Classic Sermon 6011: Covered by His Righteousness
Dr. Roberto Miranda
(Audio: Spanish)
SUMMARY: Psalm 103 declares all the positive works of God in our lives, including the renewal of the believer. The psalmist David emphasizes that Jehovah does justice and right to all those who suffer violence. Although there is injustice in the world, ultimately and ultimately, the justice of God makes itself felt and is established in a definitive way over all injustice in the world. This should fill us with joy and hope, knowing that the universe is ruled by a God-like and God-fearing person, and ultimately the God-seeking person will be blessed. As the children of God, we move under a cover of justice that covers and directs us at all times. This should govern our lives 24 hours a day and affect our behavior, thoughts, and attitudes.
Believers should have a peaceful, joyful, and optimistic attitude knowing that God governs their lives. They should not be bitter or cynical but instead, trust in God's perfect love which casts out fear. Believers should not envy or imitate those who prosper through unfair conduct and should not become bitter when contemplating the injustices of the world. When injustice affects their lives, believers should adopt a long-term perspective and trust that God's justice will prevail. They should defend themselves but not become compulsive or neurotic in fighting against evil.
When we suffer injustice, we must defend ourselves, but also entrust our cause to the Lord. We should not seek revenge, but leave room for the Lord's revenge. We must not harbor resentment in our hearts, as it poisons our thoughts and feelings. Instead, we should forgive and be agents of justice wherever we go. Our behavior should be fair at all times. The principles of the Gospel undermine the foundations of slavery for centuries, as the Bible speaks of justice and treating servants as equals before God.
The Gospel may not have directly attacked slavery, but its principles of justice and equality undermined the foundations of slavery for centuries. Christians must have a hunger and thirst for justice and help those in need, as taught in Psalm 82. It is important to teach children to be fair and advocate for those suffering injustice. We must establish God as the agent of justice and be faithful imitators of Him.
Believers should have a peaceful, joyful, and optimistic attitude knowing that God governs their lives. They should not be bitter or cynical but instead, trust in God's perfect love which casts out fear. Believers should not envy or imitate those who prosper through unfair conduct and should not become bitter when contemplating the injustices of the world. When injustice affects their lives, believers should adopt a long-term perspective and trust that God's justice will prevail. They should defend themselves but not become compulsive or neurotic in fighting against evil.
When we suffer injustice, we must defend ourselves, but also entrust our cause to the Lord. We should not seek revenge, but leave room for the Lord's revenge. We must not harbor resentment in our hearts, as it poisons our thoughts and feelings. Instead, we should forgive and be agents of justice wherever we go. Our behavior should be fair at all times. The principles of the Gospel undermine the foundations of slavery for centuries, as the Bible speaks of justice and treating servants as equals before God.
The Gospel may not have directly attacked slavery, but its principles of justice and equality undermined the foundations of slavery for centuries. Christians must have a hunger and thirst for justice and help those in need, as taught in Psalm 82. It is important to teach children to be fair and advocate for those suffering injustice. We must establish God as the agent of justice and be faithful imitators of Him.
Let's go to Psalm 103, brothers, verse 6. You will remember that we are analyzing and studying this Psalm 103 that I clearly feel that the Lord has given us for our enrichment, for our edification. Today I hope to conclude the study of this Psalm 103 with verse 6. And we are going to start with verse 1 and go up to verse 6.
Says the word of the Lord: 'Bless my soul to Jehovah and bless all my being his holy name. Bless Jehovah my soul and do not forget any of his benefits. He is the one who forgives all your inequities, the one who heals all your ailments, the one who rescues your life from the hole, the one who crowns you with favors and mercies. The one who satisfies your mouth with good, so that you rejuvenate like the eagle. Jehovah is the one who does justice and to all those who suffer violence.
Let's leave it there for a moment in that verse 6 says, 'Jehovah is the one who does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'. Let's pray.
Father we come before you in the name that is above all names, which is the name of Jesus believing Lord that you have a purpose in our lives; that you are going to speak to us Lord through this verse; You are going to minister to us, Lord. We believe that right now you are preparing yourself in our hearts and minds to work and deal with us.
Lord, if someone has arrived needing the comfort that your word brings, we ask that this word of yours fall like a deep seed in our hearts. Do your work, Father, in our lives and confirm the purpose that you have through your word. So be it, Father. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
The word of the Lord says that, 'Jehovah is the one who does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'. And I thought the previous verse says that, 'Jehovah is the one who satisfies our mouth with goodness so that we are rejuvenated like the eagle' and with this series of statements, the psalmist David is declaring all the attributes of all the positive works of God In our life.
The previous Sunday we touched on the theme of the renewal of the believer. The psalmist David told us that in a world where there is gradual decay of all things, in a world where all things begin new and good and bright and gradually lose their strength and beauty, God makes possible the renewal of their children. God makes possible your rejuvenation, your growth despite the natural decay of material things.
The son of God the believer is renewed from day to day although his body wears out, although his mind is not as agile and as quick as it was in the days of youth; says the word of God, 'that the spirit of the believer grows stronger and stronger every day.'
In other words, in that recognition, in that promise of rejuvenation and renewal, our hope and our joy preside. As believers we can be confident, we can be sure. Old age no longer has those terrors that it has for those who do not believe in the Lord, who do not have the consolation of the word of God.
Well, we know where we come from, where we are going, we have a spiritual conviction in us of what really matters about life; We do not live in the vanity of physical appearances and the vain things of the world. We can already entering and at any age in our life we can find joy, we can find meaning. In youth we rejoice in the beauty and agility of the body, in old age we rejoice in the renewal of the inner being.
As Pablo said, although this outer man of ours wears out, the interior is renewed day by day. This implies that we have to start sowing early, we have to start working from youth, we have to start working in the days of maturity -of the middle ages- if we are at that age and have entered into the ways of the Lord then .
But we have to start sowing and invest early so that those years of old age are years of joy, they are years of happiness instead of years of decay and depression and sadness and lack of taste. as the writer of Ecclesiastes says: 'let us remember our creator the good days of our youth before the bad days come and the years of which we say "I have no contentment in them".
The Christian begins to invest so that this promise to rejuvenate us like the eagle becomes a reality when the time of need arrives. Now, here David enters another dimension and says: 'Jehovah is the one who does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'. David declares here in a very emphatic way that he does not allow injustice to prevail in the universe that He has created.
I put the emphasis here on the word prevail because there is injustice in the world without a doubt but what David says that 'ultimately and ultimately the justice of God makes itself felt and is established in a definitive way over all injustice what is in the world
God does justice and right to all and it is a very complete word, very forceful: to all those who suffer violence, to all those who suffer oppression, to all those who suffer injustice by implication, God does justice at all times.
I say that this is a bold statement, it is a radical statement and it is a statement that surprises us, for the moment it makes us think because when one observes the world in which we live it would seem the opposite, the world is apparently full of justice and to the channel observer for the man and woman who are looking at the world only with the analytical eyes of the rational mind it would indeed seem like the opposite, the world is invaded by injustices, the world is pervaded by evil and injustice. injustice of men against men.
Look how Solomon puts it in a moment of pessimism, we could say in the analysis of this man who has seen so many things under the sun, he puts it in such a naked way. It says in chapter 3 verse 16: 'I saw more under the sun, instead of judgment there I saw wickedness, and instead of justice there iniquity'. In chapter 4 he says. "I turned and there I saw all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of the oppressed without having anyone to comfort them and strength was in the hands of their oppressors and for them there was no comforter."
And look at how far Solomon's moment of heaviness and pessimism goes: "And I praised the dead, that is, the deceased, those who have already died, more than the living, those who still live, and I considered them happier than some and others to those who have not yet seen the evil works that are done under the sun. I have also seen that all work and all excellence of works awakens the envy of man against his neighbor. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit".
In reality, when one looks at the world with naked eyes that does not understand what the mystery of God's justice is, that is what one sees: oppression, the oppressed who have no comfort, the strength that is in the hands of the oppressors and that there is no consolation for the oppressed. And yet here, David, has the audacity to say no that: 'Jehovah does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'.
And here the word enters into a dialogue with itself. Which of the two are we to believe? I believe that both are right in a material, political, historical, social sense of blood, certainly meat. There is injustice in the world and the world is a place of great injustice.
But on the other hand, when we look at history in the light of God's purposes and God's move in the world, we can have a very different perspective and see that at all times, God's justice is asserting itself and imposing itself. about this world of injustices.
