falls short in so many areas.  When we sin let Satan’s world overshadow the love we are trying to build.  Anger and fear are often two sides of the same coin and we read about how God’s Love overcomes both if we let it.

 

1 John 4:16-21   16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.  17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.  18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.  19 We love Him because He first loved us.  20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

 

So besides focusing on Love, we looked at lessons we can take from the bad examples mentioned in the first 10 verses.  If we are honest with ourselves we can take much from the criticisms that Jesus levied at the feet of the Scribes and Pharisees.

With this as a foundation let’s move on to the next section.

Starting in verse 13 of Matthew 23 we see eight woes given to the Scribes and Pharisees where the mention of Justice Mercy and Faith are in the middle. When you look at these Eight Woes you see a much harsher attack on their character. 

Now Last time I promised we would start in on the weightier matters today and I want to keep that promise so we are going to skip ahead a bit.  We will look at the woes as a package next time because they do set the stage for His death but also for our future. 

Weightier Matters

It is during the 5th of 8 woes where Jesus tells them that they have “…neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith”.  This is found in verse 23 of Matthew 23.  Jesus introduces this package in relation to opposite behavior demonstrated by the Pharisees.

Now I call it a package because even though you find each of these concepts in different places in your bible, you find all three of these mentioned together only here.

• Justice = 130 times
• Mercy = 282 times
• Faith = 245 times

Besides the fact that these three are only found in one place together it is important to note the number of times each of these words are used in your bibles.  Mercy and Faith are found in twice as many places as Justice.

Another thing jumped out at me when I started looking where these words are found.  Justice is mainly found in the Old Testament, while Faith is mainly in the New Testament.  Mercy, on the other hand is found all through the Bible.

It’s like a story that is mainly about Justice and shifts focus to faith while never letting go of mercy and thank God for mercy because without that there is no hope at all for anyone.

So what is Justice?

So as I said, the word Justice is found 130 times in my bible with most of the references is in the Old Testament.  Only 7 of these are in the NT. 

Almost 80 uses of Justice can be found in 4 books of the Old Testament.  Now most people associate Justice with the law but it was used only once in Exodus and nowhere in Leviticus can you find this word. 

• 14 times in the book of Job talking about deliverance from trials.
• 20 times in the Psalms talking about deliverance from enemies.
• 16 times in Proverbs where Solomon is talking about how to live.
• But the largest concentration in one book (29 times) is the book of Isaiah where he warns of God’s coming Judgment.

God’s Justice is different from man’s judgment.  Man is always trying to even the score and vengeance is a form of Justice.   In fact we mistake vengeance for justice all the time and seek vengeance so we can say justice is served.  But God says that Vengeance belongs to Him. 

The first use of Justice is found in Genesis.  It is the only reference to justice in the entire book.

 

Genesis 18:16-23   16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way.  17 And the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing,  18 "since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?  19 "For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him."

 

So you expect to find the word Justice as it relates to Sodom and Gomorrah but here is it used to give Abraham a compliment rather than talking about punishing the wicked.

Although we don’t see the word Justice in the book of Leviticus you will find the word injustice in two places. It is found in 6 places in the book of Deuteronomy where the law is summarized. Notice how it is used here:

Deuteronomy 10:18   18 "He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 16:19  19 "You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

Deuteronomy 24:17   17 " You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge.

Deuteronomy 27:19   19 'Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

 Deuteronomy 32:4   4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

In these 5 of 6 places the use of Justice is not punishment.  It is about administering God’s love to all, especially those who often are at the bottom of blessings.  Those without power or position are the ones that need justice the most. The Stranger, widows, orphans, poor and weak.  This is who God directs us to administer Justice towards.

When God uses Justice and Injustice He does so most of the time to describe a world where people are not oppressed or taken advantage of.  This is far from the idea of Justice being about punishment.

Man’s Justice

The lack of this justice has been all through our history.  In 1992 I lived in Southern California during the Rodney King riots.  And while we were fortunate not to be living in the areas that were rioting I did work in and around those areas and it had a profound effect on me.

I remember being sent home from a Long Beach job site because the contractor believed that unrest was coming. I remember thinking it was a long way from where the riots had previously been but they were spreading.  On the drive home, the freeway came to a halt as we could see a dozen fires break out on both sides of the highway and thoughts that we might find ourselves in the middle of mayhem were first in our minds.

When I got home I watched the news and the slogan that seemed to be everywhere was

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.

To them, justice was withheld.  They wanted Justice for the 4 police officers that beat Rodney King.  They wanted Justice for a community that felt generations of inequality.  And so peace left their world and rioting took its place.  They were trading one for the other.  If they were offered Justice, they would, in turn, give peace.

We often talk about how blessed we are to live in a country so different than 6 thousand years of man’s history.  For most of man’s existence, he was always victim to an invading army, criminal or even landlord.  Freedom and liberty as we know it is a rather new construct.

We have to right to property and human rights.  We have liberty to do what we want and in our courts, we are promised Justice; Equal Justice under the law. 

But the truth is that will all our rights and freedoms we are still slaves to a world run by Satan and in his world, there is no justice and no peace.  We continually seek it but we never achieve it.  Our Pledge of Allegiance says with Liberty and Justice for all.  But in this life, justice is only a motto, a dream we strive to obtain but always out of reach.  And so we have strife.  But for God, justice is a promise that we can look forward to and count on.

But justice can also mean punishment

So Justice does mean administering God’s love to mankind and a part of that love is punishment.  The 6th use of Justice in Deuteronomy alludes to this in Chapter 33:21 talking about administering the Justice of LORD.

 

Hebrews 12:6-9   6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."  7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?  8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.  9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

 

Punishment often comes to mind when we think of Justice.  If we go to court to seek justice we want vindication and that means not only proving we are right but that someone else is wrong.  And no better remedy when someone is wrong than punishment. 

What if everyone on earth could get what they deserve?

So what do people deserve? What does God say about this?

Romans 3:23   23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23   23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So everyone sins and this earns us death.  But the death spoken of here is not the death that we all subject to at the end of life.

Hebrews 9:27-28   27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,  28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

So to sum up Justice to this point we see that God gave man instruction on how to live and be at peace.  God’s law shows us how to live justly with Him and with one another.  If man refuses to live within that justice then he will be dealt with and God’s justice will prevail.

Since man, since Adam has proven it is impossible to live within the confines of God’s just laws, he has earned death as a result and barring any remedy for this justice we are all doomed.  This is the justice we deserve because it is the justice that we have earned.

Nothing we can do on our own can undo that.  There is nothing that we can do release us from that fate.  But we know there is hope. 

God’s Justice contains Mercy

Thank God that his justice contains mercy.  Here is where we link the first two of these three Justice, Mercy and Faith.  Without Mercy, we would have only death. 

Man is fallible and cannot live a perfect life.  Without perfection, there is no peace, no justice, no life. 

 

We know that the book of Revelation mentions the Great White Throne Judgment where Justice will be dispensed and the guilty punished.   

But we have hope one day we will live in justice and not die injustice.

 

1 Corinthians 15:19-22   19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.  20 But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

 

This is the judgment we seek, one that does not lead to that “Second Death”.  Revelation 2:11 mentions this.

Revelation 2:11   11 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." '

Later we are encouraged to overcome this world so that we can take part in the first resurrection and not have to worry about that second death.

Revelation 20:6   6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

As we know, the only alternative to our deserved Death is the fact that Jesus Christ stepped in and paid that penalty so that justice could be served and fallible people spared the ultimate punishment.

No amount of good works, sacrifice, or adherence to any law will earn us a place in the kingdom of God.  In the New Revised Standard Version -

 

Romans 3:20-31   20 For "no human being will be justified in his sight" by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.  21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets,  22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction,  23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;  24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;  26 it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.  27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith.  28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.  29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,  30 since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.  31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means!

 

No one will get there on their own merit except for God’s mercy provided in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

John 3:16   16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

It is Mercy that makes this possible.  We see the word Mercy recorded over 280 times and if you add its variants, mercies and merciful this number raises to almost 360.

Without Mercy, we are doomed.  If our future life in the Kingdom is not possible without God’s mercy, then how important is it to show mercy to one another?

Remember the two great commandments where we started this series, Love God (for He first loved us) and Love our neighbor.  Love is another word for Mercy and it is interesting that there is an equal number of the word Love to the word mercy in our bibles.  We need God’s mercy and so we better learn to show that mercy on one another.

Matthew 5:7   7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.

Matthew 9:13   13 "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

 

Titus 3:4-7   4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,  5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,  6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

Luke 1:50   50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation.

 

God’s Justice

In the Kingdom, There will be Justice. People will not be unjustly judged, they will not be thrown from their land.  Jubilee will return property even if you sell it.  Laws will be fairly administrated.

In this world, Money means a fair trial but poverty often leads to guilty verdict.  In the Kingdom, people will be fairly treated.  The poor will be looked after and the powerless will have nothing to fear.

During the riots I saw and interesting twist in the NO Justice Sign.  A church group put up a sign to answer the first sign.  It read: Know Jesus, Know Peace.

The first sign was a threat that if justice is withheld, then peace would be withheld.  But the second sign was a promise of peace for those who would get to know the bringer of real justice.

When we know Jesus, we know the Father. And what we know about their justice is that with it comes real peace. 

 

• Leaders will be assigned by Jesus Christ
• Leaders will be held accountable
• No Locks on doors
• No passwords
• No identity theft
• No compounded Interest
• No tax code or taxes. 
• Tithing will replace all the methods man has come up with to take our wealth.
• Police will not be needed
• The only army will be a spiritual one
• No property disputes
• One religion
• One government

 

Next time we will conclude this series as we add Faith to the Justice and Mercy.  But I do have some homework.  As I said earlier, there are 8 woes in this section starting in Matthew 23:13. 

If you will count the word woe you will find it 8 times and before Passover, I would like each of us to go over those 8 passages and see what we can learn from them.  They are a condemnation of the Scribes and Pharisees behavior but just like the earlier section, there is much we can glean from them.  Next time I will not be covering them in depth but just some of the larger points we should take.

If you go through them you will see injustice and lack of mercy in the way they conducted themselves and many scriptures we covered here today will be instrumental in illuminating this.  So please take some time to go through these before Passover as we examine ourselves to see if we are focused on the weightier matters of the law and next time we will conclude this series.