Liberty and Justice for All is a sermon teaching us that the Lord Jesus offers true liberty and justice for anyone who places their faith and trust in Him.
Key verses:
Proverbs 21:1-4
I’m going to ask you to take your Bible now and turn with me to the Book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 21. We’re going to be looking at the first four verses of Proverbs chapter 21. Proverbs chapter 21, beginning at the first verse, says:
Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”
Proverbs 21:2: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.”
Proverbs 21:3: “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”
Proverbs 21:4: “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.”
I call your attention particularly to verse three, “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”
Living Peaceably with Each Other
When I was a young boy, we started school each day by standing facing the U.S. flag, covering our hearts with our right hand, and citing the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, you know it well and most everybody in this room is going to know the Pledge of Allegiance and can recite it without any difficulty. But the pledge ends with the phrase “One nation under God with liberty and justice for all.” “One nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”
I want us to focus on those two words this morning liberty and justice. Liberty and justice are foundational concepts. They are at the very root of the idea of mankind relating to mankind. If we don’t have liberty and justice, it’s going to be very difficult for us to get along with each other. That is to say, in order to live peaceably in the community of man, we must have liberty and justice.
So, before I go further, let’s have a definition of terms. Anytime you’re discussing a topic, you need to define your terms so that people understand exactly what it is you’re trying to say and what the concepts are.
Freedom of Choice
Let’s start with liberty, the English definition of liberty from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary actually that dictionary gives a variety of meanings to the word “liberty.” It can mean many different things according to the dictionary, but among those is this statement “the power of choice and permission to go freely within specified limits. That tells us two things. Number one, under liberty, if you have liberty, you have the power of choice. You have the right to choose certain things. But it also says you have permission to go freely. But there’s a limit to that – freely within specified limits.
“So, what in the world are you talking about?” Well, you can have freedom, but you also have to have law. You have to have order, and in order to have order, you have to have guidelines. And those guidelines of behavior are what we call laws. So, you have to have law and then you have to have it when you have liberty, but you have freedom of choice.
It does not mean you can do just about anything you want to do. Now, the fact of the matter is, you can do anything you want to do, but there may be a penalty for some of the choices that you make. If we do what we’re permitted to do within the limits that are being given to us, and we’ll talk about where those limits come from in just a little bit, but if we can do that, and within those limits, then we have freedom. Now, that’s the English definition of the word.
Released from Bondage
The Hebrew word translated liberty in our English Bible has a little bit different meaning to it. It means to be released from bondage and to be forgiven. Isn’t that interesting? Not just to have the ability to choose and not just to move freely within certain limits, but to be released from bondage and to be forgiven.
So many illustrations of that in the Bible, we think of the people of Israel who were in slavery and bondage in Egypt, and then they were released from bondage against the will of the Pharaoh, obviously. They were released from bondage and brought to the promised land.
There are other illustrations. If you’ve ever read the book of Philemon, Philemon was written about a fellow named Onesimus, and there was a slave who had run away. He had gotten pretty far away, and he’d gotten to Rome where he met Paul. Paul led him to the Lord, and Paul sent him back. Why didn’t Paul go with him? Because Paul wasn’t free, he was in prison. But he sent him back and he wrote this letter of recommendation to him and said, “I know this man ran away from you but he’s not a slave now, he’s a Christian brother.”
What does that teach us? It teaches us about being released from bondage and being forgiven. That’s much closer to the Hebrew definition than it is to the English definition.
Conformity to Truth
And then the word “justice.” The English word “justice,” the English definition is conformity to truth, fact, or reason. I like that. Conformity but not conformity just to mindless laws, but conformity to truth, standing by that which is true, being governed by that which is truth, fact, which is reality, and reason, that which makes sense. Conforming to the law that’s the English definition of justice.
Again, the Hebrew definition of justice means righteousness and truthfulness. Now, a great example of that definition is given to us in Micah 6:8. Justice in Hebrew is righteousness and truthfulness. Micah 6:8, the prophet writes:
Micah 6:8: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
So, what is justice? Justice is to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
One Blood All Nations
The Pledge of Allegiance speaks of liberty and justice for all, but right before it says that it says there’s one nation – one nation, a unified nation, a nation not of identical people. We aren’t all alike. We don’t all look alike, we don’t all act the same, we have different cultural backgrounds, we have different ethnic heritage, but we can be one nation.
