Judgment
What is your first thought when you
think of Judgment? Do you
have a positive or negative reaction?
How do you react when you hear such
texts as Psa 7:8 "The LORD
shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O LORD,
according to my
righteousness, And according to my integrity
within me."
Is there anyone here that is brave enough to pray that prayer?
Thomas Boston, 1676-1732
in preaching on this passage had
this to say on Psalm 7:8:
Believers! let not the terror
of that day dispirit you when
you meditate upon it; let those who have
slighted the Judge, and
continue enemies to him and the way of
holiness, droop and hang
down their heads when they think of his
coming; but lift ye up
your heads with joy, for the last day
will be your best day.
The Judge is your Head and Husband, your
Redeemer, and your
Advocate. Ye must appear before
the judgment-seat; but ye shall
not come into condemnation. His
coming will not be against you,
but for you. It is otherwise with
unbelievers, a neglected
Saviour will be a severe Judge.
Well, that may still kind of send
chills over you. The fact is
that judgment is a scary thing.
I'm not sure I even want to ask
how many of you have been in court.
When I was in college in
California, I bought a new to me quite
old car. I had never
bought a car in California before, and
I was not familiar with
all of the hoops you had to jump through
to be "legal." When
you bought a car at that time there you
had to get a temporary
red sticker on your car which gave you
a certain period of time
to get emissions inspection and then come
back in and get your
permanent tags.
I went in and paid all of the fees,
but they failed to give me
the sticker. While the car was parked
on the side of the road,
I received a ticked for having an unlicensed
car on the road. I
went to the DMV and they gave me the sticker
and a letter
explaining that they had goofed.
But I still had to take that
to traffic court.
Now I knew that I was in the clear,
but it made me nervous to
be there just the same.
How can we keep a love for God, while
knowing that we stand
before God, knowing that we are sinners,
and be able to keep any
kind of sanity? How can we as Adventists
church members relate
to being in a church which was literally
conceived around the
idea of judgment relate to it in our world
today? What was it
that let our pioneers preach and believe
in a judgment to come,
yet at the same time put so much energy
and dedication into
preparing a world to see Jesus come a
second time? And what has
happened to make us by and large ignorant
of or afraid of the
judgment?
How can we relate to a passage like:
1 John 4: 17 Love has been
perfected among us in this: that we
may have boldness in the day of
judgment; because as He is, so
are we in this world.
(18 There is no fear in love;
but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves torment. But he
who fears has not been
made perfect in love.
19 We love Him because He first loved us.)
The word judgment occurs 290 times
in the King James Bible. To
me that rather indicates that it is a
theme which runs
throughout the Bible.
Believe it or not, the first hint
of judgment comes in the
first chapter of the Bible.
Genesis 1:4 Gen 1:4 "And God
saw the light, that it was good;
and God divided the light from the darkness."
God saw that it was good. Is
that a judgment call? I believe
that is is. Then when creation was
finished creation God said
that it was very good.
Then in Genesis 3 we find the first
pronouncements of judgment:
Adam and Eve lost their beautiful,
perfect home. The serpent
who had allowed his body to be used lost
his beauty and
attractiveness, and the Enemy was told
of his ultimate fate.
But I find in Gen 18:25 what
for me is the basis of all
judgment . If we did not have the
faith that Abraham displayed
here, then there would be little hope
Gen 18:25 ""Far be it from
You to do such a thing as this, to
slay the righteous with the wicked, so
that the righteous should
be as the wicked; far be it from You!
Shall not the Judge of all
the earth do right?""
By the way in this particular passage,
Abraham is bargaining
with God for the supposedly righteous
in Sodom. In this passage
we find that God is so concerned that
10 righteous be spared
that He was willing to let the wickedness
of Sodom and Gomorra
continue that they might be spared.
God will do right. Our
Eternal Judge can be trusted, no matter
what the verdict. That
is a concept that we need keep in mind
in these last days.
So we find in the mind of Abraham,
a special friend of God,
that God is just, fair, merciful.
We find this thought
reflected in the New Testament.
2 Pet 3:9 "The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as
some count slackness, but is long-suffering
toward us, not
willing that any should perish but that
all should come to
repentance."
And in John 22 we find out who the Judge is.
John 5:22 ""For the Father
judges no one, but has committed
all judgment to the Son,"
And who is the Son?
As we study the concept of judgment
over the next few weeks, I
want you to pay special attention.
I will be presenting this
more as a class than a sermon, so
I want you to take notes and
think about the topic. With this
one as with any other, there
are ditches on each side of the road to
fall into. On the one
side is a fearfulness to the point of
paralysis that we are not
acceptable to and accepted by God.
This leads to a very
legalistic view of the Christian life,
and often harshness with
others. In the other ditch you will
find prevalent the attitude
that it doesn't matter what we do or how
we live because we are
accepted in Christ and there is no condemnation.
