The Weightier Matters of the Law

In the book of Revelation, there are three woes listed, beginning with chapter 8. Many are familiar with these, and when it comes to prophecy, there's much speculation concerning the fulfillment of some of these prophecies. I would dare say that most people have spent more time on these three woes than the eight woes of the book of Matthew. How many of you are familiar with the seven or eight woes according to how you want to count it, which authority you might follow? That are recorded in one chapter of the book of Matthew, and how they will be fulfilled among us. How they could apply to us today. The word woe is an interesting word. It just simply means a state of intense hardship or distress, disaster, horror. What if Jesus Christ was standing here today instead of me?

He would look out and say, woe to the church in Chattanooga. What would you think?

I would think, woe! If he personally came here and said, woe! There's some type of disaster, distress, hardship. Something going to happen here.

I think I'd listen very intently because I'd be concerned that I might miss what he has to say.

Notice why Jesus Christ said over here in Matthew 23, because there is a woe pronounced. Actually, these eight woes are mentioned here in Matthew 23.

Reading verse 23, it says, It says, You pay tithe the mint, anise, and coming, and you've neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.

Now, he pronounced a woe because they had overlooked the weightier matters of the law.

Let me read this out of the NIV translation. NIV says, You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and coming.

But you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

The scribes and Pharisees were very meticulous about tithing the seeds. They would take dill and just break off one tenth of it. This is for God. They were very meticulous, even going out in the garden and making sure they gave the tenth of everything to ensure that they were on solid ground. You find that the Bible talks about how all of our actions, everything that we do, should be governed by justice, mercy, and faith. The Pharisees were not doing that. The question is, are we? Is that the basis of our operation? Is that the basis of our actions? Is that the basis of how we live and how we treat one another? You find that they were very strong on what we could call external rules and regulations. They brought many of these into their practices.

It is possible for us to become preoccupied with the rules and regulations that we forget the principles behind them. That we forget why they were instituted. Is God against tithing? Well, certainly not. He instituted tithing. But what's the purpose of tithing? Why do we tithe?

Well, if they're tithing or accepting tithes for a reason to show off, we know that the Pharisees would go hire somebody to blow a trumpet. When they had gotten through, they would take a coin and drop it in the pan of a beggar. They'd walk off, and if they were going to give another one something, they'd do the same thing. People would think, well, look how great these individuals are. They're so concerned with beggars. Were they concerned with the beggar, or were they concerned with their own image?

Were they concerned that people would think they were righteous? Were they trying to impress people? See, that's the difference. You and I should all be concerned about the poor. We should be concerned about the needy, especially in the body of Christ. But why do we do it? Why are we concerned? We should be concerned, but they did it so that they could be seen. Why do we serve? Why do we serve in church?

Is it to be seen? Is it to be observed? Or do we do it to give, to help, to aid, and to help others? Is our mind always on ourselves and how we're coming across and what other people think of us? Or is it on truly helping? How can I be a servant of the people? What can I do to help God's people? Why do we attend Sabbath services? Again, what is our motive? What is our purpose? Well, we should be here to worship God, to assemble with His people, the community of God, to encourage to build up other members of the body, to learn, to serve one another.

And that should be why. Why did the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and many of those in their day, end up in the synagogue? Was it to impress people with their learning? Was it to try to get them to think how righteous or good they were? I don't know what all their motives were. But we need to realize that worthless are our outward observances when the moral principles are neglected, when you neglect the moral principle underlying it.

Now, let's notice there are three things mentioned here. Judgment, mercy, and faith. The word judgment means to act equitably, to act equitably, fairly, to one's neighbor, hurting nobody, murder, deed. It means to not be partiality, not show partiality or favoritism, and to follow what God's law instructed. So we're to treat one another justly, equitably, rightly, honestly, truthfully. The word mercy is loving kindness in conduct. Show mercy, you show loving kindness toward others. This is certainly taught in the Old Testament.

To care for the widow, to care for the stranger, to care for the orphan. The debtor is very different than what we read here in chapter 23, where the Pharisees devoured widows' houses. Here's a widow. Maybe she can't make her payment. She's about to lose her house.