You know there’s something interesting about that in the history of planet Earth. There’s only been one country that had no national origin as far as physical descent. There’s only been one nation that’s made up of people from many different nations. That’s the United States.
But there is another entity that is made up of people from all over the world, we call that the church. Isn’t that interesting? The Bible says God is made of one blood all nations. That means all nationalities are human beings and no one is less human than anyone else. But it’s not a nation of identical people. It’s a nation composed of a variety of people who have come together to live as one country, and the church is made up of people from all over the world who come together in Jesus Christ.
Under God
So, the pledge says we’re one nation under God, under the authority of God. Did you know that when the pledge was first written, I think it was 1894 if I remember right. I could be mistaken about the year. I read it recently, but my memory is about a quarter-inch long. So, I might have the wrong year, but I think that’s right. But when it was written, it did not contain the words “under God.”
It said one nation with liberty and justice for all in 1954. In 1955, the president of the United States wanted two words added to the pledge of allegiance. That was President Dwight Eisenhower. It’s an interesting thing about him. He certainly was not a perfect man. No, none of us are. No president has ever been perfect. No president ever will be perfect. None of us are perfect. We all have our faults and failures, and Eisenhower had his. But it’s interesting that during World War II, he was one of the very few men ever to receive a fifth star as a general. To be a five-star general, he was given the title of Supreme Allied Commander, that meant of all the Allied Forces in the European theater of World War II, he had command over all of them.
Now, to be honest with you, if you know your history, there were some generals from some other countries who weren’t really happy about that because they thought they should have that position. But it was given to Eisenhower. When the war was over, since he was a Supreme Allied Commander over all these other countries, he took over those other countries and made them one. No, he did not. That’s not what happened at all.
What did he do after the war? He went home. He gave up the title of Supreme Allied Commander which was the right thing to do. Well, later, a number of years later, he was elected president of the United States, not dictator of the world or commander of the world. But this is the man who wanted the one phrase, two words “under God,” added to the Pledge of Allegiance. And we’ve had it ever since. It says, “One nation under God, indivisible,” – “under God” recognizes that there is a God. “Under God” recognizes that liberty and justice that we enjoy are gifts from God. To be indivisible means we’re unable to be turned against each other. So, “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Red’s Pledge
I think that one of the best explanations of the Pledge of Allegiance was given by an old television comedian. Some of you will not know the name. Many of you here will say, “Oh yeah, I watched him every week.” – a fella who called himself Red Skelton. On January 14, 1969, he gave this recital, and I’m not going to give you all of it. I’m just going to give you a part of it because of the sake of time. But he broke down the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, and you can find this online if you’re interested in finding it. He gave an introduction to it, which I’ll skip. But here’s how he designed the words:
I: me an individual a committee of one.
Pledge: dedicate all my worldly goods to give without self-pity.
Allegiance: my love and devotion
To the flag: the standard of our nation, Old Glory, the symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves there’s respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody’s job.
United: that means that we have all come together.
States of America: individual communities that have united into 48 states. 48 individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided with imaginary boundaries yet united in a common purpose, and that’s love for country.
And to the Republic for which it stands: a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people, and it is from the people to the leaders not from the leaders to the people.
One Nation: meaning so blessed by a God.
Indivisible: incapable of being divided
With Liberty: which is freedom, the right of power to live one’s own life without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation.
And Justice: the principle or qualities of dealing fairly with others.
For all: for all means, boys and girls, it is as much your country as it is mine.
Now, as he concluded that, he was portraying a scene from his youth, but he said this:
Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country. Some of us here can remember that. Some of you weren’t even born when that happened in 1959. He said:
Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country and two words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Under God: Wouldn’t it be a pity if someone said, “That’s a prayer,” and we eliminated that from school too?
Those words were spoken in 1969. Much has changed since then, and part of what he spoke about has happened.
Founding Principles
Now we talk about liberty and justice as understood by the founders of the country. These are principles given to us by God himself. The government does not give us liberty and justice. The government writes it into their laws, but they acknowledge that liberty and justice come from God himself, not simply by ordinances of human law. So, on July 4th, 1776, 56 delegates signed a document on behalf of the 13 colonies to declare themselves free and independent states.
