In Psalms chapter 9, and just
one verse of Scripture, verse 16. Psalms 9 and verse 16. The Lord is known by the judgment
which He executed. The wicked is snared in the work
of His own hands. The Lord is known by the judgment
which He executed. Now turn over if you would, Deuteronomy
chapter 3 for our lesson this afternoon. You'll recall last week, we just
finished, where the Lord gave the land of Sihon, king of the
Amorites, unto Moses and the children of Israel. They came
in, defeated him, and in chapter 2 and verse 34, they took all
his cities and utterly destroyed the men, the women, the little
ones of every city and left nothing to remain. And then we're told
here in chapter 3 in verse 1 of this great king Og of Bashan
and almost the same thing happened to him in his country that happened
to Sihon. Let's read it beginning in verse
1. Then we turned and went up the way of Bashan, We went up
to Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he
and all his people, to battle at Adriath. And the Lord said
unto me, Fear him not, for I will deliver him and all his people
and his land into your hand, and you shall do unto him as
you did unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon. So the Lord our God delivered
unto our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people. And we smote him until none was
left to him remaining. And we took all his cities at
that time. There was not a city which we
took not from them. Sixty cities, threescore cities,
all the regions of our God, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All
these cities were fenced with high walls, gates and brass,
besides unwalled towns a great many. And we utterly destroyed
them as we did unto Shahan, king of Heshbon, utterly destroying
the men, the women, and children of every city." Now, I've read
just a little bit. about some of the evidences that
they found of these cities. It's amazing some of the stones
that they found and the color of them. Most of them they said
were so big that they never had to border them together. They
just set them one up on top of the other. They were amazed how
they could stack the stones this high. But 60 of these cities
were that way. And they were walled. This is
some of the walled cities that the first generation said, we
can't take them. They're too great. We can't take
them. They had high towers every few feet apart to protect them.
And it was amazing that this second generation took these
60 cities besides all the smaller cities that they took. And they
did the Og of Bashan the same way they did to Sauron and his
kingdom. And David said the Lord is known
by the judgment which He executed. Now unbelievers and atheists
and even you and I in some aspects look at this passage in chapter
2 concerning Sihon and this in chapter 3 concerning Og and the
judgment that God brought upon these people. The atheists and
the ungodly, the wicked, the unbelievers, are bad to look
at these passages and say God is a cruel God. God is a vindictive
and cruel God. One thing the world cannot endure
is a God of judgment. They can tolerate a God of love. They can talk about a God of
mercy. but they cannot tolerate a God
of justice. We see Him displaying His power
in a way of righteousness. We see Him punishing the evildoers. We see Him pouring out His wrath
upon the enemies. We see Him overthrowing empires
and thrones, destroying cities, sweeping whole nations as a woman
would sweep her dusty living room. We hear Him commanding
His people to slay men and women and children, killing them with
the edge of the sword, setting their houses on fire and turning
their cities into heaps. How do you and I deal with this? How do we conceive this? How
do we comprehend this? We know how the world looks upon
it. They don't want such a bloody God. They cannot endear such
a bloody religion. in the Old Testament. On other
occasions, we see the same God rendering another kind of judgment. Not one of vengeance, but one
of calling the wicked, not to destroy him, but to save him,
to forgive him, to show him mercy. But that's a God of judgment.
And I don't know that God can be known apart from the judgments
that He executed. I don't know how we can know
Him apart from that. Either by vengeance upon sin, or either
mercy and forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His
grace. Now some people have tried to deny this, saying that God
has no right to judge and to execute judgment. But yet in
the Bible we have this every place, don't we? That God is
a God of judgment. even the God of vengeance. I
want you to hold Deuteronomy chapter 3. And let's go over
to Genesis chapter 6. This is concerning what we call
the deluge, where the Lord brought in the flood. Look here in a
couple of places. Look in chapter 6 and look in
chapter 7. Look in chapter 6 of Genesis.
Look in verse 7. This is where the Lord saw the
wickedness of man, that it was great in the earth. And here's
what He said in verse 7. Now here's the judgment that
God executed. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast and creeping thing, and the fowls of the earth, for
it repenteth me that I have made them." Now look over in chapter
7 and verse 23. This is after he sent the flood.
