Series
Rev. Jerry Hamstra
The Book of Esther
The Book of Esther
Sermons
Rev. Jerry Hamstra
Introduction to Acts
Introduction to Acts

Justice

The LORD’s Question and Elijah’s Complaint

Read: 1 Kings 19:1-10
Text: 1 Kings 19:9-10

“So we have Moses asking for mercy and minimizing justice. And we have Elijah speaking of justice and saying nothing of mercy. This points to a tension in the Old Testament between the mercy and the justice of God. There is an awful lot in the Old Testament of the wrath of God against the sins of his people. But there is also the theme of God’s mercy that runs through the story. And these two aspects of God’s character are in tension with one another at least from a human perspective.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Fire from Heaven

Read: 1 Kings 18:1-2, 22-24, 30-40
Text: Verses 38-40

“What we have here is an expression of God’s grace to his people. The fire that came from heaven fell upon the altar and consumed the burnt offering, the wood and the altar itself. And it did not consume the people.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

The Ninth Commandment (1) “Do not bear false witness”

“This is at the heart of what Jesus did to bring about the prophecies of a world of justice and wellbeing for all. To bring about that vision for the future of the world, Jesus began with the heart of the matter – he dealt with the root problem of all the selfishness and cruelty and injustice in the world. He dealt with sin. He broke the power of sin. And he called men and women and children to believe on him, repent of their sins and live out of the renewing power of the gospel.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (9) Cultural Marxism

“The greatest oppression that human beings experience is the oppression of their own sin and the tyranny of the devil. Jesus came to set us free from that and as Jesus himself said in John 8:36. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.””
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Faith Amid the Enigmas of Life

“This is the temptation that comes with the things about life in this world that do not seem to fit with a good God who is sovereign over everything that happens in the world. In our text passage, the author of Ecclesiastes is struggling with the fact that so often the wicked do not get what they deserve and the righteous often get what the wicked deserve. The question that raises is, “What kind of God allows that to happen?” and “How can I trust God if he says that those who serve him are blessed and those who defy him our cursed, when that does not seem to be the way it works out in real life?””
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image….” (5) Punishment and Steadfast Love

“This highlights our responsibilities as parents. Because our influence on our children is so great, we carry a huge measure of responsibility not only for our children, but also for our grandchildren and great grandchildren. That is a sobering thing to consider. How we train our children has implications not only for them, but for the generations that follow them! God punishes ungodly children because of their own ungodliness, but the fact that they are ungodly is to a great extent the result of the sins of their fathers.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

The Problem of Injustice

“We need to remind ourselves that the only reason we are not on the receiving end of God’s wrath, for all the times that we have treated others badly, is Jesus Christ if we are indeed trusting in him. When we are horrified by injustice in the world, we must remind ourselves that we have committed some of the same sins and that we share the same sinful nature as the worst perpetrators. If we are different, we are different because we have been rescued from our sins and forgiven and have received the Holy Spirit.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra