Injustice
by Robin Brace
READING:
ISAIAH 59.
“WHY is our society in such a mess?” the newspaper
article which I was reading asked.
“We have all of this money which we can throw at social
problems, our educational system has been described as
one of the best – if not the best – in the world. We
have been called 'the seat of democracy', and yet, crime
stalks our city streets every evening after darkness
falls. The police despair of our new 'youth clubs
culture' which pours out hundreds of young people onto
our city streets in the small hours of the morning –
when these clubs close, especially at weekends.
Frequently fights then break out among some of these
immature youngsters – tieing up precious police
resources. Many of these young people are often found to
be too young even to have been in such places! Where are
the parents of those kids??”
Of course, this newspaper report was telling the truth.
Actually, these things are symptoms of a disease, but it
is not a physical disease – it's a disease of a moral
and spiritual nature which is affecting our peoples.
In the last few years we have also increasingly been
seeing attacks by young thugs on elderly people – we are
also seeing 'road rage' attacks where some thug resents
the fact that you overtook his car 2 miles back. You
have forgotten about it, but he plans to attack you at
the next traffic lights! We are seeing 'hoodies' (about
3-7 young people) attack unsuspecting passers-by and
filming the vicious attack on their camcorders so they
can watch the incident and enjoy a good laugh about it
later! In several such cases lone young women have been
attacked in this way. I could go on.... WHAT IS GOING ON
IN OUR LAND??
Well the theme of Isaiah 59 is injustice!
But what is injustice?
Well, it might help to – first of all – define what
justice is, because injustice will then be the opposite
of that.
According to my dictionary,
“Justice is the quality of being just; propriety;
impartiality; fairness - including some system of
merited award or punishment.”
Ambrose said,
“The rule of justice is plain, namely, that a good man
ought not to swerve from the truth, nor to inflict any
unjust loss on anyone, nor to act in any way deceitfully
or fraudulently.”
More recently (and more succinctly!), Benjamin Disraeli
said,
“Justice is truth in action.”
I must admit that I like that definition: Justice is
Truth in Action!
You know truth, equity and justice are important to God!
Psalm 89:14 says that,
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His
throne...” (Psalm 89:14, NKJV).
In the prophecy of Jeremiah 23:5, we are told that the
Messiah is...
“...A king who will reign wisely and do what is just and
right in the land.” (Jeremiah 23:5, NIV).
I am dividing this sermon into 3 sections:
THE CAUSES OF INJUSTICE.
THE EFFECTS OF INJUSTICE.
THE SOLUTION TO INJUSTICE.
1. THE CAUSES OF INJUSTICE.
Please read Isaiah 59:1-2. with me. Look, I know that
that little word, 'sin' is no longer considered a very
politically-correct word in our society, but sometimes
we just have to call a spade a spade! We witness a
society which is largely cut off from God because of its
sins. It puts me in mind of Psalm 18:41 where it says,
'THEY CRIED for help,.........but there was no one to
save them.' Cut off because of our iniquities. A
barrier, then, between our society and God. Of course,
very few in our land even believe that they should cry
out to God anymore – especially many of our
liberally-influenced leaders. Generally speaking, they
think that any concept of God or of sin is now pretty
much irrelevant in our sophisticated and “advanced” 21st
century! At best, some kind of 'crutch' which may help
the more religious types cope with life's stresses.
You see, our opinion-shapers and opinion-moulders now
say, 'Oh, its fine to have your 'personal religion', but
it's just that: your 'personal religion' – don't try to
evangelize it because that is confrontational!' Don't
try to claim that your religion has any superior truth
claims over any other religion or philosophy because
that is aggressive! But, of course, as Bible-believing
Christians we have a problem with that, don't we?
Nothwithstanding certain merits in other religions
(which we do not deny) we believe that the Christian
Gospel and the name of Jesus Christ DOES have superior
truth claims, and we can never deny that.
Verse 2 of Isaiah 59 (NKJ) says,
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God”-
There is a separation, an alienation, a gulf – but ONLY
Christianity fully undersatands this separation and gulf
and ONLY Christianity provides a solution – you find
that in no other religion !