The second paragraph of that declaration opens with these words, “We hold these truths” – facts, not theories, truth. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” – easily recognized by anybody, “that all men,” – all human beings, “are created,” – not evolved, “equal,” – they understood that the Bible says, “God is no respecter of persons.” If God has no respect for persons, that doesn’t mean God has no concern for anybody, it means He doesn’t place one person above the other. We’re all on level ground when we stand before the Lord, and “all men are endowed by their Creator” – endowed by God, not human government. God is the author of human government. They are endowed “with certain unalienable rights,” – rights which cannot be separated from them, “that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Thirteen years later, in 1789, the Congress of the newly independent states ratified a constitution that formed the basis for the law in the new country that was called the United States of America. It took some time for all 13 states to agree on. It wasn’t a fast process. One of the objections was that the rights referred to in the Declaration were not enumerated in the Constitution.
Freedom to Worship
So, ten amendments were made before The Constitution was ratified, and they outlined the rights of the citizens of the United States the first right, that is to say, the first one listed, the first freedom enumerated, says, “This Congress shall make no law,” – Congress is who makes the laws for the country, I trust you knew that, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,” and what that means is, there is to be no state church in the United States of America. There have been throughout history. We’ll talk about this, God-willing, some tonight. But there have been throughout history.
Many countries have a state church, an official state religion and official religion of the government. I will give you an example of that. The example I’m going to give you is not unique. It’s certainly not the only one. But I was in the country many years ago, a beautiful country with wonderful people. Loved being there.
But they have a state church, and what that means in that country is when you are born as a citizen of that country, you are born a member of the state church. That has nothing to do with what you believe, and has nothing to do with any choice you made. You’re a citizen of that country. You’re a member of the church, the state Church. Now, the state church in that country is supported by the tax. When the people pay their taxes there’s a portion of their tax that goes to the church.
The founders of the United States of America said we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to have a state church. Had they seen state churches? They came from countries that had state churches. And they said that we’re not going to do that here. We’re not going to have the church supported by state taxes, and we’re not going to have that.
You don’t become a member of the church by being a citizen. Citizenship and church membership are two separate issues. It needs to be by choice, not simply by birth or by citizenship. You need to be separated. It needs to be a matter of faith. It needs to be a matter of conscience, and they enumerated it that way, so they said, “Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion.”
A lot of people today want to read that, and they want to stop right there. So, you cannot use any government facility. You cannot use any government funding, and you cannot do anything to help establish a religion. And that would mean things like having your church meet on public land, public property, doing a baptism on public land, public property.
“Well, wait, preacher, I can tell you cases where that happens.” Yes, I could tell you that too, but I’m going to tell you the argument that is often made is, “No, that violates the establishment clause.” Here’s a problem with that. There’s no period after the statement that says, “Congress shall make no law regarding establishment of religion” – there’s no period there. The rest of the sentence is this, “Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Do you know what that means? It means the government is not to limit or control the faith or the worship of the citizens. It means you can go to any church you want to or go to no church if you choose not to. That’s entirely up to you.
What your church believes and what your church practices is not a matter under governmental authority. You have the freedom to practice your faith as long as it does not violate some other law. “Well, what do you mean as long as it doesn’t violate some other law?” Well, for example, I do not know of a church in America that does this, but it certainly has been practiced throughout history in many places. If the church decided, in the United States, to practice as part of their religion if they chose, and again I know of no religion in America that does this, but they decide to practice human sacrifice, the government would step in and say, “Well, you have freedom of worship, but that’s murder.”
And that violates another law. There have to be reasonable limitations that we all abide by. Each of the 13 original states contained a similar statement in their constitution. Now, I was reading that to the campers the other day. Last week was Patriotic Week. And I read them the statement of freedom of religion from all of the 13 original colonies, which became the 13 original states. All of them contained a statement similar to the U.S. Constitution about freedom of worship, freedom of religion.
One of them expressly stated the freedom to worship Jesus Christ. It might surprise you which state that was. I’m not going to ask you to guess. I’m going to tell you. New York. Yeah, that surprised you, didn’t it? I thought it would. I thought it would. The original constitution of the state of New York says that you have the freedom to worship Jesus Christ. Isn’t that interesting?
