Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, surely we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart consider it? He who keeps your soul, does he not know it? And will he not render to each man according to his deeds? This concludes the reading as well as the hearing of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are indeed exalted, and we pray that through the reading of this scripture, as well as the preaching and exposition of this scripture, that you would be exalted even before our eyes. And so, Father, we pray that we would come to know Jesus and know him better through this worship service today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. When you read through the book of Job, you come away with a strong impression that Job was a righteous man. In fact, you don't even have to read through the entire book to come to this conclusion. The very first sentence in the book of Job establishes this fact. Job 1.1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was blameless and upright and one who feared God and shunned evil. And as this story develops, Job begins to suffer some significant affliction. His livelihood is taken away from him. His sons and daughters are killed in a violent windstorm. His physical health declined to the point where he was experiencing excruciating pain. And to add insult to injury, Job's friends, tell him that all these terrible things were happening to him because of his own sin, because God was angry with Job. So in chapter 29, chapter 29, Much later in the book, Job finally gets to the point where he begins to make a defense against these accusations from his friends. And part of his defense was to recount to his friends how committed he was to pursuing righteousness and justice in this world. And so here's what Job said. I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless and the one who had no helper. The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and I was feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the case that I did not know. I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth. And what I want you to notice about all these things that Job lists is that these are all acts of mercy, acts of mercy for the oppressed and vulnerable people of the world. And Job was showing compassion to the poor, to the widow, to the orphan, to those who had physical disabilities, such as the blind and the lame, but also included in this list was Job's commitment to delivering people from miscarriages of justice. He said, I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victims from their teeth. Breaking the fangs of the wicked is an act of righteousness. Just as being a father to the fatherless was an act of righteousness, just as being eyes to the blind and feet to the lame are acts of righteousness, so is breaking the fangs of the wicked an act of righteousness. Their fangs are broken, Job says, so that their innocent victims can be plucked free from their teeth. And this righteous activity of breaking fangs is what Solomon is writing about in our sermon text. Verse 11 reads, deliver those who are drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. This is a command for God's people to actively defend victims of injustice. Those who are being persecuted, those who have been wrongly condemned to suffer or to die. This is a command for you, the Christian, to rescue those who are being unjustly treated by the wicked people of this world. This is not a mandate to rescue the death row inmate who has been fairly convicted, fairly tried, fairly convicted of a capital crime and is now facing execution. This is a mandate to deliver the innocent out of the teeth of the wicked. When William Wilberforce became the voice to abolish slavery in the British Empire, he was being obedient to the command that Solomon is giving us here in our sermon text. Wilberforce was breaking the fangs of the slave trade industry in order to deliver the slaves from the teeth of the wicked. And when Dietrich Bonhoeffer opposed Adolf Hitler, He was attempting to break the fangs of the Nazi dictatorship in order to deliver the Jews from the teeth of the wicked. And while we properly hold men like Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer in high regard for their bravery and their dedication to justice, I need to emphasize that the command to deliver the oppressed from the teeth of the wicked is not given to only a few select quote-unquote super Christians who happen to have the spiritual gift of breaking fangs. It's a command that's given to every Christian. Every Christian. Matthew Henry acknowledges this point in his commentary on verse 11. He wrote, Here is a great duty required of us, and that is to appear for the relief of the oppressed innocents. If we see the lives or livelihoods of any in danger of being taken away unjustly, we ought to bestir ourselves all we can to save them. We must help them out of a general zeal for justice. The problem is that many Christians don't have a general zeal for justice. We have a specific zeal for justice, a zeal that makes itself known when injustice happens to me, but to act on behalf of others when they are the ones being mistreated, that requires a general zeal for justice, a zeal that extends into all areas of life, regardless of whether I'm personally impacted by the situation or not. Job, he demonstrated a general zeal for justice. William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, they demonstrated that they also had a general zeal for justice, but how about you? I know you have zeal for justice, but is it a specific zeal or is it a general zeal? Is it a zeal that manifests itself only when you are the one being mistreated? Or are you zealous to break the fangs of the wicked whenever and wherever injustice is committed in this world? The way you would discern the answer to this question is to look at your past behavior. It's likely that you can identify times when you committed yourself to rising up in defense of