Who Made You a Judge? (Exodus 2:14)

Introduction

So a couple of preliminaries as we get started this morning. First of all, before there are any wise cracks about why my wife decided that the Sunday that I was preaching would be an excellent Sunday to be in Lexington, Kentucky, let me say, first of all, that her judgment has always been excellent. And secondly, that her trip was planned long before this, before Tony said that he was going to Arkansas for the weekend. So that’s not on her. That’s on Tony. And he’s the one who’s most likely to make wisecracks about it anyhow. So it all works out somehow. The second preliminary. At some point in the beginning of the sermon, you will ask yourself, why did Daniel think that was the song today?

We’ll get there. Clicker. I need a clicker. So the word judging has taken on kind of an ugly taint in today’s society. Kind of a dark connotation, something you’re not supposed to do in our freedom, loving, live and let live kind of society. The idea of judging is a big no-no, and people shy away from it. Everybody knows it’s something you’re not supposed to do. And so every once in a while in a conversation, if you’re in a conversation where the topic of sin comes up, and you have to actually identify some behavior as sinful, as wrong, as the thing that God doesn’t want you to do. Who made you the judge? Now, there’s some scriptural precedent for that question. Some of it’s good precedent, and some of it’s bad precedent, but let’s have a look at it.

Some scriptural precedent for the question, who made you the judge? So there’s an example in Luke the 12th chapter and verse 14. A man came to Jesus and said, Teacher, tell my brothers who divide the inheritance for God. He said, Hey, who made me a judge or an arbiter over you? And Jesus said, in this case, this is not the thing that I came to judge. These are not the decisions that I came to earth to render, a decision about how you and your brother divide the inheritance. Instead, he said, I want to talk to you about covetousness. Now it’s kind of funny that Jesus, in this context, that man, who made me a judge or an arbiter over this matter? And he proceeded to talk about covetousness and a parable about covetousness, which was a suggestion that this fellow didn’t have his priority right.

If his concern was really about, do I get my share of the money? Jesus said, I’m not the judge of the money. But he went on to tell a parable that was a judge of the man’s heart. But he began by saying, Who made me a judge or an arbiter over you? In Romans the 14th chapter and verse 4, we just recently studied this verse. And in a context where Paul is talking about different courses of action that are both equally acceptable to God, Paul asked the question, who are you to judge another servant? In other words, if this fellow out here is doing something that God does not find objectionable in any way, why should you criticize him over that? Leave him alone. But when we hear people ask this question today, who made you the judge?

They’re really talking about it more in a context similar to what we find in Exodus, the second chapter. I’d like to read from Exodus the second chapter, verses 11 through 14. This is a story that you’re familiar with. It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown. So Moses separated from his parents. He was in Egypt being raised as an Egyptian. But he still knew about his Israelite heritage, his Hebrew heritage. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hit him in the sand.

And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting. And he said to the one who did the wrong, Why are you striking your companion? Then he said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptians? So Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. And Moses fled Egypt as a result of that. But you know what this guy meant. When he said, Moses, who made you a prince and a judge? Or who made you the judge, Moses? You know what this guy meant. What he meant was that he resented interference in what he was doing. He didn’t want Moses to suggest that he needed to just back off.

1. God Will Judge the World

He was in the wrong. People don’t like to be told that. And so he asked, Who made you the judge? And that’s the sense in which a lot of people ask this question today. The sense of, I don’t want you to criticize anything. We ought not to criticize anything. Let’s just all go different ways. So let’s talk about being the judge for a little bit this morning. We want to begin with the question who or what will judge the world? Who is the judge? I mean, if you’re not the judge, and who are you to be the judge and all that? Who is? So the Bible gives several answers to this question, all of them correct. In the first place, the Bible says that God will judge the world.

Abraham, when he was talking to God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asked God, what if the city just comes up a few righteous people, short? What will he do then? And he asks the question, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? So Abraham is speaking to the Father, talking about the fate of Sodom, and he says, I have confidence that the judge of all the earth is going to do the right thing. So he referred to God, the Father, as the judge of all the earth. In Acts chapter 17, Paul is talking to the men of Athens on Mars Hill. He’s talking to them about the unknown God. And he gives them some of the characteristics of God. And then he talks about how people behave when they didn’t know God.

2. Jesus and His Words Will Judge

And he said, the times of this ignorance God went at or overlooked, but he has now commanded all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness. So Paul, speaking to the Athenians about the unknown God, says, He has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. God is the judge of all the earth. Fair enough. But that’s not the whole story. So I quoted from the beginning of Acts 17, verse 31, but I want to go ahead and finish the verse there before we talk about Matthew chapter 25. Because when Paul said that God appointed a day on which he would judge the world in righteousness, it said he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained.

