The Judgement of God

[00:00:01] Okay, I would like to begin this morning. My sermon is titled The Judgment of God. I had started out thinking more along the lines of the power of God. What got me thinking on this was last Sunday, the Sunday school lesson was about Moses and when you look back in the background scriptures, It talked about when God gave the Ten Commandments and when God came down on Mount Sinai, the tremendous reaction that the mountain experienced because God came down. [00:00:37] And we will get to that a little bit later. But as I studied this, I ended up back in Hebrews. Hebrews 10, 26-31 is what I would like to read from this morning. Hebrews 10, 26-31. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. [00:01:12] He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, And hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. [00:01:46] I believe back in the Great Awakening that was a key verse, a key thought. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We need to understand the judgment of God before we can understand His mercy. Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all, I hope all of us, we all should realize we all are sinners. We have all sinned. However, I would like to look at James 4.4 [00:02:21] Let's read that James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God What I'd like for us to focus on is the fact that God is a righteous God. We do see God as a merciful God, and that is true. [00:02:53] That is one of his, a big attribute of God is his mercy. But we also need to not lose the respect we have for God and God's power and God's authority. Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist [00:03:34] The third guy said, I don't know. I'd stay as far away from that as possible. Well, he's the one that got hired. And that's how I think we need to view friendship with the world and enmity with God. Verse 26a says, For if we sin willfully, we can look at Romans 3.23 and say all have sinned, but the fact that it says for all have sinned is no excuse for sinning willfully. [00:04:08] We will be judged according to our deeds. We need to stay as far from sin as possible. Verse 26b and 27 There remaineth no more sacrifice I've got that, I'll just go ahead and read the There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation Which shall devour the adversaries Notice that when we go ahead and dabble in sin [00:04:39] We become adversaries, we are God's adversaries Verse 28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. We have some examples of the Old Testament and how God dealt with sin in the Old Testament. Idolatry Exodus 20 verse 3 says Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 8 says [00:05:12] Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. That happened in Numbers 25 1-9. It says neither let us commit fornication. That fornication is not how we would see fornication. It's unfaithfulness to God. In Numbers 25, 1-9 it talks about how the children of Israel became friends with the, I think it was the Moabites, I'm not sure now, but they started eating sacrifices to their idols and worshipping their idols and joining themselves to these people. [00:05:51] God saw that as unfaithfulness and there was 3 in 20,000 that died in one day. Okay, another example of the Old Testament law is disobedience. Achan at Jericho, Joshua 6, 17 through 19. If you want to turn to that, I'm going to go ahead and read that. Joshua 6, 17 through 19. I have a lot of reading to do this morning, I guess. I'll probably keep moving along. This is the commandment, and then we'll turn a little bit later and see where it was disobeyed and how it was dealt with. [00:06:28] I'm sorry, Joshua 6, 17-19 And the city shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein. To the Lord, only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And ye, in any wise, keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed. When you take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it, but all the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. [00:07:00] And then we have where they are defeated. This is before they went into Jericho. We know how they went into Jericho. The walls came down and they were victorious at Jericho. Then they go and look at Ai. A.I. They send scouts to A.I. and the scouts come back and say, let's just take a few people. They're nothing compared to Jericho. So they went with 3,000 men instead of the whole army. They were defeated. 36 men were killed. They cast lots. Well, Joshua went to the Lord and said, why aren't you fighting for us? And the Lord said, there is sin in the camp. And they cast lots and they kept going down and down until they got to Achan. Achan was taken. That rhymed, didn't it? [00:07:41] Achan was guilty. Joshua 7, 24-26, we see how sin was dealt with in this situation, the sin of disobedience. Joshua 7, 24-26, and Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah and the silver and the garment and the wedge of gold I guess I didn't say that what Achan did was he took the Babylonian garment he took a garment he was not supposed to keep [00:08:14] and he took some silver and some gold and he hid them in his tent and Joshua had told them you're not supposed to take anything for yourself and all the gold and silver goes into the treasury of the Lord So he took things for himself and did not give the gold and silver to the Lord Okay, verse 24 to 26 And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zareph, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them unto the valley of Achor [00:08:48] And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day and all Israel stoned him with stones and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones and they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger wherefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Achor unto this day doesn't sound like a very merciful God does it that's an Old Testament concept you did it, you paid [00:09:19] now Now, it talks in Hebrews 10 again, verse 28, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy, verse 29-31, Hebrews 10, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace [00:09:53] for we know him that hath said vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompense saith the Lord and again the Lord shall judge his people it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God if we look back at how God views sin I don't think God's Jesus coming has changed the way that that we are we atone for our sins But God's view of sin has not changed. Sin is still sin and God will still punish sin. [00:10:27] In verse 29 it says, despite, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace. That despite is insult. When we sin, and here again, I'm not speaking about something happened yesterday and all of a sudden it dawns on you, that just was not right. The spirit convicts you of sin. What I'm talking about is willful sinning. Living on the edge. How close can I get to the world and still be right with God? What can I get away with? What can I hide? [00:11:02] When we insult the grace of God, there remaineth no more sacrifice. How big is God? Here's where I started to think, I guess, about, well, let's go to Exodus 19, Exodus 19, 16 through 25. Exodus 19, 16 through 25. 