God - The righteous Judge.

[B-A-C]

All the way back in Genesis, Abraham has a discussion with God the righteous and the wicked. People sometimes ask how can God destroy the innocent along with the wicked?

Gen 18:25; "Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?"

God actually agrees with Abraham and says ok, if you can find fifty, forty, thirty ... all
the way down to even just 10 righteous people, I won't destroy the city. But Abraham is unable to find 10 righteous people. So God destroys the city, there was no one innocent in this city.

Psa 7:11; God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day.
Psa 7:12; If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.

2 Tim 4:8; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Heb 12:23; to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

One day God will judge everyone in creation. Some people don't agree with that, some people don't like it.
The Bible speaks of a "day of judgment".

Matt 10:15; "Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
Matt 11:22; "Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
Matt 11:24; "Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you."
Matt 12:36; "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
Matt 12:41; "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Matt 12:42; "The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Luke 10:14; "But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.
Luke 11:31; "The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
Luke 11:32; "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
John 3:19; "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

John 5:26; "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
John 5:27; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
John 5:28; "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,
John 5:29; and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

In fact this is mentioned over fifty times in the new testament. The verses above are just a partial sampling.

One of the things this generation like to do is give everyone awards. Everyone gets the same award no matter what. Even if you were just on the team and never played a second you still get an award.

It isn't that way with God. God will separate the wicked from the righteous. Everyone doesn't get the same reward.

Matt 13:49; "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous,

There is a lot more to say about this... I would think this will be a lengthy subject. The funny thing is, some churches don't talk about it at all.

In fact it seems the vast majority of people will not enter into righteousness.

Matt 7:13; "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
Matt 7:14; "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

It seems "many" will go to destruction, and "few" will find eternal life.

Does this mean only a few will be saved? Someone asked Jesus this very question. This was His answer.

Luke 13:22; And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem.
Luke 13:23; And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them,
Luke 13:24; "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
Luke 13:25; "Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open up to us!' then He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.'
Luke 13:26; "Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets';
Luke 13:27; and He will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.'
Luke 13:28; "In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.

How many is a "few"? I honestly don't know. But John says there will be a great multitude in heaven.

Rev 7:9; After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;

This is pure speculation, I am just making up numbers here to prove a point. But if the population of the earth is 7 billion, let's say 10 percent get saved. That's 700 million people!! On one hand it's a "few" compared to the entire population of the earth. On the other hand, 700 million people is a LOT of people.

... next the price of rejecting Christ, and the lake of fire.

 

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As much as people don't want to hear this (some churches even preach against this). The Bible says some people will be thrown into the fire.
Some verses say thrown into hell.

Matt 3:10; The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matt 5:29; If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matt 5:30; If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matt 7:18; A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Matt 7:19; Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matt 13:41; The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
Matt 13:42; and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 18:8; “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.
Matt 18:9; If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

Matt 22:11; “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,
Matt 22:12; and he *said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless.
Matt 22:13; Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matt 22:14; For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Matt 25:30; Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 25:46; These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Rev 20:15; And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but the plain and simple fact is... God will sentence some people to hell, to burn.
That doesn't make God evil or bad. In fact if there was no punishment for evil, and reward for righteousness, that would be evil.

... next, what we are judged by.

 

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We will be judged by works.

2 Cor 5:10; For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

But it says here, we will be judged by both good "and" bad works.

I've been in churches that seem to re-inforce week after week, day after day... don't ever do any good works. They won't say you. Maybe not, but that does mean we shouldn't do them?

John 5:28; "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,
John 5:29; and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

I notice it doesn't say in the passage above... "those who believe in Jesus". It talks about good deeds and evil deeds. There are few (if any) verses that say we will
be judged by what we believe.

One of the more interesting things that Paul ever wrote was...

1 Cor 15:9; For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
1 Cor 15:10; But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

The same guy who wrote we aren't saved by works, said he did did more work than any of the other apostles.

Tit 3:8; This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

Paul wrote the verse above also.

Now somewhere along the way.... some churches have gotten confused. They think that "good works" means keeping the commandments. No they aren't the same thing.

We are simply expected to keep the moral commandments. Some people say this won't save you. I disagree. If you continue in sin, you will not be in the kingdom of God.
The good works... "extra credit" aren't keeping the commandments, these are things like helping widows, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, even
ministering to those in jail or prison (this last one it isn't always easy). Those are example of good works, they won't save you, but you should do them anyway.

James goes a little further.

Jas 2:20; But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Jas 2:24; You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

When I was in school.... we had something called "extra credit". If you wanted to raise your grade a little higher, you could do a little more work. God accepts this also.

Heb 11:35; Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection;
Heb 11:36; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.
Heb 11:37; They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated
Heb 11:38; (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

1Co 3:12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
1Co 3:13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
1Co 3:14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.