Jap-06 the Righteous Judgements of God — Art Katz

Psalm 9 and the Enlarged Vision of God

Class, I use that word this morning because I'm in a lecture mood and I'm.

Taking a very deep breath before I begin. For what I have this morning is monumental in proportion. I don't think that any man can communicate it. I only know that I have to make a beginning. So take a deep breath with me and turn to Psalm 9.

And I think that we should be required to read the entire psalm verse by verse. And we need to read with comprehension and understanding. With virginal minds and hearts as if we are seeing and hearing something for a first time.

We need to let the words of God penetrate our deepest consciousness and understanding. Because what is expressed here is mind-boggling. It is too much for our comprehension. We all of us need to have our sense of God enlarged.

Because whether we realize it or not, God has been eclipsed in modern times by the nations. The world seems to have all the cards, the world seems to have all of the impressive credentials. Not only are we impressed by the world, we are intimidated by it.

And God wants to restore to us correct priorities and proportions. He is not the God of a Sunday Christian culture. He is the God of all of the earth and the nations of the earth. So let's read with deep comprehension and trembling this psalm.

Can we just go through the room and read verse by verse? Let's read from the beginning.

The enemy hath vanished in the everlasting ruins, the cities bearing memory of it.

He will judge the world by righteousness and the people.

He will judge the world by righteousness and the people. He will praise the Lord, and the Lord will praise the people.

He has executed judgment in the work of his own hands. The wicked is slain.

For the living will not always be forgotten, nor the hopes of the afflicted perished forever.

Arise, O Lord, let not men prevail. Let the heathen be judged in Thy sight.

Let's pray for the Word of God this morning. Lord, we ask that You would have mercy upon us. You know our frame and that we are as dust. This is too great for us. We cannot lay hold of it. But we ask that in Your mercy You would give us an understanding.

That You would give us spiritual eyes to see. That we might declare Thy great works to the nations. That we might reveal to the nations the meaning of their history. And tell them of a God who is both King and Judge.

That perhaps they may repent and be saved in the day of Your soon-coming judgment. Lord, I ask that You shall be with us in such a way this morning and today. That the history of the church in Japan shall be affected by this day here.

That there shall be a consequence for the nation and for Asia and for the world because of what You speak this day in this room.

That the words that we speak today in this room shall be the words that determine the future of Japan and Asia.

Give us hearing ears and an attentive heart, we pray.

Change us by Thy word. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.

God's Judgment in History and Natural Disasters

It's remarkable how many of us have been indoctrinated by the world. We have accepted both its interpretation of history and of current events. History seems even to us a haphazard thing of events that do not seem to have any connection or reason.

And we view present events in the same way. We would dismiss an earthquake or a typhoon as a natural calamity or an accident of nature.

We would dismiss an earthquake or a typhoon as a natural calamity or an accident of nature. Brother, should we see it in any other way?

We need to come to another kind of perspective. It is the perspective of God Himself. Who works in history and in nature as judge. In the 7th verse we read that the Lord abides forever. He has established His throne for judgment and He will judge the world in righteousness.

He has established His throne for judgment and He will judge the world in righteousness. He has established His throne for judgment and He will judge the world in righteousness.

He will judge the people in fairness. He will judge the people in fairness.

This is the 8th verse. I would like to say that God not only judges the nation and the world in the future, but also He is already judging the world.

I'll tell you the kind of view that I have. I see the world fuel crisis, international terrorism and inflation as the judgment of God already. About a year or so ago, I preached in the city of Zurich in Switzerland, and the very same night in which they were experiencing their first riot in the history of their nation.

My message was on the kingdom of God and the failure of the church to bring such a kingdom.

To earth in fact.

And while I preached in the ballroom of the newest and fanciest hotel in Zurich, the noises of the riot and the shriek and the violence outside came into the room. This is a proud Switzerland that had never before experienced such a phenomenon as riot.

They prided themselves on their sense of social order. They saw themselves as some kind of superior civilization, and these things shall not come to us. They don't recognize that there's a spirit of lawlessness and riot that is spreading over the entire world.

The recent riots in England that left many cities afire is not an historical accident.

God's judgments are already in the earth, and if we will not recognize these as coming from the hand of God and not men, if we will not repent in the sight of these lesser judgments,.

The nations of the world will have to experience the greater judgments. A judgment that will come by world war and atomic annihilation and fire. The fourth verse tells us that God is on his throne judging righteously and that he has rebuked nations and has destroyed the wicked and blotted out their names forever and ever.

God has already rebuked nations. He has already blotted out their names from memory. Where are the great empires of Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome?

The great splendor of Egypt under the dynasties of pharaohs, they have crumbled to dust. Do we think that our own civilization is more durable in God's sight?

That if he has not restrained himself from judging them, will he restrain himself from judging us? That if he has not restrained himself from judging them, will he restrain himself from judging us? The enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruin, it says in the sixth verse.

And what we do today when we travel is we see the evidences of these ruins. They offer us historical curiosity and interest of antiquity. But what is God wanting to say through these ruins? But what is God wanting to say through these ruins?

Why have these great civilizations not endured? Because they have been judged of God and destroyed.

Because they have been judged of God and destroyed. I have visited the ruins of Pompeii in Italy two or three times.

This was a great gem in the Roman Empire in the days of its glory. It was a great pleasure city and a place of recreation and sport. Of course the sport was men being torn apart by beasts or Christians being fed to lions.

And the recreation was the most fierce and animalistic sexual indulgence.

And the recreation was the most fierce and animalistic sexual indulgence.

In about 70 A .D., in the same year that Jerusalem was destroyed, Pompeii was destroyed. If God will not spare Jerusalem, will He spare Pompeii? If God will judge Jerusalem, will He exempt Tokyo and Osaka?

Are we understanding history from the spiritual perspective? That we might cry a warning to the unsuspecting nations of the earth. Who cannot have our view because they do not see by the spirit.

They do not have the privilege of Psalm 9, but we do.

About a hundred years ago, some archeologists stumbled upon the ruins of Pompeii.

About a hundred years ago, some archeologists stumbled upon the ruins of Pompeii.

Mount Vesuvius had suddenly erupted and the entire city was completely inundated in volcanic mud and ash.

Mount Vesuvius had suddenly erupted and the entire city was completely inundated in volcanic mud and ash.

In a moment, the judgment of God came suddenly. You can visit the museum today and see petrified bodies that were caught in a moment of suddenness.

You can visit the museum today and see petrified bodies that were caught in a moment of suddenness.

They were men who were caught right in their fornications. I will never forget the petrified body kept 2000 years of a man who was buried like this and his body still remains like this.

I will never forget the petrified body kept 2000 years of a man who was buried like this and his body still remains like this.

Probably it was the same in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the judgment of God came suddenly. We need to have a view that sees all things as coming from God's hand. For He has established His throne forever and He judges righteous judgment.

For He has established His throne forever and He judges righteous judgment.

The sixth verse says, Thou hast uprooted cities. I think of the pictures of Germany after World War II.

I think of the pictures of Germany after World War II.

Berlin, the great, proud imperial capital was nothing but devastating ruins, a skeleton of a city.

Berlin, the great, proud imperial capital was nothing but devastating ruins, a skeleton of a city. It was completely ruined compared to before the war. It was completely ruined compared to before the war.

Your eye can scan the aerial photographs, you cannot find one building that has a roof on it. The great cities of Leipzig and Dresden were wiped out in 15 minute air raids. Completely destroyed by fire bombs that left the city a volcano of melting asphalt from the streets.

People were asphyxiated by the oxygen that was drawn up by the flames. Those who sought to flee found their legs and their feet caught in the melting asphalt and were stuck in the streets and cremated.

Those who sought to flee found their legs and their feet caught in the melting asphalt and were stuck in the streets and cremated.

Where is Ur of the Chaldees today, the great city from which Abraham came? Where is Ur of the Chaldees today, the great city from which Abraham came? Where is Ur of the Chaldees today, the great city from which Abraham came?

Where is Ur of the Chaldees today, the great city from which Abraham came?

It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a river city of great commerce and trade and power and elegance and art and culture. But some years after Abraham left, the river changed its course.

But some years after Abraham left, the river changed its course. And this great proud center of civilization collapsed and disappeared. And this great proud center of civilization collapsed and disappeared.

Was it an accident of nature?

Some capricious and inexplicable thing that has no real explanation?

