Judge Righteously

My 12-foot self is gone this week. Those of you here last week saw the video, so praise the Lord! Thank God I have a voice.

As you're standing, would you take out your Bibles this morning? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are going to be in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. If you are new here at Cross-Connection, I am Pastor Myles, and we are making our way into the book of Deuteronomy. You may have noticed, if you've been with us the last four weeks, that we are moving really fast through the book of Deuteronomy, all the way to the 16th verse. Today, buckle up, because we're going to cover a whole two words.

Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible. In chapter 1, verse 16, Moses records, "Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, 'Hear the cases between your brethren and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.'"

God, I pray that you would open our ears. Lord, we just sang that we don't want to miss a word that you speak. We believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration; it's from you and that it is useful. This morning, even this text before us, which is 3,400 years old, you want to speak to each of us individually through it. I do pray that you would open our ears and our minds to receive from you, that we would not only know what is being said in this text, but we would know what it is that you are desiring to speak to us.

Lord, some of us come here this morning with questions, and you have answers. I pray that you would help us to receive from you and that you would use your word, which is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, to transform us by the renewing of our minds. Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name today. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."

You may be seated. Have you ever been judged by somebody?

Questions like that can evoke memories of instances where you were judged by somebody. If you're married this morning, there's a good chance that there have been times in your marriage when you felt judged—your words, your actions, maybe even your motives and thoughts were scrutinized.

A little trigger warning: some of you right now might be feeling triggered. You may be thinking, "I'm not sure he said that," or "I'm sorry for that," or "I'm not sure she made that right." We have all been on the receiving end of judgment at some point. When you are judged, certain emotions arise. How did you feel when you were judged by that person? You might think, "They don't even know me," or "She doesn't know what she's talking about." You might recall the phrase, "Thou shalt not judge," which is indeed in the Bible, or "Remove the plank from your own eye."

You might think to yourself, "Who do they think they are? They aren't so darn good themselves. Maybe they should look in the mirror." When we find ourselves on the receiving end of judgment, it often feels unfair and unjust. I think it's safe to assume that every single one of us has felt those kinds of emotions before, having been judged by someone.

But perhaps there's another question to consider at this point: not just have you ever been judged by somebody, but have you ever judged somebody? Now, you might be thinking, "Oh, come on, Pastor, you're meddling." But yes, we have all found ourselves in that place where we judge someone. We tell ourselves, "What I said was true," or "What I said was right; they were in the wrong." We justify our judgments by claiming we were just being honest when we passed judgment.

On the topic of judging, we come to realize very quickly that, by nature, we are judgment machines. We really are, and I'm not entirely sure that we would survive if we weren't. I think it's by design; God has made us this way. We seem to innately judge objects, situations, circumstances, places, and people. We are continuously, and sometimes almost instantaneously, assessing things happening around us and making snap decisions based upon those judgments. It's really remarkable if you think about it.

Most of you came here this morning; many of you drove here. Perhaps you were a passenger, but many of you drove. Have you ever thought about what is happening from a computational standpoint in your brain while you're driving? It's quite amazing. You're driving down the freeway, surrounded by dozens of other multi-ton vehicles. Every single one of those is independently operated by another individual who is making snap decisions and judgments based on what they see.

It becomes almost second nature. You may have experienced this before: you get home and think about the drive, realizing you didn't consciously think about it at all while you were driving. You might not even remember anything about the actual drive. Is anyone honest enough to say they've done that before? It's fascinating.

There are many people concerned about autonomous driving, which we are definitely heading toward. However, I want to suggest that at five o'clock in the afternoon on the 15, pretty much every one of those cars is already autonomous, and for the most part, it works. It's amazing that we are assessing things going on around us, sometimes things we don't even really acknowledge. We are making decisions and judgments very quickly about what is happening. God made us that way, and it's pretty amazing. I don't think we could survive if we were not.

Not as I said there in point one, judgment machines really add weight to the words of King David in Psalm 139, verse 14, when he says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We truly are wonderfully made. The ability of our brains is essential; we would not survive without our ability to assess, judge, and make decisions very quickly. This is not only true on an individual level, but I think it is also true at a societal level. Within communities, people need to be able to make assessments, decisions, and judgments.

