00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Come to our 14th study, the final
judgment. That's a very great interest
to us, isn't it? The fact of judgment. And we've
been talking all about judgments through this book. Judgment has
always been understood. Turn to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. And we read from verse 28, and
since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them
up to a base mind, Romans chapter 1 verse 28. God gave them up
to a base mind and to improper conduct. They were filled with
all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of
envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity. They are gossiped,
slanderous, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors
of evil, disobedient to parents. foolish, faithless, heartless,
ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who do such
things deserve to die, they not only do them, but approve those
who practice them. So in other words, it's innate
in the human heart. Everyone knows that judgment
is coming. There's nobody who doesn't know
the judgment is coming. They may spend most of their lives
trying to cover that up or to refuse to face it or to rationalize
it away, but it's there. The judgment is coming. Now, you remember the state,
if you look at the sixth chapter of Genesis, we won't now, but
if you look at the sixth chapter of Genesis, every imagination
of man's heart was evil only continually from his youth up.
See, that's incredible, isn't it? And the violence that spread
across the face of the earth. So we are in an age of violence,
we know that. And the flood, as I often say,
was not just a handy rinse to wash out evil from the world.
It was judgment on man's evil. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah was
a judgment of God. And the covenant of grace that
God gave to Noah was that he wouldn't again destroy the earth
by flood. And that was given so that man
could realize that rain could come and he wouldn't have to
be in fear that this was the ultimate judgment. Do you see
that? So God is the judge of all the earth. That's what Abraham
tried to plead with God. if there was 50 just people in
Sodom that God would spare the city and God said yes I'll do
that and Abraham used this sort of belief he said show not the
judge of all the earth do right and God said yeah I'll do right
he did it was judgment Habakkuk said you're of purer eyes than
to behold iniquity and you cannot look upon evil and he was saying
you're going to send a hasty and bitter nation into Israel
you know to destroy it But he said, you're of purer eyes than
the beholden iniquity, you cannot, he wouldn't let them go and do
that. But that's the reason why God did, because he was of purer
eyes than the beholden iniquity. They couldn't look upon him,
he had to judge the evil of Israel. So by sinning they hate us, the
bitter nation. Hebrews 9.27 says that it is
appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment comes.
That's just a statement, a fact. But in its context, of course,
it's very important. We're not looking at its context.
Let's have a look at James, chapter 4, verse 12. It's a very good
word for today. He says in verse 11, Do not speak
evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil against a
brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and
judges the law. But if you judge the law, you
are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver
and judge. He was able to save and to destroy.
But who are you that you judge your neighbor? Very good word
for today, isn't it? That throughout the world everybody
is thinking of judging. Right? Everybody is thinking, everybody
is taking God's place. And the only person who's got the right
to judge in all the world is God. He's the one who gave the
law. He's the only one. The fact that
he delegates judgment to you know, to judges and magistrates
and other people and parents and others. It's just, it's a
delegated authority. Nobody has it. None of us could or would
or ever did create law. And so, that's it. But it's interesting
isn't it today, the anger in people at injustice, as though
somehow or another they're God who's got to do the judging.
That's really what we're thinking about. Right, now I'll turn to
John chapter 5, because this is also important. And if you
say, well, we're not much into the book of Revelation yet, the
answer is that those who are into the book of Revelation already
had this background. We've said that before, say it
again. John 5, we'll read from verse 22. The Father judges no
one, but has given all judgment to the Son. that all may honour
the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour
the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. Truly I say to
you, he who hears my words and believes him who sent me has
eternal life. He does not commit a judgment,
but has passed from death unto life." See, Christ's already
done the judging of that person. That's good, isn't it, to have
your judgment over? Isn't it? And John puts it very beautifully,
he says, Perfect love casts out fear, for fear relates to punishment.
And he who fears is not made perfect in love. And he says,
by this we have confidence for the day of judgment. For as he
is, so are we. As guiltless as he is, so are
we. And he says, in this world, meaning
now. I went out of the city this morning to know we're totally
guiltless. I didn't say we're totally sinless, but we're totally
guiltless. Truly, truly, our Saviour, the hour is coming,
and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of
God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life
in Himself, so He granted the Son also to have life in Himself,
and has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He
is the Son of Man." And we really need to get back to to Daniel
chapter 7. We won't do that at the moment,
Daniel chapter 7, but it's a very important passage because it's
the passage on judgment of the world. But it's the son of man
who has given authority over all the nations. He is the true
judge. So God has given judgment to him. Do not marvel at this,
for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear
his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection
of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
So, everybody is going to be raised from that state of death
to face the judgment, whether we are good or evil. Now, I seem
to be saying two things here, because the verse says here,
we must ticker in his fortune, we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, to receive the things done in
the body, whether good or bad. And actually the Greek verb means
to receive back the things done in the body, whether good or
bad. So whatever we've done, we'll get back. Now if that worries you for a
minute, as it may well do so, just keep it suspended. You wouldn't
like to be faced with all that you've done in the body. It was
bad, would you? But you wouldn't mind being faced
with all that you've done that was good, which you think is minimal anyway,
don't you? But you're wrong. If you're a believer, you've
done a lot of good in the body. And if you say, I can't remember
when I did any good in the body, well, when, Lord, when did we
see you naked and filthy? When did we see you thirsty and
give you a drink? When did we visit you? When were you in prison and we
visited you? We don't remember doing any of that. So the good
that you do, you don't think of it. Not letting one hand know what
the other hand is doing. Can you see that? not just being
clever, the fact is that when we do something purely, we don't
know we have. But when we do something impurely,
we jolly well are told by all the powers of darkness. They
get us concentrating on our failures and we go down the sink. Well, we'll come back to that
in a minute. Judgment and the judgments in Revelation. First
of all, we have seen the judgments that come upon man and the powers
of evil in the action of the seven seals, the seven trumpets
and the seven bowls of wrath." Now, some of you may not have
been here for all of those studies, but they are very powerful, aren't
they, those judgments? The seven seals, the seven trumpets
and the seven bowls of wrath. And we've said that if you push
that back into the past and say, God put out his judgments, say,
at the time of the Roman Empire, and they're all over, Or if you
push them into the future and say one day God's going to come
and pour out his wrath in the seven seals and the seven trumpets
and the seven dollars, then you're wrong. The judgments of God are
always proceeding, always have proceeded. Now they've been put
into those forms, in which you can look at them, you tend to
think, well if I can't see that sort of action, like you use
the literal terms, you know when a mountain falls into the sea
or the rivers become blood, or the sea as a dead man's blood
or all of those things which are pretty frightening symbols.
But you've only got to look around at the anguish of the world today
to know it's in terrible pain and it's under terrible judgment.
True? Any of you who've been through
mental anguish and spiritual torment will know what I'm talking
about. And if you'd see that around the world today. Somebody
said the great army of welfare workers Psychiatrists and psychologists
and therapists and others are really enlarging the industry. Far from caping with it. They
are unconsciously opening it up more and more and more. Whether
that's a good thing or a bad thing is another story. Alright,
secondly we have seen that God's avengement seems to be coming
slowly. You remember the story in Luke
18? with a widow who nagged the unjust judge. Don't forget he's
unjust, which meant that he took the highest bribe. If the plaintiff
offered more than the defendant, or the defendant offered more
than the plaintiff, then the one who offered most got the judgment. He was
an unjust judge, you see. And this woman, all she had was
her ability to nag. And we won't make any jokes about
it either. But she had a righteous cause,
so she nagged properly. And the judge said, I can't handle
the nagging. You know, if I could get her, she's not going to give
me a penny. You know what I mean? But it pays to get rid of her.
So he gave her a proper judgment. And of course the contrast there
was the Lord said that, He said, Shall not the judge of all the
earth speedily avenge his elect? And he said, when I come, shall
I find faith on the earth? He meant, shall I find the faith
that God is speedily avenging his elect? And everywhere Christians
complain that God isn't judging. He isn't doing it. When will
he come and do it? Look at poor little me and what I've been
going through. God's done nothing about it. Right? And so, he didn't
say, when I come, shall I find faith on the earth? But this
kind of faith that God is speedily avenging his elect. A lot of
people think, oh, the faith will not be in the earth when he comes.
You know, the gospel will have dwindled away to almost nothing.
And they say, well, will he find faith on the earth? That's not
what he said. Will I find this kind of faith
that God is speedily venting his elect in? You can go to a
hundred Christians, I'll bet you'll find about 80 of them
don't think he is. So if he came, he wouldn't find
that kind of faith in them. Can you hear what I'm saying?
And then if you just look at 2 Peter for a moment, chapter
three, he brings up the thing. This is the second letter that
I've written to you, chapter three. Beloved, and in both of
them I've aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder that
you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the
commandments of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles.
First of all, you must understand this, that scoffers will come
on the last day with scoffing, following their impassioned I'm sorry. Not dilatory. He's not dilatory. I've used this illustration before.
He said to Abraham, the land of Canaan is yours, but not for
some hundreds of years until the iniquity of the Amorites
is right, complete, ready for judgment. Then I'll send Israel
in. And when Israel came in, they
didn't just come in as an invading army, throwing people out. They
came as those executing the sword of judgment upon an evil people. It completely changes the complex,
doesn't it, of the whole thing. All right, now in Revelation chapter 6 verse 9,
you remember the saints there are saying to God, when he opened
the fifth seal, verse 9, I saw under the altar the souls of
those who had been slain for the word of God, for the witness they had
borne. And they cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord,
holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our
blood on those who dwell upon the earth. Now you might think
they were a bit bloodthirsty to want that avengement. But were they wanting something
for what they've done, the justice done, or were they wanting for
the world to know that God is the God of justice and he leaves
nothing unjudged? I'm sure it's the latter. They weren't out just for vengeance.
And in Romans 12 we're told to give place to wrath. Let God
do the judging, don't you do that. You heat coals of fire
in the head, you know, by loving your enemy and doing good to
himself. All right, now, still in this
matter of judgment, let's turn to Romans chapter 3. I'm sorry, Romans chapter 2.
And verse 3. Do you suppose, O man, that when
you judge those who do such things, and yet do them yourself, you'll
escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume upon the riches
of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know
that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Now,
what's meant by his kindness? It means that instead of coming
down with a chopper, God is patient. When he has a right, so to speak,
to judge, he doesn't do that immediately. Now, we're not like
that, are we? We can hardly wait to get there.
to do it. But by your hard and impenitent
heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath
when God's righteous judgment will be revealed for he will
render to every man according to his works. So God is patient. He's not hasty. He doesn't lose
his temper. But there are two verses, two
statements here, in Romans, while we're there in Romans 3, we see
verse 25, God put him for Christ to be a propitiation by his blood
to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness
because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
It was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous.
It justifies his faith in Jesus. What does that mean? Instead
of judging our sins, to put in a silly human way of talking,
he waited until the cross. Every sin was judged at the cross.
Right? And we've seen, that's why in
the book of Revelation, the wrath of the Lamb is not just wrath
upon sin, but it's a wrath upon the rejection of grace and the
insistence of going on in sin. Because Christ has borne the
judgments on the cross. So he's got a right to be the wrathful
lamb. True? Now, God never passed over
former sins at all. There's not one sin he'll pass
over anyway. And in the 17th chapter of Acts, you remember
he's talking to the Greeks of Athens, and he says, he points
to all their idols, and he says, the former times of ignorance,
God winked at. That's the King James Version,
God winked at. Same thing's passed over, you
see. But now he has commanded all men everywhere to repent.
And he has raised up one, that's Christ, to judge the whole world. So he let it pass, all those
times of idolatrous ignorance, he let them pass. But now Christ
has come, there's no excuse for anybody. Christ has come and
so he's going to judge. What we must get clear for ourselves
is that God's judgment is righteous judgment. We already read that
in Romans. He says, but by your hard and impenitent heart you
are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath when God's
righteous judgment will be revealed. Now if I may say so, down through
the centuries, I remember as a boy, and I can remember a man
by the name of Vincent Craven, some of you may know him from
Scripture Union, He'd be a very old man then. And he gave a fantastic
study, I was just a boy at the time, early teens, on the silence
of God. He took all the historical happenings
of, you know, these dreadful things that have happened in
history, like genocides and those things. Why didn't God move?
He never seemed to lift a finger. Sometimes almost the whole nation
has been wiped out. And I can still remember him
saying, you know, presenting that to us. And the world is
very quick to want to judge God so that he can't judge it. If
you get in first. Human beings have got to make,
this is the way of being able to put people under guilt, aren't they?
How many of you are coming along on Monday to our book launching?
You're not? It only takes a second, you've
got people under guilt, do you? Oh, I bet you're foolish enough
to get under, that's your problem. Now the whole of the book of
Revelation, that's why people don't understand, all these people
who are curious, just curious about things, they're looking
through for weirdo things, you know what I mean? Something to
stimulate their poor old jaded brains. And what it's all about
is vindicating God. Now, you don't have to justify
God. He justifies you, but you know what I mean? But we have
a lot against God. All this anger people have got
is primarily against God. It's not against human beings,
primarily. That anger is a very deep thing. And I've said many
times to you, if you are angry, you're never rational. Certainly
not on the issues. that you're angry about, too.
You can't discuss them properly. You've probably seen a married
couple having arguments, have you? And they're just not rational. Whipping out their files and
pulling stuff out, you know, from the past twenty, thirty
years. Forty years. Do you remember
on our honeymoon? So, if we get in first and judge
God, then that lets us off the judgment. Now, that's a ridiculous
approach man makes. Now, this book doesn't leave
anybody free to do that in the ultimate. Chapter 16, verse 5,
And I heard the angel of water say, Just art thou in these thy
judgments, thou who art and wast a holy one. For men have shed
the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood
to drink. It is their due. And I heard the altar cry, and
don't forget who was under the altar, those who wanted the judgments,
remember? What do they say now? Yea, Lord
God, the Almighty, true and just are thy judgments. God's judgments, they're impeccable. You will never find a flaw in
them. Turn to chapter 19. As a matter of fact, chapter
18, verse 20. Rejoice over her, over Babylon,
O heaven, as saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given
judgment for you against her. See, in verse 24, And in her
was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who
have been slain on the earth. Now they're the people in Revelation
chapter 6, under the altar, the martyrs. And then there's this
great loud voice of a multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah,
salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments
are true and just. He has judged the great harlot
who corrupted the earth with the fornication, and he has avenged
on her the blood of his servants. So you can see all of those judgments
are righteous judgments. Clear? Now if you can grasp that,
I think it'll make an enormous difference in you every day. There's some of us, and I have
to include myself amongst them, who could kick a mower when it
didn't work. Said, this mower's temperamental.
So a mower could be temperamental. And we do that with all kinds
of things. The door doesn't open, or just some little thing. What
we really mean behind it, there is a system working against us.
It set the great conspiracy, the big plot, and called me,
I am subject to it. The pot boils over, it did it
on purpose. And we see God, all things work
together for good, right? For those who love him. Ah yes,
but. That's incredible, how other
people are so foolish. I see we've struck a well. Point three, the judgment of
the evil powers is seen in the judgment of Babylon when it's
destroyed as a power. We've just seen that in chapter
18 and you go through that and read it and see how the writer
John keeps telling you, well Babylon had a good and that's
finished. And just at the right moment,
you see, what they said was, it's all happening in a day.
Suddenly the judgment has come. That's why they could understand
the sort of a judgment of attrition, you know, bit by bit, bit by
bit. But dawning like that, remember as we said, when the bushfires
and the floods came, there was nothing you could do about it.
Suddenly the judgment is there. And we saw in a lot of those
plagues and bowls of ruffling poured out, that far from being
awed by them, The impenitent were made even more angry and
furious. Judgements are great things.
Look, just a lovely verse in Isaiah 30, verse 18. And that
really is a very beautiful verse. Verse 18. Therefore the Lord
waits to be gracious to you. Therefore, the Lord waits to
be gracious to you. Therefore, he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is the God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait
for him." Now, here's Israel. It's not waiting for God. It
wants to do its own thing. And he, in patience, he waits
to be gracious. He waits to be gracious to Israel.
Isn't that something? Ah yes, but, and he wants to
show mercy, but he's the God of justice. So he comes in with
justice. And then, when he executes his
justice, they all wait for him. In other words, judgments are
grace. God gets it over. I'll use this
simple illustration. There's a kid just rotten with
guilt. So what you do, you put a bit
of emotional blackmail on the kid. You know what I mean? And
it increases its guilt, doesn't give it any freedom. But somebody
said, you know, with a bit of applied psychology, getting to
the seat of the matter, the kid is released from guilt in a minute.
A good whack on the bottom, and that's it. I told you a little
girl that, you know, was a little bigger, and they used to say,
isn't she cute? You know, this little contrary
kid, isn't she cute? And one day she ran up and down
the keys to the piano, And the businesswoman said, isn't she
cute? And she turned around and said, isn't there anything I
can do that'll get you mad? See, and that's our release,
that God gets mad at our sin. Not in an irrational way. Because
he's a holy God. Right? So that's a release. And then we're done with our
idiocy. All right, so Babylon is destroyed.
Now, chapter 19, verse 20, or 19, I saw the beast and the kings
of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against
him who sits upon the horse, and against his army. And the
beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in
his presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who
had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped
his image. And these two were thrown alive into the lake of
fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the
sword, what sword? The word of God. For goodness sake, don't
make it into a literal thing. Have you been slain by the word
of the Lord? I hope so. I don't know what the lake of
fire is, but I often think it's the lake of God's holiness, his
holy love. And to be unholy and to be immolated
in the fire of his love would be a frightening thing, wouldn't
it? You'd probably like a physical fire to get it over with. forever
to be immolated in the lake of his love. I don't know, I'm not
saying that is a dogmatic truth. Chapter 20 verse 10, verse 9,
they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp
of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from
heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived
them, what's the fire that comes down from heaven by the way? The word. Somebody said, I really like
what you said. I was at another place, you know, I didn't say
Luther said it. of Satan, one little word shall fell him. You know in that lovely song,
A Mighty Fortless Is Their God, he's got that line, one little
word shall fell him. And that's the word that will
ultimately destroy evil, that's what it means, surely. Why words
like a fire, says the Lord. Fire came down and consumed them,
and the devil, if you were to see them, was thrown into the
lake of fire and salt, where the beast and the false prophet
were, and they would be tormented day and night forever. Well,
we must hurry on, because I've been trying to build that up,
but can you see at least that nothing in all time will ever
be forgotten by God, or is ever forgotten by God, and ultimately
there is a judgment. So we just relax. Let God set
his time for the judgment. If we're biting mad, Now the
final judgment. Now that's what we want to see.
Chapter 20, verse 11. And I saw a great white throne,
and him who sat upon it from his presence, earth and sky fled
away, and no place was found for them. You know, don't you,
that the earth and the sky have all been infected with evil.
And so nothing that is evil can stand at that moment in the judgment.
So they fled away, you see. Chapter 21. I saw a new heaven
and a new earth. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing
before the throne. And books were opened. And you
know what great and small means, don't you? They might have been the
presidents and the kings and the rulers and the authorities.
But the judgment is what levels us all. You know, you can't claim anything
now because you are high up in the order of things. And the books were opened. Now
keep your hand there and go back to Daniel 7. And it says, verse 9, As I looked,
thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days took
his seat. His raiment was white as snow. The hair of his head
was like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames. wheels were burning fire, a stream
of fire issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousand
served him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. Now you have to follow that right
through and we can't do that. But what we can look at is verse
13. Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a
son of man, and he came to the ancient of days, which was presented
before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom,
and all nations, peoples, and languages should serve him, his
dominion, his everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away in
his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed." So this son of
man is the one who controls all things, right? So he judges all
things. That's what Jesus said in John
5, that the Father has given the Son to have judgment because
he is the son of man. You see that? He links him up
with this great and glorious passage. And we're told, where's
the verse now? Yes, I just missed the verse. Oh yes, that's right. Yes, that's right. Verse 26.
And this court with all these thrones, you know, Paul said
on one occasion, we shall judge angels. Do you remember that?
