The Law Of Retribution
by Raymond Elliott(87)
I. INTRODUCTION:
a. On
b. She was convicted in 1983 in the pick ax murder of Jerry Lynn Dean, age 27, and Deborah Thornton, 32.
c. She was the first woman executed in
d. It was an emotional time when, in her last words, she expressed her love for her family and husband and apologized to her victims’ families. She said, “I hope God will give you peace with this.” “I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. I love all of you very much.” “I will see you all when you get there. I will wait for you.”
e. Mercy was requested for Karla Faye Tucker because she accepted the Lord while on death row. But mercy had been shown her for 15 years since she had committed the murders in 1983.
f. There was no mercy shown to her victims. The woman begged to die because of the suffering brought on her by the injuries incurred by the pick ax. This woman died in bed with a man not her husband. She was the mother of 2 children.
II. THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION IS BIBLICAL AND IS VERY ANCIENT.
a. Genesis 9:6 – “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.”
b. Exodus 21:23, 25 – “”But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, “burn for burn, wound for wound, strip for stripe.”
c. Hosea 8:7 – “They sow the wind, And reap the whirlwind.”
d. Psalms 137: 8 – “O daughter of
e. Psalms
III. A PERSON REAPS AS HE HAS SOWN REGARDLESS OF HIS INTENTIONS, OR, HIS LACK OF EXPECTATION REGARDING THE HARVEST.
a. Jacob, the supplanter, the deceiver, sowed deception, not really expecting to reap accordingly.
b. Genesis 27 – He deceived his father with the skin of a kid and many years later his sons deceived him in similar fashion in regards to Joseph (Genesis 37).
IV. A PERSON MAY RECEIVE FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND STILL RECEIVE RETRIBUTION FOR DEEDS DONE IN THIS LIFE.
a. The drunkard reaps broken health and a ruined marriage.
b. The drug addict has ruined his mind and his body.
c. The fornicator, sexual immoral person, has contacted AIDS VIRUS, diseases.
d. The murderer dies by execution or receives a life sentence in prison.
e. The embezzler has ruined his reputation and brought shame to his family.
f. David, king of
i. II Samuel
ii. II Samuel 12:10, 11 – “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.” Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house…”
g. The sorrows that David reaped in his lifetime:
i. The death of the child conceived in sin.
ii. Amnon raped his half-sister, Tamar.
iii. Absalom killed Amnon.
iv. Absalom rebelled against his father.
v. Absalom was killed by Joab.
h. Illustration: The son who was wicked and his father drove a nail into a tree in the backyard for every evil deed his son committed. When the son changed his way of life, the son removed a nail each time he did a good deed. Soon all the nails were removed from the tree and the son showed his father the tree. The father pointed out that the scars (holes) remained.
V. IN THIS LIFE THE INNOCENT OFTEN SUFFERS BECAUSE OF THE SINS OF OTHERS.
a. The drug addict whose family goes without food, clothing and often receives mental and bodily injury.
b. The drunk who kills innocent people on our highways.
c. Innocent civilians who suffer great loss of the physical and material things of life, the loss of freedom and the curse of war because of evil rulers like dictators, etc.
d. The terrorists who flew the planes into the
e. Nowhere is this truth better exemplified than in the death of the Son of God on the cross of
i. I Peter 2:21-24 - “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile n return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously –by whose stripes you were healed.”
VI. EVERY PERSON WILL REAP ETERNALLY AS THEY HAVE SOWN IN THIS LIFE.
a. Romans
b. Romans
c. Galatians 6: 7, 8 – “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
VII. A PERSON MAY, IN FACT, NOT REAP ALL THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS EVIL DEEDS DONE IN THIS WORLD, BUT HE WILL RECEIVE HIS REWARD AT THE JUDGMENT.
a. Romans
b. II Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
c. “God is a sure paymaster. He may not pay at the end of every week, or month, or year, but remember he pays in the end.” - Anne of
VIII. CONCLUSION:
“This was none of the Good Lord’s
Pleasure;
For the Spirit he sets in man is
Free;
But what comes after is measure
For measure
And not a God that afflicted
Thee.
As was the sowing so the reaping
Is now, and ever more shall be.
Thou are delivered to thine own
Keeping,
Only thyself hath afflicted thee.”
- Rudyard Kipling
Article submitted Thursday, May 21, 2009 & read 184 times.
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