However, there is a problem. We all recognize this problem, which comes in the form of the question: Have you ever been judged? There are times when the judgments, assessments, and decisions that we or others make are not perfect. None of us are perfect in making those judgments. Sometimes, we are not just judging objects, places, or situations; we are judging people. There are times when we verbalize our judgments, and there are times when those judgments are wrong. We all recognize that this is the case, and sometimes those judgments can get us into trouble because we are not perfect in those judgments.

Point number two on your outline is that for society to survive, we must apply judgments righteously. We must apply our judgments righteously. Now, that word "righteously" is one to think about. A lot of times, when we think of the concept of righteous, righteousness, or righteously, we think of moral perfection, and that is certainly one way to think about that word. However, that is not the only way to think about it. You could also consider that word in the form of something being right—the right or wrong way to do something.

For a society, a community, or a gathering of people to function correctly and survive, we need to be able to apply judgments in a right way. I think we would all agree that this is the case.

Now, a little bit of review is necessary at this point. We are in the book of Deuteronomy, specifically in Deuteronomy chapter 1, where the words we read a few minutes ago came from. Moses is the leader of the nation of Israel, and he knows that he is nearing the end of his life. He is about to die, and he understands that this group of people he has been leading for the last forty years is finally about to enter the promised land that God had promised them.

Given to them as a promise many hundreds of years before to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Genesis, the first book of the Bible, chapters 15 and 12, is where those promises are first made to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. God says, "I'm going to give you this land," which at the time was called the land of Canaan. Today, we know of it as the land of Israel, but it wasn't that at that point in time.

God promised that this land of Canaan would be given to the children of Israel, but they would go for a period of time down and be wandering, if you will, in Egypt. Then they would come to inherit the land. That was 400 years prior, and now they are moving toward the Promised Land. However, for the last 38 years, they have been wandering in the wilderness. The entire time they wandered in the wilderness, they did so under the leadership of Moses. Any time they had an issue or a problem that was too big for them, they would bring it to Moses, and he would make a decision for them based on what God had given to them in the law.

Now, Moses is going to die, and the children of Israel are going to go into the Promised Land. It is God's aim, His intent, His design that when they go into the Promised Land, they are going to govern themselves; they would no longer have a Moses. Forty years prior to this passage here in Deuteronomy chapter 1, back in the book of Exodus chapter 18, Moses established that the nation of Israel would be governed by a hierarchy of government. The people would choose for themselves leaders who were wise, knowledgeable, and understanding, who would be able to lead. There would be leaders of hundreds, leaders of thousands, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens.

If you look in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 13, we considered this briefly last time. It says, "Choose wise and understanding, knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you." You answered and said to me, "The thing which you have told us to do is good." So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and I made them heads over you—leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

This is really, I think, quite amazing, and it's important. It's amazing because this establishment of self-governance, as Moses in the book of Exodus chapter 18 is given counsel from his father-in-law, a man named Jethro, to do this. Moses calls upon the people to select.

Elect a group of individuals who are wise, knowledgeable, and understanding people that would be set in order to govern the people. He calls upon them to effectively set up a representative form of government that is democratically elected. This is amazing because if you go and begin to study history about this form of government, typically all the history books will point you back to about 509 BC with the establishment of the Roman Republic. However, what Moses did here predates the Roman Republic by nearly a thousand years.

What's fascinating to me is that we don't see this in history books. In fact, when it struck me, I contacted a few scholars, actual Old Testament scholars that I know, and asked them what they knew of this. I inquired if they had ever seen anything in any of the books that identified this as remarkable. All of them wrote back to me and said it was pretty fascinating. They suggested I should probably do some research and let them know what I find. That's what scholars do when they've never seen something before.

It is remarkable and amazing that this predates the Roman Republic by nearly a thousand years. This is important because I believe it tells us something about the way that God desires communities to function. It indicates something about the way that God designs society to work out. We will talk more on that later, perhaps more next week.

