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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor January
20, 2002 The
prophet Isaiah gives us the four
major dimensions of God's
revelation of Himself. He is our
Savior, our King, our Lawgiver --
He makes the rules -- but He is
also our Judge; not only our
Judge but the Judge of all
creation. 9-The
God
Who
Fills
Heaven
and
Earth Temporal
judgment refers to judgment that
occurs in this life. There are
two categories of temporal
judgment: 1) Those instances in
which we can see the direct
action of God, and 2) those
instances that occur as the
natural consequence of the way
God has ordered the
universe. We
see the direct action of God a
number of times in the Bible. The
stories of Noah and the great
flood and Sodom and Gomorrah are
classic examples. God announced
His judgment and then, by direct,
overt action, he executed the
promised judgment. We
see the same kind of thing in the
history of the nation Israel.
Israel would fall away from God
and worship the idols of the
nations around them. God would
send a prophet to call them to
repentance and to warn them of
coming judgment if they failed to
repent. The
only difference here is that God
used other humans to execute the
judgment. It was foreign nations
that conquered Israel and took
its inhabitants into exile as
slaves. But these incidents are
presented and understood as the
direct, overt action of God
executing His promised judgment.
Now
look at Galatians 6:7: "Do not be
deceived: God cannot be mocked. A
man reaps what he
sows." Also
Matthew 26:52. A group of
soldiers has come to arrest
Jesus, and Peter draws a sword
and lops an ear off a servant of
the high priest. "'Put your sword
back in its place,' Jesus said to
[Peter], 'for all who
draw the sword will die by the
sword.'" I
believe these texts are telling
us that in addition to his direct
judgment, God has built something
of His judgment into the very
fabric of creation. When
God created the universe, He
brought order to the physical
world by establishing immutable
laws to govern matter -- like
gravity. You can choose to
ignore, reject, or deny the law
of gravity, but you can't change
it or do away with it. Suppose
I decide it was not fair for God
to allow birds to fly and not
grant humans the same privilege.
So I go to the top of the Bank of
America building, shake my fist
at God and say "I defy the law of
gravity" and jump. You would not
call my injury or death "God's
judgment," but rather "Jerry's
stupidity"! God did not crush me;
I violated the law of gravity and
suffered the consequences.
In
the same way, God has established
laws of morality and relationship
that are part of the created
order. God created us in such a
way that we should live according
to these laws -- it is part of
the fabric of creation, the
fabric of our being. If we
corporately obey these laws,
there is order to human society;
there is peace and contentment in
our relationships. If we ignore,
reject, or deny these laws and do
not live by them, our
relationships break apart and
society begins to
disintegrate. I
have a choice. I can choose to
ignore God's moral laws and fail
to obey them, but if I do there
are consequences I will face --
and some of them will come in
this life. It's not that God
takes direct, overt action to
judge me, but rather His judgment
is built into the created
order. Our
criminal justice system is a
function of God's temporal
judgment. Look at Romans
13:1-2: As
Numbers 32:23 says,
"[Y]our sin will find you
out." Many
Christians in American today have
bought into a dangerous lie of
the enemy, the lie that says
there should be a "wall of
separation" between church and
state. Our founding fathers
didn't believe that. That's not
in our U.S.
Constitution. In
fact, John Quincy Adams, our
sixth president, wrote this: "The
highest glory of the American
Revolution was that it united in
one indissoluble bond the
principles of Christianity and
the principles of civil
government." This
understanding was still around in
the 1920s. Calvin Coolidge, our
30th president, said: "The
foundations of our society and
our government rest so much on
the teachings of the Bible that
it would be difficult to support
them if faith in these teachings
would cease to be practically
universal in our
country." Judgment
came upon Israel when it turned
away from God. Don't think for a
moment that God won't hold us
accountable for rejecting His
authority over the affairs of our
nation. We
Christians need to be working and
praying for God to raise up
Christian leaders who will turn
this nation back to its godly
heritage. If the full measure of
God's judgment falls on America,
and it certainly will if we don't
repent, everyone living here will
suffer the consequences; not just
the bad guys. We are corporately
accountable to God. In
a sense, I almost wish God would
judge America. Judgment was not
always seen in a negative light.
When the people were in sin,
things did not go well socially
or economically. After the
judgment it got
better. The
temporal judgment of God broke
the cycle of sin; people turned
back to God and the blessing of
God returned to the
Land. Well,
that brings us to final or
ultimate judgment. Look with me
at Revelation
20:11-15: And
I saw the dead, great and
small, standing before the
throne, and books were opened.
Another book was opened, which
is the book of
life. The
dead were judged according to
what they had done as recorded
in the books. The sea gave up
the dead that were in it, and
death and Hades gave up the
dead that were in them, and
each person was judged
according to what he had done.
Then
death and Hades were thrown
into the lake of fire. The
lake of fire is the second
death. If anyone's name was
not found written in the book
of life, he was thrown into
the lake of fire. There's
not much talk about the reality
of God's judgment in the church
today. In our culture people are
too busy dealing with the hell
they live in at the moment to
worry about the hell that might
come at the end of
time. But
friends it is a dangerous thing
to live this life ignoring the
promise of God's judgment. It is
as certain as death and taxes:
Jesus is coming again to separate
the sheep from the goats and the
wheat from the tares. The sheep
and the wheat will get heaven;
the goats and the tares will get
hell. The
New Testament gives us several
images of Hell: lake of fire;
fiery furnace; outer darkness.
I'm not sure God intended us to
take them literally, but whatever
it's like, it is not a pleasant
place to be -- unless you are
fond of extreme heat and enjoy
weeping and gnashing your
teeth. It's
the judgment of God and it can be
a frightening thing of dread --
but it doesn't have to
be. In
the Old Testament, we read about
the Ark of the Covenant, a chest
in which the tablet of the Ten
Commandments was placed. It was
kept in innermost part of the
Temple in the Holy of Holies, the
place where God's presence
resided. No one went in there
except the High Priest and he
only once a year. A
special cover was made for the
Ark that was called the "mercy
seat." On the Day of Atonement,
the high priest would enter the
Holy of Holies and sprinkle the
blood of the sacrifice on the
mercy seat, securing the
forgiveness, the atonement of the
sins of the people. But
the earthly holy of holies is
only a shadow of the one in
heaven. The Bible tells us that.
And the good news for you and me
and all who turn to Christ is
that Jesus has entered the
heavenly Holy of Holies -- and
has sprinkled his own blood of
the New Covenant on the mercy
seat. If
the Second Coming and the final
judgment of God strike fear in
your heart, all you have to do is
run to the mercy seat. There you
can receive atonement,
forgiveness for you sins. There
you become a child of God, a
co-heir with Jesus to the
heavenly kingdom. Then
you can look forward with joy to
the Second Coming of Jesus and
the judgment of God -- for those
things usher in the eternal
kingdom where the redeemed will
live forever in the joy and peace
of God's presence. If
you have not or will not run to
the mercy seat you ought to be
afraid, because He is coming
back. And He will bring with Him
the Judgment of God, for the LORD
is our Judge.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
A
God of judgment
(Fifth
in the series, Knowing
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
the LORD is our king; it is he
who will save us.
Isaiah 33:22
The Bible reveals two basic
dimensions of God's judgment: 1)
temporal judgment, and 2) final
or ultimate judgment, when God
reorders the universe and ushers
in the eternal, fulfilled Kingdom
of God, or heaven as we often
call it.
In
this
series
Part of the created
orderEveryone
must submit himself to the
governing authorities, for
there is no authority except
that which God has
established. The authorities
that exist have been
established by God.
Consequently, he who rebels
against the authority is
rebelling against what God has
instituted, and those who do
so will bring judgment on
themselves.
God's judgment
acknowledged
Final judgmentThen
I saw a great white throne and
him who was seated on it.
Earth and sky fled from his
presence, and there was no
place for them.
The Good News of God's
mercy
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020120a: A God of
Judgment.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado