Fairness

Today I'd like to talk to you about a subject that on the surface can appear to be very simple. In fact, the knee-jerk response, when you pose it as a question, is that this is straightforward, this is simple, I can respond to that. But once we start digging below the top layer and we work our way down, in reality, it is anything but simple. It is a subject that evokes strong emotion. It's very, very easy to enter this topic, and you don't have to go very far before you can elicit strong emotions. And yet it evades, as I said, simple definition. The subject is timely 365 days a year, but I think by the time we finish with the sermon, you'll be able to appreciate that it has a seasonal timeliness also. The subject is fairness. I don't know if you ever stop and think of fairness in this way, but I think we have a fairness gene that is hard-wired into humanity. As early as a human being can respond to issues that they perceive relate to fairness, they will respond. All of you who have children know that as early as your younger child can say that it's not fair that their older sibling is able to do this or that, and they're not, you have entered the world of fairness issues within the family. My family was not mathematically inclined, and I wouldn't have known what to do with a micrometer if I'd had one, but when it came to slicing a pie, a micrometer was a tool that we would have liked to have. My folks solved the fairness problem there by saying simply to me and my next younger brother, one of you cuts and the other gets first choice. You've never seen such precision in cutting pie or cake. As one is sitting there looking at the two slices and the other one is saying, I don't want to get any less than I have to give, fairness is obvious. So as I said with children, it seems to be hardwired. The lament. Well, it's not fair. He gets to do this. I don't get to do this. Take it from the family situation and the family environment all the way up to the national, and at the national level and the international level, the fabric of the situation is no different. We are a nation that at the beginning, when it was time to begin to talk about nationhood, Thomas Jefferson, in writing the Declaration of Independence, wrote the phrase, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

I don't know if everyone perceives that to be a truth, and I don't know if everyone perceives that to be self-evident. It was a part of the European Enlightenment era, and in that particular environment, that particular phrase had a sense to it that probably has been lost over time. But when you say, we hold this to be a truth, and we hold it not only to be a truth, but we hold it to be a truth that everybody knows, that all men are created equal, the issue of fairness is at the core of that statement. It's the very center of it. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act. The Equal Pay Act was an amendment of the fair labor standards, and 25 years later, people are still fighting over whether or not wages are fair. So we may have had a fair labor standards document. We may have had an Equal Pay Act, but people are still as sensitive as ever about whether or not there is equality of wages. 1972, nine years later, the Equal Opportunity Employment Act was established to address fairness issues in the workplace regarding discrimination. And whether you think about it or not, that particular Fairness Act was probably one of the greatest benefits to the Church of God in terms of national legislation in the last half century. Having begun pastoring in the 1960s, and knowing full well when you walked into the home of a prospective member and you started talking about who are you, what do you do, and when you got to the what do you do question, oftentimes a pastor and his assistant would leave that first visit saying, Well, among the things on the table for this person is a high probability they will probably lose their job if they continue the path toward the Church because of the Sabbath.

It was a standard issue in the Church in the 60s to expect the probability of somebody losing his job when he went to the Feast of Tabernacles. And so the Equal Opportunity Employment Act of 1972 gave recourse to be able to say, You may not necessarily be able to relieve me of my job because I cannot work or will not work between Friday sundown and Saturday sundown, and you may not be able to relieve me of my job because I leave for eight days to attend the Feast of Tabernacles. I picked up for breakfast this morning a jam and jelly jar, a brand that I wasn't familiar with, and turned around on the back of it, and I saw a phrase that has become a part of the food trade. And that is the single word if you look at it in some documents, or two words if you look at it in other documents, but it's the fair trade practice. Essentially, a practice built upon saying in developing countries, fairness would mean that I pay the person who is the producer of the product a wage that would allow them to stay in business and continue to produce and put product on the market. I'm just giving you illustrations both nationally and internationally of laws, legislation, even declarations in the founding of a country that all speak to the issue of fairness. And so it's not only something that may be hardwired into us genetically, it is a part of the consciousness of peoples and nations. Despite these national and international fairness issues, it is important at this particular juncture in the message for every one of us as Christians to remember one very simple fact. Life isn't fair.

We're going to explore the subject of fairness and see what Scripture has to say and how we should feel about the subject, but it's important. It's especially important as we walk from childhood in our conversion up to maturity as Christians to understand that life isn't fair.