Here the opposite is said: God does justice always and to all those who suffer injustice and in truth, I would say, brothers, this is good news. This is the gospel, this is the good news for all of us who believe in a just God.
This statement should fill all of us with joy and hope. Here David is saying, 'the world is not chaotic, the world is not incoherent, the world is not a machine that God picked up, wound up, and then sent it floating through space and forgot about it as theistic philosophy believes. .
The world has design, it has coherence, it has a purpose and God's justice is felt in history because there is a wise and coherent God who rules over the world. And that, I say brothers, which is good news for us. That should fill us with joy and hope. This lies in the righteous character of God. The fact that God is radically just, our God, his character does not admit injustice.
Therefore, at all times, that justice of God is going to be asserted because God is not going to allow injustice to prevail in the world that He has created, even though it is a fallen world.
I was quoting you in the context of the renewal of the son of God, Psalm 92 and I am going to remind you again it says: the just – that is, the believer, the son of God – will flourish like the palm tree, will grow like a hill in the Lebanon, planted in the house of Jehovah, in the courts of our God they will flourish, even in old age they will bear fruit. They will be vigorous and green to announce… what? Why will the just be renewed? Why will it have beauty even in the years of old age? Why is there hope for the old man? Why is there strengthening for the child of God? Because the universe is ruled by a God-like and God-fearing person, the God-seeking person will ultimately be blessed.
It says, 'even in old age they will bear fruit, they will be vigorous and green to announce'. That is to say, to proclaim that Jehovah –my strength- is upright and that in Him there are no injustices. It is a statement of the absolutely righteous character of God. And that, brothers, is the guarantee of a just universe, too.
Job in Chapter 36 verse 5 to 7 says: 'Behold, God is great but does not dismiss anyone. He is mighty in strength of wisdom. Says, 'He won't give life to the wicked, see? It is the character of God: 'he will not grant life to the wicked but to the afflicted he will give his right. He will not take his eyes off the righteous. Before good, with kings, he will put them on throne forever and they will be exalted. It is the character of God, it is the promise that we have a God whose character does not admit injustice.
33:5 ‘He loves – speaking of God – justice and judgment. The earth is full of Jehovah's mercy.'
So, brethren, that is the foundation of any confidence that we have that this world is ultimately a just world even though it is a fallen world because the God who rules it and the God who asserts his lordship and rule over this universe, he is God and he is a just God, a merciful God, a merciful God, a God who does not tolerate injustice.
And by implication the just who is the son of God, who has been made just by the blood of Jesus Christ, because we in ourselves do not have righteousness but in Christ Jesus we are just. The son of God moves in a covering of justice that governs everything.
I am here, brothers, setting up my argument because this has very big implications for our lives and so we have a just God, radically just, we have a God who makes sure that the universe in which we move is a just universe and therefore Therefore, we children of God have the right to believe that we move under a cover, a cloud of justice that covers us and directs us at all times.
Psalm 32, verse 10 and 11: 'There will be many pains for the wicked, but mercy surrounds him who hopes in the Lord'.
You see? The impious person, the unjust person is going to have many headaches, many setbacks, many sufferings. The wrath of the Lord will be persecuting that person. Now the one who hopes in Jehovah is surrounded by mercy, there is like a light a spotlight that wherever the just walks, the justice of God, the mercy of God follows him.
That is why David concludes in verse 11: “Rejoice in the Lord and rejoice righteous and sing for joy all you upright in heart because it is assigned to you to move under the mercy, the provision, the blessing of God. While the unjust and the impious are assigned suffering and pain and suffering throughout their lives.
"Sooner or later," says the word of God, "the justice of the Lord is enforced in the lives of those who fear the Lord."
Brothers, that is a consolation for us and that is the foundation of our hope and our joy and that must have a very deep implication for each one of us.
That thought and that recognition should govern our lives 24 hours a day. Those truths: a just God, a God who does not tolerate injustice, a God who watches over those who fear him and who makes sure that the end result of his life and the net result of his existence is positive so that he can be declared fair also in his dealings with them. This has implications for our behavior, our thoughts, our attitudes that I want to examine in detail today.
What are the consequences of that fact? So far we are preaching let's say theology, we are preaching theological theory.
Now, what implications does that have for our daily walk? How does that affect our life? We'll see.
I believe there are certain consequences that I want to point out to you. Number 1 if we believe in those things. If as David says, God does justice and right to all who suffer violence. So for me one of the first consequences is that we must live confident and in peace. Knowing that our heavenly Father watches over our interests. The Christian must be distinguished by an attitude of trust, of joy in all his actions and in his walk here on earth because he is sure that the fruits of his justice will follow him all the days of his life.
The good will of the Lord, as Psalm 23 says: 'Surely good and mercy will follow me all the days of my life' and whoever believes that and hopes for that can remain too long in a cynical or disbelieving or skeptical attitude. On the contrary, the believer knowing that his God governs must move, then, in a peaceful, joyful, optimistic attitude. Not cynical, not suspicious, not bitter or skeptical. That is the fruit of the spirit of which Galatians 5:22 speaks of goodness, kindness, patience, love.
I believe that they come as a consequence of one knowing that one is under the blessing of his God. It is like the child who grows up healthy in the bosom of his home because he is raised with affirmation, with the love of his parents, with the positive statements, the encouragement of his father, of his mother. This boy, this girl growing up in an atmosphere of trust is probably going to be a calm and pleasant person who lives life in trust.
And so should we be. In the Christian life there is no place for a Christian whose position is bitter and sterile and negative. Because when one is penetrated by that awareness of the just God who governs our lives and who ensures a clearly positive life, I believe that this should dispel bitterness, it should dispel cynicism.
I believe that a Christian cannot remain cynical for too long. The Christian knows that God's covering is over him when he moves within the will of the Lord. I think that is what John implies when he says: "perfect love casts out fear." When we are aware of God's perfect love and our love has been perfected toward God, it casts out that fear, that dryness that exists in our lives.
This allows us to laugh freely, this allows us to walk through life – with certain problems, with difficulties, yes – but also knowing that God watches over us and that God is ultimately in control of our lives. That made a life of trust, a life of peace.
Secondly, there is something also interesting and I believe that knowing that God is fair and that his justice will be enforced, that invites me not to envy those who prosper through unfair conduct. That makes me think that the person I see out there prospering and growing and doing great things and making money based on theft or oppression of others in dishonest earnings.
That invites me not to imitate that person. Neither envy him nor imitate him because sooner or later, I know that in public or in secret, now or later, that person is going to receive what he just deserves.
The Bible says that there are men of their works come to light while others are alive later when God's judgment comes on it. There are people whose works –unfortunately unfair– come to light after they die and sometimes manifest in their children and their relatives because the structures that they established when they were alive later deform and twist their children.
But somehow the injustice of the human being comes to light and that must make us; This recognition should make me never feel tempted to envy, much less to imitate someone who practices injustice.
Look at what Psalm 37 says, which is a psalm dedicated precisely to that meditation of disgust and what should be the conduct of the son of God. Psalm 37, verse 1 and 2: "Do not fret because of the wicked, nor be envious of those who do iniquity." There it is clearly: neither be impatient, nor be envious because 'like grass they will soon be cut down. And like green grass they will dry up.’
In verse 8 the second part says: “do not be excited in any way to do evil, for the wicked will be destroyed but those who hope in the Lord, they will inherit the earth. Well, from now on, the bad guy won't exist. It will observe its place and it will not be there. But the meek will inherit the earth and will rejoice in abundance of peace."
Don't get into the mistake of believing that you should imitate because you see someone prospering in the short term. How many people have I heard sell drugs or do those things because they see those big mansions that those who sell drugs have? Or how many people see rich people who have prospered by selling inappropriate products or things that are used to harm humanity and say “well, like that one did, look how he prospers?
And if that politician, look how hypocritical he is and this and the other. I have heard the argument of people who steal and commit crimes say: 'Well, look, the policemen, in short, they take bribe money and the judges this and that.' And then they are incited to do evil. But they do not realize that behind these things the judgment of God is weighing on those people.
Many years ago –I remember an experience that impressed me a lot– one Sunday, a friend of mine, we were having lunch together and she told me: 'After this lunch, I'm going to visit the daughter of a dictator – very well known in Central America-' And do you know where I'm going to visit her? I am going to visit her in a sanatorium.’ Because this young woman, who was actually a friend of hers, was suffering for years and years from terrible depression, a sense of guilt for the injustices her father had committed. One of the bloodiest indicators that Central America has known.
Hello, this is Pastor Roberto Miranda speaking to you and I want to thank you for being part of our program "An appointment with Christ" and I want to bless you with the words and promise of Christ Jesus. He has said: 'Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world'.
Remember that, wherever you are. If you are a child of God, Christ goes with you and if Christ is in your life, everything has a solution and there is always hope. God bless you and until next time.
I thought after that conversation: whoever contemplates this family with its millions, millions of dollars and with its limousines and its palaces and its blood money and all its luxuries, could only see that image and believe: 'I would like to be like that' . But they don't know behind all the tragedy and all the troubles and all the suffering and all the bad conscience and the sleepless nights and all the things that are behind it.
God's judgment rests on those who commit impiety and we should not be encouraged to imitate or admire them.
Thirdly, we must not become bitter when we contemplate the injustices of the world, we must not live with the eagerness... as I sometimes see people who live bitter because of how unfair life is. And 'look so and so how he is suffering'. They become so obsessed with the injustices in the world that they become bitter themselves, too, and take a negative attitude about life.
And sometimes I see people who, even in the Lord's church, have that negative perspective of life because of the injustices they suffered as children or what they have seen in the world. Like they always have that negative perspective on things. They are always seeing the evil in others.
They are bitter inside because of that situation of oppression. Or sometimes that passion for injustice that they see leads them to violence and attitudes that are inappropriate for a child of God.
And again Psalm 37 verses seven through eleven talks about that: ‘Keep silent before Jehovah and wait on Him.’
Psalm 37:7: 'Do not be upset and do not worry. Do not be upset because of the one who prospers in his way because of the man who does evil. Drop anger and throw away anger. Do not be in any way excited to do evil.
Let go of your anger, discard your anger, be silent before Jehovah, wait on Him. There is something here also of that position, that when we see so much injustice in the world, instead of us wanting to launch ourselves and attack everything in a compulsive way and to become bitter and cynical against all these things, we must also wait on God.
We must be calm before the Lord. That does not mean that we are going to be passive but it does mean that the way we fight will be a way to bring forth the fruit of the spirit in our lives.
We must not become bitter when we contemplate the injustices of the world.
Fourth, when injustice affects our own lives, when injustice affects us personally. And who of us has not felt at some point touched by someone's unfair act? Who among us has not felt violated by someone's betrayal? Because of a lie someone told about us? For something that was taken from us, that we loved and that we know has been taken from us unjustly? Who has not felt violated by an act where someone has imposed their force and has taken something from us in an unfair and improper way?
Brothers, what the word of the Lord calls us when injustice touches our lives and I extract this from that passage that God is the one who does justice and right to all who suffer violence.
I believe that when injustice strikes in my life, when injustice affects us personally, again we should not become bitter or rebel against God, but rather I would say take a long-term perspective. And that idea is very important, a perspective that trusts the invisible and eternal principles that govern the universe.
Instead of me, immediately, acting like the horse when it spurs itself and filling me with bitterness and filling me with hate and filling me with cynicism. I must give time for God's justice to be fulfilled. Because many times God's whip takes time or God's justice takes time to be carried out and I am not in control of all the mechanisms that God uses.
I have to give time to time and even if I do not see God's justice being fulfilled I have to trust that in some mysterious way that justice has become real in my life and in the lives of those who have offended me and I have been attacked
Again, look, Psalm 140. I'm using the psalms as much as possible. Because David develops his thought in a very coherent way. Verses from 9 to 13 already here, David says: 'As for those who everywhere the wickedness of their own lips will cover their heads. Embers will fall on them and they will be thrown into the fire, into deep abysses from which they cannot come out. It says: “The foul-mouthed man will not stand firm on earth. Evil will hunt the unjust man to bring him down.
Look at the very actions of the unjust, they will persecute him, they will reach him, they will establish the justice of God over that person. Verse 12: 'I know that Jehovah will take up the cause of the afflicted and the right of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name, the upright will dwell in your presence.
And that's the consolation David gets: Oh yes, they're after me! Oh yeah! They are biting me and they are eating my flesh but I know that in the long run the justice of the Lord will become manifest and that these attitudes and these evil works are going to fall on them in some way. And in that I find comfort and meanwhile I am going to affirm and declare the justice of God.
I know that Jehovah will take charge of the cause of the afflicted and the rights of the needy. In the long run, God will make his justice prevail in my life. I, then, can allow myself that when justice touches me, I become bitter and full and mentally deformed. And I believe, brothers, that this is a source of mental health, of hygiene, because in the long run we are talking about that.
Why do people get depressed, why do they get bitter, why do they twist their character? Because there have been injustices that life has committed, be it the circumstances, be it our parents in their ignorance, be it someone who betrayed us. Whatever it is, then we take it, we put it there, we obsess over it, we think about it, our panorama becomes a bleak panorama where that injustice becomes a plant that grows inside of us and takes root. and the roots are spreading through our mind, our feelings and even our body as well and we do not think at any time in the positive perspective of God.
In that God is fulfilling his purpose and that the injustice committed against us finds its solvent in the greater justice of God. So what we have to do is by a work of our will turn our gaze towards those principles of justice that govern the world and not allow ourselves to be obsessed by the injustice that has been committed to us.
What I think that this does is that a person can survive the crises of life and move on and when the moment of injustice and suffering and pain comes and when it seems that things have not gone as they seem to have. , we then remit the last word to the Lord and adopt a long-term attitude, we do not rebel, we do not twist, we do not start fighting with things but we get into the pain and let the pain get inside of us and we neutralize it, we dissolve it.
That positive posture and from there I think mental health and peace come. Sometimes it is the people who are sweetened through the sufferings of life as opposed to those who are embittered and twisted by the same sufferings. Because the person who triumphs and prospers over evil is the one who doesn't fight evil in a compulsive, neurotic way, but instead takes the long-term perspective of the God who rules the universe.
We have to think about God's long-term benevolent purposes. So we see that, when justice touches our lives, we don't get bitter, we don't reveal ourselves, we adopt a long-term position, where God is fulfilling his purposes.
Fifth, when we suffer injustice, we must do everything possible, yes, to defend ourselves.
I am not here talking about a pacifist and mystical position where you simply let yourself be made and undone and where you do not take action against evil and you do not defend yourself and you do not take legitimate resources to correct injustice. No, I'm not saying that. I believe that we must fight against evil and I am going to talk a little more about that.
But there is something more important that I believe that while we adopt measures to defend ourselves in a legitimate way, there is another thing that I believe that we have to do and that is to entrust our cause to the Lord.
And if we fight, let's fight knowing that in the last case, the final result depends on the Lord and not on us. You see, you fight, you fight but you do it with a position where you know that the Lord will have to establish his justice at the end of everything and that the Lord is fighting with you and within you. And that in the long run he is the one who has to make his final principle prevail.
I think that is also very important. Look how Job says, chapter 5 verse 8. That's what one should do first when suffering injustice. Job 5:8: 'Certainly I would seek God and commend my cause to him who does great and inscrutable things and wonders without number, who lifts the lowly on high and raises security for those in mourning.’
'What frustrates the thoughts of the cunning so that their hands do nothing, that catches the wise in their cunning and frustrates the designs of the wicked. Thus he delivers the poor from the mouth of the wicked from the sword and from the violent hand, for he is hope to the needy and inequity will shut his mouth.
See brother, when you fight, fight in the certainty that in the last case your cause has to be entrusted to the Lord. And for this reason, I believe that there are so many people who, when they fight, fight in a destructive and self-destructive way because they are not fighting in the Lord. They are not allowing the oil of the Lord to lubricate the machinery that is fighting and that is why sometimes they wear out and twist and burn and become people again distorted by the fight.
Psalm 37 again, verse five: 'Commit your way to the Lord and trust in him and he will do, he will display your righteousness as light and your justice as noon. Commend your cause to the Lord, commend your indignation to the Lord, commend your suffering to the Lord. Have you been raped? Have you been violated? Commend your cause to the Lord, while you fight, but commend that cause to the Lord and let your fight be a sweet fight too.
Although it seems paradoxical. May it be passionate and strong but also resting in the peace of the Lord. And that is a paradoxical position but it is what God calls us to do.