Well, we'll show you mercy. We'll extend this. Don't worry. No, if she missed a payment, bang, they'd take her house from her. They would devour widows' houses, whatever she might owe. Roman law favored the rich and the powerful. The laws of the Old Testament were designed to protect the poor and the helpless, to look after them. These are not abstract concepts or actions.

They required treating people fairly and with mercy. Justice and mercy are very closely related words. They go together. They blend together. Faith here may mean fidelity to promise, that you are faithful in your word. Like Psalm 15, verse 4, talks about that he swears unto his neighbor and disappoints him not, though at word to his own hindrance, that you do something if you give your word, and even though it's not to your best, you still will carry it out. What about when you get married? Aren't you supposed to be faithful to your mate?

You have children. Are you not supposed to be faithful to your family? You work. You're to be faithful and try to work the job that you're doing. We should be faithful in all of our actions, and especially to God. You find that the NIV translates this word, faithfulness, or good faith, from the Phillips, the N-E-B, N-A-B, N-J-B translations.

These all have it translated as good faith. It can refer to being faithful to God. Is not God faithful to us? God will carry out, if he says something, he will do it. Faith is a corresponding term that defines the proper relationship that should exist between us and God, God and us, and among his people.

You can construct these three by saying it this way, to treat others with fairness, mercy, and to be faithful to God. These are the weightier matters of the law. Now, let me ask you, where do you find these in the law?

Is there a Ten Commandments in the Old Testament that says, thou shall be faithful, thou shall be merciful, thou shall be just in judgment? Now, all of those things are talked about, are they not? But these are referred to as the weightier matters of the law.

You see, God gives us his law, the spiritual law of God. Now, how you apply that law, your attitude toward that law, has to do with the weightier matters. If you're like the Pharisees and you do things to impress others, to show off, to have people just speak highly of you, you're doing it for the wrong motives. But if you do it because you're motivated by fairness, you're going to treat people fairly. You're going to be just in how you deal with others. You're going to extend mercy because you know God's extended mercy to you. And then you're going to be faithful, and you realize that God has been faithful toward you. See, that deals with what? That deals with motive. It deals with attitude. It deals with approach. It shows how you apply the law. It's the filter through which the law of God is applied, or the law of God is used. It's the weightier matters of the law. And all of us need to ask ourselves, is that the way we approach God's law? Now, let's notice beginning in verse 13 here. Let me summarize the woes in this chapter. We'll hit this very quickly. And we'll come back later and spend a little more time on it. Verse 13, Woe to the scribes and the Pharisees, hypocrites, for you should up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Now, the Pharisees kept the Sabbath, did they not? They observed the holy days. They tithed. They prayed. They preached. They tried to convert people. They would go everywhere looking for converts. They had all of the trimmings of religion. Weren't these things commanded in the Old Testament to do? Well, sure they were, but what did Christ say about them? Hypocrites, white-washing sepulchers. He called them everything you can think of.

So what was wrong? Their attitude and their approach was wrong, as we will see. Now, let's not just pick on the Pharisees. Let's pick on ourselves. Do we not keep the Sabbath? Do we not keep the holy days? Do we not tithe? Do we not pray? Do we not study? Are we not sending in money to help convert people? Do we not wish that more would show up and you'd be here with us? And that, instead of having 50 or so every Sabbath, we'd have 150, 200, 300. We'd have to go out and keep finding new halls? Sure, but you can do all of these things from a wrong motive. You can do it from not giving up the weightier matters of the law. So let's go on and see what he talks about here in verse 14. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for our pretense, make long prayers. They'd go out in public and pray. And people would say, wow, I wish he'd shut up. Look how long he's praying and praying and praying. He's got to be a righteous man. Therefore, you will receive the greater condemnation. Now, are we not told to pray? Three times a day. The example is set to pray. So you can do it in the right way or you can do it in the wrong way. They were doing it to impress. Pretense. Pretending that they were doing this for the right reason. Here they were claiming to be so concerned about people, and they were devouring widows' houses.

