Chastening & Judgement (09/02/2001)

Well, I figured I'd call on Brother Otis and myself if they needed four people for that song. In fact,

I was a little nervous when he started talking about that. Oh, goodness. So was everybody else.

Well, you know what? God has ordained these times for us to get a little glimpse of that place.

And I don't think we'd make it through the week without it. No way in the world.

Because one thing that the Lord makes obvious to us as he brings circumstances into our lives, this ain't home.

This is enemy territory. Kind of like you were talking about, Brother Roger. We're behind enemy lines and we're in battle.

And part of what today is all about is equipping us to be able to be fit for that battle.

But the battle is really already over. And it's already been won.

And that banner will never fall. And that was a good sermon that you preached.

And a good sermon you preached. And the Lord be with us.

We'll look at some even more good scriptures today. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 27.

We've been talking about the omniscience of God. And we talked about it from the point of view that it's a blessing to the child of God who's walking with the

Lord. It's a blessing to know that he's ever -present. And that his knowledge is such that he sees all of our deeds.

And he hears all of our thoughts. And he is right there with his hand upon us.

He's behind us and before us. And all of these wonderful things we've seen.

And then secondly we talked about the fact that his omniscience can make us think a little differently when we're not walking close with him.

It lets us know that he sees us at that time as well. And today we'll talk about a third point.

And we'll be through with this topic and move on to the next one. As far as the character of God. And really the personality, the person of God.

So let's continue with this. Now I'd like first to start this morning in Matthew 27 and verse 42.

It's not really the text passage. But it is the beginning and the end of the message.

So I want to read it first. And then after that we'll get into our text passage which has been

Psalm 139. And we'll go back into that passage. So you can kind of get ready to find

Psalm 139 as well. Alright let's go to Lord in prayer and we'll start with Matthew 27, 42.

Father we thank you for the music that we've heard. And the place that we heard sung about.

The place that you say spiritually we are seated right now. So Father if there are any unconfessed sins in our lives.

Would you bring them to our minds right now that we might confess them. That we might not grieve or quench the

Holy Spirit. But rather that we would be united as one with him.

That we might be in fact seated in heavenly places in Christ this morning. That we might get the full benefit of your word as your

Holy Spirit teaches us. And we might even glimpse that place that was sung about.

We might get a glimpse of that victory that Brother Roger has spoken about. And Father we know that the reason for all of that is because of your presence in the lives of your children.

And so Lord we ask you to bless the message at this time. And bless us by causing us to see you by faith.

And we ask it in Jesus name, Amen. Matthew chapter 27 verse 42 says.

He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel let him now come down from the cross.

And then will believe him, no they wouldn't. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now.

If he will have him, for he said

I am the son of God. The thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth.

Now we're talking about the omniscience of God. The all -knowing God, the all -seeing eye.

He was at this place as well. And he somehow transcended this problem that we have with time and space and dimensions.

And God was here. He was here. And he was observing.

And he heard every word that was said about his son while he was on that cross.

He heard everyone who ridiculed him. And told him to come down from the cross if he had the power.

He heard the thieves as they cast sarcastic remarks at him.

He heard the soldiers and the people and the Jews. And he saw it all.

And look at verse 45. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.

That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there when they heard that said,

This man calleth for Elijah. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink.

The rest said, let it be. Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.

More sarcasm, more unbelief. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice,

Yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom.

And the earth did quake and the rocks rent. And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection.

And went into the holy city and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion and they that were with him watching

Jesus saw the darkness. And saw the earthquake and those things that were done.

They feared greatly saying, truly this was the son of God.

Apparently the manifestations in nature that took place convinced these centurions.

That God was not happy. They convinced these centurions that God caused the darkness for a reason.

And the earth to quake for a reason and that this truly must have been the son of God.

And that God was not pleased with the things that were being said and the things that were being done.

And that as he came down into time and observed the crucifixion of his son, his wrath was poured forth.

And what these centurions might not have realized. The scripture doesn't tell us whether they did or not at this particular point.

Was that the wrath of God was poured out upon his son at that time.

Because your sins and mine were in his body while he was on that tree.

Now let's go back to Psalm 139 to our text passage. And let's remember some things as we move into new information.

And a new word from the Lord today in his word. But in Psalm 139, 1.

As you go through the passage you see so many marvelous things.

Even things that are too marvelous for us. We see as we begin with verse 1 that God searches us.

Which means he penetrates to the inside and examines us intimately. And he knows us which means he ascertains by seeing.

By observing us on the outside as well. We see as we go into verse 2 that the

Lord knows my down sitting and my uprising. He understands my thought from afar off.

Verse 3 points out this beautiful fact in the original language. That he compasses my path which means he winnows us like wheat.

And removes the chaff as the wind does. And it says also that he is acquainted with my ways.

Which is a very dear term. It means to be familiar with to the point of ministering to and cherishing us.

And this is what the Lord does. And his omniscience is used to do a lot of this.

Verse 4 goes on and says that there's not a word that comes from my tongue.

That he doesn't know it all together. Verse 5 says he beset me behind and before.

And laid his hand upon me. And the Hebrew word beset is sur which means to confine.

So as we go out into the world and we decide whether to go left or to go right. Or to take main street or to take beaten street.

Or whatever we decide to do. At the same time that's going on in time. God from his heavenly dimension is confining us to his perfect will for our lives.

There's great comfort in that. There's great comfort in the fact that he not only knows as we would think of it perhaps from a human viewpoint.

That he knows what we are doing. But from the divine viewpoint he knows what we shall do.

And how it shall be accomplished. And how he will work it in us. Verse 6 goes on and says such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It's too difficult for me to understand. And in the Hebrew it's peliv which means it is remarkable, it is secret, it is wonderful.

The way that I can get up in the morning with my family. And we can put our best church clothes on and get in the car.

And decide which road to come down. And decide what time to leave.

And decide what to eat for breakfast. And decide where we're going to sit today in church.

Wonderfully for most of you the decision whether to be here or not was already made a long time ago. You didn't make that decision, you're just going to be here.

That's faithfulness. But we make these decisions and yet in it all we're confined to God's perfect will for our lives.

We're in his hand. John chapter 10 says the father's hand is here and we're placed in it.

And Jesus says my hand is here. And he says nothing can remove us from my father's hand.

I and the father are one. And so this is too wonderful for us. It is remarkable.

It's beyond our apprehension to see how God can do this. But we know that it's true. These thoughts are too high.

As the Hebrew would say they are a saw gob. Brother Russ told me once the most horrible thing in the world is to see a beautiful Hebrew lady singing.

Because in the Hebrew language they go all these awful sounds.

But saw gob means unattainable. God's ways are almost unattainable.

In fact if you're speaking of all of his ways they are in fact unattainable to us. It's interesting because he says his thoughts are high

I cannot attain unto them. That's five words in the

English. It's one word in the Hebrew. Saw gob. They're beyond our ability to comprehend.

Inaccessible is what the root word means. So high that I cannot attain unto it.

So good that I cannot understand the depths of the goodness. So wise I cannot understand the depth of the wisdom and understanding that God has.

All these things we've already studied in the scriptures. We came into this area where it speaks of his omniscience.

Implying his omnipresence in verse 7. Whether shall I go from thy spirit or whether shall

I flee from thy presence. If I ascend up into heaven thou art there. Now what do you think about this little portion of the scripture?

Because for today's point as we get into today's message. There's a parallel passage to this passage.

Only it's the flip side of the coin. So think about this because we're going to study the flip side of this for a little while this morning.

But we won't end with that flip side. Because we're going to end with something that has a lot more to do with the song that we heard.

Before the message began. But look at this. He says if I ascend up into heaven.

And you're going to see this almost word for word parallel in a moment. So hang on to these words. If I ascend up into heaven thou art there.

If I make my bed in the grave behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.

Thou art there. All from a good perspective. Because this is a man who is walking with the

Lord at this time. And he's saying I am glad you're there. I'm glad there's no place I can go where you're not with me.

