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We've been taking something of
a digression from the 1689 Confession in chapter 31. which talks about the state of
man after death and the resurrection of the dead. And yet, this digression
has a purpose to give us more foundational information about
how we understand, in particular, the doctrine of eternal punishment.
That doctrine is founded upon God himself, really, and several
of his attributes in particular. We looked for several weeks at
God's holiness, and last week we started looking at God's righteousness
and justice. And this will help us to understand
God first and then understand what God has ordained. Last time,
we just sort of got into the doctrine of righteousness and
justice. And those terms are often barely distinguishable
from one another. We said that you could make a
distinction by saying God's righteousness is who He is in Himself, and
His justice is how His righteousness is expressed. So God is righteous
in the sense that He is the standard, He is the law. He doesn't just
give laws, but He is that law Himself, and the laws come from
His character. And when He demonstrates that
righteousness, That is what we could call justice. It's a legal
or royal application of righteousness. So we see the term justice, we
see God as a king or a judge sitting on his throne ruling
the world. We saw some descriptions of God's righteousness last Sunday.
We saw that he himself is righteous and thus his works are righteous
and his word is righteous. Also, His promises are fulfilled
in righteousness. That is, when God makes a promise,
He keeps that promise because He is a righteous God. We also
looked at the fact that the Son is righteous. He is often called
the Just One, particularly in the book of Acts. Let's look
at a description of God's justice. As I mentioned before, this idea
of justice pictures God on His throne as a King and a Judge.
We know that God is a judge, but if you were to think of words
to describe God, you might think of God as a father, as a shepherd,
as a friend, as a helper, all those sorts of things that are
more, in our view, positive. Things that show God's goodness,
God's love. But we often don't think of God
so much as a judge in our first reflex. Because even for us who
are saved, there's a sense of dread and awe in that description
of Him. Knowing not that God's judgment
is going to fall upon us because we are saved, but because of
the great price that Christ paid for us in receiving God's justice
upon himself for our sakes. What are some characteristics
of a judge? Now the judges in the Old Testament,
particularly in ancient times, were a little bit different than
they are today. Judges had the authority to make
and enforce laws. Not like today, although many
of us would gripe that judges spend too much time making laws,
as they're not supposed to do, but technically they're not supposed
to make laws, nor are they supposed to enforce laws. That's up to
other branches of our government to do that. in ancient times
they could make and enforce laws. And God as judge requires adherence
to his law. This isn't one of those laws
like we have today where somebody makes a law but nobody really
cares whether it's kept or not. Sort of those unenforceable laws.
God makes laws and he requires that people obey them. We also
can see God as a judge is good and right. Those are characteristics
required of any judge, but especially it's true of God Himself. Genesis
chapter 18 is a chapter where Abraham is praying
on behalf of Sodom. God has revealed His intention
to go down and destroy Sodom for their sin. And Abraham acknowledges As he
says, would you destroy the righteous along with the wicked? Verse
23. Suppose there were 50 righteous, would you spare it? Verse 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? So, Abraham
here acknowledges, even without a whole lot of revelation about
God himself, that God is a good and righteous judge. We also
know that God is wise and knowledgeable about these matters. Verse 20
and 21, earlier in this chapter, God said, because the outcry
against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin
is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have
done altogether according to the outcry against it that has
come to me. And if not, I will know. Now
of course God in his omniscience knew what was going on down there,
but he manifests himself in a human form and goes to visit this region
himself, just a way for him to show he goes to the nth degree
to demonstrate his fairness and his knowledge. So just as he
were in effect to see it with his own eyes. Let me just turn to Psalm 54
verse 1 briefly here. Psalm 54, sorry, 51 verse 4. 51 verse 4. Remember, in this psalm, David
is repenting for his sin with Bathsheba and against Uriah.
He says in verse 4, "...against you, you only, I have I sinned,
and done this evil in your sight, that ye may be found just when
you speak and blameless when you judge." God is aware of all
the evil and the good that we do, and so when He speaks against
us in judgment and when He judges us, He is blameless in doing
so. We know, as those of us who are
parents, We see circumstantial evidence that leads us to believe
that one of our children has done something we've told them
not to do, and we bring an unjust accusation against them when
we find out later they haven't really done that thing at all. And we need to ask forgiveness
when we do that. But God never does anything like
that because he is all-knowing, And He is good. He is wise and
knowledgeable in the way He sees everything that happens under
the sun. So we know that God, when He judges, will judge precisely
according to the truth. And a corollary to that is that
God is also fair when He judges. Again, as parents, we try to
be fair. But as limited human beings,
fallible, sinful ourselves, we don't know all the circumstances.
