Deut 25:1-3, "If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. He may beat him forty times but no more, lest he beat him with many more stripes than these, and your brother be degraded in your eyes. 
This morning we have a most interesting aspect of the Lord revealed in the instructions that He put before His people. Notice that the Lord kept the dignity of even the guilty in the above scenario in place. There would be the proper punishment meted out in accordance with justice rendered, but not to the point that the brother, and please note the use of that word, brother be degraded in the eyes of the community. 
This is most especially the heart of the Lord God Almighty with respect to His Chosen Nation. They were to be holy as He is Holy. They were to treat one another with respect and with care as has been emphasized over and over again in our readings throughout Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. 
As is evident in the course of our reading of just this chapter, the content is dealing with brother looking out for the interests of brother. From the maintaining of the brother’s name in the Promised Land to the financial treatment of one another the maintenance of just weights and measures, the Lord set before His Nation the care and concern for one another. There must be care exercised in the manner in which the community treats those who are singled out in terms of punishment to the point that even when they are deserving of death, it is to be done without defiling the people themselves and their legacy among the nation. 
The key is that this is the manner in which God so treats us. He does not go against Himself in His Holiness and His Justice in dealing with us as His children. Consider the vital and amazing fact that we are even now made to be His Children through the adoption that has been instituted in Jesus Christ. We are adopted because Jesus, the very expressed Gift of God’s Love, has paid the righteous price of our redemption and our sanctification through that which He took upon Himself in our stead at the cross of Calvary. God has ever been true to Himself and His Holiness in all His dealings with us. That is how the people were instructed to deal with one another. That is how we are to deal with each other. There is sanctity and dignity of humanity, as God’s Creation, that is preserved even in the midst of the most severe discipline.
Accordingly, we are to keep the correct view of others in our hearts. We are never to put ourselves on some pedestal above another, as if they did not count in the heart of God. Even if they are not the nicest person or have committed sins against the Lord and against us, they are to be dealt with in the grace of God. That does not mean that they are enabled to do evil and not suffer. Rather, as they are the recipients of the just punishment meted out upon them, they are still to be dealt with in our hearts as worthy of the Lord’s grace and love as we have so received from Him. We dare not thumb our noses at them and scoff at them as if they are the scum of the earth and we are some high and exalted and perfect examples of all of humanity’s virtues.
We will jump right to the heart of this by turning to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as He was dealing with His disciples. It is important to recognize that the manner of discipline and punishment has changed dramatically in our social order. We no longer use the same methods that were so frequently employed in punishment and in discipline in the days of Our Lord. However, the fact remains that we are still subject to the discipline of the Lord for the manner in which we are in service unto Him as His own people.
Please turn to Luke 12:42-48. Here we prayerfully and carefully pick up with the parable of the faithful servants who were ready to do the bidding of their master upon the timing of His return from the wedding feast. This was after Peter questioned the Lord as to whether what Christ declared was just for the disciples or for all who were hearing the parable.
Luke 12:42-48, And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? "Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. "Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. "But if that slave says in his heart, 'My master will be a long time in coming,' and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. "And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. 
There is so very much at stake in the manner in which we learn to honor the Lord as we prepare for His return. Will we be those who utterly reject the thought of His return and turn to the malicious and devious manner of dealing with others? Do we act toward others with the mind set that it does not matter how we treat others because the Lord will not be coming in our life time on this earth. Do we live our lives with no regard as to how it affects our preparation for His imminent return? The punishment for this one will be terrible as with everyone who rejects the Word and the salvation of the Lord. 
Many commentators feel that Jesus was referring to those priests and scribes and Pharisees of the day, who practiced religiosity, but truly only did so in order to dupe and to basically cannibalize their own people. They claimed to be the servants of God and yet they did only that which would enslave the people to their own whims and fancies and glutinous lusts.
Others to consider are those who do believe in Christ, but do not follow Him fully. They live their lives in accordance with their own pleasure and not in line with being pleasing to God. They have their salvation, but have no desire to know any of the depth of Christ because to do so would be limiting to the wishes of their own lustful desires. 
Whether the lashes that will be meted out are given on this earth or later is not readily at hand. I would suspect that it might be the hardships and the lack of spiritual growth and awareness of the living relationship with Christ that can be in place on this earth, right now. These Christians forsake that living joy and will never get to embrace the fullness of their salvation this very day and every day of their lives. But that is only my thought on the matter.
