God is More Tolerant than He Use to Be – Part 2

INTRO: How do we answer those who insist that God is more tolerant today than He was in the days of the Old Testament? Back then, the law dictated that homosexuals be stoned to death, along with adulterers, chil­dren who cursed their parents, witches, and blasphemers. I have discovered about a dozen different sins or transgressions that Jewish law considered capital crimes in Old Testament times. Today everything has changed. Homosexuals are invited into our churches; parents are told to love their rebellious children uncondi­tionally; adulterers are given extensive counseling and in many cases they are even honored in the media. Yes, murder and incest are still crimes, but witches are allowed to get rich practicing sor­cery in every city in America. 

§          We hear no more stories of Nadab and Abihu, struck dead for offering “strange fire.”

§          We read no more documented accounts of people like Uzzah who touched the ark contrary to God’s instruc­tions and was instantly killed (2 Sam. 6:6—7).

§         Today people can be as irreverent or blasphemous as they wish and live to see old age.  

A.      So Is God more tolerant than He used to be?

       We need to answer this question for two reasons.

1.       First, we want to know whether we are free to sin with a minimum of consequences.

2.       There is a second reason we want an answer: we want to know whether it is safer for others to do wrong today.  

B.       Does God’s Silence Indicated He has changed?

Many people decry God’s apparent silence today in the face of outrageous and widespread sin. The question is, how shall we interpret this silence? Is God indifferent, or biding His time? Has he changed?

      C.   There is another possibility. We can affirm that God has not changed,

1. GOD HAS NOT CHANGED  - Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;

                2. GOD’S ADMINISTRATION HAS CHANGED (The Way He Deals with Men Has Changed)

                A. The Earthly versus the Heavenly

                                                             1.      The author of Hebrews gave a vivid description of the mount at Sinai when he reminded his readers: Hebrews 12:18-21 “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

                                                             2.      “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (Heb. 12:22). 

         B. The Old Covenant versus the New Covenant

1.       Jesus, we have learned, is the mediator of a new covenant” (v. 24). What does this mean? If He gave us a new covenant, what was the old covenant?

2.       In Old Testament times God made a covenant with the entire nation of Israel.

                                                                         a.      He chose to rule directly through kings and prophets, revealing his will step by step, and expecting them to follow His instruc­tions.

                                                                         b.      The prophets could say, “The word of the Lord came to me” and tell the kings what God’s will was. There was no separation between reli­gion and the state, as we know it; the state existed to implement the divine will of God.

                                                                         c.      Obviously, there was no freedom of religion in the Old Testament era. Death was the punishment for idolatry. “You shall have no other gods before me” was the first of the Ten Commandments given to the nation Israel.

                                                                         d.      If people did not obey, the penalties were immediate and, from our standpoint, severe.

3.       Jesus brought with Him a radical teaching, the idea that it would be possible for His followers to live acceptably under a pagan government. He did not come to overthrow the Roman occupation of Israel; indeed, His kingdom was not of this world.

                                                                         a.      When faced with the question of whether taxes should be paid to the pagan Romans, Christ replied, “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and to God that which is God’s” (Luke 20:25). Yes, believers could pay taxes to a corrupt government, and yes, they could fulfill their obligations to God as well.

4.       There are two major changes inherent in Jesus’ teaching.

a.         First, God would no longer deal with one nation, but with individuals from all nations. He would now call out from among the nations a transnational group comprised of every tribe, tongue, and people, to form a new gathering called the church. These people would live, for the most part, in political regimes that were hostile to them. But we who are a part of this program are to continue as salt and light, representing Him wher­ever we find ourselves.

b.         Second, in our era, we are to submit, as far as possible, to worldly authorities; we are to do their bidding unless such obligations conflict with our conscience. Indeed, Paul, writing from a jail cell in Rome, said that we must submit to the governing authorities (in his case, Nero) because they were established by God (see Rom. 13:1).