Or did the God of nature judge it and destroy it?

He has one means for Sodom and Gomorrah, another means for Ur, another means for Pompeii, another means for Leipzig, for Dresden and Berlin. But it's the same God judging all. When the cup of iniquity is full, God will purge out and destroy that which is contrary to His holiness.

The Church's Witness to God's Righteousness

What is our obligation in all this as the church? In the 11th verse, we're told to sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion. You say, brother, what shall we praise God for in this? Because He's a God of righteousness.

Because He cannot look down indifferently upon evil in the earth. Praise God for God that will judge in righteousness. And will remove the cancerous thing before it contaminates all mankind. And will remove the cancerous thing before it contaminates all mankind.

We're told in the 11th verse, declare among the peoples His deeds. This is our function as the church. This is more than saying, are you saved, brother? This is interpreting for men the meaning of their own history.

This is revealing to proud nations the hand of God in their own history.

That they might be warned.

For Paul said, there is a day in which God will judge the world by that man whom He has appointed in righteousness. Acts 17 .31. How did Paul know that? Because he was a man who was steeped in the spirit of God and not the spirit of the world.

Because he knew with the whole apostolic generation an anticipation for the day of the Lord which is coming. I think I can say with complete assurance, we lack that sense. This is one of the great weaknesses and defects of the modern church in the world today.

We do not have a sense, an apostolic sense of the day of the Lord as being at hand. And yet the apostolic church expected it momentarily. The writings of all these apostolic men are marked with references to the day of the Lord, the day of His judgment, the day of His wrath, the day of His coming.

They saw the world as being under the judgment of God.

They were not of the world. They looked for a new heaven and a new earth, in which reigneth righteousness. They had a sense of God as judge, which we lack completely.

The Judgment Seat of Christ and the Church's Compromise

Keep your finger in Psalm 9 and turn to 2 Corinthians 5. See how Paul speaks in the 10th verse of the 5th chapter. 2 Corinthians 5 .10. I don't know what's happening in Japan, but I can tell you what's happening in America.

Charismatic and Pentecostal leaders are falling like flies. Some of the most flourishing and impressive Christian works have completely crumbled and come to nothing. Some of the most widely known and respected and admired ministries are no more.

Because the minister has run off with the organist. Because the man of God seduced the woman whom he was counseling. A pastor will divorce his wife and leave his children to run off with some other woman.

We ourselves personally know 3 or 4 or 5 prominent men who have fallen in recent months. You say, how do you account for this brother? The world was too much with them. The sensuality of the world enveloped them.

Absorbed them. The sensuality of the world. Unlike Paul, they did not have the sense of God as judge. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Must is the divine imperative. There is no exceptions.

All is the word of totality. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

That each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Are you living your life as if it is being lived before the sight of the judge? God intended this as normative for the church. This is not some exaggerated perspective peculiar to Paul. This is the faith that sees God as king, sees Him on the throne, and sees Him as judge.

How much different would the whole character of our Christianity be if we lived in this understanding?

Fewer liberties we would take to ourselves, much less personal indulgence.

The frivolous spirit of Christianity would go. We would live far more solemnly and seriously before God. Then we could speak to the world about the day of the Lord which is at hand. And when we did, they would not sneer or giggle at us.

Our words would have the ring of true conviction. We would not just be speaking theoretically, but actually. Because we ourselves presently have a deep awareness of God as judge. I just had a conversation last night with Toppy on the way home from the restaurant.

I said, the next time that I come back to Japan, arrange a conference for ministers.

The church in Japan needs prophetic input. That's what you're getting now. This is the perspective of God Himself for ultimate things. Like judgment. For the church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles.

I'm speaking to you this morning a foundational truth. A God who is the judge of all nations. And if we have not this at our foundation, we build in vain. What then is our evangelism? Are you saved brother?

Do you know Jesus? Somehow there's something light about that. There's no sense of the awe or the fear of God. No ability to tell them, according to the scripture, God is angry with the sinner every day.

It's interesting what the very next verse is in 2 Corinthians 5 .11. Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. And if we do not know that fear, can we persuade them? And if we do not know that the Lord is judge, can we fear Him?

We've been talking to men about salvation in terms of the benefits that they'll receive. Rather than that they should be saved from the judgment of God as sinners. How can they understand the crucified Christ without this?

What was He doing bleeding on the cross? Why did they find over 200 marks of perforation and wounds in the Shroud of Turin in Italy? His face was more marred than any man. His face was more marred than any man.

He had no comeliness that we should desire Him. He had no comeliness that we should desire Him. Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. From the top of His head to the sole of His feet, He was nothing but wounds. He was wounded for our transgressions.

The judgment that should have come upon us came upon Him. But what shall that mean to men who don't know of God as a righteous judge? How shall they then be saved if we speak to them only about the benefits?

Such converts are quick enough candidates for backsliding. And a year later, where are they? The foundations need to be established in the Church. We can declare the righteousness of God to men. The 12th verse of Psalm 9,.

And for he who requires blood remembers them, he does not forget the cry of the afflicted. The shrieks that came out of Shanghai in the 1930s are still ascending up to heaven. The Koreans who were pulverized and destroyed, their blood is still crying up to heaven.

God says, the blood of righteous Abel cries to me out of the earth. What kind of God do you think we have? Who can look down from heaven and see what is made in His image being raped and destroyed and murdered and be without response?

He who requires blood remembers them and does not forget the cry of the afflicted. He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world. He will judge nations. We will be responsible before Him for what we have committed in our history.

Brother, that took place in the 1930s and the 1940s. This is past.

Brother, that took place in the 1940s and the 1930s. This is past.

Verse 12 says, he does not forget. Men forget. Forgetting is a very convenient exercise.

We do not want to be distracted from our present prosperity and enjoyment.

We think it is only past history. We are not even too careful about presenting that truthfully to this generation. But God does not forget the cry of the afflicted. It is the obligation of the church to bring this perspective to men.

To show them that that which is past is now. God is not limited by the perspectives of men, past, present, future. Everything is in the eternal now. And if we will not acknowledge our deed as sins, if we do not repent of it, if it is not cleansed and purged away by the blood of Jesus, then it yet remains.

You cannot swallow it down. It will not go away. It becomes fixed into the collective unconsciousness of the entire nation. The spirit of violence and rape and murder still remain in the atmosphere of the nation.

Something has got to be removed from the unconscious history of the nation.

Because this unconfessed national sin allows the powers of darkness to retain their sway.

Because this unconfessed national sin allows the powers of darkness to retain their sway.

They can only be broken up by light and by truth, by confession and by forgiveness. God's ministers can travel and come into certain nations of the world and the moment that the plane lands, they feel the heaviness of the atmosphere.

They could hardly lift their heads in that atmosphere.

They have to groan to bring forth the word of God. It is so heavy. It seems so difficult to press the issues of the gospel in those countries. The people just seem to be so dense that they just can't understand.

The words have no ability to penetrate. Something needs to be broken up in the heavenly places. That has been the accumulation of national sin over a long period of time in history.

That has been the accumulation of national sin over a long period of time in history.

Do we think that because the war is over that the evil has been dispersed? Because the wars are over that the evils have been dispersed? Broken up or thrown away? Do we think that because the war is over that the evils have been broken up and dispersed?

Do we think that because the wars are over that the evils have been broken up and dispersed?

Yes, Germany lost and Hitler was destroyed. But the dark spirit forces that made Nazism possible still remain.

But the dark spirit forces that made Nazism possible still remain.

Waiting only again for another opportunity before it can become translated into action in the affairs of the nation.

Waiting only again for another opportunity before it can become translated into action in the affairs of the nation. Yes, the war is over.

But is the nationalism that promoted the war over?

But is the nationalism that promoted the war over?

Is the spirit of racial pride and superiority which allowed the Japanese to destroy what they thought to be inferior people, is that over?

Is the spirit of racial pride and superiority which allowed the Japanese to destroy what they thought to be inferior people, is that over?

The sense that they had that Japan has a sacred destiny and that its emperors are deities, is that over?

Such thoughts may not be publicly popular today, but it is just beneath the level of consciousness. These are spirit powers that have never been broken up, because they have never been acknowledged, never repented for.

We justify ourselves.

We say that it was circumstances that brought us into a war. Nations will justify themselves as individuals do. But there is a God who judges in righteousness. And nations need to see as He sees. I don't know how much you can take in one sitting.