Despite the built-in desires for fairness, the reality is really quite different. And I'm going to address it on different fronts. Physical, spiritual, emotional. But let's begin back in Ecclesiastes chapter 9.

One of the early scientists that we know, we know more as a king than as a scientist, but in every respect Solomon was not just the king of Israel. He was by nature a dedicated scientist. He explored flora, fauna. He explored reasons and causes. He explored human psychology. And he did so as an observer, arm's length scientific observation. And he said in Ecclesiastes chapter 9, among his studies and observations, the following in verse 11. He said, I returned and saw under the sun. And this particular phrase is one that is repeated throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. It may not strike you as you read it, but the statement, quote, I returned and saw under the sun was his way of saying, we are going to address something that relates to humanity, to those who live underneath the umbrella of this atmosphere where the sun rises and sets daily. And I'm going to give you a scientific observation. He said, the race is not to the swift, and the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill, but time and chance happen to them all. If you ever read personality-related media, or if you listen to personality-related media, what you will see repeatedly over time are people who have risen to a place of prominence, who upon being interviewed, will say, time and chance was in my favor. I happen to be at the right place at the right time. I'm not sitting here known, recognized, and appreciated because my abilities, whatever they may be, are so far superior to everyone else's that it is an obvious fact that I should be here. More frequently, they will say, I simply happen to be at the right place at the right time. You'll see it among actors and actresses and artists, especially people in all forms of arts. As they realize, there are people whose voices are as good as mine, whose faces are as handsome or beautiful as mine, whose capacities and skills are every bit as much as mine, whose artistic abilities are every bit as much as mine. I simply happen to be someone they saw, recognized, made a contract with, and now I'm world-famous. So as we look at our current world, there are many people of renown who are honest enough in self-reflection to take you in their own way to Ecclesiastes 9 and 11, and say, there were people who were better than I was, but I have the blessing of being here. There were people more skilled than I, but at the time that it was needed, I was available, and so here I am. The Levite singer and composer, Asaph, next to David, probably the greatest contributor to the book of Psalms, at one point in his life was so completely distraught over the issue of fairness that he admitted to the reader that it came this close to destroying him. That as he sat and as he thought and as he pondered the issue of fairness and he saw the inequality of life, he said, I came this close to being destroyed. Asaph is far from unique. In my lifetime and in the years that I and my family have been in the church, if I take the superficial reasons and the superficial causes for people's spiritual collapse, if you dig down below the surface, in many, many, many cases, it comes down to a person who has reached a place where they perceive something as unfair. They then let that unfairness brood, and that brooding about what they perceive to be unfair eventually reaches the place of bitterness. And at that particular point in time, they're gone. One of the greatest powers that a leader has, especially in social areas or religious areas, is to rally an audience toward themselves over the perception that they have been mistreated and therefore those who hear should come to their aid.

Asaph is not unique. Asaph's rescue came in a way that we will see by turning to the 73rd Psalm, one of his compositions. In the 73rd Psalm, Asaph writes the following, Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And so he enters the world of fairness. He said, I was on very slippery ground.

I nearly fell, and the causal factor was I was envious of people who boasted without an honest and fair reason to boast. These he labeled as the prosperity of the wicked. You know, when you see something that's unfair and then you sit and you look at it longer, the longer you look, the angrier you get. The longer you look, the more despondent you get.

The longer you look, the more discouraged you get. Take your pick of those depending on your personality. Asaph is telling you what it did to him by personality. He said, there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They don't have troubles like other men. They're not plagued like other men. And as a result, you know, we talk about being fat and sassy. He said, therefore pride serves as their necklace. Violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with abundance. They have more than heart could wish.

They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set their mouths against the heaven, and their tongues walk through the earth. These are arrogant, arrogant, proud, boastful people. Therefore his people return here, and waters of a full cup are drained by them, and they say, how does God know?

And in their knowledge, in the Most High, behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease. They increase in riches. You know, he stopped right there because, I shouldn't say if, when you've been where Asaph is, the spiral continues down as far as you will allow it. If you don't say stop, it just keeps going. And he said right now, whoa, stop. I have gotten cranked up about this. You have heard how I feel about it. This thing is spiraling. I have said enough. And so, in verse 12, he said, whoa, behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease.