That separation was caused by the work of the 'First
Adam', the solution and reconciliation comes through the
work of the 'Second Adam': The Lord Jesus Christ! And as
Paul wrote to Timothy,
“Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from
iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19, NKJV).
And, he might have added, that is only possible through
Jesus Christ. Oh, I do not say that members of other
religions are “doomed”, as a few have so unwisely said,
God alone will be their judge and I happen to believe
that He will be supremely merciful on that Day of
Judgment - which is nearer today than it was yesterday,
but I DO SAY (and this is not negotiable for Christians)
that we can only be saved through Christ – He is the
doorway into Eternal Life!! We believe that - which is a
major reason why we are Christians!
Does that knowledge, acceptance and resultant grace make
us perfect? No way! Not in this life! For the moment, we
have to struggle on - warts and all!
So, the root causes of injustice? REJECTION OF GOD – AND
WHERE GOD IS REJECTED TODAY, MORAL INFAMY AND TYRANNY
WILL FOLLOW TOMORROW! That's the lesson of the Bible and
it's the lesson of human history.
You know, it is sometimes forgotten that Adolf Hitler
and his Nazi thugs plotted to replace the influence of
the Lutheran Church over the German people. It was easy
to discredit the other German politicians but in order
to discredit the Church they knew they also had to give
National Socialism a religious facade which they did in
all manner of evil and conniving ways. The pastors who
objected to this were simply thrown into prison. But
when Hitler's henchmen lyingly plotted to overthrow the
Lutheran Church they did not realize that they was
directly attacking Christ – Germany's fate was sealed!
They brought a terrible fate on the German people as a
result.
'Where there is no vision the people perish....'
2. THE EFFECTS OF INJUSTICE.
Well, look all around you. But lets read on: Please read
Isaiah 59:3-4.
You see justice and injustice have many facets. When we
think of that word 'justice' we may initially think of a
court of law – perhaps we think of the sham of justice
when murders and molestors can go free because they can
afford the top lawyers and the top legal counsel teams -
when the guilty go free but the rights of the oppressed
are not upheld. Let me tell you here today that when
such things happen that is a stench in God's nostrils!
But God is aware – and He is the supreme judge!! He is
the final arbiter! - and there is no higher court than
the court of Heaven!!
But the topic of injustice spreads to every area of
life.
Verses 5-10.
'AT MIDDAY THEY STUMBLE AS IF IT WERE TWILIGHT' – thats
spiritual blindness. Its not physical blindness. If a
person is physically blind, they are aware of that, but
the spiritually blind are unaware of their desperate
situation. To believe – as this society does – that we
are enlightened, sophisticated in knowledge and socially
advancing, when the truth is that we are morally
bankrupt, sincerely believing – because of our spiritual
tunnel vision – that if a problem cannot be solved with
money then there is no hope that it can be solved. That
too is a form of injustice: when the simple and perhaps
naïve look to a nation's leaders for wisdom and guidance
but are directed down a spiritual cul-de-sac of despair,
hopelessness, materialism and desperation! That – I put
it to you – is this land of ours in 2004.
The opinion-shapers in the media and elsewhere believe
that, to quote Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft, 'The
only sin is to believe in sin, the only thing we should
judge is judgmentalism and the only thing we should ever
condemn is condemnation!.' Smooth, pleasant,
politically-correct niceties – but this Book disagrees
with that! THERE IS such a thing as sin and it ruins
lives and it leads to injustice. Its path is the path
leading to all wretchedness! Why did Christ have to die
on the cross? Because of sin!! We must beware of newer
theologies which seem to say that maybe sin isn't so bad
after all. It is so serious that we could be restored to
God in no other way but through the death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus! Liberal theology says
that Christ was crucified and resurrected just as our
fine and inspiring example, but that is not true, its a
subtle deception because it sounds nice and cosy and we
can get taken in by it. No! As evangelicals we are bound
to uphold 'sustituitionary atonement' – its a difficult
term but it just means that Christ HAD to die in order
for us to be reconciled to God – there was no other way.
