GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
BEREA KENTUCKY




The Power of God in Judgment

By Jim Murriner

Many today want to speak of God having love and grace, but don’t want to think of Him as being wrathful.
We must notice as we begin this study that the power of God in judgment is righteous.
Psm. 19:9 
“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Psm. 119:7 
“I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall learned thy righteous judgments”
If you today cannot think of the judgments of God as being righteous, then you will not praise God, but will be blaming God for not doing things your way.
Psm.119:39 
“Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.”
Psm. 119:62 
“At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee, because of thy righteous judgments.”
We are to never consider the judgments of God or anything about God to be anything other than good and righteous. For us to consider them to be otherwise is for us to strive with our maker.
Rom. 9:20 
“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”
Job 9:1-4 
“Then Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth: but how shall man be just with God. If he shall contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him, and that prospered.”
Job 33:12 - 13 tells us that to argue with the judgments of God is to make God no greater than man. 

(12)   ”Behold in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man.”
(13)   ” Why does thou strive against Him? for He giveth not account of any of His matters.”
This should be a stern warning to all of us that though God does not give account of His actions, He is the very one that we must stand before and give account of our deeds.
To declare that the judgments of God are anything less than righteous is to tear God from the throne, and set your self in His place.
To disagree with God on anything is to take away His sovereignty. Men today disagree and argue with God because they think that God is like we are, weak, and having the ability to do wrong.
Prov. 50:21 
“These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.”
Before we ever think to disagree with any of God’s judgments or anything else about God, we must first see who God is, and just who we are. When we see God as He is and then see ourselves as we really are, and see ourselves as God sees us, we then will not desire to argue or disagree with Him.
Psm. 135:6 
“Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.”
Psm. 115:3 
“But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.”
Now consider what God has to say about us. Gen. 1:26-31 tells us that God started the human race in His own image. 
(26)    “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
(27)    “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them.”
(28)    “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
(29)”   And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
(30)”   And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat and it was so.”
(31)   ”And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And he evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
God looked at man in his original state and God said that man was good. But man did not remain good very long. It was not long until the first humans sinned, and fell from their state of goodness.
Romans 5:12 tells us that the fall affected us also. 

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men. for that all have sinned.”
Because this sinful nature has been passed on to us, we as all people since Adam and Eve, are spiritually dead, apart from the gracious power of God.
In Romans 3:12 the Apostle Paul, speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quotes Psalms 14:3 in reminding us that God sees us as being all bad.
Lets look at Psalms 14:2-3 
(2)   ”The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.”
(3)   ”They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Before you begin to argue with God concerning His judgments, be aware that God who has complete knowledge, and who holds no opinions, declares all of us to be filthy, apart from the blood of Jesus Christ, being shed for our sins.
As we continue in our study on the power of God in judgment, we must keep in mind that we are creatures of God, and that God alone is God. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us that our ways and our thoughts are not as God’s ways and God’s thoughts. 
(8)”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
(9)“ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
This remains true, also in the realm of God’s judgment of the wicked.
Isaiah 40:13-14 
(13)   ”Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him.”
(14)   ” With whom took he council, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding.”
We are creatures who have no right to set standards of just and unjust, then impose them upon God. The conditions of the problem of judgment is not within our grasp. Job 25:6 reminds us that we are worms in God’s sight.
“How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man that is a worm?”
How can we then, that God considers to be insignificant ever begin to determine what judgment God is to pass upon the wicked? If we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, we must depend upon this Word of God to determine what is just punishment of the wicked.
Matt.17:5 tells us to listen to Christ. 
“While He yet spake, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.”
John 1:1 declares Jesus the Son of God to be the Word. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So we can see in all matters, it is the Word of God, the Bible, that we are to look to for an answer or an explanation.
We live in a generation that does not like to speak of God as being a God of wrath. Most theologians today only speak of Him as a God of love.
Hebrews 10:31 speaks of there being a need for all who are not trusting Christ as their own personal savior, to fear God. 
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
We do not argue with the fact that God is a God of love, nor do we argue with the fact that God is Love: however we contend that there is more to God than just love. To say that He is only a God of love, is to misrepresent God , and to make Him less than He really is.
In Psalms 38:1 King David speaks of God’s wrath. 

“O, Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure.”
Psalms 2:11-12 also speaks of the wrath of God, and of the blessedness of those who put their trust in Christ. 
(11)   ”Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”
(12) Kiss the Son, lest he be angry , and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
There are those who would argue, that this is in the Old Testament, and they would contend that God did things differently then than now.
Malachi. 3:6 tells us that this cannot be. 
“For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Eph. 5:6 plainly shows us the wrath of God coming upon the wicked. 
“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”
John 3:36 warns that if you are not trusting in Jesus Christ as your personal savior, that the wrath of God abideth on you. 

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
John 3:18 tells us that all who do not trust Christ as their own personal savior , are under condemnation, to endure the wrath of God. 

“He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Yes our God, the God of the Bible, is of great power. Not only is this power shown forth in the saving of lost sinners, it is also shown forth in the wrath of God being shed upon the wicked in judgment.

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