 Alright, well there in Genesis chapter number eight, of course this is the story of the flood. And here we see kind of the tail end of it. This is where God, we see the waters go down and the Noah and his family once again steps on dry land. And we see some promises that God makes to Noah. But go ahead, keep your place there in Genesis eight, we'll come back to it in just a couple of minutes. But turn to Genesis six. We're going to look at why did God flood the earth? Cause God to take such a drastic measure with humanity. You're there in Genesis six, just a couple of pages over. Look at verse five, Genesis six and verse five. And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that's a real easy phrase just to read over, but think about that. Think about how the emphasis put on this. God didn't just say, you know, the imagination of man's heart was evil. He says, no, the imagination of man's heart was only evil. As in that's the only thing that he man imagined, but not only does he say the only the imaginations of his heart was only evil. He says they was only evil continually. Not only does he say only evil continually, but he says every imagination of the thoughts of his heart of man's heart was only evil continually. So there's a lot of emphasis put on here how bad society had become. Look at verse six, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. So it is so bad that God looks down on humanity and he almost regrets it says it repented the Lord. He said, maybe I shouldn't even have made them to begin with. Verse seven, 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 fouls of the ear. For it repented me that I have made them. So that's how severe this situation has become. Mankind has become so wicked before God that he decides to reset the entire world, all of society with just eight people. And what was the result? Of course, after God does this, what changes after the flood? Did God fix the problem? Is man no longer this evil? Is man no longer this bad? Look at Genesis eight where we read, look at verse 20. And no ability and altar under the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean foul and offered burnt offerings in the altar. The Lord smelled the sweet savor and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. And you say success, we did it. We have cleansed the wickedness of man. We have accomplished seamless perfection with humanity. But no, God says four, here's why he says for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. For neither will I smite anymore every living thing as I've done. And you say, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, what? So why the flood? Why do we even do this? Why did we wipe out all of humanity if God gets to the end of it and says, you know, I'm not even gonna do this again because man's still wicked, God says. Man's still, and it's not like this was, of course, God is all knowing. He knows the end from the beginning. So it's not like this got off guard. But realize the point of the flood was not to wipe out the wickedness of man. The point of the flood was God realized that he chose to do a total reset. He saw that as necessary. But going forward, God is going to implement some changes. God is going to implement, of course, man has free will. So God allowed man to just live on this earth without any structure or just as they were, and it didn't work. So God had to reset. And now going forward, God's going to change some things. God's going to make something clear with humanity to help curb the wickedness of man. That is still there. Look at Genesis 9. Here God just sort of continues this into the next chapter. Verse two, so we see a couple changes, one kind of building upon the other. Look at verse two, and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be neat for you even as the green herb I have given you all things. Peter, there you go. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof shall ye not eat. So what God is describing here is the fact that man now has dominion over animals. The man has the authority over animals. He has dominion over them. He can eat animals. There's your veganism for you. So this is the first change. The differentiation between animal life and human life. And building upon that, let's look at verse five. And surely your blood of your lives of human life will I require? At the hand of every beast while I require it and the hand of every man. At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Here's why. Whoso shedeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man. So at the tail end of that verse there, God's explaining why. You say why are animals different than humans? Why is there a different punishment for killing an animal versus killing a human? Why is there such a big change? As God says, you know the difference is that with mankind, he was made in my image. The Bible tells us in Genesis that God made man in his own image and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. This is the difference between the creation of humans and the creation of animals. But notice this verse here. Because what we see in verse six is a very significant verse where essentially what we see in verse six is we see the institution of human government by God. Now obviously this will take a more complex form later. We know how complex and detailed God gets with things such as in Exodus with his government. But here right now in a very basic form for the first time in history, we see God giving man the authority to use force to bring justice. I'll be in a very basic form but God's capital punishment is what this is. This is why as Christians we should believe in the death penalty. We should believe that if you commit murder and you take the life, premeditated murder of another human being, the Bible says that person should be put to death. Now not to go off on this but you'll have liberal Christians and such that will say well that was Old Testament and in the New Testament Jesus says, well you have heard that it has been said an eye for an eye but I say turn the other cheek. Jesus wasn't reversing that. That was the eye for an eye concept is still relevant. That's a civil thing. That's how governments should respond. Now you as an individual you should forgive people and you should move on and so on and so forth but a government, a structured human government must in order to maintain justice, we'll look at this more later, must punish evil accordingly. No all that to say this. The sermon this evening is not about human government. We're gonna talk about it a couple of times but it's not about human government but what we're gonna do is we're gonna use this concept of human government. That God is instituted into a doorway as a doorway into what we're gonna be talking about. So you say okay well why bring this chapter up? Why bring this story up? Because this group of chapters here, Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9 is one of the most widely criticized parts of the Bible by those who do not believe in it. People will look at this and will say the flood was unjust, unfair and unnecessary. People will say the death penalty is unjust, unfair and unnecessary and it is parts of the Bible like this where people will get the mean Old Testament God mentality. And it's disappointing because even people who call themselves Christians will hop on this train as well. And people who call themselves Christians instead of defending the Word of God will see chapters like this and they'll skirt around it and they'll explain it. And I'm sure I've run into people at soul ending, I'm sure you have as well where you're trying to explain the concept of hell to them and the wrath and judgment of God and they say, well, well, you know, wait a minute, I thought this sounds like Old Testament God. I thought there's New Testament God and there's Old Testament God and I've had people try to tell me this in the door, well, aren't they different? Or aren't they, no, it's the same God. But it's a shame that Christians will be so ignorant of the Bible that they can't defend this, that they follow this because it's a very anti-Christian mentality, this evil Old Testament God and then nicer New Testament God. That's an anti-Bible mentality. And this story that we read, it serves as in, this is the reason we read it is because it serves as an excellent example of how people, even people who call themselves Christians will so strongly refuse to accept the judgment of Almighty God and they'll refuse to accept that it's just fair and necessary. Instead they'll say, well, at the very least, maybe that's just how God used to deal with people instead of defending it. So the title of the sermon this evening is this, if men were angels, if men were angels and I'd like to give you this evening a logical defense from the Bible, of course, a logical defense of the wrath and judgment of God. Now the title of the sermon, if men were angels, this is one of my favorite quotes from a book of mine that I've read before. It's from, and not to, the sermon's not about the book, of course, but it comes from the Federalist Papers. Now the Federalist Papers, just a brief overview. They were a series of 87 essays or articles that were written between 1787 and 1788. The Constitution had just been written and it was, these were published in New York newspapers to try to convince the people who lived in New York specifically to ratify the Constitution. But previously the government had the Articles of Confederation, which had a lot of problems. It made the nation weak. And so the beauty of this book is there, it's just a very detailed explanation of the Constitution. It shows the Founding Father's original intent and things like that. But what I wanna point out is where this title comes from is there's a quote in Federalist Number 51, which is written by James Madison. And the context is he's describing the checks and balances of human government and why they're necessary, not just in the Constitution specifically, but just in, he's referencing a lot of history and a lot of other governments throughout history and hey, why we need checks and balances and why we can't have unlimited power in government. And he says this while he's talking about this concept of checks and balances. He says, quote, it may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. So he's saying, it's really a reflection of human nature and of man's nature that we need checks and balances that man can't be trusted with unlimited power, which is very true. So then he says this, he says, quote, but what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? He's saying, you know, in fact, government is actually the concept of government itself is the greatest reflection of human nature and he explains what he means by that. He says this, if men were angels, now understand, he's not meaning physical angels here, okay, we understand angels are not perfect. We understand, you know, Satan in fact himself was used to be an angel. What he's talking about here is he's using angels much like we would today. He's using it as a metaphor for innocence or perfection. Just like if you were to say, oh, that person's such an angel or he's describing, he's using it as a metaphor for someone who's done no wrong for innocence, for perfection. He says this, if men were angels, no government would be necessary. So that's what he's mean, what he means, he says, government is the greatest of all reflections on human nature because if men were perfect, we wouldn't even need government, which is very true. That's why God had to institute human government because society before the flood without government, that didn't work, okay? He goes on to say this, if angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. So he's saying, you know, if all men were perfect and if all men were innocent, we wouldn't even need government. And if government was ran by people who were innocent and perfect, we wouldn't need checks and balances, then they could be trusted with unlimited power. This is why one day there will come a time, it will be the only time in history where one person will have complete control and it will be Jesus Christ and it will work perfectly because Jesus Christ is innocent and perfect. But until then, it doesn't work like that. He finishes by saying this, in framing a government, because obviously men are not angels, that's his point, he says this, in framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this, you must first enable the government to control the governed and then the next place obliged it to control itself. So again, this sermon's not about human government, but what I wanna do tonight is I wanna use this concept of if men were angels, no government would be necessary. This concept of we need human government according to God because we are not perfect, because the imagination of man's heart is evil continually. I wanna use that concept to answer the question, why do we need the judgment of God? I wanna use that to give you a logical explanation this evening of why the judgment of God is just. Now I understand that everyone here this evening should already understand and believe that the judgment of God is just. But you know, there's a lot of people out there who most people do not understand this. Even a lot of Christians, well, you'll go out soul-winning and you'll be giving them the gospel and some will not get saved. They go to a Christian church and they claim to believe the Bible, but they will not get saved because at some point they refuse to accept the judgment of God. I don't believe in a God that would send people to hell. Someone who calls himself a Christian. We're not talking about a Buddhist or a Muslim here. We're talking about someone who claims to believe in Jesus Christ. So you will, I can guarantee you, you will come across a lot of people in life and you'll have to explain this to you. Maybe not even soul-winning. Maybe just friends and family and people you meet out in the world. Most people don't understand, but if they did, most people, if they're just open to thinking logically, they would believe it. I believe that. So I'm gonna use this concept to give you some logical defenses of the judgment of God this evening. Turn to Romans 3. Because look, men are not angels. They are not innocent or perfect. So first this evening is this. I wanna give you four statements this evening. The first statement is this. If men were angels, they wouldn't need rules. If men were angels, they wouldn't need rules. Are men angels? No. Are men perfect? That's what we're talking about. Are men perfect and sinless and innocent? No. So we need rules. We need the law. And so the first step, the law, which is what we're gonna look at and according to the Bible, the law. God's perfect and just law is, it's the first step in understanding why God's judgment is just. And I'll show you here in Romans chapter three. Because look, God's perfect law that we all fall short of. And the fact that we fall short of it is proof that we are imperfect and flawed. And that's the first step in understanding this. Romans 3, look at verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understand it. There is none that seek it after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. So the Bible, when it uses the word righteous, there is a difference because sometimes the Bible, well, I've had someone tell me before, well, the Bible has a contradiction because in verses like Romans 3, it will say that there is none righteous, but then the Bible will call other people in the Bible like Job and Abraham righteous. So it's a contradiction. No, when the Bible uses these words, in some cases, when it says righteous, it is comparing a human being to other human beings. And in other cases, like in Romans 3, it's comparing human beings to God, in which case no one is righteous, no one falls short. Let's look at a couple of these differences. The first is the us versus others. The human being versus human being comparison. This is why most people think they can get to heaven by good works. Because when they say I'm a good person, what they mean is I'm a good person when I compare my life to the life of what I see around me. Okay, they're basing their good works essentially on a curve. Romans 4-2, you know what the term there says, for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath weareth to glory, but not before God. So it's saying Abraham, his works, he was justified by his works when it came to comparing him to other people, but not before God, because no one is righteous before God. Another example turned to, you're there in Romans 3, look at verse 20. Here's the us versus God example, okay? This is the Romans 3 example. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, God's perfect law, there shall no flesh be justified in this sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Look at verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So you see the emphasis here on how man, no man is righteous. Look, someone may be righteous, but you say, oh there, you know, when the God says Job was righteous, he was saying Job was righteous compared to other people, to compare it to most other people, but when it comes to us compared to God, no one is righteous, the Bible says. So that's the first thing we have to understand. Also, we see with this concept of the law that we need is we see the presence in the Bible of two conflicting wills. This is also proof that we are imperfect and that we are flawed. Turn to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. If mankind was perfect, there would be no comparison here in the Bible. There would be no comparison of God is over here, God is up here and mankind is down here. Man wants to do this, but God says to do this. Here they're in Galatians five, look at verse 16. The Bible says, this I say then walk in the spirit and he shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This should not be a necessary statement if man was perfect, if man was without error. Verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary, the one to the other so that he cannot do the things that he would. So the fact that in man there is two conflicting wills. One wants to do this, one wants to do that, one wants to do the will of God and the other wants to do the will of the flesh. This is proof that man is not innocent or perfect. Notice the contrast here, but if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. Now we're gonna see a very detailed comparison here. In other words, so the flesh, look these both exist within the human being. These are not two separate entities. These both these things we see are bound within a human being until they die. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery, fornication and cleanliness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation of strife, on and on and on and on and on. Verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. In the heart of every man, even someone that's not saved doesn't have the Holy Spirit but they have a conscience, there's two conflicting wills there because man is not perfect. Man did fall short of God's perfect law. We don't do good automatically. The extreme, the worst example of this is communism, right? Communism was founded on the idea. Karl Marx believed the opposite. So you have one of the most fundamental truths. We're understanding God's judgment. The first step is understanding that man's imperfect, man's flawed. That's the first theme of the Bible that you have to understand in order to be saved is that you have a problem, you have a sin problem. And Karl Marx believed the opposite. He believed that man by nature was not bad. He believed man by nature was good and that it was the capitalist system under which they lived that made them do wrong. So imagine if you take this fundamental truth of the Bible, you flip it 180 degrees and you work nations by it. Millions of people die. That right there is a proof of the Bible. This is a big deal. This is no small matter. So, and here's the point of this and here's why this ties into the judgment of God, okay? The problem is that society, look, you as a person will not do good automatically. Therefore, society will not do good automatically, which means that we need structure to fix our problem of imperfection. This is why God instituted a human government. But obviously there's more to humans than just a physical government. There's also the spiritual side. So here's the problem for the atheist out there or for, and not even the atheist, just for the person, which I believe is probably most people at this point who just don't believe in an absolute standard of truth, who says we don't need religion. We don't need God. We don't need an absolute standard of truth. And also don't let people make it seem like the word religion is a bad word. Religion, the religion is in the Bible. We believe in religion. Now, denomination is usually what people mean when they complain about religion. But look, no, religion is good. Religion is a faith that is practiced, okay? So for the atheist out there who says we don't need God, we don't need structure, we don't need an absolute standard of truth, just the fact that no society could function without laws, which are based on moral principles, is proof that this process is faulty. Because look, laws in our country, they're based on moral principles. So if you say we don't need moral principles and we don't need a structure, that would never work. Because look, for the individual that disdenies the justice of God's authority and judgment, this is gonna be the first issue they run into. Because look, morality is not equal to legality. Okay, now look, the one day, when again when Jesus Christ rules and reigns, it will, morality will equal legality, but not today. And it shouldn't be, in my opinion. But look, just because something is legal, here's what this means. Just because something is legal does not mean it's moral. Slavery was once legal in the United States. That was not moral. That was punishable by death. Homosexuality is legal, but it is not moral. Pornography, abortion, all these things are fully, free and available in America, and they are fully legal, but they are not moral before God. What about the other way? Is something being illegal mean that it's immoral? Is something legal to the government, does that mean it's bad? Look, in Daniel, it was illegal to pray, but that was moral. Throughout history, it has been illegal to own a Bible in many countries today. It's illegal to preach the gospel. The government does not dictate whether something is legal or illegal. And the point I bring that up, is because, no, because obviously as Christians, we understand that morality comes from God and not the government. We understand that. But the problem is that if you don't believe in a standard of absolute truth, this isn't gonna get you very far. Because this is the first problem you went into. How do you define truth? How do you tell the difference between right and wrong? Look, if you don't believe this, what you're gonna end up with is you're gonna end up with a society that has laws, which is where our country is going, is we depart from the Bible and depart from God's word. You're gonna end up with a society with laws that just somewhat resemble what most people consider to be right and wrong at the time. And that's where we're going. An example is Judges 21, 25. It's the last verse of the book of Judges. The book of Judges is sort of in three sections. It starts out with a recap of history. Most of the book is in chronological order. And then the end of the book is just a bunch of messed up stories throughout that period that are just trying to get across to us how bad things were. And you read these stories. You read stories of Judges 19. You read all these messed up stories and you say, how could this even be possible? How could this even happen? How could people's consciences be so steamrolled by this point? The last verse of the book says this. It explains why. It says, in those days, there was no king in Israel. So there's no government. There's no structured government. And it says, every man did that which is right in his own eyes. This is where we're going. All that to say this, if men were angels, they wouldn't need rules. But we're not, so we do. So look. He said, how do we apply this? Because if you think that mankind sets the standard for right and wrong, doesn't need absolute truth, doesn't need a perfect God, you have an irreconcilable