They increase in riches. Now he began the other side of it. Take your pick on what the issue of fairness does. Anger that somebody else has an unfair advantage, or the pity potty because I don't. Now he went from one to the other. He said, I have cleansed my heart in vain. Why should I care about being godly? I look at the ungodly, he's doing fine. Was it a waste of time for me to do what I did? Surely I've cleansed my hands in vain and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I've been plagued and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of your children.

So he went from being upset at the prosperity of people who didn't deserve it to being upset about the fact that he didn't have it. And he said in verse 16, he said, it's too much for me to handle emotionally. When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me. Until I went into the sanctuary of God.

And then I understood their end. Now for Asaph, this had a positive end. For many, many, many people, it never has a positive end. You see, many people don't get any farther than verse 7 or 8 of where Asaph was before they say, I've had it. Others make it all the way to verse 12 or 13 before they say, I've had it.

Asaph thankfully reached the place where he was preserved. His expression was this, surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation at a moment. They are utterly consumed with terror. And he goes on from there to further, but he said in so many words, I had to look all the way out to the end. My salvation was, I had to look all the way out to the end. You know, there's an old saying that God will heal all wounds and God will wound all heals.

It is a simplistic way of saying the same thing as the Scripture that says, God is not mocked. What a man sows, he will reap. You know what our problem is in fairness? Our problem is we want it on our time schedule. The challenge, ASAF came to the place, the fork in the road of, I'm going to let this destroy me because it's not happening on my clock, or the other branch which is, in the end, no man gets past God's justice.

In fact, song leader Rettus from Jeremiah, one of those statements, about the time when the kingdom comes and God will institute justice. But those who say it has to be on my clock can very easily self-destruct. Those who are willing, as ASAF was, to recognize that God is not mocked, if you think you get one by a God who says of himself, just as an incident, that I know every hair on your head, I think at times what kind of supercomputer does it take to keep track of how many hairs on the heads of a few billion people, especially when they get up every morning and there are some of them in the shower, some of them in the sink.

I mean, that computer is running 24 hours a day at high speed. And he says, not a sparrow falls that I'm not aware of. ASAF understood the components of that and said, I saw their end and I could let go of it.

Let's talk about another aspect of fairness. We're on the physical plane right now. We're going to remain on the physical plane. But on the physical plane, there's another aspect of fairness that we don't usually consider.

It's an honesty check.

The honesty check is this. If you look squarely in the mirror and you're honest with yourself, you will probably be a part of the great human fraternity that says, I want things to be fair, but I don't want them to be too fair.

I'm all for fairness as long as it isn't too fair.

There are people who plead for social justice, and they think it's wrong for things to be unfair. We have had the protests of the Vietnam War. We had race riots in the 60s. We could go through the history of protest. Every protest is a protest because somebody feels something isn't fair. That's the only reason they're protesting.

You can have a soft heart and should. The sermonette was an excellent precursor to the sermon in walking through what Christ said as a way of separating sheep from goats. But you can have a soft heart for people in developing countries and wish for some form of equality.

But when you think that through far enough, you can find it a little embarrassing to reach the point where, as I said earlier, you can say, I'm all for fairness, but you can take fairness too far.

You know, fairness, when we look at everyone on this globe having the same blessings, can be Pollyanna. There is a limited resource pool. And if you take the limited resource pool and say, I believe in fairness, the average American would stop wanting fairness rather quickly. We're 5% of the world's population. I'll just give you one illustration. We're 5% of the world's population. We consume 26% of the world's energy. Are you willing to give up 21% of your energy usage for the sake of fairness? I know in this congregation there are people who travel and have traveled, and so you know what it's like to be in a developing country where there is a block of time in the day where there is electricity and there is a block of time during the day where there is no electricity, where water may be available and water may not be available. How would you like next week to be rationed to one-fifth of your last weeks and the week before and the week before gasoline consumption?

Four-fifths of your driving now disappears because there is no gasoline. Out of fairness, that needed to go to India and it needed to go to Southeast Asia and it needed to go somewhere else. That means half of the energy-consuming appliances in your house have to go. It's humorous to see some of the little bitty European refrigerators. No one I know in the United States wants to downsize to refrigerators that are that tall, that wide. And we can go on and on, but the point of the matter is, once you distribute what is finite, because as people talk about, I'd like to see fairness worldwide, they don't stop to realize that resources are finite. They're not infinite. And if you take what you have and you distribute it equally, your standard of living changes to a level that you can't really wrap your head around.

