I, the Lord, search the mind and try the heart, to give to everyone according to their ways. (Jeremiah 17:10)

In our text from Jeremiah, the prophet proclaims God's judgment over each of us as individuals, but sometimes I wonder: who really believes in a Last Judgment any more? Who takes seriously the idea that God "searches the mind and tries the heart, to give to everyone according to their ways"?

A number of years ago, a judge named Horace Gray was forced to free a guilty man because of a legal technicality. As he prepared to release the man, Judge Gray said to him, "I know you are guilty and so do you. I wish you to remember that you will someday pass before a better and wiser Judge, where you will be dealt with according to justice and not according to human law."

Now, most advocat…