If you can turn to Hebrews, and I know some of you guys who are on the Facebook, you saw me changing the name of the title of the sermon this morning, "No Justice, No Peace." And I know some of you probably saw that change and thought, "Finally, he's addressing what's going on." Okay, and some of you guys may have said that, and maybe some of you look at this symbol of this fist, and that symbol alone kind of triggers bad thoughts.

And so, what is going on? Well, all over the country, maybe even all over the world, right now people are protesting and saying, "No justice, no peace." And that little phrase is something that's been around for many decades. And I actually did a study to find out where it started, and no one knows for sure.

Some people think that it started maybe during the Civil Rights Movement in the '60s. Some people think that it may have started sometime in the '70s after the Vietnam War during the protest at "No Justice, No Peace." We don't know exactly where it started, but what we do know is that the idea behind "No Justice, No Peace" is rooted in Scripture.

In fact, the very foundations upon the gospel in which we celebrate and sing about is at the core, "No Justice, No Peace." In fact, all throughout the Old Testament, God is establishing the necessity of justice. And as the Jews were looking for the shalom, for peace, and they would greet each other for peace, God was establishing that the only way that peace was going to come about is if God brings back justice, righteousness.

So at the core of the gospel message is this message, "There is no justice, there is no peace." But here's our dilemma. Who's justice? And what kind of peace are we looking for? If we look from the black communities, and again, obviously black community are not the only people who experience racism.

You don't have to be a particular race to know what racism is. You can be a Caucasian in America and experience racism. But the black community in particular, and I think it's important for us to acknowledge their pain. No other group of people, yes, there are Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, there are Native Americans, and various other groups of people who have experienced tremendous racism.

But to African Americans, their history is slavery. They were brought here by force hundreds of years ago with forced labor. And so even though that was many, many generations ago, racism was blatant even up to the 1960s. And so you have a community of people where there is deep-rooted bitterness and even hatred that is underlying what they remember, what their history is.

So to simply say to get over it is not only too simplistic, but is highly insensitive. They are more sensitive to what seems to be racism. Even if objectively we may look at it and say, "How is that racism?" They are more sensitive to racism, understandably. Just like if somebody was abused, they are more sensitive to abuse.

If somebody has grown up in an abusive home, and what may seem like abuse, they are going to, whenever that gets triggered, their emotions get triggered, all of their past experiences, all their grandparents, and all their past history are all going to come into play in how they view that particular situation.

In fact, I remember, you know, like I told you, you know, like I have personal experience in racism, but I had a friend back in junior high school, and we went to school in the valley. He was so sensitive to racism because he didn't, I came to the United States when I was really young, so my, you know, English was fine, but he came a little bit later.

He came almost at the end of elementary school, so he had a thick accent. And so, you know, obviously people targeted him, "You dumb chink, dumb chink," but he was not a small guy like me, he was a big guy. And so he was so hypersensitive. I remember walking down the hall one time, and we heard something at the end of the hall, and he went running, and then he started railing on some kid, and I had to pull him off, and we were walking out of school, and I said, "What happened?" He said, he said something about ching chong something, and he heard it at the end of the hallway, and I don't even know if that's what actually happened.

He may have dropped something, he may have made it sound like ching chong or something, but he was so sensitive. Something that sounded like racism, he ran over there, because he was like constantly walking in rage. So to a certain extent, it's understandable that there is hypersensitivity, and I think it is insensitive and not right for us to not to acknowledge that, that there is that.

And the anger toward the politicians in particular, and to the police, because they represent the power structure, and that's where they've experienced racism. Even if it's not personal, at least historically. So for us to completely nullify that, again, it's beyond insensitive, and I think that's something that Christians should be sensitive about and pay attention to.

But we also need to acknowledge from the other point of view. Our police officers, right now there's a movement to defund the police, the police are evil. Even if you're a police officer, and you have taken an oath to serve and to protect, and your job is to go out there and risk your health and your life to help other people, and because of a few acts of certain police officers, a small percentage of them, have abused their power, that the hatred going toward the police also seems very racist.

