Main idea: Cultivate a righteous response to God’s righteous judgment.
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Well, good morning. Faith, Bible Church, friends, and if you're visiting with us, I'm so glad that you're here with us this morning. So it's, it's just a joy. I've met some new people already. After first hour, I'd love to meet you. If you are here, we are going through the the book of Genesis. And if you're new with us, it will be up on the screen. All right, let's stand for the reading of God's Word. We were we are looking at Genesis, chapter 18, and I'll start in verse 16. And this is a really serious passage to evoke the fear of the Lord. I know we'll you'll see why as we go through this. It's two parts that we're going to take this in on Sodom and Gomorrah, and we're going to see Abraham's first response, the response that the Lord wants him to have, and then the response that Abraham has come one two. Next week, we'll be at the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. We'll see that. But Sodom and Gomorrah is, is the scriptures clarion call about future judgment, and it's referred to throughout the Bible. It's like, don't be like them, like that's just over and over, or you're worse than them, which is a pretty bad thing to think about. We'll see that next week. But it is a strong call to look at the judgment of God, to fear him rightly, and then understand the gospel rightly. We're going to look at all of that this morning. 1816, through 33 then the men that is the Lord and two angels set out from there, and they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham? What I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know. So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city, will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fair as the wicked. Far be it from you, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just. And the Lord said, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord I, who am but dust and ashes, suppose five of the 50 righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five? And he said, I will not destroy it if I find 45 there again. He spoke to him and said, suppose 40 are found there, he answered, for the sake of 40, I will not do it. Then he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak. Suppose 30 are found there. He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there. He said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 are found there. He answered, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it. Then he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again. But this once, suppose 10 are found there. He answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. And the LORD went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. This is the word of the Lord or our great God, our great king. We are awed by these passages this week and next, as we look at Sodom and judgment, you are righteous. You are a righteous king. It is by righteousness and justice that your throne is founded. You created us to be righteous and just, and we rebelled, making our own way, making our own righteousness and justice, and we have been under. The just condemnation ever since this is a time in history that was set by your word, to remind us of a future fiery judgment, to remember that your ways are holy and we need to escape the judgment by Your mercy. I pray as we go through this that you would instill in us an awe and reverence and proper fear of you, so that we would come to you and come to Christ in a right and good way, Lord. We, thank you for the love that you have shown us through Christ, Jesus. We, thank you for the love that you had demonstrated to us while we were still sinners, you died for us, and so we see judgment, and we see salvation in your scriptures, and we want our kids to know it. We want our grandkids to know it. We want our neighbors and our city to know it. We want London to know it. God, do your work by your gospel redeeming for yourself, a people I do pray for Mark Hardy, a friend and brother of mine in Post Falls at Fellowship Bible Church continue to encourage him in faithful preaching and gospel ministry. Use the church to boldly and and patiently and perseveringly preach the gospel to family, friends, neighbors, grow the church so that your name may be known. Grow ours too, that we may be representatives of Christ and that we would give you glory and honor. It's in your name we pray amen. You may be seated. Some of you have heard of Elvis Elvis Presley. Some of you have the old timers. I like talking to the old timers now. It's really fun. We were watching a documentary on song writers in Nashville the other day, because that's how we roll. We're really exciting. We do a lot of exciting things at our house, lots of documentaries. We heard an interview with the guy who wrote the famous Elvis song in the ghetto. Guy wrote that for him. That guy said that the best song ever written was Amazing grace. Amazing grace. Best song ever written. The second line sums up what's going on here in Genesis, as we see how God uses it in unfolding the Scripture. Second line of Amazing Grace says it was Grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved when God, by His grace, opens our proud and blind eyes to see His righteousness and justice, we cannot help but feel the weight, the awful weight of our guilt and our sin and the inevitable judgment that's going To come having our eyes open to judgment, we are then finally able to see the mercy and grace that God gives through Christ, through Christ's sacrifice, his sin, bearing death, bearing the wrath of God In our place. When we finally see that we cry out for mercy, and God hears cries for mercy. When God restores us, reconciles us by His mercy, almost immediately, we feel a pinch, a pinch of compassion for friends and family, for neighbors and coworkers, fellow students, people that we buy our food from at A grocery checkout, we feel the pinch of compassion, because without Christ, they will face not a mere temporal judgment, but an eternal judgment. We see it in Abraham. As soon as the news is announced to him, God has some things for him to learn. His heart feels that pinch of compassion. And he looks at Sodom and Gomorrah where his nephew is, that's where his nephew is. And he prays Yahweh opens his heart to Abraham to teach him and test him. And the lessons that Abraham was to learn, he was to pass on to his children, and he was to pass on from generation to generation. He was to pass it on in such a way that his children and grandchildren would pass it on to further generations down the line. Us all the way to us, and from Genesis to Jude Sodom and Gomorrah serve as as the warning light for God's eternal, just judgment on sinners.
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And we need to leave here today with this is a simple, big idea. We need to have a righteous response to God's righteous judgment. We need to have a righteous response to God's righteous judgment. Righteousness is one of the themes. What is righteousness? And then how do we apply that to this passage? Righteousness is that which is morally good. It's upright, it's pure, it's doing right. Unrighteousness is perverse. It's evil, it's impure. Being made in the image of God, we would be made righteous and just. But since the fall, since sin, we have rejected that, and we have chosen our own kind of righteousness, which is really wickedness. There are many unrighteous ways to respond to God's righteous judgment. One of the unrighteous ways, the oldest, is to believe Satan's lie that there is no judgment. That's what he told Adam and Eve in the garden. He told Eve, if she was to eat the fruit, you will surely not die. There's not going to be any judgment, although God had promised it, that still goes on today, surely we won't die. Another popular one is to suppress judgment, at least the idea of it and the talk about it, and I think it's quite rampant in the church too, we prefer to focus on the more positive attributes, like the Fatherhood of God. J I Packer says, if we talk about the Fatherhood of God and our adoption as sons and the Ministry of God's grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we could talk about that and rejoice all day long. We bring up judgment, and we don't really want to hear that. Ian
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but it is in understanding the justice and judgment of God that we really finally understand how great the love of God is. You'll never really know how great the love of God is till you understand how great the judgment is. Another one is to define for oneself who is worthy of judgment, like yourself. You know, judgment is for people who are really bad. They're for really bad people, the worst people, the worst of all is to turn oneself into God by judging God for what he does, judging God for being harsh or cruel, taking the place of God ourselves but you all know it. We all know it deep down. We are still made in the image of God, and the image of God is marred, and we do have the blinding temptation, the proud temptation, to try to redefine things. But you're hardwired for justice, aren't you? Aren't you? Hardwired for justice? We saw it on the Facebook page for our neighborhood, one of the neighbors had their ring camera turned on about three o'clock in the morning, and a fully masked, fully sweatshirted bicyclist locked up the bike on under the street lamp like this, up, raising it is, locked it up, and then about an hour later, comes back with just backpack and a whole bunch of stuff just full. They just went through every car that was open and it's just sitting under the street lamp. This person is so unconcerned about being caught by a camera that they just pilfered everything that they could, robbed every porch that they could. We all want justice, don't we? Aren't you built to say that's wrong. Makes people say, Boy, I wonder if I should do rounds with a baseball bat at three o'clock in the morning. And the answer is always no, should not do that. But you're hardwired, kids. You're playing a board game. You're playing a board game and one of your sibling cheats in the board game, what do you say that's not fair? Actually, when they win, you say that's not fair. But when when one of your siblings takes something out of your hand or cheats at a game, you have an internal sense of justice that's hardwired in because you're made in the image of God. If one country invades another country simply because its military is bigger, you expect somebody in the world to rise up to protect the weaker when a terrorist attacks you want captured. Or you want trial, if it was really bad, you want execution. That's an internal impulse, because you're hardwired for justice. Sodom and Gomorrah is the warning sign of fiery final judgment. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah compels us, then to true faith in Christ, which blossoms into both righteous living and compassion. They're going to show up today in our passage, as we look at God opening his heart to Abraham about his intent for this. So we want to have a righteous response to God's righteous judgment. We're going to take it in two parts. We need to pay attention to God's judgment, since this is a teachable moment for Abraham and for us, and then we need to look at what Abraham does. So let's take a look at this first first part. We need to pay attention to God's judgment. He wants to teach Abraham and all who come from Abraham, both those in Israel who are natural descendants and those who are spiritual descendants by faith in Abraham's great offspring, Jesus, God opens his heart to him, and we should pay attention. Look at verse Look at Verse one or verse 16. Then the men set out from there, and they looked down towards Sodom. They had been recently, just with Abraham and Sarah last week, we looked at this wonderful promise. Sarah didn't quite believe. She laughed at the promise that at 90 she's going to have a baby, but God assures her with great seriousness, in a year, I'm going to come back and you're going to have a baby. So there's two stops on this mission. The first was to encourage Abraham and Sarah. Second was to teach Abraham about the judgment on Sodom. Stop number two for Yahweh and His two angels is Sodom and Gomorrah, to check out what's going on and to bring judgment if it proves true, the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? It's really a way of drawing Abraham and us into the conversation, isn't it, doesn't he draw you in? Shall I hide from him? I mean, he's looking at the two angels. Should we talk about what we're going to do? And Abraham's like, yeah, I want you to talk about what you're going to do. He draws him in, and he gives him the two reasons for talking about this. First, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. It's a reminder of the great promise set 24 years before in Genesis chapter 12, that he calls him out of idolatry, from Ur of the Chaldees. He promises him to become a great nation. Now it's going to start coming true. In a year, he's going to have Isaac, and that's how all of it's going to multiply. He's going to be a great and mighty nation. All of the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him that is by faith in that promise, faith in an offspring, and by how they're going to live in the world. Verse 19 says, For I have chosen him. Remember, Abraham didn't initiate this. God initiated it, like he always does with saving grace, for I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice. There's a so that here that's really important, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. Abraham has his responsibility, but this so that isn't it isn't saying If Abraham really does a good job and his offspring are really righteous, and just then I will reward them with salvation. This isn't a work situation. In fact, the whole story has been unfolding to show us quite different. Abraham was called out of idolatry by God. He repented of that by his action. In chapter 15, we find out who's really righteous. 15 six, after a promise that Abraham is going to have a multitude that matches the stars in the heaven, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, having been made righteous by faith, God calls him to live in accordance with God's image, righteous and blameless. Chapter 17, his commitment to God's promise was to walk blameless. Now, Abraham is called to teach his children to do the same. They need to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice. So what exactly is righteousness? What is justice? These two words, if you just did any search in a concordance righteousness and justice, you'll find them. Shared over and over in the Bible, righteousness is the inward moral character before God and before other people. It I could paraphrase Calvin by saying something like this, it is doing good to to God or to others. It's holding back from doing wrong. It's holding back from cheating or harming others. So it's the positive. It's the internal moral compass. Justice is taking action to help the suffering or the oppressed. It's a concern for those who lack it. Is to stand up for the righteous, for righteous causes. It's to guard the vulnerable from unjust harm. It involves correcting wrongs. It involves punishing evil and restoring what is broken. It's the foundational ethic for a nation that is going to be a blessing to the world, their faith in God and their righteous and just, living is the foundational ethic. There's two important verses that talk about this. I don't have time to go through many more than just two, but here's the one that's God's foundation. Psalm 8914 says of God's rule, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Steadfastness, steadfast, love and faithfulness go before you. God's rule in the world is founded on righteousness and justice. That's how God treats all of His creation, righteously and justly, and all those who follow Him in His Kingdom do the same. Proverbs 21 three says to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Sometimes we have this statement, act first, ask forgiveness later. It's not really what God wants us to do.
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He doesn't want us to count on forgiveness and sacrifice and then do whatever we want sinfully. Now, we are made in the image of God to represent God, and God is righteous and just, and it is fundamental for the world to flourish. It's fundamental for the world to flourish. This is how God's going to bring what he promised. There's two, two things we could say about it, one from the Old Testament, one from the new that highlight this whole idea, Deuteronomy, four, seven through eight. Moses is now taking Genesis and the rest of these Old Testament books, he is preaching his final set of sermons to Israel as they're about to go into the Promised Land. And this is what he says. For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him, there's faith like Abraham had to walk before him, draw near to Him, live with him. And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today, Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and by their righteous and just activity, they were to demonstrate, in a very practical way, their love and care for their fellow countrymen, and it was to be a model to the nations, representing God's image to the world in the New Testament, this ethic is summed up in one word, love, love. Love. Will act righteously. Love will act justly. And Jesus says this in John 1335, by this the world will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Abraham is supposed to carry this out he is supposed to teach his children these things they are to be righteous. He gives a second. He wants Abraham and his offspring to know the consequences of faithlessness and unrepentant sin. Verse 20 says, Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether or not they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know. Does God not know? This is a picture much like the story of Babel, where the sin of Babel now the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is so brazen and so loud, it is as if the noise rises up into heaven, the outcry the noise of the sin. It's not the only place that. There is sin, but it is become especially perverse. I'm going to go down, I'm going to look, I'm going to find out. And actually, there's a very particular test that we'll see next week that proves the point the two angels show up in the city to prove the point of how far Sodom and Gomorrah had fallen. Now just just think a little bit about Sodom and Gomorrah. We've heard about them already. Where