Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

I AM Pt.6

Hallelujah! Amen. Let's turn to Deuteronomy 32. We want to continue to look at some of the attributes of the Lord. As we said, this is so vital in the day that we're living and the hour that's upon us. We're facing, really, the manifestation of the righteousness and the justice of God. We want to have our hearts prepared and be a people who are able to stand under these days. We do realize that in this time God is allowing his wrath to come upon the nation. We're going to be experiencing, if nothing else, through observation, some rough times that are going to be going on here on the planet. We're going to have to be prepared in our hearts to know the goodness of our God, the mercy of our God, and we want to talk this morning about the justice of our God.

We talked about the goodness of our Lord in the last session. We want to talk about the justice of God. Now remember, the thing that is so important as we've been talking about the study is we have to perceive God always from His unitary essence. We've talked about the fact that God, being unitary, everything works equally within Himself. There is nothing that ever opposes Himself. He is unitary, and because of that, mercy is never opposing justice and justice is never opposing mercy. All of His mercy is just and all of His justice is merciful. Amen? When we understand that about God, we in our minds have trouble with this because we are not unitary, we're segmented. In our segmentation we realize that we try to, the best we can, become a composite. We try to be amalgamated and think in the wisdom of God, and the justice of God, and the mercy of God, but we have a tendency, don't we, to go one way or the other to the extreme in a given situation. We either sometimes go a little bit overboard in what's just and then we find ourselves sometimes going a little bit overboard in being too merciful to the cost of justice, because we're human, we have that conflict. It's never a conflict in our Father. It's not anything that He ever has to try to balance out, because, listen: Everything that is good, just and right comes from God. It's not a standard He is trying to meet, it's who He is. We've heard the statement made at times--let's say some type of an individual comes in, these mass murderers or a type of a heinous crime, and we come in and see this act that's committed against an individual--they mutilate, they destroy, or whatever. We'll hear people say: "Justice demands that these people are treated thus and so." It can never be stated that way about Father. Justice is not something separate from God, a standard that He has to meet. Everything God does is, say it, "Just!" There is not a separate standard. The will of God is just. Whatever God wills.

Now, we can really get ourselves in trouble if we don't understand the unitary aspect of God. We can go into an extreme knowledge of God like the Calvinists have. Where, in fact, justice seems to be the primary attribute of God as the Calvinist would see Him. Or the sovereignty of God. They equate sovereignty and justice almost as something that's synonymous. They say that God can do whatever He wants, but the fact is, God cannot do anything He wants to do. God can only do what He is. Now our little brains are going to struggle a little bit. I understand that. But the fact of the matter is, can God lie? No, because God is truth. He can't lie. The Bible says, "for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man...." (James 1:13) So, can God be tempted with evil? No. It's impossible because He is absolutely righteous and pure and holy. He can't move in that direction. When we understand the attributes of God, we need to realize, then, as we look at justice here we can never see justice apart from the mercy of God, the love of God. All of the other attributes are working in perfect union with this unitary being. Now we're going to struggle periodically, so we need to look at the Scriptures and begin to allow God to reveal himself to us. The reason this is important for us to understand God is that we somehow establish different standards whether they're philosophical which come into sociological, different applications of justice, and we try to hold God to our perception; and beloved, you're going to get into some big trouble if you ever try to hold God to your perception of what's right. "That just doesn't seem"--have you ever heard somebody say that? Have you ever said that? That just doesn't seem--but the Judge of all the earth does right. So, when we understand that, it allows us to humble ourselves and realize that if there seems to be some conflict in the attributes of God, there isn't! It's your limited knowledge. It's your inability to see from an infinite position and in our finite minds we get ourselves in trouble. That's why we never want to approach God--this is where a lot of these scholars get into trouble. You never want to approach God intellectually; you always want to approach Him experientially. Knowing Him within your heart. Knowing Him in relationship and understanding His justice.

When we look at that this morning, we want to be able to establish our hearts with that knowledge, first of all, that God always does right. We have the saying that justice is what? Justice is blind. Right? You go down to the courthouse, the Supreme Court, you have Ms. Judgement. What is it that we see over the eyes of justice? The blindfold. Justice is blind. In other words it's not a respecter of persons. Really? How about that poor excuse of a person, this basketball guy that's hiding out? What is his name? Iverson. How many of you would get to stay home and wait till Tuesday to turn yourself in? We realize that man's perception of justice is very limited. We all know that in our great nation, the freest nation on the planet, that justice is in direct relationship to your pocketbook. So it's very important that we don't approach the justice of God from a jaded perspective of how we have seen men administer justice historically. God's motives are always pure, His ways are always right. Everything He does is based upon who He is, His love, His desire for humanity. When you approach God, don't ever mistake His justice as being something that is punitive, but equitable. It's always what is right. The action, the sowing and reaping principles, will inevitably have to be applied, but God's goodness and His mercy restrain Him as long as He can as He deals with men, and gives all men an opportunity to repent, because God's justice is now being applied through the righteousness of Christ. God's justice has been satisfied by the free gift that God gave us of Jesus on the cross. Because of that, He can be just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. So, we want to see God, not just in His judicial position on the throne, we want to see Him, as we study justice, as a merciful, loving, heavenly Father who sought us out and came up with an ingenious plan to be able to satisfy His own justice by becoming flesh and dwelling among us, dying for us and being made sin with our sin so His justice could be satisfied. But he doesn't always strive with men, the Scripture tells us. There is that day of reckoning that each is going to experience.

