God, the Eternal Judge — K.P. Yohannan

God, the, eternal, that sound not very good. When you hear judge, it also has a negative connotation, right? Well I did, I had an opportunity, I won't say as an opportunity, I had to go to a judge one time in my life when I was studying in college and it's a funny story, the funny stories that I was driving this car and this particular country I was in, every time you speed, that means you go over the limit of the, the speed limit, the policemen stop and give you a ticket and every ticket you pay.

But there's another problem, after you get 15 tickets, the next one means not only you pay the fine, but you lose your driver's license, that is a big problem. So a friend of mine who was with me in the college said, you know what you need to do, it's unbelievable that you got 16 tickets in 6 months.

I had no clue the car was going that fast, I didn't do nothing. He said, no you did something. Well the way to get out of that was you go to the court and the judge asks, how do you plead? And I was trained by my friend how to respond, your honor, I plead guilty, that means I did wrong.

So what are you going to do? That's the next question, pay the fine or I had an option. I can say, your honor, would you please allow me to take the defensive driving course. That was an alternative, though I didn't have to pay the fine.

By doing that, all my other tickets, everything that was against me would be cancelled. That happened, so that is how I went before the judge. But when you hear that word, there is always this funny feeling, this negative feeling.

The Eternal Judge and the Reality of Eternity

So when we say, God, eternal judge, we know God as a God of love, God of mercy, God of compassion, God who blesses people, God who forgives, God who is kind, long suffering. So when we say, God, eternal judge, why add the word eternal to that?

Well, let's think logically about it. It was Billy Graham who said, you cannot kill yourself, you cannot commit suicide. We are living in our body, like people live in the house, our body, it is the carton, it is the house, it is a tent, Bible talks about.

We, I am not the physical part of what? You are looking at, we live in this body, that is the reason Bible talks about the spirit, the soul and the body, the three parts of our human being. So when people die, do they cease to exist?

Is that the end of everything? I remember reading a book long ago, the theory of annihilation, that is with the body dies material, the materialistic view that all is over, but you know and I know, deep down in our hearts, without ever reading a religious book or anybody talking to you about it, deep down we know there is something beyond this life, that is what the Bible says, eternity God has planted in the hearts of man.

So we are spiritual beings, C .S. Lewis very well said this, brilliantly, you are not looking at mere mortal beings, the people you laugh with and talk with and play with, interact with, if only you could see what they will be after this life is over, possibly the most brilliant glorified bright shining angels or the worst of creatures damned for hell, I am paraphrasing it.

So we are not mortals, we are immortals, we just happen to have this space, this time like God who is invisible incarnate, he walked on earth for 33 and a half years, we here are for a few years but we are walking into eternity, the real us and during this journey on earth our body is given for us to live in.

The Vineyard, Fruit, and God's Expectations

So the biblical passages we read, we don't have vineyards in Kerala, in Karnataka state we have grapes, white grapes, red grapes and all that. What do you expect from grapes and vineyard? You expect nice sweet grapes and God says I did this but in the end what I am getting is bad fruit.

I planted this tree, I intended that it gives sweet, precious, meaningful fruit but the accent, the emphasis is on the vineyard, it produces the opposite and what shall I do? Now just see how we can apply that now, naturally, now I am happy for psychology, I am happy for science and I think before the Lord comes back, science may still catch up 1 of what God already said, reckoning with what God said is true.

Innocence, the Fall, and Becoming Like Children

By nature, look at a baby, a brand new little baby, 1 year old, 2 year old, 3 year old, 5 year old, 7 year old, days old or 2 weeks old, look into its eyes and its face, what do you see? You don't see worry and care and anxiety and bitterness and I am going to kill you and holding on to horrible guilt, any of those things, it is totally, absolutely pure and sincere and defenseless.

A little baby is the purest form of spirituality you can achieve. So Christ said unless you turn, unless you convert, unless you change and become like little children, now the question is how do you change, how do you convert?

Here is the thing, God in creating mankind, the Bible says he created us innocent, he created us, now think about me, he created us just like tiny little babies in its brain, in its understanding, it was the devil that said if you do this you will figure out how to discern good and bad, God never intended for us to learn bad, God never intended for us to produce bad fruit, God never intended for man to think evil, so the original creation of God for mankind, it is all full of joy, pleasure, health and happiness and brilliance and achieve all.

One of the simplest illustrations I can tell you is that Adam and Eve, they could be in Garden of Eden and God told them name all the animals and plus take care of the whole earth and you see him naming the animals, what college did he go, what university did he study, what research did he do, instantly he calls names of all these animals, his ability to be in one local area and be able to rule the whole earth, his perfect absolute soulish power, unadulterated pure energy, it was there, but with the disobedience the whole thing got messed up.

God's Righteous Judgment and Mercy

Now the judge we talk about is the one who make decision, he see the proof and hear the arguments and he knows what is absolute which is the law and he make decisions. But here is the comforting thing, if God calls himself righteous judge, reveals himself as merciful and loving and kind to Moses and when we look at the life of Christ who revealed in flesh the nature of God, when you study that, how do we take all that and make it look bad, a horrible judge who is going to get us.