worldview. So look, you can't explain to me, if you don't believe in absolute truth, you can't explain to me how we're supposed to define morality. You can't tell me what laws we should even begin with since laws are based on morality or many of them are. And you can't describe to me what those laws even should be because of the fact that they're based on a moral perspective. So just to finish this, give one more example of this before we move on. I want to read you part of the US penal code, title 18, chapter 1, or part 1, chapter 51, section 1111. I'm going to read you this part. This is US federal law right here, OK? Quote, murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with mouths of forethought. Every murder, perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing, or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, goes on and on and on. Unlawfully, maliciously, to effect the death of any human being other than him who was killed is murder in the first degree. And it says this, quote, whoever is guilty of murder in the first degree shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for life. So why is murder wrong? Now most people today believe just whether they believe they're Christians or not, would probably say, I believe murder is wrong. But why is it wrong? If I was talking to someone who did not believe in absolute truth, I said, why is murder wrong? Is it just because people feel it's wrong? You say, well, because it's illegal. Well, why is it illegal? Why is it law? You say, well, you can't have a society where people run around and kill each other and have no, why not? Why not? Why is that wrong if there is no standard absolute truth? See the problem that you went into? This is why we, it's funny, one time, years ago I was talking to someone about this, where this person didn't believe in, they had some sort of religious background, but they did not believe in the authority gods were and they didn't believe in absolute truth. And we were kind of talking about this, and I said, well, I said the problem is, I said, with that worldview, you couldn't even explain to a serial killer why it's wrong, what they do. And they said, no, what do you mean by that? And it said, if you sat down with, extreme hypothetically, or if you sat down with someone like Jeffrey Dolmer, or Adolf Hitler, someone who just killed tons of people and murdered tons of people and did all this evil, if Adolf Hitler sat down to you and said, who are you to say what I did was wrong? What would he say? He was like, Adolf Hitler believed what he was doing was right. He believed he was building a better Germany. He believed that he was taking back what was owed to his nation. He was cleansing it. He was bringing in a more pure race. He believed what he was doing was right. So if he, with his moral perspective, in no basis for that moral perspective, sat down with you and asked you how you can say that's wrong and you don't have any authority other than just what man says or what you feel, you can't even describe to someone why murder is wrong. That's the problem. Because murder, when it comes down to it, murder is not wrong. Murder is just, I'm just using this as an example here. Murder is not wrong because most people think it's wrong. Murder is not wrong because it's illegal in most places. Murder is not wrong because a court says so or the international criminal court says so. Murder is wrong because God said so. And so if you just have man saying it's not wrong in the case I did it and you're over here saying, yes, it is, you're going to get nowhere. Good luck running societies like that. And that's what we're doing. And that's why we're going down the road we're going. So you say, God's not just. God's judgment is not just. Well, the first step in understanding that he is, is understanding we are not innocent and we cannot define morality on our own. Turn to Romans 13. Romans chapter 13. Second statement this evening is this. If men were angels, they wouldn't need punishments. So there is a perfect law. We looked at there is a perfect law. We fall short of it. So where do we go from there? Well, Colossians 3.25 says this. Very basic principle in the Bible. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. There is no respect of persons. You do wrong. You ought to be punished for that. It's a very simple principle. And look, there's a couple scenarios here. There's a couple examples of this. In Romans 13, we're going to see the civil aspect of this. How this applies to an ideal government. Look at Romans 13 verse 4. It's just describing what an ideal government should be. For he, the government, is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou doeth that which is evil, be afraid. For he bears not the sword in vain. For he is minister of God or a avenger to execute wrath upon them that do evil. The government should punish evil. That's their purpose. Verse 7, render therefore all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear honor to whom honor. Now here's where we come in. We follow laws that don't go against what God says. And we don't follow laws that don't. Look, the point of Romans 13 is we obey the higher powers. When there's a contradiction, we go with God, not the government, God and not man. But until then, our point on this earth is not to be arsonist and fight the government. And that's not our purpose. You say, but my rights are being trampled. I'm being oppressed. I agree. I get it. Romans 12, 18 through 19, look at this. The Bible says this. Here's what Paul said. Paul said, look, Paul wasn't living in a righteous government either. Chances are that Paul actually got executed by his government for being a Christian, therefore meaning his government was much worse than the one we have today. Verse 18, he says, if it be possible, as much as life in you live peaceably with all men. Look, the longer we can live peaceably with all men, the longer we can serve Christ and preach the gospel. Verse 19, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. You say, but the government's oppressing me. Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place into wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, say, the Lord. Just look, honestly, it can get to the point where it's a lack of faith sometimes, too, because look, I can guarantee you, according to this verse, I don't know how and I don't know when. Actually, I do know how, but I don't know when, but in one form or another, all the leaders of our government that did evil and that oppressed the righteous and trampled the laws of God, they will pay dearly for what they've done. That's because God punishes them. Psalm 37, 1 through 2, you don't have to turn there. It says this, fret not thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. God's going to take care of it. This life, our goal, is to just try to serve God as long as we can. Paul, this way in 1st Timothy, says that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in godliness and honesty. That's the goal, OK? That's just so we can keep doing them, keeping the main thing, and not get pulled away. There's been a lot of good Christians who have their Christian lives ruined because they decided to die on the wrong hill. That was not God's hill. Turn to Ecclesiastes 8. But the point being, God expects, we're talking about civil punishment here. God expects the righteous laws of the nation to be coupled with righteous punishment. That's why our nation's having a lot of problems right now, partially, partially, and one of many reasons, because we're not punishing wrong. Ecclesiastes 8.11 says this. Here's a shocking verse. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. So shocker, man will do more evil when they don't get punished for it. That applies at every area of life. And it is interesting, a side note here, how it says is not executed speedily. That's actually the 6th Amendment of the Constitution that says, in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to his speedy and public trial. That's also been lost today by an impartial jury of the state and district when the crime shall have been committed. So you don't punish evil, especially you don't punish evil quickly, and you get more of it. Surprising, but let's look at the spiritual aspect of it. So now we're getting closer to understanding why God's judgment is just. If it's both necessary and reasonable, let's think about this, if it's necessary and reasonable that a nation's laws are to be, when they're broken, they get to punish people for those laws. How much more crimes against God? Turner Romans 623. Actually, you don't have to turn, they're all just read it, for the wages of sin is death. So obviously we know what this means. This is talking about hell, okay? This is talking about the second death. Just the principle that when you break the laws of God, God punishes you, the wages, what do you earn, what do you deserve for that sin? You deserve death, okay? If a nation gets to punish people for when their laws are broken, God has every right especially to bring out judgment when his laws are broken. How much more righteous is God than that nation? God has every right to carry out judgment. So the first statement was this, if men were angels, they wouldn't need rules. We're not angels, we're not innocent, we're not perfect, so we need rules, we need laws. Second that is if men were angels, they wouldn't need punishment. We're not innocent, we're not perfect, so we need punishment. This is both man dealing with God and breaking God's laws and with human government. Because again, we're using the concept of human government to explain as a smaller version of why we need the judgment of God, why God's judgment is just. Third this evening is this, if men were angels, they wouldn't need justice. Are we angels, are we innocent, are we perfect? No, so we need justice. Turn to Exodus 23. Because look, I wanna explain this concept here. Punishment is not just to, you know, get back on whoever did the crime. It's to bring justice to whoever they harmed. I'll read to you while you're turning, I'll read to you Ezekiel 18, 12 to 13, is that, look, this is a big deal to God. This is a huge deal to God when a nation is not, because the problem is when a nation's bringing punishment on people, they are not bringing justice to those who are oppressed. Ezekiel 18, 12 to 13 says, it's talking about someone who is individual who is doing this. Have oppressed the poor and needy, have spoiled by violence, have not restored the pledge and lifted up his eyes to idols, have committed abomination, have given forth upon usury and taken increase. Shall he live? He shall not live. He hath done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him. Look at Exodus 23, verse six. God says, thou shalt not rest the judgment of thy poor and his cause. Not talking about judging the poor, as in punishing the poor, but punish the evil so that the poor get justice. Verse seven, keep thee far from a false matter and the innocent and righteous slay thou not. It says, notice God's mentality on evil. God's mentality on justice. God says, for I will not justify the wicked. It's a powerful statement. I was just reading, you don't have to turn, I just read this today in Jeremiah 22. God's describing one of the reasons why he destroyed the nation. In Jeremiah 22, verse three, the Bible says, thus saith the Lord, execute ye judgment and righteousness and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. So notice the emphasis of these crimes in the fact that there's no judgment in justice. It's because innocent people are being harmed. God says, verse five, but if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation and that's what happened. So God meant that. You can't have justice, point being you cannot have justice for someone done wrong without judgment on whoever did the wrong. This is one of the major reasons why punishment is necessary. You don't have to turn there, but Exodus 22, one, says this, if a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Have you ever read this and wondered why four extra? I mean, if you have a possession, if you have a car and someone steals that car, according to the Bible it's saying they don't just have to return that car, they have to give