Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. New Geneva is a Presbyterian church in Idaho Falls, Idaho. And today, we want to present to you our Amble Through the Preamble to the Constitution. Our Amble Through the Preamble to the Constitution with Christ.

And we're going to take up our second purpose for government, which is to establish justice. Now, no document created by man so succinctly summarizes the six true purposes for government than does our own preamble to the Constitution. And those six true purposes of government, number one, to form a more perfect union, which we looked at last week, to establish justice, which we're taking up today. And then subsequent weeks, we're going to look at ensuring domestic tranquility, to provide for the common defense, to promote the general welfare, and then lastly, to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Well, our founding fathers wisely crafted our Constitution to meet the demands of these six purposes for government, all of which comport with biblical principles for government. Oh, they were students, our founders, of what they called the divine science. As government was known in those days, the divine science. The fundamental objects, Benjamin Franklin Morris would say. Benjamin Franklin Morris, named after Ben Franklin, of course, who was a 19th century historian.

And he says about the preamble to the Constitution and the Bible, he says, the fundamental objects of the Constitution are in perfect harmony with the revealed objects of the Christian religion. Then he goes on to enumerate the six purposes of government. In summary, he says, union, justice, peace, the general welfare, and the blessings of civil and religious liberty are the objects of Christianity and always secured. These are the six purposes of our government, always secured under its practical and beneficent reign. That is the practical and beneficent reign of Christianity.

That is why we assert that our amble through the preamble is with Christ, since he too is concerned with government every bit as much as he is with any other part of the Christian life. And consequently, so should we. Now, last week, we took up the first purpose for human government to form a more perfect union. We saw how the imperfect union under the Articles of Confederation drove the founders to call for a constitutional convention in 1787 to perfect that union by creating a stronger central government.

Forces in their day threatened to crash the unity of the new republic every bit as much as forces in our own day threatened to crash the unity of the United States. Then it was individual states stomping on the federal government so that it was virtually non-existent. But today, it's the federal government stomping on the individual states so that they are virtually indistinguishable from one another. We in the United States are rather divided, as we looked at last week, divided along racial and gender and social and economic and even immigrant lines, aren't we?

Instead of government striving to form a more perfect union, our government is striving to divide us along a most imperfect disunion. And then we saw that it was Christ, the only answer to the forces striving to divide us where Paul says, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. That is, there are no racial divides in Christ.

There is neither slave nor free. That is, there is no slavery under Christ at the foot of the cross. And there's no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Well, we will see that Christ is once more the only answer to our second purpose for government, that is, to establish justice. Oh, what a noble and exalted goal, to establish justice.

But first of all, what is justice? It may seem obvious at first, but not when you dig. Because for most Americans, a question like this, what is justice, only elicits blank stares. And the sound of crickets in verbal response, it is the chief prime directive, however, of a republic to establish justice, or any other form of government for that matter. And yet Christians do not know what justice is.

And they feel no weight of responsibility for knowing either. Well, one of the brief definitions I love is from the Roman legal jurist Cicero. And he defines justice as rendering to everyone his due. Justice renders to everyone his due, says Cicero. Very elegant, sweet, and simple definition.

Rendering to everyone what is his due. Now, it's very close to the biblical notion of justice, too. For example, Paul says in Romans, he, that is, God will render to each one according to his works. Render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. Unquote from the Apostle Paul. Rendering to each his due. Paul is very clear on this principle as well when he outlines the responsibility of the civil magistrate. Government.

The civil magistrate to whom we are to submit, he says, for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. That is, he will render justice to you, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

That is, he will render unto you judgment. Paul goes on to say he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Unquote. Justice. Rendering to everyone his due.

Civil government must do this as well. The prime directive of government is to render to everyone his due. That is justice. Reward for good behavior. Punishment for bad behavior.