But then there's the other side that we studied last time a little bit. Psalm 98. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee.

Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. That part he sees too. And we'll get more into that in this morning's message.

The message today really is the third point in this study. On the omniscience of God.

And it is this. All judgment from God will be according to absolute truth.

All judgment from God will be according to absolute truth.

We don't have to worry about whether or not he has seen the missing glove. Or where it was or how it got there.

As in the OJ Simpson case. We don't have to worry about whether or not he knows exactly what the truth is.

And what fairness is and what is just. And what should be. When it comes to time for this judgment.

In fact we see this alluded to down in verse 11 in our passage in Psalm 139.

It comes to this place. He says, if I say surely the darkness shall cover me.

Even the night shall be light about me. Do you see what he's saying? If I convince myself or if the devil convinces me to believe.

That darkness can cover me so that I can sin. Even the darkness itself becomes light about me because of God's eye.

He says, yea the darkness hideth not from thee. The darkness cannot hide me from God he says.

But the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike unto

God. The thought here is that when it comes to judgment God is perfect.

He has not missed one single issue. He hasn't missed a single deed as James talked about in our

Sunday school class this morning. But neither has he missed a single thought as David spoke of in Psalm 139.

When he said, you see my thoughts from afar off. Now turn with me to Amos chapter 9.

This is the parallel passage I was alluding to earlier. And I think you'll see that it just almost goes word for word.

And yet this passage deals with the one who is not walking with the

Lord. And I believe if the context is studied we'll see that it's talking about Israel.

So it is a picture I believe of a Christian. It teaches in physical examples of the spiritual truths.

And so this I would say has to do with the chastening of God's children.

This is not speaking of what God might do to the lost. Those who were rejecting Jesus Christ even the day of his crucifixion.

Those who were speaking through their teeth at the Lord Jesus Christ. This does not speak of what our

Father might do unto them. Those who are without Christ in the great day of judgment. But this speaks of the chastening that can come to his children.

And the fact that God sees everything we do. And this is where adults like to become children.

Adults when they want to do their sin like to believe they can get away with it. Never be caught and no one will ever know.

I can think of no thought that's more childish than that thought. That is more childish than the child who puts his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

After mom said no. Look at this. Look at verse 1.

I saw the Lord standing upon the altar and he said smite the lentil of the door and the post.

And the post that they may shake. Now isn't it interesting that the lentil and the post is where the blood was placed back at the

Passover. So this is certainly something that the Hebrew mind would draw up some very potent pictures.

And some very heavy understanding of what the

Lord is saying here. It's almost as if he's saying that which brought mercy.

Is no longer going to bring you mercy at this point because you don't care about the sacrifices anymore.

Look what he says. Smite the lentil of the door that the post may shake and cut them in the head all of them.

And I will slay the last of them with the sword. He that fleeth of them shall not flee away and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

Now he's speaking of the nation of Israel which certainly is a picture of his children. But these are children who have turned away from their father.

And they're walking on their own and they're walking in the world. And they have become adulterers and adulteresses in the spiritual sense of being idolaters.

And they come in yet after doing that all week then they want to come in God's house and play like.

God doesn't accept that. In fact when that happens it is worse than if they didn't come into God's house and play like.

Do we have a problem with this today in the modern church? Do we have a problem with making the atmosphere such that it appears that revival is actually going on?

Now I'm not saying revival doesn't at certain days in certain places in the world and in certain church services it does.

But yet we've manufactured it all over this country in order to hide our sin.

And that's exactly what Israel was doing. And here's where the parallel part starts.

Look at verse 2. Do you think this is hidden from the Lord's eyes? Though they dig into hell, thence shall my hand take them.

Though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of the mountains,

I will search and take them out. And though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence

I will command the serpent and he shall bite them. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will

I command the sword and it shall slay them. And I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good.

Now ladies and gentlemen, this is why we won't close with this passage.

We want to leave you something positive today because this is not positive from the human viewpoint. Now you'll see by the time we get to the end of the message that it is positive because it's all for the good of God's people.

