Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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You may be seated. Well,
let's turn to second chronicles. Now,
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second chronicles, Chapter Nineteen, and
here the chronicler will give to us more
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of more of an account of Jehoshah
fet's reign as a king in Judah.
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Be Reading Verse for through Verse Eleven. So second chronicles nineteen, verse four
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through Verse Eleven. Jehoshah fat lived
at Jerusalem. He and he went out
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again among the people from Beersheba to
the hill country of Ephraim and brought them
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back to the Lord, the God
of their fathers. He appointed judges in
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the land and all the fortified cities
of Judah, city by city, and
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he said to the judges, consider
what you do, for you judge not
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for man but for the Lord.
He is with you in giving judgment.
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Now, then, let the fear
of the Lord be upon you. Be
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careful what you do, for there
is no injustice with the Lord, our
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God, or partiality or taking bribes. Moreover, in Jerusalem, Jehoshav had
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appointed certain Levites and priests and heads
of families of Israel to give judgment for
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the Lord and to decide disputed cases. They had their seat at Jerusalem and
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he charged them. Thus, you
shall do in the fear of the Lord
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and Faithfulness and with your whole heart. Whenever a case comes to you from
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your brothers who live in their cities
concerning bloodshed, law or commandment, statutes
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or rules, then you shall warn
them that they may not incur guilt before
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the Lord and Wrath may not come
upon you and your brothers. Thus you
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shall do and you will not incur
guilt. And behold, I'm a Riah,
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the Chief Priest, is over you
in all matters of the Lord,
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and Zabadiah, the son of Ishmael, the governor of the House of Judah,
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in all the kings matters, and
the Levites will serve you as officers,
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deal courageously, and may the Lord
Be With the upright sends the reading
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of God's word. May he bless
it to us well. Here we read
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of good King Jehosha fat doing some
wonderful things among his people. We get
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this right away when we read that
he goes out again among the people,
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and he does this for a particular
purpose, to bring them back to the
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Lord, to Yah Way, the
god of their father's I'm as he does.
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So he does it in many ways, and we've seen other parts of
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his rule and his good reign over
Judah, some parts that were not so
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excellent as well, as we looked
at last week. But here he is
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establishing justice in Israel, judgment among
God's people, and he does so I'm
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well, let's consider the situation that
he is establishing. As he calls them
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back to Yah way, the God
of their fathers, he decides to appoint
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judges in the land and all the
fortified cities of Judah, city by city,
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I'm throughout all the land and all
of these different places, perhaps in
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every town, or at least in
every important town. I'm he is establishing
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judges, I'm judges to rule and
decide cases where our laws are broken,
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where land issues need to come are
dealt with. You can imagine all kinds
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of things. Throughout the book of
Deuteronomy and other places in the first five
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books of the Bible, we have
lots of instructions about how Israel is to
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live their life in the land.
And of course, whenever you have wherever
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you have instructions and you added sinners
to that, you have problems. And
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that's what judges were called to deal
with and they were called to do deal
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with it rightly well. In addition
to these judges that are appointed throughout the
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throughout his country, throughout Judah Jehoshaphat
also has a special counsel appointed in Jerusalem.
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We read that in Verse Eight,
he appoints certain levites and priests and
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heads of families of Israel to give
judgment for the Lord and to decide disputed
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cases. They had their seat at
Jerusalem and this seems to be a court
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that deals a possibly with a high
and important cases, with appeals perhaps,
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of things that are either difficult to
decide or were disputed at lower levels.
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Here we see God ruling in in
a sort of joint way and exercise that
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all the people participate in, through
the Levites and priests and through these heads
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of families. I'm all there represented
Israel, a court to which appeals could
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be made, difficult disputed decisions could
come to my won't get into it in
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detail because the chronicler doesn't hear,
but these institutions that are part of Israel
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or fascinating to learn about. I'm
all the things that when on and and
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how they went on. It's a
topic worthy of study and it's one that
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we do learn about some here in
addition to these offices that he establishes,
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first throughout the country and then this
high court in Jerusalem he he had,
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he establishes a partificate, a particular
kind of ethic. These judges are not
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just to judge, but they're to
judge in a certain way, and I
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want to think about just a couple
things in regards to that this evening.
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First, how they are to rule, the character of their rule, and
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then on what basis there to rule? So first, how are they to
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rule? What instructions does Jehosha fat
give his judges? Well, the main
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one that he gives is they are
to rule according to the fear of God.
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This is something we discussed somewhat in
Sunday school this morning. They are
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to rule in the fear of the
Lord. We read this several times.
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First is he establishes the individual judges
throughout Judah. In verse seven he says.
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Well, even going back before that, in verse sex, he says
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consider what you do, for you
judge not for man but for the Lord.
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He reminds them who it is they
are judging, for the kind of
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office that they are in. And
then in verse seven he adds to this.
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Now then let the fear of the
Lord be upon you, be careful
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what you do. And then he
ties that to not their actions, he
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ties it to the very character of
God. Why are they to do what
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they are to do? Because God
is who he is, he says,
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for there is no injustice with Yahweh
are God, or partiality or taking bribes.
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God is the great judge over his
people and he judges in a particular
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way. These judges that are under
Jehoshah fat are ultimately God's judges. They
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are to judge and minister at administer
justice according to his ways, and because
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God is always just, they are
to be always just, because God doesn't
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take bribes. Kind of laughable thought, and he is not partial, also
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a laughable thing. Neither are they
to be they are to be careful what
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they are to do. They are
to fear the Lord. He emphasizes this
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again as he appoints these rulers in
Jerusalem, this this counsel there. He
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says they are in verse eight to
give Judgment For the Lord. Again,
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it is, of course, in
service to the nation and service to their
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brothers, but they are to have
a higher charge in mind. They are
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serving the god of their father's.
That is why they are deciding disputed cases,
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and so he says in verse nine, similarly as he said to the
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judges before, thus you shall do
in the fear of the Lord, in
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faithfulness and with your whole heart.
They are to do this, he adds
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in verse ten, because the Lord
is ultimately ruling. To judge improperly or
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to allow injustices in the land to
be partial against those that are weak,
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to take the bribes of the rich
so that rulings might go against the poor,
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is not just to falsely administer justice, it is to incur guilt before
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Yahway. In verse ten, Wrath
will come upon you and your brothers if
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you don't do this. If you
do, it will not if you do
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this, you will not incur guilt, he says. And so they have
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a great responsibility here, both them
and, I should add, the two
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high officials that are placed over the
council. In verse eleven, Amaria,
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the chief priests over you and all
matters of the Lord, and Zebadiah,
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the son of Ishmael. I don't
have much to say on this at this
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moment, but it is striking.
I think it's worth observing that, even
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within the theocracy. There was a
kind of division between the sacred and the
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secular, a kind of sense that, though there is overlap and the counsel
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was dealing with things as a whole, there were still distinctions within the kingdom.
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It's an interesting thing worth reflecting on. That being said, back to
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the quality of the the judgment that
these judges are supposed to give. It
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is to be in the fear of
the Lord. That point is very clear,
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and we might put it in this
way to fill that out a little
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bit, that fear of God meant
and a very, very real sense of
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the way of an awareness of his
omniscians. In other words, they were
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to rule with a sense that God
was looking over their shoulders, that God
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knew all things. Going back to
verse seven, be careful what you do,
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for there is no injustice with the
Lord, our God, or partiality
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or taking bribes. It's a reminder
that not only does God not do these
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things and so you shouldn't do these
things, but also that God knows what
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you do. Be careful what you
do. He doesn't take bribes, but
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if you do, it may be
in secret before men, but it's never
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in secret before God. And awareness
of God's all knowing power is supposed to
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create a kind of fear of him
and a kind of carefulness about how they
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are to rule. He also,
he also, I'm sorry, he.
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They should also be aware of his
omnipotence, which is his all powerfulness.
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God Not only knows the hearts,
he knows whether or not they are being
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partial or impartial in their judgment,
and so they should be careful because if
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they are to incur guilt, we
read, then they will also incur wrath.
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God watching and knowing these things.