First Peter chapter 4, verse 19: 'So that those who suffer according to the will of God commend their souls to the faithful creator and do good.' While you suffer, while you fight, entrust your soul to the Lord and continue doing good. Don't let the fight for injustice also neutralize you in the areas of good.
And as you fight in that way the peace of God that rules will rule your thoughts. The peace of God that passes all understanding will be with you at all times. That will free you from fighting bitterly in a distorting and violent way. Of giving good testimony and even embarrassing Satan.
Sixth, the child of God who trusts in divine justice should not seek revenge for himself, but leave room for the Lord's revenge.
Brother, this is something very, very important. When we are violated and violated in our justice we must not take revenge ourselves. And in this world and in the churches, brothers, there are many people who have not understood this principle and we take revenge in many ways: subtle and not subtle, and we always find a way to make retribution for what they have done to us.
And in family life and in married life and in work life and in other areas we always look for ways to subtly or not-so-subtly avenge ourselves. But the word of the Lord tells us: 'Do not avenge yourself'.
Romans 12, verse 17: 'Repay no one evil for evil. Seek what is good in front of all men. If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men, do not avenge yourselves, my beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God because it is written, "vengeance is mine, I will pay," says the Lord . We cannot avenge ourselves.
We cannot seek revenge, we cannot seek to pay him back. Revenge is forbidden to the Christian because justice belongs to God and not to us. And brothers, if you believe that this is only a New Testament principle, that people talk about the law of retaliation and all that, God had already established that rule right there.
It is an eternal rule, it is a rule that is for all those who follow the divine principles. In Leviticus 19, 17 and 18 it says: 'You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You will reason with your neighbor so that you do not participate in his sin. You will not take revenge or hold a grudge against the children of your people, but you will love your neighbor as yourself. I Jehovah.
In the New Testament: "Revenge is not the proper attitude for any child of God, now the opposite is." And here this is the most difficult thing that I could say on this day, not only not to take revenge, but the word of the Lord calls me to love my enemies, to pray for those who persecute me, to bless those who curse me . Because the Word says that way: 'coals of fire you will be piling up on the head of the person'.
'So if your enemy is hungry, -Romans 12:20- feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink because by doing this you will heap fiery coals on his head.' Do you want to take revenge on your enemy? Do him good, that's what the word says. Do you really want to hit him at the very center of his life? Do good to him, bless him, pray for him, forgive him, take revenge by forgiving, loving, giving.
Because? Because he says because in some mysterious way and you pile burning coals on his head.
Then the justice of the Lord is the one that is established. So I prefer that the justice of God is the one that does justice, than the justice of man. Because when God does justice, he does it in an exquisite way, brothers, so to speak, and it is not that you are wishing evil on anyone. But God is a perfectly balanced God in his acts of justice. So I damage things when I come, when I take into my hands a mechanism that only God should take.
When you suffer injustice, when you have been violated, do not take revenge yourself, but leave room for God's revenge. And your part is to manifest the fruits of the spirit. Do not be defeated by evil but overcome evil with good. It neutralizes the evil aspect of human relationships with the positive aspect of the gospel of God.
That's the attitude. Do not take revenge and by extension there is another principle here that is very important to you. Because when I say: don't take revenge, I'm referring to actions, but what about the heart? There are people who do not take revenge but their hearts are filled with what? Of rancor and resentment.
When people suffer injustice, the heart harbors that sense of burning, of the anger withheld, the anger that simmers. It is the anger that slowly cooks the soul that turns into resentment and resentment, that poisons the thoughts and poisons the feelings and that leads me to the seventh justice of God that exists in the world: We must not give place to the rancor and resentment in our hearts.
You already saw what Leviticus 19 says: 'Do not hate, brother'. Said Jesus Christ 'he who calls his brother, fool or duck or stupid or fool already deserves the fire of hell.
Brothers, this is one of the most important and key things in human life, I also believe in the emotional and spiritual health of man: the fact that resentment should not be harbored in our hearts.
What does the Our Father say? And forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. There is no question of whether we forgive them or… No, it is assumed that we are forgiving our debtors: those who owe us.
Matthew 6:14 word of Jesus Christ. The Lord says: 'he who does not forgive cannot be forgiven'. It says because 'if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their offenses, neither will your Father forgive your offenses.
If you hold a grudge, if you hold resentment, if you harbor from jail - do you know that the word forgive, the image in the original Greek is that of releasing from jail? - it's like opening the cell door to a person.
Many of us put people in, we can't put them in jail with our actions, you know what we do? We put it in the prison of our imagination. We take a very gloomy, very dark cell, with mice and water covering the floor and we put the person who offended us there.
We close the door and we take care of throwing the key to the bottom of the sea and we leave it there year after year after year and from time to time we come to visit and look through the grate and enjoy seeing them there in that cell that we have mentally created.
The word says that when we forgive we open that cell and let them go and that is the idea.
The one who retains anger and resentment is a prisoner, I say the one who resents. Do you know that? You think you have taken him prisoner but you are a prisoner of that person. You spend years living in terms of the act that person did. That person governs your actions and thoughts. Do you want to take revenge on the person again? Don't hold resentment, let it go, be generous. Forgive him, don't hold a grudge.
The doctors will tell you that many sufferings, many pains, many psychosomatic illnesses come from the fact that we have not forgiven, that we harbor resentment, ourselves.
A grudge prevents us from retaining or enjoying the blessings of the Christian life. That is why there are so many Christians in the church with downcast faces, with all kinds of suffering who wonder where are the blessings that the Bible promises for me? And that they listen to the word of God and it does not penetrate them, the good news of salvation.
Because? Because there is a parasite that when the blessing comes into your life eats the blessing and that is called grudges and resentment. And then it does not harbor the grace of God. That person is not capable of doing it because rancor is an animal that is eating itself before God's blessing reaches its heart and it is neutralizing and burning it.
Resentment is the most destructive thing in the world and we cannot harbor it for our own good, even if it is out of selfishness, do not harbor resentment in your life. I would say otherwise, resentment makes us guilty of the devil. Do you know that? Rancor is a perpetually open wound through which diabolical microbes enter, through which the penetration of evil sometimes enters.
They have done many studies, at times, of people who are affected by satanic powers. For example, people who have suffered sexual abuse or physical abuse often end up possessed, suffering from demonic suffering. Do you know why? Because by suffering those oppressions, they are filled with oppression against their oppressors. So that's where the demonic infestation comes from.
The grudge is one of the weakest areas for demonic penetration. We cannot harbor grudges in our hearts. It is impossible for us to receive God's blessings by having grudges in our lives.
And finally, brothers, that justice of God must make us agents of justice wherever we go.
listen to that. If the God that you serve and the God that you imitate is a just God, you must also be a just person and you must be an agent of justice, even in your daily life. Never owe injustice through you in a deliberate way. You must never commit an injustice against another person. You must emulate and imitate the character of God and be an agent of justice.
Again the Book of Romans chapter 6 verse 12 and 13: 'Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey it in its concupiscence and neither present your members to sin as an instrument of inequity'.
Go? Do not present your body or do not present your person, do not offer your gifts and your abilities, for you to be an instrument of sin. But? He says: ‘But present yourselves to God as alive within the dead and your members – that is, your hands, your feet, your eyes, your mouth, your ears – to God as instruments of justice. Brothers, you and I must be agents of God's justice in this world.
Wherever you walk make sure that God's justice is manifested at all times. Not injustice. May their actions be distinguished by being actions of justice. When people comment on their behavior, say: “That person is a person who is fair when he does things. He is a person who can be trusted that he will not betray anyone. It will not intentionally harm anyone. That person is the most benevolent person.”
Because that's where the word benevolent comes from, it's one of the fruits of the spirit: benevolence, goodness. Because the son of God has a good disposition towards others and is an agent of justice wherever he goes.
Brothers, being an agent of justice has to be a passion wherever we go. Our behavior must be radically fair behavior at all times.
And that is why I believe, that although the Gospel did not attack slavery, although the Bible does not attack slavery in an open way, but the principles of the Gospel were already undermining the foundations of slavery for centuries. Because all the word of God speaks of justice. He spoke to the masters: 'treat your servants as children of God, as equals before God'.
You can't treat a slave as your equal, impossible. So there was already an implicit undermining of the injustice of slavery. The word of God calls every child of God to be an agent of justice continuously and by extension that means that you must at all times, brother, be a person of mercy and help the person in need: the needy, to the poor, to those who suffer injustices. One must be a shield in what one can.