Based on Biblical Principles
Now, the fact of the matter is that the government is one entity, and the church is another entity. That does not mean, as some people think, that Christians are supposed to go off to a little corner somewhere and be quiet and have no part in society. Whatever you believe just keep that to yourself and don’t spread it to anybody. It does not mean that at all.
I was in one country, not the United States. This was many years ago, decades ago really, and when I arrived in the country, I mean before I left the airport. When I arrived in the country, people who met me there knew that I was not only a Christian but that I was a pastor and that I was a Baptist pastor. They knew that, and they said to me in a very polite way, with a smile on their face, they said, “If you would like to come to our country and start a Baptist Church, you’re welcome.”
That is not why I was there, but they assumed that. “If you’d like to come to our country and start a church, a Baptist Church, you’re welcome, if you can find some Baptists who would like to have a church.” Do you understand what they were saying? Don’t come here and try to convert any of our people. Leave them alone, okay? We have our belief. You can have yours. You find some people who believe like you do, and you want to get together, you can, but don’t try to bring in anybody else. Isn’t that interesting?
But that is a country that has a state church. Now, that’s not what we have in our Constitution. It’s not what we have in our government. The men who wrote these principles into these documents were men who knew well what the Bible had to say about freedom. Unlike what many people would like you to believe today, our nation’s laws, the founding documents, were based on biblical principles and that’s an indisputable fact.
There were two books that were primarily used as the basis for setting up the laws of this country. They were Blackstone’s law from England and the Bible. Those are the two primary books that were used to set up the laws of this country. You don’t have to take my word for it. You can research that for yourself. You’re going to find it’s true.
God is in Control
Alright, I want us to look at Proverbs 21:1-4. It says:
Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”
Do you know what that means? That means God still reigns in the affairs of men. God’s still in control. He allows us a great deal of freedom. He allows us to make our own choices. For example,
John 3:18: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Now, if you want to look at that, God gives you a choice. You can believe or not believe. If you don’t believe, there’s a penalty for that, but it’s your choice. You get to decide. Now, the Lord did that and the Lord governs the affairs of men. To a large degree, people do what they want to do, but there are limitations to it, as we’ve already talked about. The government gives us some limitations, and God puts some limitations on things that we do. He gives us His law and if you want to know what’s right and what’s wrong, it’s all in His Word. You’ll find it. God willing, we’ll talk more about that tonight.
But the Lord rules over the affairs of men, and He guides the hearts of kings. And many times, He has used kings and leaders of countries to accomplish His will. Does that mean that leaders of countries always do the will of God? No, it does not.
As a matter of fact, there was a time, particularly in England, when they had a belief in the divine right of kings. What they meant was that a king is made a king by God, and God made him King, and so, therefore, they have divine rights given to them by God to rule over people. There can be some support for that. We are to respect our leaders and pray for them. The Bible teaches that. But to say that a king is infallible because he is placed there by the authority of God is a little bit of a stretch, actually, it’s a big one. So, God does rule in the affairs of men. Listen to Daniel chapter 2, verses 20 and 21:
Daniel 2:20: “Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:”
Daniel 2:21: “And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:”
God removes kings, and He sets up kings. God uses kings. God used King Nebuchadnezzar to chastise His people in Judah, God’s people in Judah. Nebuchadnezzar was not a godly man. He did not believe in the Lord God of Israel. He did not believe in the God of the Bible, but God used him to accomplish His purpose, His will, later on. Much later on, Nebuchadnezzar put his faith in the Lord.
If you don’t understand that, read the Book of Daniel. It’s all there. Nebuchadnezzar put his faith in the Lord. But Daniel was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar’s army, and Daniel lived in Babylon for the rest of his life. He never got to go back home, and while he held a high position in the government of Babylon, he was not free.
There was never a day when Daniel went to the king, and he served under many kings there, Babylonian and Persian kings. There’s never a day when he went to the king and said, “You know, I haven’t seen home. I’ve not seen Jerusalem in a long time. I’d like to go down there, take a little vacation time off, go down.” It never happened. He was never allowed to do that. Daniel had a high government position. He was at one point called the second ruler of the kingdom. But he couldn’t go home. He wasn’t free. Daniel saw different kings come and go, and he survived. Used by God, he survived under all of them.
Needing a Higher Authority
Now look at verse two:
Proverbs 21:2: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.”