Look what he said in verse 23 of chapter 7. And every living substance was
destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle, and creeping things, the fowls of the heaven, And
they were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained
alive, and they that were with him in the ark." Now, God sent
the flood and destroyed everything. Now, was He known by that judgment
that He executed? How was He known? Well, I tell
you how He was known to the ungodly, as a God of justice. He was known
as a God who hated sin. They found out that He was a
God that would revenge iniquity. If you and I could go to these
people today that perished and say, Do you know God? What do
you know about God? You know what they would tell
us? He's a God that will take vengeance. He's a God that will
take vengeance. So many places in the Old Testament
we find statements like this. I will execute judgment, and
then the heathen shall know that I am God." When I execute judgment,
then they shall know that I am God. So the ungodly, he was revealed
to the ungodly. How was he revealed to Noah?
When he brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly,
how was he revealed to Noah? As a Savior, wasn't he? As a God of mercy. who put Noah
in that ark, who revealed unto him the way of salvation, put
him in the ark and saved him. Everybody died but Noah and those
that were with him in the ark. He said, All shall know me from
the least to the greatest. How do they know him? By the
judgment which he executed. I will be merciful to the unrighteousness
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." So
he reveals himself, doesn't he? God is known. The execution and
judgment upon Sodom. Here's another good example.
The Bible says that the Lord rained fire and brimstone out
of heaven upon the world of the ungodly. And there those bodies,
if you could find any bone or any hair in that whole rebel,
of all the cities of the plains, it was a testimony to what? God
will avenge sin. God is a just God. If you ask the people of Sodom
and Gomorrah, do you know God? They would say, yes. What do
you know about it? He's a just God. He will avenge
sin. He revealed Himself unto us.
He made Himself known by the judgment upon us. But their standing
upon the side of that hill was Lot and his two daughters. The
angels got them by the hand and drugged them out of the burning,
as brands that were plucked out of the fire. What did they know
about God? That He is a Savior. That He
is merciful. God sent His angels and said,
Bring them out. Execute judgment. What do you
know, Lot, about God? He is a Savior. He's a just God,
but He is a Savior. Look here at the New Testament.
Look over here in the New Testament, two or three passages of Scripture.
In 2 Peter chapter 2, Brother Larry just taught us on this
a few weeks ago, but look here at it again. We see these things
all the way through the Scriptures that God is known by the judgments
that He executed. And look in chapter 2 and verse
4 of 2 Peter. Chapter 2, look in verse 4. Every time the Lord brings judgment
upon any people, He makes Himself known by that judgment. The angels
know Him. They know Him as their Creator,
but they know something else about Him. He is just, and He
will take vengeance. Look in verse 4. If God spurred
not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, delivered
them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment,
Now they know enough. And He spared not the old world,
but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. We looked
at that. Turning the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an example unto those that should live ungodly, and delivered
just Lot, vexed with a filthy conversation of the righteous.
Look in verse 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptation, and reserve the unjust unto the
dead judgment to be punished. He deals with the godly in mercy,
doesn't He? Their judgment will be with mercy,
and that's the way they know Him. But the ungodly are reserved
unto their judgment to be punished. Look over in Jude. Look over
in Jude chapter 1, just one chapter in Jude. Look here in verse 14. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, Jude chapter 1 verse 14. He prophesied of these, saying,
The Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment
upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed,
and of all their harsh speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken
against Him." He's coming to execute judgment. And when He
does, they'll know Him, won't they? He'll reveal Himself to
them. Men are not going to know God.
Men are not going to know God one way or the other. And look
what he says down in verse 20. But you, beloved, building up
yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal. What do they look for?
The God of judgment? Vengeance? What does the saint
look for? He looks for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ until life everlasting. And when He comes
and shows us mercy in that day, we'll say, that's our God of
mercy. He's a God of mercy. There are those who say it's
not right on God's part to intervene in the affairs of man as He did
in Deuteronomy chapter 2 and verse 3. He don't have the right
to put down nations. to destroy nations, and our answer
to this is this. Our answer to this, and I know
it seems like I've got off from our text of Deuteronomy 2, but
this is the way I wanted to deal with this. There's many who go
back to the Old Testament and say, that's not fair. Look what
your God did. You talk about the God of Islam,
you talk about the God of Mohammed, and how violent He is, look at
your God. Well, there's a lot of difference
between our God and Mohammed. Our God and Mohammed's God, our
God and Allah's God are two different Gods. He's a tyrant. He's an
idol of men's mind. This is the true and living God. This is the just God. And how? And how do we deal with this,
though, when people accuse Him of being unrighteous and not
right in doing this? Well, I spoke to this one point
last week, but let me give you three or four things quickly.
First of all, He's right in His dealings with all nations because
of this. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. All souls of men belong to Him. We looked at that last time,
didn't we? It's all His. The souls of the Father and the
souls of the Son. God is a sovereign God. He owns everything. He owns everybody. And He rules over all. That's our first answer to our
own selves and those who say, what right does God have? What
right did he have to kill Og and his wife and children and
all of his citizens? What right did he have to destroy
the old world? What right did he have to destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven? What right? Because
he's the sovereign owner. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. He can do with his own what he
will, can he not? I know the ungodly don't like
that. But that's the truth, brothers and sisters. That's the truth.
And the second thing is this. The judge of all the earth will
do right. He will do right. We saw there
in verse 6 that I read to you that he utterly destroyed Sihon
and his wife or wives and his little one. They didn't spare
anybody. The little infants, they ran
them through with a sword. How can God be right in doing
that? I don't know. But I know He is. I know He is. There's a lot of things that
you and I can't figure out. There's a lot of things this
world can't figure out anything. You and I have the Bible. You
and I know the living Lord. We know He's just and right.
And still, we can't figure this out. But who are we? Who is poor fallen man? He can't
figure out any spiritual concept, can he? He don't have any spiritual
sense. He can't weigh anything in the
light of eternity. And for him to turn and judge
God as being Unkind? As for having no right? Whatever God does, He has a right
to do. He does it because He's right.
And when He does it, it's always right. Has He ever mistreated
any of you? Has He ever mistreated any of
us? I can say from my own personal experience that God has never
given to me what I deserve. He's never dealt with me after
my sin. Did He deal with Sihon and Og
and their kingdoms in a very severe way? Yes, He did. But was it right? That's what
we have to ask ourselves. Was it right? You know what the
Bible says. The judge of all the earth must
do right. And you know what that statement
was in regard to. Remember the Lord who came down,
Him and two angels, and was speaking to Abraham? And the Lord said,
Shall I not show to Abraham what I'm going to do? What was He
going to do? He said, I'm going down to Sodom.
And if it's like it's been told me, I'm going to destroy it.
And He told Abraham what He was going to do. Abraham said, Shall
not the judge of all the earth do right? What if there's ten
people in there? Will you spare it? I'll spare
it. But there wasn't ten. There wasn't ten. But he did
right, didn't he? He did right. There was a lady
who came to Brother Henry years ago when her son had got killed
in a very violent way. And she couldn't come to terms
with it. She didn't know why it had to
be this way. She struggled with something that a lot of people
struggle with. And she sat down and talked with Brother Henry
about it and wondered if Henry could help her. Understand what
happened and how God was going to deal with her son and all
this. And Henry said, Sister, we know this. We know this. However God deals with your son,
He'll do right. He's not going to wrong your
son. He's not going to do anything unjust to your son. He'll do
right by your son. And the lady said, That's enough.
That's enough. And we look at God's providence,
we look at His judgments, and we look at the tsunami He sent
there in Malaysia a few years ago that destroyed, how many
was it? Tens of thousands or over a hundred
thousand or two hundred thousand, however many it was. Who sent that? This is tough, ain't it?
And we try to be careful here, we try to be sympathetic here.
