Psalms 58:10-11

This morning, let me invite you to look at two passages of Scripture with me. The first is in Psalm 58 and verses 10 and 11. Then we’ll have one from Psalm 58 versus 10. Righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. so that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily he is a God that judges. Then if you would, to the book of Revelation chapter 16, Chapter 16 verses 5 and 6. The angel of the waters say, which art and wasst judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink his sacred holy word this morning. This morning I’d like to speak about the righteousness or the justice of God. In scripture, Christ called the Father, the righteous Father. The Son is called Jesus Christ the righteous. And the Holy Spirit, convinces men of righteousness and judgment. And so all three persons of the Holy Trinity are certainly righteous in their dealings. It is, I think, a frightening thing, for man, a sinner to realize that every thought, and every deed that he has, is carefully evaluated by God. God intends to bring justice on this earth. As we read from Psalm 58, he is a God who judges in the earth. We’ll talk about the fact that, yes, there’s a day coming when there’ll be a day of judgment. But I like Psalm 58 because it tells us he’s busy now. He is judging. He is assessing. He is punishing or rewarding even now as we go through this life. Now, many people don’t like the idea of God as a judge. Their minds recoil from such a thought. But there are a few things more stressed as strongly in the Bible as the reality of God’s work as judge. This justice is going. Now your God is a God of judgment because he’s righteous. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Psalm 92 verses 1 and 2. The reality of the justice as God is found throughout all the scriptures. You can’t escape it from Genesis to Revelation. God God judged. God, judged Adam and Eve, expelling them from the garden when they sinned against him, eating off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And put a curse on their life here in this world, that the ground would bring forth vistles and thorns and briers and so forth, and it would be much more difficult to farm. And we also find that women activity involved. As a result, God’s judgment. God judged the world in Noah’s day. We are fully aware of the fact that he sent a flood to destroy mankind because men were so evil, so violent, so vile, that he saved but eight souls on the face of the earth. We read in the book of Genesis. how God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, engulfing them in fire and brimstone, according to Genesis 18 and 19. Because they were notorious sinners in the eyes of God. God, you recall, in exes, Judge Pharaoh and Egypt were refusing to let his people go, unleashing the terrors of the plagues upon them, to the point where Pharaoh himself said it in Exodus 927, the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. God judged Nadab in a bayou in the book of Leviticus for offering strange fire on the altar of God. The contrary to what God had written in his law and the procedures of worship. God judged Cora and Dathan and Abiram when the earth swallowed them up for their opposition to God’s leadership of Moses and Aaron. God judged Aiken in the book of Joshua for stealing items from the city of Jericho when they were all dedicated to the Lord God he and his family were stoned and burnt with fire. God judged Israel for being unfaithful after they got into the land and God brought foreign powers to rule over them in the book of judges. Judge both the father Nebuchadnezzar and the son Belchazar for their impiety. The one was given time to repent. The other was not. The Old Testament prophets contain many judgments. It’s against the surrounding nations of the Jews, Moab and Edom and Philistia and Babylon and Assyria and Egypt and so forth. The Old Testament history is very plain. You can’t escape it. The justice of God is, of course, not confined to the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, think of the judgment that fell upon Israel for the rejection of Jesus Christ and crucifying Him. On Ananias and Sapphire for lying to God and the church. On Herod, for his pride and arrogance, and God had the worms eat him up. On Alimus, for his opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul was preaching. On the Corinthians for their gross perversion with reference to the Lord’s Supper. and some were getting even drunk, we’re told, in God’s sense of sickness and weakness and death. and as we said in previously, the new test that makes very plain. There is going to be a final day of judgment. Christ is ready to judge both the quick, living and the dead at his appearing. Paul tells us in the Mars Hill sermon that God hath appointed in the which he will judge the world by that man God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel Romans 216 Paul says so throughout the Bible there is emphasis on the justice of God. It cannot be denied sin is going to be punished. Now, Now, what is implied about your God since he is a just judge? Well, let’s start with the idea that he has the supreme authority. We had Russell read Psalm 2 where Uzziah died who was the king of the land but we find Isaiah saw another king. the Lord Jesus Christ sitting upon a throne high and lifted up the holy God who brings judgment upon the nation for their