have we heard about them? Lot chooses to live near Sodom and Gomorrah. It's the most fertile farmland. It's going to be the most prosperous in a farming economy. This is going to be the wealthiest era. So Sodom and Gomorrah are prosperous. They're well off. But remember also what happens in chapter 14, Josh preached on this story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were conquered and they were essentially put in carts, or they were put in chains, and they were carried off as war booty for the northern kingdom that had taken them. And Abraham heard about it, because lot was included, and he takes his 318 fighting men, and they attack them, and God gives them a great victory. They destroy the enemy, and they rescue all five kings, lot, all of the people are kept alive and Abraham. Where does Abraham bring all these kings and all of these people who were just delivered by God's gracious hand to Melchizedek, and Melchizedek announced to everyone, including those kings, that God, by His grace, through Abraham, had delivered the people. They had experienced the practical salvation of God, and they persevered in their wickedness. The outcry was especially egregious because Yahweh had intervened firsthand to save them, and they gave him no regard, no regard the noise went up to heaven next week, we're going to see how he puts them to the test by how they treat His holy angels. But if we were to summarize the two great sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, one was that they showed no concern for the poor or needy. Ezekiel 1649 just summarizes it this way. They did not aid the poor and the needy. They did not show hospitality to the two angelic strangers, and the second was rampant immorality. Jude one seven, for instance, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality, pursued unnatural desires, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire, judgment falls on those who neglect righteousness and justice. Judgment falls on those who please themselves in their sin. Justice comes to those who reject God's saving grace, and this warning of judgment is to do what Newton called teaching my heart to fear. It was Grace that taught my heart to fear. God is holy and righteous and just, and there is a judgment to fall in teaching us to fear. It teaches us to long for Christ and His forgiveness. Teaches us to long for Christ and forgiveness. Then on seeing God's holy standards, after we have trusted Christ and forgiveness, then we walk in those holy standards we are to teach our children to do this. Sodom and Gomorrah as the constant object lesson throughout the Bible reminds us of how desperate people need saving grace in Christ. Galatians 313, through 14. Bring us Abraham. Bring us the curse, bring us judgment. When Jesus comes in the New Testament, he doesn't come merely appearing like a man, a theophany, or a christophany. He comes in human flesh, and he comes to live, to obey the father perfectly, to do righteousness and justice. Jesus obeys. Jesus helps the poor. Jesus stands for true justice, and Jesus is betrayed and murdered and hangs on a cross and on the cross. Cross the wrath of God, the fiery fury of the wrath of God falls on Jesus, and all who call on him can be forgiven. Galatians, 313, 14, then says, Cursed is everyone who was hanged on a tree, so that in Christ, Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. I remember 10 or 11, I get my first Bible because I finished Catholic Catechism. You get a Bible at the end of Catholic Catechism. I remember trying to read the Bible on my own. I remember getting through the Sermon on the Mount, and after I read these words, I knew I was eternally condemned if anyone has even looked at a woman lustfully. In his heart, he has committed adultery, guilty, guilty. And it was when I heard later that Jesus Christ came to pay for sins in full. I mean, at that point, it was a version of an altar call. If you want to experience the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, you've paid for all of your sins, please stand up where you are. Bam, I just shot up. I want that. I want that grace teaches our hearts to fear and grace by the judgment on Christ our fears relieved
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in our text. Here we're to teach our children Abraham is to teach his children all the offspring after him. And the function of teaching righteousness and justice while your children are little is to show God's standard. It's why you memorize and you think through the 10 Commandments, it's why you teach your kids the 10 Commandments. I remember a number of years ago, our kids were all little. Somebody in children's ministry had put a whole bunch of labels on little tiles, and then they glued magnets on the back, and they were the 10 Commandments. And if the kids came in and they memorized a commandment. They got to take home a tile and we had all 10 Commandments eventually, by the end of it on our refrigerator, some time goes by, magnets get lost. One is left. Linda's brother shows up one day, and he's visiting with us, and we're having a great time. And David says to Linda, you know, a lot of people will put memory verses up on on their refrigerator if they're trying to work on something you know, trying to grow and trying to memorize, the one that's up on your refrigerator is, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Is there something I should know,
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but the reality of God's righteousness and justice, and then the reality of judgment are how God opens blind eyes that are proud, thinking that they are that they are just fine having trusted Christ. What do we do? We want to bear God's image. So Paul summarizes this up. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. We need to teach our children God's righteousness and justice. We need to meditate ourselves on God's righteousness and justice. We need to recognize there is a judge and be in awe of him. And we need to put our trust in Jesus and trust Him, following Him. And then we put on the Lord Jesus, putting on the Lord Jesus is putting on His love, His righteousness, His justice, his mission. That's a righteous response to God's righteous judgment compels us to Him for mercy. The second thing that compels us is prayer. We pray when we when we see this, we are immediately feeling that pinch of compassion, and we see it immediately with Abraham as we move to the second section. First, we need to pay attention the outworking of that is our own lives, our own godliness, our own trust in Christ, and then the teaching it from generation The next thing is, is this praying, pray for mercy from the judge? Verse 22 so the men turned from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood before the Lord, and then Abraham drew near, and that those two words are really key, standing before the Lord and drawing near the Lord are the very same words that the priests were. Were to use, or they were to do as they served the people in the tabernacle and eventually in the temple. This is priestly language. Abraham stands in the presence of the Lord, and I think it's the Lord Jesus here. Yahweh. He's standing in the presence of the Lord and His Holiness, and he immediately starts praying for mercy, and he does it in a way that shows us all how to pray. He says, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Remember, Abraham is not questioning God's assessment. He is assuming that there are a lot of wicked people, but he's also assuming there are a number of righteous people. Doesn't seem to go with your character says there are 50 righteous. If there are 50 righteous within the city, will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it. Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked. Far be that from you is Abraham rebuking God. It's pretty bold. Don't you think what Abraham is doing is what we should all do in prayer. We should all base our requests based on who God has revealed himself to be. You are this, here's my request that's consistent with who you are. You are righteous and just, and you won't punish the wicked. There's a little aside. It's not the point of the passage, but I would just want to say this, if you have repented and trusted Christ and He has taken your judgment, there is no judgment for you. There is no judgment for you. So everything hard that happens in your life, every trial, even like, if it's like in YouTube, who passed away, and she's gone through a trial now her husband, that is not judgment. Everything the father does toward his children is love. It might be hard because the father disciplines those he loves, he transforms the ones he loves. Might be hard, but it is not judgment. No, he does not sweep away the righteous with the wicked.
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He says, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? God is judge. A king has to to uphold his rule and his dominion, establish Justice, establish an ordered judgment. When people violate His laws and His rules Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just.
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It's interesting here because you see, Abraham's humanity, Abraham has a sense of justice, doesn't he? He is made in the image of God. You have a sense of justice because you're made in the image of God. But do you evaluate by God's standard of justice, or do you evaluate by your own Abraham evaluated by God's sense of justice, what God has revealed? Then the negotiation starts. The Lord said, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Now notice Abraham is cautious. God is a holy, righteous judge. So he is not flippant about these he is not condemning God. You don't actually see unbelief of any kind. What you see is a humility that is so moved by compassion for this city, this region. Remember lot is there. He's got a concern. Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord I who am but dust and ashes. He recognizes his unworthiness, which is the other appropriate attitude? How does Jesus teach us to pray Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. When we approach God, He is a father, and he does love us, but He is holy and Abraham, even though he's been called into a relationship, even though there is a covenant established between them, never, never assumes he deserves something from God. I am but dust and ashes. I know I'm proud even to speak. I. Not worthy. Suppose five of the 50 righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for a lack of five? Yahweh answers, I will not destroy it if I find 45 he does this five more times, 4030, 2010, each time, saying, in effect, don't get angry with me. I know I'm pushing my luck. I know I'm pushing it. I know it might seem that I'm proud about this. And then he comes to 10, says, If there's 10, Lord says, If there's 10, Ian,
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now there's 10 the Lord went away, and when he had finished speaking to Abraham, Abraham returned to his place. It's not a new dilemma for a person to question the judgment of God. It's not a new dilemma. It's an age old dilemma. Many people think it's unfair. Why do people think it's unfair? Because they think too highly of men. They think too highly of men. If there's 50, well, I'm not sure if there's 50. What if there's 10? How many were there? Lot? And that's not going to be great. Are our problem is pride and blindness. It's God's world. He made us for His purposes, and He commands us to live by His by his rules, by faith in him, by trust in Him, to follow his holy standards, first by believing on his son, then by being like the Son, and we all know it. If we steal, we get caught. We get justice. If we lie, we get caught. There's going to be a form of justice. If we vandalize, there's going to be a kind of justice. We get caught. We know we're in trouble. We