Again not in a compulsive and neurotic way but if the Christian must have a hunger and thirst for justice. It must be distinguished by being a person who covers the one who is suffering injustice. The child of God should always help those who are in need. We must not only be agents of justice, but we must cover those who are in need and we must help and we must distinguish ourselves for that.
Psalm 82 verses 3 and 4. I want to leave this thought because it is important that we ethically, our behavior, our walk always be distinguished. Children must be taught. Sometimes children are the most unfair people.
When a little boy is suffering in class and everyone falls on him, we have to teach our children: 'Look, you be fair, never cooperate when you see a little boy being mocked, being abused, be there an advocate and do not cooperate with acts of injustice'. From a young age we must teach them to be agents of God's mercy because that is what God does.
Psalm 82, verses 3 and 4 says: 'Defend the weak and the fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the afflicted and the needy, deliver him from the hand of the wicked.
So how do you see that powerful statement from David: 'He is the one who does justice and rights to all those who suffer violence'. It is full of implications for us. We must be people who walk under that divine justice, who have positive attitudes because God has to bless us. We too must be agents of God's justice.
May the Lord bless us.
Father, thank you because your word calls us to a radically just attitude. We put aside, Father, all grudges, all resentment, all bitterness of heart, all cynicism, all skepticism, everything that glorifies the devil and his negative waves and we establish you, Lord, as that agent of justice that governs the entire universe. .
Help us, Father, to adopt that positive attitude and at all times establish yourself as the one who rules in justice and be faithful imitators of our God who is just. Thank you, Father, for this dedication, that our hearts, Lord, be penetrated and seized by the advice of your word on this day. In the name of Jesus amen.
Says the word of the Lord: 'Bless my soul to Jehovah and bless all my being his holy name. Bless Jehovah my soul and do not forget any of his benefits. He is the one who forgives all your inequities, the one who heals all your ailments, the one who rescues your life from the hole, the one who crowns you with favors and mercies. The one who satisfies your mouth with good, so that you rejuvenate like the eagle. Jehovah is the one who does justice and to all those who suffer violence.
Let's leave it there for a moment in that verse 6 says, 'Jehovah is the one who does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'. Let's pray.
Father we come before you in the name that is above all names, which is the name of Jesus believing Lord that you have a purpose in our lives; that you are going to speak to us Lord through this verse; You are going to minister to us, Lord. We believe that right now you are preparing yourself in our hearts and minds to work and deal with us.
Lord, if someone has arrived needing the comfort that your word brings, we ask that this word of yours fall like a deep seed in our hearts. Do your work, Father, in our lives and confirm the purpose that you have through your word. So be it, Father. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
The word of the Lord says that, 'Jehovah is the one who does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'. And I thought the previous verse says that, 'Jehovah is the one who satisfies our mouth with goodness so that we are rejuvenated like the eagle' and with this series of statements, the psalmist David is declaring all the attributes of all the positive works of God In our life.
The previous Sunday we touched on the theme of the renewal of the believer. The psalmist David told us that in a world where there is gradual decay of all things, in a world where all things begin new and good and bright and gradually lose their strength and beauty, God makes possible the renewal of their children. God makes possible your rejuvenation, your growth despite the natural decay of material things.
The son of God the believer is renewed from day to day although his body wears out, although his mind is not as agile and as quick as it was in the days of youth; says the word of God, 'that the spirit of the believer grows stronger and stronger every day.'
In other words, in that recognition, in that promise of rejuvenation and renewal, our hope and our joy preside. As believers we can be confident, we can be sure. Old age no longer has those terrors that it has for those who do not believe in the Lord, who do not have the consolation of the word of God.
Well, we know where we come from, where we are going, we have a spiritual conviction in us of what really matters about life; We do not live in the vanity of physical appearances and the vain things of the world. We can already entering and at any age in our life we can find joy, we can find meaning. In youth we rejoice in the beauty and agility of the body, in old age we rejoice in the renewal of the inner being.
As Pablo said, although this outer man of ours wears out, the interior is renewed day by day. This implies that we have to start sowing early, we have to start working from youth, we have to start working in the days of maturity -of the middle ages- if we are at that age and have entered into the ways of the Lord then .
But we have to start sowing and invest early so that those years of old age are years of joy, they are years of happiness instead of years of decay and depression and sadness and lack of taste. as the writer of Ecclesiastes says: 'let us remember our creator the good days of our youth before the bad days come and the years of which we say "I have no contentment in them".
The Christian begins to invest so that this promise to rejuvenate us like the eagle becomes a reality when the time of need arrives. Now, here David enters another dimension and says: 'Jehovah is the one who does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'. David declares here in a very emphatic way that he does not allow injustice to prevail in the universe that He has created.
I put the emphasis here on the word prevail because there is injustice in the world without a doubt but what David says that 'ultimately and ultimately the justice of God makes itself felt and is established in a definitive way over all injustice what is in the world
God does justice and right to all and it is a very complete word, very forceful: to all those who suffer violence, to all those who suffer oppression, to all those who suffer injustice by implication, God does justice at all times.
I say that this is a bold statement, it is a radical statement and it is a statement that surprises us, for the moment it makes us think because when one observes the world in which we live it would seem the opposite, the world is apparently full of justice and to the channel observer for the man and woman who are looking at the world only with the analytical eyes of the rational mind it would indeed seem like the opposite, the world is invaded by injustices, the world is pervaded by evil and injustice. injustice of men against men.
Look how Solomon puts it in a moment of pessimism, we could say in the analysis of this man who has seen so many things under the sun, he puts it in such a naked way. It says in chapter 3 verse 16: 'I saw more under the sun, instead of judgment there I saw wickedness, and instead of justice there iniquity'. In chapter 4 he says. "I turned and there I saw all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of the oppressed without having anyone to comfort them and strength was in the hands of their oppressors and for them there was no comforter."
And look at how far Solomon's moment of heaviness and pessimism goes: "And I praised the dead, that is, the deceased, those who have already died, more than the living, those who still live, and I considered them happier than some and others to those who have not yet seen the evil works that are done under the sun. I have also seen that all work and all excellence of works awakens the envy of man against his neighbor. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit".
In reality, when one looks at the world with naked eyes that does not understand what the mystery of God's justice is, that is what one sees: oppression, the oppressed who have no comfort, the strength that is in the hands of the oppressors and that there is no consolation for the oppressed. And yet here, David, has the audacity to say no that: 'Jehovah does justice and right to all those who suffer violence'.
And here the word enters into a dialogue with itself. Which of the two are we to believe? I believe that both are right in a material, political, historical, social sense of blood, certainly meat. There is injustice in the world and the world is a place of great injustice.
But on the other hand, when we look at history in the light of God's purposes and God's move in the world, we can have a very different perspective and see that at all times, God's justice is asserting itself and imposing itself. about this world of injustices.
Here the opposite is said: God does justice always and to all those who suffer injustice and in truth, I would say, brothers, this is good news. This is the gospel, this is the good news for all of us who believe in a just God.
This statement should fill all of us with joy and hope. Here David is saying, 'the world is not chaotic, the world is not incoherent, the world is not a machine that God picked up, wound up, and then sent it floating through space and forgot about it as theistic philosophy believes. .
The world has design, it has coherence, it has a purpose and God's justice is felt in history because there is a wise and coherent God who rules over the world. And that, I say brothers, which is good news for us. That should fill us with joy and hope. This lies in the righteous character of God. The fact that God is radically just, our God, his character does not admit injustice.
Therefore, at all times, that justice of God is going to be asserted because God is not going to allow injustice to prevail in the world that He has created, even though it is a fallen world.
I was quoting you in the context of the renewal of the son of God, Psalm 92 and I am going to remind you again it says: the just – that is, the believer, the son of God – will flourish like the palm tree, will grow like a hill in the Lebanon, planted in the house of Jehovah, in the courts of our God they will flourish, even in old age they will bear fruit. They will be vigorous and green to announce… what? Why will the just be renewed? Why will it have beauty even in the years of old age? Why is there hope for the old man? Why is there strengthening for the child of God? Because the universe is ruled by a God-like and God-fearing person, the God-seeking person will ultimately be blessed.
It says, 'even in old age they will bear fruit, they will be vigorous and green to announce'. That is to say, to proclaim that Jehovah –my strength- is upright and that in Him there are no injustices. It is a statement of the absolutely righteous character of God. And that, brothers, is the guarantee of a just universe, too.