He died in our place - Now thats the reality!
Verses 14-15. Please ensure that we are all reading
these verses.
God does not change in character. He said this of Israel
and He says this of us today. Where there is no God,
there is no justice! And a lack of justice brings
eventual judgment.
So we live in this society which believes that money and
education (it means purely materialistic education) can
solve all ills, and if a problem is stubborn what do
they do? Throw more money at it! But if those problems
are of a moral and spiritual sort (like most of modern
society's problems) then no amount of money thrown at
them can ever solve them!! Why don't our leaders
recognise that? Because of spiritual blindness! To
underline that, did you know that as prosperity
increases so does the suicide rate? Oh, thats proven –
no secret about that. Impoverished third world countries
enjoy a tiny suicide rate! No, money can never be a
solution, in fact it often makes things worse because it
initially masks the tough moral decisions which need to
be faced up to! One day very soon Almighty God will have
our societies face up to the fact that the 'Almighty
Dollar and the 'Almighty Pound' are not the magic
panacea for all our problems!
Now, in the case of Israel, they didn't have so much
money, but it's the same story: a society which once
knew God getting themselves into a mess by departing
from Him and coming to see the solutions in all the
wrong places!!
So we have looked at some of the effects of injustice
and if time allowed I could mention more but we need to
move on.
3. THE SOLUTION TO INJUSTICE.
Okay, here comes the solution. Please read verses 17-20
with me.
Jesus Christ is the solution. Let me repeat that: JESUS
CHRIST IS THE SOLUTION! But these verses also speak of
the judgment of those who reject Him. He is the Rock,
but tragically for some He will be the Rock which they
will stumble upon. It says, 'The Redeemer will come to
Zion, to those in Jacob who REPENT of their sins'
Repentance is vital! What is true repentance?
It is an about-turn from spiritual blindness to
spiritual ilumination.
It is an about-turn from spiritual despair to spiritual
hope,
And it is an about-turn from spiritual brokeness to
spiritual joy.
This chaper concludes with a few words of encouragement
to us! Some words intended for the Body of Christ:
'”As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the
LORD. “My Spirit , who is on you, and my words that I
have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth,
or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths
of their descendants from this time on and for ever,”
says the LORD.' (NIV).
That is the New Covenant. It says, 'My Spirit who is on
you and My words that I have put in your mouth...'
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, thats the Holy Spirit of
God – that's why we are here – because the Holy Spirit
has given us an understanding and comprehension of these
matters of the Spirit – that is why we are here this
fine Sunday morning – no other reason to be here! The
Holy Spirit has led us to this point and we have to keep
following His lead. The trouble is, humanly, we would
prefer to hold back a little wouldn't we? To keep
something in reserve. To certainly commit ourselves to
Christ, but perhaps only 60% of ourselves. There is
somehow something so human in that. Yet the most urgent
need of our day is for Christians to re-dedicate
themselves to the Master! To DRINK IN CHRIST – STRAIGHT!
Not mixed with these other things in our lives which we
rely too much upon. But maybe our subconscious mind
says, 'Hey, that could be dangerous, you never know what
He could do with you! After all, Aslan is not a tame
Lion!!' Thats right. And until we all commit ourselves
100% to Christ – yes, I include myself in this criticism
we have no idea how powerfully God could use any one of
us in His glorious service!
Lets read Romans 12:1 together.
So Isaiah 59 can be applied to our society of today just
as much as to the Israel of around 750 BC – hopelessly
cut off from God. But we are not entirely without hope
and that hope and solution is in Jesus Christ.
How wonderful that God is a forgiving God,
how wonderful that God separated His people from their
sins as far as the east is from the west and
how wonderful that what God starts He promises to see
through!
Lets finish by reading Romans 8:28-39. Please read these
words with me.
Robin Brace. 2005.
(This is a Sermon Which Was Being Given by Mr Robin
Brace BD, in Various South Wales, UK, Churches Around
2002-2004).
UK APOLOGETICS
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