With that as a little bit of our preparation in approaching the justice of God, don't ever see it, again, as something that's separate from Himself that's a punitive type of an expression of Himself; but the fact of the matter is, it's right.

I was talking with someone the other day as it pertains to different things as it pertained in our own life, as I was over the years trying to share the Gospel with my father as he finally died in his sins. I was asked the question: "What is it like?" "How can you deal with someone that you loved, someone you had relationship with, and you know that they have passed into eternal damnation?" The only way you can deal with that is: The Judge of all the earth does right. "How can you live with that?" I can live with it very simply because of this: I very specifically spelled out to him the way of his salvation, the love of God for his soul. That while he was a hater and a defier of God's righteousness and God's love, a lover of self, a lover of pleasure, God continued to seek him and the one who was not just is the one that received just recompense. Establish in your hearts, because, very frankly, some of you are going to have to deal with it with parents, with spouses, with children; and you're going to have to stand one of these days and see those balances swing in a way that is not going to be what your desire was, and need to make the determination that the God we serve is merciful, kind, loving and just.

Now, let's look at it in the Scriptures and see if we can find this equitableness of God. When we talk about justice, the thing we have to understand is this: It's the same Greek word as righteousness. They're synonymous, they mean exactly the same thing. If we were to go back and take the New American Standard Bible, for instance, and compare it with the King James, you'll find that in the King James many of the times the word 'just' or 'justice' is used it's translated 'righteousness' in the New American Standard. They're synonymous. They mean basically the same thing.

When we're talking about justice or righteousness, again, as we're sharing here, we're not talking about what is right by man's perception, but we're talking about the expression or the revelation of the heart, the person, and the character of God. The application of that to certain situations is the application of justice or equity. You find the word 'equity' when you find another term in the Bible. It's important, and this will help you understand it. There's another word that we render in the English bible it's called 'iniquity' which is really 'inequity.' Okay? Iniquity, when you see it, you see never God being the source of iniquity. There is a lot in the Scriptures about God not having iniquity within Himself. It's just talking about inequity. He always does what's fair. He always does what's right. Iniquity just means it's not fair. It wasn't the proper application, the proper balance, the proper meting of rightness. Well, God is righteous. When we understand that, it helps us put this picture together. Let's look at the Apostle's heart for a second.

Turn to the book of Acts. I want you to see something here. I want you to see a great man in his greatness without trying to pass judgement upon this guy. You can't find yourself really being critical, but we can read the Scriptures. We can know historically the actions of these individuals and we know that these are not perfect people. As we talk about the conflict between Paul and Barnabas, I think what we're looking at here in the book of Acts, chapter 15, are a couple of guys struggling with this very issue of justice and mercy. We've always heard this saying: "When you stand before God don't demand justice, seek [What?] mercy." That's a great statement from a human perspective. But, you know, there is no problem with standing before God and demanding justice, if you understand what justice is based upon. I don't want what I deserve but I justly want what Jesus has provided me. Amen? What I deserve is hell. There is nothing in me that is righteous. My righteousness, the best that I can do is as [What?] filthy rags in the sight of God. I don't want what I deserve, but I want justice because of what Jesus has provided me. So when you stand before God and seek justice, you are getting mercy when you come through Jesus. It is very important for us to understand that. We have the wrong concept of God. We still think that if we were to go before God and say: "Lord, I'm just here and I'm ready to receive justice." Most of us would almost be fearful to say that because, again, we have this thing segmented and we don't realize that justice has been met through the love of God, the free gift of Jesus Christ. What happens is, and I think this happened with Paul and Barnabas, many times we begin to apply our own prejudiced understanding of justice. This is where we get into trouble many times with dealing with our kids, in dealing with those who are in positions of subservient roles to us. The Scripture makes it very clear. It says, "Listen, masters, you be very careful that when you administrate your role that you apply justice and equity because you have a Judge in heaven." You know, one of the greatest ways to get yourself out from under the mercy of God and back into a legal justice is to not show mercy, is to demand your own way and your own perception of truth, to think of yourself more highly than you ought. To be an individual who is pharisaical in your approach to God. Jesus said, the one thing that will prove that you're a true believer, he said over in Matthew when He was teaching the Sermon on the Mount, He said the one thing that will prove that you're a true believer is that your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of [Who?] the scribes and the Pharisees. Then He goes on to say that their righteousness was one that says, "This is what's right and this is the truth," but they never lived it. They never applied it. All they were looking to do was to hold others in bondage to a legal system when they were doing the same things in their own hearts and secretly in their own lives, but boasting in their knowledge of what was right and all the while living in a lascivious manner. Living in their own perception of rightness and a self righteousness. It will get you in trouble. "I'm just standing up for what's right!" It's your perception of what's right. Let's take what you're standing up for and hold it up against the Scriptures. You want to know the best way to handle justice? Now remember, I'm talking from our limited perspective, not God's because God doesn't have this trouble. We have the trouble. Do you want to know the best way to handle justice? In this situation, bless God, this is justice: "Can I find any way possible to apply mercy?" If you want to apply justice properly, look for every avenue to find mercy in the application of this. Now remember, I'm talking about our limited perspective. Do you want to know the best way to apply mercy? Does this in any way insult the blood of Jesus and the free gift of salvation and the love of God, and the righteousness of God? Is this in any way contributing to the death, the flesh, the destruction of this individual? Then when you understand everything that God does is done in perfect balance of these two, it allows us to rest in the goodness of God, the justice of God, and the mercy of God because the Judge of all the earth does right.

