We have the privilege again, brothers and sisters, to come together and look at God's Word. We're using the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith as our outline for the doctrines that are clearly taught in God's Word that we believe and that we know God has revealed to us in various places in God's Word. That's why we use the scriptures We don't depend on the writers of the Confession, we depend on the writings inspired by the Holy Spirit. And we've come to this last chapter, which is the Last Judgment. You may remember we started, last week, this chapter by looking at some word definitions. I found it important and helpful Because this word judge or judging is found a lot in the scriptures and it's used several ways. It has several meanings. So in the verb form, not the noun form of judge, but the verb form, we see the forming of an opinion and the root meaning really means separating. comparing and separating. And so you can, you may remember that is the action that's happening. The, the actual action is to compare to a standard and, or to separate, to actually categorize, categorize. You get a, it's a test. Judge, to judge is a test. You take something and you test it against the standard and then you decide which category it goes in. judge or the third person present, judges, the active or past tense, the past participle, all of them are used in the scriptures. And you notice they have different tenses, but they actually might be spelled the same. So we always have to look at the context of how the word is used, whether it's in the confession, but more importantly, when we look at these Bible passages. And then the other word, of course, is judgment, is the noun, is the actual outcome of the verb. And it's an opinion or decision given concerning anything, especially concerning justice, injustice, right or wrong. And there is a negative connotation, there's a second meaning, which has to do with some It has to do with punishment. And it's not that way in all cases. We know that we, as believers, will be judged. And on the basis of the righteousness of Christ, we don't have this negative connotation. But we will receive a judgment. We will receive a judgment. And this is how we broke out the very first paragraph. And I'd like you to turn to Really the basis and summary of the judgment is in Acts 17. Acts 17 verses 30 and 31. It's not actually the preeminent, it's not even a description of the judgment like we would turn to a revelation. But here, Paul speaking to unbelievers there and Athens on Mars Hill gives a summary, a summary, a summary of the judgment in two verses and all the elements are in here and that's what I want us to review before we go into the next two paragraphs of this chapter. Acts 17 verses 30 and 31 and I want you to remember if you were here last week or see for the first time all the key elements of the Last Judgment. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because, and now here is the description of the Last Judgment, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. And notice Paul introduces the resurrection as evidence that God is going to keep his word and set up Christ to judge the whole world. And this is a call to repentance. It's being used. The actuality of the coming judgment for all men is being used by Paul to say, you need to come to Christ. You need to come to Christ. It's not just an intellectual exercise. You're not doomed. You're not doomed. There is an opportunity. And so, we see who is going to be judged. We see it's the world. You see there, he will judge the world. We see when. When? And it's the unknown, and we'll get into that today. But He has fixed, that's God, a day on which He will. A day planned in the future. So we know it's in the future, but we don't know exactly what day it is. But we know it is an actual day coming. This is not an analogy. It's not a word picture. It's a real day coming. And then who? He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. It's two who's. God is going to give all authority to judge to Christ, and Christ will judge the world. And the basis, of course, is righteousness. That's how he will judge. And we'll get into that a little bit more today. How will this judgment be made? If all believers and all unbelievers, the entire world, is going to be judged on the basis of righteousness, what does that mean to us? And then we got into Christ is Central and its absolute universality. It's for everyone. There's no one that will escape. There's no one that will avoid judgment. And this idea of believers will avoid judgment is unbiblical. And the idea that unbelievers will avoid judgment or somehow not be subject to it because they didn't participate in the worship of God, that is also erroneous and false and just some kind of false comfort to the believer that's damning. And then it's dual activity where we will all give an account and we will receive our individual judgment. We'll give an account, give and receive. And that's in the epistles and in Christ's teaching. So let's look at paragraph And you'll see there's a pretty simple outline to these three paragraphs. Paragraph is, what is the Last Judgment? And then two is, what's the outcome for both the believer and the unbeliever at the Last Judgment? And you'll see that there's eternal rest an inheritance or eternal punishment. There's two outcomes. And then the third paragraph is pretty simple. The way I like to simplify it is, so what's the implications of this coming future judgment to us today? Why does God even bother telling us about it? There's a reason. There's a reason He's telling us. There's a lot of things the Lord doesn't tell us about the future. This he tells us about it, and so the question is, why do we know? Why did God give us the truth about the Last Judgment? So that's the three paragraphs, at least the way Pastor Sam Waldron breaks them up for us, and I'm going to follow his outline. And I've broken up this second paragraph purposefully according also to the structure The end of God's appointing this day, the end or old English term, the purpose or the reason why God appointed this day is for the manifestation of the glory of his mercy in the eternal salvation of the elect and of