-Transcript-
00:35 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the cafe.
00:39 Welcome to the program. Great to have you here today. I’m so glad that you’ve joined us here in the cafe for another episode.
00:48 Today we are looking at the judgment of God. Amen. The judgment of God.
00:55 And recently we’ve looked at the judgment of God in light of salvation for those who would believe. Amen.
01:02 And on the other end of that spectrum, the other end of that spectrum, you have God’s judgment on those that don’t believe.
01:12 And we see with God all things are possible, including righteous judgment. Luke 1:37, for with God nothing shall be impossible. You know, a lot of people want to think of God as benign, as just ambivalent, as not really interested in the ways of man.
01:39 They want to think of God as, yes, a loving God, but they want to remove the righteous justice of God from his persona. And you can’t do that. Man doesn’t get to pick, but oh how man tries.
01:55 So Luke 1:37 says, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. And I’d like to say nothing shall be impossible, even righteous judgment, which man can’t comprehend. They cannot comprehend a righteous God judging their sin.
02:09 In this day and age, man wants to remake everything into what they prefer. Amen. If you look at the war in the political realm or the cultural realm, if you look at what’s going on, Satan has his group, which is the majority, fighting for these perversions of God’s ways.
02:32 And then you’ve got God’s remnant that is standing up by the working of the Holy Spirit, like a blockade. I’ve heard it put that the Holy Spirit is almost like a dam in a river blocking it from going through. Amen.
02:43 And so this river of sin and iniquity, if it weren’t for the Holy Spirit, would be rushing down straight to destruction.
02:51 But God’s put the Holy Spirit out there in the hearts of the believers to stand up for what is right and to say, no, God will judge sin. Luke 1:37, for with God, nothing shall be impossible.
03:04 And those that believe that God is just going to stand by idly and allow them to speak against his ways and act against his ways and pervert his ways and act in great unbelief without consequences, they are wrong.
03:21 The calculation I believe the world makes often is, well, I said something, I blasphemed God yesterday and he didn’t do anything about it. So I’ll go blaspheme him again today.
03:30 Or I sinned yesterday and I had pleasure from it and I’ll go sin again today. The Bible says there’s pleasure in sin for a season, amen, for a season.
03:39 But what the world doesn’t quite understand, because the book clearly states this in the Bible, God will judge all, amen.
03:51 It’s easy in this world to get discouraged by seeing evil and wickedness at the top. They triumph. And let’s look at that for a minute.
04:02 You think about why is, again, if nothing’s impossible with God, if God is just and right, if God’s going to judge mankind and judge sin, then why is the culture set up in a way today where sin is prevalent and man that sins is lifted up?
04:19 Well, who is the little g God of this world? The devil, right? And when did the devil become the God of this world? When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and they sinned and they were cast out of the garden and death entered the picture.
04:33 And ever since then, mankind has had that sin curse upon them. And mankind has been spiritually dead unless they’re born again.
04:41 And therefore, in this world, it is the devil’s world for this season. And that is why you see man lifted up. That’s why you see perversions lifted up.
04:49 Have you ever wondered why you would to say a movie, right? And the movie, let’s say it was aimed at kids or anybody, all ages, families, and somebody would either blaspheme God in the movie or put in something very inappropriate in the movie.
05:06 And you say to yourself, that has no place there. Why is that? And the movie theater is packed, right? People are watching it everywhere.
05:13 Why is it? Why is it in this song that they say this thing or promote this lifestyle that goes against God? Or why is it in school or wherever, right? You see these things everywhere.
05:21 Well, the reason why is the devil, the little g god of this world has run through with his wickedness. And in his, his limited time here on earth, it looks like it’s triumphing.
05:35 But when we understand God’s plan, we realize his wrath is fierce and we don’t want anyone to face it. Not even our worst enemy. I mean this, not that person that is the worst enemy of you today.
05:49 Would you want them to face God’s wrath? Because truly, as I understand the Bible, we have not yet seen God’s wrath. We have seen maybe God’s response to sinful mankind.
06:01 As you read the Bible, God’s people, Israel would sin and he would allow bad things to happen to them.
06:08 They would go into captivity or a plague would come out or an issue, you know, all these kinds of issues because they were living in sin. So we are living in the consequences of our sin, right?
06:18 But we are not yet seeing God’s wrath. That’s reserved for the tribulation period.
06:24 And here at KJV Cafe, we believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. We believe the rapture will take place and then the tribulation will start and that’ll be seven years. And after those first three and a half years, then we really start to see God’s wrath.