yourself, or when you rose up in defense of your family. But can you identify times when you rose to the defense of strangers? Certainly there's no lack of injustice being committed in this world, which means there's no lack of opportunity for God's people to demonstrate general zeal for justice. There are all kinds of people who are being drawn toward death and are at the mercy of others to deliver them. Consider the abortion industry. On any given day, right here in Sacramento County, hundreds of little babies are being drawn towards death. You don't know them personally, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that they're unjustly being put to death. It's a moral injustice of the highest degree. And our sermon text shows us our responsibility to these babies. It is to deliver them from this injustice. Christians need to be active in breaking the fangs of the abortion industry in order that these little babies can be rescued from the teeth of an evil industry and of a wicked ideology. Think of it this way. We're living here in America 70 years after World War II has come to an end. We read about the efforts of men like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and we say, Germany was under the control of a terrible and wicked ideology. It was good and proper for Christians to rise up against the Nazi killing machine. But aren't we living in a country where there's an even more wicked killing machine in operation? World War II lasted for six years. And during that time, six million Jews were killed by the Nazis. That averages one million deaths per year. How many abortions happen in the United States during one year? A lot more than a million, a lot more. By the time you add the number of surgical abortions with the number of pharmaceutical abortions, the number of children being unjustly killed in our country is three, four, maybe even five times as much as the number of Jews that were killed in Nazi Germany. Where's the general zeal for justice in the American church? We have little organizations, a few organizations here, a few organizations there, they're fighting battles here, fighting battles there, but where are the allied troops to fight the war? Abortion was legalized 44 years ago. Why hasn't the American church stormed the beaches of Normandy yet? Why hasn't the church issued a full-blown assault on the abortion industry? I know the answer to this question, and I think you do too. It's because so many professing Christians today do not possess a general zeal for justice. They'll show their specific zeal when they are mistreated, but when strangers are mistreated, they turn their head and go about the normal course of activity. Psalm 103.14 says that God knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. God knows that we are people who place a high value on our own personal comfort. He knows we don't like getting involved in matters that don't directly affect us. So when God inspired Solomon to write verse 11 of our sermon text, he also inspired Solomon to write verse 12 of our sermon text. Verse 11 is the command for Christians to break the fangs of the wicked as we exercise a general zeal for justice. And verse 12 is a warning about making excuses for not doing what verse 11 tells us to do. Solomon, the human author of these verses, rhetorically asks, if you say, surely we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart consider it? He who keeps your soul, does he not know it? In other words, Solomon is saying, if you pretend like you don't know certain injustices are being committed, then you're only fooling yourself. Realize you can't fool God. God is the one who weighs your heart. God is the one who keeps your soul. And God knows exactly what you are and what you are not aware of. You can't make excuses with God. They don't work with him. Then Solomon concludes verse 12 with another rhetorical question. And will he not render to each man according to his deed? Of course he will. The Apostle Paul reiterated this truth in 2 Corinthians 5.10. He wrote, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So when you read our sermon text, realize that it's directed to us. God expects each of us to have a general zeal for justice, which means God expects you to be engaged in the righteous activity of breaking the fangs of the wicked in order to rescue the innocent victims from their teeth. The good news is that you can do this because Jesus Christ has already done it for you. If you're a Christian, then that's because Jesus Christ had mercy upon you when he snatched you from the teeth of sin and death. Through his perfect and sinless life, he attained the righteousness which has been imputed to you. And through his death, he has paid the penalty of your sin. And through his resurrection, he made you alive. freeing you from the bondage to sin. And to borrow the words of our sermon text, Jesus delivered you from death. He held you back as you were stumbling toward the slaughter. He broke the fangs of sin and he plucked you free from the teeth of hell. And you were made a new creation. You are his workmanship, it says in Ephesians 2.10, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God had prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. You, therefore, have the Spirit of God to equip you and to guide you as you walk in obedience to the command of our sermon text. It is the Holy Spirit who gives you the general zeal for justice. He's the one who makes you compassionate toward the oppressed. It is the Spirit who empowers you to act in defense of those who are being mistreated. And when you became a Christian, God equipped you. He equipped you with the spiritual resources necessary to walk in the good works which he had prepared beforehand. So when you fear God and walk according to his light, then you discover that his grace has sufficiently equipped you for all that he has called you to do, which includes the breaking of the fangs of the wicked. But you say, how can I accomplish so great a task? After