Here is the thing, if God were to judge us according to our iniquities, our sins, none of us would be alive. Bible says that, thoughts are actions for God. In Genesis you read God looked all over and see the imagination, the thoughts of men are evil and he said there is only way out to destroy the whole mankind, they are completely evil.

Christ's Prayer for Peter's Faith

Now why thinking negative, why thinking bad became so horrible? Well here is the thing, science now has reckoned with this, as a man thinks in his mind so he becomes. We have been told in science some years ago that is actually our mind controls our life and our decisions and our subconscious basically already got implanted with experiences and value systems whereby we make our decisions.

But now the most amazing discovery that is not true, our mind is like a Bible clay, it can be restructured, change and thoughts actually change the patterns of brain and DNA. So here is what you need to keep in mind, our life on earth, here is time and space but we are moving toward eternity and God actually looking at our life, my life and your life and he is actually looking at the bad choices we make, the bad things people do into us, the disappointments we have and all the failures we have and we dream for the best things to happen but we got the worst things.

You imagine apart this marriage that is going to be the answer to all your life and you found out really that was not real and you can take that into thousand other illustrations but then you say, well I made the bed now I sleep in it.

This is how it happened to be, fatalism but let me tell you that is not like that. When Peter was getting into biggest problem of his life, Jesus knew about it, just like Judas and Jesus said, Peter listen to me, Satan, let me use another word for it, the destructive awful negative energy that creates bad fruit, Peter I prayed for you that your faith will not fail.

That is a strange thing to say. I rather would like to hear Jesus saying, Peter I just saw you running into this horrible mess, you are going to deny me and you are going to feel guilty and condemned and it is going to be the worst thing ever happen in your life, this end of your life and I prayed that this will not happen, that you will not fail, you will not sin, you will not deny, you will be kept safe and you will be prevented from wrecking your life and you will be stopped from taking that drug or having that friendship or that marriage.

He did not say that, he said I prayed that your faith will not fail. If you study the original text, it is quite amazing, you can interpret in simple language, I prayed that your confidence in the love of God that supersedes and overcomes all, that will be intact, that when the pot is broken, when the cup is broken, when the beautiful vessel is marred and is all crushed into pieces, he can remake that pot into more beautiful thing, is what I prayed that you will not lose the sight, the faith in such a God.

Suffering, Faith, and God's Eternal Purpose

So let me have you journey with me about this sins and failures and struggles and disappointments and all this stuff, we are part of and in the book of Psalms, I do not have time to go into that and the epistle passage and all that, you go back and read that again, in Psalms it says, God when are you going to do the justice, the poor and the helpless and the need, they are overlooked and then you come to Hebrews 11, it talks about Abraham, strange enough that he walked away from everything for something that he could not see, if you take all the passages and you talk about the Luke passage about people fighting against you, the division and the agony for those who follow Christ, you will find this whole thing is actually one piece, that is we are part of a massive move of God, taking all that happens for something that is to come, that is called eternity and he uses all that happens in this life, even the bad choices you make, his dream, that final day, his hope and dream is that you will be whole, both in your body, in your soul and in your spirit, but now having said that much, here is the question remains, so what am I supposed to do with this?

Human Responsibility and the Direction of Thought

Do I have any responsibility? Do I have to do anything? Yes you do, what is that? I planted the vineyard, but in simple language God says it did not cooperate with me, I did everything, I did everything I can do to get the best for them, but it did not respond.

Application, are not governed by your mind, you are actually governed by your thoughts, you have control over your mind and the way you control your mind is by your thoughts, the Bible has so much to say about that, it was thoughts that was placed in David's mind to number the army, it was thoughts that was placed in Adam's head and Eve's head, you can become like that, then they acted.

Thoughts actually, now it is proven scientifically more than 7 seconds, 8 seconds before actually it is processed in the mind and so you have this most powerful tool God has given to us, all of us, to start having our thoughts that will become the direction for our life in the ways of God, that is full of joy and pleasure and happiness and in the end regardless of what we go through we succeed in the end, but where do you get the right thoughts?

Meditating on God's Word and Renewing the Mind

That is where the Bible comes in, my thoughts are not your thoughts, God says in Isaiah 55, my ways are not your ways, give up your thoughts, naturally we are born to think love and positive things and goodness but we have to learn to think anger and bitterness and disappointments and doubts and confusion and all that and self-pity, so the more we meditate on God's word, this is the pure orthodox faith of the church of first 500 years, they had great emphasis on people meditating and being alone and being silent so that the word actually transforms our very mind, Romans chapter 12, that is be transformed, be changed, so I conclude today by saying God the eternal judge is not waiting to condemn you, to reward you death and cause you problems, no, in this life and the life to come his job is looking for happiness and joy and success and pleasures for you and God is not a negative God, so when you think about him being the judge he is looking forward for you to win, but the response you must have is active, proactive, determined decision you should make that is I am not going to think these negative things, I am not going to act like that and what happens all of a sudden your inside changes before you know it, somebody is screaming at you and you don't feel the anger towards them and you see there is no money to do something that you need to do, all of a sudden you say my God will supply all my needs, he knows my tomorrow and all of a sudden your life is governed by a whole different world of thinking and your actions now will become according to that.

I hope it made some sense and I pray the Lord give you understanding.