God's design and His desire for His people, the children of Israel, was that they would govern themselves. For God's people to govern themselves, they must have a few things. First, they must have an agreed-upon common standard; we call that the law. The law they received from Moses is significant, and we will talk a lot more about the law when we get to Deuteronomy chapter 5. That will probably be around 2023 when we get there.

In Deuteronomy chapter 5, Moses is going to remind the children of Israel of the law that he gave to them, primarily in the form of the Ten Commandments. Now, that's not the whole of the law, but in a sense, if you were to look at the law of God as kind of like the Constitution of the United States, the Ten Commandments would be like the Bill of Rights. They represent the basic precepts that you need to follow.

When we get to Deuteronomy chapter 5, we will look in-depth at the Ten Commandments. If society is going to move forward, survive, and have self-governance, it needs wise, knowledgeable, and understanding leaders who have a common single standard by which they govern themselves.

You've got to all be on the same page. Looking at our own culture here in the 21st century, one of the challenges we face is that there are many arguments about whether or not there is an objective standard by which we ought to live and who gets to set that standard. Without that, it is very hard for a society to succeed and thrive.

If the children of Israel were to govern themselves, they needed to have a common standard by which they would live. Secondly, they would need to have leaders who knew and understood that standard and who would apply it in a right way. These leaders would need to be able to make applications of the law ethically.

What does it look like to apply that law ethically? First, they need to apply it righteously, which means in the right way. Secondly, they need to apply it impartially. This means you can't have two different sets of rules where one group gets treated one way and another group gets treated differently. We all recognize that if you live in a society like that, it is going to break down. We are facing similar challenges today.

The law needs to be applied rightly, righteously, and impartially. It also needs to be applied courageously, which is what we will look at next week. This is exactly what Moses tells the people to do: to establish a right pattern that is impartial and courageous.

When we get to Deuteronomy chapter five, we will see that the law, specifically the Ten Commandments, is restated. Then, in Deuteronomy chapter six, we will see how that law was to be transmitted to all people. In chapter six, Moses will say that all families, especially fathers, are to teach this law to their children so that everyone is on the same page and knows what it is.

However, what Moses is concerned with in Deuteronomy chapter one is that righteous, impartial, and courageous leaders would execute that law in an ethically right, impartial, and courageous manner. Moses reminds the children of Israel of what he had done forty years prior. He tells them, "This is what we did. I told you to select wise, knowledgeable, and understanding individuals, and we would appoint them to be leaders over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens." There is this hierarchy: those who show good wisdom and the ability to lead get to be leaders over thousands.

Going down all the way to tens, people could grow up into higher levels of leadership by showing their competence. They need to know the law, understand what it means, interpret it, and know how to apply it to the circumstances and situations they are facing. We would say those people should rise to the top and lead the whole of the people.

Moses is reminding the children of Israel of this. He says, "You brought me those people, and this is what I told them to do." Look at verse 16 of Deuteronomy chapter 1 again. Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, "Hear the cases between your brethren." You are going to hear all the issues and problems and judge righteously. Would you underline those words in your neighbor's Bible? Judge righteously between a man and his brother, or between family disputes, or the stranger who is with them. This standard is to be applied to anybody who lives within your borders, even if they are a foreigner.

Point number three on your outline: we expect that judges administer justice in a right, fair, and honest manner. How many would say this morning, "I agree with that"? Lift your hand up if you agree that this is a true statement. We expect that judges administer justice in a right, fair, and honest manner.

As we have already established, every single one of us has been judged before, and at times, we have deemed that judgment to be unfair, unrighteous, or dishonest. It was not right judgment. I think we all recognize that societies have a really hard time staying together. Societies fall apart, and communities break down when there is what we might refer to as a miscarriage of justice. When it seems like a person who is guilty was not judged correctly, or someone who is innocent was judged incorrectly, that happens regularly and consistently. That society will fail; it will fall apart. If there is partiality in judgment, where some people are judged worse than others, we are so committed to this as a principle.

People get extremely angry when they see injustice. I saw this a little bit last night while I was with friends, and the topic of the 49ers came up. There are some people here right now who are still a little bit burned because they feel like there was some injustice in the Super Bowl just a few weeks ago. Some calls that should have been made were not made, and therefore their team lost. They are not happy; they are angry because there was an injustice.

