Pronounce Judgement

There’s an adage that’s called Godwin’s Law. Godwin’s Law states that the probability that the longer an internet discussion goes on, will increase exponentially until someone calls someone else Hitler. Why do we do that? Because Hitler is the worst of the worst.

But you know what’s funny? If you ask Hitler, he wasn’t the worst. Hitler claimed that Stalin was the worst. In fact, in the end, when he was in the bunker in the last days, he wrote about how if he’d been more like Stalin, he would have won the war.

As he said, in the end, what you regret the most is being too kind.

Isn’t that hilarious? Adolf Hitler thought his biggest mistake was being too kind. Goes to show us that we’re not always the best judges of ourselves.

What about us? How well do we judge ourselves?

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A recent survey asked the average American what they thought about eternity. Only 1% of the people that responded said they expected to go to hell when they died. 64% thought they were going to heaven. The rest were unsure. Most people thought they were going to heaven.

But you know, that’s not what the Bible teaches. Jesus was talking to his disciples, and they asked him, are there just a few that are being saved? Jesus would say, strive to enter at the narrow door, because there are many who are trying to enter into it and will not. Later on, he would talk about those who would stand at the door saying, didn’t we eat in your presence? Didn’t we listen to you when you spoke? But he would tell them, depart from me, I know you not.

See, the problem is a lot of people think that they are perfectly fine with God when they’re not. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells three different stories. One is a parable about 10 virgins, five who were prepared, five who weren’t.

And at the end of the story, the five who weren’t prepared find themselves not allowed to go into the wedding feast, but were outside where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why? Because they weren’t ready for destruction.

Later in another parable, he tells about talents. Talents were a sum of money. Money was given to three different men. Two of those men take those talents, use them, and gain far greater rewards. But a third man hides his in the ground.

In the end, when he comes to his master, his master condemns him for being wicked and lazy, for not doing anything with his talent, because he did nothing to prepare himself for the future.

In that final section, Jesus will tell about the sheep and the goats, about those who are separated from the good and the bad. In that section, Jesus will talk about those who didn’t take care of him, didn’t feed him, and didn’t do good things. And they’ll say, ” When did we see the opportunity? And he said, whenever you did it to the least of these, you did it to me also.

In every one of those stories, we see the same thing. We’ll see people who think that they are qualified to enter into eternity with him, think that they’re qualified to go to the reward. But in the end, they’ll be surprised when they’re not.

What it came down to was that they didn’t do the thing that they needed to do in order to be with him. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus talks about how the many that will come to him and say, “Did we not do many things to enter into your kingdom? Did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons, perform many miracles?” But Jesus will say, “I do not know you.”

Why does he not know them? Because they never did the will of the Father. They thought they were doing the right things, but they weren’t. What they were doing wasn’t really his will. They weren’t following his commands. They weren’t listening to him. And that’s why we need to be careful when it comes to judging ourselves.

You know, oftentimes the way we judge ourselves is we compare ourselves to others. Hitler thought he wasn’t so bad because Stalin was worse. But in the end, we won’t be judged by what everyone else does. We’ll be judged by what we have done, whether good or bad, whether we’ve listened to him, whether we’ve obeyed his commandments.

You know, there’s that old joke that we see of St. Peter at the gates, determining whether he’ll let people in or out. But St. Peter isn’t going to be the one at the gates. Jesus is.

Jesus tells us that the words that he spoke to us were what will judge us in the last day. That all judgment has been given to him.

And so, in the end, when it comes to judgment, it won’t be what everyone else thinks about us. It won’t even be what we think about ourselves. It’ll be what Jesus judges us for. And his words will judge us.

So, we must be very careful that when it comes to judgment, we don’t consider whether we think we’re going to heaven. We ask ourselves the question, “Does Jesus think we’re going to heaven?”

Maybe today you’ve asked yourself the question, “Where is my eternal fate?” Maybe you were part of that group that was pretty sure you were going to heaven. But when you consider your actions, you may think, I may not. Maybe you’re wondering what Jesus has commanded me to do so I can have a place in heaven.

We’d love to answer any questions that you may have. You can contact us through the website or call us at the phone number below. Maybe you’re more comfortable with texting. Text us your questions, and we’ll try to get back with you as soon as possible.

Maybe you have a prayer request, something in your life that you’d love to have somebody praying with you to help you overcome. We’d love to do that for you.

Thank you so much for joining us today. Have a great day.