We as preachers must always remember the aim of our proclamation is nothing short of the redemption of eternal souls (1 Timothy 4:15-16). The judgment that we preach is not a sadistic message of savage brutalism. The judgment that we preach is the righteousness of God, with the hope and aim of demonstrating the grace of God to sinners in Christ Jesus.

Let’s answer that question with a few things today, first, a few passages in scripture, second, with a story, and third, with a few statements for us as listeners of sermons and as preachers of sermons.
First, let’s look at scripture.
What does Scripture say about God Judging?
Hebrews 12:23 shows that God is the judge of all: You have come to God, the Judge of all,
Acts 10:42 shows that the Apostle Peter understood Jesus to be the judge of all, Jesus having been given that role by God: He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
2 Timothy 4:8 reveals that as he neared the end of his earthly life the Apostle Paul spoke of the Lord Jesus as judge: Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Hebrews 9:27 speaks about judgment as coming after death in a final eternal decree regarding the state of individuals: Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.
Daniel 7:13-14 prophetically recounts the vision of Daniel regarding the authority of the Christ to come: In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
John 5:26-27 connects the trail of authority prophetically spoken of by Daniel by which Jesus (the Son) has received authority to judge: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
This is just a brief smattering of passages. There are worthwhile longer studies examining more passages in depth. Even from these few verses, it is very apparent, that the scriptures speak of God as being the ultimate judge, and specifically, Christ Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:19-20). Anyone who makes a statement like “God doesn’t judge” is speaking either ignorantly (not knowing the truth of God’s Word), or in blatant rebellion against God’s word.
A Story of a Preacher Speaking about God’s Judgement
It was dark on the cold streets of downtown St. Louis. While the region didn’t often get much snow, there was some accumulation on the sides of the roads. Not the beautiful glistening snow of hallmark movies. It was the dirty, muddy snow covered in the excess filth of a thousand traveling cars. I turned my car from the main street into the driveway and parking lot of a 4 or 5-story brick building. It had a distinctive feature that many in Old North St. Louis knew well, a towering dark chimney stack rising high into the sky. What once was a building filled with the fire and smoke of industry, was now a building filled with men spit up and chewed out by choices, addictions, and hard knocks. The mission shelter had 44 beds available for up to 44 overnight homeless guests.
I walked past the line of men who had gathered near the side entrance of the building. I nodded and said hello to a few of the regulars whom I had gained something of a relationship with. In the summer there wasn’t much of a line, and often we would have “extra” open beds, maybe averaging something between 20-30 men each night at the shelter. In the cold winter though, it was different. It’s much easier to find a place to stay for the night when it’s 80 degrees, than when it’s 30 degrees. When the winter was cold, the line would be long. More than 44 men would line up. Starting with the 45th man there would be hope that someone earlier in the line would lose their place for the night due to poor behavior, intoxication, or some other unknown reason.
My role that night was not to preach, but instead to help cook and serve. There was a meal served, and then a 30-minute chapel service each night at the shelter before the men were marched upstairs to the showers and bunk room. While we had volunteers (individuals and groups) come in and lead chapel, I learned from my time serving (and from the wise words of a faithful man of God, who I will call Randy, who worked at the shelter) to always have a sermon ready. Sometimes volunteers didn’t show up. Randy had always told me “The man of God must be prepared in season and out of season”. If the volunteers didn’t show up, it was my role to lead the chapel that night.
I asked one of the homeless regulars, whom I will call Greg, who had been there every shift I had worked, “Who is coming to lead chapel tonight?”. “12 Shot” Greg answered. I did a double-take. I thought “12 Shot? What is he? Some kind of vigilante preacher loaded with shotguns coming to the hood of St. Louis?”. I followed up with another question “What sort of preacher is he?”. “The best,” he said. I raised my eyebrows. The elaboration from Greg was brief: “He preaches fire and brimstone and grace”.
After dinner was served the volunteer to lead chapel did show up. He visited with a few of the men who clearly recognized him. He shook hands with some and sat down to talk with others. When it came time for chapel I listened and marveled. “12 Shot” told how at one time he was a “scientific drunk”. He had figured out how he would maintain his buzz throughout the day. 12 Shot would use various mouthwashes and sprays he would mask his breath, and he would take 12 shots each day at intervals to never allow himself sobriety. He proclaimed with boldness that he was a man justly deserving of God’s righteous wrath. He shared many of his sins that he engaged in carelessly against God and with full diligence and care to the satiating of his own desires.
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True conversion is demonstrated by turning from known sin and renouncing known evil. Sure, sometimes this can take a while as the new Christian comes to understand what Scripture teaches, and then makes further moves away from a sinful past. But sometimes God shines his light on the newly converted soul right away.

