Romans, 14, 10 -13
These three verses that start at verse 10 contain ideas about judgement that we must spend sometime exploring this morning in order to deepen our growing understanding of the faith. Firstly however note that there is a complete rejection in these verses of the human vice of criticism. Paul asks the question "Why do you pass judgement on your brother?" Now there is an accusation against us and one I fear to which we must all plead guilty. But why indeed do we do it? The reasons are complex but stem from sin no matter how it arises. But ask yourself what good does it do? How constructive is it? Gossip and Criticism never accomplish anything worthwhile. Criticism which is so rife in the church violates the basic law of love. And as Paul points out, how presumptuous we are when we criticise and moan and complain about others in the church, for as he writes,
"All of us will stand before God to be judged by him. For the scripture says, "As surely as I am the living God, says the Lord, everyone will kneel before me and everyone will confess that I am God. Everyone one of us then will have to give an account of himself before God."
And that says it all. Jesus told parables about this. Do you remember the occasion when Peter came to Jesus and asked him how many times he had to forgive his sinning brother. Do you remember that Jesus said seventy times seven. Which meant simply that we have to go on forgiving again and again and again and again, forever. And then Jesus told the story of the unforgiving servant. "Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants accounts. One of them was brought before him who owed him millions of pounds. This is a picture of us before the Lord Jesus .... the servant did not have enough to pay his debts. He was about to be punished when he begged for mercy and the King forgave him for everything and let him go. That is a picture of us, forgiven, by the blood of Christ shed on the cross. But what does the servant do? He goes straight out and gives another servant who owes him a few pounds a really hard time. And it was a really hard time - he forces the issue with the other servant takes him to court and has him put in jail. This is us when we gossip, criticise and generally mistreat our brothers and sisters in Christ. The King hears of this and calls the servant before him and roundly condemns him saying ,"I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to. You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you." And then he was punished. Severely. Without mercy.
Jesus said, "That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from you heart."
How often have we heard this?
Well my brothers and sisters I also have heard it from childhood. But like most if not all of you somehow I haven't quite lived like that. I guess though the Lord is saying to us quite clearly at this moment in time that we should be engaged in that activity of forgiveness here in Mure Memorial. If we ever want to be the kind of Church we long to be and a real beacon in this area, a real light on a hill, then we have to start from now on, every day of our lives, living this teaching of Jesus and learning to bite our tongues and keep our moans and criticisms and back biting where they belong. How we all fall into the trap of gossiping and maligning others. How easy it is for the devil to get a grip on our tongues and do what he loves to do which is to try and split apart our fellowship here. As we have said a number of times now in our studies in Romans- this was a problem in the Church to which Paul was writing and it is still a problem for us and for each succeeding generation of Christians. James knew the problem as well he writes in the third chapter of his letter, "The tongue is like a fire. It is a world of wrong, occupying its place in our bodies and spreading evil through our whole being. It sets on fire the entire course of our existence with the fire that comes from hell itself. Man is able to tame and has tamed all other creatures ... but no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable full of deadly poison. We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse our fellow man who is created in the likeness of God. Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My brothers this should not happen! "
No wonder we are warned to watch ourselves. How quick we are to judge when we ourselves will have to stand before the true judge who can grant life or death. As Jesus himself said, "Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in te same way as you judge others and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. Why then do you look at the speck in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How dare you say to your brother "Please let me take that speck out of your eye when you have a log in your own?"
The warnings are clear enough but will we pay them heed?
We are to be judged!
Now let's take sometime to explore this idea of judgement for it can be confusing I know for many people. Now the judgement referred to here in Romans when Paul writes to a group of believers, "All of us will stand before God to be judged by him" is a judgement on our works and not our sins. Our sins have been forgiven and will no longer be held against us. We read this in Hebrews 10v17 "I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer". However every work of ours has to be brought into judgement. For example in that same passage in James we find,"My brothers not many of you should become teachers. As you know we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others." That's just one of the reasons you were asked to promise at my induction to pray for me regularly - for I need your sustaining prayers and I really mean that for I become increasingly aware with the passage of time that judgement is coming to us all. However that is to digress a little. To return then to our own day of judgement. In Matthew 12v36 we read the words of Jesus himself, "You can be sure that on Judgment Day everyone will have to give an account of every useless word he has ever spoken. Your words will be used to judge you you - to declare you either innocent or guilty." Or as we read in 2 Corinthians 5 v 10 "For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. Each one will receive what he deserves, according to everything he has done, good or bad, in his bodily life." And finally in Colossians 3, "Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people. For Christ is the real Master you serve. And every wrongdoer will be repaid for the wrong things he does, because God judges everyone by the same standard."
So then we can be under no illusions that we are going to face the a day of reckoning. The outcome of that day lies in our own hands now. We can change, we can seek forgiveness even now. We can make amends. But let us look a little more closely into the results of this judgement. So that we might know what to expect. Now this judgement will take place at the return of Christ. For as we read in Matthew 16 v 27, "For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels and then he will reward each one according to his deeds." Again in Luke 14 v 13 &14, "When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death." There are many more quotes on this matter let me just give you a few more,
"So you should not pass judgement on anyone before the right time comes. Final judgement must wait until the Lord comes; he will bring to light the dark secrets and expose the hidden purposes of peoples minds. And then everyone will receive from God the praise he deserves."
"And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day - and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear."
"Listen", says Jesus, "I am coming soon! I will bring my rewards with me, to give to each one according to what he has done. I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
So the result of this judgement will be either reward or loss for the believer. Paul here has solemnly reminded us of this fact. As Philips puts it, "It is presumptuous of us to criticise others. If we turn the searchlight within our own hearts, we will find plenty to keep us humble before the Lord without being occupied with other people. We shall have enough to do at the judgement seat of Christ answering for own behaviour without worrying about the actions of our brethren who, for all we can judge motives, were conscientiously following the Lord."