his justice in the eternal damnation of the reprobate who are wicked and disobedient. And so you already see now these basic elements of why did God set up the judgment? It's for his glory, it's for the eternal benefit of the believer, and it's for the punishment eternal for the unbeliever. Now, this is what happens after the judgment. This is the outcome or this is the judgment. This is the actual judgment that results and then it will be executed or put into play. For then shall the righteous go into everlasting life and receive that fullness of joy and glory with everlasting rewards in the presence of the Lord. But, this is the other the other part of the world population, the separation, the sheep and the goats. But the wicked who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's going to be key, that term obey, we're going to see that a lot in the scriptures, shall be cast aside into everlasting torment and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. So, let's get into the actual second paragraph and some of the text here. So, the identity of the goal. What is the goal? And let's turn to that first passage there that you see there in Revelation chapter 14. Chapter 14, verses 6 and 7. This is very interesting to me, that in everything God does, in everything He does, He receives glory. It's an interesting thing. He never does something and He doesn't receive glory. You can see that in all His actions, in all His words, our God receives glory. starting in verse 6. Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. Notice the inclusivity. It's universal. Everybody from every time, from every culture, from every people group is present. And he said with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory. because the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water." And we see now here in this passage the concept of God receiving glory. We are called to fear Him, to worship Him. You see that fear God, give Him glory, worship Him. That's the command right from the angel. Why? Because the hour of his judgment has come. See, this is the coupling now of one of the clear purposes of the judgment, to bring honor and glory and worship to God. It's not primarily just to mete out justice. We would run over one of the foundational aspects of God. He's bringing judgment and He's going to show His glory. It's going to be clear in this next passage. Turn to Romans chapter 9. Paul in Romans begins to actually parse out all the ways he receives glory in judgment, in the execution of the final judgment. These are the goals. The goals are not simply just so those who believe Christ go to heaven and those who do not believe in Christ go to hell. Yes, that is the outcome, but there are other goals. In fact, you can even call them higher goals in God's final judgment. Romans 9, starting in verse 2, It's a little bit of a long passage, but the background is important because I want you to see this. He's actually in the context of God's sovereignty over the destiny of all men. That's the context. You will say to me then, verse 19 of Romans 9, why does He, that's God, still find fault? For who can resist His will? But who are you? Oh man, to answer back to God. Will that, will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Now here's our key text. What if God desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us, us believers, whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. Two vessels, two vessels made of clay here. And that's the analogy. And two major purposes or goals in God's judgment. You see the first one. In those vessels, in the one vessel, he shows his wrath. He shows his power. He puts on display his attributes in the judgment of one vessel. In the judgment of the other vessel, he puts on display his mercy. You see there, he makes the riches of his glory and his mercy on display. God makes himself glory and power through the display of wrath and mercy at the final judgment. That's what Paul is telling us here. That's what Paul is telling us here. That's what God does through the judgment. And it's not primarily man-centered activity. It's a God-centered activity. Great mercy, great wrath, great power is on display to all mankind. Here we are reminded now, that's why we're all there. We're all there to see the glory, the wrath, the power and the mercy of God. God does judgment to show himself to everyone. Okay, and then the outcome of God bringing glory to himself and judging all. We can turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Here Paul opening up the 2nd epistle to the Thessalonians and you may remember those in Thessalonica were regularly persecuted there. and in fact so much that Paul had to leave by threat of persecution. But he's writing to them, and this is the environment they're in. They're in an environment of being persecuted for their faith, for following Christ. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. This is what he's now talking about. He's going to talk about now I'm going to explain to you how you know, how you can be sure that God's judgment is just and right. That you may be considered worthy of the kingdom for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considers it just. Notice that's a judgment term. to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. When is this going to happen? When are we going to get relief and those who afflict us are going to be afflicted? Is it going to happen next week? What if we pray for it now? Well, there may be, but here is a final judgment when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. That's how we know this This passage is applicable to our topic, it's the Last Judgment, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. It goes on, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, that's exactly where our confession gets the wording. It's used a few times, but this is the key reference. Eternal destruction. Why do we believe in eternal destruction? Why do we believe in an eternal, unmitigated wrath upon the unbeliever? It's because the Bible teaches it. That's why we do it. That's why we believe it. Away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. You can recognize the words exactly from the