And so, again, I know there's been cases when I've unfairly
treated my children, my older one in particular, because I
didn't understand what he was doing or I didn't understand
the circumstances. Maybe I saw the aftermath but
didn't see what had happened before. And so I've unjustly
accused him when it wasn't right for me to do so. but God is always
fair in all His dealings. Ezekiel 18 24-32 This is the Lord speaking here.
But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and
commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that
the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which
he has done shall not be remembered because of the unfaithfulness
of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed. Because
of them he shall die. Now we have here in this verse
a man who claims to be righteous, who appears righteous on the
outside, maybe like the Pharisees, and yet eventually by his deeds
he is known, his wicked heart is finally revealed. Verse 25,
Yet you say the way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, O house
of Israel, is it not my way which is fair, and your ways which
are not fair? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness,
commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity
which he has done that he dies. Again, when a wicked man turns
away from the wickedness which he has committed, and does what
is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. Because he considers
and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall
surely live, he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says,
the way of the Lord is not fair. Oh, house of Israel, is it not
my ways which are fair and your ways which are not fair? You
see here maybe stories like the penitents who approach Jesus
in the Gospels when Jesus forgives them of their great sin. And
those around him say, hey, don't you know what kind of woman that
is or what kind of man that is? Why do you forgive these wicked
people? And Jesus says, it's not the righteous who need a
physician, the well-needed physician, but those who are sick. It's
not the righteous who need forgiveness, it's the sinners. And so we have
these people, in these verses I just read, who see their wickedness,
who see themselves falling short of God's standard, repent of
that sin, and God forgives them. So on the one hand we have a
righteous man, or a seeming righteous man, who is judged by God because
he is really wicked, and we see an unrighteous person who repents,
and God lets them live because they have turned from their wicked
deeds. Verse 30, Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel,
everyone according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and
turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be
your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which
you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure
in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore
turn and live. So God here calls him to repentance.
He is fair. He knows the heart as well as
the deeds and will judge accordingly. Now this passage though is incomplete
because God here says in verse 31, get yourselves a new heart
and a new spirit. And yet the full truth in all
this we see in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26. And I think a number
of you know this verse well. God here again is speaking, I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you
a heart of flesh. So while God appeals to them
to get a new heart and a new spirit, it is really only God
himself who can grant that to them and who can give it to them. a good example of God's never
requiring less than perfect righteousness. He always demands it. And yet,
it's impossible in and of itself. Yeah, and that's one of the purposes
of the law, to demonstrate we see God's perfect standard, we
see in God's grace how far short we fall of it, and cast ourselves
at God's feet and say, I can't do this, I need your forgiveness.
And on the basis of Christ's perfect righteousness, that gets
applied to our account. Good point. And we'll look later
on at how You know, if you look just at God's righteousness and
justice, you would be despairing, because there is no hope for
any of us. But we see God's love, as Wally
mentioned last week in Psalm 87, when mercy and justice have
kissed at the cross, that's where we are able to satisfy God's
demand for justice as Christ's righteousness is given to us,
and also be placed into his kingdom as his children, because we have
been forgiven our wickedness. So we have a judge who has the
authority to make and enforce laws. This judge requires adherence
to his law. He's a good, right, wise, knowledgeable,
and fair judge. And also this judge has the power
to execute the sentence. So God is, in a sense, the judge,
jury, and executioner of his laws. Now let's look a bit more at
God's justice in both Testaments. And we don't have a lot of time,
but let me just remind you of a few things. Adam and Eve, of
course, we see right away when sin comes, God judges. And yet, of course, we see mercy
as well. They deserved immediate death, eternal death, and yet
God provided a covering for them. And yet the earth was cursed
because of that sin. We also see the flood when God
brought judgment upon the whole earth where the wickedness of
man was a stench in the nostrils of God. He saw their wickedness,
their violence was continual. And so he brought a great flood,
a great judgment upon the earth. We see again and again that the
judges, the prophets that God sends to the people saying, turn
from your evil ways and repent. And the people may or may not
repent for a time, but then they go back into their sin. You see
this endless cycle in the Old Testament of God appealing to
them, and then they come back, and then they fall back into
sin. Then God appeals to them again, especially in the book
of Judges. Again and again and again, God reaches out His hand
of mercy to them. they accept it for a while, then
they slap it down later on, and then God judges them for it.
In the New Testament, we see God's justice as well. And we
won't have an exhaustive look at this, but people who don't
understand the Word of God very well will often say that the
God of the Old Testament is a God of judgment, and the God of the
New Testament is a God of grace. And while we see God's grace
and His love perhaps more clearly because we see Christ Himself
God never changes. And some of the greatest condemnations
in the whole word of God are from the very lips of Jesus himself.
