Let's just pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You, Lord, for the ways that we have already been encouraged and built up and edified, strengthened as Christians, as followers of the Lord and our King and Master, Jesus Christ. And now we just pray that You would teach us wisdom. Lord, help us to be reminded that our life is not about proof texts that tell us what to do in every given situation. It's about learning wisdom. About so studying and pondering your ways that we learn what is right in every situation. We don't need to go to someone always to tell us, what do I do here? What do I do there? but by your Spirit within teaching us the fear of the Lord, we know what is right, and we do it in joy. So I pray that this morning as a result of this time, we would learn, we would grow, we would together as a body be built up and firmly established until we reach that measure, that stature of the full-grown man. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. So over the last couple of months, we've been working our way through the Book of the Covenant in Exodus. And the Book of the Covenant is made up of two parts, just a little tiny review. The words and the rules. The words and the rules. The words are what we call the Ten Commandments. And the rules are what we could better maybe call the Righteous Judgments. And so in these two parts of the Book of the Covenant, You have the righteous judgments taking the Ten Commandments and showing how they work themselves out in real life. And what, especially, what true justice and righteousness looks like when the commandments are broken. What then? Because we're all sinners and we break the commandments. Well, on that day especially, because the covenant community wasn't all regenerate and born again, like we are here. What a wonderful thought that is, that we're a born again community. So we've just finished a whole collection of laws or case studies. Remember, I don't have time to review last week, but it's so important, so important. We finished a whole bunch of case studies relating to the treatment of human life. Now we come to a new collection of case studies, and these are relating not to the treatment of human life, but to the treatment of our neighbor's property, our neighbor's property. This distinction is really important. Because on the one hand, it helps us see that human life is not what? Property. I mean, we already finished with human life, okay? Now we're talking about property. So when we were talking about slaves, that never had anything to do with property. Even when the master had the right to discipline his slave with a rod, that right did not come from the fact that the slave was his property, any more than it comes from the idea that my children are my property. So, we've finished with human life. Now we're in property. And again, I'll review Exodus 21, 16 says, whoever steals a man and sells him. When you steal a man and then sell the person you stole, you're treating him as what? Property. And you know what happens to whoever does that? They're killed. So, clearly, God wasn't talking about property. If there's a distinction between the laws about human life that we just talked about, now it's property. You know it comes after property laws. We're going to end up with social justice. And I know that's a word that's got a lot of baggage, but I couldn't think of a better one. And there is a biblical social justice. So, this is important, too, because here's a law that follow right after the property laws. Okay, listen to this, or if your Bibles are open, you can read it in verses 16 to 17 of Exodus 22. If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall still pay money equal to the bride price for virgins. Now we're going to talk about that obviously more when we get to it, but a lot of people think that God is like making some concession to the idea that a woman is property, which is just utterly ludicrous. They're not reading the text. We don't understand the text, if that's what we think, and some commentators do. We're going to see that's not the case when we come to the verses, but I point out just today that the fact is that the property law has already stopped. When we get to the bride price, it's not property anymore. We've already finished the property collection. How do we know that, though, you might say to me? How do you know when we've finished the property collection? There's no inspired headings in the text that God said, okay, now we're finished with property, now we're moving on to social justice. Is there anything in the text itself, besides the subject matter, which would be sufficient, that tells us where the section on property begins and where it ends? Well, if any of you are interested in the little riddles I sent out yesterday, This is where we learn the importance of this word. The verses we're looking at today divide naturally into 11 parts. In every single one of these 11 sections, you have a Hebrew word. And it's the Hebrew word, Shalem. Not Shalom, Shalem. And you can just spell it like this for right now, S-H-A-L-L-E-M. That'll be a very familiar word by the time we're finished this morning. In fact, that word Shalem appears 17 times exclusively only in these 19 verses and never anywhere else before or after in the entire book of Exodus. So how do I know where the property laws begin and end? Where the word Shalem begins and ends. That's how I know the bride price isn't about property. That's one of the reasons. As we're going to see, this is a really, really important point. Shalem. So, off we go. Verses 33 to 34. When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it up, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make ESV says restoration, we