Verse 15, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and seed when one prossalite, and when he's one you've made him twice as much, the Son of Hell as yourself. So they were hard workers. They sought to convert people to their way of religion. But they forgot about justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Verse 16, Woe to you blind guides who say, Why, whoever swears by the temple is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated to perform it. Then it goes on to say, What's greater, the gold or the temple? And then whoever swears by the altar, that's nothing, but if you swear by the sacrifice on the altar. So here they were splitting hairs and judging according to their own ideas as to what was most or more important and spiritual. Then we come to verse 23, The weightier matters of the law, tithing, they tithe. He says, Well, you ought to have done that, but don't leave the other undone. Verse 24, Blind guides who strain out a gnat, Notice it says, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Now, they had a situation where they would actually, if they were going to drink wine, soup, anything, they'd take a piece of cloth and run it through it. Because they didn't want to eat a gnat. A gnat's unclean. And you want to eat a gnat, and they'd be eating an unclean animal. But then they'd turn around and swallow a camel. Now, of course, that's metaphorical, as we know, but what do you mean swallow a camel? Well, they were so concerned about a gnat, and then they would turn around and abuse people, take advantage of people, pretend that they were praying for the right reason. They would do everything externally to show off, and they're swallowing camels. They're overlooking the big camel in the room, so to speak, and they're straining at the gnat. So they did not have the right perspective or idea. Now, going on here, in verse 24-25, it says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside are full of extortions and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees first cleanse the inside of the cup and the dish, that the outside may be clean also. And, well, we'll wait on that particular one. They were trying to avoid what they considered sin, straining at the gnat, but they were committing much greater sins. Stop and think about, and I thought about just putting this sermon together, I could have stopped right here and we could have gone through all the examples of the Pharisees. And, you know, how they exemplified this. What about they gave Judas thirty pieces of silver to do what? To betray Christ and to betray innocent blood. And yet, when he came back, he said, This man is innocent. Well, they didn't know what to do with the money. So, you know, they didn't want to put it back in the treasury.

There were many times they wanted to kill Jesus. There were times that Christ healed somebody on the Sabbath. And guess what? They would get so livid and angry that they would grab Christ and they'd take him out to the brow of the hill. They'd want to throw him over, throw him off the hillside and kill him. They'd want to stone him. So, here they are, supposedly keeping the Sabbath, having the right attitude, worshipping God. And because somebody is healed and they thought that was wrong, then they were going to do that. They'd not go into the Judgment Hall before the days of Unleavened Bread for fear of being defiled. But they'd stand at the door and accuse Christ, cry out against him, say, Crucify him. Remember the time they quarreled with the disciples, disciples walking through the field. They were hungry, they reached down as they were walking, plucked some corn, heads of wheat or oats. Then they were condemned for doing that. And yet, they would tell people who brought an offering to God. Their parents were suffering and needed help, physically, to buy food or clothing or pay their rent. They would give it to God, as it was corbin. So they would take the money and the offering from the people, and they would teach them to break the commandment to honor their father and their mother. They were all for the outside, the appearance, and not for the inside of the religion. They appeared beautiful on the outside, but were full of dead men's bones on the inside. Notice verse 27 again.

Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous. And say, if we had lived in the days of our father, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore, you are witnesses against yourself that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. And what were they about to do? They were going to murder the Messiah. They were about to murder the Messiah. And so, they were guilty of more. Now, there's a parallel scripture to this. Let's go over to the book of Luke. Chapter 11 and verse 42. Luke 11 and 42. And I want you to notice what's written here.

Luke 11 and 42. It says, Woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue in all manner of herbs. And you pass by justice and the love of God. So, notice justice is one of the things that is mentioned here. And the love of God. Now, it's worded a little differently, what we find in Matthew. But again, he talks about the weightier matters of the law. To love God with all your heart, to love your neighbors yourself. These you ought to have done without leaving the other undone. Now, we shouldn't bypass what is more important. The attitude, the motive, the approach, the love, the justice. It has to do with the heart. It has to do with the approach to others. Now, verse 44, very interesting. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen. And the men who walk over them are not aware of them. Now, in the Old Testament, we find that if you came in contact with the dead, or anything connected with the dead, that a person could become ritualistically unclean. They would have to go wash themselves, give an offering, maybe be unclean until the evening, and then be ritualy clean. They were disqualified from worshiping. Now, every Jewish grave was supposed to be clearly marked so that no one would unwittingly touch the grave and become unclean, because it was full of bones. Jesus was claiming that the Pharisees were like unmarked graves. They were unclean and made anyone who came in contact with them unclean without the victim knowing it. Their teachings, their attitudes, their approach was wrong, and anyone who would come in contact would have that rub off on them. They would have absolutely drawn back in horror when Jesus said something like this.