all, I'm nobody special. I don't have any extraordinary skills. I'm nobody in the grand scheme of things. The Christian who thinks this way is the Christian who's underestimating the power of God. God tells us in the Bible that he has chosen the weak things of this world to put to shame the things that are mighty. He has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise. Out of the mouth of babes and infants, God has ordained strength that his enemies may be silenced. So yes, each of us is nothing more than an earthen vessel, frail, fragile, weak. but God has placed a treasure within our vessels. God has placed a treasure within us so that the excellence of power may be God and not us. When we are weak, God is strong. When in our weakness, we accomplish mighty things, the glory goes to God. Jesus took ordinary fishermen. from fishermen, a tax collector, a few other men, and by equipping them with the Spirit, they turned the world upside down. They did amazing things. You have the same Spirit dwelling in you. You have the same spiritual weapons of warfare for pulling down strongholds, for casting down arguments, and for suppressing every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Now, this makes you mighty in God. You are able to do extraordinary things. So when you consider the challenges accompanied with pursuing righteousness and justice, don't underestimate the power of God. Remember, when God calls you to do something, he always, always equips you to do that very thing. He equips you for your calling. And our sermon text this morning is God calling each of us to break the fangs of the wicked as we deliver victims from the teeth of the wicked. And exactly how you Do this may not look the same as how I do this because God has given a diversity of spiritual gifts and those gifts will manifest themselves in different ways with different people. Wilberforce, his gifting was manifested within the House of Commons. Bonhoeffer, his gifting was manifested largely within the pulpits of churches as well as in a prison cell. Different people with different gifts yet Both were obediently delivering victims from injustice. What gifts has God given to you so that you can defend victims of injustice? Equally important, how are you going to respond in obedience, having received those gifts, having received that calling? I wanna back up to where I began this sermon, which is in Job 29. Let me read again those verses where Job was recounting to his friends his commitment to righteousness and justice. In Job 29, beginning verse 12, Job said, I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless and the one who had no helper. The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind. I was feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the case that I did not know. I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth. I hope you heard the statement that Job made there just toward the end. He said, I searched out the case I did not know. I searched out the case that I did not know. What Job means by this is that he was responsible, righteously responsible, when forming conclusions about a particular situation. If he didn't know all the facts of a case, then he suspended his conclusion until he was able to search out those facts. In other words, Job was not easily persuaded by the rhetoric of his day. He wasn't so naive as to hear only one side of the story and then make a judgment. Instead, he did his due diligence. He gathered the facts before drawing, forming a conclusion. And the significance of this statement being included in Job's defense to his friends is that this is something that serves as proof of Job's commitment to righteousness and to justice. Just as breaking the fangs of the wicked was an act of righteousness, so is gathering all the facts of a case an act of righteousness. The righteous man is zealous for truth. So he doesn't render a conclusion until he knows he's in possession of all the facts that will lead him to the truth. What does this have to do with our sermon text, you ask? What does this have to do with delivering those who are being drawn toward death? A lot, a whole lot. If you don't properly search out the facts of a matter, then you're likely to be misled concerning the truth of the matter. Don't forget Proverbs 18, 17. The first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes along and examines him. If you're going to deliver innocent victims from the teeth of the wicked, then you need to have certainty about who the innocent victims are as well as who the wicked oppressors are. If you confuse the two, then you're actually adding to the injustice of the situation. That should be obvious, right? You don't want to break the teeth of the innocent victim, nor do you want to deliver the wicked oppressor to a position of safety. So it's essential that we do what Job did, that we search out a case and gather all the relevant information. Now let me apply this principle to a specific situation that exists within our own world. Wherever there's persecution or political upheaval, there are people who are unjustly oppressed and mistreated. Their property may be taken away from them, or they might be imprisoned in a labor camp. Families are split apart. Quite often, they're physically violated in different ways and even killed. The people who run away from those situations The people who are trying to escape those kind of evils are called refugees. They typically abandon everything they have in order to flee persecution, flee the evil, in order to save their lives. Americans have some pretty strong feelings concerning refugees. In fact, even within the Christian church, We have some pretty strong feelings concerning refugees, particularly if those refugees happen to be coming from Syria or Iraq. But how many Christians have searched out the facts of the refugee crisis before forming a conclusion? If searching out the facts of the case is an indication of a person's commitment to righteousness and justice, like Job