want the murderer, the molester, to come to justice. We want the terrorist or the drug dealer or the abortion doctor to come to justice. But it's a little harder because of our blindness and our pride to believe this. Romans, 323, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is a judgment day coming turn to Revelation 21 or 20 rather, Revelation 20, verse 11, speaking of the final judgment, says, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it death, and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. That is, there is a resurrection of the wicked into their bodies to live eternally, and they are going to stand before the bar. They're going to go to court. You're all familiar with seeing courtroom scenes and defendant sitting with his lawyers. We're all used to this scene of a courtroom case, and there will be a courtroom day where every individual will stand before God. Those who are in the book of life will stand as the audience, witnessing the judge. Those who are in the book of life have trusted Christ. Their sins have been forgiven at Judgment Day. For them, it is their father, it is their brother, it is the groom to the church, so to speak, but they stand and watch those who are in these books. And name after name, person comes forward, and the Lord the judge will ask the person, do you know why you're here? Do you know what you have done? And if the person says, Yes, I know what I have done, I am guilty. And he said, by your words, you are condemned, and that person is consigned into the lake of fire. Person shows up at the bars and says, Do you know what you have done? Do you know you're condemned? And they say, No, I am innocent. I have done nothing wrong. And the book is opened and listed out is every thought, every word, every deed of sin against God for the entirety of life. And it says the list is certain you are guilty.
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That is a day of. Horror and dread for anyone you know that doesn't know Jesus Christ, and if you have not turned to him like the thief on the cross, remember me in your kingdom like the parable of the tax collector who beat his breast at the temple, who couldn't even lift his eyes to God. Have mercy on me, a sinner, if you have not cried out to him. This is a day to do that before this judgment happens. And if you have a loved one, if you have a neighbor, if you have an enemy, who is going to face the tribunal of all tribunals, the Court of all courts, you'll be compelled to pray and to preach, Abraham prays. Abraham prays. Commentators suggest that even if there are 10, that is a remnant of believers who might have an influence for preaching the gospel and winning more to the Lord. There's just 10. I know there's 10 gospel speakers, and more might get saved, delaying the judgment of God. Certainly what we think. If you are not if you are not in Christ, you've not trusted Christ, if you're not repented, I want to finish out this statement in Romans, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation. A propitiation is a sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God. All the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus for all his children, if you call on Him, all your sins can be forgiven
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by this. We know that God is love. He sent forth his Son to be a propitiation for our sins to be received by faith. Paul tells us how to pray. He gives us two one. He says this at the same time, pray for us also. We the missionaries, that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison. We want to declare the mystery of Christ because we know that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation, salvation from the wrath of God, salvation from the death of the body, salvation from the curse in the world, salvation from the corruption of sin. All of that comes through Jesus Christ, you we want to pray. Pray for us that a door for the word might open so we could declare this powerful gospel. And then he prays in Romans 10 for his own countrymen, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for my fellow Jews is that they may be saved. I
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Jesus, Peter said, after the resurrection of the dead, as he starts going to preach to Gentiles, he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and of the dead. This is the time to turn to Him. Jesus told his disciples, as they go out and preach truly, I tell you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town that rejects me. Remember, who are the righteous? According to Genesis 15, six, it is those who believe on God's promise for salvation to trust him, and then who put on Christ and follow His ways. It's not the other way around. It's not do a bunch of good things and then God will spare you. It is to put your faith and trust in Him, and then God produces righteousness and justice in you, as you absorb his word and the Gospel, it was Grace that taught my heart to fear and grace. My fear is relieved. How precious did thy grace appear? Year, the hour I first believed Sodom and Gomorrah are to point you to your need and your loved ones to their need so that they can see Christ in His glorious provision. Let's pray for our city right now, Father, we pray for our city. We pray for our children. We pray for your work. I pray for grown men and grown women sitting in pews here in the chairs, who have not availed themselves of grace your calling. Stir them to answer. Stir them to plead for mercy and God, we want to pursue righteousness and justice because it is good and right. It's who you are, and by transformed lives, we can bring a blessing, a flourishing, to our neighborhood, to our families, testifying to the saving power of Jesus, not only to forgive sin, but to make us more like him, grant us that in His name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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