We feel it even when it's a game. Our strong sense of justice is something I think we all recognize. It begins really early. If you have kids, you see this. There is hardly a day that goes by without hearing the words "that's not fair." In fact, the only time I don't hear those words is when my four kids aren't around. I hear those words multiple times a day, whatever the circumstance may be. They are constantly assessing how their sibling is being judged. If they feel they are not being judged the right way, or if their brother or sister is not being judged fairly, they will say, "that's not fair."

We want the standard by which we are being judged to be known. We want to know what the rule is, and we want to know that it is being applied equally. If it is not, we get angry. We want justice. We demand right judgments. We expect righteous judgment. Or do we? When we feel that we are being judged unfairly, we want justice. When we see someone seemingly get away with wrongdoing, we want righteous judgment.

Now, here's the fascinating thing that we are going to see as we continue our studies in the Old Testament. For the most part, when you study through the Old Testament, you are seeing justice being meted out in a pure form. Not always, but for the most part, this is true.

Most part, this is what it looks like to live in a society where justice is delivered. When we see someone getting away with wrongdoing, we are upset and angry. However, when we have erred—and we all do—and we are rightly deserving of justice, righteous judgment, and punishment, we want mercy. I know this is true for all of us.

A simple illustration will clarify this. I experienced it this morning on my drive north on the 15. I was maybe driving slightly quicker than the posted speed limit, and at a certain point, right as I crossed under the 78 interchange, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a white roof on a black vehicle. In my mind, I thought, "I need mercy now." It turned out it was just one of those FJ Cruisers with the white roof. It was no big deal, so I stepped on the pedal again to keep moving.

But when someone is flying by you or they cut you off, what's the response? Where is the cop? I want justice! Yet, when it's you who is flying by and you cut somebody off, there's that part of you that cries out for mercy. So, when we have erred and we know that we're in the wrong, we want mercy.

I bring this up because one of the questions that I've received about the Bible many times over the years has to do with what appears to many to be a difference between the way that God works in the Old Testament and how He judges, compared to how it seems that God works in the New Testament. It can sometimes seem, when we're reading the Old Testament versus the New Testament, that God in the Old Testament seems harsh and unrelenting, while in the New Testament, it doesn't seem to be the case.

This is by design. The Old Testament, for the most part but not always, shows us what it looks like to live under the law. We rightly expect that judges judge righteously, impartially, and courageously. Realizing that God is the supreme judge, the first follower of God by faith was Abraham.

He came to the realization that God will judge people. He called out, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" It's recorded in Genesis chapter 18, verse 25. God was coming down; Genesis 18 tells us to assess the way in which a group of people were living in a couple of cities called Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham, when he's thinking about this, says, "Okay, if you're going to go assess the behavior of these people and you're going to judge them, then the judge of all the earth needs to be right. He needs to do things in the right way."

The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 11, tells us that God judges righteously. In fact, he says it very interestingly: God does not judge by the seeing of the eyes or the hearing of the ears, but he judges with righteous judgment. What does that mean? Well, we live in a society where we have one of the better judicial systems. It's not perfect, but we have one of the better judicial systems. How do we make judgments? We gather a group of people who hear testimony and see evidence, and they make a decision. Do they always make perfect, right decisions? No, they don't. But we hope that by the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears, they will make right judgments.

God says, "I don't judge by the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears; I make perfect righteous judgment." He can judge. Jeremiah tells us in Jeremiah chapter 17 that God tests the mind and searches the heart. He knows your mind and your heart, and he can judge with perfect righteous judgment. So there is that promise given to us that yes, he will judge righteously.

However, point number four on your outline is that in the face of perfect righteous judgment, we cannot stand. Here we have a dilemma. We desire in society, and I would suggest we even need in society, righteous judgment—judges who will judge impartially, rightly, and courageously. But when we stand before a perfect holy God, we have a major dilemma, especially when you start to think for a moment about what the Bible reveals about God. The Bible reveals in Hebrews chapter four, verse 13, that nothing is hidden from his sight.