5.       Our agenda as a church is not to take over nations, politically speak­ing. Of course Christians should be involved in government as good citi­zens, but our primary message is the transformation of nations through the transformation of individuals. The early disciples had all of our national woes and more, and yet without a political base, without a vot­ing block in the Roman senate, they changed their world, turning it “upside down’ as Luke the historian put it (Acts 17:6).

                                                                         a.      When Paul came to the immoral city of Corinth, he taught what surely must have appeared a novel idea, namely, that it was not the responsibility of the church to judge the unbelieving world with regard to their morals, but only to judge them in relation to the gospel, which is “the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). To the church he wrote:

                                                                         b.      1 Corinthians 5:9-12 “ I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? “ 

6.       If you work in the unbelieving world and decide not to eat with those who are immoral, greedy, or idolaters, you just might have to eat your lunch alone! Of course we can eat with such people if they do not claim to be believers in Christ. But if a Christian lives this way and we have fellowship with him over a meal, or if we enjoy his company, we are in some sense approving of his sin. To help such see the error of their ways, Paul says don’t even eat with them.

7.       Now we are ready to understand why we do not put people to death today as was done in the Old Testament.

8.       We have no authority to judge those who are outside the fellowship of believers; the state is to penalize those who commit certain crimes, and those laws must be upheld. But—and this is important—all the behaviors that merited the death penalty in the Old Testament are infractions for which we now disci­pline believers within the church.

9.       We do not have the right to take a life, we do not have the right to inflict physical death, but we can announce spiritual death to those who persist in their sins. Paul instructed the Corinthian church to put the immoral man not to death but out of the congregation (1 Cor. 5:5). Such discipline is our duty.

10.   It is foolish for us to think that we can sin with impunity just because Christ has come. The purpose of redemption was to make pos­sible our holy lives. It is blessedly true, of course, that God does forgive, but our sin, particularly deliberate sin, always invites the discipline of God. We are to pursue holiness, for “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). God has not revised His list of offenses.

11.   A woman said to her pastor, “I am living in sin, but it’s different because I am a Christian’ The pastor replied, “Yes, it is different. For a Christian, such sin is much more serious.” Indeed, God takes our dis­obedience so seriously that the Scriptures warn:

12.   Hebrews 12:5-6  ….. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

There is a final and important way to describe the contrast between Sinai and Calvary, and at last we will specifically answer the question of whether God is more tolerant than He used to be.

           C. Immediate, Physical Judgment versus Future, Eternal Judgment  

Hebrews 12:25-27 “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”   

1.         We can’t miss it: if God judged the people for turning away from Him when He spoke at Sinai, just think of the greater judgment that will come to those who turn away from the voice that comes out of heaven, from Mount Zion!

a.      The Jews who heard God speak at Sinai did not get to enter the Promised Land but died in the wilderness. Their primary punishment was physical death, though for the rebellious there was eternal spiritual death as well. Today God does not usually judge people with immediate physical death, but the judgment of spiritual death remains, with even greater condemnation.

b.      If God judged the Jews, who had a limited understanding of redemption, think of what He will do to those who have heard about the coming of Christ, His death, and His resurrection! If the first did not enter the promised land, those today who reject Christ will forfeit spir­itual blessings in this life and will assuredly be severely judged by an eternal death. Imagine their fate!

c.      At Sinai God shook the earth. From Zion He is going to shake the whole universe. Hebrews 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.  The phrase is borrowed from Haggai 2:6, where the prophet predicts that God will judge the earth (see Rev. 6:12—14). Everything that can be shaken, which denotes the whole physical order, will be destroyed and only eternal things will remain (see 2 Pet. 3:10).

d.      Don’t miss the first principle: the greater the grace, the greater the judgment for refusing it. The more God does for us, the greater our responsibility to accept it. The judgment of the Old Testament was largely physical; in the New Testament it is eternal. If you, my friend, have never transferred your trust to Christ for salvation, the terrors of Calvary are much greater than the terrors of Sinai could ever be!

