Sermon INTRODUCTION “God as Judge”

98:1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. 2 The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!

8 Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together 9 before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

WE NEED A JUDGING GOD TO LIVE IN HOPE IN A SHATTERED WORLD His anger isn’t ego, or crankiness, but a settled, fixed, incorruptible, implacable holy opposition to evil, so that no debt will go unpaid and no one will get away with anything.

If We’re Not Accountable, It Simply Means That We Don’t Count

WE NEED A JUDGING GOD TO KNOW TRUE HUMILITY Religious traditionalists / moralists – they hold to absolutes and values and judgment, God will judge the bad people. “I obey and do good”.

The other group is the secular relativists – create your own truth, etc. We must embrace everything. Their creed is “the trouble with the world is those people over there who are intolerant. I’m glad I’m not like them.”

Often our good deeds are attempts at trying to control God. How can you tell? Are you angry because God doesn’t let your life go right?

YOU ALSO NEED A JUDGING GOD TO FORGIVE My thesis that non-violence requires an angry God will be unpopular with many Christians in the west, but to the one inclined to dismiss it please imagine that you’re giving a lecture in a war zone to people who have seen cities destroyed, women and children killed.

The topic is :’The Christian Attitude Toward Violence’ and the thesis is that we should not pay back. Why not? “Violence thrives today secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take the sword. A God who doesn’t put an end to evil and injustice wouldn’t be worthy of our worship.”

YOU NEED A JUDGING GOD TO SEE HOW LOVED YOU ARE The greater His wrath, the more you believe in just punishment for sin the more you see how you’re loved. To the degree that you grasp His anger against sin, to that degree you’ll know how much He loves you.

If we’re honest and consistent, we want a God who will judge, we need a God who will judge. But the GOOD NEWS is that the God who is THE judge gave His own Son for us.