But we read about these things in the Bible. Either God brings
it directly, He permits it to come through means, He allows
it to happen. But it's from Him, isn't it? It's from Him. And here's the
only thing that you and I can look at to take some comfort
in and to say, God is right. He's right. He's right. And He
can do no wrong. He's right. And thirdly, if man
persists, and accusing God of injustice and having no right,
then here's what we say. If men will not be persuaded
and saying, God owns everybody, He owns everything, He can do
with them as He pleases. Since God does what's right,
then He does nobody any wrong. If He destroys, He's just. But
if they won't take that, then we go to this one. Thirdly is
this. Who art thou, O man? that replies against God. Shall
the thing farmed say to him that farmed it? What are you doing? What do you think you're doing?
You have a right to stand in the face of God who doesn't give
account of His matters and tell Him He's not right? Tell Him
He's wrong? I bet you when That sword, or that spear, or
that dart pierced the heart of Og, and he found himself in torment. I bet you even he didn't bring
a railing accusation against God and say, you're not right.
I bet he didn't. Because God convinced him, God
convinced him that he was right. I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, and I'll bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
Man is awful wise in himself, ain't he? He's awful wise. He thinks he's got God figured
out. And he thinks God can't do this or God can't do that.
If He does, he's unjust. But you know what the world says
about the wisdom of man? Man by wisdom, the world by wisdom,
does not know God. He don't know it. Those philosophers,
those philosophers that lived back in the Old Testament, they
laid the foundation for all their disciples. And you come to the
seventeenth chapter of Acts, and you have all these philosophers
up on Mars Hill. They were the sons of Pluto and
those big philosophers in the Old Testament. What were they
doing up on Mars Hill? Were they worshipping the living
God? Had their philosophers in all of their wisdom revealed
who God was to them? Who were they worshipping? The
unknown God. They had made Him an idol to
the unknown God and was worshipping that. The world by wisdom does
not know God. And for a puny, ignorant man
whose mind is darkened by sin to bring any kind of reliant
accusation against God is silly. It's just silly. And lastly is this on this point.
If we look at Deuteronomy chapter 2 and chapter 3, where I read
to you the judgments upon these nations, If we look at this in
another light, I think the questions concerning
God's judgment upon these nations and others will pale. All questions will vanish. If
we look at the judgment of God in this light, in the light of
eternal judgment, in the light of eternal judgment. I preached
a message on this a year or two ago, maybe a couple of years
ago, on eternal punishment, eternal judgment. Seventy-one times, you can check
me on this. I just looked at this today,
but I may have miscounted. Seventy-one times in the New
Testament, these two words are used, eternal and everlasting. They're applied to God, the eternal
God. They're applied to glory, everlasting
glory. They're applied to everlasting
salvation, everlasting redemption, everlasting life. And the same
words that apply to those concepts apply to eternal destruction. an eternal damnation, an eternal
punishment. In Matthew chapter 25, I think
it's down in verse 41 or 46, he says, These shall go away
unto everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life everlasting. Both of those everlastings are
the same word. One describes punishment, one
describes life. So, God's judgment upon the ungodly
is everlasting, isn't it? Just as the life he gives to
his people is everlasting. Secondly, consider this in the
everlasting punishment and judgment of God. The immortality of the
soul. The scripture says there in Genesis
chapter 2 that God created man from the dust of the earth And
God breathed unto his nostrils the breath of life, and he became
a living soul. Our bodies cease to be. They
go back to the earth. But the soul never ceases to
be. It will exist somewhere. The
soul that's saved, the soul that's washed, the soul that's regenerated,
The soul that's created in the image of Jesus Christ will be
with Him forever. They shall be with the Lord forever.
But where will the souls be that are not saved? Where will the
souls be that are not washed? That are not regenerated? Where
will those souls be? They've got to be somewhere.
If the soul never dies, it's got to be somewhere. And where
will it be? It can't be in the presence of
God because it's unwashed. It's unclean. It came about God's
presence, and God came about its presence. Where is it then?
I think this is a testimony to argue with the wicked that they
can't refute because their own conscience screams at them. Because
they know. They fear it too, don't they?