can say make restitution, shalem. He shall give money to its owner and the dead beast shall be his. Now, we don't typically go around digging pits today, but in those days, pits served a whole lot of purposes, as I have discovered through study. You realize I study all week, right? So, he says, they are known to have been used as receptacles for grain storage, as cisterns, as latrines, as refuse dumps, and rubber pits. So it's pretty easy to imagine what happens. Someone digs a new pit or they open up an existing pit and then for whatever reason they fail to cover it up when they're finished. Maybe they forget, maybe they're just like, I don't need to cover it up. Along comes your neighbor's ox or donkey wandering along the path and he falls into the pit and dies. When that happens, the owner of the pit is required to make restitution. Shalem. Now, let's be clear. The owner of the pit did not wish any harm to his neighbor's animal. He didn't like leave it uncovered thinking, I hope his animal, I'm pretty sure this is his path, and I hope he falls in. That's not what he was doing. The problem is, he didn't wish any harm. If he'd have known that was going to happen, he would have covered it up. So I mean, the reality is he did not show that he cared sufficiently. In your handout, he did not show that he cared enough sufficiently for his neighbor's rights and his neighbor's well-being. We're gonna talk about this at the end, but how many times do we say, well, I didn't mean that or I didn't intend that? Well, that's not always the problem. It's the fact that you didn't love enough. It's that we weren't caring enough. And so because of his negligence, his neighbor has now suffered a significant loss. Now the basic meaning of that word for restitution, shalem, it means this, to, and this is really important. I want us to get a picture for this. It means to complete something. It means like something's incomplete. It means to bring it to completion. In your handout, to make something whole, to make something entire, Again. So the point of making restitution in your handout is to fully even everything out again. Even. So that there is fairness, equity, justice, and righteousness. That's important. The point of restitution is to fully and completely right the wrong. Now that's why if you killed someone, you can't make restitution for that, because you can't get their life back. So there was no restitution called for. I mean, yeah, you died, life for life, but here we have property. And so there's a wrong been done, it has to be righted. Now because this was a case of negligence, There was no willful, I want to hurt my neighbor's donkey or ox. The amount of restitution that's required to make everything even and complete is what? I mean, to make everything even, it's 100%. Ox for ox. So the owner of the pit buys the dead ox from its owner for the price he would have paid if it was still alive and healthy. The dead ox is now his to do with as he wants, and the former owner can go buy another one. Okay, verse 35. Now, we want to put this whole piece, we want to learn wisdom. We also want to bring this together to its conclusion. When one man's ox butts another's so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and share its price, and the dead beast also they shall share. Now, there's actually a lot you can think about in that verse. You could spend a lot of time just thinking about trying to learn wisdom. First of all, this time no one was negligent. There was no negligence. No one could foresee this happening. It couldn't have been reasonably avoided. So in order for everything to be even, what do you do now? The key is even. Well, the loss has to be shared equally between the owner of the live ox and the owner of the dead ox. So, there's no one negligent and no one responsible, so no Shalem. The only time no Shalem, the only time no restitution is when no negligence, no responsibility, no wrong, nothing's been done wrong but something still happened. No restitution. I want to just remind us, you know, when we're the ones who suffered a loss, we always want someone to be at fault, right? We always want to find someone to blame, but the point here is that as a people, we need to realize that God has all things under his sovereign control, and sometimes things happen that are just because God himself has actively permitted it, actively permitted it to happen. In fact, indeed he's ordained it. So we have to be careful that we surrender to that reality and then in the end come to trust God for the things that happen. that are beyond anyone's control. Verse 36, or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay. That's the same word shalem, okay? They translate this word shalem in a bunch of different ways, but it's an identical word. He shall make restitution. Ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his. Okay, here's another case of negligence. I mean, I knew my ox has been goring people. He hasn't killed any animal yet, but he's gored animals. And I didn't keep it in, and now he's killed your animal. I did not wish for your animal to be harmed. And you know, if it's my ox that just did that, I'm going to be like, oh, but I didn't mean that. Oh, I'm so sorry, but I didn't mean that. But what's the problem? I didn't care for you sufficiently. God isn't just about what I didn't mean. God is about us actively loving one another and looking out for each other diligently. Nevertheless, okay, because it was only a case of negligence, what's the rate of restitution? 100%. Now we move on from negligence to purposeful intent. Verse one of chapter 22, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, He shall repay, shalem, five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. What? That's a lot. When a person purposefully steals, and this was helpful for me to see. If I go and steal, and I'm not gonna bother trying to make it your cars or your tractors or your iPhones or whatever else. I'm just gonna say, I went and stole your ox. If I went and stole your ox, I show that I was very willing to profit myself at your expense. So in order for everything to be even, what has to happen? You have to actually profit at my expense. See, that's restitution. That's how things are made even. I want us to see, and we're gonna see in a minute, in God's world, he takes justice in God's world, right? That is the world. He takes justice seriously. So it's not just about I have to repay you. I have to now be deprived and you benefit at my expense. That's evenness because that's what I was willing to do. That was my goal in stealing. Furthermore, since the man has already killed, and there's more on, once we get these notes up, once I get these notes to where they can be put on the website, there's more stuff. If you want to take it further, I always leave stuff out and hope it'll be there on the website. But since this man has already killed or sold the animal that he stole, okay, he stole the animal and then he killed it and ate it. Or he stole it and then he sold it for money. He's gone past the point of no return this guy has, clearly. And so in order to fully and completely right the wrong that he's done to his neighbor, he has to make restitution shalem in the amount of 500% for a stolen ox and 400% for a stolen sheep. Look how the tables are turned. Look who's been robbed now. Now the extra amount for the ox, why 500% for an ox? Well, because when your ox was stolen, Now that the ox is gone, you can't be plowing your fields, working your fields, right? You can't be doing work and labor. You're losing time and labor. If your sheep is stolen, well, you just want to get it back. Right, because eventually you kill it, or eventually you shear it, or whatever you do, but you're not hooking your sheep up to your plow. So there was an additional amount of restitution for the ox. See, the wisdom, the wisdom of the Lord, the Lord wants us to be thinking in terms of what is justice, what is fair, what is even. Again, we're not talking about economic things here. We're talking about property and stealing. Are we learning in your handout? Are we learning what? Wisdom. Wisdom. Okay, being in the midst of a sandwich here, which I didn't bother to really focus on, but we are in the middle of a sandwich, we're going to skip ahead to the top slice. Okay, verse 4. If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double. Now notice, if they find the stolen beast alive in his possession, there's a good chance it just happened, or pretty recently. So the guy hasn't lost too much labor and time from his ox being gone. That's why it's the same price now. Nevertheless, okay, so everything's the same as before. It's still in possession of the thief since the thief has not gone past the point of no return Since the time is relatively short the amount of restitution is 200% Two animals to replace the one he stole and again Can you see in your handout this makes everything and I'm there's I want to drill this into our heads We have to get this in order to appreciate where we're going Everything is perfectly even. Complete and whole again. That is what must happen. So, I was willing to benefit myself at my neighbor's expense. One sheep gained for me, one sheep lost for him. Now, my neighbor not only has to give me my sheep back, but one sheep lost for him, one sheep gained for me. That's justice. Once again, we see the point of this restitution, and in many ways, this system would work a lot better than, of course, our confinement system. I know that some people need to get off the streets, but I think there was wisdom in the system of restitution, Shalem. The point is to fully and completely right the wrong that's been done to your neighbor. So now let's go back to the filling in our sandwich, verses two to three. If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood guilt for him. But if the sun has risen on him, there shall be blood guilt for him. There's a lot we could say there and I said a little and it'll be on the website and I was gonna say it now, but I'm gonna skip it, okay, because I think it's pretty straightforward. There are some points that should be made, but let's move on. It says, he shall surely pay. Now, for those who looked at my email and thought about it, this is the Shalem Shalem. This is the... Two in a row, he shall surely pay. In the Hebrew that's shalem, shalem. If he has nothing, he should be sold for his theft. So, why so emphatic? Why he shall surely pay? In other words, you shall not let him off the hook. Well, maybe some people would want to be lenient to the thief. After all, maybe, why did he steal? Maybe he was poor. Maybe there was poverty. And so he's stealing from his neighbor only because he's poor. Well, what's assumed here is that the poor man in Israel had other options besides stealing and it wasn't the welfare system. One of his main options was selling himself into the service of another man's household until all his debts were paid. Okay, so if I'm poor and I've got debts and I don't know what to do and I can't get food, I sell myself. until my debts are paid. In light of these things, then, God is clear. Poverty must never be any excuse for stealing. No, we don't necessarily live in that culture. If you have a system where the rich are hoarding everything and not giving anything ever to the poor, we won't get into the ethics of everything now. I just want to point out that this is a different culture and you could sell yourself