But God's people won't see that sometimes when they're going through these times. They'll think that the devil is doing this to them and maybe the devil is used as a tool sometimes.

But this is very clear that the eye in this passage is the Lord. The one who is causing the serpents to bite them is the

Lord. He may use the serpent, but God is sovereign. Now, there are seven things that are mentioned in this little passage.

It all has to do with the person who is a child of God, but they're not walking in God's ways.

They've gotten to the place where because of self -delusion or because of Satan or his demons in their hearts and minds or whatever reason.

They've been tempted to go to the place where they believe the world. They believe the flesh and they believe the devil and they are disbelieving

God at this time in their life. And God has a way of bringing his children out of such circumstances and bringing them back into the glory of walking with him.

They may not have much left by the time they get back to him, but they will have him. And that's more than anything they lost.

And Job would testify to that. We're studying that on Monday nights with Brother Otis. But the six things that I see here that God says he will do to these that he knows with his omniscience.

And he sees and they think that the darkness is covering their sin. Now, children, you listen to me because darkness doesn't cover anything.

There is no darkness for God. It's like the flashlights are shining everywhere.

My little ones love to get flashlights, turn all the lights out at night, run around the house. Big brother's pretty cool too because he'll take their little rifles and get some duct tape and strap those lights on there where they can run around like this.

It's the best way to run around in the dark, isn't it? But there's no darkness with God.

You can't hide from him. You can't do any secret thing in sin and get away with it. What is a sin, by the way?

What is a sin? Do I have a young person in the congregation that would answer that for me?

Now, see, some of you adults don't think you're young anymore, do you? That opened it right up for you to answer that question.

Well, let's put it in these terms. Sin is doing something God doesn't want you to do.

Young people, do you hear me? When that happens, God sees it every time. All of us young people need to hear this message.

Because when God does see this going on, it says several things. It says that I will take them.

Secondly, he says, if they're up on the mountain, I'll bring them down. Thirdly, he says, now isn't it interesting there, though, before we go on to the third point.

Here you have one child of God who's in, it says, hell. If they dig into hell, well, you're not going to literally dig into hell.

He says, if they could. So this picture is the child of God who's at the bottom of the pit in his life, as far as he thinks.

And everything's gone wrong. And so he's just going to do what Job did not do.

He's going to say, well, this is God's fault. And he's just going to sin and then die, he thinks. What God says, if a person is like that, then

God will take them. Now, you can read into that what you want to, but that's just what he says.

He says, I'll take them. Now, when you have the other sinner who is on the mountaintop, everything is going right.

He's got all the money in the world that he needs. All of his cares are taken care of by that money. He's got it made.

Everything's working. Everything's cool, except for one thing. He's forgotten God. Just like the nation of Israel, when they would have blessings, they would come to a place where they'd forget

God. And through the Judges, the book of Judges, it's just a cycle. They forget God. They're taken captive by the enemy, which is always what happens when we forget

God. And then the Deliverer comes and on and on and on. And this is the person that's on the mountaintop.

Boy, he's got it made. And he forgets that God is the one that made it possible for him to be there.

In fact, placed him there. And he takes credit for it himself.

And what does God say about that person? He says, I'll bring him down. And then the third thing, he talks about the person that hides in the mountains.

He says, I'll take them out. And then he says about those who think they can hide in the sea.

He says, well, he says, I won't. Maybe you think I won't see you, but I'll send the serpent to bite you.

Now, how can he do that if he doesn't see where they are? He sees them, but he sometimes uses the serpent.

What is the serpent picture in the Bible? Many times. All right. And then he says, beyond that type of calamity, he said, if they are taken captive.

Now, what is that picture? To be taken captive by the enemy. We are not supposed to be captive of the enemy.

Our Lord is higher than that Lord. And he has freed us. In Romans chapter 6, 7 and 8, the whole thing talks about this.

It says, reckon what God has said to be true. And he says, you are no longer under bondage to sin.

So what happens if we allow sin to bring us into bondage and we're captivated and taken captive?