Okay, here we have two guys. Great men of God and people who have been serving the Lord, called of God, anointed of God, full of the Holy Ghost, people who's lives are committed. A man of humility such as Barnabas who, when he went into Antioch realized that there was another gift that needed to be administered into the establishing of Church. So Barnabas--look at the humility of this guy, man. I mean, he's the man. Barnabas is the man. They go into Antioch and he says, "You know, we need Paul here. We need Paul's gifts." How many of you are always ready to bring in someone else's gifts and, even if necessary, subordinate yourself to them so God can be glorified? Now maybe you realize why others are called and not yourself. We realize that as God is moving in these lives, Barnabas calls Paul in here and he's willing to subordinate himself. Paul begins to emerge. What is it that caused Paul to emerge? I don't know exactly. We begin to look at the gifts of these two particular individuals. We don't necessarily from Scripture see that Paul was a great orator. In fact, we know that there was a little bit of intimidation, possibly, that Paul experienced as Apollos was able to come and with his great oratorical gifts and his intellect be able to administer the Gospel. People just flocked to him. Who knows what type charismatic personality this guy Apollos had, but people flocked to him. Paul wasn't necessarily, from the Scriptures, someone who just oozed personality. There didn't seem to be a whole lot in the natural going for this guy, but one thing we do know is that he had a zeal for God, didn't he? We know that he had a giant intellect. He was a guy that was able to understand, and perceive, and look at the big picture. Yet in all of that he realized in humility he had to be subordinated and counted as dung that he might win Christ. So, as he began to humble himself, God was able to flow through him, and in his weakness, then, the perfection of Jesus was able to be seen. Nevertheless, though Paul died daily, there were things that he had to contend with.

So, they're on the journey and John Mark wanted to go home. We don't know if he got homesick, whatever; maybe his allowance ran out. Who knows? So we're going to see two things that happened here. When they get ready to go on the next missionary endeavor Barnabas wants John to go with them. Did Barnabas have great revelation from God? No, it was his nephew. Do you think family ties can get us into trouble sometimes? And Abraham took--how many of you are dragging somebody along? How many of you have commitment to blood that continually gets you in trouble? Abraham was told to leave all behind and he took Lot with him. We're going to talk about that ordeal in just a minute.

Barnabas, the one thing we know about Barnabas is that he had this great gift. We could say it was his nature, but I would rather see it as a gift, because I think what our natures are is a gift from God. Now some of us think we're a greater gift than we probably really are, but what we are is because of the gifts of God working in our lives. You know those people who are not really naturally loveable? They're a gift of God to you. You ought to say, "Thank God, if they weren't like that, God would have to find another way to improve my patience." They are a gift from God and we are, as believers, who we are. I don't mean in the natural. In the natural we can get ourselves into some real trouble.

I caught an old segment--it wasn't five minutes--had never seen it in its original one either. An old "All In The Family" segment with Archie Bunker. That guy was my dad. I'm telling you. If you ever wanted to know what my father was like, all you have to do is watch "All In The Family." That was my father. Years ago, though they did solve this problem that we have today on our airlines, I remember Archie Bunker talking about that. That was when skyjacking first started. Archie Bunker came up with a solution. He said, "There is no problem. When you get on the plane, give everybody a gun." My dad said, "I've been thinking that for a long time." Now, at 30,000 feet it could get ugly, but the thought processes. The segment I saw of this Archie Bunker was interesting. He was doing a eulogy for a friend of his, Slim. He made the comment, "I was Slim's closest friend and knew him better than anybody, but maybe not as good as I thought." Then the camera kind of comes back and he has this yarmulke on and all these Jewish people are out there. He's giving the eulogy. He says, "My notes here have a lot about the name of Jesus in them. Now, I know that could be a problem for some of you. I know that Jesus was a Jew, and then his father said, "That's enough of that." These people kind of looked like, "What is this?" He said, "I have some notes in here about heaven and I don't know how you guys feel about heaven or whether you want to go there or not because there are a lot of Christians there." That's not the kind of personality that we're necessarily saying that when we say the gifts of God and say this is what God made me. God did not make Archie Bunker for His glory; but He can be glorified in us, can't He?

I'm going to talk about that as we go on, I hope, as we begin to see justice and righteousness as it relates to the sovereignty of God in our lives. As we're gifted, let's realize the same time, the sin that's still in our members, and because of that, our perception of justice can become tainted. You have the natural son of consolation, Barnabas. This was a guy that's a loving, forgiving, merciful type guy. The guy we always like when we're messing up. You bring in Paul, and Paul seems to be an individual that's a no-nonsense type of guy. He's the guy that says, "If you want to be a champion, you need to be temperate in everything else if you're going to excel at this." "If you're going to be great for the kingdom of God, you need to deny yourself." "You need to listen to what the Master said, Take up the cross on a daily basis. There needs to be some discipline in your life." We're drawn towards that in the times of adversity and the times when we need to see ourselves championing the cause at hand. And God put these two people together and they're working in ministry. Now, here comes John Mark, nephew--he goes home for whatever reason. Things were getting tough. They're getting ready to go on the next trip and Paul says, "We don't need quitters." "We don't need weaklings." "We don't need people who aren't committed that aren't ready to die to themselves." "This guy doesn't have any discipline!" "How far are we going to take him this time and he's going to quit and go home?" "What are we going to waste investing into his life and he's just going to turn around and go home when it gets tough?" "We don't need him." Barnabas says, "He's my nephew." We don't see that, do we? Somewhere we see--who knows if Barnabas knew his own heart? Who knows whether there was respect of persons here? Remember, I said we're not going to try to judge these things, we're just going to look at the picture and look at possibilities and realize that we all face these type things in our own lives. I think we ought to give the kid a chance. Everything else in his life speaks towards good. He seems to be pursuing God. There doesn't seem to be a lack of character anywhere else. Everybody can make a mistake, right? How many of you think we ought to throw that into the equation? Sure. You have to. What you really need to do is take the perspective of both of these men, don't you, to arrive at what is just. The justice of God. But the problem was a contention came between these two guys and they couldn't come up with a solution and it split the team down the middle. What was it that really split this missionary team? The inability to arrive at the proper application of justice. How do we treat this guy? What can we do that is equitable? What's fair? What's right in this situation? Now, one of the things we always do in trying to establish this is we have to say, "As we apply the mercy of God to this individual, are we endangering any of the flock of God? Can we giving this person another chance destroy innocence?"

Now, nowhere in the Scripture are we allowed to, because of our love and our compassion invite wolves into our midst. You say, "Come on, you just need to have a little more compassion and mercy here. Come on, give the wolf a hug." The Scripture doesn't allow that. The human perversion of mercy, the pride of man thinking that he is more loving and merciful than God is a stench in the nostrils of God and flies in the face of justice. Mercy never negates justice. Now, justice is expressed a couple of different ways in the Scripture. It's expressed by the Word of God. The Word is just, it's holy, it's good. So anytime that we apply the word of God in mercy, we've applied justice. But justice goes beyond the word of God. It goes beyond the written Word of God. Justice is also perceived in the living Word of God, or the life of Jesus who fulfilled all that was written. The justice of God is the character of God, the life of Christ, the communion that we have with our heavenly Father. So what do we do here? One guy wanting to apply to what we would call mercy, and the other guy wanting to apply what we would call justice, discipline, and it causes a breach. God is sovereign. What the enemy can mean for evil, God can turn for good. Now we don't have one missionary team, we have two. Is what happened good? I don't believe so. I think it was sin. I think there was flesh in the lives of these two individuals, but God was able to turn it for good.

Later on we read in 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul says, "Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry." Amen? Paul came around, didn't he? Isn't it amazing how prison will give you a different perspective on people? Isn't it amazing how adversity can mellow you a little bit? Isn't it amazing how as your needs grow the standards of who you'll receive help from diminish? Now, with all of that in human nature, none of that ever applies to God. He's immutable. He's the same always. Circumstances don't change what He's going to do. Think about that. We see these great men of God, and they're obviously influenced by circumstances. Who they're related to at times... Not always. Not always. It's at one point in these people's lives. This wasn't something that these guys did that was perverted to the place where their lives were out of balance. There were temptations that they went through and you and I go through. The thing that I'm wanting you to see this morning is, God never does. His application is always right, praise God! It's always what's best for you. It's always what's truth applied in mercy. So we have to come to grips with that and rest. When things don't go according to our perception we just have to say, "The Judge of all the earth does right." Here are two great guys, and later on they come to grips with their carnality and God is able to still be glorified through their limited perspectives.