Isn’t that interesting? “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.” Isn’t that true? The Book of Judges says that – every man:
Judges 21:25: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
What a statement about our society today. Every man is right in his own eyes. Everybody thinks they are right. And so, what they want to do is right, and the way they think is right, and their opinion is right, and their viewpoint is right, and they see themselves as right. Every man’s right in his own eyes, and that’s why we need an authority higher than ourselves to govern us because everybody is not right.
Sometimes, people are wrong. I don’t like to admit it, but there are times when I’m wrong. I don’t like to be wrong. I really don’t. I like to be right, but I’m not always right. “You mean to tell me you make mistakes?” Yeah, all the time, all the time.
“Have you ever made a wrong decision?” Too many times, way too many times. “You ever made a wrong choice?” Of course. And I don’t think I could get anybody to stand up here and say, “Not me. I’ve never done anything wrong. I’ve never made a bad decision. I’ve never done anything I wish I hadn’t done. Never in my life did I ever do anything I wish I could go back and do over, but I can’t because it’s past.” But everybody’s right in their own eyes.
We need an authority greater than ourselves to govern ourselves, and if we’re going to have an authority, then we have to have a standard of truth, and we have to have a standard of what is right and what is wrong. And I already told you we have laws in our country, and the foundation of those laws is in the Bible. So, if we’re going to get to the ultimate source of authority that should govern our lives, then we need to get back to the Bible.
Now, notice something else in verse two:
Proverbs 21:2: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.”
See, we all think we’re right. We all think our way is right and our ideas are right. We all think we’re right, but God looks at our hearts. He studies our hearts, and you know what He finds when He looks at our hearts? He finds this:
Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
We just did a Wednesday night series here on “Should You Follow Your Heart,” and the conclusion of that series is this, yes, you should follow your heart if your heart is surrendered to the Lord and if in your heart, you’re genuinely seeking God. And if your heart you’re generally seeking God’s will, then you can follow your heart. Otherwise, your heart is going to lead you in the wrong direction. Everybody’s right in their own eyes.
Exercising Justice
So, go to verse three. What is right is to do what is according to God’s Word:
Proverbs 21:3: “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”
What he’s saying there is to do right, according to God’s Word, is far better than to try to make up for the fact that we didn’t do what’s right. Now, God set up a system when He established the law under Moses. He set up a system so that when people sin, when people don’t do right, they could bring a sacrifice, offering, to make an atonement for their sin.
Now, stay with me on this. The word “atonement” means a covering. A covering, so that is to cover something up. Say, for example, my fist is sin, and atonement is this [places paper over fist]. You’re putting a cover over it so you don’t see it, but it’s still there. It’s just been covered up. That’s what atonement does. But when Christ died for our sins, He didn’t just atone for our sins. He didn’t cover our sins with His blood and just atone for our sins, He removed them.
The Book of Psalms says you’re moving as far as the east is from the west. How far is that? Well, that’s east. If you leave here and you start out going east, as long as you keep going that way, you don’t turn the right hand, or to the left. You keep going in that direction, you’ll always be going east. You’ll never run out of east. That way is west. If you go that way and you keep going, you don’t turn one way or the other. You just keep going that way no matter how long or how far you go, you will always be going west. And that’s how far God has removed our sins from us because of Jesus Christ. So, not just atone. It is atonement, but it’s more than atonement. God has forgiven our sins.
So, we find the standard in the Bible, and if we do what’s right according to God’s Word, that’s better than making up for the fact that we didn’t do right, better than bringing an animal sacrifice, or an offering to the Lord to make an atonement.
And then it says in verse three to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. So, we are to exercise justice with our fellow human beings. We are to live out justice. We are to do justice.
Needing a Standard of Truth
Now take a look at verse four. Too many people today fit the description of this verse:
Proverbs 21:4: “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.”
Too many of us have far too high an opinion of ourselves, a high look, and a proud heart. You know what gets us that way? Verse three, “Every way of man is right in his own eyes.” Well, I know what I want to do. I don’t care what you say. I don’t care what anybody says. I don’t care what God says. I’m going to do what I want to do. There’s a problem with that because when we violate the law of God, we violate the will of God. We violate the Word of God. That’s called sin, and the wages of sin is death. Sin separates us.