And it's the reason I said that we have a very strong sense of fairness in our culture that isn't thought through far enough to actually challenge us.

Are you willing to pay for the fairness that you would like? You know some people would, but there would be an awful lot of people that stay right there, well, let me think this one over. And now that I've had a chance to think it over, I'm not so behind fairness as I was before you explain what that entails.

You know, when you thank God for your blessings, one of those blessings is that you are able every day of the week to enjoy the benefits that you and I don't deserve. Because a man by the name of Abraham millennia ago became a friend of God, you and I sit where we sit, and we enjoy what we enjoy. And there is not equality at this time. The scripture from Jeremiah speaks of a time when equality can happen. In this day and time, let's just say thank God many times over for the blessings that you have that you and I don't deserve.

What if I said to you, God isn't fair? You can take that thought in different directions. I'm sure that Satan did, and he took it in the most disastrous, poisonous way you could possibly take it.

But I want to give you a couple of teases, because we're going to explore this.

And I think you'll be happy with the end of the exploration. But for right now, I may have made you uneasy. John 21. Let's look at a couple of simple physical illustrations.

This is a case of grown men using the child fairness gene that I mentioned earlier. Or I could say one grown man using the child's fairness gene against a spiritual sibling. John 21. This is during that period between the days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, that Christ was with His disciples before He rose to heaven. And in verse 15 it says, I don't need to give a sermon out on these verses. I know that you've heard them before. But when you get into the Greek, Christ was asking for a level of love, and Peter was offering Him a lower level of love, which was unsatisfactory. It's why He came back to Him and came back to Him. And so Christ says, do you love me here? And Peter is saying, I love you here. So He said to Him again in verse 16, a second time, So He's pushing, and Peter's not giving the level of love that Christ is demanding. And He said to Him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And Peter was grieved. You know, all of us when we're pushed into a corner wish somebody will let up and we can squeeze out of that corner. And Christ had Him in a corner and He wasn't letting Him out. And now it was personal. So He was grieved because He said to Him a third time, do you love me? And He said to Him, Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You. And Jesus said to Him, feed my sheep. And He said to Peter in this account, I have asked you for a level of loyalty and love that you have not been willing to come back to. You're going to prove that love by crucifixion. He said, Most assuredly I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. He spoke this signifying what death He would glorify God. And then He said, Follow me. So He said, I will provide you the opportunity to prove ultimate love to me the hard way.

Then Peter. Peter had a one-on-one conversation with Christ. It was simply between Christ and Peter. As soon as that conversation is over, Peter pulls the three-year-old. But what about him? Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who had leaned on his breast at the supper. And the Lord, and the one that betrayed you. And Peter, seeing Him, said to Jesus, But Lord, what about Him?

And Christ said, Mind your business.

He said, What is it to you if I let Him stay on this earth until I come back? We're not talking about Him. We're talking about you. And you're not going to play the fairness game with me by saying, I've got to do to Him what I've said I'm going to do to you.

So He said, If I will, if it's my determination and my will that He retains until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me. Now Peter could have left that incident saying, God, in this case, the Word, Christ, God isn't fair.

Thankfully Peter was a better man than that. A more converted man than that. Matthew 20 is a famous parable. The minute we get there and we enter into it, you'll have no problems at all saying, Ah, yes, I know that particular parable. And it's one that when you play around with it in your mind, on one side of your mind, you can say, OK, I see fairness here. And on the other side, there will be that natural human tinge that will say, Yeah, I can see the point they're making.

Matthew 20, verse 1. The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard, and he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. So they went. Again, he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did the same. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing idle and said to them, Why have you been standing here idle all day? And they said, Because no one hired us. And he said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.

So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to the steward, Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.

And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more, and they likewise received each a denarius.

And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner. It's not fair. Saying, These last men have worked only one hour, and you gave them the same amount of pay as us, and we bore the burden of the heat of the day.