Amos says, though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them.

And that's something. Now, from a human viewpoint in time, let's just say this so we define what we're talking about.

Don't want to throw anybody for a loop here. But in time, as you live this life, I always say it this way.

We believe in the sovereignty of God, but we ought to pray like Armenians and we ought to witness like Armenians.

Now, I don't really mean that because Armenians don't know how to pray or witness. Because they believe when they pray that they can make

God do things by just saying it enough. And they think when they witness, they can talk people into getting saved.

So I don't really mean that. What I mean is, when you're living in time, you should live in time. Even though you know the wonderful truths of that other dimension, that you're in the hand of God and that as you make your decisions, he confines you into his will, you still should make the decision to read your

Bible. You still should make your decision to witness to people every opportunity. You still should make the decision to give money to the

Lord's work. You should make all these right decisions as you go. But you know what?

On the other side of that, it implies very strongly, the Bible teaches it through and through that when we make wrong decisions and we get to the place where we've made just one wrong decision after another, after another, there's a couple of things that go on.

One is the sowing and reaping concept that God has placed as a law in this world, in his realm.

But the other is the fact that he says there may come a time where when you allow yourself to be a continual captive that I'll send the sword and slay you and just take you out of here.

Well, that's already what he said. A couple of places, a couple of the six we've already mentioned, he'd take you out.

Yes, God will do that. Now you can say, well, I'm not going before my time.

That's right. But you know what the problem with that is? They're trying to live that way. That's tempting God. That's saying, well, you know, it's probably, probably not today is probably not my time so I can go ahead and sin and make these wrong decisions anyway and I'll be just fine.

You don't know that. Yeah, you'll be fine but you don't know the timing of it all. And so he says very clearly to avoid this type of captivity because there can come times in the lives of God's children where when you allow the enemy, and you know what's the truth about us this side of the cross, the only way the enemy can take you captive is if you allow him.

He cannot force the issue. That's why the Bible says resist him and he must flee. So if you don't resist and he doesn't flee and you're taken captive there can come times in the lives of different ones of God's children where he allows the sword to actually slay them.

Satan is allowed to take their physical life and they go to be with the Lord like Brother Russ talked about there's no soul sleep about it.

They're better off. I mean, we're all better off. If that happened in our life we're better off than to be down here captive because we allowed it.

Now you can see in the midst of all this discussion the human viewpoint the divine viewpoint merging.

We don't understand how it does that. It's too high for us. It's too wonderful. It's beyond our comprehension as the psalmist said but it is a fact.

Now notice that it ends with this. He says two things. Now a lot of us would read this as just one thing but it's not one thing it's two things.

He says, I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good.

We would read that as one bad thing but it's not. It's two bad things from the human viewpoint.

It's all good from God's viewpoint because He's going to take you out of here sometimes and get you to the place where you can then walk with Him.

But now look what it says. Number one, I will set mine eyes upon them for evil.

That is slightly different than saying I will set my eyes on them for not good.

They're really two different things. One is the bringing of evil and the other is the withholding of good.

Now it may feel the same to us but it's two actions that God is taking in this circumstance. Now all of this comes to pass because why?

God is omniscient. He has seen everything we have done and every thought and every motive behind it.

Don't fear for a moment that God is just judging by the things you do. He is judging righteously and He sees your heart and He knows why you did it.

And He sees all of that and He doesn't make a mistake in His judgment. His eyes are always upon us.

Both when the psalmist was so happy about it that there's no place I can go where God is not with me and now this in Amos.

I don't believe this child of God would be that happy because he's backslidden anyway. He's not thinking about God's sovereignty.

He's thinking about His own will, His own self, His selfish interests and He is caught up in them and He's caught up in such a place where He is now a servant to sin and to the enemy and God is watching that as well.

So we have to always understand that and we live in such a time of grace preaching which is marvelous.

There's no higher and more beautiful truth than the grace of God. But we live in such a time that we hear it so much that we think sometimes it doesn't matter what we think and what we do.

