INTRO.- Judgment versus kindness? Whether we like to admit it or not, it appears there are two sides to God. He has times when He becomes angry at mankind and times when He demonstrates extreme kindness.
Genesis 6:5-8 5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth —men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them. ” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And we know the rest of this story. God did what He said He was going to do! His anger was kindled because of the sinfulness of mankind. And it wasn’t too long after this time that His anger rose again.
Genesis 18:20-21 “Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” What was so bad about Sodom and Gomorrah?
Genesis 19:1-5 1The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” 3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom —both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
Wow! More like whoa! The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with what they thought were men. No wonder God was angry! And doesn’t this make you wonder about our day and time?!
I realize that we’re living in a world where it’s socially acceptable to come out and proclaim that a person is gay, but this doesn’t make it right in God’s eyes. There are people who try to water down the Bible says, and the subject of homosexuality is one of them.
Romans 1:26-27 “God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”
What is this “due penalty?” Could it be AIDS? That’s what Rock Hudson and Liberace received. God loves passionately but He also hates strongly. Romans 12:9 “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Love good and hate evil. I heard it said many years ago that if we don’t have any hatred for evil then we won’t have any love or passion for that which is good.
Jude 1:22-23 “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
Be merciful to doubters and there are plenty in this world. Be patient with them. Keep loving them. Keep witnessing to them with the hope that some day they will see the truth of Christ and respond to Him. Snatch others from the fire. What’s the idea? Could it be that some people already have one foot in the fire, so to speak?
ILL.- I know of a man who has two daughters and both of them are meth addicts. They’ve both been in and out of jail and in and out of rehab. One of them lost her two children. Also, this man’s stepdaughter is now serving a prison sentence for breaking her parole over her meth addiction. She, too, lost her child.
These young women sound like they need to be “snatched from the fire!” How so? Lots of love. Prayer. Hopefully, some Christian counseling and maybe even more.
ILL.- One preacher friend from nearly 40 years ago told me about something that happened in his church. An elderly lady in his church called him one night and asked him if he would go get her husband who was at some gambling joint. I don’t think it was a casino. I think it was a group of men who got together to gamble but there was also booze involved.
When my preacher friend got in that place and said he was there to take his friend home, those gamblers pulled guns on him. Somehow or other he was able to talk his way out of there. But please don’t call me to do anything like that! I would prefer to snatch people from the fire through prayer! Or at least, try.
PROP.- The two sides of God.
I. GOD’S JUDGMENT
ILL.- It was said that just before the death of actor W.C. Fields (who was an avowed atheist), a friend visited Fields' hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, "I'm looking for loopholes."
I think many people are looking for loopholes when it comes to the judgment of God, that is, they don’t want to believe that there is a God and that He will judge them. They are perhaps hoping for a loophole of some kind. But there are none.
Hebrew 9:27 “It is appointed unto men to die once and after that the judgment.”
1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. God’s judgment is on those who judge others.
Matthew 7:1-2 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Whatever you dish out is what you’re going to get. That’s the way the game is played, that is, by God’s rules, not ours.
ILL.- In the old comic strip, THE WIZARD OF ID, one day, Rodney, one of the warriors, came in from battle. He was bruised and battered, and his horse was crippled. The king said to him, “Where have you been?” Rodney the warrior said, “Out fighting your enemies on the west. I’ve pillaged, and I’ve burned, and I’ve killed your enemies on the west.” The king replied, “But I don’t have any enemies on the west.” Rodney said, “YOU DO NOW!”
If a person wants to be judgmental, critical and harsh toward others then they will reap what they’ve sown. If you want God to be gracious to you, then you should be gracious to others.
Galatians 6:7-9 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
A part of that doing good is being nice and gracious to people. When we demonstrate grace, we will receive grace. It pays to be kind, not judgmental.
Proverbs 11:17 “A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself.”
ILL.- Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in a letter: “It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make the world tolerable. If it were not for that—for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters, multiplying, spreading, making one happy through another, and bringing forth benefits, some thirty, some fifty, some a thousandfold—I should be tempted to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.”
2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. God’s judgment is based on truth.
ILL.- Two men had an argument. To settle the matter, they went to a judge for arbitration. The plaintiff made his case. He was very eloquent and persuasive in his reasoning. When he finished, the judge nodded in approval and said, "That's right, that's right."
On hearing this, the defendant jumped up and said, "Wait a second, judge, you haven't even heard my side of the case yet." So the judge told the defendant to state his case. And he, too, was very persuasive and eloquent. When he finished, the judge said, "That's right, that's right." When the clerk of court heard this, he jumped up and said, "Judge, they both can't be right." The judge looked at the clerk of court and said, "That's right, that's right."
And that’s the way it is with many people today. Everyone believes that what they say is true, but not everyone can be true. However, there is a truth that is the whole truth and nothing but the truth AND IT COMES FROM GOD! God’s judgment is always right and true, because He is true and His Word is the truth. He is true and His Word is true and His judgment is always based on truth.
3 So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? God’s judgment is inescapable. Many people do indeed think they will escape all forms of judgment. How so? Because they don’t believe in God or the next life, but just because they don’t believe doesn’t mean they will escape any kind of judgment.
ILL.- Remember this?
Star Light Star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.
Many people think of the judgment of God like wishing on a star. They hope it works, but down deep in their heart of hearts they probably know that won’t work, in the sense, that no person can ‘wish away” the judgment of God!
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
How’s that for God’s judgment?! What can any person say or how they defend themselves against any judgment that God makes? They can’t. No one can.
II. GOD’S KINDNESS
ILL.- Mamie Adams always went to a branch post office in her town because the postal employees there were friendly. She went there to buy stamps just before Christmas one year and the lines were particularly long. Someone pointed out that there was no need to wait in line because there was a stamp machine in the lobby. "I know," said Mamie, 'but the machine won't ask me about my arthritis."
Kindness matters. Our kindness matters. We should be a people who spread kindness anywhere and everywhere and in any way we can. When we spread kindness we make God glad. Don’t you want to make God glad by what you do?
I’m always thrilled when my children do good and are kind to others! And I’m sure God is thrilled when we as His children show kindness to others.
1 Thessalonians 5:15 “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”
2 Timothy 2:24 “And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.”
Kindness matters in our lives. And kindness matters to God and no one has been kinder to us than God. In the first place, He didn’t have to create us. In the second place, once man sinned God didn’t have to make a plan whereby man could be forgiven, saved and go to heaven. And God didn’t have to send His son to seek and save us, but He did it because He is kind!
Romans 2:4 “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”
God is both tolerant and patient. We are often not. I am not when I am driving, that is, when other drivers do stupid things like pull out in front of me or turn in front of me without using their turn signal or when they pull in front of me from another lane without using their turn signal. When people drive like that I am not very tolerant and patient. I want to honk or flash my lights at them.
BUT GOD IS TOLERANT AND PATIENT. Otherwise, we couldn’t be saved. And otherwise, we’d be in trouble most of the time. If God was like us He wouldn’t put up with our stupidity and stupid mistakes, but He is patient and tolerant.
And whenever I lose patience with people I try to remind myself that God has put up with me and the dumb, sinful things that I do.
Ephesians 2:6-9 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Titus 3:3-6 3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.
ILL.- The teacher asked the pupils to tell the meaning of loving-kindness. A little boy jumped up and said, “Well, if I was hungry and someone gave me a piece of bread that would be kindness. But if they put a little jam on it, that would be loving-kindness.”
Our God has demonstrated both kindness and loving kindness. He puts the jam of loving kindness, tolerance and patience on our lives.
He not only blesses us with good stuff but He is also tolerant and patient with us when we do dumb things and even sinful things. And the most important thing is that He sent His son to die in our place on the cross so we could spend eternity with Him in heaven.
CONCLUSION-------------------
7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
I choose God’s kindness, His favor, His blessing over His anger. What about you?
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO, shepherd111@hotmail.com
