All right, let's open our confession to chapter 32, which is dealing with the subject of the last judgment. Now, last time we began to consider this chapter together. And of course, the first paragraph deals with the certainty of the day of judgment. And we talked last time about the fact that both reason and conscience cry out for God to call all the subjects of his moral government to an exact accounting of their character and their actions, because it is obvious that justice is not done in this life. And so God must adjust the moral balance of the universe And ultimately, someday, somewhere, bring justice to bear upon all the injustices that were never made right in this life. And so we spent some time last time looking at several passages, Ecclesiastes 8.14, Jeremiah 12, verses one through two, Habakkuk 1.13, and then we spent some extended time in Psalm 73. And each of these passages were questioning God and saying, God, you're a holy God, you're a righteous God, and yet I look at the wicked in this world, And they're not punished for their wickedness. They seem to get away with it. And on top of that, they seem to do very well in life. They're wealthy, they're healthy, and they go unpunished. And because of that, we know that there has to be a righting of those wrongs. And in the same way, there are people who live very godly, righteous, self-sacrificing, obedient lives, and yet they suffer persecution. Sometimes the wicked even put them to death. They may suffer tremendous social rejection because of their righteousness. The Bible tells us all those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And so we see that here's a group of people who are suffering unjustly, and here's another group of people who are being blessed unjustly. And there has got to be a way and a time for those wrongs to be made right. And so in Psalm 73, we saw that the psalmist was very frustrated with this, and he began to question God and begin to think even that God was unjust. And he says, until I went into the sanctuary, that is, into the temple, into the church of God, the house of God, he says, then I understood their end. And he recognized that, you know what? This life is not all there is. There is an end. There is going to be a day of judgment. And in that day, they will be fully punished for their wrongdoing, and the righteous will be fully rewarded for their obedience and for their sufferings. And so what we have to do when we're trying to measure the issues of God's justice is not measure them just by what happens in time. We also have to measure them by what happens in eternity. I ran across a couple of more verses that I want to just read to you in my Bible reading, I'm reading in Proverbs these days, and I ran across Proverbs 23, 17 to 18, and it says, let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, for surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off. And so this is just what we were talking about last week. Don't be envious of the wicked who prosper in this world. You just keep on fearing God. You just keep on obeying God because there is an end coming and your expectation that your life of obeying God is going to pay off in the end will be entirely fulfilled because there's a day of restitution coming. And then the second verse was just a chapter later in Proverbs 24, and in verses 19 and 20, it says, fret not thyself because of evil men. Neither be thou envious at the wicked, for there shall be no reward to the evil man, and the candle of the wicked shall be put out. So once again, there's coming a day in which that evil will be dealt with. So we just run across this over and over again in the Bible. And as I was just doing my devotions this week in Proverbs and reading through these chapters, these verses just popped out at me based on what we've been studying together. Having then talked about the necessity of a certainty of a day of judgment, and the fact that God must have a day of judgment to adjust the moral balance of the universe and bring justice to every injustice, We want to then look at some scriptural passages that deal with this whole issue. And so, first of all, if you're looking at your outline, we want to consider together the one who is sitting in judgment. Who is our judge going to be? And a lot of people say, well, we'll be judged by God, and of course that's true. But as we know, God is one God, but He eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And it is the Son in particular who is going to be the one who is the judge, who is going to evaluate and pass out sentence on every work of every person. So our confession says, God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the father. So the father has designated the son as being the one who is actually going to be the judge. He's actually going to be sitting on the throne. He's the one that's going to be evaluating behavior and he's the one that's going to be declaring the sentence. Now let's look at a couple of scripture passages. The first one is in John chapter five, the gospel of John, John chapter five, and we'll look at verses 22 and verse 27. The Gospel of John 5. Notice, if you will, verse 22. It says, For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. Verse 23, in order that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which has sent him. And so we're supposed to give as much praise and glory and honor and worship to Jesus Christ God the Son, as we give to the Father, God the Father. And so one of the honors that God has put on His Son is that He is going to wind up being the judge of the universe. Now notice, if you will, verse 24. He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life. and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead, that is the spiritually dead, shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. Now here's our verse, verse 27, "...and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." So Jesus is the Son of Man. He was born of Mary, and so He's a man. But Jesus is also the Son of God, because He's begotten of the Father, and therefore He is God. And so this God-Man, Jesus Christ, is going to be as God, sitting in judgment upon man and all mankind. Now the second passage you want to look at is in Acts chapter 17. So the next book over, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. The book of Acts chapter 17 and verse 31. Acts 17 31. Paul has been preaching in Athens at a place called Mars Hill. And after presenting the nature of God and the necessity of men seeking the true God and not all these false gods, it says in verse 30, Acts 17.30, in the times of this ignorance, that is this following of these false gods, God winked at, that is He's overlooked. But now, commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained, or if he has given assurance to all men in that he has raised him from the dead. So that that man, who he has ordained is the man that has been raised from the dead. And who is that? Well, it's none other than Jesus Christ. So clearly then the one sitting in judgment, as our confession says, God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father. So when you die, who are you going to answer to? You're going to answer to Jesus Christ. He's going to be the judge of the universe. Okay. Now, the next thing that our confession talks about is not only who is the judge, but then secondly, who's being judged. Okay. The person's being judged. And there are two categories of persons being judged. It says, that in that day not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth." So there's going to be a judgment of angels and there's going to be a judgment of people. Now, the reason why these two classes and categories are going to be judged is because both of them are moral beings. Angels are moral beings and thus morally responsible for what they do, and people are moral beings and thus morally responsible for what they do. Do you notice who is not going to be judged? the animals. Why? Because animals are not moral beings and therefore they have no moral responsibility for their actions because they're not made in the image of God. So anyway, we'll take this up more next time. And we will talk about it further and we'll look at who these angels are and why they fell and what kind of judgment they have to look forward to. And then, of course, we'll look at people and how they fell and what kind of judgment they have to look forward to. OK. All right. Well, let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you so much for your kindness and your goodness in telling us about the future and especially about the day of judgment that is coming. Father, I pray that every one of us would be found to be trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and for our acceptance by you into heaven. Thank you that Jesus is going to be the judge and that He will judge according to truth, He will judge in righteousness, He will judge righteous judgment. Father, we look forward to the vindication that He will give to us because we have trusted in Him and followed Him all the days of our life. Father, we pray that the wicked might be awakened and alarmed about the impending judgment and that they might flee from the wrath to come into the arms of Jesus and find their forgiveness and protection and acceptance. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.