They did something that every religion on the face of the earth does. They were clean in regard to their own legal system or their own religious system or culture or rules or regulations. All religions have their own rules and regulations. Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, Talism, Judaism, Christianity, Catholicism. They all have their way of worshiping God, do they not? The Catholics use statues. They don't call them idols, they call them statues. These are supposed to be dead saints that people go pray to like candles. If you've ever been to a Catholic funeral, it's quite different from what we would do. Many so-called Christian customs and traditions are quite different. We here recently had one of our local churches meeting in another church. They lost the hall because that church found out they did not believe in the Trinity. One of the surest signs that you are, quote-unquote, occult is if you don't believe in the Trinity. That is the litmus test. Here we are, we don't keep Christmas, we don't observe Easter, we don't observe Halloween, we don't believe in the Trinity, we believe the Gods of family. As a result, we are looked upon in some circles as being odd. You find that all these different groups have their own standards and their own approach. What do they judge others by? What they have set up as the standard of righteousness, or goodness, or the standard to live by. If you don't believe in the Trinity, or you don't believe whatever it might be, then there's something wrong with you. Everyone has his own system that he sets up. Let's go back to Matthew 23. Let me summarize for you here very quickly the points that we've covered. We've covered these, but I want to summarize what the Pharisees did and what Christ told them what we're supposed to do. Beginning in verse 13, again, leaders appear to be spiritual guides who lead others to life, when in fact they block access to the kingdom by heavy burdens they imposed and by opposing Jesus' mission.

The Pharisees had 60 to 70 of their own ideas, burdens, that they placed upon the Sabbath. Things such as if you walked out of your house and you were a tailor and you had a pen in your lapel, you were carrying a burden on the Sabbath. You could only walk so far on the Sabbath. They defined and covered everything that you could think of that might be a sin about the Sabbath. What about us? We all keep the Sabbath day. Have we set up our own standard of righteousness? That if somebody does something that we wouldn't do, that they're unrighteous and we're righteous? Obviously, there are fundamental principles that govern the Sabbath day. You're to rest on that day. But what are the laws behind the Sabbath that you and I should think of? Well, it's a rest day, so it's a day that we don't work on. It is a day that we delight in. It's a day that we derive a great deal of joy out of. It's a day that we can be together with our family. We can pray more. We can study more. We look forward to getting together with the collective body of Jesus Christ. We can serve one another. We can help one another. It is a time that we come together. These are fundamental things that we do. But when you make the Sabbath such that it's an absolute burden to people, that people hated to keep it because of the burden placed upon them. This is exactly what the Pharisees did. The Pharisees appeared to win others to the faith in God of Israel by their vigorous proselyting. In fact, they were converting others to their own ways. We've already touched on that. Pharisees appeared to be masters of discernment. They distinguished between types of oath. The leaders, in fact, by their subtle reasoning, obscured the way every oath implicates God and therefore binds us. They were drawing straws. If you swear by the temple, that's one thing. You may have to keep that. But if you swear by the gold in the temple, that's something different. They made all of these delineations. They had come up with all of these rules and regulations. They appeared to have super piety tied not only essential, such as grain, oil, and wine, but even optional garden herbs. Leaders, in fact, majored in the miners. The miner things they majored in, neglecting the Torah's concern for justice, mercy, and trust. They appeared to be scrupulous in the way they obeyed the law, washing the outside of the cups as well as the utensils. They failed to clean the interior of their heart, of their mind, of their own selves. They appeared to be righteous. They were role models. They were attractive to everybody else.

They, in fact, had surface righteousness, like the whitewash put on Palestinian tombs each spring, masking death and decay within. They appeared to align themselves with God, prophets building the tombs in memory of the early messengers of God. In fact, they aligned themselves with the forebearers who had actually killed the prophets.

That sort of summarizes what Christ brought out against them in that chapter.

They had the Old Testament to go by. They had the Scriptures to read.

They knew what God said. Let's go back and take a look at some of the Scriptures that tie in with what we've been reading here very quickly.