e.      Elsewhere, the author of Hebrews faces directly the question of whether God has relaxed His judgments as we move from the past to the present. If we keep in mind that the law at Sinai is spoken of as accom­panied by angels, we will understand his argument,

f.        Hebrews 2:2-3 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

g.      He argues from the lesser to the greater: if the law demanded exacting penalties, think of the more severe punishment for those who refuse grace!

h.      In a sense we can say that the harsh penalties of the Old Testament demonstrated an overabundance of grace: by seeing these punishments immediately applied, the people had a visual demonstration of why they should fear God. In our day, these penalties are waived, and as a result people are free to misinterpret the patience of God as laxity or indifference.

i.        Today God allows sins to accumulate and delays their judgment. Paul, writing to those who had hardened their hearts against God, said,

j.        Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Retribution and justice have not escaped God’s attention. Grace gives the illusion of toler­ance and, if not properly interpreted, can be construed as a license to sin.

k.      Indeed, the New Testament writer Jude warned that there “are god­less men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immoral­ity and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4). They confuse the patience of God with the leniency of God.

2.         A second principle: we should never interpret the silence of God as the indifference of God.

a.      God’s long-suffering is not a sign of either weakness or indifference; it is intended to bring us to repentance. “

b.      2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. .

c.      It would be a mistake to think that His “slowness” means that He is letting us skip our day of judgment.

d.      Solomon in Ecclesiastes warned that a delay in applying punishment encourages wrongdoing: “

e.      Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. How easily we misinterpret divine patience as divine tolerance!

f.        In the end, all penalties will be exacted; retribution will be demanded; nothing will be overlooked. At the Great White Throne judgment, the unbelievers of all ages will be called into account and meticulously judged. Those who see a difference between the severity of the Old Testament and the tolerance of the New should study this pas­sage carefully: ‘

g.      Revelation 20:13-15 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

h.      Nothing that terrifying occurs in the Old Testament.

            3. Is it safe to sin?

a.         Is God safe? Of course not.  Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But thankfully, He is good, and if we respond to Him through Christ, He will save us.

b.         If we still think that God is more tolerant of sin in the New Testament than in the Old, let us look at what His Son endured at Calvary;

1.       Imagine Him as He languishes under the weight of our sin. There we learn that we must either personally bear the penalty for our sins, or else it must fall on the shoulders of Christ.

2.       In either case, the proper and exact penalties shall be demanded. And because we our­selves cannot pay for our sins, we shall have to live with them for all of eternity—unless we come under the shelter of Christ’s protection. Only Christ can turn away the wrath of God directed toward us.

3.       Is it true that justice delayed is justice denied? For human courts this is so, for as time passes evidence is often lost and the offender is freed. But this does not apply to the Supreme Court of heaven; with God, no facts are lost, no circumstances are capable of misinterpreta­tion. The whole earthly scenario can be re-created so that scrupulous justice can be satisfied. Judicial integrity will prevail, and we shall sing forever,

4.       Revelation 19:1-2 … Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: 2 For true and righteous are his judgments:

5.        Is Jesus only, as the old rhyme goes, “meek and mild”?  No my friend… “

6.       Revelation 19:11-16 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

7.       What follows in this passage is an unbelievable description of the carnage that takes place after Jesus executes His judgment. With sword in hand, He smites His enemies and leaves them dying on the battlefield. Even if we appropriately grant that the account is symbolic, it can mean nothing less than the revelation of the vengeance of God Almighty. The Lord God of Sinai is the Lord God of Zion.

8.       What a tragedy to meet people who are comfortable with who they are, people who have not felt the terrors of God’s holy law. Since they do not see themselves as lost, they see no need to be redeemed; absorbed in themselves, they have lost the capacity to grieve over their sin.

9.       To those aware of their need, we say, “Come!” Come to Mount Zion to receive mercy and pardon. Stand at Mount Sinai to see your sin, then come to linger at Calvary to see your pardon.

10.   Hebrews 12:28-29 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:  29 For our God is a consuming fire.

11.   There was fire at Sinai; there will also be fire at the final judgment. A consuming fire!

CLOSING : There is a story that comes to us from the early days, when a man and his daughter spoiled a prairie fire in the distance. Fearing being engulfed by the flames, the father suggested they build a fire right where they stood. They burned one patch of grass after another, in an ever-widening circle. Then when the distant fire came near, the father com­forted his terrified daughter by telling her that flames would not come to the same patch of ground twice; the father and daughter would be safe if they stood where the fire had already been.

When we come to Mount Zion, we come to where the fire of Sinai has already struck. We come to the only place of safety; we come to the place where we are welcome. There we are sheltered from terrifying judgment.

God’s Son endured the fire that was headed in our direction. Only those who believe in Him are exempt from the flames.

God is More Tolerant than He Use to Be – Part 2

INTRO: How do we answer those who insist that God is more tolerant today than He was in the days of the Old Testament? Back then, the law dictated that homosexuals be stoned to death, along with adulterers, chil­dren who cursed their parents, witches, and blasphemers. I have discovered about a dozen different sins or transgressions that Jewish law considered capital crimes in Old Testament times. Today everything has changed. Homosexuals are invited into our churches; parents are told to love their rebellious children uncondi­tionally; adulterers are given extensive counseling and in many cases they are even honored in the media. Yes, murder and incest are still crimes, but witches are allowed to get rich practicing sor­cery in every city in America. 

§          We hear no more stories of Nadab and Abihu, struck dead for offering “strange fire.”

§          We read no more documented accounts of people like Uzzah who touched the ark contrary to God’s instruc­tions and was instantly killed (2 Sam. 6:6—7).

§         Today people can be as irreverent or blasphemous as they wish and live to see old age.  

A.      So Is God more tolerant than He used to be?

       We need to answer this question for two reasons.

1.       First, we want to know whether we are free to sin with a minimum of consequences.

2.       There is a second reason we want an answer: we want to know whether it is safer for others to do wrong today.  

B.       Does God’s Silence Indicated He has changed?

Many people decry God’s apparent silence today in the face of outrageous and widespread sin. The question is, how shall we interpret this silence? Is God indifferent, or biding His time? Has he changed?

      C.   There is another possibility. We can affirm that God has not changed,

1. GOD HAS NOT CHANGED  - Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;

                2. GOD’S ADMINISTRATION HAS CHANGED (The Way He Deals with Men Has Changed)

                A. The Earthly versus the Heavenly

                                                             1.      The author of Hebrews gave a vivid description of the mount at Sinai when he reminded his readers: Hebrews 12:18-21 “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

                                                             2.      “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (Heb. 12:22). 

         B. The Old Covenant versus the New Covenant

1.       Jesus, we have learned, is the mediator of a new covenant” (v. 24). What does this mean? If He gave us a new covenant, what was the old covenant?

2.       In Old Testament times God made a covenant with the entire nation of Israel.

                                                                         a.      He chose to rule directly through kings and prophets, revealing his will step by step, and expecting them to follow His instruc­tions.

                                                                         b.      The prophets could say, “The word of the Lord came to me” and tell the kings what God’s will was. There was no separation between reli­gion and the state, as we know it; the state existed to implement the divine will of God.

                                                                         c.      Obviously, there was no freedom of religion in the Old Testament era. Death was the punishment for idolatry. “You shall have no other gods before me” was the first of the Ten Commandments given to the nation Israel.

                                                                         d.      If people did not obey, the penalties were immediate and, from our standpoint, severe.

3.       Jesus brought with Him a radical teaching, the idea that it would be possible for His followers to live acceptably under a pagan government. He did not come to overthrow the Roman occupation of Israel; indeed, His kingdom was not of this world.

                                                                         a.      When faced with the question of whether taxes should be paid to the pagan Romans, Christ replied, “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and to God that which is God’s” (Luke 20:25). Yes, believers could pay taxes to a corrupt government, and yes, they could fulfill their obligations to God as well.