refusal to repent. Now, in ancient times the king was the supreme judge because he was the supreme leading authority. How many times you find people coming to Solomon or David and wanting a judgment from the king in like manner God is the judge of this world. As your maker, he owns you. As your owner, he has the right to govern you in any manner he sees fit. He has therefore a right to make laws for you and either punish or reward you according to to your obedience or disobedience to his laws. In our country, the Supreme Court is not supposed to be making laws. The Congress does that, but the Supreme Court enforces and interprets the laws. But Christ, being both lawgiver and judge, does both duties. He is just. and fair. Look with me at Romans chapter 2 verses 6 through 11 if you would. The Bible says here to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality and eternal life but on them that are contentious do not obey the truth but obey on righteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and wrath upon every soul of man that do with evil of the Jew First and also of the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace to everyone that work of good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God. We often think of a judge as sort of cold and aloof, but Scripture tells us us about how he is about justice. The biblical judge is expected to love righteousness and fair play. A loathe all ill treatment of man by his fellow man. But the laws given to man in Scripture are certainly God’s laws and he has a personal interest in seeing the justice is done. A woman leaves no doubt. that God loves righteousness and hates iniquity, that he is totally fair and impartial. The Lord is righteous in all his ways. Psalm 114 in verse 17. God also is wise and times the king would have to question those who came before him and assort the facts of the case and then make a decision regarding there was no jury. So he would question. He would establish how matters really stood. You recall the story of King Solomon and how the two women came before him, both claiming a baby was theirs, and he questions them. And he says, okay, get a sword, we’ll cut the baby in half. You can each have a half. And of course, the real mother, they all don’t do that. And so he discerned which one was which by getting the facts out. Well, God, of course, operates on a more sophisticated manner than that. He’s omnipotent and wise. He searches hearts. He uncover his truth. But it’s interesting when he met with Abraham. in human form at the Oaks of Mamry, he gave Abraham to understand that he had come down to see about the outcry against Sodom. I’m coming down to establish the facts and check up on this moral condition of these people. And if they are as wicked as I hear the cry coming up, I will punish. From a human standpoint, of course, God was telling Abraham, I’m going to check out the matter. And the judgment would fall. He already knew the matter, but he put it in human terms for us. God is powerful and he’s able to execute his sentences. Usually we leave it up to the police department to carry out the punishment. But God is his own execution. He not only legislates, he not only questions, and establishes facts, not only passes sentences, but he also punishes the wicked. The justice of God will prevail because he’s able to execute any punishment that he meets out. Who can stop him? So what is implied here about your God since he is a just judge these things? Thirdly, you can see the justice of God revealed in this life. If you would, Ezekiel chapter 18, verses 29 and 30, 18. Yet saith the house of Israel, the way of the Lord is not equal. The house of Israel are not my ways equal, are not your ways. I will judge you. Everyone according to his ways, said the Lord. Repent. Turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Like man, say that God is unequal. That God’s not fair in his judgment. It clear here that he is fair. It’s man that’s unfair. It’s man that can’t see things clearly. Not him. Just and true are his ways. According to Revelation. So you are assured that God’s providence will bring about justice. I’m reminded of a story in Judges Chapter 1. There was a king whose name was Adonai Bezik. He was the Lord of Bezik. And he had conquered 70 some other kings and cut off their thumbs and big toes. and they had the grovel underneath his table for a few crumbs to eat. But when the Israelites conquered him, guess what they did? They cut off his big toes and his thumbs. And what did he say? The Lord hath requited me. The Lord has paid me back for what I did. That’s how he saw it. And that’s how it was. God governs the world. He disposes all things according to strict justice. The Israelites claim that God’s dealings were unequal. But man, is always the guilty. There are times we know that the godly are afflicted, and it seems like the wicked. And that’s puzzling. But the Bible indicates that God is simply chastening his people. and he is working for their spiritual good. And when they are chastened by the Lord, they’re not condemned. As for the prosperity of the wicked, they may seem at times to have more than heart could wish. And yet, they are like the beast that are being fattened for the slaughter, according to Psalm 2nd. Their damnation and judgment may seem to linger, but then sudden destruction will come upon them because God has set their feet