1. Here Comes The Judge Things you ought to know before facing your judge.

2. Why you should know your judge. Scenario You have been arrested for something. You are facing a prison sentence. You hire a lawyer (hopefully the lawyer is good at their job) Your lawyer prepares your case. What you also want is a lawyer that knows the judge very well.

3. Judges are the law in their courtroom. You need your lawyer to know how you should behave in this judges court. How you present your self: In appearance In propriety In essence In reaction

4. Application of our lesson We should know who our judge is. We should know His tendencies. We should know how to behave before Him. Here are things we need to consider about our final judge:

5. He is just and all-knowing A human judge may get fooled from time to time. A human judge may accept a bribe. A human judge can only judge based upon the facts presented. Hebrews 4:13 nothing hidden from His sight. Proverbs 15:3 the eyes of the Lord are every place watching evil and good

6. He uses an absolute standard Many judges interpret the law differently. Some judges may not like the law and rule against the actual law. This is what they call legislating from the bench. God’s standard is Christ and His laws. John 12:48 the words I speak will judge you. The Lord will judge us all by the final and complete authority of His Word. And His word is perfect Psalm 19:7-8

7. He will judge us individually Based upon our own deeds that we have done. 2 Corinthians 5:10 Our system of justice is based upon the presumption that some crimes are worse than others. With a good lawyer, we might get a different sentence than what someone else might get for the same offence. If we can convince a judge that our actions are not as bad as what someone did, we might get a lesser sentence than they got. But in the final judgment we will not be able to shift the focus upon others. We will stand alone before God.

8. Extenuating circumstances will not be considered. We are all guilty of using this type of defense. There will be no “yes Lord, but……” There will be no “I intended to, but….” There will be no “It seems to me….” Matthew 7:21-23 When all is said and done, the only thing that matters is if we did what God commanded.

9. His judgment will be FINAL. There will be no appeals processes. We cannot claim a faulty system merits us a second trial. We cannot claim that evidence was mishandled or ignored. We cannot claim that the law was interpreted wrongly.

10. Judgment is coming We cannot escape it. Hebrews 9:27 While we live, Christ is our lawyer Once we die, Christ becomes our judge There will be no complaints, because everyone will get exactly what they deserve.

11. Conclusion Even with all the faults of our judicial system, we in America still enjoy the best in the world. While there is technology that could keep tabs on everyone and know where they were at specific times, they choose not to use this against its own citizens. Human rights and citizen rights will not be considered in our final judgment. Only God’s rights will matter on that day.