The last time we were together, we looked at Psalm 2, and we saw that Jesus was the Son of Laughter. God laughed at the feeble rebellion of the nations of the world, and He sent His son not only to judge the sin of humanity, but also to redeem us, and to guide us into living righteous and abundant lives in a daily relationship with God. Today we will continue to unpack what the Bible tells us about Jesus as the Son of Judgment.
No one looks forward to the moment of judgment, and so we often try to make light of it. For example:
- A mother told her son who was being naughty, “You’re in big trouble. Wait until your father comes home.” The son replied, “Good, then you’ll have someone else to yell at instead of me!”
- Why don’t lawyers have a fear Judgment Day? Because they’ve been practicing for it their whole lives.
- They said Judgment Day would be a final exam. I asked, “Is it open book?” The angel replied, “Only if your book is the right one.”
- Why was the math student sad during the exam? Because it had too many problems.
The fact is, God’s judgment is a fearsome thing, and it is nothing to look forward to. On the other hand, God is love. How does He balance those characteristics? Malachi 3:1-6 gives us insight to that this Christmas.
See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will be able to stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire and like launderer’s bleach. He will be like a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord as in days of old and years gone by. I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the hired worker, the widow, and the fatherless; and against those who deny justice to the resident alien. They do not fear me,” says the Lord of Armies. “Because I, the Lord, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.”
Announcing Judgment:
Few people enjoy taking tests, but it helps if the tests are fair. No one wants to take a test when the answers to the questions were not covered in class. This does happen from time to time, however. In fact, this happened to my wife. Twice, in fact.
The first time was when a professor in her master’s program included questions on a test that came from the captions of photos and diagrams in the textbook. Yes, everyone was supposed to read the textbook, but her professor never pointed out the importance of those images to the class. She did well on that test, but to her, taking questions from captions seemed unfair, and rightly so.
The second time this happened was when my wife was taking her comprehensive exam to graduate with her Educational Specialist (six-year) degree. The instructions she was given was to study all her notes and textbooks and then take the exam. Several questions on the exam had never been covered by any of her classes or professors, and she had no clue how to answer them. Again, she did pass her exam, but she was very frustrated about this as a professional educator. To her, that procedure was a glaring failure of educational theory from an institution which was supposed to be teaching her educational theory!
Our God is a just God, and He will never hold us responsible for something we have never heard about. In fact, God has sent us many messengers to tell us how to avoid judgment.
In the beginning, He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and taught them directly, face-to-face. He instructed them about the things that they could enjoy in the garden and the things which they must avoid. God taught them, perfectly, but they failed the test and faced judgment.
God also sent angels to teach people right from wrong and how to avoid judgment. In fact, the word “angel” means “messenger.” In the Bible, angels are always awesome figures, and they should be, because they are the ambassadors of God, revealing to people the message that God has for them. Some people, like Mary, the mother of Jesus, received the message of angels with humility and obedience. Some, like Jacob, were so arrogant that they wrestled with the messengers of God and resisted their word until the angels literally “put a hurting on them.”
God also revealed His Word to people. In our first message in this series I quoted my father, who had given me advice I had ignored, whereupon he said, “If you had done it like what I told you to, it would have worked!” He was also known to say, “If all else fails, read the instructions.” God gave us instructions about how to avoid judgment, but He would not read them for us! That was our responsibility!
Finally, and most often, God sent prophets, the men and sometimes women, who were sent to us with God’s message. They told us what God had told them, and they warned us heed their instruction. The last of these was John the Baptist, who Malachi 3:1 refers to.
John was the last prophet of the Old Covenant, and his job was to prepare the way for the Messiah to come. Isaiah 40:3-5 describes it this way,
A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
God has given us the answers to the test! We just need to pay attention!
Executing Judgment:
For judgment to be executed, words and actions must match. One of my favorite sayings about this comes from Alcoholics Anonymous: “If what you say and what you do don’t match, then what you say is a lie and what you do is the truth.”
If accountability without warning is wrong, then warning without accountability is also wrong. In addition, it is also ineffective. A story from my son’s work in television news is a great example of that.
A television station he once worked for was notorious for asking its field staff to work overtime to report on breaking news events in the city the station covered. At the end of every financial year the station leadership would announce that their overtime pay was too expensive, and that in the new fiscal year, overtime would be greatly curtailed to the point that it would become non-existent. That pronouncement would usually last a week or two at the most, and then the overtime assignments would return, as it nothing had ever been said. What they said, was “No more overtime.” What they did was just the opposite!
God’s actions and His Word are totally congruent. He had made a covenant with His people, beginning with Abraham. God would bless His people, and they would become a blessing to the world by taking God’s message to all peoples.
God’s people were happy to have His blessing, but they were shy about taking His Word to the world. Therefore, God sent His Son to uphold God’s covenant with His people. He not only came to judge us, but He also came to purify us.
Being purified or refined is an excruciating process. I remember as a child having a cut or scrape that my parents would treat with Metholiade or Mercurochrome or iodine. Those treatments stung worse than the original cut or abrasion, but none of them ever became infected, either.
Another example of the truth that the things that are good for us can be painful on the front end was the first time I received an injection for pain in my back and hip. When my doctor hit the nerve with the needle, it was like riding the lightning! I squealed like a little girl, and I almost came off the table! Once the injection was complete, however, I was pleased with the results. Not so much during it, however!
Jesus did come to correct us, but out of God’s love for us, not out of His wrath. Proverbs 3:11-12 says,
Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline; for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.
Jesus came to make us like silver and gold. He also came to make us suitable to give offerings acceptable to God and pass God’s test of holiness!
Witnessing Judgment:
Have you ever heard the phrase, “If you see something, say something”? This was a phrase coined in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to encourage people to report any potential acts of terrorism that they might see. Few people in the United States would ever be in a position to witness such an event, but if someone did, advance notice to the authorities could be vital in preventing a disaster.
A group of people much more likely to witness acts of violence is the humanitarian aid group, Doctors Without Borders. This is the group that sends medical personnel into war-torn areas of the world and into places where humanitarian disasters are happening. From the beginning, one of the major emphases of Doctors Without Borders has been to bear witness and to publicize what their personnel have seen as they responded to crises. This has led many governments around the world to condemn them as a political group; in some ways that is correct, and what they intend to be.
When our God looks down upon our lives, He sees them as they are. He does not avert His eyes from our sin, nor does He avert His eyes away from our troubles. Exodus 2:23-25 says,
After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and God knew.
It is one thing to see and to know, but it is another thing altogether to be able to act, and then to take action. Our God doesn’t just see, but He also acts! Isaiah 59:1 and 17-20 says,
Indeed, the Lord’s arm is not too weak to save, and his ear is not too deaf to hear . . . He put on righteousness as body armor, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. So he will repay according to their deeds: fury to his enemies, retribution to his foes, and he will repay the coasts and islands. They will fear the name of the Lord in the westand his glory in the east; for he will come like a rushing stream driven by the wind of the Lord. The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
Jesus came to redeem us from our slavery to sin and from our oppression! God always passes the test when it comes to watching out over His people!
Enduring Judgment:
One issue people must deal with is that few things are actually guaranteed in our world. We are familiar with concepts like “a limited warranty” or “terms and conditions apply.” We often take those factors into consideration when we buy a product. For example, the length of a warranty may help us to decide to purchase a particular automobile. Sometimes, these deals are not as good as you might expect them to be.
Early in our marriage, we had the brakes replaced on our car by at a shop which presented itself as being part of a national auto repair chain. This chain was famous for providing a life-time warranty for parts and labor if anything went wrong with a car’s brakes. They even gave us a very impressive certificate to document this “life-time warranty for as long as you own your car” which I carefully stored away if needed in the future.
Later, after we moved to another state, we had problems with our brakes, and we took our car into local shop from that same nationwide chain. To our chagrin, we found that our warranty was not valid in that state. It seems that the franchisee in the previous state did not have an agreement with the franchisee in our current state, and our “nationwide life-time warranty for as long as you own your car” was worthless.
We have very few things we can rely upon in our world, and only one thing we can rely upon in this world and the next. That one is God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Holy and Unchangeable God of the Universe. Hebrews 13:5-8 tells us,
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
The coming of Jesus, His sinless life, His atoning death, His victorious resurrection, and His triumphant return for us on the Day of the Lord clearly demonstrate that God passes the test of time and that we can trust Him with our past, our present, and our future!
Conclusion:
The Day of the Lord will come and none of us will be able to stand in our own right and on our own works on that day. As Malachi 3:2 asks,
“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will be able to stand when he appears?”
Malachi answered that for us, but we can also see that answer expressed this way in Isaiah 4:28-31,
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding. He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless. Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.
The Day of the Lord will be a horrible day for many, but not for those in Christ! Praise His name for that!
Every blessing,
Dr. Otis Corbitt
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