Now, in the life of Abraham we see one of the great declarations of this. Turn back, if you would, to Genesis for just a second. We were talking in the midst of this--as you're going back there, go to Deuteronomy 32, verse 4. (That's our text and we never read it, did we?) Let's begin reading at verse 2, Deuteronomy 32:2. Then we'll go back to the Genesis account in Genesis 18. "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment [justice is what that is. All His ways are just]: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." This is the God that we're serving. This is the God that we pray to. This is the God, as we lay down and sleep, who watches over us. This is the sovereign God who orders our steps on a daily basis, the giver of every good and perfect gift. The one who is not willing that any should perish. This is the one who was made sin with our sin that we might be in right standing because of His rightness. He's right and we get right standing. So as we relate to Father in this perception, we can rest in the finished work of Jesus, knowing then that what God is working in our life is for His glory and our good. But be careful that you don't find yourself in this same dilemma that Abraham was in over here in Genesis chapter 13.

We know the story. Abraham was separated from Lot. Lot has gone into Sodom and into the areas of prosperity from his perspective. But it turned into not prosperity, but perversion. Abraham said, "I'll just take the opposite direction you want to go." God's for me and God's blessing him and increasing him. The messengers of the Lord appear to Abraham outside of his tent and give him the promise of the inheritance, again. Then the question is asked: "Should we reveal to Abraham what we're going to do here in administering justice to Sodom?" And the determining factor as to whether this is going to be revealed or not comes in verse 19; look at it. "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, [Now look at this: they shall keep the way of the Lord....What is the way of the Lord? To do what?] to do justice and [apply it] judgement; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him" (Genesis 18).

You see, this desire for what's right, the desire for truth, the application of it, the expression of it in our lives, the doing of the Word and not just the hearing is what brings the promises of God. It's what allows God to move unhindered in our lives. It's a heart situation. Now God said, the reason I chose Abraham, and the reason God will choose you is this: When it comes to crunch time, Abraham is going to be able to say, "God does what's right." He will make sure that his children walk in that same standard that they know God, that their trust is not in the nations. You see, I'm going to send you into these nations. I'm going to send you into the midst of all this idolatry. I'm going to send you into a place, the world, where all of this perversion is, and where all of the lies of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil are being heralded. I will give you a knowledge of God that will cause you to be able to stand against all of that perversion and subversion that's taking place. He is going to train his children and his children's children. As long as he's alive, he's going to stand for the glory of God and the heritage that's been entrusted in him. I know Abraham. He will not compromise my standards. (Verse 19) Because of that I can share with him what I'm about to do. "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry..." (verse 20-21) and bring justice.

What do you think about the world that we're living in today? What's the cry that's going up into the heavens today according to Romans 1, and 2? A people not wanting to retain God. God having turned them over to reprobate minds. We see it in our society. Europe just had the big worldwide homo celebration. Every time you see one of those things, doesn't your mind just go to Sodom and Gomorrah and you look at the defiance? We have all of these people trying to tell us it's an "alternative lifestyle." Some want to tell us it's genetic. Some want to tell us that it's physiological. "These people just don't have any choice." That is not what God's word tells us. God said, "Because they did not want to retain Him. Because they chose to do that which was unnatural, in defiance to God, He turned them over to judgement." This is the spirit that we're living in. We're talking about the justice of God. Do you want to know what brings the administration of the justice and wrath of God? Every man doing what is just in his own eyes. Whenever the standard, the declared standard of God, is diminished, whenever man's standards--and today we know it's existentialism--whenever they are promoted, God must inject His will into society to establish and to preserve His remnant. Now watch. He said, "I'm going to go down and take them out." And a question begins to be asked.

Verse 23, "And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" Now what's going on here? Is Abraham is calling God on the carpet trying to shame Him? How many of you think that's what's happening here? No. Abraham has a question. If I'm going to be left as your representative, can You help me understand Your justice? I have a question. Will You destroy the righteous with the wicked? What if, down there in this city, we can find fifty righteous people? Will You spare the place for their sake? And God says, "Yes, for fifty." Then we get into intercession, don't we? Forty, thirty, twenty, ten, five--what? Five! Why did he stop at five? Well, Lot, Mrs. Lot, and two female Lots. Four. If I can get Him to five, the guy that I brought out with me that I shouldn't have brought, who is being sustained by my righteousness, who is being blessed because of my covenant, maybe I can watch out for him again and get his family preserved. If I can get it down to five, that should take care of the four. We don't know what the reasoning is, but the one thing I do know is this: Do you know what's really going on here? God is revealing to Abraham that there is none righteous, no not one. That's what's happening in this account. You can intercede all you want. The fact of the matter is, does God destroy the righteous with the wicked? The answer to that is what? No, because there is none righteous. We're all sinners. We all deserve judgement. We all deserve the damnation of God. We all deserve to be cast out into the sea of forgetfulness where, in fact, our sins have been cast instead of ourselves. As the Scripture says, the knowledge of the wicked is forgotten. There is no remembrance of the wicked man.

