"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God"

Folks, a word about judgment. All throughout scripture we see God judging. He judged the tower of Babel. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah. He judged Jericho. And most importantly to us, in our day, he judged the whole earth in the days of Noah by sending the flood. 

"But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the (second) coming of the Son of man be"

"Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men"

"In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that knew not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ"

"Ii is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment"

While we were in "The acceptable year of the Lord's favor", we tended to only see and acknowledge our God as "the Lamb slain for the sins of the world". We saw Him as a loving shepherd come to gather his lost sheep. We knew that "God is Love" but we refused to look at the other side of God - clearly depicted in Scripture - the God of wrath. 

"And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the Throne, and from THE WRATH OF THE LAMB: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

The answer is no one. No one shall be able to stand in the "great day of his wrath" but every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Yet do you see? Do you see that the gentle loving Lamb has also great wrath? And that there is a time and a season for his wrath to be poured out? 

"Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sits in the heavens shall laugh (this word "laugh" in the Hebrew language means "to strut as a lion"), the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall HE SPEAK TO THEM IN HIS WRATH, AND VEX THEM in His sore displeasure"

Now I ask you, how will He "speak to them in His wrath?" He will do as He has always done - He will send his prophets -

"and the nations were angry and your wrath is come and (I tremble as I write this) the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Your name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth"

He judges! He has the right to! He has the right to punish whom He will and reward whom He will. I believe that "The Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him".

Part two coming soon