you four extra back. Well, the point is because the first is to replace what was done wrong and the four more are a punishment for whoever stole it to give, for the victim to receive justice. Because look, the point, and this is how God, God designed this with sin at all levels. Sin, it's like the saying, this is like the civil version of the saying, sin will cost you more than you are willing to pay and take you further than you are willing to go. The point is to be that the punishment is so heavy that it was far, it cost the individual far more than they were even hoping to gain from it. According to God, this heavy of a punishment is necessary for whoever was, because you would think, okay, if I gave you your car back, we're all good, right? No, God says there needs to be an additional punishment in order for there to be justice. Turn to Isaiah 58. Judgment and justice, they go hand in hand in the Bible. Ezekiel 45, nine, you don't read you while you're turning to Isaiah 58, says, thus saith the Lord God, let it suffice you, O princes of Israel, remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice. Take away from your extractions for my people saith the Lord God. Look, no judgment, no justice. That's the concept in the Bible. There in Isaiah 58, we're gonna read verses one through two and five through 10. Okay, we're just gonna skip ahead. Look at verse one. Notice how upset God is. God wants to get a point across. He says to Isaiah, he says, cry out loud. That means yell. Spare not, lift up my voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob, their sins. Man, what are they doing wrong? What's so bad? Verse two, yet they seek me daily in delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. Some sarcasm there. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching to God. So God's upset. And this, you see, this is the same thing that God was upset about this in the Old Testament and God, this is what Jesus yelled at the Pharisees over. God doesn't change. How he says, you're getting all picky about these really specific things in my law that I did command you to do, but then all the major things, judgment, mercy, and faith, you're just throwing out the window. Okay? He's saying, you act like you wanna hear my word and you're asking me for ordinances of justice. Look at verse six. Is this not the fast that I have chosen? He's got to say, here's what I want you to do. I want you to lose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free, that they break every yoke. It is not to deal, it is not to deal thy bread to the hungry that thou bring the poor that are cast out of thy house and thou see as the naked that they'll cover him and that they'll hide not thyself in thine own flesh. Verse nine. He's saying, if you do this, he says, verse nine, then thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry and he shall say, here I am. Thou take away the midst of the yoke and putting forth of the finger in speaking vanity. And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfied the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in the obscurity and thy darkness be as the noonday. God's saying, if you want mercy from me and you want me to give you justice, then you need to give other people justice. Again, this is something that doesn't apply to a nation, this applies to even us as individuals. You gotta say, you want justice from the people oppressing you? Why don't you check yourself first? Justice is a huge deal to God. Turn to Revelation 20. We'll finish up this point here. Revelation 20 in my opinion is one of the most powerful sections of the Bible because in Revelation 20, we see the day. There's a lot of people that are going to get by with a lot of things on earth. Remember, I was soul-winning with someone a few years ago and I'd really bite my tongue to be a silent partner because I really wanted to explain this to this individual but the guy opened the door and the person I was with started talking to him and the guy came off at first at the door. He came across as arrogant at first but I didn't realize it wasn't only he was arrogant, he just had a really specific belief that he believed it was logical that he wanted an explanation for it and he was talking and he said, well, you know, I don't know, I don't believe it. I'm agnostic. He says, the problem is I think there's a logical problem with God's justice. He says, because I wrote this book by this guy and he made the argument in this book. It was like some older book, I can't remember by who but by someone who's against the Catholic church and he made the argument in the book that even if there is a heaven and a place of rest for everyone who has done wrong on earth, that still does not cover up, that still does not, even if there is an eternity of heaven and peace for someone who is hurt on earth, that still would not make up for what was done wrong to them on earth. That still would not provide justice for them. And my silent partner was just like, well, I don't know, I'll check out the video but I wish I could have said to the guy, you're right. If that was the end of the story, you would be right. That's why there's a hell. Because in order to have justice is not just enough that those who are done wrong get the car back but that the people who done wrong are punished for what they've done. Revelation 20, look at verse 10. This is the day that everything is set straight. Verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beasts and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Satan's not getting out this time. Verse 11, and I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it. From whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was no place for them. Even the heavens and the earth disbowled before the presence of God here. Verse 12, and I saw the dead. Dead here referring to the spiritual, spiritually dead. So these are not saved people, okay? These are all the people that are spiritually dead. They have not believed in Jesus Christ. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God. Look, if someone dies without Christ right now, they will go to hell, but there will come a day where God will bring everyone out of hell and he will judge them individually and he will prove to them why they deserve what they get. And the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life. Here's where God takes out his perfect law that we talked about and says, you see this, compared to you, you are guilty. This is where the Bible says that all the world will become guilty before God one day. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. It's really sad when you read this because you know, most people, if there's a lot of really wicked people who are gonna be here, the Jeffrey Dolomir and the Amphilars, you know, most people here are just people that were just lost and just didn't believe in Christ. They thought they were good enough and a lot of them that maybe would have gotten saved, there's more people to preach the gospel, more people to spread the word of Jesus Christ. Verse 13, in the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered the dead which were in them. These are all the people already in hell and they were judged every man according to their works. 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. So here everyone who got away with all that wickedness on earth, they will be judged here. People will be punished for all eternity for their crimes against God and finally everybody gets justice except for one person. The fourth statement this evening is this, if men were angels, they wouldn't need a savior. Turned out Isaiah 53. There's one person who will not get full justice that was for what was done to him. Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 is describing someone who had one day come. Look at verse one, who had believed our reports and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground. He had no form nor cominess and when we shall see him there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We had as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we just esteemed him not. So okay well maybe this guy's just getting what he deserves. Maybe he's just being punished for maybe someone else is getting justice in the fact that this man's being punished. But not so, look at verse four. Surely he had born our griefs. So we're gonna read this. I want you to notice as we read it a repeating concept where you have a pronoun and you have a possessive pronoun that come right after it. You have a he and you have an R. Surely he had born our griefs and carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. That doesn't seem right, this does not sound like justice. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. For the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. This sounds backwards from what we've been reading. Why all we like sheep have gone astray. This was our first point. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted and he opened not his mouth. He has brought his lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before he shares his dumb. So he opened it not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because well maybe he deserved it. He had done no violence. Neither was there any deceit in his mouth. He had pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief. When I shall make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Look at the statement here, verse 11. He shall see the travail of his soul. God the Father shall see the travail of his soul, Jesus Christ, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. See what does that mean when it says God's gonna look at the travail of Jesus Christ. Notice too it says the travail of his soul. God's not just gonna see the physical death of Jesus Christ but he's gonna see the death of his soul in hell paying for the sins of all mankind. It says he'll be satisfied. What does that mean? Well there's a song we sing that understands the definition of what it's saying here. We sing in Christ alone, it's one of our hymn of the weeks and on the second verse it says this, in Christ alone who took on flesh, fullness of God and helpless babe, this gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones he came to save, till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. For, here's why, for every sin on him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live. When it says God was satisfied is because the wrath of God that abides on every human being, although not every man will accept that gift of salvation, at that moment God saw what Jesus Christ's soul went through and he rose again from the dead. God said, you know what? I accept this as payment for sin. My wrath is appeased for anyone who takes this as their clothes. Verse 12, therefore because this great person, God in the flesh, Jesus Christ has done this thing, therefore God says, well I divide him a portion with the great, he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death. His soul died in hell and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Look, everyone will get justice but if you are saved, even when it's all said and done and the great white throne judgment is come and gone and we're in heaven, if you're saved God will never get justice for the crimes you committed against him. God will get justice for a lot of people, from a lot of people who do not have their sins forgiven and who did not believe on his son but if you are saved, everything that you've done against God, God will never receive justice for those things, quite the opposite actually. So the wrath and the judgment of God, is it just? Well look, if men were angels, we're not angels, we're not innocent, we're not perfect and since we're not innocent and since we're not perfect we need a perfect law, we need punishments, we need justice and look, God could have justly, righteously ended it right there but we also have another need that he fulfilled. That was the need for someone who was innocent, someone who was perfect, who was without sin to take our place even if it meant that the only person in the whole universe to never receive complete justice who never will receive it was God himself. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.