Here Comes the Judge, Part 2

The Court Proceeding

The Charge

HIGH TREASON! You are charged with High Treason against God. A very serious charge… not against your country but against God! The Savior will be the judge.

It’s the Creator against His creatures. (Sinful) The defendants are the humans that God made and God the creator is the prosecution.

Jesus is the judge. Not the Father, but the Lord Jesus. The Father entrusts Jesus to judge. Whom He hath ordained & raised from the dead.

The defendants:

Moral man- the heathen, they enthrone human reasoning and dethrone divine revelation. Becoming consciously irreligious and consequently irrational. Basically it’s their darkened heart. He becomes conceited and foolish, or rather- very stupid.

Pagan man- the hypocrite, thinks other people’s sins are worse than their own. They compare themselves to others and think they are high and mighty. They flatter themselves but foolishly are measuring themselves to the wrong standard. God’s standard of measurement is the Law and the sin of the hypocrite is that of being indignant at the shortcomings of others while being indulgent of his own. The hypocrite places himself on very thin ice. He faces the judgement of God himself. “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds.” (Romans 2: 5-6)

Religious man- the Hebrew, False religious systems enslave people both sensually and spiritually. All were charged with High Treason. This is the man with a powerless religion. Mere orthodoxy in religion does not make a person more acceptable to God. Having access to an open Bible will greatly increase a person’s responsibility in the sight of God. A persons access to the truth will increase their accountability to the truth. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” (V.13) “The Truth shall set you free!”

Let’s review the detailed indictments: (V. 21-32)

First Indictment – (V.21) Ingratitude, not thankful for creation or redemption. And Pride, they had a heart problem. Thankful people are not prideful and a lack of thanks leads to Apostacy. Self-will and Pride both seem to be severe sins in the Bible. Lucifer and Adam had those traits. The Antidote for Pride is Thanksgiving.

Second Indictment– (V.22) An unsanctified philosophy, insolent fools- professing themselves as wise they became fools- morons. It’s a fool that says in his heart, there is no God. Let’s face it folks people are right now further away from God now than ever before. Man is self-sufficient. God is dead they say. But there is a reckoning coming.

Third Indictment– (V.23) They turned away from God and preferred idols. Man, birds, beasts and creeping things. They made God like man. They thought of God in terms of man. They sought to bring God down to man’s level. It was man seeking to corrupt God.

Fourth Indictment– (V.24-27) Sexual Perversions, homosexuality, lesbianism, vile affections, everything under imagination… “God also gave them up to uncleanness [or filthiness] through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: for they changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” (Rom 1:24-25).

Fifth Indictment– (V.28-32) Incorrigibility, a reprobate mind, not convenient, depraved. “For this cause God gave them up to unnatural affections: for even their women did exchange the natural use for that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men doing that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was necessary. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are [unspeakable,] not convenient, [not proper]” (Rom 1:26-28)

Fornication
Wickedness- (Mentioned 360 times in the Bible.)
Covetousness- (the one of the 10 Commandments impossible to keep)
Maliciousness- (unusual cruelty)
Envy- (unlawful desire of something or someone)
Murder- (the only sin that can never be forgiven by the victim)
Debate- (contention or strife)
Deceit- (bait or snare)
Malignity- (harbored hatred)
Whisperers- (secret slander- “devil” means “to slander”
Back Biters- (open slander)
God haters.
Despiteful- (insolence and insulting)
Proud- (with a swagger)
Boasters- (in word)
Inventors of Evil- (torture and evil intentions)
Disobedient to Parents- (The beginning of Anarchy)
Without understanding- (Blindness of the heart and “darkened” Eph 4:18-19)
Covenant breakers- (their word is worthless)
Without natural affection- (without love)
Implacable – (2 Tim. 3) (unforgiving, unsparing and unappeasable)
Unmerciful

No one has an excuse. All are guilty before God. As John said, man is “condemned already”, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)

The Jury

Conscience of man (1:19) – Conscience is a goad but not always a guide. The conscience must be educated and monitored by the Word of God.

“Because that which may be known of God is manifested in them; for God hath shown it unto them.” (Rom 1:19) God has inscribed certain things into our hearts. We know what is right and we know what is wrong. God has shown it unto us. That’s what the word manifested means. We have Intellect- we know whether an action is right or wrong. We have Sensibility – what would I like to do about it?

We have a Conscience- what should I do about it? The question is what shape is your conscience in?

An evil conscience, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb. 10:22)

A defiled conscience, “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” (Titus 1:15) – “guilty”

A weak conscience, ” Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.” (1 Cor. 8) A bit immature- don’t have all the facts.

A good conscience, ” And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” (Acts 23:1) – This is what we want.

A seared conscience, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” (1 Tim. 4:2) This is the worst.

What a devastating day it will be when God calls into the light all the hidden works of darkness. We all have guilty secrets, things we have done which we should not have done and things we didn’t do that we should have done. Those secrets will not be overlooked or forgotten by God. One day it will all be exposed. “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” (Romans 2:16)

The Will– what I am going to do about it.

The deeds of man- good deeds cannot save anyone. “Who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Rom 2:6)

“But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment”. (Matt. 12:36)

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 11-15)

The Works of God. The invisible God is revealed through His creation and the Heavens declare the Glory of God. (Rom. 1:19-20

The Law of God. “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.” (Rom. 2: 12-14)

We have seen the charge, looked at the defendants, the indictments and the jury.

Join me next time as we look at the defense and continue in

the Trial of the Ages.

God bless you all,

The Tubthumper.