Job in Chapter 36 verse 5 to 7 says: 'Behold, God is great but does not dismiss anyone. He is mighty in strength of wisdom. Says, 'He won't give life to the wicked, see? It is the character of God: 'he will not grant life to the wicked but to the afflicted he will give his right. He will not take his eyes off the righteous. Before good, with kings, he will put them on throne forever and they will be exalted. It is the character of God, it is the promise that we have a God whose character does not admit injustice.
33:5 ‘He loves – speaking of God – justice and judgment. The earth is full of Jehovah's mercy.'
So, brethren, that is the foundation of any confidence that we have that this world is ultimately a just world even though it is a fallen world because the God who rules it and the God who asserts his lordship and rule over this universe, he is God and he is a just God, a merciful God, a merciful God, a God who does not tolerate injustice.
And by implication the just who is the son of God, who has been made just by the blood of Jesus Christ, because we in ourselves do not have righteousness but in Christ Jesus we are just. The son of God moves in a covering of justice that governs everything.
I am here, brothers, setting up my argument because this has very big implications for our lives and so we have a just God, radically just, we have a God who makes sure that the universe in which we move is a just universe and therefore Therefore, we children of God have the right to believe that we move under a cover, a cloud of justice that covers us and directs us at all times.
Psalm 32, verse 10 and 11: 'There will be many pains for the wicked, but mercy surrounds him who hopes in the Lord'.
You see? The impious person, the unjust person is going to have many headaches, many setbacks, many sufferings. The wrath of the Lord will be persecuting that person. Now the one who hopes in Jehovah is surrounded by mercy, there is like a light a spotlight that wherever the just walks, the justice of God, the mercy of God follows him.
That is why David concludes in verse 11: “Rejoice in the Lord and rejoice righteous and sing for joy all you upright in heart because it is assigned to you to move under the mercy, the provision, the blessing of God. While the unjust and the impious are assigned suffering and pain and suffering throughout their lives.
"Sooner or later," says the word of God, "the justice of the Lord is enforced in the lives of those who fear the Lord."
Brothers, that is a consolation for us and that is the foundation of our hope and our joy and that must have a very deep implication for each one of us.
That thought and that recognition should govern our lives 24 hours a day. Those truths: a just God, a God who does not tolerate injustice, a God who watches over those who fear him and who makes sure that the end result of his life and the net result of his existence is positive so that he can be declared fair also in his dealings with them. This has implications for our behavior, our thoughts, our attitudes that I want to examine in detail today.
What are the consequences of that fact? So far we are preaching let's say theology, we are preaching theological theory.
Now, what implications does that have for our daily walk? How does that affect our life? We'll see.
I believe there are certain consequences that I want to point out to you. Number 1 if we believe in those things. If as David says, God does justice and right to all who suffer violence. So for me one of the first consequences is that we must live confident and in peace. Knowing that our heavenly Father watches over our interests. The Christian must be distinguished by an attitude of trust, of joy in all his actions and in his walk here on earth because he is sure that the fruits of his justice will follow him all the days of his life.
The good will of the Lord, as Psalm 23 says: 'Surely good and mercy will follow me all the days of my life' and whoever believes that and hopes for that can remain too long in a cynical or disbelieving or skeptical attitude. On the contrary, the believer knowing that his God governs must move, then, in a peaceful, joyful, optimistic attitude. Not cynical, not suspicious, not bitter or skeptical. That is the fruit of the spirit of which Galatians 5:22 speaks of goodness, kindness, patience, love.
I believe that they come as a consequence of one knowing that one is under the blessing of his God. It is like the child who grows up healthy in the bosom of his home because he is raised with affirmation, with the love of his parents, with the positive statements, the encouragement of his father, of his mother. This boy, this girl growing up in an atmosphere of trust is probably going to be a calm and pleasant person who lives life in trust.
And so should we be. In the Christian life there is no place for a Christian whose position is bitter and sterile and negative. Because when one is penetrated by that awareness of the just God who governs our lives and who ensures a clearly positive life, I believe that this should dispel bitterness, it should dispel cynicism.
I believe that a Christian cannot remain cynical for too long. The Christian knows that God's covering is over him when he moves within the will of the Lord. I think that is what John implies when he says: "perfect love casts out fear." When we are aware of God's perfect love and our love has been perfected toward God, it casts out that fear, that dryness that exists in our lives.
This allows us to laugh freely, this allows us to walk through life – with certain problems, with difficulties, yes – but also knowing that God watches over us and that God is ultimately in control of our lives. That made a life of trust, a life of peace.
Secondly, there is something also interesting and I believe that knowing that God is fair and that his justice will be enforced, that invites me not to envy those who prosper through unfair conduct. That makes me think that the person I see out there prospering and growing and doing great things and making money based on theft or oppression of others in dishonest earnings.
That invites me not to imitate that person. Neither envy him nor imitate him because sooner or later, I know that in public or in secret, now or later, that person is going to receive what he just deserves.
The Bible says that there are men of their works come to light while others are alive later when God's judgment comes on it. There are people whose works –unfortunately unfair– come to light after they die and sometimes manifest in their children and their relatives because the structures that they established when they were alive later deform and twist their children.
But somehow the injustice of the human being comes to light and that must make us; This recognition should make me never feel tempted to envy, much less to imitate someone who practices injustice.
Look at what Psalm 37 says, which is a psalm dedicated precisely to that meditation of disgust and what should be the conduct of the son of God. Psalm 37, verse 1 and 2: "Do not fret because of the wicked, nor be envious of those who do iniquity." There it is clearly: neither be impatient, nor be envious because 'like grass they will soon be cut down. And like green grass they will dry up.’
In verse 8 the second part says: “do not be excited in any way to do evil, for the wicked will be destroyed but those who hope in the Lord, they will inherit the earth. Well, from now on, the bad guy won't exist. It will observe its place and it will not be there. But the meek will inherit the earth and will rejoice in abundance of peace."
Don't get into the mistake of believing that you should imitate because you see someone prospering in the short term. How many people have I heard sell drugs or do those things because they see those big mansions that those who sell drugs have? Or how many people see rich people who have prospered by selling inappropriate products or things that are used to harm humanity and say “well, like that one did, look how he prospers?
And if that politician, look how hypocritical he is and this and the other. I have heard the argument of people who steal and commit crimes say: 'Well, look, the policemen, in short, they take bribe money and the judges this and that.' And then they are incited to do evil. But they do not realize that behind these things the judgment of God is weighing on those people.
Many years ago –I remember an experience that impressed me a lot– one Sunday, a friend of mine, we were having lunch together and she told me: 'After this lunch, I'm going to visit the daughter of a dictator – very well known in Central America-' And do you know where I'm going to visit her? I am going to visit her in a sanatorium.’ Because this young woman, who was actually a friend of hers, was suffering for years and years from terrible depression, a sense of guilt for the injustices her father had committed. One of the bloodiest indicators that Central America has known.
Hello, this is Pastor Roberto Miranda speaking to you and I want to thank you for being part of our program "An appointment with Christ" and I want to bless you with the words and promise of Christ Jesus. He has said: 'Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world'.
Remember that, wherever you are. If you are a child of God, Christ goes with you and if Christ is in your life, everything has a solution and there is always hope. God bless you and until next time.
I thought after that conversation: whoever contemplates this family with its millions, millions of dollars and with its limousines and its palaces and its blood money and all its luxuries, could only see that image and believe: 'I would like to be like that' . But they don't know behind all the tragedy and all the troubles and all the suffering and all the bad conscience and the sleepless nights and all the things that are behind it.
God's judgment rests on those who commit impiety and we should not be encouraged to imitate or admire them.
Thirdly, we must not become bitter when we contemplate the injustices of the world, we must not live with the eagerness... as I sometimes see people who live bitter because of how unfair life is. And 'look so and so how he is suffering'. They become so obsessed with the injustices in the world that they become bitter themselves, too, and take a negative attitude about life.
And sometimes I see people who, even in the Lord's church, have that negative perspective of life because of the injustices they suffered as children or what they have seen in the world. Like they always have that negative perspective on things. They are always seeing the evil in others.
They are bitter inside because of that situation of oppression. Or sometimes that passion for injustice that they see leads them to violence and attitudes that are inappropriate for a child of God.
And again Psalm 37 verses seven through eleven talks about that: ‘Keep silent before Jehovah and wait on Him.’