Hosea 6, verse 6. Hosea 6, verse 6.

God says, So God wanted mercy, showing kindness, sympathy, love toward others, to treat others with respect and honor.

In 1 Corinthians 13, verse 3, the apostle Paul said that we can go without, we can give our bodies to be burned, and if we don't have love, we're nothing.

So love has got to be the foundation from which our actions flow. God is looking for a people who will love Him with all their hearts and their neighbors as their selves.

So it doesn't matter how much we sacrifice in the Church if our attitude and our approach is not what it should be.

Notice Micah 6, verse 8. This is the one Scripture that comes the closest to saying why Jesus Christ said.

Micah 6, verse 8.

He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

So justice, mercy, and to be humble with God.

So this is what God expects of us.

It was mentioned over and over again in the Old Testament. Zechariah 7, verses 8 through 10. Zechariah chapter 7.

Beginning in verse 8.

Show mercy and compassion, everyone, to his brother.

Do not oppress the widow or the fath of us, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.

So notice the emphasis about having compassion, mercy, justice on the needy, the widow, the orphan, the visitors, the poor. Have a pure heart, not an evil heart. So this is very clear that even in the Old Testament these principles were taught. Zechariah 8, over another chapter, beginning in verse 16. Zechariah 8, 16. These are the things that you shall do. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor. Give judgment in your gates for truth and justice and peace. Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor. And do not love false oaths, for all these are the things that I hate, says the Lord.

So we're not to think evil.

In the book of Philippians, it talks about, think on these things. There are about seven or eight different categories or subjects mentioned about things that you and I need to think about. That should be the foundation of our thinking, our reasoning, that would get us away from an evil mind. So here, Zechariah very clearly outlined what we should be doing. Christ in Matthew 12, verses 6-7, had this to say, Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple, referring to himself, God in the flesh. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. So you can sacrifice all day long, but that doesn't change your attitude. That doesn't make you more merciful, or kind, or considerate. It says, you would not have condemned the guiltless. Again, this is where the Pharisees condemned Christ's disciples. They forgot the purpose of the Sabbath. What did Christ say? He was Lord of the Sabbath, and He said, The Sabbath day was made for man. God made the Sabbath for us. Not as a burden, but a day that we could rejoice in. They had their own system of righteousness. Now, one thing we need to realize when it comes to religion, every human being can play a part.

What do I mean by playing a part? He can act out, being in a certain way. Does not everyone act a little better in public as a rule? You don't come here to services. Come in, all disheveled, kick the door open, get out of my way! I've had a tough week, and I don't want to talk to you. You come in and sit down somewhere. No, you don't act that way. You come in, you try to dress up as nicely as you can. You try to appear halfway decent, and you converse with people. Nothing wrong with that. Nobody wants a grudge to come out in public, and just be that type of an individual. That's not what we're talking about here. But people, we all tend to act one way in public, another way in private. The only difference is people see us in public. God sees us in private. Now, God sees us in public also, but He sees us, others see us, but in private you're by yourself. So, sometimes we will let down in private. We will think things, we will do things, we will save things, we will act in a certain way.

In so doing, we will go against what God says. Matthew 23 gives us a list of characteristics. Matthew 23 of what hypocrites are like.

Because, six or seven of these, it says, Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.

So, what are hypocrites like? Well, they put people out of the kingdom of God by their own example and teaching. They repel people. Brother, do we repel people when they come to church? A new person shows up in church. You know what should happen and what we're going to really work on happening. There should be a couple of greeters at the door. Somebody who opens the door. Say, Hi, my name is so-and-so, and we're glad to see you. Welcome to the Chattanooga congregation. Start talking to them. Engage them in conversation. Let them know where the meeting hall is. What time church starts. We have snacks afterwards. Please stay around and enjoy them. The restrooms are over here. Pass them on to somebody else. There should be somebody standing at this door. As they come through that door, hello. Give them a bulletin. Let me get you an usher, and the usher can help seat them. They come in and they're made to feel welcome. There are those who are there to help them and to guide them. We don't want to repel people. We want to attract people. We want to help them. Everyone of us here can be a part of that process. They minored in things important while they left the major things that they should be doing undone. They had external purity, but they were unclean inside. They were morally righteous before men, but they were full of lawlessness.