It doesn't matter where our heart is and how we think of our brothers and sisters in our own church, how we think of our spouse or our husband or the people we work with.

We don't worry about that too much. It's all covered. Well yes, we'll see as we close the message that it is covered.

But it's not as if it goes unseen because God is omniscient. He knows all things and He does not hide

Himself from seeing the backslidden child of God.

Why does He not hide Himself from seeing that? Because the chastening rod is necessary.

It is in fact an instrument of love. From the human viewpoint we don't see it that way.

It's all bad. Bad, bad. He's bringing evil and He's withholding good. We don't see that, that it's a hand of love.

It's a chastening hand of a Father who wants the best and will have the best for each of His children.

So that omniscient, all -seeing eye is there for that as well, for the chastening.

Now let's close with this last aspect. Let's move from talking about the chastening of God to talk about the judgment of God and for purposes of this morning's message let's define that as meaning judgment in the sense of salvation or no salvation.

Judgment in the sense of eternal damnation or eternal life. And after all we view the chastening part as the real important part.

You know we worry about boy if I do wrong what does God, you know man is He behind me? Yeah, is

He before me? Where is He? Is He going to get me for this one? We think that's the all important part.

But the fact is it's not. Because even when you get to the other side of the spank and you're with God and you know what the fellowship is usually a lot better after the spank than it was before the spank and you ever notice that?

So that's not the big issue. The big issue is are you His or not? The big issue is what happens to those who are not and what happens to those who are and is

His omniscient judgment perfect in this sense? And now you start to see why we read the passage this morning that we started with with the cross.

Now there is a psalm Psalm 149 -4 that says this

For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people He will beautify the meek with salvation

Let the saints be joyful in glory Let them sing aloud upon their beds.

And it speaks of the perfect justice of God. Now I want you to be turning if you would to Romans chapter 8 and we're going to be in verse 1 but you need to back up to the last couple of verses of chapter 7.

While you're turning there I'm going to read a verse to you in Romans 14 -4

Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? Now the whole message this morning is not about this.

And this is just a little corollary you could almost call it a rabbit trail. But if it's true that God is omniscient and He cannot miss the facts and He cannot miss the thoughts why do we find it so necessary to judge one another?

Why do we find it so necessary to fix one another? I love the black preacher that Brother Myron took me to hear while I was out there he was getting on to his people just a little bit something going on in church of course

I'm not aware of what it was because I was just a visitor but he said I'll tell you some of you folks think you're God he said you're not

God he said you're not his assistant either. Now in the context of his message everyone knew what he meant he did not mean that God doesn't work in us because God does

God works in us but some people get the wrong attitude and it's all about attitude and God sees the attitude we can't but God sees the attitude and some people get the attitude that God has called me to fix you

Brother Charlie well Romans 14 verse 4 says who art thou that judges another man's servant?

whose servant are you? oh you're not mine? but I'm your pastor you're not my servant well in a sense we all serve one another but that's not what this is talking about is it?

this is talking about the fact that he is your one and only Lord and I'm not your

Lord he is so who am I to judge you? who am I to judge another man's servant? to his own master he stands or falls is this not true?

do we not doubt the omniscience of God somewhat when we think we have to make sure that it gets done?

we have to be very careful pastors are the worst about this and I had the benefit of watching three pastors before me in just this church alone not to mention the church that I came out of I grew up in all my life in Mahea and other churches

I've been to visiting with Brother Rocky across the country and observed preachers but preachers don't have a lot of faith that God can fix people have you ever noticed that?

so they try to do it themselves they'll try to get them dressed just like they dress the women dress just like the preacher's wife dress they got all these rules and they got all they call them standards well that's that's the word you use when you don't like to use the word rules or laws you're going to add laws that God didn't add so we call them standards and they've got all these things to fix the people and make them just right why do they do this?

because they don't believe God's omniscience they believe God's out there missing a few things and he'll come back in about ten years and we don't want the thing to be messed up when he gets back so we're going to fix it that's such a great lack of faith the greatest thing we can do for one another is to pray for one another and ask the omniscient omnipotent all loving and perfect wise