They fear that they have a soul that will never die. They fear
that. And thirdly, in regard to this
everlasting judgment of God and everlasting existence of man
or whatever, consider the death of Jesus Christ as sacrifice
for sin. If only the Son of God dying
upon a cross could satisfy for sin, don't that tell us something
about sin? And it tells us this, that the
consequences of sin must be eternal. Why would Jesus Christ die for
sin? Why would he save us from sin
if the consequences were not eternal? Why would salvation
be so important? Why would the price of it be
so high? be so monumental as to the death
of the Son of the God, blessed God. It's because the consequences
of sin is eternal. The soul that sinneth shall die
and die and die and die. And that tells us, that tells
us of eternal punishment and eternal consequences. When you and I consider the eternal
punishment, than many of God's questions concerning His judgments
upon these nations and individuals that we see in the Old Testament
will vanish. Well, one, it will vanish. Man,
there's a bigger question than about Sihon and Og and their
kingdoms and God's judgment upon them. There's a bigger question.
There's a bigger concern. What about eternal judgment? What about eternal punishment? Consider this. We know God to
be a just God. He's a God of justice, a God
of vengeance, a God of judgment. And those who know Him in Jesus
Christ know Him to be a great God and Savior. We know Him. We know Him. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We know God
in the face of Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. We can't see
God. But He's revealed Himself. He's
unbosomed Himself in His Son. He's made Himself known in His
Son. He spoke in time past into the
fathers by the prophets. In these last days, He's spoken
to us by His Son. Who is His Son? Who is the image? He's the expressed image, the
exact image of God. If you have seen Me, you have
seen God. John said this, We know that
the Son of God is come, and He has given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ, This is the true God,
and this is life eternal. We can know God, but there's
only one way to know Him. He reveals Himself in His Son. C. H. McIntosh made this, and
this statement is just a little empty, but I wanted to write
it down and listen to this if I can read it. Here's what he
says, We can gauge by faith on that blessed one. We can trace
His marvelous path on this earth. We can see Him going about doing
good, healing all that was oppressed of the devil. We can mark His
very looks, His words, His works, His ways. We see Him healing
the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the eyes of the blind,
unstopping the ears of the deaf, causing the lame to walk, the
maimed to behold, raising the dead, drying the wither's eyes,
feeding the hungry, binding up the broken heart, meeting every
form of human need, soothing human sorrow, hushing human fears,
and doing all these things in such a style, with such touching
grace and sweetness, as to make each one feel in his utmost soul
that it was the deep delight of his loving heart thus to meet
their need. Now, in all of this, he was revealing
God to man. Ain't that wonderful? Who was
that that went about doing all of these things? It was God. He was revealing God to man. so that if we want to know what
God is, we simply look upon Jesus. When Philip said, Lord, show
us the Father, our Lord replied, Have I been so long time with
you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father. And how saith thou then, Show
us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father? and the Father in me, the words
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I
am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or believe me for the
very work's sake." Macintosh continues and says this, Here
is true rest for the heart. We know the true God and Jesus
Christ whom he hath sent. And this is life eternal. We know Him as our own God and
our Father. And Christ as our own personal,
loving Lord and Savior. We can delight in Him, walk with
Him, lean on Him, trust in Him, cling to Him, draw from Him,
find our living springs in Him, rejoice in Him all the day long,
Find or meet and drink in doing His will, furthering His cause
and promoting His glory." Now that's wonderful, ain't it? Maybe
you didn't get a hold of much of that. I went back and read
this and read it and meditated upon it. But it's a wonderful
thing to know that God has made Himself known. We know Him. We know Him. He has revealed
Himself. And what a God He is that's revealed
Himself. in His tender and loving Son
who loved us and gave Himself for us. This is a delightful
thought, an amazing thought. The same God we see in so much
of the Old Testament, revealing His judgments and bringing vengeance
upon the ungodly, is the same God we see in the New Testament,
in the womb and in the arms of His Virgin Mother. He is the
same God we see upon the cross, bleeding and being punished for
sin. He is the same God now with outstretched
hands. He says, Come unto Me, all you
that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He is the
same God that stands in Christ. If any man thirsts, let him come
unto Me and drink. Do you and I know Him as a God
of vengeance? Yes, we do. Not upon our persons, but upon
our substitute upon the cross. And we've felt it in our conscience,
have we not? That He is indeed a just God?
That He will indeed take vengeance upon sin? But He's made Himself
known unto us savingly through His Son, Jesus Christ.