in slippery places. Promises to avenge his people when they are mistreated. The Bible says recompense no man evil for evil. And rather we are to give place under wrath for wrath, or it is written. Vengeance of minds. And so we rely on the justice of God’s providence to repay the wicked when we are mistreated or harmed in some manner. And you recall that there are many individuals who have harmed the people of God in Scripture, and God has struck them down, whether it be Pharaoh or Ahab or Bel Shazhar or eventually. Let’s look also his justice in salvation, if you would look with me at Romans chapter 9 verses 10 to 40 also had conceived by one even by our father Isaac being not yet born neither having done any good purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved and he saw if I hated what shall we say then is there is there is there unrighteousness with God. Reset to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. So then there’s not of him that willeth. Paul’s answer to those who would question the Lord’s righteousness when it comes to election is that there is never any unrighteousness in his choice of some to salvation. Because election is not a matter of justice or injustice. It’s a matter of mercy. and therefore it’s up to the sovereign will and good pleasure of God. He may indeed give grace to Jacob. He may withhold it from Esau without being unjust. Grace is not merited. It is just granted freely. The justice of God shines very brightly and the redemption of sinners by Christ. If you look at it, Romans 3 with me in verses 24 to 26 justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forebearance of God to declare I say his righteousness that he might be just the justifier of him that believeeth. So the salvation of Scripture is clearly declaring to us that he’s a just God. He’s a just God. He’s a just God because he punished Jesus Christ for our sins. And his law was perfectly fulfilled. He does not just forgive. He forgives on the the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that Christ did not die, there’s no injustice in that because God could easily have condemned all men whatsoever without providing any atonement. Therefore, he can’t be unjust if he spare some who certainly deserve hellfire. The Bible says that God is satisfied in Isaiah 53. It’s interesting that some of the older writers used to call it the satisfaction. We talked about redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. Remember 1st John 1.9. God is faithful and what? Just to forgive us, our sins. And it cleanses us. How is it just that he does so? Because the sins have been paid for by Jesus. Christ. What a comfort that is to know. So you can see the justice of God revealed in this life. You can see the justice of God in the final judgment as well. Revelation chapter 20 in verses 11 to 15. The final judgment will be according to your works. The books are going to be open. The book of life? The book of works. The relevance of your works is not that they merit or earn court. But they do provide an index with regard to your heart. This is once said that man what’s on the inside. They’re the fruit of the tree of a person’s life. From your works, we can gather an indication of your heart state. Final judgment, when the books are open, your character is revealed. And there’s not really any question about who’s saved or lost. The Book of Life is there and those who are God’s elect have had their names written in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world. But certain degrees of punishment and reward will be meted out. Therefore God is just in doing this. And so as for the believer your works will be assessed. Certainly there’s many flaws in what we do, but we find that God is such that he has worked in us both the will and the do of his good pleasure and therefore we can, by God’s spirit, do things that are pleasing in the eyes of God. Not that we really earn the reward, but God gives us a reward. This judge will be very just and fair. In the heathen, natives, in jungles of Africa or someplace, will certainly have less punishment if they’ve never heard the gospel than apostate church members who sat and heard the word of God and rejected. Those Christians who have been privileged to learn more of God’s truth than others will be more responsible for their actions. Let me close this morning by saying this. On the day of judgment, your whole life is going to be assessed, be played back, secrets, the assessment by going to yourself at all, certainly to face the justice. Here’s what you need to know. The judge is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, he’s the one that’s going to assess us, it makes us a world of difference is for one of his people. And so the most important thing, when we talk about the justice of God, is that we know the judge, that we have come to trust in him as a savior. The Bible says there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And while be rewarded as a believer or lose rewards, you can never be cast finally away. God’s not someone. Christ has paid for your sins. You aren’t going to be end up paying for them yourselves in the lake of fire. So that’s the most important thing here. If Christ died for your sins, then you will never have to suffer the punishment for them. He has fully paid. for those sins. What a comfort it is to know that our judge is Jesus Christ. Let’s close.