And he’s given assurance to all of this by raising him from the dead. So Paul identifies Jesus, the one who was raised from the dead, as specifically the one through whom God will judge. God will judge the world in righteousness by the man that he has ordained. Jesus, during his ministry, referred to himself as the judge on more than one occasion in Matthew 25, verses 31 and 32. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a sheep as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

And he goes on through that passage that you’re probably familiar with to talk about why the people on the left ended up on the left and why the people on the right ended up on the right. I’m sorry, people on the left. When I say that, I just meant it’s not personal.

We will have occasion later to talk about the people on the right and left again, and it’s just going to happen. But Jesus describes himself in this passage as the judge, as the one who will do the dividing, the designation of sheep and goats. And he talks about why they end up in these different categories. In John 5th chapter, beginning in verse 26. John 5, verses 26 and 27. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given authority, has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. So on this occasion, and as well as a number of others during his ministry, Jesus identified himself as the one who would judge.

3. Judged by Records of Our Deeds

The Father has given me authority to judge. Because I am the Son of Man. Well, a little more specifically, Jesus said that his words would be the judge. John chapter 12 and verse 48 He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him. Word that I have spoken, the same will judge him in the last day. So we could be even more specific than saying Jesus is the judge, and we could say that the message that Jesus proclaimed, the words that Jesus spoke, they will judge us in the last day. All of those are true. The Father is the judge, Jesus is the judge, Jesus’ words will be the judge. We’ll also be judged by records of our deeds. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, a passage that Mike alluded to in class this morning, Paul says we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ that we may receive the things done in the body.

Good or bad, Paul says, the thing that we will be judged by, okay, there will be a judge, but the basis for the judgment is going to be the things that I have done. Kind of a sobering thought, but there it is. In Revelation, the 20th chapter in verse 12, when we talked about this passage a few weeks ago in our revelation class as well, whichever judgment it is that’s under consideration in Revelation 20 and verse 12, the dead were judged according to their works by the things that were written in the books. So there’s reference there as well to being judged according to the things that you have done. It would be nice, as some people say, if the righteousness of Jesus were just plastered over everybody, and when God looks at us, he just sees the righteousness of Jesus.

But that’s not how the New Testament describes it. He says, When I go up, Paul says, and Jesus said, when I go up for judgment, I will be judged according to the things done in my body. The record of my deeds will be entered into judgment for me or against me. Now I have some blots on that record, and I need them to be blotted out by forgiveness because of the sacrifice of Christ, but it is still my record that goes on display. Okay, all that’s pretty straightforward. None of these passages are hard to understand. But there’s another passage that Tony has referred to several times in months past. That’s a little bit trickier. And I want to spend most of the rest of our time this morning talking about that passage.

4. Do You Not Know the Saints Will Judge the World?

It’s in 1 Corinthians 6th chapter in verse 2. 1 Corinthians 6. Oh, we’ll read verses 2 and 3. Paul says, Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more are things that pertain to this life? Wait a minute. All these things that we put up there are straightforward and easy to understand in regards to how the world is going to judge. Then we get here. And Paul says, Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? What does that mean? Tony’s made a couple of references to it in the past, but I want to spend some more time this morning talking about it.

There are a number of commentators who do unusual and unfortunate things with this verse. There’s a lot of verses, by the way. But it’s true of this verse as well. So I’ve read some commentators who believe on the basis of this verse that the saints will have some active participation in the judgment in banging the gavel and saying left or right or whatever. I don’t see that. Or anywhere else in the New Testament. There’s some others who hold to a philosophy of postmillennialism, not premillennialism, postmillennialism. It’s not the same thing. But the idea there is the idea behind postmillennialism is that eventually Christians in the church will take over civil government. And the church will rule for a thousand years on the earth, and then Jesus comes back.

That’s the idea. And so they look at this verse and they say, the saints are going to judge the world in the sense that eventually the church takes over the government of the earth. I don’t see that here either. Or anywhere else in the New Testament. That’s a really long stretch from this phrase. So, okay, I’m kind of a contrary person, but I have to believe it means something, right? I can’t just look at every idea and say, I don’t believe that, I don’t believe that. It has to mean something. So what does it mean? So as we talk about this passage, let’s talk for a minute first about the context in which it appears in 1 Corinthians 6. In 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses a number of problems in the Church of Corinth.

