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b'SERVICE LIVESTREAM (LINK)TEXT: Deuteronomy 32:3-4; Isaiah 1:17-20; Matthew 23:23\\n\\n\\n\\nWe are continuing today in a series called, \\u201cWhat is God like?\\u201d We are looking at a number of the characteristics of God over the course of about six weeks. Last week we looked at holiness using Isaiah\\u2019s vision of God seated on a throne, high and lifted up. The winged seraphim were singing \\u201cHoly, holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty; the earth is full of God\\u2019s glory.\\u201d (Isaiah 6:3) We talked about how an understanding or experience of God\\u2019s glory convicts us of our sinfulness and leads to confession of sin. And we saw the Good News of God\\u2019s mercy as God cleansed Isaiah from his sin. We stopped short of what came next: God calls Isaiah into service and Isaiah responds, \\u201cHere am I; send me!\\u201d And Isaiah himself becomes holy, set apart for this holy work God has called him to.\\n\\n\\n\\nWe are going to see a similar pattern today as we consider God being JUST. We first want to look at God\\u2019s justness or justice, but we will see that God also invites us to be a part of his justice, a theme not only stressed by the Old Testament prophets, but also by Jesus. And we\\u2019ll consider what that might look like for us.\\n\\n\\n\\nGod is Just\\n\\n\\n\\nLet\\u2019s begin with our question, \\u201cWhat is God like?\\u201d Our first text, used in our call to worship, is from Deuteronomy 32:3-4. It provides several descriptive words about God:\\n\\n\\n\\n3 \\u201cFor I proclaim the name of the Lord; Ascribe greatness to our God! 4 \\u201cThe Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.\\xa0\\n\\n\\n\\nLet\\u2019s focus particularly on verse 4, which says \\u201call God\\u2019s ways are just.\\u201d You may remember that Hebrew writers like parallelism. They like repeating things with synonyms (and sometimes antonyms). We have a case of that here. We are to praise God, the Rock, and why?\\n\\n\\n\\nHis work is perfect, for all his ways are just[He is] a God of faithfulness and without injustice[He is] righteous and upright\\n\\n\\n\\nThere are six words in bold and they all can be translated as something close to \\u2018just.\\u2019 This description of God is like a gemstone with six facets, each revealing an aspect of God\\u2019s justness. Let\\u2019s briefly look at each one:\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nPERFECT (Heb. tamim): complete, blameless, right\\n\\n\\n\\nJUST (Heb. mishpat): this is actually a noun meaning \\u2018judgment\\u2019 or \\u2018justice\\u2019; our translation has used the adjective \\u2018just\\u2019 for better English, but it literally reads \\u201cGod\\u2019s ways are justice\\u201d\\n\\n\\n\\nFAITHFUL (Heb. emunah): steadfastness, reliability, honesty, truth, faithfulness\\n\\n\\n\\nWITHOUT INJUSTICE (Heb en awel): without injustice, dishonesty, unrighteousness\\n\\n\\n\\nRIGHTEOUS (Heb. saddiq): just, in the right, righteous\\n\\n\\n\\nUPRIGHT (Heb. yasar): straight, level, smooth, right, correct\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nAre you getting the picture? God is all this and worthy of praise because of it. You can see that righteousness and justice are related \\u2013 God is right (righteous) and does the right thing (justice). God is also consistent, fair, truthful, and trustworthy. All of that makes up the just nature and the justice of God.\\n\\n\\n\\nTo that I\\u2019d add two reflections:\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat God says is right is not as simple as majority vote or prevalent custom, but is DEFINED by God\\u2019s character. That means that what is right is shaped by all the traits we will be studying: God\\u2019s holiness, justice, mercy, love, faithfulness, wisdom, and goodness (and more). This is what sometimes puts Jesus at odds with the Pharisees. They are rule-followers \\u2013 the letter of the Law \\u2013 but fail to see the spirit and purpose of the Law, to show compassion. We\\u2019ll look at that some more with the Matthew passage.\\n\\n\\n\\nIn general, if you find yourself working against God\\u2019s definition of what is right and wrong, you are the one that needs to change. It is possible (as with the Pharisees) that you or the person teaching you has read scripture wrongly, and that is worth examining, but if we truly believe God is all these things (holy, just, merciful, etc\\u2026), then our BEST course'