Tag: justice

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

Psalm 89:14 KJV

  • God’s Wrath & Our Unrighteousness

    “I am eager to preach the gospel to you also…  I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…

    Paul, to the saints (believers, mostly former pagans now Christians) in Rome.

    God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness

    Romans 1:

    18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

    19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

    21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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    Are you an unrighteous fool?

    Paul calls those of false religions, ‘fools.’ They worship cows and cats, ancestors departed and places on earth destined to destruction. They seek bearded sages or force upon the downtrodden ideology of glorious conquest.

    Consider the glory of the LORD, the heavens and the earth. NO big bang nor pain-stakingly slow sequence of unlikely perfect events could have created the earth upon which we walk or this miraculously intricate body which walks upon it.

    The vastness and perfection of the heavens is immeasurably beyond the comprehension of created man (adam).

    Think about those who are unrighteous. Think about the sins these inflict on you. Consider their sins against many, these sins of the ungodly, who will be called to account at the Judgment seat by the LORD who they refuse to worship. Paul describes these. You can likely put many faces to Paul’s long descriptive list of unrighteousness.

    28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

    29 They were filled with

    • all manner of unrighteousness,
    • evil, covetousness, malice.
    • They are full of envy,
    • murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
    • They are gossips, [30] slanderers,
    • haters of God,
    • insolent, haughty, boastful,
    • inventors of evil,
    • disobedient to parents,
    • [31} foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

    32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

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    We see the faces of those who deserve God’s wrath. In all fairness, when will the LORD finally destroy the evil of the unrighteous?

    How long, O Lord, until Your Holy wrath consumes the evil which plagues us?

    A fair question. How long will God contend with their evil? … their evil … evil?

    Have I forgotten anything I should ask of God?

    To be continued…

    Third ‘Easter‘ message in Lenten Series, 2016
  • until he brings justice to victory

    until he brings justice to victory

    The death of justice occurred not a week ago, but in centuries past.

    Justice..

    such a noble ideal. Yet what is justice, but a separation of evil from good?

    This world and this country, the unseen victims of our streets and countless peoples fleeing violence are destined to suffer injustice since the fall of man (adam). Why should it surprise us that a crisis of justice once more brings darkness to a people with failing light?

    global debtThe law of the land is no longer just. The nation of hope is no longer light to the nations. Those once free are sold to our debt and the lords of the land lend by usury.

    Psalm 89:14 KJV

    Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

    The LORD is higher than the laws of the nations.

    His justice hears the appeals of the downtrodden,

    His judgment is feared by the judges of injustice.

    He will make right wickedness done to the poor.

    RH

    Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Psalm 82:3

    Trump on borderDare we build yet higher walls between billionaires and the penniless? Do millions of poor not gamble their futile futures in towers of sin built by the greed of a handful of arrogant rich?

    Can a nation be bought or a people negotiated?

    _87097692_syria_rebel_control_624_v4Where is justice in the lands from which millions flee for their lives?

    Where is justice for the unwanted child? Where is justice for victims fleeing from war?

    The perversion of justice is not a new thing under the sun.

    Isaiah 59:

    Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
    2 but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
    and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.

    baby 17 week fetus3 For your hands are defiled with blood
    and your fingers with iniquity;
    your lips have spoken lies;
    your tongue mutters wickedness.
    4 No one enters suit justly;
    no one goes to law honestly;
    they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
    they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

    Why this sounds like the accusations of a political race with rumblings of iniquity heard all over the world. Yet the prophet Isaiah wrote this in the 8th century Before Christ.

    … Their works are works of iniquity,
    and deeds of violence are in their hands.
    7 Their feet run to evil,
    and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
    their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
    desolation and destruction are in their highways.

    kerry putin8 The way of peace they do not know,
    and there is no justice in their paths;
    they have made their roads crooked;
    no one who treads on them knows peace.

    Judgment and Redemption

    14 Justice is turned back,
    and righteousness stands far away;
    for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
    and uprightness cannot enter.

    15 Truth is lacking,
    and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
    The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
    that there was no justice.

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    The short terms of political power and temporal rulings of Justices, powerless before the Throne of Judgment, will not prevail in this age any more than in forgotten times of fallen empires with nameless leaders, mortals whose legacy is dust and whose souls will be called to account at the victory of Christ, when soon the Lord will return in power upon the clouds.

    On a Cross in Jerusalem the Righteous One was crucified for our sins. Christ Jesus offered us mercy for the wickedness of our hearts and deeds of our sins.

    Even the Prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time of Jesus Christ:

     “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord. – Isaiah 59:20

    1 Corinthians 15:54-57 KJV

    So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,

    and this mortal shall have put on immortality,

    then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,

    Death is swallowed up in victory.

    O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

    The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

    But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

     

  • Covenant and Truth – 2

    Covenant and Truth – 2

    Malachi 2

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    2 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart…

    10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

     

    Have you ever said to God: Where is Your justice?

    Do you think that the Lord does not see the injustice done to you or the sin committed by you?

    Why does the Lord not answer our prayers? (Surely God knows all truth.) Is God not going to seek justice for me?

    Indeed God will judge. It is not a court (when books are opened) where you would dare to plead even your own case, let alone come to God as the plaintive about others.

    In fact, God in several passages of scripture, pleads His own case to us; indeed, as warning against the same injustices we have committed against Him and against others.  This is God’s plea through the Prophet Malachi. Hear the proceedings of our case:

    The charges are serious. The consequences are eternal. The call for repentance is immediate.

    13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 

    14 But you say, “Why does he not?”

    Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 

    15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? 

    And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring.

    So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts.

    So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

    The Messenger of the Lord

    17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.

    But you say, “How have we wearied him?”

    By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

    And we ask for God to come and bring justice?

    What were we thinking, without first bowing down to the will of Christ Jesus, our Redeemer by His Cross and our Judge Advocate?

    Read Malachi 3 for further conviction, if need be.

    Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

    NOT me; not without Christ Jesus as my Lord.

    To be continued…