The Delay of Judgement

INTRODUCTION

(Series Slide)

Good morning! My name is David Sorn. And I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church!

You know, one of the most common critiques of Christianity in our American culture today is that the God of the Bible is too harsh.

People say, “I can’t believe in a God who judges,” or “I prefer a God of love, not wrath.”

But there’s a paradox here: Because lots of times the people who dislike divine judgment, tend to be some of the same people who call deeply for justice here on earth.

They want justice (and rightly so) for the abuse of power, or systematic unfairness, or the hurting of the innocent…

We often want justice for others…but just not justice for ourselves 😊

I think part of this stems from the fact that most Americans don’t know much about the Bible anymore.

And even in American churches, less than 10% of churches in have taught through the narrative section of the Old Testament in the last 3 years.

So the vast majority of American Christians aren’t even hearing much about God’s judgment in our churches.

And so even to some Christians…the idea of God being JUST sounds almost foreign.

But it’s not foreign to the Bible.

And we’re going to see that as we get to what will be our 2nd to last week in our Life of Elisha series this morning…

…and before we jump into our passage in 2 Kings today, I want to take us back in time to 1 Kings.

4 Summers ago, we did a partner series to this series called the Life of Elijah

(Life of ELIJAH Series)

And if you’ve loved this series, I want to encourage you to listen to that one…just download our new app and you can do so!

But Elijah was Elisha’s mentor and one of the passages we taught through in that series was 1 Kings 21

Where the evil King Ahab sees a vineyard next to his summer palace and when he asks the owner, Naboth, to give it to him in exchange for a different vineyard, Naboth says, “No,” because it’s been in his family for generations.”

And so King Ahab’s wicked wife, Queen Jezebel, then orders that Naboth be falsely accused and then stoned without a trial, and Ahab & Jezebel take his vineyard for themselves.

And right after they do Elijah confronts them and says, “In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, Dogs will lick up your blood!”

So, knowing all that, let’s start digging into second Kings.

2 Kings 9:1-13

Page 256

Since that moment where Naboth (the vineyard owner) was killed in 1 Kings 21, about 20 years have now passed.

King Ahab has died, and his 2nd son, Joram has now been the King of Israel for the past 12 years, and most of our summer series.

And Joram has continued much of the wickedness of his parents.

And remember, his parents (Ahab & Jezebel) were so wicked that they went around killing the prophets of the Lord, and leading the people to worship the false god of Baal.

(2 Kings 9:1-13) - NIV

The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. 3 Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run; don’t delay!”
4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead. 5 When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. “I have a message for you, commander,” he said.
“For which of us?” asked Jehu.
“For you, commander,” he replied.
6 Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and declared, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people Israel. 7 You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. 8 The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’” Then he opened the door and ran.
11 When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, “Is everything all right? Why did this maniac come to you?”
“You know the man and the sort of things he says,” Jehu replied.
12 “That’s not true!” they said. “Tell us.”
Jehu said, “Here is what he told me: ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’”
13 They quickly took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”

(The Delay of Judgment)

And if you read the rest of chapter 9 & then chapter 10 (and you certainly can at home this week), all of those things the prophet told Jehu to do, he does.

Jehu kills the current king of Israel, Joram, the son of Ahab & Jezebel.

And then Jehu brings about Jezebel’s death as well.

In fact, he encourages Jezebel’s servants to push her out of a high window, and she falls to the ground…AND just like Elijah prophesied 20 years earlier, the dogs devour her…

…on the very spot that she and her husband, Ahab, had Naboth killed for his vineyard.

And then, all of the other sons of Ahab are killed, along with the prophets of Baal.

And divine justice (for decades & decades of evil, murder, and wickedness) is carried out

THERE IS OFTEN DELAY TO GOD’S JUDGMENT

But presumably, Naboth’s family knew nothing about these prophecies of Elijah…that justice would one day come.

Or what about the families of presumably hundreds of prophets of the Lord that Jezebel and Ahab had murdered?

For the thousands and thousands of believers who suffered so mightily under the evil reign of Ahab and Jezebel (and even to a lesser extent their son Joram)…there seemed to be no justice…at all.

And this is not a story unique to humanity.

How many books have we read…and movies have we watched from WWII?

Where, in the middle of the war, it felt like justice would never come, and Hitler would never be stopped, or the concentration camps would never be liberated.

Or even in our own lives, many of us have suffered, and some have suffered even at the hands of others.

People have hurt you, emotionally, some of you even physically

Our world is broken and full of sin.

And like the Psalmist in Psalm 13, we can cry, “How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

When will there be justice for my enemy?!

And as you study God’s justice in the Bible, you’ll see a number of themes about justice or judgment.

I want to show you just 3 of them today from our passage:

GOD’S JUDGMENT

#1: There is often a delay

If you read through the Old Testament, this becomes apparent.

Even with the most wicked kings and leaders, God often gives them decades to repent…sometimes generations.

For example: One of the parts of the Old Testament that people often have the hardest time with is the conquest of the Promised Land.

(that’s when the Israelites flee Egypt and then conquer the nations that were already in the Promised Land).

In Kids’ Bibles, the Israelites walk into this empty promised land

But in the real Bible, there were people already living there!

So what do we do (ethically) about God’s people violently conquering another people group?

We actually gave an entire message about this tricky section of the Bible when we taught through the Book of Joshua.

(Why is the Book of Joshua so violent?)

And so if this is also been a hard question for you, I want to encourage you to listen to that message this week…you just gotta update your Renovation Church app, and you can!

But in that message, we talked about how God gave the people who previously lived in that land (the Cannanites) 400 years to repent.

Because, they were a depraved people.

Leviticus 18 says they were constantly engaged in incest, bestiality, temple prostitution, child abuse, and tons of child sacrifice.

And God still gave them 400 years before judgment fell upon them.

The New Testament explains God this way:

(2 Peter 3:9b) – NIV

Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

GOD’S JUDGMENT

#1: There is often a delay

And so what you see when you read this book from cover to cover is that God often waits to bring judgment, as He gives us time to repent.

To change our ways and turn from sin.

This is what we call the Mercy of God.

BUT EVENTUALLY IT WILL COME

And yet, that delay of judgment is not infinite. This is the 2nd thing we learn:

GOD’S JUDGMENT

#1: There is often a delay

#2: But eventually it will come

Judgment is often delayed, but it is always certain.

Our God is just.

At some point, God’s patience ends, and the sword of justice falls.

That’s what 2 Kings 9 & 10 is all about.

Jezebel, Joram, and all of Ahab’s family have viciously led through decades of evil tyranny, but now the sands of the hourglass have run out, and their time to repent is over.

And God is going to use this new King Jehu to execute his judgment.

Now just because Jehu is doing this, that doesn’t make Jehu a perfect person.

Lots of times God’s “sword of justice” comes from a surprising place, or even from the enemy of the people

Take King Hazael from last week

Or later in the Old Testament when God uses the pagan King from Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar as an instrument of justice against the people of Judah in Jerusalem.

“”But the truth you can’t escape is that justice will come.

When Elijah originally says 20 years earlier to Ahab and Jezebel, your family is going to die for this…the Word of the Lord has been spoken.

It’s going to happen.

So when the Word of God says to you…that God is just, and will bring justice to your situation, you can trust that it WILL happen. .

But keep in mind, vengeance is His, not yours.

(Romans 12:17-19) – NIV

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

And that is the New Testament.

The God of the New Testament and the Old Testament is the same God.

GOD’S JUDGMENT

#1: There is often a delay

#2: But eventually it will come

And so you can trust God that when God says He will bring justice…that He will bring justice!

And sometimes he brings that justice on earth.

Read Romans 13.

This is where God explains that he has rulers on earth for a reason, and part of that reason is to execute judgment on wrongdoers, lawbreakers.

And so often justice comes through the law.

Other times, justice comes through the natural consequences of sin.

And that can spill out sometimes even for generations…as we see many times in Scripture.

But even if you’re looking at what you’ve gone through, and you don’t feel like justice has been carried out on the person who has harmed you…

…you can trust that in the court of heaven, it will be carried out.

FINAL JUDGMENT

GOD’S JUDGMENT

#1: There is often a delay

#2: But eventually it will come

#3: There will be a final judgment

The Bible indeed teaches that we will all face a final judgment.

(Romans 14:10-12) – NIV

10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
    every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

GOD’S JUDGMENT

#1: There is often a delay

#2: But eventually it will come

#3: There will be a final judgment

And while we give an account of your life…in front of a holy and perfect God…none of us will feel good enough.

Isaiah the prophet says that even the things we did that we were thought were good deeds (“one time I mowed my neighbor’s lawn”)…

….will feel like filthy rags when seen in comparison to the holiness of God.

And so God will judge us in His court.

And as much as we don’t want that, we do want justice.

We know that justice is right.

I remember seeing a News article 2 years about Larry Nassar (NASS-er), the man who appallingly abused so many of the United States Gymnastics Team.

And the news reported that in prison, he was assaulted and beat up badly by other inmates.

I was reading the comments (you should never read the comments)…

…and every comment, EVERY comment, on the article rejoiced.

Why?

Because we crave justice.

Like, can you imagine an eternity in which there is no justice for Hitler, no justice for Osama Bin Laden, for Jeffery Epstein?

Where God looks at them, and just shrugs his shoulders, and says, “Welcome to heaven!”

No, you can’t imagine that.

Why?

Because you know that justice is right, it’s good.

And if God is good, He has to be just!

THERE IS A WAY OUT

But it just gets tough when we have to think about ourselves.

We like justice for other people, but for us, we believe God should show us mercy.

Or plenty of others say, “Sure, Hitler needs justice, but not me. I’m not Hitler, goodness. I’m a good person, so I’ll go heaven.”

But what’s good enough? Where’s the line?

And what about my sin that I did do? Is there ZERO justice for that now?

And what if you’re not good enough and you’ve lived a very messy life? Then what?

And if getting to heaven is just about being good enough, then why in the world did God let his own son, Jesus, die on the cross?

What does that have to do with it?

The truth is, this book doesn’t teach AT ALL that “being good enough” is the way to be saved.”

Here’s what it says: It says, “A good God, the real God, is BOTH just AND merciful.”

He’s both.

And so He sends his own son Jesus to earth, to teach, to love, but ultimately to die on the cross.

And what Jesus was doing in the dying on the cross was taking the punishment (this is the JUSTICE of God) for our sins:

(1 Peter 2:24) – NIV

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

What it means by “He himself bore our sins,” is that your sins, the punishment for them, can go on Jesus.

If you believe in faith that He died for you, the punishment for your sins is transferred over to Jesus.

I don’t deserve that! You don’t deserve that!

That’s the MERCY of God.

He is BOTH Just and Merciful.

And this leads us to the 4th thing I want you to see about judgment.

GOD’S JUDGMENT

#1: There is often a delay

#2: But eventually it will come

#3: There will be a final judgment

#4: Your judgment can fall on Christ

And if you truly believe that Jesus died for you, then God will look at you (at your final judgment), and no longer see the punishment for your sin on you (a white robe/book of life), because it will be on Christ.

That’s amazing.

That’s what we call the Gospel.

And it’s the only way to escape judgment.

Judgment MUST come because God has to be just.

It’s just a matter of where you will let His justice fall.

Will it fall on Christ, or on you?

And so to the believers in the room, I urge you to walk in more freedom this week.

Walk in the Biblical truth that your judgment has fallen on Christ.

So hold your head up!

Stop walking in shame.

God has already paid for your sin, so stop paying for it over and over again in your mind.

Repent. Walk away from it. Ask for forgiveness, but then walk in it!

You are forgiven. You are a child of God, my friend!

And to everyone else, let me just tell you what few others will tell you (this is the great thing about coming to church: We’ll tell you things that other people won’t tell you):

Do not live the rest of your life like Final Judgment is not a thing.

Because it is.

You will die…I’m not making that up.

And when you do, The Bible says over and over again that you will stand in front of God for judgment.

And your good deeds cannot save you.

It won’t matter how nice you were to your family, or you neighbors, or that you came to church some.

It won’t matter.

There must be justice for your sin…which you and I both have plenty of.

And if you haven’t trusted in Christ as your Savior by the time you die, then the punishment will fall, not on Christ, but on you.

And you won’t be allowed into heaven, but instead for your sins, will go to hell.

And that’s the last thing in the world I want for you.

We want you to be saved.

And God wants you to be saved.

And so if you’ve never truly told God before that you’re sorry for your sins, that you want to walk away from them, and that you want to trust in Him as your Savior and Leader…let’s do that today.

Let’s just have everyone bow their head and close their eyes.

If you’ve never done this before, and you want to believe and Jesus and turn your life over to Him

I urge you to respond.

If that’s you, as a way to mark this day, and tell Him that you believe, I want you to stand up where you are right now.

Everyone has their eyes closed, so don’t think about that.

If you need to tell Jesus that you believe, and you need His forgiveness…

If you’re ready to surrender to Him…

Raise your hand.

For those of you standing, we want to pray with you.

Repeat this out loud after me…whether you’re a brand-new believer or have been one for quite some time.

Repeat after me

Dear God

I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.

But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place

And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.

And now I commit, to following you, with my life.

I’ll give you some next steps at the end of the service.