God, through Isaiah, preached about the lack of justice 700 years before Jesus came in Isaiah 59. I’d encourage you to read the whole chapter. Let me just give you three excerpts from that chapter:
Isaiah 59:4: “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.”
Vanity means emptiness. What a picture of our 21st-century world. They trust in vanity, speak lies, can conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. That’s verse four.
Isaiah 59:9: “Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.”
“Justice overtake us,” – we’re not having justice. We’re not having godly judgment because we have given ourselves over to vanity and speaking lies and conceiving mischief. Same chapter, Isaiah 59, verse 14:
Isaiah 59:14: “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”
Do you ever hear about something – you’re going up and being decided, and you think, “Wow, that’s just opposite to what it should be.” Yes, so much of what’s happening in our society today is exactly the opposite of the way it should be. Why? It’s that “judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off.” Justice isn’t there. Justice isn’t on duty standing off watching somewhere. Why? “For truth it’s fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” But we all want equity. Yes, we do, but when truth has fallen in the street, equity cannot venture. Therefore, we need a standard of truth.
Justice was not found in Isaiah’s day, and it seems to be slipping away in our day. So, when we, in our individual hearts, begin to surrender to the Lord Jesus and find peace in Him, we will also find justice. Some may say there is no justice, but there is. There is justice in this world. There’s justice in eternity.
Justice and Eternity
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10, justice and eternity:
2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
Now, that’s the Judgment Seat of Christ, and we’ll say more about this in a moment. That’s where believers are going to be judged for how they’ve lived. That is not to be judged as to whether they go to Heaven or Hell. Listen to me. That’s already decided. Who made that choice? You do. You make that choice. But when your heart beats its last beat, when you take your last breath when your spirit leaves this world, that matter settled. There is no judgment that will determine whether you go to Heaven or Hell. That choice is made. So, why am I standing at the Judgment Seat of Christ? To be judged according to how I’ve lived and be rewarded accordingly.
Was there any place that explains that further? Yes, 1 Corinthians chapter three. I encourage you to read it. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 tells you about the Judgment Seat of Christ, and what’s going to happen there. Then Matthew 25:34 speaks of judgment, and says:
Matthew 25:34: “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:”
That’s where the people who are at the judgment seat of Christ are going to go, because they’ve been saved, they’ve been forgiven, they’ve been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. They’ve been washed in the blood of Lamb. And He’s going to say to them, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.”
But later, in that same chapter, there are those who go to another judgment. Revelation calls it the Great White Throne and that is where those who are lost, separated from God, will be separated for eternity. Their life is judged, and they are punished accordingly.
Matthew 25:41: “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”
“Well, that’s where I got a problem with you preachers. You’re talking about Hell. If God is so loving and kind and gracious, and you say He is, and I do say He is, He could never send anybody to Hell.” He doesn’t. “Well, why did He make Hell? He shouldn’t have made Hell for mankind.” He didn’t. “Well, you just said,” Yeah, I just read you the Word of God. Let me tell you what. People send themselves to Hell.
God has put up roadblocks all over the world throughout history to keep you out of Hell. He’s given us His Word. He’s given us natural Revelation. He’s given us the witness of godly people. He’s given us the cross. He’s given us the church. He’s given us roadblocks all over the place to keep you from going to Hell. And if you go, then you made that decision.
What about those who’ve never heard? Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Do you genuinely want to know God? You can know God. He’s not going to slam the door on you and say, “Nope, not you.”
The truth of the matter is God prepared Hell for the devil and his angels. Human beings go there. It wasn’t made for them. They go there because they choose to go there.
One great preacher said they are intruders there. It was not designed for them. That does not mean there won’t be anybody. There are people who in this life seem to think that they’ve gotten away with their rebellion against God. I’ve talked about that often. People go on, and they do something terrible in this life, and they think they got away with it because they lived for years and years and years afterward and they didn’t get arrested by any law enforcement agency. They didn’t stand before any judge. Nobody made them pay a penalty and so they think they got away with it.
But God says you can be sure your sin will find you out. And those people who think that they’ve escaped the justice of man failed to factor in eternity. Now, some of them comfort themselves by saying, “Well, there is no eternity. When you’re dead, you’re dead, and that’s it and it’s over.” Well, if that were true, you might think that you got away with things. But if it isn’t true, they’ve forgotten eternity, and they’ve forgotten to calculate and factor in God, and that there is a God.
Thomas Jefferson, who I would not agree with theologically on many points, but Thomas Jefferson wrote this, “I sometimes tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and this justice cannot sleep forever.” Did you hear what he said? He said, “I tremble for my country because I reflect that God is just.”
Now, many people will tell you that Jefferson was a deist. He was not. They’d like to tell you all the founding fathers were deists. That is not true. Perhaps one or two at the most would have claimed to be deists. What is a deist? A deist is different than an atheist. An atheist says there is no God. A deist says yeah, there’s a God, and He created everything, but then after that, He got bored with it, and He went off to do something else. So, you can’t know God. He exists, but you can’t know Him, and He doesn’t have anything to do with what goes on in your daily life. That’s a deist.
Now, let me read that to you again. See if this sounds like a deist to you, “I sometimes tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and this justice cannot sleep forever.”
Does that sound to you like somebody doesn’t believe God is interested in what’s going on here? It doesn’t, does it? And the reason it doesn’t is because it isn’t.
Liberty and Justice
But we talk about justice for all, and God gives justice for all. And then liberty in the law of God, Leviticus 25:10, we find these words:
Leviticus 25:10: “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.”
Do you understand what God’s saying there? God’s saying every 50th year, every 50 years, you’re going to take one year, and every prisoner is going to be set free. Every debt is going to be forgiven. Everything is going to be called forgiven. No, we don’t practice that in our country. We never have. You know what’s sad? No other country practices it either. That isn’t practiced anywhere in the world today and hasn’t been as far as I know for thousands of years. That’s what God said, and what He said was that this is liberty. Listen to it again, “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land.”
How many of you have ever heard of the Liberty Bell? Raise your hand. Okay, a lot of you have heard of the Liberty Bell. I did some reading on that last week, and the Liberty Bell was originally made overseas and brought over here. And the first Liberty Bell that came over cracked. They’d say, “Yeah, I know it’s got the crack.” No, it’s not that one. That one they couldn’t use anymore, so they made another one, and when they made another one, later not right away, but it later also cracked. They tried to patch it, and it didn’t work out too well, so now it sits in Independence Hall in Pennsylvania.
But originally, it was brought over and was used in a church. Then it was used in public venues, and they were ringing it for George Washington’s birthday after Washington had already passed away. They were ringing it for George Washington’s birthday and that’s when it got cracked. So, they stopped using it after that.
“Why are you telling us about that?” Do you know what’s inscribed on the Liberty Bell? Leviticus 25:10. Isn’t that something? “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” That’s inscribed on that Liberty Bell. You don’t have to take my word for it. You can look that up and verify it for yourself.
Liberty, a Gift from the Savior
So, God said there’s to be forgiveness, and forgiveness is liberty. In Luke 4:18, Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He read from Isaiah 61 and verse 1, a 700-year-old prophecy concerning himself, and this is what He read:
Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”
What did He come for? Number one, He came to preach the Gospel to the poor. Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 says this, Paul writes:
Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
What does that mean? It means the Gospel came to the Jew first. Now, you can say, “Well, that means the Jewish people had the scriptures first,” and they did. Your Bible is written by Jewish men. It was written by Israeli men. There’s no question about that. So, the Gospel came to the Jew first. But let me give you a physical example of when the Gospel came to the Jew first.
In Luke chapter 4 and verse 18, Jesus said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me,” because He’s known me to preach the Gospel to the poor. Romans 1:16, Paul said the Gospel is to the Jew first. In Luke chapter 2, verse 11, the Gospel is preached to the poor. If you remember the story, and you do. We talk about, every December, how Shepherds were working in the field near Bethlehem. And as they were working, doing their every night job, taking care of the sheep, as they were working, an angel appeared to them, and the angel said, “Fear not for I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.”
The word “Gospel” means good news. You know what good tidings are. That’s good news. I’m bringing you good news which is for all people. Everybody needs to hear this news. What is the news? Verse 11. Luke chapter 2, verse 11:
Luke 2:11: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
The good news, the Gospel, the Savior, has come, which is to come to the Jew first, just like God said. Now I want you to understand something. Jesus said:
Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
And it came to the Jew first, the Gospel came. Then He said He was sent to heal the brokenhearted and Jesus heals the brokenhearted. Whatever you’ve gone through, and all of us have gone through things where our hearts are broken, He’ll heal the brokenhearted. He says He came to deliver the captives, those who are in bondage, those who are in bondage physically, those who are in bondage spiritually, those who are in bondage to addictions, those who are in all kinds of bondage that people are in. He came to deliver the captive. He came to recover the sight of the blind, physically and spiritually.
“Would you ever know anybody, preacher, who was blind and got their eyesight back?” Yes, I have. I could name him. I won’t take the time to do that right now, but I could do that.
And then He said to set at liberty them that are bruised – that’s those who have been hurt, those who have been wounded, and to give them liberty. Liberty is a gift from the Savior.
I shared this with the campers the other day. It’s a song written years ago by a fellow named Neil Enloe. I’m not going to sing it for you, just read the words. It’s not very long. It says, “In New York Harbor stands a lady with a torch raised to the sky, and all who see her know she stands for liberty for you and I. And I’m so proud to be called an American to be named with the brave and the free, I will honor the flag and trust in God and the Statue of Liberty.”
That goes on, “On lonely Golgotha stood a cross with my Lord raised to the sky, and all who kneel there live forever as all the saints can testify. Now I’m so glad to be called a Christian to be named with the ransomed and whole, as the statue liberates the citizen, so the cross liberates the soul.”
The Lord Jesus offers us true liberty for anyone who places their faith and trust in Him. The old jailer asks Paul and Silas what must I do to be saved? And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved.” John 8:32.
Jesus talked to some of the most religious people who ever lived. Standing in the temple talking to them, He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 14:6, He says, “I am the truth.” Believe in Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus will one day sit in judgment over every soul who has ever lived. We’ve already talked about the two judgments, the Judgment Seat of Christ for those who believed and been saved and the Great White Throne for those who have not believed, are lost eternally. Jesus offers liberty and justice for all.
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Let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you that we have the privilege of calling you our heavenly Father. Thank you that we can have true liberty and true justice when we put our faith and trust in you.
Father, I do not know every heart here, but you do. It may be that everybody in this room has already trusted you as their Savior. It may be that there are one or more people here today who have not trusted you as their Savior, and as that may be the case, my prayer is that that person or those persons would open their hearts and call on you and say, “Lord Jesus, I believe. I know that, like everybody else in this room, everybody else on this planet, I have sinned. I’ve done that which is wrong in your sight, and I know that the wages, the penalty for sin, is death. But I also know and believe that Jesus paid for my sins at the cross. He took the wages of sin for me, and paid for my sins at the cross. And right here, right now, I am trusting Him to forgive my sins, to save my soul, and to give me eternal life.”
He rose from the grave, and He said, “He that believes in me has everlasting life.” If you haven’t already trusted Him to save you, will you do that right now? Will you open your heart, best you know how, right where you are? Pray and ask the Lord to save you.
If you’re sitting there and saying, “I don’t get it. I don’t understand it.” Friend, I’ve been where you are. I’ve sat in a church service like you’re sitting, and I’ve heard what you’re hearing, and I didn’t get it either. But somebody took a Bible and sat down with me and explained it to me so I could understand. That’s what we want to do for you.
So, we’re going to sing a hymn of invitation. As we sing, if you leave your place, come up front, you tell me you want to be saved. We’ll do that for you. We’ll take the Bible and show you how to be saved. We’ll not keep you for a long time. We’ll not make you do anything you don’t want to do. We’ll just show you what God’s Word says. You make your own decision.
Maybe you’re here this morning and say, “Preacher, I’m saved. No doubt about it. I could tell you the time, and I could show you the place.” And that’s wonderful. But you know God’s spoken to your heart. You know there’s a spiritual need in your life. It’s my prayer that even now, you will come. If you need somebody to pray with you, we’re here to do that. You need a word of counsel. We’re here to do that. You need to make a decision. Now is the time to do it. Let God have His will and His way in your life.
As we sing, Father, bless and move in this invitation time, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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About the Speaker
Dr. Michael L. McClure
Senior Pastor
Dr. Michael L. McClure, our lead pastor, is known for his in-depth knowledge and effective teaching style of biblical truths applicable to everyday living.