Our Old Covenant reading is taken from the 19th chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, chapter 19. We begin our reading with verse 12 and read down through verse 29. Please stand with me for the reading of God's inspired, infallible, inerrant, and sufficient word. You will pick up very quickly as we read that God is determined to pour out his judgment upon Sodom for its great wickedness and unrepentance. Then the men said to Lot, Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place, for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city. But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting. On morning dawn the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city. But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters. For the compassion of the Lord was upon him, and they brought him out and put him outside the city. And it came about, when they had brought them outside, that one said, Escape for your life, do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley. Escape to the mountains, lest ye be swept away. But Lot said to them, O no, my lords, now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness which you have shown me by saving my life. I cannot escape to the mountains, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die. Now, behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please let me escape there. Is it not small? But my life may be saved." And he said to him, Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything unless you arrive there. Therefore the name of the town was called Zor. The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. But his wife from behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley. And he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. And now just a couple of verses from the book of Acts, the seventeenth chapter. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. Thus far, the reading of God's word. All flesh is as grass. The grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our God abides forever. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Westminster Presbytery has a tradition we have with worship at each Presbytery meeting. A teaching elder is selected for each Presbyterian meeting to preach a sermon, and we are to preach sermons based on the Westminster Confession of Faith. Again, many years ago, it was done alphabetically in this sense, alphabetically in descending order. This was the second time that I have preached at Westminster Presbytery. It will probably be the last unless they decide to reverse the order again and start from A and go up to B again, but this is the second time I have preached there. And so I did at the last Presbytery meeting, and the session asked that I would bring that sermon to the congregation, and so that is what I am doing this evening. This is the sermon with some alterations that I preached there at Presbytery. Throughout the history of the world, there have been significant acts of God in judgment. The scripture describes these judgments as God coming in judgment, or sometimes the judgment is associated with the salvation of God's people, and so sometimes there is judgment upon upon the world, which there is a corresponding deliverance of God's people. So, judgment and salvation go hand in hand throughout history. Stop and think about the significant judgments of the world. I thought about using another one, but we could have used the flood, couldn't we? God sent judgment upon the world using water that covered the earth and destroyed everything on the face of the earth except those that were brought out in the ark. Certainly a significant judgment. We read about Sodom and how God brought judgment to Sodom and saved Lot and his daughters. But we can go on because God's judgments come upon men and nations and empires. We think of Egypt at the time of the Exodus or Assyria at the hand of Babylon or Babylon at the hand of the Medes and the Persians, Medo-Persia at the hand of the Greeks, and then Rome at the hands of the barbarians, and on it's gone throughout history. There have been great judgments. Men don't always see them as the hand of God, but as the God of all creation, and as the one who does all things after the counsel of his will. These are judgments of God upon men. And then we have observable judgments upon individuals. For instance, we can think of Dathan and Abiram, or Haman, or Herod Agrippa, one of my favorites, the one who boasted as he heard the people proclaim that he was a god and he was eaten by worms. I've always thought that was a very appropriate judgment. And truth be told, sometimes I wish it would happen again, don't you? But that is the way that God does think. But there are significant judgments. And then we have private and individual judgments at death. You cannot drive by a graveyard, or at least I can't, without being reminded that it's appointed unto man once to die. And after this, the judgment. There is judgment all about us. All of these temporal judgments, however, are but harbingers or pointers to the ultimate judgment that is to come. And so, that's the title of my sermon this evening, Ultimate Judgment, the last chapter of the confession, which we will get to once again, and I'll probably treat it in more detail than I will this evening. The last chapter of Westminster Confession of Faith is of God's judgment, the final judgment, and that's what I'm going to speak to you about. And I'm going to take as my text this 31st verse of Acts, where we are told, Because he that is God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead." The first thing that we see here is something of the nature of God's final judgment. He tells us several things about