God is Just (Chantilly Sermon)

Deuteronomy 32:4 CSB – [God] The Rock—his work is perfect;
all his ways are just. A faithful God, without bias, He is righteous and true.

“Justice is indistinguishable from righteousness…it means uprightness or rectitude…justice is not something God has. Justice is something that God is.” – A.W. Tozer

 “Justice is not a standard God follows; He is the standard. He is not accountable to justice because justice flows from Him. – Chip Ingram

Exodus 34:6-7 CSB – The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, ⁷ maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.

Psalm 103:6, 8-10 CSB – 

The Lord executes acts of righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.

God’s wrath is not …an uncontrollable outburst of passion. It is the reverse of a holy love, a flame which sears but purifies… always exercise with a certain tenderness, for even when He is angry with man’s sin, God loves man and is concerned for his well-being in the fullest sense.” – Leon Morris

God’s Justice is Patient

Genesis 13:6b CSB – they had so many possessions that they could not stay together

Genesis 13:10-11 CSB – Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain of the Jordan… was well watered everywhere like the Lord’s garden and the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan for himself.

Genesis 13:12-13 CSB – Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom. ¹³ (Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immenselyagainst the Lord.)

Genesis 14:12 CSB – they also took Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, for he was living in Sodom

John 3:19-20 CSB – Jesus said, This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it

2 Peter 3:9 CSB – God is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

God is Patience: God warns Abraham

Genesis 18:20 CSB – Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious.

God is Patience: God sends two angels to warn Lot to flee from the coming judgment

Genesis 19:1-2 CSB – The two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in Sodom’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground ² and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”

Genesis 19:3 CSB – But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.

God’s Justice is Deserved

Genesis 19:4-5 CSB – Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house. ⁵ They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!”

Jeremiah 6:14-15 CSB – …claiming, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.
¹⁵ Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably?
They weren’t at all ashamed.
They can no longer feel humiliation.
Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.
When I punish them, they will collapse,
says the Lord.

The Hemmingway Law of Motion (from The Sun Also Rises)

Bill asks, “How did you go bankrupt?”
”Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

Genesis 19:6-7 CSB – Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. ⁷ He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers.

Genesis 19:8 CSB – Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t been intimate with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”

Genesis 19:9 CSB – “Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as an alien, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.”

Genesis 19:9-10 CSB – They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door. But the angels reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with blindness so that they were unable to find the entrance.

Genesis 9:12-13 CSB – Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place, ¹³ for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

Genesis 9:14 CSB – So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!”

But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

Genesis 19:15-16 CSB – At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated.

Genesis 19:16-17 CSB – Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. They brought him out and left him outside the city.

As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

Genesis 19:20 CSB – Look, this town is close enough for me to flee to. It is a small place. Please let me run to it…so that I can survive.”

Genesis 19:24 CSB – Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord.²⁵ He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.

Genesis 19:26 CSB – But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.

Luke 17:32 CSB – Jesus said, Remember Lot’s wife!

Genesis 19:31-33 CSB – there is no man in the land to sleep with us …³² Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.

So they got their father to drink wine that night…. he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

Lessons about God’s Justice

1. God’s Justice Means Repentance

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB – The heart is more deceitful than anything else,
and incurable—who can understand it?

Isaiah 55:9 CSB – For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 46:10 CSB – I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.

Psalm 19:9 CSB – the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

2 Peter 3:3-9 CSB – Above all, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires, ⁴ saying, “Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.”

They deliberately overlook this: By the word of God the heavens came into being long ago and the earth was brought about from water and through water..

⁸ Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. ⁹ The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

2. God is just means comfort: you are never forgotten

Psalm 37:5 CSB – Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.

3. God is Just means mercy