And he answered one of them and said, Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours, go your way. I wish to give to them this last man the same as you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your I evil because I am good? Interesting parable, isn't it? As human beings, we can all see the plight of the laborer. Man came in the last hour, worked an hour, and you gave him a full day's wages, and I've been here since 6 in the morning. It's not fair. Not hard to understand the emotion, is it? Christ, on the other side, said, Look, you and I made a contract. I gave you fairly what I offered you, and you agreed to. If I wish to give him the same, what business is that of yours? But we make fairness toward others, our business, don't we? I mean, he laid all the humanity out there. Did I abuse our agreement? The answer was no, not at all. I came to work, I offered a day's wages, you said I'll take it, you worked. I gave you the day's wages. I was fair to my word. But you have to have a level of fairness that says, well, he can't get more pie than I do. And if he doesn't work as hard as I do, he can't have a slice as big as my slice. You know, there are multiple places where God says it is not the right of the pot to complain about the potter, or the axe to boast itself against the woodsman. But it's hardwired into us, and unless we determine we're not going there, all we have to do is sit still, and our mind will go there without any permission. You know, the mind in this regard is a little bit like an unbroken horse. You don't rein it in tight. It's going to go where it wants to go, and you're going to go along for the ride. So you're either going to sit astride that horse and control it, or either going to take you where you don't want to go. That is a choice that you have to make.

After what we've said so far, let's stop for a minute and ask a question. Just what is, and we'll put it in quotes, just what is, quote, fair? Now, we've given you quite a bit of stuff to think about in different ways, and it's why I said at the beginning of the message, it's a very easy word to connect to, and it's very easy to have an initial gut response, but when you get into it, it's anything but simple.

Is fair the same as equal?

We're in tax time.

We have a series of tax brackets.

They go all the way from somewhere around 10%. I'm not yet totally comfortable with the new brackets. I've forgotten what the top is, whether it's 28% or somebody who's more into tax figures than I am. Somewhere between 25 and 35% is the top bracket, and down around 10 is the bottom bracket.

Should a person who makes $15 a year pay the same amount in terms of ratio of taxes as a person who makes $150,000 a year?

The person who makes $150,000 a year may say, yeah, the person who makes $15,000 is going to say no.

What is fair? When my wife and I married, my first assignment as a pastor was Mobile, Alabama, and a book salesman came to the door selling a financial management series put out by U.S. News & World Report. And I thought, oh, I read U.S. News & World Report. I like the source. So I'll buy it. And they had one entire book on taxes. And one of the beginning chapters was a quotation from the head of the IRS at that particular time that, in essence, said, you know, you have a title to a book and then you have the italicized paragraph before you get into the text. And that italicized paragraph was saying that the thought behind the Internal Revenue's tax brackets was to create equality through inequality. And that was his statement. The reason for brackets is to create equality through inequality. Sort of a conundrum, isn't it? Equality through inequality. People express and ponder fairness in the world of should a person who is a CEO, a CFO, a COO, pulling down $500,000 a year, when it comes time to retire, draw Social Security benefits the same as somebody whose entire income, in retirement, aren't going to be those Social Security benefits. And one person will define fair one way, and another person will define fair a different way. I'm using these as illustrations because I asked the question, what is fair? And even Internal Revenue Law trying to discern what fair was was a whole lot more challenging than just simply saying, well, this is fair. I've learned one thing from administering church affairs, and that is that fair is virtually impossible to administer. And further, that fairness should not be our greatest self-interest.

I think we've already got a little window into that with ASAF. Sometimes fairness should not be our greatest self-interest or self-concern.

I said to you a bit earlier that God's focus isn't on fairness. I don't know what that statement did to you, what your emotional or intellectual response was to my comment, but let's launch into it.

And I'll launch into it by asking you a question. Do you really want God to be fair with you?

I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, because anyone who raised their hand by the time I'm finished would be greatly embarrassed, and I'm not here to embarrass anyone. But it's a provocative question. Do you really want God to be fair with you? I'm a people watcher. I've been a people watcher all my life. I love to watch people and look at what they do and ponder and consider. And there was a point in time where a friend and I were talking, and I said, you know, it's interesting how this whole thing of fairness plays out. I said, you watch a human being as they relate to enemies and friends and themselves. And they want revenge on their enemies, fairness for their friends, and mercy for themselves.

There's not a level ball field on that one. Not a level ball field at all. You know, the last thing on the face of the earth I want from God is fairness.