Then we can consider those Christians who are seeking to honor the Lord in the lives that are being conducted on this earth. None of us are perfect in this and none of us have come into the fullness of Christ to this point. We live in an ongoing relationship that grows and blooms forth more and more as each day progresses. Even the most consecrated among us have those times of questioning and doubt and disobedience which deserve to be punished for lack of faith and fidelity to God. Yet, the Lord, even as He disciplines, makes Himself known to us in the love and the grace and the mercy with which He works to cause us to want to know Him in the greater depth of reality and wisdom and thankfulness that we belong to Him.
The Lord brought this aspect to the forefront in a most phenomenal manner in which He showed the difference that is the heart of Our Heavenly Father at the return of the prodigal son. The whole parable is recounted in Luke Chapter 15. However, we want to see a specific aspect of it which we need to take to heart. That begins with Luke 15 verse 25 through the end of the chapter. 
Luke 15:25-32, "Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. "And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things might be. "And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.' "But he became angry, and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began entreating him. "But he answered and said to his father, 'Look! For so many years I have been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a kid, that I might be merry with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him.' "And he said to him, 'My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. 'But we had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.' " 
      	Notice the attitude of the older brother who had stayed home and done everything that was expected of him. Rather than rejoicing that his brother was back home and restored to the family and join in the celebration, this brother was angry and mad and upset and actually livid with the whole situation. There was no rejoicing in his heart. He displayed only animosity and jealousy and self-righteousness. This was not the picture of the restoration of dignity with an attitude of thanksgiving that his brother was safe and had come back to his senses. 
No, this was the mind-set that the younger brother should pay, and pay dearly, for all the trouble and the misery that he had caused. It was also tinged with the demeanor that while the younger was carousing, the older had done everything in accordance with the father’s wishes and yet he never received the honor of the fattened calf. It was even to the selfish point that this calf was taken out of the older brother’s inheritance since the younger had squandered away everything else. 
	In Luke 18:9-14, Our Lord dealt even more precisely with this attitude of contempt that one man will pile on another. This is so against that which the Lord God Almighty laid before His people in their just treatment of each other. Even while one may be guilty of so many sins and trespasses, the Lord opens His heart to those who call upon Him and seek Him and refuse to set themselves in positions over others.
Jesus was highlighting how Our Heavenly Father was to be approached through the willingness of seeing ourselves as we are in the light of His Holiness. We have no place to elevate ourselves above others, as detailed in this passage. 
Luke 18:9-14, And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. "The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' "But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted." 
	In his second letter to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul also had to deal with this whole issue of how we are to consider ourselves as working together in humbleness for the true testimony of Christ Jesus to be in evidence in the manner of our walk on this earth. Please notice, in 2 Cor 6:1-10, how the Apostle made known all the travail and the discipline and the hardships that are associated with those who bring forth the full witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
This is not something that we are to dread. Rather, we should not count as unusual in the manner in which we are received by this age as we so more and more fully honor God in the lives that we live. 
The Apostle was asking the Corinthian Church not to look down on him because of what he endured for the truest ministry of the Gospel. With that mind and understanding, we are to encourage and to keep our hearts focused on Christ and not on the tribulation and persecution that very well may befall even you and me. We are to recognize the course of how this age treats us, and uphold and stand with and encourage our brothers and sisters with greatest dignity as they are undergoing all the trials and tribulations, no matter how difficult they may be.
2 Cor 6:1-10, And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain — for He says, "At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you"; behold, now is "the acceptable time," behold, now is "the day of salvation" — giving no cause for offense in anything, in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. 
We will close with the admonition of Brother James in James 2:1-9. This is something for which we may often find ourselves lacking in the grace and the heart of the Lord in our society of privileged and well-to-do believers. We need to consider all the elect of God as worthy of our consideration. All should receive our deference in the manner in which we honor Christ by meeting the needs and the dignity and the consideration of those who are not as blessed with the possessions of this age. 
James 2:1-9, My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself, " you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 
Please remember that each person in God’s creation is worthy of the dignity and the consideration that he or she is an eternal being. Our prayer and our hope is that they will be living in the light and the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, even as they may be undergoing a time of trial and discipline and whatever else is the course of the Lord’s working in them, we are never to diminish nor minimize their place in the heart of God. We are to look at every person with the heart and the mind of Christ, allowing Himself to be put on the cross for their sake as much as for our sake. None of us has any basis to elevate ourselves above any other person. We are all guilty of sin and we are all lost and without hope in this world except for the grace and the mercy and the love of God. So be it and amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 50:14+15. "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High; And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." Amen.