4.       There are two major changes inherent in Jesus’ teaching.

a.         First, God would no longer deal with one nation, but with individuals from all nations. He would now call out from among the nations a transnational group comprised of every tribe, tongue, and people, to form a new gathering called the church. These people would live, for the most part, in political regimes that were hostile to them. But we who are a part of this program are to continue as salt and light, representing Him wher­ever we find ourselves.

b.         Second, in our era, we are to submit, as far as possible, to worldly authorities; we are to do their bidding unless such obligations conflict with our conscience. Indeed, Paul, writing from a jail cell in Rome, said that we must submit to the governing authorities (in his case, Nero) because they were established by God (see Rom. 13:1).

5.       Our agenda as a church is not to take over nations, politically speak­ing. Of course Christians should be involved in government as good citi­zens, but our primary message is the transformation of nations through the transformation of individuals. The early disciples had all of our national woes and more, and yet without a political base, without a vot­ing block in the Roman senate, they changed their world, turning it “upside down’ as Luke the historian put it (Acts 17:6).

                                                                         a.      When Paul came to the immoral city of Corinth, he taught what surely must have appeared a novel idea, namely, that it was not the responsibility of the church to judge the unbelieving world with regard to their morals, but only to judge them in relation to the gospel, which is “the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). To the church he wrote:

                                                                         b.      1 Corinthians 5:9-12 “ I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? “ 

6.       If you work in the unbelieving world and decide not to eat with those who are immoral, greedy, or idolaters, you just might have to eat your lunch alone! Of course we can eat with such people if they do not claim to be believers in Christ. But if a Christian lives this way and we have fellowship with him over a meal, or if we enjoy his company, we are in some sense approving of his sin. To help such see the error of their ways, Paul says don’t even eat with them.

7.       Now we are ready to understand why we do not put people to death today as was done in the Old Testament.

8.       We have no authority to judge those who are outside the fellowship of believers; the state is to penalize those who commit certain crimes, and those laws must be upheld. But—and this is important—all the behaviors that merited the death penalty in the Old Testament are infractions for which we now disci­pline believers within the church.

9.       We do not have the right to take a life, we do not have the right to inflict physical death, but we can announce spiritual death to those who persist in their sins. Paul instructed the Corinthian church to put the immoral man not to death but out of the congregation (1 Cor. 5:5). Such discipline is our duty.

10.   It is foolish for us to think that we can sin with impunity just because Christ has come. The purpose of redemption was to make pos­sible our holy lives. It is blessedly true, of course, that God does forgive, but our sin, particularly deliberate sin, always invites the discipline of God. We are to pursue holiness, for “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). God has not revised His list of offenses.

11.   A woman said to her pastor, “I am living in sin, but it’s different because I am a Christian’ The pastor replied, “Yes, it is different. For a Christian, such sin is much more serious.” Indeed, God takes our dis­obedience so seriously that the Scriptures warn:

12.   Hebrews 12:5-6  ….. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

There is a final and important way to describe the contrast between Sinai and Calvary, and at last we will specifically answer the question of whether God is more tolerant than He used to be.

           C. Immediate, Physical Judgment versus Future, Eternal Judgment  

Hebrews 12:25-27 “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”   

1.         We can’t miss it: if God judged the people for turning away from Him when He spoke at Sinai, just think of the greater judgment that will come to those who turn away from the voice that comes out of heaven, from Mount Zion!

a.      The Jews who heard God speak at Sinai did not get to enter the Promised Land but died in the wilderness. Their primary punishment was physical death, though for the rebellious there was eternal spiritual death as well. Today God does not usually judge people with immediate physical death, but the judgment of spiritual death remains, with even greater condemnation.

b.      If God judged the Jews, who had a limited understanding of redemption, think of what He will do to those who have heard about the coming of Christ, His death, and His resurrection! If the first did not enter the promised land, those today who reject Christ will forfeit spir­itual blessings in this life and will assuredly be severely judged by an eternal death. Imagine their fate!

c.      At Sinai God shook the earth. From Zion He is going to shake the whole universe. Hebrews 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.  The phrase is borrowed from Haggai 2:6, where the prophet predicts that God will judge the earth (see Rev. 6:12—14). Everything that can be shaken, which denotes the whole physical order, will be destroyed and only eternal things will remain (see 2 Pet. 3:10).

d.      Don’t miss the first principle: the greater the grace, the greater the judgment for refusing it. The more God does for us, the greater our responsibility to accept it. The judgment of the Old Testament was largely physical; in the New Testament it is eternal. If you, my friend, have never transferred your trust to Christ for salvation, the terrors of Calvary are much greater than the terrors of Sinai could ever be!

e.      Elsewhere, the author of Hebrews faces directly the question of whether God has relaxed His judgments as we move from the past to the present. If we keep in mind that the law at Sinai is spoken of as accom­panied by angels, we will understand his argument,

f.        Hebrews 2:2-3 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

g.      He argues from the lesser to the greater: if the law demanded exacting penalties, think of the more severe punishment for those who refuse grace!

h.      In a sense we can say that the harsh penalties of the Old Testament demonstrated an overabundance of grace: by seeing these punishments immediately applied, the people had a visual demonstration of why they should fear God. In our day, these penalties are waived, and as a result people are free to misinterpret the patience of God as laxity or indifference.

i.        Today God allows sins to accumulate and delays their judgment. Paul, writing to those who had hardened their hearts against God, said,

j.        Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Retribution and justice have not escaped God’s attention. Grace gives the illusion of toler­ance and, if not properly interpreted, can be construed as a license to sin.

k.      Indeed, the New Testament writer Jude warned that there “are god­less men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immoral­ity and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4). They confuse the patience of God with the leniency of God.

2.         A second principle: we should never interpret the silence of God as the indifference of God.

a.      God’s long-suffering is not a sign of either weakness or indifference; it is intended to bring us to repentance. “

b.      2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. .

c.      It would be a mistake to think that His “slowness” means that He is letting us skip our day of judgment.

d.      Solomon in Ecclesiastes warned that a delay in applying punishment encourages wrongdoing: “

e.      Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. How easily we misinterpret divine patience as divine tolerance!

f.        In the end, all penalties will be exacted; retribution will be demanded; nothing will be overlooked. At the Great White Throne judgment, the unbelievers of all ages will be called into account and meticulously judged. Those who see a difference between the severity of the Old Testament and the tolerance of the New should study this pas­sage carefully: ‘

g.      Revelation 20:13-15 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

h.      Nothing that terrifying occurs in the Old Testament.

            3. Is it safe to sin?

a.         Is God safe? Of course not.  Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But thankfully, He is good, and if we respond to Him through Christ, He will save us.

b.         If we still think that God is more tolerant of sin in the New Testament than in the Old, let us look at what His Son endured at Calvary;

1.       Imagine Him as He languishes under the weight of our sin. There we learn that we must either personally bear the penalty for our sins, or else it must fall on the shoulders of Christ.

2.       In either case, the proper and exact penalties shall be demanded. And because we our­selves cannot pay for our sins, we shall have to live with them for all of eternity—unless we come under the shelter of Christ’s protection. Only Christ can turn away the wrath of God directed toward us.

3.       Is it true that justice delayed is justice denied? For human courts this is so, for as time passes evidence is often lost and the offender is freed. But this does not apply to the Supreme Court of heaven; with God, no facts are lost, no circumstances are capable of misinterpreta­tion. The whole earthly scenario can be re-created so that scrupulous justice can be satisfied. Judicial integrity will prevail, and we shall sing forever,

4.       Revelation 19:1-2 … Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: 2 For true and righteous are his judgments:

5.        Is Jesus only, as the old rhyme goes, “meek and mild”?  No my friend… “

6.       Revelation 19:11-16 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

7.       What follows in this passage is an unbelievable description of the carnage that takes place after Jesus executes His judgment. With sword in hand, He smites His enemies and leaves them dying on the battlefield. Even if we appropriately grant that the account is symbolic, it can mean nothing less than the revelation of the vengeance of God Almighty. The Lord God of Sinai is the Lord God of Zion.