Every chapter or the first seven chapters or so deals with a different problem of a different nature that the church in Corinth had. Church with a lot of problems. So the problem being addressed in 1 Corinthians 6, he talks about in verse 1, dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints. The topic under discussion here is criticism over taking other brethren to court. There was some dispute.

For which they wanted to go to external courts and have external courts settle the question. And Paul criticizes them for this. He says it’s really kind of shameful that saints have to ask the heathen to settle their own disputes. It kind of suggests that they’re not very wise themselves. And the reason that’s ironic is in the first couple of chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul gives us the impression that the Corinthians call faith.

They knew what was going on. But then he gets to chapter 6, and he says, You can’t even settle these disputes among yourselves. Maybe there aren’t really any wise men among you. So it’s amazing that the saints should have to rely on the world to identify which of them was a wrongdoer. Because presumably the basis for the suit was that one of them had wronged another and the other one wanted it to be set right. That’s generally why we go to law, right? Is to set right some things that are not. So it’s a shame that fraud should go on in the church, but it’s a second shame, if it does, that we have to go to the heathen and ask them to sort it out for us.

5. A Judging by Comparison

So what does it mean in this context then when Paul says that the saints will judge the earth? I’ll tell you what I think the answer is before we go talk about some passages that back it up. But I believe that the judging that Paul is talking about here is a judging by comparison. And it’s a reference to the idea that in the final judgment, the saints will serve as an example of good behavior. The God will be able to point to them and say, This is what I want. This is what I want out of this whole Christianity. And specifically when he looks at the lost, he can look at the lost and point to the saying and say, hey guys, that’s what I was looking for right there.

The judgment is a judgment by comparison. When I set these two groups over here on the left and the right and compare between them, it’s clear that one is superior. It’s sort of. You might think of it this way.

Hannah likes to fold origami shapes. I have no skill in either of these areas. But I’m glad that they didn’t. But when, we’ll take Hannah brings an example that she’s not here. If Hannah looks at some instructions for peace work, and she wants to fold the shape of a, I don’t know, what a power of a pizza. If I can make that, I can roll paper into it too. Right? But if she wants to make an orgon shape, there’s a set of instructions. Bold here, and there’s this kind of fold and that, and there’s mountain poles and valley poles and stuff, but I don’t understand. There’s a set of instructions. But the really helpful thing is that there’s a picture out to the side of what it’s supposed to look like when it’s finished.

And you can go through all the instructions there for that origami, and you can make it bold this way in that. And when you get to the end, you take what you’ve got and you look at the picture.

You might not like to think of it that way, but if yours doesn’t look like a picture, you didn’t even do it right. The picture is there at the end to show you. This is what these instructions are supposed to produce. And when you look at what you have and compare it to the picture, if it looks like the picture, you did good. That’s not what happens when I do organize. But Hannah does. So I let her do mine. That’s what I believe Paul is talking about when he talks about judging here. Now, it might not be obvious, but that’s what Paul means. So why do I think that? Well, I want to spend some time looking at some other passages that talk about judging in a similar fashion.

In Romans the second chapter, again, we talked about this passage in class not long ago. Fancy that. In Romans 2, in the first two chapters of Romans, Paul is contrasting the behavior of Gentiles who didn’t have nearly as much information and revelation about God as the Jews did. And in chapter 2, he criticized the Jews for not doing better than they had done with the stuff that they had. And excuse me. In verse, we’ll just read verse 27. There’s a long context here, but we’ve talked about it recently in class. Paul says, will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you, speaking to a Jewish audience, will he not judge you, who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law.

So Paul is talking here about Gentiles who keep the righteous requirements of Gentiles who behave well. He says, those Gentiles judge you. Well, how? Not in the sense that they bang the gavel. But the Gentiles judge the Jews by comparison. When you put the Gentile up here who doesn’t have much information about God, you put the Jew up here who has all this revelation, all the stuff that he’s going to talk about in chapter 3, what advantage then has the Jew much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. You look at all the advantages that the Jews had, and you hold the Gentile up there and you say, but you know, this Gentile behave better. Shame on you people of the law.

That’s the kind of judging that’s going on here. It’s a judging by comparison. When I put the two of them up here, say, what do you want to have all the advantages? And yet, which one behaves better? Shame on you. That’s the kind of judgment that Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 2. You might think about this in regard to Paul’s faking in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 3 that we shall judge angels. We’re not angels. Angels have different circumstances than we do. They have some things that are better, they have some better circumstances and better opportunities, and yet, we read in the New Testament that there are angels, but I think it’s the same idea. When God looks at humanity, at least humans who served him, and he looks at angels who didn’t, he’s going to say, hey guys, who had the better start here?

It’s not the guys on the earth. And yet some angels fell. That’s the sense in which I believe we judge angels. But let’s talk about judging the earth. In well, okay, Romans 2.27. So disobedient Jews were judged by comparison with Gentiles, who kept some of the principles of the law of Moses, despite the fact that they had less knowledge and less revelation. Alright. Hebrews 11 and verse 7. Similar idea here. You’ll recognize Hebrews 11 as a chapter where the writer is laying out a lot of examples of faith from the Old Testament. Hebrews 11 and verse 7, by faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

And Noah condemned the world by building the ark. How did that work? Well, first of all, you say, wait a minute, Aaron. This is condemning. It’s not judging, it’s not the same word. So, well, you’re kind of right. But kind of not. The Greek word that’s translated judge in those other passages is the word krino, the word translated condemn here just has a prefix stuck on to the beginning of it. So the word condemned simply means to judge against. It talks about not just about the judging, but it talks about the verdict. I’m going to say not only were they judged, but the verdict was that. So it is kind of the same. Judging and judging against. But how did Noah condemn the world by building the ark?

Again, it’s not that he passed sentence on anybody else. The sentence was God’s. The punishment was God’s to administer. But the presence of Noah on the Ark says something about God and about his judgment. It says something to us. If everybody in the world had been wiped out by the flood, first of all, how would we be here?

Out of everybody on the world had been wiped out by the flood. Is it possible that an impartial third party observer somewhere outside the world could say, you know, God? If nobody stands up, the problem is with you.

If nobody is still God, you’ve got the wrong set of specifications out there. But that’s not the case. Noah was not a perfect man. And yet, according to Genesis 6 and verse 8, Noah found grace in the eyes of God. The presence of one righteous man and his family demonstrated that God’s standards were not, in fact, too high. And when Noah floated away on the ark and everybody else out there is drowning, the presence of Noah on the Ark proved that all those folks outside were there because of themselves. It’s not a fault with God. It’s not a problem with God and his judgment. It’s not that God is too angry or too harsh. Because Noah was in that boat. And as he was building the boat, because of his faith in God, that God was going to do as he said he was going to do, Noah’s actions condemned the world.

They demonstrated that everybody else out there who was not building an ark was to blame for their own destruction. Matthew the 12th chapter. Matthew the 12th chapter, verses 41 and 42, Jesus uses two examples here in quick succession.

Jesus was very unhappy with the people of his own generation. He’s talking to scribes and Pharisees with whom he was particularly unhappy. But he says, the men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. So he said that the Ninevehes who repented. You know the story of Jonah in the Old Testament. Those Nineveh who repented are going to judge, are going to condemn the generation that did not. But he goes ahead and he says, the queen of the South, Queen of Sheba, we typically call her, the queen of the South, will rise up in the judgment with rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

So Jesus said that the Ninevehes and the Queen of Sheba were going to condemn his own generation in the judgment. Well, how’s that going to happen? Jesus says, look at their examples.

But a prophet came and said, Yet 40 days of Nineveh will be overthrown. And they said, We need to do something about this. Now, what happened to successive generations? They didn’t do well. But that generation of Nineveh’s repented at the preaching of Jonah. And Jesus said, if you compare them and the things that they had done in their past and the things that they had heard, if you compare them to this generation that I’m living in, says Jesus, and the things that they have, which one would you expect to do better? The first century had more. But the Nineveh’s century before better outcome. And so when you put the Nineveh up there with the men abused the generation, the Ninevehes condemned them. Because the Nineveh showed, here’s what you should have done.

With the information that you had. You should do better with your life. The Queen of Sheba, the same way. Jesus a number of times asked people who were around him, have you not read? You do not know the scripture that says this. You could taught your synagogues every week.

When she heard about the wisdom of Solomon, she packed up her stuff and went.

Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The people of Jesus’ day couldn’t be bothered to get out of their houses and come listen. That’s the sense in which the Queen of Sheba condemns them because she did better with less. And so when you put the two side by side and say, who’s better? Queen of the South. That’s the condemnation, that’s the judgment that Jesus is talking about. And so in the day of judgment at the end, God can hold up the Ninevehites and the Queen of Sheba and say, This is what I wanted, guys. He can look at the lost and say, You could have done better than this. Look at what they did. Now I understand 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 2 to be saying the same thing about the judgment and how the saints will judge the world.

