- There are additional things going on in this passage, but I want to focus on the overarching idea: trying to escape the judgment of God.
UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS:
1. GOD IS THE JUDGE.
- Genesis 18:25.
- God plays many roles – Creator, Sustainer, Father. He also plays the role of Judge.
2. HE WILL JUDGE BY HIS STANDARDS.
- Mathew 7:23; Matthew 8:12; Romans 2:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; 2 Peter 2:4-5; Revelation 20:15.
- God has standards. He has shared His truth. And He intends to judge by those standards.
- What He has said is true is in fact true.
- This idea would have been self-evident some time back, but now it is increasingly questioned.
3. YOU CAN'T ESCAPE HIS JUDGMENT.
- Amos 9:1-4; Matthew 24:30; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8.
- The point of our passage for this evening is that the judgment of God is inescapable.
- This is a particularly uncomfortable truth for many people. They presume that if they just ignore God then they won’t have to deal with what He thinks. After all, that’s the way we do things with much of our social life – we retreat into our social bubbles where we avoid those who don’t think like we do. But you can’t avoid God.
HOW TO RESPOND:
- Each of these is the response to the same numbered point above.
1. QUIT ACTING LIKE YOU GET TO JUDGE YOUR LIFE.
- Matthew 25:31-32; Hebrews 12:23.
- We want to presume that we each get to use our own standards for our life’s judgment. What you think is true is what you’ll be judged by.
- Talk about syncretism and the “salad bar” approach to truth. Talk about what “absolute truth” means.
- This should logically move toward us wanting to know about the One who is the Judge and what His standards are. Which leads us to the next point.
2. GOD'S STANDARDS ARE NOT HIDDEN.
- John 3:16-17; John 14:6; John 18:37.
- What does God want from us? What does God think of us? What is God’s plan for us?
- Fortunately, we are not left in the dark about all those questions. Rather, God has given us clear instructions.
- Go over the answers to all three questions.
- So the question is not “what does God want?” but “will I obey God’s call?”
3. BE READY FOR THE MEETING.
- Psalm 96:10-13; Hebrews 2:3.
- We all have this meeting on our calendar - we just don’t know when. We will stand before God someday.
- Are you ready for the meeting? Are you ready to stand before Him?
- To the non-Christian: you need Jesus.
- To the false believer: the fact that you said you made a decision years ago but there’s been no change in your life strongly points to a false conversion.
- To the believer: are you living for Him? You will also stand in judgment, but for rewards.