We live in a culture that no longer believes in truth and absolutes. People are quite happy therefore to mix and match their religious and worldview components in any way they please, no matter how contradictory or mismatched they might be.
So spiritual and religious pursuits for most folks today becomes much like a visit to a smorgasbord: you pick and choose what you want to consume, and simply ignore or reject that which is not to your liking. These folks are not concerned about truth or intellectual consistency. They simply want to run with whatever feels good to them.
This combining of various divergent and often completely contradictory religious beliefs and practices is what is known as religious syncretism. One dictionary definition says this: “Noun: the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought: ‘interfaith dialogue can easily slip into syncretism’.”
As I say, this is how most people in the West operate nowadays. But anyone who actually has read the Bible knows that syncretism is just not on. Plenty of texts can be appealed to here. One passage I came upon just moments ago in my daily reading is quite representative. Leviticus 18:1-5 says this:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
The other day I wrote a piece about one religious syncretist who thought her love affair with witchcraft was fully compatible with Christianity. She was dead wrong of course. And in that piece I mentioned the biblical response to such matters: billmuehlenberg.com/2022/01/31/look-within-and-be-deceived/
One passage I featured was Acts 19:13-20. I want to look at this text in a bit more detail, so here it is again:
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul—but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded. This became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. Then fear fell on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver. In this way the Lord’s message flourished and prevailed.
A number of things can be said about this. One is the radical nature of Christian discipleship.

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Written by Guy M. Richard |
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Instead of looking for perfection, we should be looking for any desire to pray, any desire to meditate, and any desire to obey—however small. We should look for conviction when we fall short too. Is there any remorse in regard to your prayerlessness or lack of attention to Scripture or to obedience? If so, be encouraged. These kinds of things are impossible without the Spirit of Christ, because apart from Christ no one will ever want anything to do with God in any way (see Rom. 3:10ff).

I want you to picture the scene: a pastor is meeting with a member of his congregation who has come to him seeking his counsel. The member has been struggling with assurance of salvation and is asking the pastor for help. The question uppermost in this member’s mind is, “How can I know for sure that God is for me and not against me?”
The scene is not unusual. Pastors get asked these kinds of questions all the time. The struggle for assurance is undoubtedly one of the most persistent struggles that many Christians will face in their lifetimes. But what would you say if I told you that the pastor in this scenario responded by saying, “The key to knowing whether or not God is for you is to feel Christ inside of you”? How would you respond if you were the one sitting in the pastor’s office, and this is the counsel you received? Many people that I know would be tempted to get up and walk out. Feelings are fallible. They can easily mislead us, and, oftentimes, they do. So, why would any faithful pastor direct his church members to feel anything within themselves?
Surprising as it may be, however, this is precisely the counsel that John Calvin—of all people—gives in his commentary on Ephesians 5. After devoting significant time and energy to unpacking the doctrine of union with Christ, Calvin quite unexpectedly says: “Let us therefore labour more to feel Christ living in us, than to discover the nature of [our union with Him].” It’s a statement that comes out of left field, as least it does for me. I cannot recall another place, off the top of my head, where Calvin speaks of feeling anything much less of feeling Christ within us. Quite simply, Calvin is not known for his “touchy-feely” demeanor, convictions, or counsel. This statement sounds more like what we would hear from a pastor or ministry leader in the 21st century than in the 16th century. What is Calvin trying to say here? And what does it mean to “labour…to feel Christ living in us”?
What is Calvin saying?
The first thing that Calvin has in mind here is the mysterious nature of our union with Christ. It is “mysterious” not because we don’t know anything at all about it but because, as AA Hodge once said, “it so far transcends all the analogies of earthly relationships, in the intimacy of its connection, in the transforming power of its influence, and in the excellence of its consequences.” Rather than seeking to understand how Christ is “in us” or what it really means, we should instead, according to Calvin, focus upon other things that are less mysterious. And Calvin believes that feeling Christ within us is at least one of things that qualifies.
The second idea that Calvin has in mind in encouraging us to feel Christ within us is the fruitfulness of our union with Him. When the apostle Paul says that “Christ in [us]” is “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), he is highlighting the transformation that union with Christ produces within every believer. To have Jesus within us is to have something that we didn’t have before: namely, hope. That hope represents an experiential change within the believer; it is something that we can see and feel, generally speaking. Every Christian may well undergo seasons in which that hope is veiled, but that should be the exception rather than the rule. Being a Christian means having Christ within us, and having Christ within us means that we have hope.
Paul speaks more explicitly about the transformation we experience in Romans 8:9-11, which says:
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
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