He's not a just a powerful record
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keeper or a knowing record keeper,
as he logs and notes Israel's justice and
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injustice. They will either incur guilt
or not, wrath or not, and
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so they are to have a fear
of God. We should also add that
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this awareness of his omnipotence and a
fear of the Lord also lends not only
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to a kind of carefulness, but
also a kind of courage. To fear
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God and not man is to embolden
these judges. This is how jehoshaphat ends
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in at the end in verse eleven. He says deal courageously, and may
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the Lord Be With the upright when
you are judging these judging things, it's
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difficult. You have people coming before
you have different motives, different reasons.
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Perhaps it's a friend whom you're called
to judge, whom you know have done
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wrong and you know that you're going
to lose your friendship with this person if
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you if you say that they've done
wrong. Maybe it's a family member,
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maybe it's a business partner. In
judging impartially, there are sometimes sacrifices that
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have to be made. Sometimes even
when it's not personal, it's just the
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the consequences. You might remember that
in Israel, when a person was judged
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to be guilty, particularly of a
capital offense, they were to be put
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to death immediately and by the witnesses
who are right there. Can you imagine
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going to the gate to accuse someone
of a deed you knew to be worthy
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of death and that you would personally
be required to put that person to death?
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It might make you hesitate a little
bit. Or as a judge,
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it might make you hesitate a little
bit. I really getting this right?
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Am I judging this correctly? You
can see why a higher court would be
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appropriate and even helpful. If you
were a lower judge and a town somewhere
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and you felt your abilities perhaps lacking, to be able to appeal it up
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to Jerusalem, seek the advice and
counsel of a broader a body of leaders
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and elders, would be a very
helpful thing. But no matter whether you
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were in a lower court or in
the higher court, you were called to
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be courageous, to not be fearful
and the things that you had been called
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to do, to not be fearful
of men, but to be fearful of
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God. That was the call of
the judge. That was the character and
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the the way these judges were to
rule. Flowing from that was a kind
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of faithfulness to God, something that
was to be done with the whole heart.
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That's what Jehosha fat says. He
says they are to be faithful and
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to to judge rightly with their whole
heart. So this is how they are
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to rule. Now by what are
they to rule? This is a very
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significant fact, because judges rule judge
differently. Judges are not legislators. They
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are making decisions on the basis of
something else, and here in particular,
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it is the law of the Lord, the law of Yawing. Jehoshaph hat
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makes this very clear. The chronicler
tells us that they were brought back by
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him to the Lord, the God
of their others. And when he appoints
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judges in all the cities, he
says you are judging not for man but
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for the Lord. Again, notice
in Verse Verse Eight, I'm sorry,
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verse nine, no one more.
Verse Ten, he says, whenever a
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case comes before you from your brothers
who live in the city's concerning bloodshed,
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law or commandment statues are rules,
then you shall warn them. You shall
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not incur guilt before the Lord.
Ultimately, it is Yahweh who is not
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only their judge, but he is
a their ultimate king. It's a very
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striking thing that in Israel the Kings
did not have legislative power, not really.
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They had a lot of administrative power
to be able to make some things
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happen in particular ways and to organize
things. Here we see Joolsha fat root
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exercising that is, he appoints various
people, but notice that Jehoshahat is appointing
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these people in accord with God's own
word. In other words, jehoshaphat himself
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is being an example of what he
wants these judges to do. If you
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go back, for example, and
read Deuteronomy Sixteen versus eighteen through twenty,
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or Deuteronmi, seventeen, verses eight, eight through thirteen, you'll read this
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the same situation, a prescription in
the law, for this is how rules
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shall be done in Israel. That's
why some commentators refer to this section as
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Jehoshah fats reforms. Just like in
the reformation, the reformers went back to
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the word of God as a way
to or reorganize the church. Just to
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think about our doctrine is to think
about what it is, how what our
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worship is to be like, what
our piet is to be like. Jehosha
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fat was doing that too. As
a good king ruling under Yah Way,
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he was going back to the word, back to the Covenant, back to
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Deuteronomy, and he's saying, let's
get this right, this is how we
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ought to rule. And that's what
he does here, and that's exactly what
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he wants for these judges. They
are to rule not according to their will
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but according to God's will. One
interesting way to understand this, or to
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impress the point, is by comparing
what Jehosha fat is doing what to what
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this Egyptian Pharaoh does a few hundred
years before Jehosha fat. His name is
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Pharaoh Horemheb and he does some very
similar things in Egypt. This Pharaoh,
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he makes these rulings and he says
similar things that Jehosha fat does. He
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sets up lower court officials, he
sets up higher court of officials, he
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uses priests, all these kinds of
things. He tells them also be wives,
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he tells them don't accept bribes.