A broad stroke toward every officer that has been trying to do their job. In fact, think about this perspective. Not that many years ago, after 9/11, the two planes hit the Twin Towers, while thousands of people were running away from that building because of danger, police officers and firemen ran toward those buildings, and hundreds of them, in the context of trying to save these lives, lost their lives when those buildings crumbled.

Some of you guys may not remember, you might have been too young, but for several years after that, people would buy NYPD and NYF, right, fire department, uniforms and hats to celebrate the bravery of our police officers, first responders. They were the heroes of our society not that many years ago, because they literally, their job is a calling to risk their lives, give their lives for the safety of other people.

So to be in that situation, and then just a few years later, to be demonized, saying that they are all racist, you can understand why it is very difficult for them to handle. And you have the police officers and the people who are deeply hurt by the history of this country standing side by side, pushing each other, and why there is animosity in these demonstrations, is understandable.

Even the protesting of the flag, you can see how the black community are taking the knee to protest what they view as injustice. And you can see the response from that, in particular from veterans who went out to war, and for them, it's not just a symbol. They lost their friends, people that they loved, that they walked with, that they are going to remember for the rest of their lives.

So to them, disrespecting the flag is disrespecting their friend. So you can imagine why there is an extreme response from kneeling from that community. And we can also understand the heart behind why they are maybe protesting. Again, whether you agree or don't agree, we can understand the heart behind that.

That slogan, "No justice, no peace," it is rooted in the Bible. But how do you practice this? Whose justice? Because what is justice to one community may be injustice to another community. What may seem like justice to one group can easily be interpreted as injustice in another group. So is justice in community simply based upon who has the power?

So if the police and the government has power, they can do whatever they want and whatever they think is justice and treat people any way they want because they have the power and whatever they view as justice. If we have enough rioting and enough force and get enough people to get behind these protests and they can strong-arm people and even get rid of the police station, is that justice?

Whoever has power, how do we practice this? If it is at the root of the gospel that you and I profess and sing and believe in, how do we practice something that is so difficult to practice? You know, I didn't change my sermon today. It just happened that the topic of the sermon, the text that we're looking at today, tells us that Jesus Christ is the King of righteousness and King of peace.

You know, what's interesting is the word for righteousness, dikaios, in other parts of the Bible is translated justice. It is the same word. So in other words, this text tells us that Jesus is the King of justice and Jesus is the King of peace. So again, I didn't jump into this text.

It just happened in God's sovereignty we landed on this text. Hebrews chapter 7, 2B, this is what it says. By the translation of His name, King of righteousness, Melchizedek, Melchi means the King, Zedek, righteousness or justice. His name means King of justice and then also King of Salem. Salem is the Hebrew version of that is Shalom.

Many people think that Salem is the old ancient name of Jerusalem, Jerusalem meaning city, Shalom meaning peace. So He's the King of righteousness and the King of peace. But if you notice here, the author, if you don't pay attention, there's a subtle but very important thing that he says here.

By the translation of His name, King of righteousness and then also King of Salem, King of peace. He puts that in order. In other words, that's no different than saying no justice, no peace because peace comes from righteousness. Righteousness first and then peace. If we don't establish righteousness, there can be no peace because peace without righteousness is anarchy.

Righteousness without peace is fascism. Whoever has the power does whatever they want. The whole purpose of why we study the Bible, what the gospel is, why Jesus came and died and was resurrected and established His new kingdom is so that by establishing righteousness, by establishing justice, that He was going to bring peace.

In Psalm 85, 9 through 10, it says, "Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land, loving kindness and truth met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." In description of the kingdom that Christ was going to bring, He says that righteousness and peace are going to have perfect harmony.

They're going to kiss each other. See, at the root of who Jesus is, King of justice, King of righteousness. See, it is very, very difficult for us to practice justice because for four reasons. One, the way we see justice, we see it from our point of view. And there's no human being that is not biased that way.

Every single person is biased that way. The longer that I live, the more I become biased because of my past experience. Certain things that I've experienced, certain things that I've read, it causes me to be biased because when I run into somebody or I get into a certain situation, I remember the previous situation.

I remember the previous experience. And so I don't start neutral. I start with wherever I left off. And every single human being is biased to a certain degree. You know, when you're a child, if you've raised children or every single one of us were children at one point, and I think you all know what I'm talking about.

You hear the term, it's not fair. What is fair? Usually, what we consider fair really starts with us. I remember when our kids were young, you know, in order to take them to Disneyland, and again, you guys know how much I love being at Disneyland. We did it for the kids.

Spent all day sacrificing, literally carrying our cross for the kids. And at the end of the day, we're going home thinking, oh, let's get some Jamba juice, you know, and we stop over, get some Jamba juice. But then they didn't get quite the flavor that they wanted, or we had to split the cup in half, and the other kid got a little bit more than the other.

And the rest of the ride from Jamba juice home was, it's not fair. Now, as a parent, I want to pull over and get everybody to leave and walk home, okay? I've literally, you know, spent all day in the hot sun, paying money I didn't want to pay, in a place I didn't want to be.

Mickey Mouse in my face all day long. And because you didn't get what you wanted, it's not fair. Now, we're not kids. We're a lot more sophisticated than that. But we say that in our hearts all the time. When we don't get what we want, God doesn't answer our prayers, or when people say certain things, we say in our hearts, it's not fair.

I've heard a lot of people say, "I didn't get a stimulus check." Maybe, what happened? What did you do to earn that stimulus check? But I've heard a lot of people say, "It's not fair." You know, Jesus has a parable about that in the Bible, in Matthew chapter 20, 1 through 16, the parable of the laborers, where he promised a certain amount of money, but certain people went in at different parts of the day, and then a guy got it at the very last hour, and he got paid the same thing.

And the rest of the workers who worked all day say, "What? It's not fair." It wasn't because God was unjust. Because God promised them, and they're getting what they were promised, but the other people got better. See, our idea of justice usually starts with us. How does it benefit us?

And so because it starts with us, it's always from our perspective, it's very difficult for us to really come down with what we think is just. Because what we think is just is unjust from another person's perspective. So how do we do that? In Judges chapter 21, verse 25, during the period of Judges, if you've read that text, he said that the reason why they kept on falling into sin cycle over and over again, he says, "In those days, there were no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Notice here, they didn't say everyone did what was wrong in their own eyes, everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes.

What they thought was righteous, what they thought was just. And that's what kept on causing this problem, this cycle, because there was no king. Well the Bible tells us that Christ comes in the order of Melchizedek, and there's only one king of righteousness. And until he is established as king, we have a tendency, all of us, to do what is right in our own eyes.

And what we think is right in our own eyes would be unrighteous in someone else's eyes, and eventually you're going to meet each other. In your pursuit of justice from your perspective, you're going to meet somebody else in pursuit of justice in their perspective, and you're going to clash, and the result is going to be whoever has the biggest gun is going to win.

And that's where war comes from. Two countries seeking justice in their own eyes, and whoever has the biggest guns ends up determining what is just. The second reason why it is difficult for us, and only Christ can be the king of righteousness, king of justice, our idea of justice keeps changing.

What was just 30 years ago is no longer just today. What was just 100 years ago is no longer just today. I remember right after 9/11, the whole country was outraged, Republicans and Democrats. And for the first time, I saw the Republicans and Democrats standing side by side with their arms linked saying, "We're going to go to war.

We cannot let them attack our family and children in our land." And so they all universally, not just President Bush, the Democrats, Republicans said, "We are united. We are not divided." They went to war. Since then, years have passed, and many anti-war movements have come in, and now these same politicians who at that time, in order to get elected and stay elected, voted for the war, now they're backtracking saying that was a mistake, because what was right then is no longer right today.

Even in the church, if we're not careful, if our righteousness is not grounded in Christ and His word, what was acceptable 30 years ago is no longer acceptable today. What wasn't acceptable 30 years ago is no longer acceptable today. Our tendency is that we continue to change. There is no such thing as relative truth.

In order for justice to be true justice, it has to be justice in every generation. It can't be just to you and then unjust to that person, because in the context of practicing justice, you're going to practice injustice with somebody else. You have, truth has to be immovable. Truth cannot be flexible.

You cannot know anything unless you have truth. The Bible uses the term cubit to describe a size of something, 10 cubit, 15 cubit. If you've never heard that term or somebody never explained to you the size of what a cubit is, you probably have no idea. A cubit could be a mile.

A cubit could be a weight. Cubit could be half a mile. You don't know. The only way that we know what a cubit is, is we compare it with something that we know to be true, that it doesn't change. A cubit usually is a measure between someone's arm and his hands, his palms.

So in the average, it's about 12 inches, about a foot. So when the Bible says it's a cubit of something, it's about a foot of something. 20 cubits would be 20 foot, something, right? But we know what it is because we're able to compare with something that is consistent.

If a cubit is something to you and it's something to you and it's different to him and it's different today and different tomorrow, you can never know what a cubit is. You can't practice justice if what justice looks like is different today and is different tomorrow. It's different to this person, but it's different to that person.

To the rich, justice looks like this. To the poor, justice looks like this. So you and I are not able to practice perfect justice because it is constantly changing when it is based upon ourselves. The Isaiah 40 verse 8, it says, "The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God stands forever." There's only one thing that stands consistent, generation after generation.

The truth is the truth. Whether you are white, black, Asian, Hispanic, it doesn't matter. It is the truth. And so he says, "The king of righteousness is Christ." The king of justice is Christ. And if Christ is not king, there is no justice because justice cannot be relative. Thirdly, it's hard for us to practice justice because we lack knowledge.

Right now, you have to be very, very careful how you consume information. And it is not only true today, it is true all the time. I remember one of the best things that I learned while I was in seminary or while I was taking Bible class, we were learning Western civilization.

And our professor gave us an assignment and he said, "All your resources has to be first-hand resources." For those of you who don't know what first-hand resources is, you have to go to the original person who wrote it. And so I said, "Well, how do I even do that?" So he said, he told us where these resources are and we have to go to certain seminaries and we have to go to Cal State, we have to go to UC.

And if you go to the dungeon, usually people don't read this stuff because a lot of times it's not translated. Or if it is translated, it's very difficult to read and it's volumes and volumes. So it's not a condensed version. It's just original writing of whoever wrote it. So we were learning about Western civilization.

So I had to go dig up books in the dungeon that they probably haven't been touched for decades. And only people like us who are learning how to do research would ever even go look for these books. And I remember doing research about certain particular period of history. And the point that he was trying to make is how much of the history books are their interpretation of what they read.

So you can have one person write about George Washington as the godliest man on earth and you can have another person writing about George Washington and he was a reprobate. Now which is true. So he was teaching us how to go to the original source. So all information, not just media, all information come through people who have sinful agendas because they are looking at things from their purpose.

Whether they are doing it deliberately, whether they are doing it because they are blind, all information we have to be careful. We especially now, because of how fast the information spreads, we've all seen videos of cops pushing people. Oh, that's another sign of racism. And then we see the larger context of somebody trying to swing a bat at him or a molotov cocktail and that part is not shown.

They only show you that part where he pushed and they said, "Oh my gosh, they didn't show the whole context." And you can see that in the other. You can see a police officer arresting that person and they say, "Hey, this guy was resisting arrest and he was doing all this stuff." When you see the larger context, that wasn't the case.

He wasn't resisting the arrest. And there was abuse. So we have to be very careful how we consume information because we need to have perfect knowledge to be able to practice that. But the problem is, even if we knew all the context, you and I are not omniscient. Job, if you remember, what humanly speaking has experienced tremendous injustice because he was righteous, he was targeted.

He loses his health, his children, his wealth, even his friends come there accusing him, all this happened because you did something wrong. There's three cycles of this in the book of Job. And finally, Job cracks. He was standing strong until the end and he cracks and he says, "God, why are you allowing this to happen?

I'm a righteous man. Why did you do this to me?" And he begins to complain and then God shows up to speak to him in Job chapter 38, 2-5. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? In other words, Job, you have no idea what's going on.

Now gird up your loins like a man and I will ask you and you instruct me since you are trying to say that you are being unjust. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who set its measurements since you know or who stretched the line on it?

In other words, do you know who you are? And do you know who you are? Question me. In Job chapter 40, verse 1 and 2, after three chapters of God putting him in his place that you don't have the knowledge to be able to know what is right and what is wrong.

And then he says, chapter 40, verse 1 and 2, "Then the Lord said to Job, 'Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?'" In other words, it's not fair. "Let him who reproves God answer it. God not only knows all things, He knows us. Not only does He know all the information in Psalm 139, 2-4, 'You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar.

You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all.' Not only does He know all information because He's the creator, He says He already knows what's in our heart.

If there really is racism or not, He already knows what's crooked. He already knows our intention even before we actually even do it. See, you and I lack knowledge. We lack context. Do you have that picture? I don't know. I think I might have missed it. You do? Okay, can you put that up?

See that picture? Remember that? Remember this? What color is that? Some of you guys may remember because I saw it all over your Facebook. Some people see it as blue and black. Some people see it as white and gold, right? Okay, this picture, I don't know if this represents that properly, but this was a big thing on the internet because it's actually, I guess for most people, they see it blue and gold and a lot of people saw it as white.

No, blue and black, a lot of people saw it as white and gold and they were fighting each other. You guys remember this? Am I the only one that has internet? Okay. Yeah, so they're looking at this and they were, because absolutely adamant. How do you know what is true?

If enough people say it's black and blue, does it become black and blue? What if they actually see white and gold? You and I don't have the ability to make that final judgment. Only God knows. Not only does God know the truth, only God knows our heart. But fourth and most importantly, this is what you and I need to remember.

We are sinful. So our perspective will always be sinful. Even the way that we see justice is sinful. In Romans 3, 10 through 12, it says, "There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become useless.

There is none who does good. There is not even one." Now some people may look at that and say, "That's a hyperbole. That can't be true. Nobody seeks God, not even one. Everybody has turned aside. Together they have become useless. Clearly, there has to be hyperbole. This can't be true.

Either he is just overblowing the state of mankind or if he is actually telling the truth, there's not a single person who is exempt from this. And because Satan and sin has tainted not only our heart but our sight and our mind, our ability to even reason has been tainted by sin.

And that is the starting point of salvation when we recognize that we have sinned and that that sin has tainted all that I am. So repentance isn't just, "I repent because I did this act. I repent because I did that." Repentance is recognizing that I don't have the ability to know what is right and wrong.

I don't just repent about an act. I repent of who I am. It's our sin that causes us to see things in certain perspective. And until we humble ourselves before the throne, when we say, "No justice, no peace," if we're not careful, you can do more damage than good.

Hurt people have a tendency to hurt other people. True? Hurt people have a tendency to hurt other people. But here's the problem. Who's in here that hasn't been hurt? I can tell you in 30 plus years that I've been in ministry and counseling people, I haven't met a single person, not one, who doesn't have deep pain.

Whether it was somebody did something to them or something happened in their life or coming from their families or even just from their own sins, there's not a single person that I've ever met that isn't hurt. And so our natural tendency for those who are hurt is to hurt other people.

You know, the most dangerous people are not the people who are doing wrong and they know it's wrong. Those most dangerous people are people who think they're right. They're unrighteous in carrying out what they think is justice. Because they feel it's right, because we feel it's right, that even the way we do it, even if it's wrong, because we're on the right, it justifies it.

Our sinfulness causes us to make it difficult for us to carry out justice. So here's what the gospel says. Jesus Christ comes in the office of Melchizedek. He's the king of justice. And only when justice is carried out by the king, we can have true peace. Remember, if you look at the Jewish community, nobody suffered more than the Jewish people, all the way up to modern history.

If you look at their history, they started out in slavery. For hundreds of years, they were oppressed by the Egyptians. And the reason why they started was because God heard their oppression and crying out, and he answered their prayer and he delivered them. And then they wandered down the desert, they had to fight and scrap just to get into the promised land.

But a few years later, the Assyrians come in and brutalizes them, forced them into labor, take all the precious things and all the precious people, and they take them into bondage and they're living in bondage. And after that, the Babylonians come and they enslave them. After that, the Persians come and they're a little bit more gracious, but for the most part they're living under dominion.

After the Persians come, it came the Greeks and Greeks dominated them. And after the Greeks came, the Romans came and then the Romans dominated them. And I don't have to tell you about the modern history. We know about the Holocaust, but there's almost 2000 years in between of suffering.

In fact, you can take a whole class if you go to the university of just the suffering of the Jewish people. But at the time of Christ, when Jesus was telling his people, "When you get slapped on one cheek, turn the other cheek," do you know why Jesus said that?

Because they were getting slapped. Jesus said to the Jewish people, "If they tell you to walk a mile, walk a second mile." That wasn't a random statement. There was actually a Roman law that said, even if you're a pregnant woman, if you were a Jew, a Roman soldier carrying all of his equipment got tired and he said, "I need you to carry this." By law, they had to carry it a mile.

By law. So you can imagine the animosity and the hatred that they had that was built up from generation to generation. If any group of people that was oppressed, it was the Jewish people. So you can understand why they wanted a militant Messiah. They wanted the Messiah to come and finally overthrow their enemies.

Because they were living injustice. They felt this injustice day after day. But remember when Jesus is going into Jerusalem, he wept. Remember why he wept? He wept because he said, "Only if you knew today what would bring true peace. But because you did not recognize the King of Justice, you will not see this peace." And he wept.

And it was finally time for him to go to the cross when he was offered up with Barabbas. They rejected him. And it was not by accident that Barabbas was a zealot who was a militant Jew who wanted to overthrow their enemies with his knife. They wanted to overthrow.

And so they wanted Jesus to join the revolution. And when he would not and he gave up his life and he surrendered, what did they say? We'd rather have Barabbas. We want somebody who's going to bring justice the way we want justice. And so they crucified him. Because he would not join the revolution.

Because the peace that he was going to bring did not look anything like they were expecting. In Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1 and 4, it says, "Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations." If we stop right there, you would think that they were right to wait for the Messiah, the King, to overthrow.

Because if any group of people would have been shouting in their souls, "No justice, no peace." We want Shalom. And we want a Messiah that's going to come and bring justice. But this messianic promise doesn't end in verse 1. It goes in verse 2. It says, "He will not cry out or raise his voice." He's talking about how he's going to bring his justice.

"He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice." See, that part in verse 2 and 3 doesn't fit what we think justice is.

He came and he offered his life. The only just human being, the only righteous being that has ever lived on this earth, the only one who had the right to say, "No justice, no peace." Any person who walked this earth who could justly say, "No justice, no peace," absorbed our sins.

And as it says in 1 Peter 3, 18, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, to adjust for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having put forth to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit." The greatest injustice on earth was experienced by Christ, the only just.

The just for the unjust. You know, people are saying, "Why don't we march?" I don't have any problem with marching. If you see racism, you should call it out. If something is wrong, we should not stay silent. What I've heard people say is, "All we're going to do, preach the gospel." And I hear some people say that, even from pastors, I hear people saying that.

Do you not realize that that's why we preach the gospel in the first place? Social justice and the gospel are not two separate things. We preach the gospel because the gospel is the only answer to racism. The Jews want signs, the Greek want wisdom. And the reason why they want signs and they want wisdom is because that's what they think power is.

But Paul says, "We preach Christ crucified." Foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Do you believe this? Especially now, as the world is chanting, because they think they know the answer. As Christians, whose eyes have been opened to the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, justice can only be found when Christ is established as King.

And true peace, true shalom, will only come to us by the grace, by the blood and the body broken for us.