JUDGMENT THAT BRINGS LIFE

Isaiah 26v9+10
...When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness. 
10 But when grace is shown to the wicked, 
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil 
and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.

This is a scripture you probably haven't heard a lot of from most pulpits. Chances are that all pulpits say that grace brings life and delivers from death, which of course is true and is one of the greatest truths in the Bible. But equal chances are that there wouldn't be many pastors alive today that would ever say what the scripture above says. In case it's unclear, the scripture above says that when God JUDGES the earth, the world learns righteousness, that is, the world learns what really is TRUE and UPRIGHT and GOOD (not their version of what is true and upright and good) when God brings judgment in the form of wrath. Even more than that, it says that it is sometimes the case that, contrary to popular belief, there are some wicked (unsaved) that DO NOT LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS BY BEING SHOWN GRACE. There are some in the world, that, despite being shown all the grace God has to offer, still won't turn to Him. Instead, they will go on loving sin, loving unrighteousness, loving themselves, loving their idols, loving everything that is evil and who will insist on calling evil good and good evil, simply because they don't think it's wrong and they believe they have no indication from God that anything they are doing is wrong. There are some for whom only JUDGMENT will teach them that they need God, that they need His goodness, need His forgiveness, need His righteousness, need His saving and need His salvation. Judgment will teach them that they cannot rely on themselves for their safety, for their wellbeing and for their future, judgment will teach them that there is only one God they can rely on for that. When people cannot be wooed to God, they must be given a Holy fear of Him.