It Grieved Him at His Heart, Part 3

We have now come to the key chapter of Genesis that bears the burden of the subject at hand which is God being grieved at his heart for creating the wicked and degenerate people on the land. We are talking about mostly every human alive in that time with a few exceptions. I believe we are close to that again now. The Lord will never use a flood to destroy the earth again, next time it is fire.

I must note for clarity that the earth populated very fast with descendants of Adam and Eve. As you read the genealogy and see the lines of families produced from Adam and Eve you might have a major question. Why don’t we hear about these family lines and people? When reading Genesis there is evidence that enough offspring were generated from some key people to build entire cities. The human race was exploding! One thing to keep in mind is that the Lord allowed men to live long, long lives and procreate the world. A man can make a lot of babies in 1,000 years. The population at the time of the flood was great as it is now. The population was high.

For some examples, we have just learned of Enoch in the last post. Enoch’s father Jared lived 962 years. He fathered Enoch at the age of 162 and the Bible says he went on and begat sons and daughters for another 800 years. Enoch was taken up by God at age 365 but beforehand he begat sons and daughters one of which was Methuselah. Methuselah lived 969 years and begat sons and daughters. An important fact is that Methuselah was the father of Lamech who was the father of Noah. Lamech lived 777 years and again this man fathered many sons and daughters.

The point I need to make here is the Bible will focus on the line that leads to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. All other lines are unimportant to the story. Pay attention to Noah and his 3 sons he had at around 500 years of age. Shem, Ham and Japheth. If you are reading this you are a descendent of Noah and one of his three sons.

We are now in Chapter 6 of Genesis and up to Chapter 9 we will have a drastic change in the way God treats mankind. He allowed these men to live over 900 years but during that time they became too wicked. Mankind had broken every single command the Lord gave except the command to procreate the world. They kept that command well. God will severely limit how many years a man can live going forward. I won’t address the Sons of God and daughters of men here because there is a special post on that subject you can go to. Please do … you can click the link at bottom of this page. In short there was an outpouring of Satanic activity. One thing I will mention about the Sons of God and Daughters of men is that mixed marriages occurred that went against the will of God. Believers were yoked with unbelievers. All of humanity was depraved and wickedness in both word and deed was universal and unparalleled. We have a full account of the worlds degeneracy, it’s apostacy from God and the rebellion against Him. Back in Chapter one and verse 28 mankind had a blessing. (Be fruitful and multiply.) What has happened is man’s corruption abused and perverted the blessing to the point of a curse and the sin that God forgave became more exceedingly sinful. It says in Proverbs 29:16, “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth.” The more sinners there are the more sin increases and the multitude of offenders emboldens men.

And that brings us to the key verse which is verse six of chapter six. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:5-8)

And then… woe to mankind… All humans and life except Noah and his family and what they were commanded to save in the Ark.

“For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” (Genesis 7:4)

“Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:20-24)

And so, at one time God saw that all was good, but now there was a change, a repentance, because it grieved God at his heart. He no longer saw it as good. Can you feel his grief? How terrible a situation where the evil became so bad that God had to wipe all life from the face of the earth and change the lifespan of man along with other things. It grieved him at His heart. Oh my…

Noah lived to age 950. And then we have a period called “The confusion of all things”, and the “Origin of Nations.”

Men unified to honor themselves and all spoke the same language. They built a huge city to keep together which was a breaking of God’s command to fill the earth. God separated them for their disobedience. He punished this evil attempt and separated mankind into small ethnic groups by confusing their universal language into many different dialects.

So now we have the origin of nations. The nations were all formed from the descendants of Noah’s three sons.

The first nation was the descendants of Japheth and would be Gomer (Germany), Magog, Tubal, and Mechech (Russia), Madai (Persia), Javan (Greece), Tiras (Italy), Togarmah (Armenia), Tarshish (Spain) and Kittim (Cyprus). Can you identify a land you are from?

The second nation was from the descendants of Ham and would be Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (Egypt), Phut (Africa), Canaan (the Canaanites of Palestine), Nimrod (Babylon and Assyria), Sidon (Phoenicia), Heth (Hittites), Jebus (the Jebusites, the occupants of Jerusalem before King David’s reign), Philistim (the Philistines) and Sin (Possibly the Asian people of China, Japan, India, etc.).

The last nation was made from the descendants of Shem and were through the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: the nation of Israel. And through the Abraham, Ishmael and Esau: the Arabic countries of the Middle East.

I will end with a writing from the Anthropologist Arthur Custance, “And thus we conclude that from the family of Noah have sprung all the peoples of the world, prehistoric and historic. The events described in Genesis 6 to 10 and particularly the prophetic statements of Noah himself in Genesis 9:25-28 with respect to the future of his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together combine to provide us with the most reasonable account of the early history of mankind, a history which , rightly understood, does not at all require us to believe that modern man began with the stature of an ape and only reached a civilized state after a long, long, evolutionary history, but made a fresh start as a single family who carried with them into an unpeopled earth the accumulated heritage of the pre-flood world.”

And so there you have it. So many times, God said it was good and it was, until the will of man and sin entered the picture. And it got so bad that God repented and it grieved Him at his heart. And then His wrath prevailed with the culmination of the great flood and the making of the nations of the future. All in the master plan. When I read this section it just tugs at my heart as a father. Can you imagine the huge family you have created becoming so evil you had to kill them all? Well, we cannot think like God thinks because we are human and he is the Almighty. I know what the death of a dream is and I know the love a father has for his children. All we can do is think like humans so it tugs at my heart. I hope you received something from these posts.

Click here to visit the Sons of God and Daughters of Men post.

God bless you,

The Tubthumper