We've talked about that aspect of hell, the guys who are going to "go to hell and party." You'll never be remembered. No one will ever remember you existed. There will be absolute torment in that isolation as there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness where the worm dieth not. It's what man deserves. So, for every man to be judged and cast into that condition is right. There is no one who is getting a bum deal, because every one of us has the knowledge of God within ourselves and without excuse, Romans says. Every one of us can come, and God is not willing that any one of us would ever perish. Anyone who has ever lived on the earth, despite of what the Calvinists say. Whosoever will may come. But we can't come in our own righteousness. There is only one way we can come, and that's through the finished work of Jesus.

So what are we looking at here? Will you judge and destroy the righteous with the wicked? God says, "No." Every one of these people justly deserves to be destroyed, even just Lot. Do you know that the Bible calls Lot just? How many of you think offering your virgin daughters to be molested, raped, abused beyond imagination is probably the just thing to do? Well, the Bible didn't say he was a nice guy. It just said he was just. Just Lot. We have to understand why God called him just. Why did God call Lot just? Because of Jesus, not because of his own actions. Lot was not spared from Sodom because of any righteousness within himself. He deserved to die like everybody else in the place. What we see here in Sodom and Gomorrah is the marriage, from God's perspective, of mercy and justice. Now some people would have us believe that God randomly chooses certain people and irresistibly saves them, and that's not the case. Lot, as vexed as he was, was still in relationship with God. This wasn't something that was random. This was something that was based upon covenant. This was something that was based upon the fact that Lot, with Abraham, was pursuing God. He had a knowledge of God. He became vexed. It's interesting as you read the story. How vexed was this guy? What was it that God was wanting to do to draw them out? Did Lot deserve to come out because of his own righteousness, his zeal for God? The Bible says, these messengers had to take Lot, and his wife, and the daughters by the hand and forcibly remove them from the city. The mercy of God. "Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?" "No." But there is none righteous. So the next time you begin to question the justice of God, understand the condition of man. Everything we have that's good is a free gift of God. It's not deserved. It's not earned. He's the Lover, He's the Compassionate One, but He cannot go contrary to who He is and suffer iniquity and rebellion to His sovereign being.

So we find here, the question is asked in verse 25, "That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee; Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Now remember, we're not talking here about our daily activities. We know the Scripture says, "He causes His rain to fall upon the just and the unjust." The fact that we go through life and we encounter different things that are adversities in our life doesn't mean that there is sin in our life and that God is judging us. It means that we're living in a world of sin. We're living in a world of opposition by principalities and powers. God has made provision to heal us, but in the midst of this world, beloved, as this AIDS epidemic--and it hasn't even begun to manifest itself yet. As this judgement begins to manifest and people around us begin to be affected in these different areas that we're going to be walking in this world. You're going to be living in that same world. The great thing is this: "They" have assured us that this is only transferable one way. So you can rest and don't worry about any other bodily fluids being exchanged or anything else. Don't worry about the fact that you're the only guy in that elevator. The other twenty people have AIDS and you're in there [the other twenty are coughing and sneezing] don't worry about that. Just as long as you don't have relations with them, you'll be all right. These are the same experts that say, "It's good for you." "It's bad for you." "You need more of this. Oops! We shouldn't have said that. You really need less of that." "What you need is more of this." The world runs and they cram that in and they go, "Oops, sorry. Flush that out and see what we can do." All of the experts. They tell you, "AIDS, don't be afraid of it. What you need to fear is asbestos. Did you know if you ate three mattresses a night for twenty-five years you could encounter Cancer?" (Let's see if I can get back to where we were.) The experts, the people that we trust. A world full of sin, and as it increases, the only way you're going to be safe on that elevator, the only way you're going to be safe going out of your house, is the mercy of God. You know what, it doesn't mean you won't get sick, but if you do get sick, we're a people who are healed by His stripes. Amen? We're a people who have been given weapons that are not carnal, but mighty through God to deal with the conflict of sin that we war daily. But, in the midst of this, your house can burn down just like your neighbor's and God is just. Your children can get injured just like your neighbor's and God is just, because we're living in a world that is torn by sin. We're living in a world that is reeling like a drunk man. We're a people, however, that have covenant and we're a people who have promises that God will go before us and make a way where there is no way, and His glory will be our rear guard. With those promises we walk in peace and trust that a thousand will fall at our side and ten thousand at our right hand and it will not come nigh us. But in the times when a sovereign God allows in our lives adversities that may even go contrary to what appear to be covenant promises, this is not the equality of the wicked and the righteous from our perspective. It's the natural consequences of a sin-torn world and should cause us to be able to stand and say, "You know what? Look at all the things God has delivered me from. He is good and He is just, and His mercy endures forever." When you have that perspective you're able to walk in the power of His presence and the knowledge of God. Shall not the Judge of all of the earth do right? According to whose perspective? Well, it would seem to me that what would be right in this situation would be.... If you ever hear those words coming out of your mouth, put your hand over your mouth, because the eternal decree of God is already being expressed, and the fact that you don't understand it does not diminish the justice of this incident.