confession. when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and that's Christ. And to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. And here is the realization of the judgment. The realization of the judgment. And I want to bring out now a couple of elements here that are important, that you saw in the second paragraph. And this is the idea of believed. believed or did not obey. The difference between the goats and the sheep, those who will be judged for eternal destruction and those who will be judged for an eternal inheritance with God. Those who will be put out of His presence, they will suffer punishment and they're going to be put away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. And we are going to be in the presence of the Lord and we are going to be in the presence of His glory. The differentiator is not those who obeyed God's Word and did not obey God's Word, the obedience here is the Gospel. Did you obey the Gospel? You can see it here. Who do not know God, a relationship with God, and how do you get a relationship with God? How do you know God? And on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is key. This is key for us. The judgment has real consequences. The judgment is real. The judgment is for everybody. On what basis? What is the righteousness that we judged? Well, it's going to be on the basis of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you obey or did you not obey? You can see it there in verse 10. Among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. Did you believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? Did you believe or did you not believe? Did you obey or did you not obey? So, we're going to skip over these elements here. If you're taking notes, you can write them down. the realization of the goal is expanded. And the passage, the key passage, I find that simplifies it all is in Matthew 25. Matthew 25 starts out with, in verse 1, Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. And all of Matthew 25 is about the kingdom of heaven. And in fact, It's about the judgment. It's about the judgment. Matthew 25, it has a parable of ten versions and then the parable of the talents. The master goes away and he gives three servants three groupings of talents and he comes back and then Christ closes without, in the third section of Matthew 25, not a parable, but the actual, explicit action of judging all the earth, both for the righteous and the unrighteous. Let's go to paragraph 3 in this chapter. If you remember what I mentioned, this paragraph, now that we've gone through the facts, who's going to judge? Why is Kenya going to judge? He's going to bring glory to Himself through His mercy, His power, His wrath. What's the outcome of that judgment? Eternal destruction and an eternal inheritance on the basis of obeying the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What are the implications for us today? Why did God tell us? What do we do with this information? What do we do with it? What's our response? God gave us knowledge and detail of the judgment and the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ with an expected response, both for the believer and the unbeliever. As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity or in their trials. You saw that in the second Thessalonians passage. So will He have the day unknown to men, there's known components and there's unknown components of the judgment, that they may shake off all carnal security and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come and may ever be prepared to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. And you can see that that's the second to last phrase of our Bible in Revelation chapter 22. So what's the personal impact? What are we supposed to do with it? That's what the term Pastor Waldron uses in his outline, the impact. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 5. What's the impact for us from what is known and certain about the final judgment? 2 Corinthians 5, verses 6-10. So, we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home, and it's key to see what we know, what we know, what we know. Notice what he says about what we know. We know that while we are at home in the body, or while we're here on earth in the flesh, we are away from the Lord. That we know. If we're here, we're not in heaven with the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage. And we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. That's our preference. Every believer's preference. We'd rather not be here. We would rather be with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. Regardless of what state we're in, it will always be our hope and desire to honor and bring glory to God. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Notice, he's talking to believers. The judgment is not primarily for unbelievers. Here, he's talking primarily to believers. "...so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." Notice here that this is the encouragement that Paul is using to believers. If you're here, you're here. If you're still here, you're away from the Lord. But, what should you be thinking about while you're here? to bring honor and glory to the Lord. The judgment is a good encouragement. It's a good sobering thought for believers, knowing that, not that we will be sent to heaven, our hope is in Christ. But that doesn't take away the fact that we will be judged. We will be judged. See, there's judgment on the basis, did you obey the gospel? And there's judgment on the basis of what we all did, both believer and unbeliever. There's more than one aspect of the judgment, both what we did with Christ and his Gospel, did we obey, and then what did we do with God's Word? What did we do with the revealed will of God in our lives while we were here? That's known and certain. And then the aspects of the judgment that are unknown and uncertain, they are implications for us. Let's turn to the Luke passage. We're going to skip over the Mark passage. They're similar, but the Luke passage has some aspects that are beneficial. Luke chapter 12, verses 35 through 40. There are implications for us today based on what is known. There are implications. The Lord inherently told us what we don't know. He told us what we know, and he told us what we don't know. And there are implications, or there's actions, or there's a response expected from us on the basis of both elements. Here's what you know about the judgment. I've given it to you in my Word. It's real. It's for everyone. It's coming. It will be by Christ. It will be in righteousness. It will be on the basis of your belief or trust or obedience of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know all that. Here's what you don't know, and there's implications for us. Luke chapter 12, verses 35 through 40. for their masters to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. This is Christ talking in an allegorical fashion about a wedding feast and a bridegroom preparing, and when all the preparation is done for his new home, he's coming back to receive his bride. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. This is the bridegroom who is the servant. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. But know this, that the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. This is another analogy Christ is using in parallel with the bride, that of someone who is protecting their home from a thief. Now this is the implication to both analogies, both the returning bridegroom and the one who would seek to be prepared against the thief. You also must be ready. for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. The uncertainty of the certain future coming, the uncertainty of the timing is to drive us to be vigilant. It's that simple. We should never, it's often, we get fatigued of always being on alert and so we have to be encouraged. It's a hard thing to always be on alert, to always be watchful. But that is why the Lord withheld the timing from us. That's the impact or the implication for us. We are to always be vigilant, with one eye looking to heaven, waiting, knowing it could be today. How will I live my life in the light of that reality? How will I live my life in the light of that reality? So, some applications from the doctrine or teaching or the reality of the last or final judgment of the whole universe, of every living soul that ever lived. I have three for us, quickly. Number one, we saw in the passage, When we take it all in, you can't help but give God glory. Give God glory for His power, His might, His wisdom, and for us in particular, He's going to put on display amazing mercy. There is no absolute justice for us. We hide behind Christ. We believe in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that satisfies all the justice that's due us. All the eternal destruction and wrath that we are due. We can't help but give God glory in the light of the reality of what is coming. What is coming. To the unbeliever, it's very simple. You don't know when judgment is coming. We don't know when. But we know it's certain. And it's for us. And it's for you. There's only two groups of people in the whole universe, in the whole world. Two groups. Those who have obeyed the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Obeying means believing it. And those who haven't. That is the call to those who have not yet believed. It doesn't have to get very complicated. When is it going to happen? What's going to happen right before it? What's going to happen after it? How, you know, the four beasts and then... All that is superfluous to the fundamental obedience to the Gospel. That's what you're called to do as an unbeliever. Obey. Obey. The basis on which you will be sent to eternal destruction is you didn't obey. You didn't obey the gospel. You didn't believe. We see it there with Abraham. Whether it's in Romans or Galatians or James, Abraham is not in heaven now. because he was a good guy, because somehow he obeyed God's law and he kind of stood out at the time amongst all the people there. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Believing God, obeying the gospel is a requirement, a requirement for everyone. and it will determine the outcome at the Last Judgment for all of us. And then for the believer, my encouragement to you and to my own soul is regularly live in the light of eternity. Regularly live in the light of this Judgment. It is good for us. Often we play mind games with ourselves because the judgment, we think to ourselves, you know, I'm looking forward to heaven, but I'm not really looking forward to the judgment. You know what I'm saying? We think to ourselves, you know, I want to be, but I want the judgment to kind of like get over with so that, you know, we can start our time in heaven because I really don't want to have to deal with that reality. It's uncomfortable for us. And the reason why the Lord revealed to us the judgment but it's uncertain timing. It's very clear. He wants us to live in the light of eternity, to be anticipating his return and living that way, living that way each day. Living that way each day, just like a bride is waiting for her bridegroom to come back and she doesn't know when he's coming. Anticipatory living, that's the way the Lord wants us to live, and then that helps us with everything else. Get all our priorities aligned and know that Christ is at the center of everything we do, every day, knowing that He's coming back to receive us and to take us with Him into eternal glory at the judgment. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for what You reveal in Your Word about what you're going to do with all of us at the final judgment. Lord, you are clear. You, Lord, are gracious to us. You're full of power and mercy. We, Lord, give you honor and glory, for your wisdom is far above us. And, Lord, we're amazed that you provide this way of escape in the Gospel from what we all deserve. Lord, thank you for your mercy your eternal, gracious mercy. And Lord, we pray for those who don't know you, that they would obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ today, as soon as possible. Lord, that they might live unto you and help us, Lord, to live in anticipation of your return and the final judgment, so that we might use the gifts and the time and the energy that you've given us better to your honor and to your glory while we're still here in the body. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.