Many, raised in the Adventist Church,
could described how they
were taught the investigative (or pre-Advent,
as I prefer to
say) judgment as follows.
It might go something like this:
"They tell you that the
judgment is going on in heaven right now,
and that you never
know when your name comes up, but if you're
not perfect when it
does_then you're blotted out of the book
of life forever. But
you don't know that this has happened,
and thus you're still
trying to be perfect, although it's already
too late. Your
probation is closed_and you are eternally
lost."
However accurately depicting what many
Adventists believe, that
concept perverts not only the doctrine
of the judgment, but the
cross as well. No wonder many Adventists
struggle for assurance,
or have joined other churches, or have
rejected Christ entirely.
With beliefs like that, who could blame
them? If that is how we
believe the judgment, who needs it?
As a church we have reaped
_ and will continue to reap _ a bitter
harvest until we teach
the judgment in light of the gospel.
The place I would like to start looking
for a more healthy
concept of judgment is in Exodus.
Ex 6:6 "Therefore say to the
children of Israel: 'I am the
LORD; I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the
Egyptians, I will rescue you from their
bondage, and I will
redeem you with an outstretched arm and
with great judgments.
7 'I will take you as My people,
and I will be your God. Then
you shall know that I am the LORD your
God who brings you out
from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Ex 12:12 I will strike all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast; and against all the
gods of Egypt I will
execute judgment: I am the LORD.
13 'Now the blood shall be a sign
for you on the houses where
you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you; and the
plague shall not be on you to destroy
you when I strike the land
of Egypt.
Each time that the Israelite celebrated
Passover they
celebrated Judgment!! Judgment for
God's followers was to be
passed over in the judgment!! But
what was good news for the
Israelites was bad news for the Egyptians.
Judgment is deciding
between two alternatives. And at
the time of Passover, as well
as today, judgment is based on decision
making. And there is
one theme that moves throughout the whole
concept of judgment.
That is the theme of choice.
In the struggle between good and
evil, the two principle
parties have set their positions.
God claims to be good,
merciful, gracious, holy, and many other
things that we will not
list now. Satan claims that God
is a liar, can't be trusted,
and that his way is the better way.
Do you basically agree with
that?
Now comes the interesting part, and
the hard part for human
beings. We choose our own destiny.
God has predestined us to
salvation. Do you believe that?
Remember 2 Peter .... God is
not willing that any perish..... Satan
tells us that we can't be
saved. That our sins are too great.
That it is just too hard.
That God doesn't really care, anyway.
God says, "Behold the lamb of God
that takes away the sins of
the world." Jesus says, "Come to
me all of you that are
overworked, and I will give you rest."
Who do we believe? Whom
do we trust? We make the final choice
of our destiny.
As we go back to the time of Passover,
we find that everyone in
the land of Egypt was required to choose
between good and evil.
Would they believe the prophet sent from
God, or would they
believe the Pharaoh, who claimed to be
God? This was an end of
time, judgment situation for Egypt.
Many small judgments had
taken place. This was the last one,
or almost the last one. I
believe that it could be argued that the
Egyptian army dying in
the Red Sea was the final judgment on
Egypt.
So, each one has to choose.
Do I believe the prophet of God
enough to spread the blood on the doorpost,
or do I make a
public statement that I refuse to believe,
and leave it clean?
Note here, that absolute faith was not
even necessary.
Evidently, there were those who applied
the blood "just in case"
because we find a large number of Egyptians
who followed Moses
out of Egypt. We do find that those
people were continually
causing trouble throughout their journeys.
Another factor here is the concept
of substitution. The blood
of another victim, not one's own blood,
but the blood of a very
special victim, a perfect lamb, a meek
creature who could not
sin, was required in the place of the
lives of the first born.
This concept of substitution
was then and is now the basis of
all religious belief.
Let's look at the religious practices
that God set up for the
Israelites.
As we just read from Ex. 12:12, the
blood was to be a sign, or
a symbol. That holds true through
the Sanctuary services, and
it is still true today, though expressed
in different ways.
Over and over in Exodus and Leviticus,
the blood was used to
cleanse, sanctify, to make holy.
We could focus on all of these
areas, but I want in our study to focus
on two areas. The first
is the sin offering or trespass offering.
The second, which we
will not get to today, is the Day of Atonement
service.
Leviticus 4:27 'If anyone of
the common people sins
unintentionally by doing something against
any of the
commandments of the LORD in anything which
ought not to be done,
and is guilty,
28 'or if his sin which he has committed
comes to his
knowledge, then he shall bring as his
offering a kid of the
goats, a female without blemish, for his
sin which he has
committed.
29 'And he (the one who sinned)
shall lay his hand on the head
of the sin offering, and kill the sin
offering at the place of
the burnt offering.