understood it to be, then how many of us can say that we have demonstrated our commitment to righteousness and justice concerning the refugee crisis that exists within our world? In searching out the facts of this case, the first place we need to look is where? The Bible, right? Fortunately for us, the Bible has a lot to say about refugees. You might be surprised to recall that our Lord Jesus was a refugee. We read about it in Matthew 2. Just prior to King Herod killing all the baby boys in Bethlehem, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream instructing him to flee from Bethlehem into Egypt with Jesus and Mary. So that's what Joseph did. Matthew 2.14 describes the urgency with which Joseph obeyed this command. When Joseph arose, having had the dream at night, when Joseph arose, he took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod. And so Joseph, Mary and Jesus were refugees. They left their home and everything that they owned at a moment's notice in the middle of the night in order to escape suffering violence. Many other biblical heroes were refugees as well. Jacob fled the threat of violence from Esau. Moses began his life essentially as a refugee, having to be in hiding for several months and then eventually escaping, fleeing by means of the Nile River. King David fled for his life more than once. Elijah fled the persecution of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. And in the book of Acts, thousands of Christians fled persecution in Jerusalem into seeking refuge into distant territories. It shouldn't surprise us that when we read through the pages of scripture and that we notice that God has a tender heart for refugees. Depending on your Bible translation, the word for refugee might be translated foreigner, or alien, or stranger, or sojourner. And when you read these passages, you'll quickly see that God has a tender heart for those who have been displaced from their homes. Over and over again, God commands his people to show mercy, to show compassion to those who are seeking refuge in a foreign country. Leviticus 19.33 and 34 is just one example. If a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Why do you think it was necessary for God to have to command his people not to mistreat the stranger? Do you think many of the Israelites responded to refugees in the same way that many Christians respond to refugees? Mention refugees to Christians today, and you'll hear many of them say things like, those people don't belong here. They're a drain on our economy. They don't assimilate into our culture. They're all terrorists. They're sneaking into our country so that they can blow us up. How informed do you think the Christian is who makes these statements? Do you think this person, the person who says they don't belong here, has taken into consideration what God says about showing compassion and mercy to the refugees? Do you think the person who says they're all a bunch of terrorists has searched out the facts of the case so that he can properly identify the victim from the oppressor? For those who want to turn their back on the entire refugee crisis, Have they really considered how our sermon text applies to this crisis? If there's injustice being committed in Syria or in Iraq or in any other part of the world, don't we have a God-given obligation to deliver those who are being drawn toward death, to hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter? Don't you have a general zeal for justice that makes you want to break the fangs of the wicked so that the victim can be pulled from their teeth? Remember what verse 12 of our sermon text warns. You can't say to God, I didn't know this was happening. You can't say that, it doesn't work. You do know that there are people being persecuted in foreign countries. You do know that the wicked need to have their fangs broken. You do know that God requires you to show mercy and compassion to those who are attempting to escape the persecution of the wicked. So when you appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for how you've responded to the refugee crisis, what are you going to say? I wasn't comfortable with people who wear turbans? I was content doing nothing? I had other things to worry about? I was afraid they'd blow me up? Brothers and sisters, I understand that the refugee crisis is a complex issue, but that's exactly why we must be diligent at searching out the facts of the case. That's the righteous thing to do. I can assure you that there are a lot of wicked oppressors in Syria and Iraq. We know that. and all the other parts of the world where things need to be broken as well. And I can also assure you that there are a lot of victims in those same parts of the world who are being mistreated and unjustly put to death. You have a responsibility in this matter. One of the first steps of that responsibility is to search out the case in order that you can know which things need to be broken. and then who to show compassion to. And realize the solution to the refugee crisis is not to bring every one of them into the United States. That's not wise, nor is that physically possible. But there are other ways to assist refugees. There are other ways to deliver them out of the teeth of the wicked. Many of them currently reside in countries of asylum, and their needs are different than those who are still within the reach of their oppressors. So it's a complex issue. Thankfully, there are Christian organizations that have already taken the lead on these issues. World Relief is the best known of them. These Christian organizations can help you as you search out the facts of the case and so that you understand the situation. And they have ways that you can volunteer to help depending on what your particular gifting is. And most importantly, they do their work in the name of Jesus Christ. That's of utmost importance. Everything we do must be done in the name of Jesus Christ. There's a huge evangelism field within the refugees. When Christians reach out to the non-Christian victim of injustice, bringing the hope of Jesus Christ while meeting their physical needs, many are drawn to Christ. Remember the words of James 2, 15 and 16. If a brother and sister is naked and destitute of food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace and be warm and filled, but you do not give them the things they need for the body, what does it profit? What does it profit? The truth of the matter is, God requires us to show mercy and compassion to victims of injustice. That's what our text is telling us. And we must be informed about how we do this. We want to make sure that we know the difference between a terrorist and a refugee. But the difficulty in making that determination does not eliminate the responsibility that we have to the victims of injustice. And when we're obedient to this task, we represent Jesus Christ to the world. When we serve in the power of the Holy Spirit, then we're empowered to hold forth the healing of the gospel alongside whatever physical aid we might be bringing or giving. And in doing so, we are the hands and the feet of God in this world. We are the instruments that God uses to show mercy and compassion to the vulnerable people to which his heart is tender towards. You cannot overlook the fact that God has his elect in every corner of this world, every corner of this world. And if you speak with Christians who have worked with World Relief and similar Christian organizations, or if you read the books that are written by the people who have worked in these organizations, you'll learn that many refugees have come to know Christ as their Lord, as their Savior, through the interaction with faithful Christians. This is, after all, the highest form of delivering the oppressed from their oppressor, is it not? If we can use the means of money, physical, tangible resources in order to bring spiritual deliverance to those who are oppressed, is this not the opportunity that God has set before us? Is this not what the Lord has called us to do when he said to go into all nations teaching them all that Jesus has commanded, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is our calling, brothers and sisters. This is our calling. God has gifted you specifically for this calling. I don't know what your specific gift is, but I know you have one because God has universally applied this mandate to every single Christian. And where He calls you, He gifts you until you are equipped. You're equipped with the same Holy Spirit that the disciples were equipped with, that I'm equipped with, that every Christian is equipped with. So let us seek the Lord's will in this manner. Let us be persistent at knowing the facts. Let us Develop through the spiritual resources God has given us a general zeal for justice, and then let us seek the Lord's guidance as we respond in obedience to delivering the victims of injustice from the teeth, from the fangs of the wicked. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you, our God, have had mercy upon us. You have had mercy upon many. And Father, we see your mercy, especially upon those who have been mistreated. Lord, you are a God of justice. You are a God of order. You are a God of righteousness. You are so holy that you cannot even look upon sin. And so Father, it does not surprise us that you would call us to a life which is committed to justice, a life which is committed to delivering the innocent from the wicked. And Father, we continue to pray that you would give each one of us not only the gift, but the knowledge of our gift in order that we can pursue this calling. Father, we pray that you would give us the same compassion towards the mistreated that you have demonstrated in your Word. We pray that we would not be those who mistreat the foreigner, but that we would be the ones who show compassion to the mistreated. Father, that we would be diligent at searching out the facts of each case, that we would not be taken by surprise, that we would not be deceived as to the identity of those that we attempt to serve. But Father, at the same time, that we would not let the complications of the situations in this world deter us from fulfilling the command that you have given to us. So Father, we need wisdom. You have promised that if we ask for wisdom, if we ask in faith, that you would give in abundance. And so Father, we do ask, and we come to you this morning knowing that you are the God of wisdom, knowing that the wisdom of this world fails and is insufficient for understanding the ways of this world, but your wisdom, the wisdom of the triune God, reveals all things, that your Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into truth. And so, Father, we call upon your Spirit to communicate to our minds the mind of Christ, that we would understand the things of spiritual nature as well as the things of physical nature, that we would know the appropriate channels by which we can pursue righteousness, a general zeal for righteousness and justice. And Father, we pray that we would not be of the mindset to dismiss certain ethnicities or certain people because of the way they look, the way they dress, the way they talk. But Father, that we would acknowledge that you have your elect in all places, that we would be wise in how we interact, yet Father, that we would continue to bring forth the gospel. Not that we would embrace the social gospel, not that we would give resources, physical, tangible resources in the name of any particular person, any particular organization, but that we would do it in the name of Jesus Christ. And Father, that these would be efforts that come not only to meet the physical needs of people, but as well as the spiritual needs. And so, Lord, we pray that through these things that you would be glorified, that you would glorify yourself through us, and that we would be the tools, the instruments, the means, the mechanisms by which you bring protection and deliverance to your people in this world. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.