5. The Lord had told Moses to bring the people out to the Mount Sinai and he was going to meet with them. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the nether. The nether is the lowest. They stood at the lowest part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke because the Lord had told Moses to bring the people out to the Mount Sinai. [00:12:00] The Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also which come near to the Lord sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. [00:12:35] And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for thou charge us, saying, Set bounds about the mountain, and sanctify it. And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee. But let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people and spake unto them. And then if you go down to 20, 18. And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. [00:13:09] And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. The fear of the Lord should be a real detriment to us sinning. If we grasp the majesty of God, what would it take to make a mountain shake and smoke and tremble and quake exceedingly, I think it says, quaked greatly? [00:13:48] I've been to, I try to think of some things, what are some things that make enough noise to shake the ground? What? Tractor pull, then to the tractor pulls where the engines are, you know, they're just huge engines and extremely loud and you can feel the whole stand shake from the power in those trucks or tractors. The air show, a big jet flies over low, you can hear the roar and feel the ground shake underneath you [00:14:20] Or a thunderstorm, sometimes you'll be sitting in the house and the whole house will shake All of those are examples of power, well the thunderstorm would be God's power But to have all of those happening, all of those we can explain The truck made the ground shake, or the jet made the ground shake, or the thunder. We can scientifically explain thunder. But when you're standing there looking at a mountain and the only thing that's making that mountain shake is the fact that God is coming down upon it and God is warning the people, stay back because I might break forth upon them. [00:15:02] You have to keep your distance from this extremely powerful force. That just really impressed me with the power that's actually there, the awesomeness of our God. I've never witnessed or seen film of a volcano. That's something that would have to have a lot of force. Number 16 is a real interesting chapter. I think we'll go ahead and read it. It takes about five minutes to read it, but it's just another example of how God deals with sin, or dealt with sin, and what we had to be thankful for. [00:15:45] Numbers 16. There's 50 verses, but I'm only going to read, we're going to skip some in the middle. We'll read 1 through 35 and then 41 to 50. 16. This is when Korah and Dathan and Abiram, and there's one more man there. I think I have seen that before, but I forgot about it. On, the son of Peleth is in there too. So there was actually four men that were heading this thing up. [00:16:19] 16. Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. [00:16:52] And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. I get the feeling that when he fell on his face, he was not just ashamed or embarrassed or whatever. He was praying because all of a sudden he has an answer for them. Verse 5, And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the Lord will show you, show who are his and who is holy, [00:17:27] and will cause him to come near unto him. Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do, take you censors, Korah and all his company, and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow. And it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. And Moses said unto Korah, Here I pray you, ye sons of Levi. Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, [00:17:58] to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them. And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee, and seek ye the priesthood also? For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord? And what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him? And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, which said, We will not come up. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? [00:18:37] Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up. And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not their offerings. I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them. And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou in all thy company before the Lord, thou and they, and Aaron, to-morrow. And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers, thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer. [00:19:14] And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron. And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? [00:19:46] The Lord was going to destroy everyone, not just the offenders. He was going to destroy them all. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. So they got up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, on every side. [00:20:20] And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. Something to notice there, it says that Dathan and Abiram's children and wives and all their family stood with them. It does not say that about Korah, and later we read about Korah's sons and what they did. So his sons evidently chose to not follow him. They got away from their tents when they were told to. And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of mine own mind. [00:20:53] If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. [00:21:27] They and all that appertained unto them went down alive into the pit. And the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense. Let's go down to verse 41. But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. They still were rebelling against Moses. [00:22:01] And it came to pass when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, They looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation and behold the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation And the Lord spake unto Moses saying get you up from among this congregation that I may consume them as in a moment Here again God was willing to to consume them all for their rebellion And again Moses and Aaron intercede and they fell upon their faces And Moses said unto Aaron take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar [00:22:34] and put on incense and go quickly unto the congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun and Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the congregation and behold the plague was begun among the people and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people and he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and 700 besides them that died about the matter of Korah and Aaron returned unto Moses unto [00:23:05] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and the plague was stayed just another example of how God dealt with sin it was forceful it was abrupt and it was final you could take that however you want but it says they went down alive into the pit and that word pit In the Hebrew, it's translated about half and half, grave or hell. [00:23:37] And it's very conceivable, if Elijah and Enoch could go to heaven without dying, then I think these families could drop into hell without dying. I think it makes it sound like the Lord opened up hell and they dropped in. because of rebellion, because of wanting to go against God and what he had commanded. Luke 12, 5, But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. [00:24:10] Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. A quote I came across, you may juggle human laws, you may fool with human courts, But there is a judgment to come, and from it there is no appeal. When we get in America with the court system, if you are sentenced to something, there's the appeal process. It might be a year or two before you even go to jail, depending on what the crime was. [00:24:42] And, you know, you can appeal and get the sentence changed or whatever. There's a judgment to come, and from it there is no appeal. So when God pronounces judgment on you, on us, in the final days, it is final. How many of you have ever heard of Joseph Carley? Does that name ring a bell with anyone? I never heard of him. I came across a sermon, some sermon notes from him that were very, they fit this very good. [00:25:15] The verse is Job 19.25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. I want us to all have a real fear of God, and yet realize that he is also a merciful God. He is our Redeemer. And Job says, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. [00:25:48] We have a Redeemer that will also be our judge. I was thinking that... I wonder if I didn't... Okay. Our Redeemer will be our judge in the end. And this Joseph Carley, he lived from 1602 to 1673. And his works were published in 1648. So a lot of this language is the old English language. It's a little hard, and I tried to change some things around to make it a little easier to understand. [00:26:32] But I'm going to go ahead and read an excerpt from his take on this. This honor of Christ the Redeemer to be the judge of the world carries an either-or effect, depending on whether you have accepted him as Savior or not. To the wicked, the Redeemer as judge carries terror to the wicked who know not God and who have not obeyed the gospel. There is nothing in condemnation more dreadful than to be condemned by a Redeemer. [00:27:10] Thinking about it, that the very person that is sentencing you is the one that tried to save you. Being condemned by a Redeemer. They who are without Christ are without hope. How hopeless then and helpless they are who are cast out by Christ. Christ was their only chance and now he's casting them out. Who can stand before his wrath as a judge, who as a redeemer came to deliver us from the wrath to come? [00:27:42] There are four things in this judge which make his wrath most dreadful. One, he is such a judge as the power of the most powerful cannot daunt. Two, he is such a judge as the wealth of the wealthiest cannot bribe. 3. He is such a judge as the wit and subtlety of the wisest cannot elude 4. He is such a judge as there is no appealing from his sentence [00:28:14] 5. What he sets down shall stand forever Now to the redeemed, the other side of the coin If this judge is your redeemer The Redeemer as judge carries comfort and speaks joy to the saints. How sweet it is to remember that their Redeemer is their judge. For, first, he being their judge, the judge is their friend. Second, he is their kinsman, their brother. [00:28:47] Third, the judge is also their priest and propitiation. He shall judge them who has satisfied for them. The one doing the judging is the one that made atonement for us, and knows how all accounts stand between God and their souls, for he it is that hath by his own blood balanced and made them up. And fourth, the judge is their advocate and intercessor. The judge is he who is judged in their behalf, and seeing he was condemned, bearing their sins, he will not lay those sins again upon them who have laid hold on him, and so condemn them. [00:29:33] All these considerations laid together show how sweet it is for saints to remember that the Redeemer shall stand upon the earth to judge them. As a Redeemer, no greater friend. As judge, no greater adversary. I'd like to close with Jesus Christ, today your friend, tomorrow your judge. Today, Jesus is a merciful, loving, caring God. [00:30:05] When the trumpet sounds, he will no longer be a merciful, caring, loving God He will be the eternal God of creation It will be over and it will be final I would challenge and beg of each one to make sure that you are ready to meet the judge Let's stand for prayer Lord, I thank you for this day. I thank you, Lord, that we can be together like this. I thank you for this time we had together. I pray, Lord, that you would help each one here to make their calling and election sure. [00:30:50] Help us, Lord, to be watching and waiting for your return. Help us, Lord, to have the right balance of fear and also to not be afraid because of what you've done for us. I just pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand and to be able to grow in you. Thank you, Lord, for each one here. I pray you would go with us this week and help us to be what you have us to be. Thank you, Lord, for all you do. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.