this judgment that we need to know, that all men need to know. Remember that he is speaking to Greek philosophers and other philosophers, he's not speaking to the people of God, he's speaking to those who are largely ignorant of the Christian faith. And this is something new to them. The reason they're listening is because the Athenians like something new. And so he is presenting to them that which they need to hear for their eternal salvation. He speaks to them about God's final judgment. And there are several things that he tells us. First, we see that God's final judgment is certain. God has fixed a day, and God's counsels do not fail. What God determines and what God decrees, He brings about. There is nothing at all uncertain about the judgment day. It is appointed that the man wants to die, and after this, the judgment The final judgment day of God is as certain as death itself. And just because we don't see God's judgment with our eyes in our lifetime does not affect its reality. Those in Peter's day were saying, where is the promise of his coming? Where is this judgment? Everything from the beginning of the world has continued as it always has. And of course that is not the case because we have these signal judgments, don't we? The world after the flood was quite different from the world before the flood. Egypt was never the same after God's judgment. Nothing is actually the same. God has brought these judgments, but men often do not see the judgments of God. And so we often think that God will not bring judgment. We think that everything will continue on the way it is. There are many mechanisms that we use to escape this certainty of the final judgment, but God has declared that there is a final judgment and is certain, and you want to know something? Everybody knows it. Everyone knows that there is a final judgment, because we have been created in the image of God, and we are told in Scripture once again that we know right and wrong, we know what sin deserves, and yet in the hardness of man's heart We not only do those things which are sinful and reprehensible in the sight of God, but take delight in those that do them, even knowing the wrath of God that comes upon them. We know the wrath of God, don't we? Because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. God's final judgment is certain. What we see, then, is that this certainty that comes to us by the preaching of the word, and though you may look about you and think everything is fine and dandy, although I don't see how you can do that, but there are those who think that everything is going just as it should be and there's no warning. I would simply like to remind you again of Noah. Stop and think how strange the preaching of judgment must have been to that generation. It had not rained on the earth. was building a very large ship, a boat, in the middle of dry land, and was preaching that there was going to be a flood. No experience of flood up until that point. It's going to rain. What's rain? Nobody had experienced it. Nobody had any knowledge And so if you were to take the scientific method of experience, they would say, no, there's no such thing. There's not going to be a judgment. There's not going to be a flood. There's no such thing as a flood. This is just an imagination. You must have eaten something bad and you've had a bad dream, Noah. But Noah's preaching was much more reliable than everybody's experience, wasn't it? So you must understand, no matter what your perceptions might be, the Word of God proclaimed to us by the Spirit of God through the instruments that God has chosen, that God's judgment is certain. He has fixed a day. The second thing that we see about the nature of God's final judgment is that God's final judgment is executed by Christ. He has fixed a day, we are told, in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed." This is a very sobering thought, that Christ the Savior, the one who took upon himself human flesh and a human nature and gave himself up to death in order to save sinners, is the one who on the final day will be the Judge who pronounces the final verdict upon the saved and the lost, Christ the Son of Man. As the Savior, he is given the honor of completing his work of salvation, and that work of salvation includes his ultimate victory over all of his enemies and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. So this one who is the Savior is also the one whom God has appointed as judge on the last day. When all opportunities for salvation are then closed, and the books are opened, and the verdict is read, the one who will sit in judgment upon your eternal soul on the last day is none other than the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a sobering thing. that God will judge the earth through his Son. I want you to stop and think about some of the implications of this. Stop and think, if you will, and it's not anything that I like to think about. I've told the folks at the Presbytery, this is a sobering subject. It's not something I like to think about, but it is necessary to think But I want you to think about that moment when the Son of God pronounces the final verdict, to which there is no longer any appeal. There will be no appeal. It's the final judgment that will stand, not just for time, but for eternity. I want you to think about it two ways. First of all, I want you to consider the incomprehensible joy of the redeemed. You who are in Christ, who know your sins to be forgiven, not because of anything in you, but because of what Christ has done, I want you to contemplate what it will be like. You know your sins. We try to confess our sins, and I always feel quite inadequate because my sins go up over my head, and I understand