This episode provokes thought about the seriousness with which we live our lives under divine scrutiny. With a focus on God’s merciful approach and the importance of self-reflection, learn how the concept of justice and forgiveness can transform personal and societal interactions. This discussion encourages renewing our understanding of God’s expectations in our daily lives.
Should we take God seriously? I know that’s a stupid question to ask, I mean, anyway, but I’m asking it anyway because it seems to me that a lot of people really don’t. They really don’t take God very seriously. Dr. Laura, I think it was, who said that the first commandment reveals that our relationship with God is not casual. It’s rather covenantal. And I am persuaded that a lot of people take God very casually. And I want to explain to you what I mean. If you turn to the 50th Psalm, Psalm 50. God has spoken. He’s called the whole world, come and listen. Out of Zion the perfection of beauty God has shined. Our God will come and shall not keep silence. A fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very stormy around him. Now, I want you to think about this for a moment. We’re dealing with someone here who could blink his eyes and start the Big Bang. It was just about like that. God spoke the word, the Big Bang happened, and out of that comes a universe that is, I think they now say, 13 to 14 billion light years across. That’s who we’re talking about here with that kind of power. But there’s coming a time when God will come, not quietly, but But in a storm, a fire devouring before him, very stormy round about him. The people who assembled before God at Mount Sinai and actually heard the Ten Commandments spoken down off the mountain got a sample of what this looked like. In Exodus, it says this, The smoke billowed up from it like the smoke of a furnace. Visualize, here’s a mountain, and all over it, smoke is just billowing out of the thing because God has descended upon it. The whole mountain trembled violently. I’ll tell you, folks, if you’ve never been in a major earthquake, you don’t have any idea what that feels like. You hear about earthquakes. People talk about earthquakes. You see pictures. But to actually have the earth move beneath your feet and tremble violently, is a terrifying thing. And then the sound of a trumpet grew louder and louder, and so you have this incredible manifestation of a thunderstorm. Imagine one of the biggest you’ve ever heard right inside of it. A whole mountain smoking, the rocks shaking and splitting, and then all of a sudden the sound of a trumpet, it gets louder and louder, the kind of a trumpet that might break the rocks. And then the voice of God comes rolling down the mountain. By the time he rolled down that first commandment down the mountainside for them to hear, I expect a lot of strong men had fainted dead away. There have been a few times in my life I’ve been somewhere where the noise from some kind of a concert or something was just overpowering. And you know you can actually sometimes feel it right all the way down in the abdomen. It gives you a cramp feeling sometimes whenever that kind of power is coming down around you. And I expect that’s the sort of thing that they had experienced there. It can give you abdominal cramps. It can even loosen the bowels of strong men whenever this type of thing takes place. So by the time God got through pronouncing just the first commandment with nine commandments to go, This was a pretty terrifying experience for these people to go through. So this is God. He said a fire devours before him and it’s very stormy around about him. He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together to me, he says, those that have made a deal with me by sacrifice. The heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is judge himself. Do you think we ought to take him seriously? Hear, O my people, I’ll speak. Hear, Israel, I’ll testify against you. I am God, even your God. I’m not going to reprove you for your burnt offerings and your sacrifices to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of your house. I don’t want any he goats out of your foals. Because every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains. The wild beasts of the field are mine. Don’t think you can bring me anything. Don’t think you can pay me off. I own it all. Do we think we should take that claim seriously? If I were hungry, God says, I would not tell you. For the world is mine and the fullness thereof. The world is mine and everything in it. So in fact, God says, you can’t give me anything. Will I eat the flesh of bulls? Do you think I’ll drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving. You want to give me something, God says, be grateful. Just give thanks. Pay your vows to the Most High. In other words, keep your promises. And call upon me in the day of trouble. I’ll deliver you, and you will glorify me. That’s a deal. But to the wicked, God says, what business do you have talking about my law? Why should you take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction, and you cast my words behind you? Now, here is a category of people who simply don’t listen. Instruction comes, they dismiss it. They don’t take God seriously. Here’s what God says. When you saw a thief, you consented with him. You actually saw somebody shoplifting in a store. You didn’t say anything to anybody. You just watched him go and say, huh, that’s interesting. And he says, you have been a partaker with adulterers. I mean, your partner, you’ll have him in your house. You’ll bid him Godspeed. You have no problem with people who will sleep with another man’s wife. You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son. You