6. What Can God Say About Us Judging the World?

That the saints will judge the world by comparison. The saints will be evidence in the last day that God’s way is reasonable, that it is achievable, and people can get there. The Corinthians should have been modeling good behavior. That’s the idea behind judgment by comparison, right? You’re doing better. So Paul is saying to the Corinthians, you’re supposed to be doing better. You’re not supposed to be going to the heathens and saying, you judge between us. Right? That’s not how good behavior works. So, when it comes to the judgment, what can God say about us judging the world? He can look at the lost and say, you could have known of me. There are a lot of people in the world who say, I don’t believe in a God because he’s never appeared to me, he’s never talked to me, we’ve never had a conversation.

But God will be able to point to some people on the day of judgment that he had not appeared to, with whom he had no conversation, but they were still able to look around them and understand by faith that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So the things which are seen were not many of the things that do appear. Hebrews chapter 11. In Romans chapter 1, there will be people who could look at the things God made and understand, at the very least, they could understand his eternal power in Godhead. But anybody who doesn’t is without excuse because God has left the evidence of himself there. God can say to people, you could have understood my word. A lot of people throw up their hands, I just can’t understand what God wants.

I don’t know. Maybe the Bible is incomprehensible. I was sitting at it at a debate one time. Debate on the Susanny Methodistology. And the standard passages had come up, right? Acts 2 38, 1 Peter 3 21, Mark 16. All the passages, Romans 6, all the ones that you’d expect in a discussion about baptism. Tetapella got up and said, I’ve heard all these passages, but I want to.

And he didn’t go try to explain any of them. He just let it get that. These are difficult, complex passages, and this other fellow wants to convince you that baptism is essential because of the fact. Let me just tell you, they’re complex, and you probably don’t understand it either too. That was his argument. And if it gets too complicated for you to understand, leave it to me. But I’ve got to tell you, those passages are not that hard. You’ve got to have help to miss them. Fortunately, he was there to help. But you could have understood my word, God can say. You could have followed my plan. Maybe it’s too hard, God. Look at them. Look at these people. Look at the same. Look at these guys over here on the right hand.

They did it. You could have resisted temptation, but God, the devil is a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour. Who can resist him? Well, they could. Sorry, I’m pointing to the guys on the right again. These people did. These people resisted the devil and they fled. Or he fled from them, rather. It can be done. Not just that you could have resisted temptation, you could have done the right thing. In Ephesians, the second chapter in verse 10. When Paul says that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Paul doesn’t just say God identified some bad things that we should keep away from. He also said God identified some good things that we need to be out there doing.

And when we practice righteousness, it’s more than just not doing bad things. It’s actively doing good things. And that is our job as Christians is to actively do the good things as rigorously as we put away the bad. Put off things, put on things. They go together in Paul’s epistles. Every time he says, put this off, he talks about what you should put on instead. It’s not just a religion of no, don’t do that. It’s a religion of we need to be doing this instead of that. So God can say all of those things. So who made you the judge? God can. They said, God can use the saints in the end as an example of what he was looking for. This is what I wanted from the gospel.

Conclusion

These are the kind of people that I wanted. But it takes something from us as well. Don’t just think about yourself as a member of a group sitting over there in the ones on the right. Think about can God look at me? Could God look at me and say, this is the kind of person I want.

But that is the expectation that we will be examples and models of the good behavior and of the righteous living and of the strong, obedient faith that God wanted when he revealed the gospel. If we’re willing to seek the truth. The Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth. Nobody took her a copy. She came to hear it. God expects us to see. Do some work. But it’s understandable if we’re willing to do that. If you’re willing to repent, that’s what the Nineveh’s did, right? Jonah came 40 days, and nine of us should be overthrown. Here came to stack cloth and ashes, and here was repentance. That’s what God expects of us. He expects that we should repent. And if we don’t, God is going to point to the Ninevehes at the end and say, you know?

They did. It’s not impossible. I watched these people do it. When I gave them less information than you have. The Ninevites will judge me if I don’t repent. And finally, if you’re willing to obey like Noah, when nobody else around him believed God, Noah got out his hammer and his saw and built an ark for a hundred years. And God looked at him and said, You have condemned the world because nobody else is doing what I want. But that man is. You can be the example of God’s plan. You can judge the world. You can be the one that he points to at the end and says, This is what I wanted, if you’re willing. If you need to make a commitment to God, or if you need to make your life right with him because sin has entered your life, and you need the prayers of this church, we are willing to do whatever it takes to assist you.

We invite you to make your wishes know.