And to this, our founding fathers aspired in the Constitution to establish justice. How we have abandoned this prime directive today, and how we need to return to it. Oh, dear listener, in America today, justice has gone a beggar, hasn't it? From top to bottom, evil men and women have one standard of justice for themselves, that is, the rich and the powerful, and another standard of justice for you and me. Oh, the hoi polloi, the people.

Oh, ponder with me for a minute. Just a few examples, dear listener. For example, where's justice for sailor Christian Saucier, who was thrown in jail for taking pictures on his cell phone, thrown in the Navy brig, for taking pictures on his cell phone of his workstation on a submarine. And it was a classified area. Yet Hillary Clinton used her own private server to store thousands of classified documents when she was Secretary of State, without so much as a slap on the wrist.

Two standards of justice. Where is justice for conservative journalist Dinesh D'Souza, for example, who mistakenly mishandled $20,000. That's a lot of money to you and me, but it's peanuts to people like Nancy Pelosi. Mistakenly mishandled $20,000 in campaign contributions for a friend, and he was convicted of a felony and thrown into jail. Many consider him a political prisoner for making a film critical of then-President Obama.

Well, this was in contrast to the $84 million in illegal campaign contributions that the Hillary Clinton campaign received in 2016, and this has been asserted and documented by the Federal Election Commission. This without so much as a ripple in the waters of justice. Where to is justice for Kate Steinle and her father? After illegal alien Garcia Zarate shot Kate Steinle dead in the back on a pier in San Francisco, and he was acquitted then later by a progressive politically correct jury in that very same town.

Well, these are just several recent examples that come to mind that illustrate for us how true biblical justice no longer exists in the upper echelons of our nation. This says nothing to those examples I've just given you say nothing of the farce of justice that's being played out before our eyes as the deep state deliberately rigs a crime of process against President Trump in order to impeach him. Oh, this is what's happening. It's clear to all those with eyes.

Criminal elements who should be in jail themselves in the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, these criminal elements are executing what Andrew McCabe labeled their insurance policy. in case Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. That is, their policy would be frame a story of Russian collusion around Donald Trump's neck in order to impeach him. Now, this plan is being spearheaded by special persecutor Robert Mueller and his team of goons.

When history finally chronicles our age, when history finally chronicles Robert Mueller and his team of goons crimes and those of his fellow demons like former FBI director James Comey or Rod Rosenstein or Hillary Clinton, to name just a few of these cohorts, well, posterity will marvel at us, at the gullibility of the American people and our willingness to have justice subverted in this fashion. Oh, now is the time, dear listener, to raise your voice on this issue. We are responsible in part for establishing justice in the land, as our founders put it in the preamble to the Constitution.

The entire Constitution is framed and pitched so that we might more easily establish justice by having power devolved, for instance, into three different branches so that no one branch of government holds complete power. We are responsible. We, the people, need to establish justice, as the preamble puts it. Raise your voice on this issue. Don't let it slide, dear listener.

Now, as our founders understood and then ensconced in the preamble to the Constitution, a prime directive of government is to establish justice. Without justice, a nation cannot live in liberty. As Benjamin Rush, one of our founders, puts it, where there is no law, there is no liberty. How true it is. How prescient they were in seeing this.

Our founding fathers knew that where there is no law, that is where there is no justice, there is no liberty, dear listener. What they also understood was that in Cicero's simple, elegant definition of justice, that is, the rendering to everyone his due, is implied a standard for the rendering of that which is due. This is crucial because rendering to everyone his due implies that there is a standard by which you met out justice, by which you met out reward for good behavior and punishment for bad behavior. It's crucial. By what standard will you apply justice?

Oh, dear listener, will it be the Code of Hammurabi, for example, the old Babylonian Code, which had two tiers of justice built in? Or perhaps it was Plato's Republic. Oh, no, no, no, not Plato's Republic, because he had the idea that there would be a skilled elite at the very top that would be the rulers of the Republic, and everybody else would languish at the bottom. So, no, we do not want to consult the Code of Hammurabi or Plato's Republic.