It's convenient to ignore those words when you want to make an
invalid point. But when you look at the words
of Jesus, you see how seriously he takes his role, not just as
savior, but also as judge. Matthew 21, We see Jesus in the temple. This
is in the last week before his crucifixion. He went into the
temple of God and drove, this is Matthew 21, verse 12. Then
Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who
bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of
the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And
he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house
of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. So we see
here a very localized example of Jesus and his justice. Verses 43 and 44, he's speaking
to the Jews here. He's speaking here to the chief
priests and the elders. He says, Therefore I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation
bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone
will be broken, but on whomever it falls it will grind him to
powder. And Jesus is here referring to himself. This isn't just some
mild-mannered, weak Jesus talking about himself grinding people
into powder. We see God's justice in Acts
chapter 5 in the situation with Ananias and Sapphira who were
struck down immediately for their sin and lying. Let's look at
Matthew 24, and we'll see a picture of Christ as judge. I won't read
this whole passage, but I'll just get the introduction. When the Son of Man comes, Matthew
25, verse 31, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all
the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of
his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he
will separate them one from the other as a shepherd divides his
sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on
his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the king will
say to those on his right hand, come you, blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. And then we see in verse 41, speaking to the unrighteous,
he will say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed
ones, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. And verse 46 says, and these will go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. So Jesus here
is very, very harsh and judgmental against those who, who aren't
his, who are those on his left hand. John 5, verses 22 and 23. We see here
more explicitly information about Christ as the judge. John 5,
verses 22 and 23. For the Father judges no one
but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor
the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor
the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Verse 26-29 For
as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to
have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute
judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel
at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves
will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good
to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the
resurrection of condemnation. I can of myself do nothing as
I hear I judge and my judgment is righteous because I do not
seek my own will but the will the father who sent me so again
Jesus here explicitly claiming that he it is the judge and he
will be the judge X chapter 17 X 17 verse 31 this is Paul speaking
to the Greeks in Athens says, but he, that is God the
Father, has appointed a day on which he will judge the world
in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained, that is Jesus.
He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the
dead. So he's raising these people from the dead in order to be
judged by Christ himself. Well, I wanted to take a look
for a while at Psalm 73 and 37, but we're short of time and I
wanted to be able to do it justice, so to speak. Are there any comments
or questions about what I've said so far? I know it's been
kind of short this morning, but I'd rather wait and do right
by these Psalms next time. Amen? Okay. You can stretch it
out a bit. Oh, thank you. Well, this is an important topic. It's not popular today. I know
if you surveyed people who were unchurched or went to some of
the more liberal denominations, they have a sort of a touchy-feely,
fuzzy version of who Jesus was and is. Certainly, he was a gracious,
good shepherd. He was kind and gentle. and all
those things that we think of when we think of a good shepherd,
and yet he is not only that. He is not just some mild-mannered
guy who just wanted us to all get along as many would like
him to be. While he was restrained, in a
sense, as he was on this earth, he was veiled in his glory. Those
who see him when he returns who don't love him will hide from
him in terror because of the judgment that's to come upon
them. And even on the earth, when necessary, he was confrontational
in terms of, especially those who claimed to be righteous and
yet had no love for God. And towards the end of Matthew,
Jesus confronted them boldly for their sin. And so we must
not have a wrong view of who Christ was then or who is now. He does sit at the right hand
of the throne of God, and that is a place of judgment and power
and righteousness. Why don't we pray and close this
morning? Lord, though we've had a brief look this morning at
your righteousness and your justice, we thank you for it. We know
that you sit enthroned above the earth always doing what is
right, even when we can't understand all your purposes, as we'll see
next time in Psalm 37 and Psalm 73. Your way is hidden to us
in so many ways, and yet we trust you as Abraham did. We say, will
not the judge of the earth do right? Help us to remember that
when we see the wicked prospering, when we see ourselves who love
you and who want to serve you, perhaps struggling day to day
with sin or with our material possessions that are easy to
worry about. the things that are on this earth.
Help us to remember what Jesus said, to seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, as we've been talking about, and all these
things shall be added to you. May that be our goal, to seek
you and your righteousness, and to not seek the things which
are in this world. Give us the grace to do this, for Jesus'
sake. Amen.
1689 Confession, ch. 31, State of Man After Death, Part 8, God's Righteousness, Pt 2
Series 1689 31 After Death
| Sermon ID | 6612024519419 |
| Duration | 22:49 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Language | English |
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