know, I can’t help but realize as I read through the Bible how often this thing of speaking against a brother comes up, of judging a brother, of condemning a brother, and slandering people so carelessly in the things that we say and the things that we do. He says, you do all this stuff. These things have you done, and I kept silence. Silence. I didn’t say a thing. And you thought that I was altogether such a one as yourself. You did it. I didn’t do anything. And you thought I was like you are. But I’m going to reprove you and I’m going to set them in order before your eyes. Now, this psalm is burned into my conscience. It was many, many years ago when I first noticed the significance of this statement. And it’s all too easy when you go along through life, living your life a certain way, nothing terrible is happening to you to think that God has no disapproval or even may even have approval of the way in which you’re living your life or that he maybe just doesn’t care and to misinterpret God’s silence. We sin, nothing happens. And we assume that God looks at this thing like we look at it. We assume that we can dance and not pay the piper. God is patient. This is what this means. And God gives us time to make the turnaround in our lives. We do these things. God doesn’t do anything. The reason he doesn’t do anything is not because he approves. It’s because he’s giving us room to either turn around or to hang ourselves. one way or the other. We’ve got to consider that. It’s a terrible mistake to presume upon God’s patience and to not take him seriously. Now think about this, he says, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be nobody to deliver you. Think about this, he says, you people. Lest I tear you in pieces. And there is, in the end, finally, nobody who can put you back together again. Should we take God seriously? Think about it, he says. Tear in pieces. And nobody can deliver you. Nobody can put you back together again. Whoso offers praise glorifies me, and to him that orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of the Lord. So, like I ask you, should we take God seriously? Or is this just so much spiritual gas? Because, in fact, if you look around today, At the way people live their lives, I would have to conclude that either they don’t know about this, or if they do know about it, they consider it just so much spiritual talk and conversation and nothing that they need to do about it. And I ask, what does the way you live your life say in answer to my question? Should we take God seriously? Matthew 7, verse 12 says, Jesus said, Therefore, all things that men would do to you, do you even so to them? For this is the law and the prophets. Now, should we take Jesus seriously on this? Should we take him at his word? Are the entire law and the prophets bound up in the way we treat one another? There it is, right on the page. All things that you want men to do to you, You do that to your brother. Live your life by this rule because all the law and the prophets are bound up in this. Enter into the straight, the narrow gate, for wide is the gate. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are a lot of people going that way because straight is the gate. Narrow is the way that leads to life. And few there be that go in that way. Beware of false prophets that come to you in sheep’s clothing. Inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns? Do they gather figs of thistles? Now what could we say about this? Jesus said there would be many false prophets that will go out into the world, so therefore it’s something we should have to expect to deal with at some time. But what kind of fruits could he possibly be talking about? When he says, by their fruits you shall know them. I’ve heard some incredibly inane discussions about what fruits might amount to. But consider what Jesus said. Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit. A corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits… You shall know them. Now, perhaps if we look at this in the context of what Jesus is saying, one of the things we might look at is how a minister treats people, right? How does he treat people? Does he put them down? Does he lord it over them? This is a fruit. This is something you can look at. A fruit is something on a tree you can look up and even pluck off the tree. But you can observe and look and actually see with your eyes, handle with your hands, sniff it, smell it, taste it, and you can know whether you’ve got a good tree or a bad tree. Now what is it about false prophets that you can look at and tell this is bad? Well, in context, it has to do with the way people treat people. But perhaps we could consider child molestation a corrupt fruit of a minister or a ministry. It’s a major issue in the news right now, isn’t it? A pedophile priest and there are dozens, what, and there are hundreds, we wonder, as to how far that scandal reaches in the Roman Catholic Church. But you should understand something. It’s more dramatically exposed in the Roman Catholic Church than it might be somewhere else. But the problem of ministers and ministries who abuse people extends way beyond the borders of the Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps using ministerial office to take sexual advantage of women or boys or girls in the congregation would be considered an evil fruit. I’d consider it an evil fruit, wouldn’t you? And therefore, if the tree is bringing evil fruit, what does it say about the tree? Well, Jesus is clear as crystal on this. But here’s the question. Should we really take Jesus seriously on this? Do we really have to take this into consideration? Do we really have to live our lives in accordance with this? Now, Jesus goes on to say, Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Now, I’ve seen on the walls of businesses and the walls of people’s homes, I’ve seen it on the bumpers of their car. Jesus is Lord. That isn’t going to cut it, according to what Jesus said. Not every one of those people shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Should we take Jesus seriously here? Well, it’s kind of hard not to, isn’t it? Many will say to me in that day, Lord, haven’t we prophesied in your name? And haven’t we in your name cast out demons and in your name done many wonderful works? Now that’s a real sobering thing. Because here we’re not talking about some priest of Baal. We’re not talking about a priest of Apollos or a priestess of Diana up in Ephesus. We’re talking about somebody who would say to Jesus, haven’t I prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils. And Jesus will say, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity. The word iniquity means lawlessness. Now, are we supposed to take him seriously on this? That merely the fact that a person could speak in his name, do miracles in his name, do all kinds of wonderful things in his name, and claim all this, could still be cast out because they reject his law? That’s what he’s saying. Should we take him seriously on that? Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. Bad times are coming. The rain will descend. Floods will come. Winds will blow, beat upon that house, and it will fall because it’s not founded on a rock. And everyone that hears these sayings of mine and does them, does them not, I should say, shall be likened to a foolish man that built his house on the sand. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. Yeah, I know. But do we have to take Jesus seriously on all of this? Because the implication of this is that there’s a category of people who who hear what Jesus says. He’s not talking about people in Malaysia who never heard of Jesus. He’s not talking about the wild man of Borneo. He’s not talking about people down in the deep, deep, dark Africa before Livingston ever got there. He’s not talking about that. He’s talking about people who hear his words and won’t do them. He says, in the end, great will be the fall of the house that these people built. We have to, I think, take Jesus seriously on this, that the way you live your life, what you do with his teachings, the way you actually construct your life and the things you do, you have to take these things seriously. It came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings that people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Jesus did not equivocate. He didn’t give them a lot of ifs, ands, and buts. A lot of therefores, this is my opinion, but you don’t have to do it. He gave it to them with authority. And then the question comes, since he obviously took himself seriously, should we take him seriously? Try this one from Paul, Romans chapter 14. Paul said in chapter 14, verse 7, None of us lives to himself. No man dies to himself. Whether we live, we live to the Lord. Whether we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live, whether we die, we are the Lord’s. We’re in his hand. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Then he says this. Why do you judge your brother? Why do you despise your brother? How in the world can you look down your nose at, judge, and despise your brother? Notice how this is a theme that is so strong in the Bible. Of the condemnation, the looking down your nose at other people. He said, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me. Every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give an account of God. Himself to God. Now, understand this. Be sure you have a grip on this. When you stand on the sea of glass before Jesus Christ in the judgment day, and the time comes for people to start answering for the things that they have done, you are going to answer for yourself. You will not be called to answer for the person sitting next to you right now, no matter how close to you that person is. You will not be called in question for the person who lives in your house with you, no matter married, single, child, mother, father, whatever they are. You will not be called into question for that person. You will not be called into question for the other brothers that you sit with in church week by week. You will not be called in question for any of these people. You will give an account to God of only one person on this planet, yourself. And that has to do with how you live your life and how you deal with other people. So what business do you have sitting in judgment of any other human being on the face of the earth? Paul says, don’t do it. Don’t judge one another. Why do you judge your brother? Why do you despise your brother? Let’s not judge one another anymore. But this is just Paul. Do we have to take Paul seriously? Should we take Paul seriously in this? Well, the problem is Jesus says pretty much the same thing. In Matthew chapter 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, verse 1, a simple, clean statement. Judge not that you be not judged. Now, what part of that sentence do we not understand? Do we take it seriously? Should we take it seriously? Well, I’m afraid a lot of people take it very casually. You know, well, yeah, it’s not a good idea, but it’s not a big deal if I do. I have to conclude people feel that way because they do it so much. Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now, I don’t know how you feel about that, but it really leads me to think that I would like to use a short yardstick. I’d really like to shorten up on the Bureau of Standards just a little bit. Because if I take a nice long measure and I put it up and say, aha, brother, you’re coming short on that thing, problem is I’m going to have to measure up to the same stick. Whatever it is, whatever standard I insist that you must be judged by, I will have to be judged by that same standard. So this should lead me, I would think, to want to cut you a little more slack, to want to cut a shorter stick for you, to not measure you by such strict standards as I might otherwise feel like doing. Judge not, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. With what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why do you behold the speck in your brother’s eye, and consider not the beam that’s in your own eye? Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull that speck out of your eye, and behold, you have a beam in your own eye. You hypocrite! First cast out the beam out of your own eye, then you shall see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother’s eye. Hypocrite. That’s a strong word. Should we take it seriously? That Jesus feels that whenever we take in hand to try to straighten somebody else out, when we haven’t been able to get our own house in order, that he will judge us as severely as we judge somebody else. Should we take that seriously? Here’s Paul again in the second chapter of Romans. Romans chapter 2. Having made his case in the first chapter, He starts off the second one by saying, Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are that judges. You just don’t have any excuse. For wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you that judge do the same thing. For we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And do you think, O man, That you judge them that do such things and you turn around and do the same thing that you’re going to escape the judgment of God. Can you take this seriously? Or do you think really that you can judge other people for doing things that you also do and that you’re not going to be judged for it? Or do you despise the riches and the goodness and the forbearance and the longsuffering of God, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance, that it’s God’s grace, God’s goodness, that has actually brought you to the place where you have repented? If you hadn’t been brought there, you wouldn’t be there. After the hardness and impenitent heart, are you treasuring up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God? Who will? Get this straight. Who will render to every man according to his deeds? To those who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor, he will give immortality, eternal life. Unto them who are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, he will render indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that does evil, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. And he will render glory, honor, and peace to every man that works good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons with God. How about it? Should we take Paul seriously in this? Because what Paul seems to be saying here is that the way we live our life, the way we walk the road, the way we encounter other people in the road, the way we treat the people we run into, is going to have a major impact on where we stand in the judgment and how we in turn are treated by God at some later time. Should we take Paul seriously in this? Or can we afford to take it casually? Or perhaps this scripture from Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Verse 7, Galatians 6, 7. Whatever a man sows, that shall he reap. He that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Man, I can remember a song back when I was just a little boy that my dad used to sing. We reap whatsoever we sow. Whatever the seeds, they will grow. Be careful indeed, so only good seed you reap whatsoever you sow. Good old gospel song. Comes straight out of the book. Oh, but then, do we have to take it seriously? You really mean that the things that we do are going to come home to roost? That we are going to reap what we sow? That if we sow good seed, we’re going to reap good things? If we sow evil seed, we’re going to reap evil things? Yeah. Yeah. Yep, I’m afraid so. That’s precisely what the Scripture says. And the question is, does it have any effect or should it have any effect on the way we live our lives and the decisions we make? Well, if we take God seriously in these things, then we should take seriously the way we live our lives and the way we make decisions. Now, thankfully, there is another side to this question. And I want to turn to that other side right now. Isaiah 55 this time. Isaiah 55, verse 6 says, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Now, that’s something we can also take seriously. That if we will turn around, if we will make the changes, if we will put our heart in the right place and begin to let our lives show it, then God will have mercy and he will fully, abundantly, totally pardon us. Now, what does it mean? You know, you’re on death row and the governor of the state of Texas writes out a pardon for you. Well, it means you can go out of that jail. You’re not on probation. You don’t have to be chased around by probation officers. You don’t have to report anywhere. You’re a free man. That’s what a pardon means. When God pardons you, it’s gone. You can take this as seriously as anything else. God says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Your ways are not my ways, saith the Lord. Fact is, you and I might bear a grudge. Somebody tells us we’re sorry. We say, well, that’s okay. And we say, well, let it go. And then we don’t. And oftentimes we still have a hard time being nice to people who we have forgiven. At least we say we have forgiven. We forgive, and yet at the same time, we bear a grudge. God doesn’t do that. He’s not like that. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Can we take that seriously? I think we can. As the rain comes down, the snow from heaven and returns not there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It will not return to me void. It will accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper whereunto I send it. You can not only take this seriously, you can take this to the bank. God’s word can change. Be trusted. Now, this is also a good place to go back to Paul again, since Paul gave us the other side of the story. Let’s see what he says on this side. 1 Timothy 1, verse 12. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me, for he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it in unbelief. Boy, think about that. Here’s a man who steps up to the plate and says this. He says, God had mercy on me. I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and I was injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Can we take that seriously? I think Paul would expect you to take that very seriously, that God came, that he came into the world to save sinners. Paul said that he was chief, howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy. This is really interesting. Paul says, I really think the reason why God called me in particular, the reason why he gave me mercy, first in Christ Jesus, that he might show in Christ Jesus mercy, All long-suffering for a pattern for them which should afterward believe on him to life everlasting. Paul says, I think I owe my salvation to the fact that God wanted to demonstrate that if he could forgive me, he can forgive anybody. And that therefore, you shouldn’t sit around worrying yourself sick over the things that you have done. Just turn, repent, be sorry, straighten your life out, and God will forgive you as he forgave Paul. Finally, a psalm that we can take seriously that has so much to say. It’s the 103rd, one of the favorites of mine down through the years. I’ve had to turn to it on an awful lot of occasions. Psalm 103, verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. Can we take that seriously? who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Can we take that seriously? Who satisfies your mouth with good things so your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. Now, after all these things we’ve read before, can we take God seriously in matters related to judgment? The answer needs to be yes. We can take him very seriously. And if you take him casually, you’re going to bite. At the same time, we can take very seriously these promises of mercy, compassion, forgiveness. Verse 9, he will not always chide. He won’t be angry forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins. He has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. Now, you should really take that very seriously. What he’s telling you is that up until this point in your life, God has not dealt with you according to your sins. Oh, sure, you’re hurting. Sure, there are things in your life that are bad. Sure, there are many ways in which you feel maybe God’s hand is heavy upon you. But you need to understand this. He has still not dealt with you according to what you have done. As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. His mercy is that high toward those that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Can you take that seriously? Sometimes, you know, we have a hard time accepting the fact that God has forgiven us. accepting the fact that God is not holding something against us, that God isn’t bearing some kind of a grudge. But can you take this seriously, or are you going to take it casually? As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Like a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we’re dust. You know, one of the reasons I think that it is easier perhaps for God to forgive us than it is for us to forgive one another is because God does not have exceptionally high expectations of us. He doesn’t have some idea in his mind of what we ought to be like or what we will be like based upon human standards of conduct. He basically knows we’re dust. He knows the weaknesses. He knows all the things we’re apt to do, prone to do, want to do. And so consequently, when we do them, he is not surprised. He is not chagrined out of measure. For those who fear him, he understands. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t take it seriously. And it doesn’t mean that you can afford to not take it seriously when you walk contrary to his way. As for man, his days are like grass. He’s like a flower of the field. Days here and flourishing, and then the wind comes along and he’s gone. And you come by a few days later and never even know it was there. That’s the way man is. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children’s children. It just keeps right on bearing fruit. To such as keep his covenant and those that remember his commandments to do them. That’s not really that hard, is it? Now, sure, we do make mistakes. We break the law from time to time. But what we’re talking about here is people whose heart is with God and who want to be obedient and who are doing their best to order their life according to the way God laid out that a life should be led, who are willing to treat their brother like they want to be treated themselves. The Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, listening to the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all ye hosts, his ministers of his, that do his pleasure. And so I return to my opening question. Should we take God seriously? Can we afford not to? Thank you.