that I don't know the half of it. But I want you to understand what it will be like as one of God's chosen, as one of those who is the recipient of God's mercy, as one whose sins have been washed from you and you stand cloaked in Christ's righteousness, I want you to try to understand the incomprehensible joy of the redeemed, knowing your sins and yet knowing the forgiveness of those sins. For after all, The judge who is pronouncing your verdict is the redeemer who purchased your salvation and paid the price for your sins. Now that's a glorious picture. I don't even know how to describe it because every description just kind of pales. But when you stand before God for the final judgment and understand that the judge is also your attorney, and not only your attorney, but he's the one who's paid the penalty, and he's the one who's going to be your judge. Maybe the scripture says it best, who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Okay, so who is there? The Apostle Paul is asking, who is there to bring a charge against God's elect? God justifies, declares us righteous. Who is the one to condemn, to pronounce that final judgment and to cast us into hell? Well, it's Jesus Christ, the same Jesus Christ who gave himself up for us, who was raised and is the right hand of God, and who intercedes for us. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The judge is the one who gave himself for you. I can't get my head around that, but then on the other hand I want you to consider the incomprehensible horror of the lost. I want you to stop and think about that because it is a horrible thing. Now, the one who is the one who is offended most by sin is the judge. The one who has given himself and offered himself in the gospel to deliver from sin, the one that you have repudiated throughout life is now the judge. Again, I can't, it's hard to illustrate, but you can only do it in kind of human terms which pales into insignificance, but let us think about, you've heard about home invasions, let us suppose that you are a person who has broken into a home and murdered a wife and four children. You are caught, you are arrested, and you are brought before the tribunal for judgment, and the judge who is sitting in judgment upon you is the husband of that wife and the father of those children. We're talking about sinful human beings, and there would certainly be a matter of vengeance that would probably exceed our sense of justice. But do you think that in the execution of justice that that judge would be moved at all? Do you think he would be moved at all, or do you think that person would receive the full measure of wrath? I think you know what would happen. So stop and think about one who has perpetually offended that judge, and when you stand before the judgment bar, you will find that the judge is the one you have offended throughout your entire life, and the judge is the one whose offer of mercy and pardon you have repudiated all of your life. stop and think about the sense of loss, the sense of despair. That's the second aspect, the second facet, or the second portion of the nature of God's judgment, that this judgment comes by the person of Jesus Christ. The third thing that we see here is that God's final judgment will be universal in application, that all rational creatures will come before the judgment seat. I have to qualify that a little bit. We are not told that the holy angels will be brought before the judgment seat, but we are told that the fallen angels will be brought before the judgment seat. We're told in three different portions in the New Covenant that God is keeping the angels under wraps, under the judgment in Jude 6. In 2 Peter 2, verses 4 and 9, he is encouraging the people of God that if he is able to bring these angels to judgment, how much more will he be able to bring men to judgment for their sins and their crimes against the people of God. And in first Corinthians chapter six and verse two and three, the apostle Paul, as he is speaking to these Corinthian believers who are going to court over really trivial matters, he says, don't you understand that you're going to be judging angels? That's a remarkable thing. Somebody has described it this way. Somebody has said that while Jesus is the judge, the saints will be the jury. not that the jury will have anything to determine, but you'll be observing. And he says that you will judge angels. And so this judgment will be universal in its application. God will summon angelic beings to his judgment, and indeed, they will be cast into hell that has been prepared for them. But God will also summon all men before him to receive his verdict. And there is no escape. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the things that we have done in the body, without exception. All men, everywhere, there is no escape. Men may, for a time, reject his sovereign rule, reject his lawful authority, repudiate it, deny it, and say, I'll have nothing to do with your demands upon me. Men can do that throughout their lives. But there will be no man who escapes his subpoena to appear on that last day. You will give an account. Every one of you will give an account for what you have done. The fourth thing that we see about the nature of God's final judgment is that God's final judgment will be exhaustive in its purview. There is nothing that will escape the all-seeing eye and mind of God. Every thought, word, and deed will be brought before the judgment seat and will be evaluated. everything that you have said in the secret places of your heart, everything that you have fought against Christ and His Majesty, everything that you have done in secret that may have escaped the notice of men, everything that you have