into slavery and pay off your debts and put food on your table and have shelter, a roof over your head. Therefore, in order to make everything even and complete and whole again, To right the wrong that you've done to your neighbor, there's only one option. Only one option, no matter how poor you are. You shall surely make restitution. See, God cares about it. You see, this is telling us something about God. Shalem, shalem. Indeed, if he has nothing, if he is so poor that he cannot pay you back for what he stole, He shall be sold for his theft, which is what he should have done in the first place. Sold himself so he could pay his debts. Now the amount of restitution is not spelled out here. So the judges are to exercise wisdom. Wisdom. We know it's at least 100%. But I'm wondering if the exact amount of how much this thief has to pay back, 100%, 200%, 400%, 500%, I wonder if it depends on the financial condition of the thief. So if I'm like a rich guy and I'm just going to steal for the fun of it because I don't want to use my sheep, maybe it's 500%. If I'm poor and I went to steal because I just didn't really feel like selling myself into slavery, maybe it's 100%, maybe it's 200%. I would guess more like 200% for exercising wisdom. Again, in your handout, wisdom. I initially had this as another concluding point at the end of the sermon. I don't anymore, so I'm just going to put it here. Again, brothers and sisters, wisdom. We are called to study God's ways, to ponder them, not so that we have a verse to flip to for every single thing, but so that we have learned what His thoughts are, what His ways are, and we're able then to live them out in the love of Him and the love of our neighbor. Verses five to six, if a man causes a field, or vineyard to be grazed over or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution, shalem, from the best in his own field and in his own vineyard. If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain of the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution, shalem, shalem. Now, since these are, once again, cases of negligence, we move from negligence to purposeful to negligence again, the amount of restitution is how much? 100%. But, now remember, the guy didn't wish any harm to his neighbors. Now, don't you kick yourself after that? You're like, ah, man, I shouldn't have let my ox out. Or, oh, I should have covered up that pit. You're so mad at yourself and you're like, it's just such an accident. The point I think that God is making is it's not quite an accident. Negligence is not completely accidental in God's book because negligence betrays a sufficient care for our neighbor, a sufficient concern for his well-being. Now there's a catch here. since the field or the vineyard that's grazed by someone else's animal, it hadn't yet been harvested. So how do you know how much was lost? It was just potential loss. The solution to the problem, and look how seriously God takes restitution, 100% restitution, is that whichever of, okay, I'm the one who let my ox graze your field, whichever one of my fields or my vineyards has the highest yield this year, that will determine the 100% restitution to you. Oh, can't we just like do an average? Are we learning wisdom? In the case of a fire that's not kept contained, and it breaks out and burns up my neighbor's field, I'm required to make full restitution. This is our second example of Shalem, Shalem. And I think, why Shalem, Shalem? I mean, I get the point, right? And God says, well, I don't know that you do. The point is this, it's never just 100%. I'm like, yeah, 100%, but we've got ways of making 100% a little smaller or a little bigger, don't we? We have ways of doing that. And God's point is that, no, whatever your 100% in my book is a full and complete 100%. Whatever that looks like, depending on the circumstances. So Shalem Shalem emphasizes the absolute necessity of restoring everything in full. The wrong done to one's neighbor must be righted in full. All right, after negligence, we go back to purpose, purposeful. Verses seven to eight. If a man gives to his neighbor money or goods to keep safe, and it is stolen from the man's house, then if the thief is found, he shall pay, shalem. Again, it's a very unique word. I just wanna emphasize that. It doesn't just mean pay. I wish they wouldn't have translated it that way, because shalem means make whole. And in this case, that means pay. But that's not, that's a special word. If the thief is not found, the owner of the house shall come near to God to show whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property. All right, once again, because the thief was trying to profit off another man's loss, how do you make things even? The other man has to profit off his loss. That's why it's pay double 200%. Now, if you can't find the thief, then you wonder, well, I gave my goods to Mark Davison to keep him safe and he says that they were stolen, but we can't find the thief. Maybe Mark took them, right? So now, Mark has to... Go before the Lord to verify whether, and we don't know what that looked like. There's different suggestions. But the main thing I think to know is that restitution must always be made. Full justice has to be done. So that's the point. We gotta find this out. Verse nine, we can go on to verse nine. For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak. We might be thinking at this point, I think I get the point. I think I've already learned wisdom. Well, that's good if we're getting to that point. Is it drilling into our head? This is serious. This is important to God. Because he's made it important. Because he says it is. For every breach of trust, whether it's for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak, or for any kind of lost thing of which one says, this is it. The case of both parties shall come before God. The one whom God condemns shall pay Shalem." Really make restitution double to his neighbor. All right, so the unique thing about these verses is, you know, find someone else just to make it easier. So Tom, you know, I say, Tom's got, you know, a Bible over there. And I say, that's my Bible. Now maybe he stole it and maybe he didn't. Maybe he stole it, or maybe that's my way of stealing it from him, by saying, he stole my Bible. And then I get his Bible, and now it's mine, because he restored it to me, but it wasn't mine. You get the point. So once again, we don't know for sure what it looked like, because now you guys got to decide which one of us is telling the truth. We don't know what it looked like to bring the case to God, but the main point is that full restitution has to be made. And here's the new thing in this. Let's say I said, Tom stole my Bible and you all figured out that no, he didn't steal my Bible, that's his. Well, you know what I have to do now? I have to go out and buy him a Bible and give it to him because my plan was to benefit off of his loss. Since that was my plan, now I am to lose and he has to benefit off my loss. It even goes to the plans and intentions of my heart. I was still required to make restitution in the amount of actually double, double. So I have to be like, I have to buy him two Bibles. What you had been hoping to gain at your neighbor's expense. See how, look at God, look at his wisdom, look at how God is thinking, if I can use a human phrase for this. Even the unsuccessful attempt to steal can only truly be righted by 200% shall them. Verses 10 to 11, if a man gives to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep safe and it dies or is injured or is driven away without anyone seeing it, an oath by the Lord shall be between them both to see whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property. The owner shall accept the oath and he shall not make restitution. Alright, so I'm not going to say a lot about that there. This is another example where there was no one at fault. The only time there's no Shalem made is if no one's at fault. No negligence, no responsibility, no purposeful intent. Verse 12, But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution Shalem to its owner. Now there's stuff here that I don't understand. Apparently this assumes that if it was stolen, there was negligence. And so once again, I didn't mean to, I didn't want it, but neither did I care enough for my neighbor. Do you get how radical that is? God is saying to us, when we say, I didn't mean to, God says, well, but if you were loving your neighbor like God commanded you to love him, there wouldn't have even been that negligence. And that even sometimes includes forgetting. Why do we forget? Because we're not actively enough loving. I see that for myself. If I was actively loving and diligently loving, I might be less forgetful in some areas. So therefore, even though the property was stolen by someone else, that makes it even worse. I mean, someone else stole it. Because it was my negligence that allowed that to happen, I'm responsible, assuming the thief is not found, at least. to make restitution. Shalom. The wrong must be fully righted. That's the rule. That's justice. That's what God requires. However, verse 13, if the animal is torn by beasts, let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn. Again, just to picture it, if you give me your animal to watch out for, and I didn't borrow it from you, you ask me to keep it safe. That's the difference. So you ask me to keep your animal safe, and I'm out there in the fields, and there it is, and I'm watching it. I don't have any control over whether the wolf jumps out and tries to make a meal of your animal. I don't have any control of that at all. What I do have a responsibility to do is go drive that animal away as quickly as I can. Now, I may not be successful in doing that before your animal is killed. But I can prove I tried, and you know how I can prove I tried, is by bringing the evidence of your animal's dead body. Because your animal's dead body wouldn't still be there if I hadn't tried to intervene, right? The wild animal drags it away and consumes it. But the fact that it still remains shows that I did what I could to keep it safe. Once again, no intent, no negligence, no responsibility, no shalem. Verse 14, if a man borrows anything of his neighbor and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it he shall make full restitution. Shalem, shalem. Third time, for he shall surely make restitution. Now why does he say shalem, shalem here? What's the big deal here? And I think the point is that, did you notice there wasn't any negligence here? There's no negligence. But there's still responsibility. You know why there's responsibility? Because I borrowed your ox. I borrowed it. I did not hire it. You did not entrust it to me for safekeeping. I borrowed it. I did not give you money for the use of your ox. And so now, if something happens to it while it's in my possession, even if I was not being negligent, Full restitution must be made. That's justice. In other words, and I have it in your handout, I think, the borrower takes a greater accountability than the one who has been given his neighbor's animal for safekeeping. So, no negligence, but borrowed. Shalem, shalem. In order to make things even, even. Wisdom, justice, even full restitution must be made. Verse 15, if the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution. So it's still a borrower, but in this case, the owner of what I borrowed was actually there, present, with, and involved. And that was