8.       What a tragedy to meet people who are comfortable with who they are, people who have not felt the terrors of God’s holy law. Since they do not see themselves as lost, they see no need to be redeemed; absorbed in themselves, they have lost the capacity to grieve over their sin.

9.       To those aware of their need, we say, “Come!” Come to Mount Zion to receive mercy and pardon. Stand at Mount Sinai to see your sin, then come to linger at Calvary to see your pardon.

10.   Hebrews 12:28-29 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:  29 For our God is a consuming fire.

11.   There was fire at Sinai; there will also be fire at the final judgment. A consuming fire!

CLOSING : There is a story that comes to us from the early days, when a man and his daughter spoiled a prairie fire in the distance. Fearing being engulfed by the flames, the father suggested they build a fire right where they stood. They burned one patch of grass after another, in an ever-widening circle. Then when the distant fire came near, the father com­forted his terrified daughter by telling her that flames would not come to the same patch of ground twice; the father and daughter would be safe if they stood where the fire had already been.

When we come to Mount Zion, we come to where the fire of Sinai has already struck. We come to the only place of safety; we come to the place where we are welcome. There we are sheltered from terrifying judgment.

God’s Son endured the fire that was headed in our direction. Only those who believe in Him are exempt from the flames.

God is More Tolerant than He Use to Be – Part 2

INTRO: How do we answer those who insist that God is more tolerant today than He was in the days of the Old Testament? Back then, the law dictated that homosexuals be stoned to death, along with adulterers, chil­dren who cursed their parents, witches, and blasphemers. I have discovered about a dozen different sins or transgressions that Jewish law considered capital crimes in Old Testament times. Today everything has changed. Homosexuals are invited into our churches; parents are told to love their rebellious children uncondi­tionally; adulterers are given extensive counseling and in many cases they are even honored in the media. Yes, murder and incest are still crimes, but witches are allowed to get rich practicing sor­cery in every city in America. 

§          We hear no more stories of Nadab and Abihu, struck dead for offering “strange fire.”

§          We read no more documented accounts of people like Uzzah who touched the ark contrary to God’s instruc­tions and was instantly killed (2 Sam. 6:6—7).

§         Today people can be as irreverent or blasphemous as they wish and live to see old age.  

A.      So Is God more tolerant than He used to be?

       We need to answer this question for two reasons.

1.       First, we want to know whether we are free to sin with a minimum of consequences.

2.       There is a second reason we want an answer: we want to know whether it is safer for others to do wrong today.  

B.       Does God’s Silence Indicated He has changed?

Many people decry God’s apparent silence today in the face of outrageous and widespread sin. The question is, how shall we interpret this silence? Is God indifferent, or biding His time? Has he changed?

      C.   There is another possibility. We can affirm that God has not changed,

1. GOD HAS NOT CHANGED  - Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;

                2. GOD’S ADMINISTRATION HAS CHANGED (The Way He Deals with Men Has Changed)

                A. The Earthly versus the Heavenly

                                                             1.      The author of Hebrews gave a vivid description of the mount at Sinai when he reminded his readers: Hebrews 12:18-21 “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

                                                             2.      “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (Heb. 12:22). 

         B. The Old Covenant versus the New Covenant

1.       Jesus, we have learned, is the mediator of a new covenant” (v. 24). What does this mean? If He gave us a new covenant, what was the old covenant?

2.       In Old Testament times God made a covenant with the entire nation of Israel.

                                                                         a.      He chose to rule directly through kings and prophets, revealing his will step by step, and expecting them to follow His instruc­tions.

                                                                         b.      The prophets could say, “The word of the Lord came to me” and tell the kings what God’s will was. There was no separation between reli­gion and the state, as we know it; the state existed to implement the divine will of God.