When I was a child in Sunday school, typical of Sunday schools at that day and time of the kinds that I attended, you'd have memory verses, and then you'd have, in the midweek Bible study, once a year or so, you'd have a contest, a memorization contest, a scriptural memorization contest, and then give out a little New Testament and Psalms to whoever won the contest. And among some of the very best known scriptures—number one to me has always been John 3.16. I think it's probably the best known scripture in the Protestant world. But Romans 3.23 and Romans 6.23, they bumped up there pretty close. Because in these two places, the Apostle Paul spells it out so plainly that there's no wiggle room. In 1, he says, all have sinned. Well, since we're not in Sunday school, and you're not required to memorize anything, let's go back to Romans 3.23 and Romans 6.23. And I think by reading them once more, it'll punctuate the simple reality that none of us want fairness. Romans 3.23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Not like the old ivory soap commercial, 99 and 44 percent, 100 percent, have sinned. All. 100 percent. And they've all fallen short. Three chapters later, the Apostle Paul says, and here are the wages for falling short. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death.

The gift, not the fairness of God, not the equality of God, the gift of God is eternal life.

So when I said to you, God is not fair, my focus was not so much on John and Peter and on the people in the vineyard. My focus was on the fact that there isn't anyone here that wants fairness.

When I was a, I have to roll the clock back, when I was a young minister, not a really, really young minister, but a young minister, I had a certain relationship with a gentleman. I think most of you, somewhere back in time, saw the comedy TV series Home Improvement. So I'm using an example that I think most of you are familiar with. I had a Wilson-Wilson relationship with a gentleman. So, you know, Wilson-Wilson with his nose just above the fence, or just a little below the fence, with Tim the tool man. I had exactly the same relationship. But I had that relationship with Mr. Baker's father.

Mr. Baker's father's name was Giles, and Giles Baker was my next door neighbor. We had a hedge, and Mr. Baker and I would talk across the hedge. Now, I don't know if any of you have met Mr. Giles Baker, but if you have met Mr. Howard Baker, you have met Mr. Giles Baker.

Mr. Baker and I were talking over the fence one day, and he said when I was attending university, he said I had a professor who was horribly disfigured in World War I. And he said one day I was sitting back, not paying attention, and he came up to me and he said, Baker, he said, are you drawing me again?

And he said, yes, sir, and I hope it does you justice.

And he said, Baker, I don't want justice, I want mercy. Never forgotten that piece of wisdom over the hedge from Mr. Baker. You know, badly disfigured gentleman was not wanting an accurate portrait. Justice wasn't what he wanted. He wanted as much mercy as he could receive.

When we look at this particular area, brethren, we then come down to a place that is, I think, somewhat calming to all of us spiritually. When we arrive at the place of recognizing that fair is not the best that God has to offer. And when you understand that he's offering you something better than fair, it's quite an honor.

But it's an honor that comes with strings attached.

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5.

One of the Beatitudes says, there's a string that looks a lot like the string that was dangled in the sermonette. Matthew 5 and verse 7.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. You can reverse-engineer that verse very easily, can't you?

Cursed are the merciless, for they shall not receive mercy. It's a head and a tail on that coin. But blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. God offers mercy. Mercy.

We refer to this mercy in our religious vocabulary as grace, don't we? Unmerited, undeserved, pardon.

So when we look at mercy in the way that God gives it to us, which is undeserved, pardon.

Put that in that verse. Blessed are those who give undeserved pardon, for they shall receive undeserved pardon. I put it that way because if you have someone you're at odds with, you usually feel you're at odds with them because they're wrong. And if they would just get right, then you'd forgive them. And so you hold your ground and wait for them to finally realize how wrong they are and come and tell you they're wrong so you can forgive them.

Just take the word mercy and take it a step sideways. The mercy God is giving us is grace, and grace by definition is undeserved, pardon. James 2.

James 2. James 2.

The verse I'm about to read will flesh out that element of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. James fleshes that thought out in the 13th verse of chapter 2 when he says, For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. I don't think it's abusing verse 13 to take the word judgment in a religious sense with God being the judge and knowing the product of that judgment is fairness. I don't think it's doing violence to the verse to understand that in a sense of speaking what it is saying is that mercy triumphs over justice, equality, fairness.

The equation is simple. We want it. We have to give it. And God is offering it.

Matthew 18 is the execution of what we've just read in James 13.