We don't have time right now to go to Romans 9 and look at some of the aspects of how God deals with His creation, but just the general purpose here that we want to finish with for this morning. Abraham was not dealing with a God of wrath who was looking to kill all of these people. If it hadn't been for Abraham they just would have never made it out. Read the Scriptures.

Turn over to Peter for just a second. We'll look at this before we go this morning. I think it's worth looking at. 2 Peter, chapter 2. We're coming into a day of man reaping the iniquity that he has sown. The hour of God's wrath soon to come upon this world. The good news to you and I this morning is this: "We've not been appointed unto wrath." Amen? Just think about it, at any moment the trumpet of God can sound. The people who are the earth dwellers, those people who are kingdom now, when I say Kingdom Now, I'm not just talking about the little crew out of Georgia and up here in Maryland and some of the other folks. We're not just talking about Mears and Earl Paulk and those guys. The root of this philosophy is the major expression of "Christianity" on the planet, because Kingdom Now is Catholicism. Kingdom Now began with Arminius. He is the author of this whole thing. Very frankly a majority, the big majority of most Christians, embraces to one degree or another that thought process. It's becoming much more rare. A little bit more talked about since 9/11 and everybody got selfish because of their fear, but prior to that, very little talk about the coming of the Lord. It's amazing how people don't talk about the coming of the Lord when people aren't flying into our buildings and the stock market is going up. What about the people in the midst of prosperity that are saying, "Come and get us, Jesus; we want out of here." "This thing is just a shadow, a type." "There is nothing here that is my home." "I am a sojourner." These other people call us escapists. They say, "You guys just want to get out of here because you're weak and because you don't want to have to endure." I say, "That's right." "I don't like it here. I'm ready to go home." "You just want to escape the adversity." "Yup, you're right. Give me a way of escape. I'm ready." But is it selfish? Your desire to escape, is it selfish or is it a hunger to know as you're known? To realize that we're just seeing through a glass darkly? What is it going to be like to really see Him as He is, to be like Him, to be free from all of the warfare of the sin that's in our members? All of the adversity that we deal with on a daily basis gone and the opportunity to worship and praise Him without hindrance of anything in the natural. That's going to be a good time. Until then, we will experience adversity, and until that hour of wrath we're going to live under the fruit of man's sin. This is what man has brought upon himself and 2 Peter talks about it.

He says, look, in this day, "...there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, [Now listen to what the major heresy is] even denying the Lord that bought them" (verse 1). They're going to become gods unto themselves. They're going to establish their own form of truth and justice. Humanism and situational ethics, comparing ourselves by ourselves, becomes the standard of the Church. Isn't that where we're living today? Churches are full of people who are being allowed to do what's right in their own eyes, every man being allowed to work out his own Christianity.

I was listening to a talk show on the way home from the hospital last night. I wanted to vomit! It was a "Christian teen" call-in thing. The advice and counsel this man was giving over the air was nauseating. But it's the standard of the Church today as "Ichabod" is placed over so many of the gathering places that we call Church.

I want you to see what's happening here. This isn't even the wrath of God yet. This is not the wrath of the Lamb. That's going to happen after you and I have been caught out. But listen to what it says is going to be taking place prior to this. "...And bring upon themselves swift destruction. Any many shall follow their pernicious ways. [The word pernicious means filthy or shameless] by reason of whom the way of truth [The word of God, the just path of righteousness. The path of the righteous, the just, is like a shining light.] shall be evil spoken of. [They call evil good, and good evil. This is the hour that we're living in.] And through covetousness shall they with feigned [fabricated words, lies, another gospel] words make merchandise of you: whose judgement now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. ["Do you think God is going to allow this to go on?" is the question that is being asked here.] For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah [an hour when everyone was doing right in his own eyes] the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness [We don't want to talk about his failures. We can read back the specifics of his failures. God calls him a preacher of righteousness, upright in his generation.] bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes [That's a pretty concise statement.] condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (verse 2-6).