God to intervene into that life and to move that life into a position where if they're up on the mountain and he needs to bring them down that he'll bring them down if they're trying to dig down into hell and hide from God that he'll bring them out that shows faith that's the greatest ministry we can have for one another probably is that prayer ministry but the

Bible in Romans 14 forbids us to judge another man's servant and that means it's

God's he says yea ye shall be holding up it says is not this the servant to his own master isn't it true that he stands and falls just to him yea he shall be holding up but for God is able to make him stand is

God able or not either he is or he isn't one man esteems one day above another another esteemeth every day alike let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind let the

Lord minister let the Holy Spirit minister in our lives now you're probably found

Romans 8 by now haven't you ok that's kind of like a short men's meeting it's a little rabbit trail turn into quite a road but Romans chapter 8 look at the last of chapter 7 there verse 24 look how this thing ends because that takes you into the first of chapter 8 with a good understanding of what's happening

O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death this is a

Christian who is walking in the flesh and he's trying to keep rules and laws and all this in the flesh and he is failing and he is a babe in the

Lord he's not understanding the right way this happens to be the Apostle Paul and it's before he learned the right way which he describes in the next chapter but look what he says

O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death at least he understood that there was a deliverance he said

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with the mind

I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin now that introduces this next remark you can be in the flesh and see this law of sin and you can experience the chastening hand of God like we just read about and many times we can experience this it's all part of God's rearing of his children but through it all verse 8 chapter 8 verse 1 is true there is therefore now no condemnation so now we're talking about the judgment that matters it all matters but this is the judgment that on a scale of 1 to 10 this is the 10 because this is talking about condemnation to hell and therefore there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ you see that it has to do with being in Christ who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit now how can he say that all of us who are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the spirit same thing

James said in Sunday school this morning doesn't mean every moment of all the time that we do that but it means the general direction of our lifestyle is that we do this matter of fact later on in this chapter he says if you don't have the spirit of Christ you're none of his and he says if you do then you are not in the flesh you are in the spirit isn't that amazing so that's the predominant walk of our lives as Christians but he says for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh

God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit now look at verse 18 in chapter 8 for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us

God is omniscient he is a perfect knowledge and he is perfect love and perfect goodness and even the valleys and the quote bad things that we go through there is a

God of perfect wisdom and knowledge and understanding and perfect love and goodness who has placed us right there now do you reckon that the sufferings of this present time are really all that bad when verse 18 says they cannot be compared with what

God is going to make us to be and that's why we're going through these things in the first place what shall we then say to these things if God before us who can be against us now remember this is the omniscient

God who sees and knows everything perfectly and he goes on and he said he that spared not his own son now it's time for lunch

I know but don't miss this part we're just about through you believe that remember that short story

I told you about a minute ago you believe that you'll believe this we're just about through he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things you ever really shoot on that verse a little bit the all things includes everything even in the physical life that we need and require it includes everything in the spiritual life that we must have to continue to walk with him and in him and he says if the one thing that to the father was really the only thing of enormity when it comes to value and that was his son if he would give him for you why would he withhold one little thing now he says now look at verse thirty three because in the

English you miss this a little bit at the end of verse thirty three it really should be a question mark not a period who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect in fact this is a whole series of questions that goes all the way down through verse thirty five they're all questions who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect instead of saying it is

God say is it God that justify it if someone's gonna lay some charge against you could it be

God the very one who justified you that's gonna lay a charge against you what's the implied answer to that question no because it would defy the definition of justification what is the definition by the way someone tell me just in a quick what does it mean when

God justified you that's a good way to learn it now if God is the one who made you this way he justified you it's not an act you can do it's an act he did to you because you are his elect then how can he come back and lay a charge to you if you've been made as if you've never sinned he cannot verse 34 who is he that condemn it is it

Christ so you don't say it is say is it is it Christ that died is he gonna condemn you

I mean while he was on that cross even before the foundation of the world the

Bible says he was slain when you go back to this this meeting that the father and the son had this council where Jesus said

