The Judgement Is Not a Joke

     What do you say upon leaving a church service and shaking the preacher's hand?  Some say, "I really enjoyed your sermon today, Reverend.  However, it really was not the intent for the individual to "enjoy" the sermon.   One gentleman always said upon exiting the church, "Preacher, you really preached to them today."  He was never included in those to which the message was preached.  There came the Sunday evening when a torrential downpour and sever lighting struck just at the time for church.  No one showed up except the one gentleman, who thought the message was always for "them".  The preacher seized the opportunity and delivered a message especially designed for the needs and the faults of that gentleman.  After the conclusion of the sermon the gentleman, standing with the preacher in the vestibule said, "Preacher, if they had been here tonight you would have really give it to them."
     He must have been some kin to the lady who remarked as the band passed by,  "Would you just look at that. Everyone is out of step except my son, John.
     Their ancestors lived in Jesus day, and He scolded them in what must have been a humorous application of a very serious problem.  What He said, in today's language, went something like this:  I do not believe you are standing there with a 2 by 4 beam sticking out of your eye and criticizing the man who has a small splinter in his.
     We have blindly closed our eyes to the actual extend of sin.  We have different levels of sin, as to their severity.  First, there are the smallest of sins.  These are the sins I sometimes commit.  Secondly there are slightly larger sins than what I commit, and my friends are those who commit this type of sin.  Lastly, there are the extremely gross sins, which neither I nor my friends commit.  These are sins that when I mention them I always say that "they" commit.
     Even looking at a list of the ten commandments, I find that the sins we usually consider the more vile and terrible sins come in the second half of the list. In the order that God listed them, number one was having no other God before him.  Then he cautioned them about making graven images, taking his name in vain, remembering to keep the Sabbath, and even honoring our parents; all of those before he gets to our most important list.
     If that reasoning is not enough to capture our attention, consider He also said, "He that offends in one point is guilty of the whole law."  Could that possibly mean that my small sins which I commit make me as guilty as "they" and their enormous sins?  I think so.
     When each of us square off before God at the judgement, our thoughts of our own goodness or our judgemental attitude toward others will make no difference.  The books will be opened and we will be judged according to the things written in the books.  But, thanks be to God, your eternal home is not dependent upon how good you were or how bad someone else was; it is determined when the Book of Life is opened.  Whosoever's name is not written in that book is cast into the lake of fire.  Your name is not written there if you die without accepting Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
     The judgement is not a joke.