I yet have much more. But I'm just wondering what is our ability to absorb things of this kind. I want to leave you with this impression for this hour.

I want to leave you with this impression for this hour.

The Fear of God and the Suffering of the Nations

Our whole view of God needs to be enlarged. How disrespectful of us to think that God can look down upon murder and pillage and rape and be unmoved and untouched.

When we think that God is indifferent to the fate of men,.

That He doesn't care what happens to that which is made in His image, that He can look down today upon the boat people, the refugees being raped and destroyed, and be indifferent. Is our God not righteous?

Shall He allow all that to pass in silence? Will He not judge those who rape and destroy? Should we not cry out to them a warning? I read the testimony of a 15-year-old girl who was among the refugees fleeing on a boat.

I read the testimony of a 15-year-old girl who was among the refugees fleeing on a boat.

You can imagine how desperate the conditions were that forced these people to take their risks on the open seas.

You can imagine how desperate the conditions were that forced these people to take their risks on the open seas.

Every man was murdered and the women were left defenseless.

Every man was murdered and the women were left defenseless. This 15-year-old girl confessed that she was raped 30 times a day.

Day after day after day after day after day. Sweaty, filthy, lustful men in gangs overpowering her and raping her 30 times a day.

Sweaty, filthy, lustful men in gangs overpowering her and raping her 30 times a day.

She said other young girls threw themselves overboard and drowned committing suicide to avoid this. But she survived. But will she ever survive? She survived physically. But will she ever survive? Will her mind ever come together again?

Will she ever be able to live any kind of a human life? Will she ever be able to live any kind of a human life?

Will she ever be able to live any kind of a human life?

She has been utterly devastated within.

She has been utterly devastated within.

By violent men who could act with complete impunity without any fear of God.

By violent men who could act with complete impunity without any fear of God.

God is going to hold His church responsible for this.

God is going to hold His church responsible for this.

We have not made the fear of God known to men. That they can act in complete indifference to God.

That they can act in complete indifference to God.

Without any sense that one day they will stand before Him to be judged.

Without any sense that one day they will stand before Him to be judged.

But how could we communicate what we ourselves have not understood? How could we persuade men who ourselves did not know the terror of God?

How could we persuade men who ourselves did not know the terror of God?

That's why judgment begins first in the house of God. And when it begins there, will it be long before He judges the nations?

And when it begins there, will it be long before He judges the nations?

If He destroyed Jerusalem and spread the Jewish people over the face of the earth, will He save Pompeii?

If He destroyed Jerusalem and spread the Jewish people over the face of the earth, will He save Pompeii?

If He didn't spare Israel, will He spare Japan?

If He didn't spare Israel, will He spare Japan?

A Final Warning to Japan and the Church

There is a cry that needs to go forth in this nation. There is a cry that needs to go forth in this nation. A warning.

A warning. God has decided the day of judgment. God has decided the day of judgment with justice and fairness. And the Resurrected Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be judged on that day. Let's stop here.

Let's really understand the word of God that was spoken this morning. Let's really understand the word of God that was spoken this morning. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Lord, your judgments are fearful.

Lord, your judgments are fearful.

But they are necessary and righteous altogether.

But they are necessary and righteous altogether. Lord, please give me your judgment. Lord, please give me your judgment.

That you may use us to cry a warning to others. We ask your mercy again. That you restore to us this foundational thing. That deeply knowing the terror of God, we might persuade men.

That deeply knowing the terror of God, we might persuade men. Lord, we pray that this Japan for Jesus campaign will not be superficial and light.

But go forth in this deepest spirit.

But go forth in this deepest spirit.

That men might come to repentance. And be saved the judgment of God in that day. May we be a people who know our God. And can make him known as he is. For truly the king is at the gate. Who is also the righteous judge.

Seal these things in our hearts.

Give us your eternal perspective.

Separate us from the world and its spirit. That is unwilling to see these things. Make us your peculiar people. We thank you and praise you in Jesus name. That the spirit of truth can move freely and deeply.

To show them things as God sees them. For God alone is truth. Let your cries go up for Japan. For cities, for families. Pray for the church of Jesus Christ in Japan. That it be a powerful instrument for God's use.

And not itself to be judged for its weakness and its compromise. Pray for its ministers and leaders. Pray for it.