when his animal was injured or killed. Therefore, not only was there no purposeful intent, not only was there no negligence, there was also no greater level of accountability because the owner from whom I borrowed it was with me here at the time it happened. So, there's no imbalance. See, things get out of balance and what does God say? You've got to get it in balance. Things are out of balance, you must get it in balance, even. There's no need for that here because there was nothing out of balance, no shalem. Finally, verse 15b, if it was hired, it came for its hiring fee. So there's three ways that I could end up in possession of your property, three legitimate ways. The one illegitimate way is to steal it. But there's three other ways. The one is that you entrusted it to me to keep safe. The second way is I borrowed it from you to use. The third way is I hired it. I rented it from you. The renter is less accountable than the borrower. Because what we have now is essentially a business transaction. Therefore, assuming that there's no negligence, if something happens to your property when I have it and I rented it from you, there's no restitution required. No imbalance to be made even, no wrong to be righted, means simply no shalem. All right. First of all, three things for us to think about. And maybe you've already been thinking about it as we go through this. Can you see how these sample case laws are modeling the perfect righteousness and justice of all God's judgments? As I've been reflecting on these verses, I've come to have an appreciation for verses that I, like probably many of you, have in the past just kind of read and not fully appreciated. I've been reading these verses and seeing who God is. This God that is God of the universe is a just and righteous and holy God and He does all things right. And so there's an encouragement to that, because on the one hand, we could be reading these and be like, oh boy, I'm not borrowing anything from anyone anymore. Well, I might lend it to them as long as they know full restitution, right? Or I just want to retreat and I'm afraid of something happening. That's not what this is about, first of all. But second of all, let's take encouragement from the kind of God we serve. As I was studying and reflecting this past week and looking at God's demand for evenness, I was reminded of passages like these. Psalm chapter 9, verses 7 to 8 says, The Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established His throne for justice. And He judges the world with righteousness. He judges the peoples with uprightness. And we know that's going to happen in full when the Judge comes, returns. Well, we'll see that in a minute. Psalm 97, the Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. But the many coastlands be glad, clouds and thick darkness are all around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. And that's what we're seeing worked out in these verses that we're reading. Perfect righteousness and justice, wisdom. Job 37, the Almighty, He is great in power, justice, and abundant righteousness. That's a beautiful way to put it. What we've been just reading about here in Exodus 21-22 is not just righteousness, it is abundant righteousness. He will not violate. The Apostle Paul says in Acts 17 that God has fixed a day on which He will judge the world. in righteousness. By a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. You know, when I read in Acts 21 and Acts 22, and I know that these righteous judgments were given to teach human judges wisdom, as they're sitting in the courtroom. But I know that these human judges have sinfulness, and you know that perfect justice is only rarely ever fully, truly done in this world. But as we see it pictured here, we know that one day, God brings it in full. One day, all that's been wrong will be righted. Now, I don't have a clue how that happens, do you? Can you possibly imagine, in light of all the injustices, in light of all the atrocities, in light of all the horrific things that have happened in this world, not only by the rich and the powerful, but by the poor and the weak. Things happen in this world, but we know that somehow, someday, someway, God will bring justice to this world. Exodus 21, 22 has convinced me of that, if I wasn't already. James 5, 7 and 8, then this is the exhortation to us, knowing this, when you read the papers and you watch the news and you hear of the corruption and the scandals and the oppression and the lies and the deceits, be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. He says be patient therefore because of the oppression of the rich and the powerful and they were stealing the wages of the poor. That's why he says be patient, you also. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. It's the next scheduled event. Romans chapter 12, and repay no one evil for evil. This is personal ethics. God is concerned with justice, clearly, life for life. But when it comes to us, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will, what? Repay. And that's quoting Deuteronomy, where the Hebrew word is shalem. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. We know how God, what he says about it, Exodus 21 and 22. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. I think of the example, of course, of Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy, and how they had enemies who were cruel, wicked, and they treated them with love. They didn't take the vengeance, but I know one thing, if those guards and those soldiers did not repent before they died, they will receive full restitution. God repays. and he brings justice to a world where there is no justice. As I studied then and reflected on these models of God's perfect righteousness and justice, the second thing I'm reminded of is how deeply concerned we are to be to protect and to safeguard the rights and the property of everyone around us. This is convicting. I mean, if you just take a little time to think about this, it's been convicting to me. See, all these verses that we just read in Exodus, they're all just the outworking of a single verse. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. See, when you're loving your neighbor as yourself, negligence doesn't happen nearly as much. What makes our innocent negligence so inexcusable is that it really just reveals our failure to be actively, diligently loving our neighbor. And as I said earlier, so often we hear it said, by children, by adults, by everyone, I didn't mean to. Or that wasn't my intention. But how often is the thing we didn't mean? How often is the thing I didn't intend still the sign of a deeper failure to be actively loving my neighbor as myself? And so what does my negligence reveal about my heart? What does what I didn't mean reveal about my heart? What do the things that we never meant reveal about a failure to love. Brothers and sisters, let us not be negligent in loving one another. Love one another, Paul says in Romans chapter 12, verse 10. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. In 1 Thessalonians 3, may the Lord make us increase and abound in love for one another. Finally, let's just soak in here, okay? Because this is where I wanted to get. The only time Shalem has ever used, well, I'll skip that. That can be on the website. Let's just say this on your handout. One of the ways the New Testament describes our sin And the Bible describes our sin in different ways. Trespass, transgression, debt is another way. Debts requiring, what do debts require? Repayment. Repayment to God. Now we've already seen that there's no exceptions here. Shalem, shalem. Over and over, shalem, shalem, shalem, shalem, shalem. The property of God, what is God's property? Well, the whole world is His property, but I just want to say this, the property of God is His name, His holiness, His glory. And so all of our sin, of whatever kind it may be, every kind, no matter what, all of my sin Even if it's just negligent sin, doesn't even have to be willful sin, just negligent sin, which is a failure to actively love God as I'm called to, is a kind of stealing of God's property. At the very least, it's a failure to love and safeguard with all my heart that which is God's. How many of us are thieves? in this way. How many of us have stolen and taken willfully and purposefully and also negligently and carelessly? How many debts have we racked up? How much do we owe? So in order to make everything even again, because it's about even, right? In order to make everything complete and whole again, which is now our responsibility. It's ours. In order to be fully and completely right the wrong we've done, there's only one option. We must, what's the word there? Surely. We must surely make restitution. Shalem, shalem. Only we can't. What a hopeless feeling that is. I mean, even if we just take it to the way, way, way down to the feeling of being so in debt that you know there's no hope of ever paying it off. This is infinitely higher. Our debts are insurmountable. We cannot pay them back. In your handout, we can never even begin to make restitution. And yet restitution must be made. It must. And so we're pointed again to Jesus Christ, who has provided... I can't believe I'm saying this. I can't believe I get to say this. We get to hear this. Jesus has provided for the free, full, complete forgiveness of all our debts. Everyone. Everyone. You know, Jesus said to the woman who was wetting his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, She's been forgiven much. She loves much. The Pharisee, on the other hand, didn't know the magnitude of his debts, so he couldn't love. Do we realize the magnitude of the debts that we owe? So we read in Colossians chapter 2, And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a life together with Him, with Jesus. Having forgiven us all our trespasses, that's one way of describing sin. And here's another way, by canceling the record of debt. Praise Him. That stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. No longer any record of debt. No longer anything left for me to repay, because Jesus paid it all. No longer any demand for restitution, because Jesus fulfilled that requirement of the law. Shalem, shalem. He did it for us. and in our place. Dear Heavenly Father, make us love the Gospel. May we not be as that dead Pharisee. May we not sit and hear about debts being forgiven, about debts being forgiven because they've been paid by another in full. Full restitution made. Shalem, shalem. Oh, may we not hear this and sit unfazed. Should there be anyone here whose debts are still that heavy burden, still would it mean for them to pay because they have not received in faith the free gift through Jesus Christ? I pray, Lord, that you would open their eyes today by your grace that they would look to Christ alone and be saved. and have their debts forgiven. And Lord, we pray that knowing this, we would be free to truly, actively, and diligently care for one another, safeguarding always their property as if it was our own, less and less being characterized by negligence, and more and more by an act of loving as we love ourselves. And finally, Lord, we thank you. We thank you that you have fixed a day on which you will judge this world in righteousness. We don't know how, but one day you'll set everything to rights. You're a great God. We worship you now. And please, please hear our prayers. We continue really in prayers. We sing, sing this song in Jesus name. Amen.