06:39 And I was on a very simple page about the book of Revelation. And I’ve read a lot of commentaries on Revelation. I’ve read Revelation, of course, many times.
06:49 And God knows it’s a little bit difficult to discern sometimes. And so I was on this page, I think it was bible.org, had like a synopsis of a book on Revelation.
06:59 And they just tried to put in plain language what would happen during the tribulation period to mankind.
07:07 And it was absolutely hard to fathom. I mean, it was almost unspeakable that the absolute destruction and wrath that comes upon mankind, the idea that they will want to die and that they cannot die,
07:18 that God’s punishment will be so fierce that a hundred pound hailstones will fall from the sky, that they will be tortured by demons and animals, and that there will be absolute beyond frustration,
07:36 just like tears of agony, and you just want it to end, and it can’t end because God’s wrath is coming upon the people. In fact, at the end of the tribulation period, the Bible states that if it were even another day, that no one would survive.
07:52 It’s that brutal. And you don’t want anyone to go through that. I encourage you to read up on the tribulation period.
08:02 It is absolutely intense, intense beyond intense. And so there are implications to understanding what the judgment of God will bring. And as we study them, we can discover these implications today.
08:10 Our text verse is John8:24. I said, therefore, unto you that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, he shall die in your sins.
08:20 So this is Jesus speaking to the Pharisees. And we’re just going to look in John 8, starting at verse one to see what this is about. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives.
08:31 And early in the morning, he came unto the temple and all the people came unto him. And he sat down and he taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery.
08:41 And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.
08:49 Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. What sayest thou? This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him.
08:59 But Jesus stooped down with his finger, wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them,
09:08 he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
09:17 And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.
09:26 When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord.
09:37 And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.
09:47 He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself. Thy record is not true.
09:57 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came and whither I go, but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh.
10:11 I judge no man. Yet if I judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.
10:17 It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am the one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me nor my father.
10:32 If ye had known me, ye should have known my father also. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. And no man laid hands on him, for his hour was not yet come.
10:43 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and ye shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? Because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.
10:55 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, That ye shall die in your sins.
11:08 For if ye believe not that I am he,ye shall die in your sins. Okay, well John 8:1-24 is very fascinating because I think John 8 is probably used often in the church to preach on being careful for judgment and being careful on judging the sinner.
11:27 And I could see a very liberal church, a very modern church, taking that verse and saying, see, look, this is how the Bible says we are to live, we are to live accepting people, and if they’re sinful, we need to look internally.
11:41 Okay, but what’s ironic about that? First of all, this is true, we must look upon ourselves, right? What’s ironic about that is the latter part of John 8 here, when Jesus says you’re going to die in your sins, when Jesus is saying you’re of the flesh, you’re from below, you’re the devils.
12:03 Well, what’s Jesus getting at there? And it was really fascinating, right? Because what we see here is that you have two things happening. You have faith, right, or unbelief, and you have someone that is not following the law.
12:18 And the Pharisees believed they were justified by what they thought was following the law, even though they surely were breaking the law, because it was impossible to keep the law.
12:25 So the world would think the woman in adultery would be the one that was judged, but it’s not the case. The sin implications here, one sinning breaking the law, the other is sinning and unbelief, and the answer is, which one is greater?
12:37 Who overcomes the law? See, if we realize that Jesus Christ overcame the law, right, that he came to fulfill the law, the idea is that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we could be forgiven of our sin debt, and that when we believe on him, we are no longer under the law,
13:01 we’re no longer under condemnation, amen, we believe on him and we’re saved, right? Well, the Pharisees, did they believe in Jesus? They literally said, we don’t believe you in that scripture.
13:13 They’re saying, oh, we don’t believe that it’s true. You don’t have a, you know, you’re not who you say you are. You don’t have a witness.
13:22 See, so they have unbelief, and that unbelief, the fact they don’t truly believe that Christ is God will lead them to die in their sins and go to hell.
13:30 And so the broader implication for us here today is that we are justified by our faith, not by our works, whether they’re good or bad, amen. God is so forgiving. We think back to what God has done for us.
13:44 If we’ve accepted Christ as savior, our sins are cast away into the sea of forgetfulness, amen. We are forgiven of our sins. We’re no longer under condemnation. When we believe in Christ, we’re no longer under the law.
13:55 I wish I had more time here today to dive into this, where I have a few more parts coming up in this series on the judgment of God, and we see the powerful judgment of God.
14:02 You will want to just love the Lord and follow Him with all your heart, not because of the law, but because of grace, because of grace.
14:11 Thank you for joining me. Take care. God bless. Tune in next time. Amen.