But there's a very significant difference between
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the Pharaoh in Egypt and this king
and Judah. The Pharaoh in Egypt,
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we read in his rulings that he
did all of these things according to the
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counsel of his heart and that the
judges were to judge according to quote,
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the words of the palace and the
laws of the Throne Room. The words
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of the palace the laws of the
Throne Room. By what I say,
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you shall rule. That's what you
are to do, my judges. But
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what is Jehoshaphat do? He says
by Yah ways, rule by Yah ways.
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I'm judgments you are to judge,
Jehosha fat being himself a great example
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of this. It's fair to take
all of this and remind ourselves that that's
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exact same things are true today in
the Church of God, for the elders
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of each individual church, for the
Higher Church counsels, at presbytery, a
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general assembly. They too are called
to judge and to do so without partiality,
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without taking bribes, without giving preference
to those that are powerful, to
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those that are rich. They are
to do so with out giving preference to
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their own opinions and their own ideas. Church counsels, as in Israel of
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old, it also in new Israel, are not to judge or to legislate,
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but to judge according to the word
of God and the word of God
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alone. And, interestingly, Jesus
himself commands us to this. He tells
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us that when there are problems in
the church, we should of course address
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one another, we should bring it
to one another, but ultimately, he
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says in Matthew Eighteen, when that
doesn't work, you are to bring it
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to the church. Paul says in
First Corinthians six that we are uncapable of
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judging these things, and he even
says to the Corinthians that they are failing
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and embarrassing themselves by not judging and
judging rightly. Let me read you a
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little bit from First Corinthians. Six. Paul says to these this church,
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he says, when one of you
has a grievance another against another, does
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he dare go to does he dare
go to law before the unrighteous instead of
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the saints? He says, Corinthians, why are you taking your complaints against
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one one another outside of the church? He says, do you not know
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that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be
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judge by you, are you incompetent
to try trivial matters? Do you not
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know that we are to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to
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this life? So, if you
have such cases, why do you lay
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them before those who have no standing
in the church? I say this to
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your shame. Can it be that
there is no one among you wise enough
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to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to brother, goes
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to law against brother, and that
before unbelievers. You see what he's saying.
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He's saying, guys, look at
you. Are More than capable of
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doing this. This is your job, this is your duty. You are
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embarrassing yourselves by taking your disputes and
your grievances to the courts outside of the
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church, when there are those who
have standing right here within the church,
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wisdom within the church, to judge
these things. So as in the Old
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Testament, also in the New Testament
era there are judges and rulers and authorities
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in God's church called and ordained by
him to fulfill these capacities. But they
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are to judge rightly, they are
to judge with faithfulness, whole, with
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a whole heart towards God and most
certainly in the fear of the Lord.
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Well, how does this all apply
to us today, beyond just the necessity
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for having these things? Well,
there is right to start there. We
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need officers who know the word.
Who Know the word. How can they
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rule according to the word of God
if they don't know the word of God?
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We need people, we need officers
in our church who are able to
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judge with who have wisdom and character, who are not the types of people
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who take bribes and show partiality and
do what they can to honor themselves and
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get ahead in the world, but
men who have a fear of the Lord.
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I conscious awareness of his omnipoti on
omnipotence and as omniscians that have both
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carefulness in what they do and also
courage. This passage also shows us that
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we need to constantly be reminded,
as they are, that we are no
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mere human organization, that as as
Israel as the church, we are ruled
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by a king and judged by him. We the things that we do,
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we're not just doing as a social
organization, applying this by law here,
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that by law here, just so
that we can continue on, continuing on.
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We exist and we are ruled by
Yahweh himself, the great king who
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rules over US, who watches over
US and desires to have a holy people.
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This passage reminds us of that fact. And finally, this passage reminds
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us that if we are going to
do these things right, we must depend
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on God entirely for our strength to
fulfill these duties, as I mentioned before,
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with courage. This is a large
part of what fear of the Lord
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is. It's looking to him at
all times, in an all ways,
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in his word and trusting him that
what he says is right, that his
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ways are true and that he is
watching over us in all times, even
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when things are difficult. To do
what is right. Why do we need
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to Remond MT be reminded of this? Well, because church officers go bad
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courts are people, are partial,
take bribes, do bad things, people
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fall into sin, miscalculate the word
of God, they act like humans.
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Remembering that and remembering that Jesus rules, as king and judge over all gives
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us a sense of security. Sometimes
it boggles my mind that, as the
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church, we haven't already driven ourselves
into the ground and out of existence a
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thousand times over, even with all
of the best understanding of God's rules,
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the best understanding of his commendment Commandments, ruling in decency and in order,
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with proper respect and all these things, would we not still cause everything to
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fall apart if it were not for
God sovereignly ruling over us, watching over
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us and giving US great leaders like
King Jeosaphat, good rulers and judges like
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Samuel, David and Solomon and others
who stand before the Lord with courage and
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righteousness, men like Peter and Paul, James and John, like the reformers,
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who stood up courageously and said,
by God's word, the church must
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be ruled. That happens. These
great men happen. Great things in the
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Church happen because God is great,
because God is ruling over us and defending
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us, and because Jes Jesus promises
that the gates of hell will not prevail
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against his church. He promises that
the church will not prevail against his church.
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He promises that we will be safe
under him. This is why we
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need to remember who our God is, and we need to remember that he
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rules not only according to his righteous
commandments, but according to his Gospel as
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well. When Jesus judges us,
he judges us as we are in him.
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When he looks at us, he
sees, yes, our sins,
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are mistakes, are errors, the
ways that we are falling apart and falling
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away from him. But he also
judges US according to his righteous rule of
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justification in us. When Jesus stands
on the judgment seat and he looks at
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his chosen ones, he knows whom
his blood has been applied to. He
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knows whom he has declared as righteous
and just. He knows who belonged to
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him, who he is fighting for
against tyranny, against partiality, against bribery
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and all kinds of other things.
To know that Jesus, who died on
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the cross for us, is the
one who is ruling and defending us,
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is a great courage maker. It's
one that allows us to stand before him,
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even though we have sins, and
to say I will do the right
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thing, to stand before him and
say I will trust in you no matter
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what, and not stand before him
and give up and say what's the point,
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and to say I'm already done with
anyway. I might as well sin
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the extra mile. Knowing Jesus as
our justification, knowing Jesus as one who
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judges US according to his righteous rules, righteous ruling, and that, through
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the cross, gives us a lot
of confidence, confidence that when we're scared,
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when we're worried, when Satan accuses
US and men want other things and
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the church is pushed back and forth
by various powers, that we can stand
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against all those powers and refuse the
bribe and gold and do the right thing
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and say the hard things, because
he is our king, because he has
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our justification, because he is the
judge. It is from this position of
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faith, faith in the Lord Jesus, Faith and what he has done,
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faith in the kingdom that he is
establishing, that we can that we can
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go like his disciples in Matthew Ten
and stand in the courts of the world
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even and testify to the Kingdom of
God and not be afraid, and we
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can also stand in the courts of
the Church and testify with truthfulness and honor,
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knowing that God will deal justly,
that God, as Jehosha fat says,
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will be with the upright, those
who stand in the justification of God,
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according to Jesus, on the Cross
and who act and live their lives
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in his name. So, brothers
and sisters, as we consider doing right
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and doing wrong and in our lives, and as we consider those requirements that
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we have to judge, and judge
rightly, when sins are committed, let
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us remember what Jehosha fat says,
for it is the word of our Lord.
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Be Courageous. The Lord will deal
with the upright. Let us pray