They boasted about the past, and yet they were not the right examples. So, brethren, we need to make sure that we are setting the right examples. The Pharisees are interesting. Let's go back here to chapter 23 again. You'll notice in verses 25 and 26 that the washing of cups would wash cups. You do make sure that they were clean outside. If you'll notice in Mark 7 and verse 4, Scripture that this could tie in with, Mark 7 and 4, Christ said this about the Pharisees, that when you come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They used to wash above the elbows. If they did, they wouldn't eat. There are many other things that you have received in whole, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Now, we're in the Old Testament. Does it say that you're to wash above your elbows, wash cups, and these types of things? Obviously, you want to eat out of a clean utensil. Would it not be foolish for someone when they clean their dishes to only clean the outside and leave the inside dirty? What if you went to somebody's house to visit, and you are admiring their beautiful china and their beautiful cups up in the china cabinet? Can I look at that? You look at it, and here's this beautiful cup. It sparkles. It's clean. You look inside. Here's some tomato juice, dried tomato juice, soup, a vegetable stuck over here, something else you can't identify, a dead bug. All of that is inside. You wouldn't want to use that to eat out of. It may look beautiful outwardly, but inwardly it's terrible. It's like the whitewashing sepulchres. They look good outside, but inside they're full of dead men's bones. Well, they did everything they did because they wanted to have a good reputation with men.

And yet, they did things outwardly, I mean inwardly, that were wrong. Jesus Christ gave the perfect formula to how to deal with this. He said, first of all, clean the inside. The inside is what's important. The outside will then come clean. Now, what He's saying is that you and I should clean ourselves inside, should we not? Think back when you first heard about the Sabbath day. If you didn't know anything about the Sabbath, you should keep the Sabbath. So, you read the booklet. You read the Scriptures. You study them. How should I keep the Sabbath? It's a rest day. I can't work on this day. If there's a church, I should attend church. I should study my Bible. I need to pray. You see all of these things. It's a day to rejoice in. A day of joy and happiness, if they're with you, to be with your family. So, you begin to repent before God. I haven't kept your Sabbath day. I'm sorry. You begin to change inside. You see what you should do. Guess what? That will be reflected externally, will it not? You will then go to your boss and say, I can't work on Saturday. You will maybe tell your friends, I can't go to the football game this Saturday. This is my Sabbath day. You will then try to find a local congregation. So, you will begin to do externally. But where does it come from? It comes from in here. It's locked in your mind now. You know what the Bible says. So, if you're going to be faithful to God, if you know God's extended mercy to you, He's willing to forgive you. You're going to try to live fairly and justly and equitably. Then what are you going to do? You're going to keep the Sabbath. See, they kept the Sabbath, but again, it was all for show. Everything they did was for show. They were hypocrites, and they did not have the right approach. So, Christ very clearly shows us in verse 23 that we are to keep God's law. But we're not to overlook the weightier matters of the law. The application, the more important matters of justice, mercy, and faith. That these are the foundations on which all of our action should flow. There's one other scripture in Amos 5, verse 24. One last scripture that I think summarizes the way the earth is eventually going to be when God's way of life is taught to all mankind. Amos 5, verse 24. Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. That's just a beautiful verse, poetically. It's a time coming when justice will run down like water. That could be compared to maybe a cloud burst. Water falling, and everywhere you look, there will be justice. That every human being will want to look after the good of his neighbor, will love his neighbor, want to serve his neighbor. How can I help you, neighbor? You will all be looking after one another and treating one another fairly. We will extend mercy to others. We will realize how merciful God is to us, and then we will extend mercy to others. We will be faithful. Our word will be our bond. We know that God is faithful to us. Then righteousness will be like a mighty stream. It's like a snowpack up in the mountain, and it begins to thaw. You know, here's a trickle coming down, a little stream, and another trickle. They begin to merge, and you've got a little stream. Then these little streams all merge. Now you've got a mighty, roaring river coming down off that hillside. So it will be with righteousness, that God's righteousness will flow out from him to all the earth. And it will be righteousness that's not pretending, not acting, but it will be righteousness that will come from within and flow outward. So, brethren, the theme of this sermon is, You and I need to practice the weightier matters of the Lord.

Thank you.