It's mocked today, but the judgment is coming. The hour of the wrath of the Lamb is at hand, but prior to that don't you think for a moment that all of the venereal diseases, the AIDS, the anarchy that's coming in society because of this is not going to be just recompense, because you do reap what you sow. God said that in the midst of that as He turned those cities into ash making them an ensample, at that same time verse 7, "and delivered just Lot who had been vexed with the filthy living of the wicked. (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day-to-day.)" Then why didn't he get out? Now in this, of course, this is a parenthetical statement, as you can see. The point of all this being said is this, verse 9. We'll end with this, this morning. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations...." Does God destroy the righteous with the wicked? No. He delivers them, praise God. He delivers us. Sometimes we're able to come out from among them. Sometimes we die in their midst, but we're delivered because of our standing with Him. With justice and righteousness being synonymous as we are in right standing, then regardless of whatever the other surrounding circumstances might be, we're experiencing the justice of God. Delivered, consumed, the Judge of all the earth does right.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning, and as we rest in Your wisdom, in Your power, and in Your person--we battle constantly with our limited perceptions. Our perception of what is just and what we perceive maybe as being legalism versus grace and mercy. I don't understand why that guy gets to run the red light and doesn't get a ticket and I do. Just doesn't seem right. The cop pulls that girl over, she bats her eyes at him and gets away. I'm ugly, I get a ticket. It doesn't seem right. The latest survey: Fat people make less money. It doesn't seem right. You know what? You're not going to be treated right in this world. There is no justice among natural men. Philosophers will tell you that from a philosophical standpoint one of the greatest arguments for the existence of God is that somehow within man there is the drive for justice. There just needs to be equity. There needs to be a right recompense to humanity. Because of that, the only way philosophers say that this can be done is in an afterlife because this can't be done in this life. So, somewhere within us is that knowing of what's right. "You know, it's not just right for the big guy to take the thing from the little guy." You see, the law of the jungle doesn't worry about that. The lion doesn't say, "It doesn't seem right that I eat this thing." He doesn't lose any sleep over that. It is absolutely his concept for that thing to exist for him to eat. Man has trouble with that. We have trouble with people cutting in front of us in line.

To solve this whole problem, what has to happen? Philosophers say, in an afterlife there has to be a being who is absolutely just, perfect, infinite knowledge, wisdom, etc. that can make everything right and that's why some people believe in God. Otherwise, where would this come from in man? Is it some evolutionary defect? So natural man warred with that. In the Scriptures we find the psalmist saying, "I really battle with this thing. I don't understand why the wicked prosper. Then I went to the house of the Lord." You see beloved, justice will not always be experienced in this life. Then I went to the house of the Lord and then I understood why that wicked guy prospered and it seemed like the righteous were having such a difficult time. Then I understood that this life is only a vapor, and that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years a day. It's not about the guy cutting in front of me in line. It's not about the few moments that I might have to suffer. It's not about the fact that that person did wrong to me and somebody has to make--it will be made right, because the hearts of all men will be revealed. Every man will be rewarded according to his works. Every idle deed, every thought. God is just. So my encouragement this morning is: Since He is just, don't try to judge Him with your limited perspective. Embrace Him knowing that His justice is administered perfectly with His mercy and His love and that all things are done for your good and for His glory.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. Take just a moment as Gary plays for us. Every one of us, should the Lord tarry, comes to different points in our life when we have to see God in His unitary essence, when you won't be able to reconcile in your mind the goodness of God and the justice of God because your perspective is limited. You don't know the eternal of how every incident is connected in God's universe. Nothing is isolated. Everything happens with God's knowledge and is turned for His purpose. Nothing happens without Him knowing it before it happens. His foreknowledge.

The theory of relativity tells us that time is four dimensional. Man thinks he has figured a little bit out about that. If time is four dimensional, if it's self-contained, then God stands outside of it, and because of that He can see all time at once. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Everything that happens He knows is going to happen and He turns it for His good. He is not necessarily the primary cause, but it operates under the oversight of His sovereignty. Ultimately the cause, because of Him giving us free will and allowing the principal of Lucifer's godship of a dark kingdom to be administrated under his oversight, He's aware but not the cause. The creator of the smith that blows upon the coals, but not the iniquity in their hearts. See Him for who He is this morning, the lover of your soul, the redeemer of a rebellious humanity, the giver of every good and perfect gift. The one who makes a way of escape. The one who says, "I require of you to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." Judgement is for Him. Don't judge Him. Judgement is His role. We are the recipients of His justice of His equity, His fairness, His goodness. And it all won't be turned that way in this life, but it will prevail and God will be glorified.

Let's worship Him this morning as we sing it. We bless You, Lord! Bless Him. Hallelujah! We do worship You, Lord; we thank You for Your goodness and for all of Your mercy. We just rest in your justice. Absolute confidence that it's all under Your control and that the Judge of the earth does right. So we just say thank You for the free gift that You've given us, justice in Jesus. The righteousness, our right standing with You because of the finished work, so we can boldly say You're our Father, You're our friend, and we trust in You. Make it real, we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

We appreciate you all praying for Janet and the strength there. I'm going to be heading back this afternoon. They've had to, in the last couple of days triple her morphine. It's gone up to 14-something an hour. We're just believing God at this time. The primary thing is just that the bowel would open up. The bowel has been shut down completely, so we're believing God to open the bowel and get that function back and that will relieve huge amounts of the pain. That's what we're praying toward at this time. So if you want to pray specifically, then you can pray in that way. It's been kind of rough. We got in the hospital about 9:00 in the morning (Friday); we left last night (Saturday) about 9:00. Just praying, believing God to finish the work there, so continue to hold her hands up. We believe Father will be glorified as He extends His mercy and His power to us in this situation. Thank you for your prayers.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you say, "The Judge of all the earth does right." Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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