30 'Then the priest shall take some
of its blood with his
finger, put it on the horns of the altar
of burnt offering, and
pour all the remaining blood at the base
of the altar.
31 'He shall remove all its fat,
as fat is removed from the
sacrifice of the peace offering; and the
priest shall burn it on
the altar for a sweet aroma to the LORD.
So the priest shall
make atonement for him, and it shall be
forgiven him.
32 'If he brings a lamb as his sin
offering, he shall bring a
female without blemish.
33 'Then he shall lay his hand on
the head of the sin offering,
and kill it as a sin offering at the place
where they kill the
burnt offering.
34 'The priest shall take some of
the blood of the sin offering
with his finger, put it on the horns of
the altar of burnt
offering, and pour all the remaining blood
at the base of the
altar.
35 'He shall remove all its fat,
as the fat of the lamb is
removed from the sacrifice of the peace
offering. Then the
priest shall burn it on the altar, according
to the offerings
made by fire to the LORD. So the priest
shall make atonement for
his sin that he has committed, and it
shall be forgiven him.
Note the main points here:
The offering was to be without blemish.
It was the lamb that had to be perfect
The sinner was to place his hands
on the head of the lamb and
confess his sins.
Then the sinner was to take a knife,
with his own hands and
take the life of that lamb or kid, by
his actions recognizing
that death was the penalty for sin.
And that he had faith in a
sinless one who would take his place and
die as a sinner for his
sins, that he might continue to live.
That is a judgment concept.
The judgment of death on the
sinner was transferred to another who
was spotless, pure,
sinless, holy, so that the sinner might
live.
Now we can look back on this from
a New Testament standpoint.
Try to imagine what it was like for the
Israelite. They had
been in slavery. For 400 years their
backs had toiled under the
whip and hot sun. Then a prophet
of God comes and offers
deliverance. Complete deliverance.
But the price of the
deliverance is a belief that acts as if
it is delivered.
He looks at the Passover experience,
and knows that the power
of God was at work there. Then he
has seen the mighty display
of glory on Mt. Sinai. He knows
the power and holiness of God.
And the hopelessness of living a perfect
life through his own
power. Now when he sins he is required
to bring a lamb, a
perfect little creature that he had raised
and cared for, bring
that lamb to the priest at the temple
of God, this God who had
brought him out of Egypt and slavery,
place his hands on the
head of this helpless creature, confess
his sins against the God
who delivered him, and take his knife
and cut the throat of this
little sinless creature, because of his
sins.
How do you think that that man felt
about sin? How do you
think that God wanted him to feel about
sin? Sin results in
judgment. Sin hurts someone. Sin
causes death. Sin will
destroy the sinner ... Unless Someone
steps in and takes that
sinner's place.
The Israelite was told in
Lev 18:5 'You shall therefore
keep My statutes and My
judgments, which if a man does, he shall
live by them: I am the
LORD. (5. If you obey them,
you shall live. I am the Lord. --
TEV)
They, nor we, have ever been
able to keep all of the statues
or judgments (ordinances--RSV)
So God, rather than see the human
race destroyed JUDGES his
people. And that is good news.
That sounds strange to us but
look at:
Deut 32:36 "For the LORD will
judge His people And have
compassion on His servants, When He sees
that their power is
gone, And there is no one remaining, bond
or free.
The sanctuary service was a way for
God to judge his people
that they could have life. This
is reflected in Psalm 85 where
we have the psalmist saying.
Psalm 85:1 Lord, You have been
favorable to Your land; You
have brought back the captivity of Jacob.
2 You have forgiven the iniquity
of Your people; You have
covered all their sin. Selah
3 You have taken away all Your wrath;
You have turned from the
fierceness of Your anger.
4 Restore us, O God of our salvation,
And cause Your anger
toward us to cease.
5 Will You be angry with us forever?
Will You prolong Your
anger to all generations?
6 Will You not revive us again, That
Your people may rejoice in
You?
7 Show us Your mercy, LORD, And grant us Your salvation.
8 I will hear what God the LORD will
speak, For He will speak
peace To His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn
back to folly.
9 Surely His salvation is near to
those who fear Him, That
glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace
have kissed.
11 Truth shall spring out of the
earth, And righteousness shall
look down from heaven.
12 Yes, the LORD will give what is
good; And our land will
yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before Him,
And shall make His
footsteps our pathway.
What a wonderful God! What a wonderful savior.
BENEDICTION
Psalm 67:1 God be merciful to us
and bless us, And cause His
face to shine upon us. Selah
2 That Your way may be known on earth,
Your salvation among all
nations.
3 Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise
You.
4 Oh, let the nations be glad and
sing for joy! For You shall
judge the people righteously, And govern
the nations on earth.
Selah
5 Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise
You.