INTRODUCTION: Today's sermon will be more of a "running commentary" than a sermon with three points and a poem!

2 Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

• Point: Judgment day is coming. God will not wait forever.
• Point: God's judgment is completely fair. He knows all we have done/not done. He knows the appropriate punishment or reward.

• 1 ¶ A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
• 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-
• 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;
• 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
• 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash round his waist.
  (Isaiah 11:1-5)

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?

• Point: Those to whom God has given the responsibility of sitting as kings and judges ought to pray for guidance from God Himself. Solomon is such a great example of this...

• 4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
• 5 ¶ At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."
• 6 Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
• 7 "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.
• 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.
• 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"
• 10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.
  (I Kings 3:4-10)

• Point: Our judgment is flawed. We judge from lack of knowledge of the facts and motives.
• We pervert justice based on race, wealth, power, position, family connections, job connections, friendships, wealth, fame, ramifications of what may happen to US, etc. etc. We also are sinners and either judge hypocritically, or we let people off the hook, because we excuse the sins we commit ourselves.

4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realising that God's kindness leads you towards repentance?

• Point: We have no right to ever judge the justice/fairness of God.
• Point: God's nature is kind, tolerant and patient.
• Point: God is pointing us toward repentance. Repentance is essential!
• Point: People who DO repent should thank God for empowering them to repent.

• 36 "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
• 37 ¶ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
• 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-for all whom the Lord our God will call."
• 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
• 41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
  (Acts 2:36-41)

• 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
• 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
• 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: "‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’"
• 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
  (Acts 13:45-48)

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".
7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour 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.

• Point: The degree of punishment and the degree of reward are both determined by what people DO. Those who do good deeds will be rewarded. Those who do evil deeds will be punished.
• Point: This is not the basis of salvation. Salvation is a free gift of God's grace, not by works.

• 27 Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"
• 28 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
• 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
  (Matthew 19:27-29)

• 1 ¶ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
• 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
  (Romans 8:1-2)

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, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
11 For God does not show favouritism.
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

• Point: Race makes no difference to God. You may even by JEWISH, but that doesn't impress God. He does not show favouritism. He is not racially prejudiced. Being a genetic descendent of Israel will not get you off the hook for judgment. At one time God had an earthly nation that He made a covenant with, and genetic, Jewish Israel was God's chosen nation. But that covenant is over and gone.

• 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
• 6 ¶ But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.
• 7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
• 8 But God found fault with the people...
• 13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear.
  (Hebrews 8:5-8, 13)

God's covenant is now with SPIRITUAL Israel, not genetic Israel. Everyone, Jew or Gentile, who repents and believes in Jesus Christ, is spiritual Israel. We are the children of Abraham. We are the heirs of the Abrahamic Covenant. Being Jewish no longer means anything more than being Chinese, or American or African. See what Paul the Apostle said to the Christians in the Church in Galatia (Galatians chapter three)...

• 6 ¶ Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
• 7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.
• 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you."
• 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
• 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
• 15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no-one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.
• 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.
• 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.
• 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
• 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
• 27 for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
• 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law,
15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)

• Point: Likewise Gentiles cannot get off the hook by pleading ignorance of the laws of God. God's Law is written in our hearts, and even Gentiles who have never seen a Bible know in their hearts what is sinful and what is good. We call this CONSCIENCE.
• Point: Conscience CAN be undependable, especially if we sin repeatedly!

• 1 ¶ The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
• 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
  (I Timothy 4:1-2)

16 This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

• Point: The ultimate Judge on Judgment day is Jesus Christ (not the Father or the Holy Spirit). The One who said "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," is also the Judge who sentences the rebellious sinner to the Lake of Fire.

• 1 ¶ In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
  (2 Timothy 4:1)

• Point: The Gospel is not just "good news." The bad news of judgment day is also part of the Gospel. How can people receive the Gospel of the grace of God unless first they realize they are sinners and need to repent? For there can be no salvation apart from repentance.

CONCLUSION: Summarize...