Supreme Court? Facebook tribunal?

Who is the righteous Judge?
This is to both sides regarding Gay marriage and homosexuals.  No matter where you stand.  Only one thing is important.  Consider this first (you believers) from the Word of God.

For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. 1 Cor 5:12-13a

One News Reporter said:

This is a historic, dramatic change that will reverberate for a long time

As we hear all the buzz out there, the opinions on who is right and wrong, one thing is for certain, God will have the final say on that day.

There is a day where He will judge the world in righteousness.

I can’t see in His Word where that is our job now, in fact the above verse tells us we do not judge the world, only within the church.   God is longsuffering and desires NONE should perish (2 Pet 3:9) and asks us to pray for all men because of that (1 Tim 2:1-6).

So what will God judge us for regarding our entrance into heaven?  What makes one righteous? Something we do not do or ‘practice‘ (as some translations incorrectly say in some places)? Something we do right?  Or is it all His work on the cross in our place?  Whether we have accepted or rejected His Son Jesus?

Do we call evil evil?  Do we answer if something is a sin?  Of course we do.  I’m not saying anyone should not speak, please just consider your speech as you do.  Seize the opportunity.  We do not call this decision a good one, because the Lord has said differently in His Word regarding what constitutes marriage.  But don’t go too far and sin with your attitude, speech or actions.

I reminded, I am not without sin and His Word also says that all sin causes death, every kind of it.  All sin is against God.   My sin is no worse, no less than another’s in God’s sight in eternity.   No less damaging.    It’s why everyone dropped their stones and walked away from the adulteress — who among them had not sinned?

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.  Phil 4:5

Before you call me an antinomian, greasy gracer, easy-believism, or another one of your cheap and false accusations, I believe we should do what the Word exhorts believers to do.  If you claim His name, we are told we should depart from sin.  Not for salvation, not only for His good name’s sake, but so others too might know His great love.  Start by preaching the good news instead of condemnation to those already under His wrath for one reason — unbelief.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.  John 3:36

By hearing some of the fervor out there, you’d think some who profess His name have overlooked or simply think they’re quite alright.  They don’t recognize their own sin, they seem to not notice their gossiping, murmuring and disputings — their complaints of others, their envy, their white lies, unkindness or haughtiness… These are also things God hates.

In the list they usually display boldly regarding those who will not see heaven, with their outstretched bony finger pointed at you, they usually forget the portion ‘such were some of you’.    Most importantly, they miss that it is the UNRIGHTEOUS will not inherit heaven.  Who is our righteousness, those of you who are His? (Romans 10:4; 1 Cor 1:30-31).  They also miss it is FLESH and BLOOD that will not inherit heaven (1 Cor. 15:50-58).  Corruption won’t inherit incorruption.  So it is only our new nature, that which is born again of an incorruptible seed (1 Pet 1:23) which will see Him on that day.

What does that mean ‘our righteousness’?

Does that mean we/they have stopped sinning to be righteous?   Hardly, and I’m sure you all can recognize that in any of us.   If you don’t recognize it in yourself, ask your wife, husband, sister, or family and friends.

Does it mean we/they are righteous by their own merit?  No, although by some of their self-righteousness displayed, it seems at times they think so.  But the Word reminds us, we sin just once, break just one law, we’ve broken them all.

Have you hated someone?  Then Jesus says you have already committed murder.  So you too have broken all laws my friend, ALL. And God will punish for all sin that is not under the blood of Christ.   Every believer is cleansed by His blood and declared RIGHTEOUS.  It is NOT because we have stopped sinning, or maybe we even sin less than our non-believing neighbor (or maybe not).  We WILL have consequences for our sin in this lifetime, and we will also suffer loss of potential reward in the next.  So please don’t waste your life living it for yourself, you will regret it — I know from my own experience. But on the other hand, stop acting like it is your righteousness that has saved you and somehow as if it is your personal righteousness that keeps you saved or proves you are.

Are you a homosexual?  A liar (one lie)?  Ever wished you had something someone else has (coveting)? Cheated someone?  Hated someone?  One time and you’re done. And you know we’ve all fallen short.  I know though, you don’t think your sin is as bad as ‘their’ sin… you don’t ‘practice it’, you are ‘sorry’, well, you’re wrong.  All sin that is unforgiven is the same, it causes death, some earlier death than others.  Worry about their long term consequence first.  THEN help them to walk worthy.  Concerning salvation, don’t try to clean up the sinner by condemning their sin as being worse than yours, and then somehow get them to stop it in Sinner’s Anonymous, THEN by golly, they can be saved. That is NOT what the Word says.

BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU SHALL BE SAVED.

The good news is that Christ came to give everyone life. Our sin separates us from God. We like some of our sin, some more than others. Some sin is fun to us, but causes consequences, griefs, sorrows… Sin keeps us from God.  We’ve been so conditioned in church messages of the supposed ‘good news’, which according to them, we have to give up or stop this sin, or turn from your sins or be really sorry, etc., BEFORE we can be reconciled to God.   Friend, if you think you can clean yourself up or make promises, good luck to you.  It’s not going to be good enough and it’s impossible.  You will fail and if you trust in those works to be a portion of receiving eternal life, you’ve already failed.

It’s not by any works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.

Our Heavenly Father loves all of us, the whole world. He loved us so much, that He sent His Son Jesus, to die a painful, humiliating death in our place. Some of you mock Him, others don’t believe He exists.   Some of you flaunt the very sin that made us all separated from Him in the first place.  Some of you hide your sins and act holier than thou in front of others.   He will reveal the hidden counsels of all men’s hearts one day.

There is a solution for all people. The solution is not to clean yourself up to be given eternal life.   It is not to promise to do better. It is not to be sincerely sorry. It’s not to make any resolutions for the future.   All of these things are impossible to do (in and somehow please Him, for He is perfect and Holy and that is the standard we have to meet and cannot.  We are still sinful, and He cannot be around sin, not the littlest one.   All sin is repugnant in God’s sight — yes, you who only tell little white lies. You who gossip behind the scenes. You who hide your secret sins while dressed so wonderfully for Sunday church and go out and condemn the world.  Yes, judge righteously concerning sin in the church, but let it be the more spiritually mature believers who will go in a spirit of gentleness to restore them if possible.   But leave the world out of your judgment, pray for them, pray for all men as He was a ransom for all.

Listen everyone, we all sin. ALL! Believers and non believers alike.   That means we will NEVER see Heaven without an intervention.  And that was something God promised Adam and Eve from the beginning, from the first sin which caused death. The Word of God tells us, the life is in the blood.   We know this practically as when someone loses too much blood, they die.  All of us now have died spiritually because of the sin of Adam. The sentence upon us is death.  God had to sacrifice that first animal, a covering for the sin of man, both the blood, and the garment of skins He gave Adam and Eve.

They disobeyed Him, ignored His warning of what would happen (death) if they disobeyed in only one thing.   Everything else was free to them, yet they chose to sin. Even so, mercifully, God promised them a Messiah, and later again promised Abram, this same Messiah would come through His chosen people — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He preached it (the gospel) again to Abraham in Gen 12 and Gen 15.    He swore this promise by Himself and there is no greater.  God promised and it is God who will perform it.

God foreshadowed that sacrifice when Abraham obeyed to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice in Gen 22. Why did Abraham comply? Because he believed God. God promised that the blessing of salvation through the Messiah would come through Isaac and later Jacob. Abraham BELIEVED.  Now God stopped Abraham from killing Isaac, and He told him that He would provide a sacrifice. Which He did then, and He did again in the Messiah, who is Jesus, the one prophesied, Immanuel.

God would offer up His own Son for us.  Ungrateful, sinful wretches that we are.

His prophet Isaiah was one of many who continued to foretell of the Messiah to come.

What did Isaiah report?

He told of the promised Branch (Messianic title), the root of Jesse (his descendant). He talked of the Messiah’s homeliness, that He would have nothing physically desirable that someone should desire Him.  Jesus was despised and rejected by men. Who is this Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief?  Who was this Messiah that His own people denied and hid their faces from?

Yet when the time came, Jesus took our place. Just like Barabbas was released, a murderer, we too will be set free from prison, from the bondage of death, and given eternal life, when we believe upon the Savior. He is the one who bore your grief, carried your sorrows. He was smitten, afflicted, wounded because of our sins, bruised for our iniquities. Scourged, chastised, skin laid bare, the hairs of His beard yanked out, thorns jammed into His skull, a bloody crown.  A reminder of the first curse. Beaten so badly, His appearance marred more than any other man.  Horrifying.

Why did He give His life for ours?

Because He loved us more than a friend. More than a brother. He died to provide a way out of death for us. Every single one of us are sinners. We are stupid, disobedient, willful sheep, who go our own way.  God, laid all our sin upon Jesus the Messiah, and yet although He was afflicted and oppressed, He bore it quietly.  Led as the sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered, He held His peace, for His willing sacrifice would secure our peace with God His Father.   He was killed by us. Every single one of our sins have caused His death. He never did anything wrong, He had never sinned or been deceitful. This same Jesus loved the woman, the prostitute that washed His feet with her tears and her hair. He loves the unlovely. The sinner.  But some of you out there may be forgetting that your sin was just as much a stench in His nostrils.

The good news in all this?

It was His soul that was an offering for sin. The only acceptable offering. No other sacrifice for sin will do. You need Jesus. His death is provided in your place.   He has paid the fine.  He stepped up in front of the judge and said, I will take that death sentence for her, for him… Jesus was crucified and buried, as the Scriptures foretold. He took the curse of death for you when He hung upon that tree.  Again prophesied of centuries in advance before crucifixion was even a method of execution.  My Jewish friends?  When was God pierced for you?

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”  Zechariah 12:10

There is only good news here.

You can’t stop sinning to receive eternal life, it’s a free gift from God.

You can’t turn from your sins to receive eternal life, it’s free.

You can’t be good enough to receive eternal life, it’s free.

You cannot make a promise to stop what you’re doing to receive eternal life, it’s free.

You can’t be good enough to earn eternal life, it’s free, you cannot earn it, and again, no one is good in His sight, we have all sinned.

Man sinned, man had to pay the price, which is death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Rom 6:23

What must you do?

Believe this:

Christ died for YOUR sins according to the Scriptures

He was buried, He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

This is what He did in your place.  So what does His shed blood, His death accomplish for those who believe?

We are perfected forever (Heb 10:10, 14) by one sacrifice.  His sacrifice, not yours. Yes, even the one that falls into sin.  Yes, even the disobedient son.  Yes, even the prodigal.

One is either made righteous by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, or one is still unrighteous.  And that is because of UNBELIEF.

So what did all this have to do with the Supreme Court Decision?

Do I approve of Gay Marriage?  Doesn’t matter what I think in the slightest.  Daniel the prophet didn’t go picketing King Nebudchadnezzar when he decreed unrighteous things.  He prayed.  He acted in wisdom.  He was given more wisdom because of it.  We need to walk in wisdom towards those who are without.  Does that mean Daniel or his friends compromised themselves?  No, when they were told to bow before the idol, they refused with sound speech that could not be condemned, and they trusted God. When Daniel was told to stop praying, did he? No, he continued to pray and was thrown in the Lion’s Den.  God decided to spare his life.

God wants to spare their life too.  God showed mercy on Nebuchadnezzar because of Daniel’s wisdom, love and patience with him.  God is the final judge.  He will judge the unrighteous.

Tell the unrighteous how they can escape the penalty of death.  

Tell them the good news.

GOD’S PART – For God so loved the world (1 John 2:2; 1 Tim 2:1-6)

GOD’S PART – That He gave His only begotten Son.  (A perfect sacrifice in your place)

YOUR PART – That whosoever believeth on Him (John 3:18)

GOD’S PART – Should not perish (John 10:28-29; John 5:24; John 6:40; John 11:25-27)

GOD’S PART – But have everlasting life (John 6:47; 1 John 5:13)

As my friend Cheryl said a little while ago:

Judgment is coming

What must you do to be saved from the wrath to come, What must you do so that you are not standing before the Judge’s Great White Throne in His courtroom?

You must believe that He died to pay the wage for the sins you’ve committed, He paid the wage (death) you earned. He was buried and rose again on the 3rd day, defeating death. When you believe the good news (The Gospel) of His sinless life, death on your behalf, resurrection from the dead (proving his authority over death) He will save you.