Everything is exposed and open before Him to whom we must give an account. Hebrews 4:13 states that you and I will give an account to one who sees and knows everything—not just what we've said or done, but everything we thought. He judges with righteous judgment; He tests the heart and knows the mind. On the day of judgment, Matthew's Gospel says in Matthew 12:36 that He will judge every idle word that we have spoken. We will be accountable for that. That is sobering and frightening.

Psalm 7:11 says He is a just judge. Psalm 9:8 states that He will judge the world in righteousness, administering judgment. The Old Testament reveals God's unrelenting judgment. There are times when God's mercy and grace come through, but for the most part, the Old Testament is the story of what it looks like to live under the law.

What exactly does that look like? The author of the book of Hebrews gives us some insight in Hebrews 10. He says that anyone who refuses to obey the law of Moses dies without mercy according to the testimony of two or three witnesses. Under the law, anyone who refuses to obey the law dies without mercy by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Sometimes, you may have had a conversation with a family member, a co-worker, or a friend who has a hard time with the Bible because they know a tiny bit about the Old Testament. They might say something like, "Didn't they used to give capital punishment to people who committed adultery? Didn't they used to capitally punish children who dishonored their parents?" That is, they would take them out and stone them to death. You might not know how to answer and feel uncertain.

Here's a good answer for them: That is what it looks like to live without mercy. Is that what you want? That is law with no grace. He who refuses to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Judgment under the Old Covenant, as James 2:13 says, is without mercy. James takes it a step further when he tells us in James 2 that whoever seeks to keep the law...

Breaking one law makes us guilty of all. Therefore, society needs a common, single standard that is equally, justly, and righteously applied in order to move forward. This is what Moses was seeking to establish as the children of Israel were going to govern themselves upon entering the Promised Land. However, if we are going to stand before God and He judges us according to the Old Covenant, we are all in trouble. This is a non-biblical perspective; we have a problem. The Old Covenant, or the Old Testament's standard, presents a significant dilemma. There is a perfectly holy and righteous judge who will judge all the earth, and He knows everything. So, where does that leave us?

Point number five in your notes: we deserve righteous judgment, but we need mercy and grace. That is where every single one of us stands this morning. We want and need in society what we cannot bear from God. So, what do we do? The Old Covenant, or the Old Testament, prepares the way for the New Covenant.

What is the New Covenant? Jesus articulated the New Covenant as He sat with His disciples on the night before He would go to the cross. He shared a meal with them and, as He held a cup of wine, He said, "This is the cup of the New Covenant in My blood." What is He talking about?

There is a righteous requirement that the law demands because God is a perfectly just judge. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for you and for me so that He might stand in our place and receive the just judgment for sin upon Himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness and all of the benefits and blessings that come with it. The prophet Isaiah, 700 years before...

Jesus came, and he prophesied of this when he wrote in Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him our iniquity.

The Old Testament contains the righteous judgments that we need in society—impartial, righteously applied, courageous judgments. However, we cannot live before God with that Old Covenant. It readies us for the new, the good news of the gospel: that Christ bears our sin on the cross so that we can have His righteousness and a right standing with the holy God. This is paid in Jesus.

It is so important that Jesus told his disciples, "I want you to remember this regularly." So this morning, we are going to partake of communion together. I am going to invite Anthony and the team back up, and in a moment, the ushers are going to distribute the bread, which represents Jesus's body that was broken for us, and the cup, which represents His blood that was shed for us. This reminds us of the New Covenant that we have in Christ. I want you to hold on to them until we partake together in just a few minutes.

As you do this, I want you to think about this reality: we all desire righteous judgment until we realize that we will have to stand before a holy God. There is no possible way for us to stand before a holy God in our own righteousness because all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6 says it is not right enough and never will be. Therefore, we need to be clothed in the righteousness of another. He who knew no sin became sin for us.

Jesus, we thank you so much as we sit here today for the glorious good news of the gospel. This is what makes the good news so good. I pray, God, that you would stir our hearts to truly praise you with thanksgiving as we prepare our hearts now for communion. Remind us of the greatness of your grace today, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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