Matthew 18, beginning in verse 23. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. I don't have my regular Bible with me. In 1970, probably in 1980 terms, in the margin it had the value of this 10,000 talents. It was a phenomenal amount of money. I mean 10,000 talents. Don't just equate 10,000 talents. This was a six or seven figure number in equivalency of that day and time. So this is a man who was up there in the high hundreds of thousands to millions that he owed as a debt. And he wasn't able to pay it. Master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. And then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him and forgave him his debt. Now this is way, way, way beyond, would you give me an extension on the loan? This was, he was moved for some reason that is not explained in the parable and said, forget it. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

Now I can tell you what that one is worth. Just figure a third of a year's wages. So whatever your, I don't know what the annual salary median in the U.S. is, but if it's 30,000, we'll use that as a number. This would be basically $10,000. So this gentleman owes him $10,000. He owed probably over a million.

He laid hands on him, took him by the throat and said, Pay me what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me and I will pay you all. We heard that chorus sung before, didn't we? Second verse, same chorus. But he wouldn't. He threw him in prison and said, You're going to rot in here until somebody pays me that $10,000. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved. They came and told their master all that had been done, and then his master, after he had called him, said, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So your heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Matthew 18 is the fleshing out of James 2.13. So James 2.13 is the nutshell. Matthew 18 is the commentary on what was in that little gem in James 2. And we could say also by extension in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and verse 7.

Let's wrap things up now. I've given you a considerable amount of yin-yang. I've tried to stretch you this way and stretch you that way and make you think in more than one direction. But let's bring it all back together and ask and answer the question, How should a true Christian then look at fairness? If you're going to sum it up, as a member of the Church of God, as a Christian, take all the different factors that we put on the table, both physical and spiritual, and answer by giving some key principles as to how a true Christian should look at fairness. In practical terms, always try to treat others at least fairly. That's baseline. The baseline in dealings with fellow man, always try to treat others at least fairly. I won't go sideways too far, but I appreciate some of the Old Testament laws that were very physical laws for very physical carnal people, but they would explain to them in the simplest of terms fairness. A good example was, if you borrow something from your neighbor and you lose it or break it, you owe him something equal in value and quality to what you lost or broke. That's the least. Simple illustration from Old Testament law, but it makes the point. Always try to treat others at least fairly.

I underline it least because our attitude should be, put another doll upon it. Add a little bonus piece in there. A second observation, don't waste excessive time or emotion worrying about whether you are treated fairly. It's a destroyer. Just as Asaph said, it almost destroyed me. It has done far more than that to many people that you and I have known over the years. Don't waste excessive time or emotion worrying about whether you are treated fairly. If you really, truly are deeply converted and you truly believe that God cannot be mocked, that when He said, you can't mock me, if you think you can get by me and you can go over in the corner and snicker that I pulled one on God, you're on a fool's errand. If you really believe that, then you only have one thing that you have to then wrestle with, and that is whether you're going to demand that God fix this matter in your time on your watch, or whether you're going to put it in His hands and say, it's up to you, I have passed the baton. You'll destroy yourself when you do this. You simply say, God, I really do know that you cannot be gotten around and mocked. This is yours. I need to get on with life. Don't waste excessive time and emotion worrying about whether you're treated fairly. Put it where it belongs. The third observation, remember that the greater focus of fairness is on the giving end, not the receiving end.

If you're always worrying about whether you are going to get fairness, rather worrying about whether somebody else is getting fairness, again, we're back in the sermon, we're back in that mind-set that's geared and set in the wrong direction.

If you're on the giving end, God expects you to be better than fair. The fourth observation, consider that it is a miserable life that it is spent keeping track of whether or not you're always treated fairly. Even Solomon was wise enough to realize that it just doesn't always happen. If you need to go back to Ecclesiastes 9 and 11 and look it over every so often, if that's a reality-checked verse, then good. Use it as a reality-checked verse.

If you look at your lifetime, it's made up of wins and losses. There are times where you got better—and I'm talking physical life, just physical dealings. Every one of us who's lived any length of time at all has those experiences that every so often you get better than fair, and sometimes you don't get fair. Just the way life goes. But it is a miserable life spent score-keeping. Don't waste your time at that address. I said that the subject today was applicable 365 days a year, but it had an even greater seasonal focus. The last point is simply to bring it into the calendar period we're in. Because lastly, and most importantly, each year as Passover approaches, stop and take time to consider the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. And then take time to thank God over and over and over again that He isn't fair.