Psalm 37:7: 'Do not be upset and do not worry. Do not be upset because of the one who prospers in his way because of the man who does evil. Drop anger and throw away anger. Do not be in any way excited to do evil.
Let go of your anger, discard your anger, be silent before Jehovah, wait on Him. There is something here also of that position, that when we see so much injustice in the world, instead of us wanting to launch ourselves and attack everything in a compulsive way and to become bitter and cynical against all these things, we must also wait on God.
We must be calm before the Lord. That does not mean that we are going to be passive but it does mean that the way we fight will be a way to bring forth the fruit of the spirit in our lives.
We must not become bitter when we contemplate the injustices of the world.
Fourth, when injustice affects our own lives, when injustice affects us personally. And who of us has not felt at some point touched by someone's unfair act? Who among us has not felt violated by someone's betrayal? Because of a lie someone told about us? For something that was taken from us, that we loved and that we know has been taken from us unjustly? Who has not felt violated by an act where someone has imposed their force and has taken something from us in an unfair and improper way?
Brothers, what the word of the Lord calls us when injustice touches our lives and I extract this from that passage that God is the one who does justice and right to all who suffer violence.
I believe that when injustice strikes in my life, when injustice affects us personally, again we should not become bitter or rebel against God, but rather I would say take a long-term perspective. And that idea is very important, a perspective that trusts the invisible and eternal principles that govern the universe.
Instead of me, immediately, acting like the horse when it spurs itself and filling me with bitterness and filling me with hate and filling me with cynicism. I must give time for God's justice to be fulfilled. Because many times God's whip takes time or God's justice takes time to be carried out and I am not in control of all the mechanisms that God uses.
I have to give time to time and even if I do not see God's justice being fulfilled I have to trust that in some mysterious way that justice has become real in my life and in the lives of those who have offended me and I have been attacked
Again, look, Psalm 140. I'm using the psalms as much as possible. Because David develops his thought in a very coherent way. Verses from 9 to 13 already here, David says: 'As for those who everywhere the wickedness of their own lips will cover their heads. Embers will fall on them and they will be thrown into the fire, into deep abysses from which they cannot come out. It says: “The foul-mouthed man will not stand firm on earth. Evil will hunt the unjust man to bring him down.
Look at the very actions of the unjust, they will persecute him, they will reach him, they will establish the justice of God over that person. Verse 12: 'I know that Jehovah will take up the cause of the afflicted and the right of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name, the upright will dwell in your presence.
And that's the consolation David gets: Oh yes, they're after me! Oh yeah! They are biting me and they are eating my flesh but I know that in the long run the justice of the Lord will become manifest and that these attitudes and these evil works are going to fall on them in some way. And in that I find comfort and meanwhile I am going to affirm and declare the justice of God.
I know that Jehovah will take charge of the cause of the afflicted and the rights of the needy. In the long run, God will make his justice prevail in my life. I, then, can allow myself that when justice touches me, I become bitter and full and mentally deformed. And I believe, brothers, that this is a source of mental health, of hygiene, because in the long run we are talking about that.
Why do people get depressed, why do they get bitter, why do they twist their character? Because there have been injustices that life has committed, be it the circumstances, be it our parents in their ignorance, be it someone who betrayed us. Whatever it is, then we take it, we put it there, we obsess over it, we think about it, our panorama becomes a bleak panorama where that injustice becomes a plant that grows inside of us and takes root. and the roots are spreading through our mind, our feelings and even our body as well and we do not think at any time in the positive perspective of God.
In that God is fulfilling his purpose and that the injustice committed against us finds its solvent in the greater justice of God. So what we have to do is by a work of our will turn our gaze towards those principles of justice that govern the world and not allow ourselves to be obsessed by the injustice that has been committed to us.
What I think that this does is that a person can survive the crises of life and move on and when the moment of injustice and suffering and pain comes and when it seems that things have not gone as they seem to have. , we then remit the last word to the Lord and adopt a long-term attitude, we do not rebel, we do not twist, we do not start fighting with things but we get into the pain and let the pain get inside of us and we neutralize it, we dissolve it.
That positive posture and from there I think mental health and peace come. Sometimes it is the people who are sweetened through the sufferings of life as opposed to those who are embittered and twisted by the same sufferings. Because the person who triumphs and prospers over evil is the one who doesn't fight evil in a compulsive, neurotic way, but instead takes the long-term perspective of the God who rules the universe.
We have to think about God's long-term benevolent purposes. So we see that, when justice touches our lives, we don't get bitter, we don't reveal ourselves, we adopt a long-term position, where God is fulfilling his purposes.
Fifth, when we suffer injustice, we must do everything possible, yes, to defend ourselves.
I am not here talking about a pacifist and mystical position where you simply let yourself be made and undone and where you do not take action against evil and you do not defend yourself and you do not take legitimate resources to correct injustice. No, I'm not saying that. I believe that we must fight against evil and I am going to talk a little more about that.
But there is something more important that I believe that while we adopt measures to defend ourselves in a legitimate way, there is another thing that I believe that we have to do and that is to entrust our cause to the Lord.
And if we fight, let's fight knowing that in the last case, the final result depends on the Lord and not on us. You see, you fight, you fight but you do it with a position where you know that the Lord will have to establish his justice at the end of everything and that the Lord is fighting with you and within you. And that in the long run he is the one who has to make his final principle prevail.
I think that is also very important. Look how Job says, chapter 5 verse 8. That's what one should do first when suffering injustice. Job 5:8: 'Certainly I would seek God and commend my cause to him who does great and inscrutable things and wonders without number, who lifts the lowly on high and raises security for those in mourning.’
'What frustrates the thoughts of the cunning so that their hands do nothing, that catches the wise in their cunning and frustrates the designs of the wicked. Thus he delivers the poor from the mouth of the wicked from the sword and from the violent hand, for he is hope to the needy and inequity will shut his mouth.
See brother, when you fight, fight in the certainty that in the last case your cause has to be entrusted to the Lord. And for this reason, I believe that there are so many people who, when they fight, fight in a destructive and self-destructive way because they are not fighting in the Lord. They are not allowing the oil of the Lord to lubricate the machinery that is fighting and that is why sometimes they wear out and twist and burn and become people again distorted by the fight.
Psalm 37 again, verse five: 'Commit your way to the Lord and trust in him and he will do, he will display your righteousness as light and your justice as noon. Commend your cause to the Lord, commend your indignation to the Lord, commend your suffering to the Lord. Have you been raped? Have you been violated? Commend your cause to the Lord, while you fight, but commend that cause to the Lord and let your fight be a sweet fight too.
Although it seems paradoxical. May it be passionate and strong but also resting in the peace of the Lord. And that is a paradoxical position but it is what God calls us to do.
First Peter chapter 4, verse 19: 'So that those who suffer according to the will of God commend their souls to the faithful creator and do good.' While you suffer, while you fight, entrust your soul to the Lord and continue doing good. Don't let the fight for injustice also neutralize you in the areas of good.
And as you fight in that way the peace of God that rules will rule your thoughts. The peace of God that passes all understanding will be with you at all times. That will free you from fighting bitterly in a distorting and violent way. Of giving good testimony and even embarrassing Satan.
Sixth, the child of God who trusts in divine justice should not seek revenge for himself, but leave room for the Lord's revenge.
Brother, this is something very, very important. When we are violated and violated in our justice we must not take revenge ourselves. And in this world and in the churches, brothers, there are many people who have not understood this principle and we take revenge in many ways: subtle and not subtle, and we always find a way to make retribution for what they have done to us.
And in family life and in married life and in work life and in other areas we always look for ways to subtly or not-so-subtly avenge ourselves. But the word of the Lord tells us: 'Do not avenge yourself'.
Romans 12, verse 17: 'Repay no one evil for evil. Seek what is good in front of all men. If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men, do not avenge yourselves, my beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God because it is written, "vengeance is mine, I will pay," says the Lord . We cannot avenge ourselves.
We cannot seek revenge, we cannot seek to pay him back. Revenge is forbidden to the Christian because justice belongs to God and not to us. And brothers, if you believe that this is only a New Testament principle, that people talk about the law of retaliation and all that, God had already established that rule right there.
It is an eternal rule, it is a rule that is for all those who follow the divine principles. In Leviticus 19, 17 and 18 it says: 'You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You will reason with your neighbor so that you do not participate in his sin. You will not take revenge or hold a grudge against the children of your people, but you will love your neighbor as yourself. I Jehovah.