Our founders were avid students of the divine science of government, and they combed the achievements of the past, and they took the best of the West, if we can put it that way, and they founded that standard for justice squarely upon what? Upon what do you think? Of course, it was the Bible, yes. The principles of justice must be derived from the Bible. For example, in 1982 Congress, in looking back over our history, they set aside 1983 as the year of the Bible, and in that declaration, they noted these facts from our history.

For example, and I quote then from this declaration, the Bible, as the Word of God, has made a unique contribution in shaping the United States as a distinctive and blessed nation and people. That same declaration goes on to say about the Bible and our country, and I quote, biblical teachings inspired concepts of civil government that are contained in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States. Yes, one of those biblical inspired teachings of civil government is justice. And then, they also cite Andrew Jackson, who said this about the Bible. He said, the Bible is the rock on which our republic rests, unquote.

Andrew Jackson. Well, dear listener, I just want to remind you that you're listening to Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls, Idaho. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for feedback or perhaps some more information at area code 208-523-0196. And you can also consult our websites.

We have two of them. One, our regular church website, which is all one word, newgenevaopc.org. And here you can get more information about our church. Maybe hear some sermons or some other lessons, read some articles we've got posted there. Or perhaps you would like to comb our previous radio messages.

We have a distinctive website just for that purpose. That website. Now get your pencil handy because it's, this is a Latin term, omnisprotestas.org. Let me spell that for you. O-M-N-I-S-P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S.org.

Omnisprotestas.org. And there you'll find an entire catalog of past messages going years back. Well, let's continue then with our amble through the preamble as we are looking at Christ and the establishment of justice, which our constitution does. So then if, as we mentioned, citing Andrew Jackson, if the Bible is the rock on which our republic rests, well, then it is necessary for knowing justice. The Bible is necessary for knowing what justice is.

We know, for example, from the Bible that God himself is just in his very essence. One of his attributes is that of just being a just God. Deuteronomy 32, for example, says, the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. So we know from the Bible that God is the standard of justice because he is just in his very essence.

And we also know that as creatures made in his image, he demands that we practice justice as well. He says in Deuteronomy, for example, justice and only justice you shall follow that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Justice and only justice you shall follow. We are expected to be just as well, dear listener. And then also biblical justice was to be impartial.

That's another quality of justice for the nations as well. To be impartial, our justice must be. He says in Leviticus, for example, you shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor, unquote. Justice is to be impartial.

That's a biblical principle. Also, our notion of a speedy trial and a speedy administration of a sentence is also founded on biblical principle. Solomon says this in Ecclesiastes chapter eight. He says, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil, unquote. That's our tendency, isn't it?

If sentence against a crime is delayed, we are tempted to do more evil. Behold, do you see how and why our founders sought to establish justice? It is a biblical imperative for human government. So, dear Christian, this is your sacred obligation as a Christian to establish justice in the land. You, as a Christian, cannot leave this to others.

Leave it to the pagan and you'll get what we have now. That is fallen, corrupt, pagan injustice. Where, if we can kind of quote the Bible, injustice is done in court and judges do defer to the great and they grind the face of the poor, as the Bible puts it, as the prophets chide Israel for doing. But we, too, Christians, have abdicated our responsibilities and we have left the field of battle to evil pagan victors.

Now, if you're listening to this broadcast and you're excluding in your mind, putting quotation marks around and parentheses around this idea, if you think that we Christians now should not soil the garments of the gospel with politics and government, well, I submit to you, then you have half a gospel. You have half a gospel that's been shorn of the necessity of sanctification.

Because Paul says, for example, in your sanctification, he says in Philippians chapter four, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Whatever is just, including justice in government, dear listener. And we are not only to think about these things, but think so as to do. That's always the emphasis on thinking in the government is in the Bible, excuse me, is that we think so as to do.

We are, all of us, for example, still under the civil covenant that was first cut with our father Noah back in Genesis chapter nine, that first established in a rudimentary fashion, human government. That civil covenant in Genesis chapter nine obligates all men, all descendants of Noah to seek justice and conscientiously ensure that human government be erected and function justly. Now I have an entire lesson on this. The idea of the civil covenant found in Genesis chapter nine, where indeed the rainbow is the sign of that covenant. It's not a silly sentimental feeling kind of thing that describes genders.

No, it is the sign of the civil covenant. And you can consult that lesson at our website, omnispotestas.org. Well, additionally, what is ever so easy to glide right over is also Jesus' commitment to justice, entire justice, not just in your narrow little walk of sanctification. No. Citing the prophets, for example, the gospels proclaim Jesus' mission of justice.

Matthew 12 says, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. That is part of Jesus' mission to proclaim justice to the Gentiles. And Jesus is also on a mission of justice. And so should we.

Matthew says, quoting the prophets again, a bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory. And Christ is about that now, bringing justice to complete victory. When he returns, it will be in fullness of victory. Justice will be, but he is in the process of doing it right now. And you are one of his instruments of justice, if you will listen, dear listener.

And then like his father, Jesus hated injustice too. He chides the Pharisees, for example. He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others, unquote. Oh, here in Matthew 23, Jesus is alluding to that classic summary of what obedience to the Torah, the entire law and prophets, what it looks like.

And there Micah in chapter six, verse eight, summarizes it. He says, he has told you, old man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Oh, what a beautiful verse, isn't it worth memorizing. He's told you, old man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, establish justice as our founders would put it, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Now, lest you think that we are no longer under the Old Testament and its obsolete laws, as so many try to dismiss and push aside the Old Testament, let me remind you of what Jesus said. He said, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called Oh, these principles of the law from the Old Testament include justice, do justice, only justice in the land. This is the exhortation of the law, and we are responsible for doing it. We Christians, we the church, the blame for a Luciferian reign of injustice in our land today must be laid at the foot of the church. The church has absented herself from the public square with a false gospel of non-involvement and isolation. May I remind you, as goes the church, so goes the nation.

We can lay the responsibility for this reign of injustice in our land at the foot of the church. Consequently, dear listener, labor for justice in the land. We are laid with this responsibility in the gospel, in our life of sanctification. Our life of sanctification should begin within the depths of our heart and mind, and they should extend to all of our behavior and our thoughts and our feelings should be conquered by King Jesus. And then our sanctification should extend to our immediate relationships with our spouses and our children, and then extend from there to our neighbors and our workmates.

Should it stop at the government courthouse? Should it stop at the capital in your city or in your state or in our federal government for that matter? No, of course not. We need to sanctify all the realms of creation. That is what we are in process of doing.

So labor for this justice in the land, your listener. Do not fritter away our constitutional heritage because that is part of our heritage. Is it not? One of the purposes of government that our founders clearly understood was that we are to establish justice in the land. That is, we are to render to each his due, as Cicero puts it.

And the basis for rendering that due is the Bible, because there is no book which explains justice like it, and we are to follow it then. So don't fritter away your constitutional heritage, but take the bull by the horns, live out justice in your own life, and then live out justice. Make sure it is ensured in the government as you vote, as you write letters, as perhaps you run for office yourself, as you exhort, as you inculcate, as you teach. Establish justice in the land. Well, this has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

We are located in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and we meet for holy worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday. We are located at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. We encourage you to come and visit us because, indeed, many of you have been in the shadows. You've been on the outskirts of our church for many, many years, perhaps some of you. And we just encourage you to cross our threshold, come and visit us, see who we are, meet us in person.

We look forward to that. And if you want, for more information, you can call us at area code 208-523-0196 for information or feedback. Give us some feedback if you want. Area code 208-523-0196. And you can check out our websites as well.

We have two of them. Our regular church website, newgenevaopc.org. One word, newgenevaopc.org. Or you can check out our website that has cataloged there our past radio messages, many of them, a couple of years back going. And that website is omnisprotestas.org.

omnis-potestas.org. Omnisprotestas.org. Omnis-potestas.org. And once again, you can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196.