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Jul 29, 2018

Justice: A Love Story

Justice: A Love Story

Passage: Proverbs 2:6-10

Speaker: Colin P. Thornley

Series: Proverbs, Searching for Wisdom

Wisdom for justice.

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: Proverbs 2:6-8
Call To Worship: Psalm 33:1-5
Sermon Title: Justice: A Love Story
Central Text(s): Proverbs 2:6-10; Proverbs 8:19-21 (NIV); Proverbs 21:3; Proverbs 21:15; Proverbs 29:7 (NIV);
Response: from the Book of Common Worship
Assurance of Pardon: 1 Peter 2:24
Benediction: Isaiah 30:18
Post-Service Text: Proverbs 8:19-21 (NIV)

Illustration

House - It Matters

Longmire - Empty

Readings/Scripture

Pre-Service Text: Proverbs 2:6-8
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.

Call To Worship: Psalm 33:1-5
LEADER: Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

ALL: For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Central Text(s):
Proverbs 2:6-10
For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

Proverbs 8:19-21 (NIV)
My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me
and making their treasuries full.

Proverbs 21:3
To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Proverbs 21:15
When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

Proverbs 29:7 (NIV)
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.

Response: from the Book of Common Worship
ALL: Eternal God, our judge and redeemer,
we confess that we have tried to hide from you,
for we have done wrong.
We have lived for ourselves
and apart from you.
We have turned from our neighbors
and refused to bear the burdens of others.
We have ignored the pain of the world
and passed by the hungry, the poor, and the oppressed.
In your great mercy, forgive our sins
and free us from selfishness,
that we may choose your will
and obey your commandments;
through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Assurance of Pardon: 1 Peter 2:24
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

Benediction: Isaiah 30:18
LEADER: Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;

ALL: blessed are all those who wait for him.

Post-Service Text: Proverbs 8:19-21 (NIV)
My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me
and making their treasuries full.

Related Scriptures:

Psalm 140:12
I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted And justice for the poor.

Isaiah 51:4-5
"Pay attention to Me, O My people, And give ear to Me, O My nation; For a law will go forth from Me, And I will set My justice for a light of the peoples. "My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait for Me, And for My arm they will wait expectantly.

Jeremiah 9:23-24
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Isaiah 61:8
For I the Lord [YHWH] love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Malachi 2:17
You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. When you think of Justice what immediately comes to your mind? Why do you think your mind goes there? Has the message today changed or challenged your concept of Justice?
  2. Read Micah 68.  Why do you think that we are told to “do justly” rather than to love Justice?   How does Justice and mercy work together in your everyday life? What does it look like to walk humbly with God and how might your life be different if you did so?
  3. Read Proverbs 2.6-10. What has to happen in order for us to truly understand Justice according to this passage? If we are honest, do you or I have the prerequisites to understand Justice?  How does the finished work of Jesus help us to open the meaning of this passage?
  4. Read Proverbs 8.14-18.  Reflect on the implications of this passage. What do you think that this means when political rulers are flawed and sometimes cruel?
  5. Read Proverbs 11.1,16.8-12 & Isaiah 61.8. Why do you think that the writer of Proverbs often ties Justice with wealth?   In what ways have you or your loved ones experienced this imbalance in Justice? How does the reassurance of knowing that the Righteous Judge of all creation will deal with every injustice?  In light of the cross, what does this mean to you?
  6. Read Proverbs 29.7, 25-27.  Since all of us feel somewhat justified in every action that we take, at least in the moment, how can that obscure the Holy Face of YHWH? What can be done to reorient ourselves to the God of All Justice?

Quotes:

  • “Compassion is a spirituality of . . . JUSTICE.” - Brennan Manning
  • “Do not make the mistake of thinking that you have to agree with people and their beliefs to defend them from injustice.” - Bryant McGill
  • “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”  - Bryan Stevenson
  • “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.  Martin Luther King Jr.
  • “God in his infinite mercy has devised a way by which justice can be satisfied, and yet mercy can be triumphant. Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, took upon himself the form of man, and offered unto Divine Justice that which was accepted as an equivalent for the punishment due to all his people.” - Charles Spurgeon
  • “But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, 'whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,' and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.” - John Adams
  • “For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy”. - G.K. Chesterton
  • “Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.” - William Penn
  • “God never punishes his children in the sense of avenging justice. He chastens as a father does his child, but he never punishes his redeemed as a judge does a criminal. It is unjust to exact punishment from redeemed souls since Christ has been punished in their place. How shall the Lord punish twice for one offense? ...Now let us find solace in the finished work of our Lord Jesus. Everything is fully done: justice demands no more”. - Charles Spurgeon
    • (did you know? “Throughout the Southern states, anti-Spurgeon bonfires were lit near bookstore, courthouses, and on plantations. Anyone who sold Spurgeon’s sermons in North Carolina faced imprisonment for “circulating incendiary publications.”)
  • We shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ except we first know assuredly that we have no righteousness of our own. - John Calvin
  • “a conviction of Christ's sufficiency as a mediator depends on an apprehension of his beauty and excellency. Or, again, one must see the beauty of holiness to appreciate the “hatefulness of sin,” and thus be convinced of the justice of divine punishment and our inability to make restitution.” - Jonathan Edwards

Related Media

Inview Media Album, 7.29.18