In the New Testament: "Revenge is not the proper attitude for any child of God, now the opposite is." And here this is the most difficult thing that I could say on this day, not only not to take revenge, but the word of the Lord calls me to love my enemies, to pray for those who persecute me, to bless those who curse me . Because the Word says that way: 'coals of fire you will be piling up on the head of the person'.
'So if your enemy is hungry, -Romans 12:20- feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink because by doing this you will heap fiery coals on his head.' Do you want to take revenge on your enemy? Do him good, that's what the word says. Do you really want to hit him at the very center of his life? Do good to him, bless him, pray for him, forgive him, take revenge by forgiving, loving, giving.
Because? Because he says because in some mysterious way and you pile burning coals on his head.
Then the justice of the Lord is the one that is established. So I prefer that the justice of God is the one that does justice, than the justice of man. Because when God does justice, he does it in an exquisite way, brothers, so to speak, and it is not that you are wishing evil on anyone. But God is a perfectly balanced God in his acts of justice. So I damage things when I come, when I take into my hands a mechanism that only God should take.
When you suffer injustice, when you have been violated, do not take revenge yourself, but leave room for God's revenge. And your part is to manifest the fruits of the spirit. Do not be defeated by evil but overcome evil with good. It neutralizes the evil aspect of human relationships with the positive aspect of the gospel of God.
That's the attitude. Do not take revenge and by extension there is another principle here that is very important to you. Because when I say: don't take revenge, I'm referring to actions, but what about the heart? There are people who do not take revenge but their hearts are filled with what? Of rancor and resentment.
When people suffer injustice, the heart harbors that sense of burning, of the anger withheld, the anger that simmers. It is the anger that slowly cooks the soul that turns into resentment and resentment, that poisons the thoughts and poisons the feelings and that leads me to the seventh justice of God that exists in the world: We must not give place to the rancor and resentment in our hearts.
You already saw what Leviticus 19 says: 'Do not hate, brother'. Said Jesus Christ 'he who calls his brother, fool or duck or stupid or fool already deserves the fire of hell.
Brothers, this is one of the most important and key things in human life, I also believe in the emotional and spiritual health of man: the fact that resentment should not be harbored in our hearts.
What does the Our Father say? And forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. There is no question of whether we forgive them or… No, it is assumed that we are forgiving our debtors: those who owe us.
Matthew 6:14 word of Jesus Christ. The Lord says: 'he who does not forgive cannot be forgiven'. It says because 'if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their offenses, neither will your Father forgive your offenses.
If you hold a grudge, if you hold resentment, if you harbor from jail - do you know that the word forgive, the image in the original Greek is that of releasing from jail? - it's like opening the cell door to a person.
Many of us put people in, we can't put them in jail with our actions, you know what we do? We put it in the prison of our imagination. We take a very gloomy, very dark cell, with mice and water covering the floor and we put the person who offended us there.
We close the door and we take care of throwing the key to the bottom of the sea and we leave it there year after year after year and from time to time we come to visit and look through the grate and enjoy seeing them there in that cell that we have mentally created.
The word says that when we forgive we open that cell and let them go and that is the idea.
The one who retains anger and resentment is a prisoner, I say the one who resents. Do you know that? You think you have taken him prisoner but you are a prisoner of that person. You spend years living in terms of the act that person did. That person governs your actions and thoughts. Do you want to take revenge on the person again? Don't hold resentment, let it go, be generous. Forgive him, don't hold a grudge.
The doctors will tell you that many sufferings, many pains, many psychosomatic illnesses come from the fact that we have not forgiven, that we harbor resentment, ourselves.
A grudge prevents us from retaining or enjoying the blessings of the Christian life. That is why there are so many Christians in the church with downcast faces, with all kinds of suffering who wonder where are the blessings that the Bible promises for me? And that they listen to the word of God and it does not penetrate them, the good news of salvation.
Because? Because there is a parasite that when the blessing comes into your life eats the blessing and that is called grudges and resentment. And then it does not harbor the grace of God. That person is not capable of doing it because rancor is an animal that is eating itself before God's blessing reaches its heart and it is neutralizing and burning it.
Resentment is the most destructive thing in the world and we cannot harbor it for our own good, even if it is out of selfishness, do not harbor resentment in your life. I would say otherwise, resentment makes us guilty of the devil. Do you know that? Rancor is a perpetually open wound through which diabolical microbes enter, through which the penetration of evil sometimes enters.
They have done many studies, at times, of people who are affected by satanic powers. For example, people who have suffered sexual abuse or physical abuse often end up possessed, suffering from demonic suffering. Do you know why? Because by suffering those oppressions, they are filled with oppression against their oppressors. So that's where the demonic infestation comes from.
The grudge is one of the weakest areas for demonic penetration. We cannot harbor grudges in our hearts. It is impossible for us to receive God's blessings by having grudges in our lives.
And finally, brothers, that justice of God must make us agents of justice wherever we go.
listen to that. If the God that you serve and the God that you imitate is a just God, you must also be a just person and you must be an agent of justice, even in your daily life. Never owe injustice through you in a deliberate way. You must never commit an injustice against another person. You must emulate and imitate the character of God and be an agent of justice.
Again the Book of Romans chapter 6 verse 12 and 13: 'Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey it in its concupiscence and neither present your members to sin as an instrument of inequity'.
Go? Do not present your body or do not present your person, do not offer your gifts and your abilities, for you to be an instrument of sin. But? He says: ‘But present yourselves to God as alive within the dead and your members – that is, your hands, your feet, your eyes, your mouth, your ears – to God as instruments of justice. Brothers, you and I must be agents of God's justice in this world.
Wherever you walk make sure that God's justice is manifested at all times. Not injustice. May their actions be distinguished by being actions of justice. When people comment on their behavior, say: “That person is a person who is fair when he does things. He is a person who can be trusted that he will not betray anyone. It will not intentionally harm anyone. That person is the most benevolent person.”
Because that's where the word benevolent comes from, it's one of the fruits of the spirit: benevolence, goodness. Because the son of God has a good disposition towards others and is an agent of justice wherever he goes.
Brothers, being an agent of justice has to be a passion wherever we go. Our behavior must be radically fair behavior at all times.
And that is why I believe, that although the Gospel did not attack slavery, although the Bible does not attack slavery in an open way, but the principles of the Gospel were already undermining the foundations of slavery for centuries. Because all the word of God speaks of justice. He spoke to the masters: 'treat your servants as children of God, as equals before God'.
You can't treat a slave as your equal, impossible. So there was already an implicit undermining of the injustice of slavery. The word of God calls every child of God to be an agent of justice continuously and by extension that means that you must at all times, brother, be a person of mercy and help the person in need: the needy, to the poor, to those who suffer injustices. One must be a shield in what one can.
Again not in a compulsive and neurotic way but if the Christian must have a hunger and thirst for justice. It must be distinguished by being a person who covers the one who is suffering injustice. The child of God should always help those who are in need. We must not only be agents of justice, but we must cover those who are in need and we must help and we must distinguish ourselves for that.
Psalm 82 verses 3 and 4. I want to leave this thought because it is important that we ethically, our behavior, our walk always be distinguished. Children must be taught. Sometimes children are the most unfair people.
When a little boy is suffering in class and everyone falls on him, we have to teach our children: 'Look, you be fair, never cooperate when you see a little boy being mocked, being abused, be there an advocate and do not cooperate with acts of injustice'. From a young age we must teach them to be agents of God's mercy because that is what God does.
Psalm 82, verses 3 and 4 says: 'Defend the weak and the fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the afflicted and the needy, deliver him from the hand of the wicked.
So how do you see that powerful statement from David: 'He is the one who does justice and rights to all those who suffer violence'. It is full of implications for us. We must be people who walk under that divine justice, who have positive attitudes because God has to bless us. We too must be agents of God's justice.
May the Lord bless us.
Father, thank you because your word calls us to a radically just attitude. We put aside, Father, all grudges, all resentment, all bitterness of heart, all cynicism, all skepticism, everything that glorifies the devil and his negative waves and we establish you, Lord, as that agent of justice that governs the entire universe. .
Help us, Father, to adopt that positive attitude and at all times establish yourself as the one who rules in justice and be faithful imitators of our God who is just. Thank you, Father, for this dedication, that our hearts, Lord, be penetrated and seized by the advice of your word on this day. In the name of Jesus amen.