I will go and die in the place of yours father and the father said this is good and he was slain at that point in God's mind now he is the one who said

I will go and he is the one who did come and he is the one that while he was on that cross a while ago he said

Eli Eli lama sabachthani which means God there has never been a time when you forsook me before why are you doing it now because all of our sins were in his body at that time your sins everyone you will ever do everyone you ever have done till the moment you leave this earth every one of those sins was in his body now let me ask you a question will he then condemn you will he pay the perfect final price and turn to you and ask you to pay it's a ridiculous question

Paul asks and he knows it's ridiculous he says is it Christ who is going to condemn you is it Christ the one who died for you yea rather that is risen again not only did he die but he applied that blood in the real holy of holies in the heavenlies who is even at the right hand of God who makes intercession for you is praying for you every moment of the day is he the one who is going to condemn you

I think it's an obvious answer no who then shall separate us from the love of Christ if these things are true shall tribulation distress persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creation of God shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our

Lord which is where you are you are in Christ Jesus Colossians 2 .12

says buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God as God's work that caused this to happen in our lives who hath raised him from the dead and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven all your trespasses blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it all out of the way nailing it to the cross and having spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly brother

Roger that's what you were telling us about triumphing over them in it let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink or in respect of a holiday or of the new moon or of sabbath which are a shadow of things to come but the body is

Christ in Christ is the answer being found in Christ do you know that when the omniscient

God looks out across his universe and he in his all seeing eye falls upon you he sees you in Christ he sees you as already seated in the heavenlies at his right hand in Christ his judgment is absolutely perfect it is absolutely from a perfect understanding and knowledge first john two twelve says

I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his names sake

I write to you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one in verse fourteen tells us how these young men did this it says because you were strong and the word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one in first Peter chapter two verses twenty two and following are the beautiful verses where it describes the fact that our sins were in his body on the tree

God's omniscience observed that God with a perfect eye that could see into the spiritual realms of his creation could see all of the darkness as if it were light as he looked on that day and time and looked down to that cross and he saw the

Lord Jesus there and he saw the people spitting on him and chiding him and telling him come down if you're who you say you are just come down now we know you can we'll see if he's talking to Elijah maybe he'll come and free him up and in the sky turned dark and the earth quaked and the hard Roman soldiers who had placed the nails through his hands and feet to start with said you know what

I think this was the son of God because I think I just saw the judgment of God and I think it was perfect and not only was it perfect it was complete and finished and so always remember that the

Lord's eye sees you as a father seeing a child and he can chasten us and we can't hide when we do our sins he sees every one of them and he'll spank us for it but beyond that always remember this he has already seen his perfect justice fulfilled and he is now just and the justifier of those who are in Christ Jesus for all eternity that position in that state can never change for his own

I mean he may take you through a spanking but that's because you live in his house that's because he's the father and you're the son of the daughter that's not bad that's wonderful and his hand is always upon us and he besets us from behind and from before and he confines our path we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is let's stand and have our prayer together father we thank you for your word there are folks in our auditorium this morning that are under trials tribulations whether it be health wise whether it be financial whether it be family children marital whatever and we need to come back to the place of remembering who is sovereign who is our lord there is no condemnation for us because the father won't condemn us and the son won't condemn us the one who died for us let us remember these things and rejoice today as we go about speaking to one another about these wonderful truths help us to be aware that chastening can come because you don't miss the thing that we do or think you don't miss a motive you see it all even when we're deceived if we're deceived by the enemy into thinking we're right when we're wrong you see the truth of it and you bring us to that place where we are where we're supposed to be and someday we will see you and we'll be just like you because this process will be over and lord thank you for letting us not to be sitting on the bench lord there's not a person in this little church in this room today that's a bench warmer but you've put us out in the battle you've seen fit to work in us in this world in your kingdom and you're equipping us for that service even today every moment of our lives we thank you that you're always with us there's no place we can go without your hand being upon us we ask you to bless our meal today and our fellowship and we ask it in Jesus name amen.