ever thought, said, or done throughout your life will be brought to light. There is nothing secret or hidden that will not be brought to view. That should cause you to tremble. That should cause you to tremble. I hesitate to mention this to Presbytery. I'm mentioning a lot of things that I mentioned before Presbytery. Jonathan Edwards teaches, and I hate to disagree with Jonathan Edwards, but I'll explain it in a minute as to why I think that he's wrong. Jonathan Edwards does not think that on that great day of judgment, the sins of believers will be made public at all, because he takes very seriously, and I think we ought to as well, that when we turn to the Lord, our sins are forgiven and they are removed from us and they're washed in the blood and they're removed from the depths, they're removed from us and cast into the depths of the sea and remembered no more. So I think there's warrant for thinking that. I don't think that's right. I'll tell you why in a minute. But that would be something that would be... I like that, personally. I really like that. I escaped again. We'll talk about that in just a minute, but I just want you to think about the fact that all of our sins will be opened. Ecclesiastes 12.14 says, For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. And Jesus in Matthew 12.36 says, Every idle word that has been spoken will be brought to judgment. You see how broad the purview of God's judgment is? Not just the things that you're aware of, but the things that you're not aware of. And if you're anything like me, as you begin to evaluate yourself seriously before the Word of God, you see how far short you fall in every aspect. You think of all the Ten Commandments and the application of those Ten Commandments, and out they go. Don't they just weigh you down? And you don't know the half of it. And neither do I. We don't know the half of our sin. Exhausted at its purview. And the fifth aspect of God's final judgment is that God's final judgment will be just and righteous. because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed." The revelation of the very character of God, justice and righteousness. This is the meaning of good or bad. If you want to understand the standard of God's righteousness, of God's judgment, then read the Ten Commandments. Read the rest of the scripture and understand what God calls sin. And that is the standard, and it will be according to that standard. Good intentions will not justify disobedience. It will be the absolute standard of God's word. So those who want to discard God's law are just whistling in the dark. because that is the standard by which God will judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. And the sixth thing that I didn't mention, although I think I mentioned it not as a main point in Presbytery, is that God's final judgment will be public. Sometimes God's judgments are private, local, but here God's final judgment will be universally public before the watchful eye of all men and angels and the triune God. Well, that's the nature of God's final judgment. What is the ultimate purpose a final judgment, the ultimate purpose. Why? Why is this revealed to us? Why will there be a final judgment? The ultimate purpose of God's final judgment is God's glory. As all of life is God's glory. And you might think, how in the world will God be glorified in the final judgment? Well, let me suggest at least two ways. God's glory will be clearly perceived in the salvation of his people for the sake of Christ. God will be glorified as the Savior of sinners, and it will be clearly perceived by all believers, by all unbelievers, by all who have ever lived God's glory and salvation will be clearly perceived in the salvation of his people by his own person and work. He will be seen to be just and the justifier of sinners. Now, this is the reason why I think that the sins of all men will be revealed. Because I believe that God is glorified in pardoning sin and sinners. I believe that God is glorified in the contrast between His grace and mercy and the wickedness of sinners and what we have been forgiven. You'll recall the account of our Lord Jesus, I believe it was with Simon, and the woman who was weeping and washing Christ's feet with her hair, and that very significant question, who loves more, the one who has been forgiven little or the one who has been forgiven much? the one loves more is the one who has been forgiven more, right? On that day, I believe you will love the Lord more than you've ever loved Him before because you will then, for the first time, recognize how much you have been forgiven. Again, I don't want to... I keep on thinking, why do I embrace that particular view? I really like Jonathan Edwards' view. I really do. And I like it for a couple of reasons. One is because I think it speaks to us about the completeness of our justification, what God does for us, the way he treats us. But the reason I really like it is because it protects my reputation. Right? The reason I really like it is because all those things that I've thought and said and done, no one will ever know. But is that glorifying to God? How much more glorifying is it? By the way, how can I put this? Isn't it glorious to confess your sins and to hear the announcement of God's forgiveness and thanksgiving to God and know that your sins are forgiven and never going to be thrown in your face to accuse you again. You see, I think that I think God will be glorified and we will not be put to shame because we won't be ashamed because they're under the blood of Christ. And we won't be saying, hallelujah, I've been preserved in my reputation. We'll be saying hallelujah. Look what I've been delivered from. Look what I've been delivered from. All praise, glory, and honor to Jesus Christ, my Savior. Now that's my thinking. I think either one of those views is certainly acceptable. But I believe that God is going to be glorified in the forgiveness of sins. All in Christ will be finally acquitted All in Christ will be delivered from remaining sin. Won't that be glorious? No more wrestling of soul. No more troubled consciences. No more striving with sin. No more wrestling. Delivered from remaining sin is the word of the Savior. All in Christ will be rewarded for their service. We read from the book of Matthew, there at the Great Judgment, all of those are gathered together. The sheep on the right, the goats on the left, and the books are opened and the Lord acquits his people. And he says, you know, when I was naked you clothed me, when I was hungry you fed me, when I was in prison you visited me. It goes to that long list. And the saints on the Judgment Day respond, When did we do that to you? Isn't it interesting that the saints on Judgment Day had a due humility? There's no boasting about what they've done. They're just overwhelmed with the grace of God. We've done nothing for you. Nothing for you. What have we done? And the amazing thing is in this great Judgment Day, that Christ rewards you for what He has produced in you, and He rewards the smallest things. Things that you may never remember, that you think nothing of. I was blown away by this when I began to think about this. Jesus says that if you give a cup of water in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll have a reward. Simply giving a cup of water. See this? Every Lord's Day there is a cup of water up here for me. Small, insignificant, and the Lord says, inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it for me. The word of praise and the psalm or the hymn sung in worship to the Savior. You don't think anything about that. You just do it. The Lord is pleased, and on the great day of judgment, He will bring forth things that you never thought anything about, that you did for the Lord, and He said, well done. Now that's grace. I want you to understand that. We're not doing anything that we shouldn't have done. The Lord rewards the smallest service. The kind word that was spoken, the deed that was done, the meal that was cooked, the prayers that were offered, the tears that were shed, the laughter that was shared. Abound in grace, all brought to light on the Day of Judgment. The saints will be brought forth in their holiness and righteousness shining brightly as the stars, and all in Christ will enter into eternal blessedness with no possibility of sin or its consequences." Hallelujah. That's what you have to look forward to if you're in Christ on the Day of Judgment. Yes, it will be humiliating in one sense, but it will be swallowed up. I have to make this application because I think it's so important. The Church has lost sight of the glories of the pictures that God gives to us and the procedures that God gives to us to manifest these things. And one of those is church discipline. Churches and people resist church discipline. But you know, church discipline is a picture of the judgment to come. And to me, and we have had the privilege of doing that on occasion, and we have had the sorrow of not having that happen either. But do you understand what happens when church discipline is exercised and someone is barred from the table and excommunicated, and then God brings them to repentance, and when there's public sin, we have them come and stand before the congregation to confess their sins, and then to be received and welcomed. And people think that's harsh. People think that's mean. People hate that. And I can understand some of that because, like I say, I'd just as soon have my sins covered over. But if you'll remember those occasions when we have done that, do you remember the great joy that there is for the congregation and for those who are involved? Do you understand the praise and the glory that goes to your Savior, Jesus Christ? that this one was lost and now has been returned. And that's a picture of judgment day for the redeemed. Yes, sins may be known, but they'll be covered, and all the body of Christ and all of us will be saying praise to God. That's the way God is glorified, and everybody, all the world will be gathered together and will say, just and righteous and holy is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, because He's just and the justifier of sinners. Hallelujah. This is a little bit harder. We can see how God is glorified in that, don't we? But God's glory will be clearly perceived and praised in the damnation of the wicked. That's harder. That's harder. Because we all have friends and loved ones who are lost, who bear their own sins and will face God's judgment, not of the salvation, but damnation. We have loved ones that have already gone. to that eternity, who will receive God's damnation in the final day. And it's hard. It's hard. But I want you to understand one of the things that will happen is we see through a glass But on that great day, all of the facade of goodness, all of the apparent niceties of people who are apart from Christ will be stripped away, and you will see the lost in their true character with the common grace of God that restrained them throughout life removed. And you will see men's sin and rebellion in all of its horror, in all of its abominable character, and you will understand more completely the righteous and just wrath of God. And you may think that, well, you're just being one of those hellfire and brimstone preachers just to stir us up and to cause fear and everything else. May I just read to you some passages from God's Word that tells us how the perfected saints respond to the judgment of the damned? After God's pronouncement of judgment upon this great city, Babylon, the great I believe it was a historical city, it was a historical judgment. But in any event, you can read the book of Revelation and you can see those judgments of wrath that are poured out upon this city until it is destroyed and decimated. God's temporal judgment has been affected. John writes, After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven." These are saints. These are those with all of the imperfections and all of the sins done away, but there's this great voice of all those, this multitude in heaven, and what are they saying and what are they singing, and how are they glorifying God? Listen. Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God because His judgments are true and righteous For he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her." And the second time they said, "'Hallelujah!' Her smoke rises up forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, "'Amen! Hallelujah!' And a voice came from the throne saying, "'Give praise to our God, all you his bondservants. you who fear him, the small and the great, and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the sound of many waters, and the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, Hallelujah to the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns." God is glorified in his temporal judgments. There are other passages that I could read from the book of Revelation. These were temporal judgments, that is time. And if God is praised for his temporal judgments, how much more for his eternal judgments and justice. The interesting thing is, in this final judgment, the saints will certainly perceive God's glory. will acknowledge God's justice and glory as well. For every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You will either do so voluntarily as a child of God by faith, or you will do so in the bitterness of eternal remorse and damnation confessing that God is just in your damnation. That is sobering. So God's justice and judgment will be perceived and praised by God's people, and it will be perceived and acknowledged by the lost. Now I know, this is a hard doctrine. But does the Word of God teach it? You see, some have taken this doctrine to the final judgment and the damnation of a large multitude of people. Some have used that to repudiate the doctrine because of its horrors. It can't be true because it's just too horrible to think about. And I understand something of that. You all know that I have a sister who, as far as I know, is in everlasting torment awaiting the great day of judgment until the final judgment is pronounced on her. And that's hard. It's hard. But it is true. It is true, and we must not alter the word of God to meet our emotional needs. Unless God changed her heart unforeseen in the last moments of her life, she died cursing God and hating Him with every fiber of her being. And God is just. And she will glorify Him, confessing that He is just on that day. You see, such repudiation of the doctrine It says more about our low views of sin and low views of God than it does about the truth of God and His Word. God is glorified. If He is to be God, He must be just. He must be just. I know our time is going here, but I've talked about the ultimate purpose of God's final judgment being His glory. There is a proximate purpose of God's final judgment as well. There is a use for us. Why has God revealed to us this final judgment? Well, that can be summarized in the words, How shall we then live? In light of the fact that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the acts of all men by a man, Christ Jesus, in righteousness, and that judgment will be unto life eternal or unto everlasting damnation. How, then, shall we live? John Dodd was a Puritan, lived from 1549 to 1645, and as many Puritans did, he would write out for himself in his journal the things that he would do, and on that list of things to do, he said this, Every morning presuppose 1. I must die. 2. I may die ere night. 3. Whither will my soul go? or to hell. Pretty simple, isn't it? But very profound. I must die. That one we have, we don't think about it too much, but we're reasonably certain that we're going to die. I think about it much more now that I'm getting to the end of my life. But I am going to die. One of the things that I don't think as much about is, I might die before the sun goes down. I didn't think about it much until November of last year. And the Lord made it pretty clear that that was the case. And we all know that that's the case. We don't know whether we have another day or not? That being so, where shall my soul reside for eternity? In heaven or hell? And what will I do today in light of those three things? So with that in mind, The certainty of the final judgment stirs men to flee to Christ. It should stir you to flee to Christ. Is it a horrible doctrine? Yes, it's a horrible doctrine. But it must be set in contrast with the grace of the gospel. For God has commanded everyone everywhere to repent, flee from the wrath to come. For God has provided the way and understands Understand, as you think about the horrors of God's judgment on judgment day, that Christ bore that for you. Do you understand that? Christ bore the penalty of God for sinners. You think it's horrible? It was horrible. Jesus bore it. for his people. And he having borne that penalty, he did it that you might avoid that final judgment and its penalties. So this is what we are told in Scripture. The certainty of the final judgment brings us to despair. If there's anything, you know, I didn't mention this and I should have back when I was talking about the complete purview that every word and thought and deed will be brought. If there's anything that will destroy any self-righteousness, that will do it, right? That'll do it. So what happens when we understand that God is going to bring every word, thought, and deed into judgment? It brings us the despair of hoping in ourselves. But the certainty of the final judgment then drives men to Christ. This is the stated intent. And so we see God's benevolent goodness in the doctrine. That the purpose, the proximate purpose, of God's final judgment is to bring you and me to flee to Christ. I must die. I may die before night. Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me and receive my spirit. Forgive me for my sins and enable me to walk in righteousness this day. Secondly, the certainty of God's final judgment comfort believers in the trials of life. Everything will be set right. Stop and think of all the hardships that people endure in light of eternity. You think of our brothers and sisters for whom we pray every week who have suffered severe illness with the suffering that comes along with that enduring day after day, week after week, and year after year of bodily infirmities. That's a difficult thing, isn't it? And yet they endure with patience and cheerfulness. The world wants to look at that and say, what kind of a God would ever do that? And yet all of those things, you think about the sanctifying experience light and momentary afflictions of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will follow. Yeah, I know. I'm a complainer. The least inconvenience gets me complaining. But what is that compared to eternity? And what is it to bear the shame of Christ for a moment, to enjoy his favor for eternity? A confidence in God's final judgment provides perspective for perseverance. You've heard me speak about this because I sympathize so much with it, but David in Psalm 37 and Psalm 73 speaks about his troubled conscience as he looked about him and he saw obviously wicked men prospering. No problems in their lives, everything they did turned out well and on they were going and as he looked about he would also see the trials of the saints for their godliness, their persecution, their poverty, their suffering injustice. And David is very honest as he speaks to us about it. He says, when I saw all of that, he said, what's the use? What's the point? My steps had almost slipped. I almost decided to join their ranks. What's the point, Lord, if everything we do is frustrated and the wicked go on and enjoy all the benefits of this life? And then David pauses and says, And then I came in to the house of the Lord, and I perceived therein that all of the blessings of life were snares and traps Because they never considered, I must die. I may die before night. Where will I spend eternity? They never thought about that. So he understood that they were on slippery paths and their path was going to hell. What was David's response? Perseverance. Perseverance. I'm going to continue in the way. All that which vexes your soul will be set right in that day. All the things that you see taking place in our culture and in corrupt officialdom will be brought to light and will be brought to naught. Every injustice and every oppression Everything that is so haywire in our world today will be brought to judgment and set right. You persevere. Don't you be on the wrong side of that judgment. You persevere. And the certain hope of vindication and bliss will comfort the believer in death. Christopher Love was a Welsh Presbyterian was arrested and imprisoned, and he was sentenced to be beheaded in London. And his wife came to visit him the night before his execution. And these are the words that were recorded of his last words to his beloved wife. As soon as my head is severed from my body, it shall be unite my head in heaven, and I am persuaded that I shall tomorrow go up to Tower Hill as cheerfully to be everlastingly martyred unto my Redeemer. as cheerfully and as if to be everlastingly martyred unto my Redeemer as I went to Gael's church to be married to thee." You see that certainty of vindication. Nothing to be compared to the Day of Judgment. And if you're in Christ. Certainly a final judgment should assure you to flee to Christ, comfort you in the trials of life. One last thing, I'll just say it. The uncertainty regarding the time promotes watchfulness and anticipation. We don't know when Jesus will come again. We don't know when the books will be opened and he will take his seat in the judgment seat. We know it will happen. We don't know when. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. And even so, come on Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, this is a difficult doctrine. It is quite honestly disturbing to our souls, as it ought to be. For we know our sin, it is ever before us, it mounts up to heaven and testifies against us. And so, Lord, we flee to you once again. For either Christ, our head, will bear that eternal penalty, or we shall bear it ourselves. as we pray that all who are in the hearing of my voice today will flee to Christ this day. For the first time, or as we do perpetually, as those who are in Christ, we flee to you and cry out, have mercy upon us. And Lord, do be glorified in pardoning our sins. Do be glorified, O Lord, in delivering us from it. We know, O Lord, that you will receive praise, honor, and glory, that every tongue will confess, every knee will bow, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be exalted as over all. And then he will turn his kingdom over to you, and you will be all in all. Amen. the benediction of your God. And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you and give you peace now and forevermore. Amen.