Judge angels? And do you remember that Jesus
said to the disciples, I'll give you all thrones and you'll sit
judging Israel? And it says, but the court shall
sit in judgment and the dominion, his dominion, the dominion of
the beast, shall be taken away to be consumed and destroyed
to the end. But the kingdom shall be given to the saints. So we
saw that, that verse 8, that the court sat in judgment and
the books were opened. So that's the picture that the
writer of Revelation is drawing on. But here, you see, I saw a great white throne
and him who sat upon it, in his presence earth and sky fled away
and no place was found for them. Who sat upon the throne is God,
isn't it? But we see from the other passages that in that judgment
is the Lamb. He is judging too. So all the books are open and
it's of course a figurative way of speaking that everything that
we do is recorded. Nothing is lost. And we're judged by what we do.
We're not judged for eternal life by what we do. Now let's
get this clear, because otherwise our whole doctrine of grace will
go down the drain. There is no condemnation, there is no judgment
for them that are in Christ Jesus. So far as eternal life is concerned,
no believer will ever be judged. Jesus said, he that believes
in me shall not come into judgment but has passed from death unto
life. Paul says there is therefore now no condemnation. Christ said
as he is, or John said as he is. We have confidence for the
Day of Judgment, because as He is, so are we, in this world.
We already happen to fear anything about the Day of Judgment, because
so far as judgment for our sin and our guilt is concerned for
eternal punishment, that question has been settled long, long ago.
True? Right? But the books are still
going to be open. And we're going to be judged
by what's in the books, but not for eternal punishment. It's
what has been called losses and rewards. We shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ and receive back the things done
in the body, whether good or bad. I remember my old principal,
a great old man of God, and he showed us that verse, that verb,
that not receive something for the good we've done or receive
something for the bad we've done, but receive back what we've done. Which is
what we are. Now, if that's still frightening
to you, and you say, where's the grace in all this? Let me
tell you this, that all of the evil of your sin, and all the
guilt of your sin, that's all been destroyed. But God is not
going to... It's a funny way to put it, let
us off the hook about our stupidity, and our sin, and our evil, and
our laziness. Paul said, that I buffered my
body, and keep it in subjection, lest I, who have preached to
others, might myself become a castaway. I don't mean castaway in the
sense, I'll lose eternal life. But he meant, I'll just be an
idiot, fool, who's wasted his whole life. Do you see that? Now, but he also says in the
third chapter, 1 Corinthians, that, that all our works shall
be tried as by fire. Some of us, he said, will escape
with the skin of our teeth. By the skin of our teeth. Well,
he said, as by fire, which we, English proverb says, by the
skin of your teeth. Whatever that means. We know what it means.
We just get there. But we'll be naked, we'll have
nothing to show for all our years of Christian living and experience. And John says in his second epistle,
see to it that you lose not your full reward. Now, you may be saying, but aren't
you getting us back into a works trip again? I know. See, in those seven churches,
Jesus said, I know your works. That's what he was interested
in. I know your works. Paul says, By grace you are saved
through faith, that this night of yourselves is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That settles that,
doesn't it? But he goes on to say, But we are his workmanships,
created in Christ Jesus unto all good works, which God has
before ordained that we should walk in them. And Christ said,
Let your light, sir, shine before men, that they may see your good
works. They won't attribute it to you, but they'll glorify your
Father who is in heaven. Christ said, The works which
I do, I do not of myself. He said, The Father who dwells in
me. He said, He does the works. Can you see that? That God has
got his plan and he's called us into it and we're participants.
It's nothing to do with being goody-goody. Not being naughty,
not doing bad things, but doing good things. And nothing to do
with any of that. The good things we do are just
simply fulfilling the will of God. Not being moralistic and
good in a moralistic way. Can you hear what I'm saying?
It's not desisting from the naughty things and doing the nice things.
It is doing the will of God. And that may mean that it ends
in martyrdom. That may mean that it takes us
out of a place of coziness and comfort and puts us into a place
of stress. I'm not saying necessarily it
does. Anyone saying necessarily it doesn't. But if we are part
with Him, then of course it will all be judged. And I don't think
you need to get too worried if you've got a great whole list
of things. that you're going to be faceless. One person talked
to me, it may even be here today, and said to me, well I can't
stand the fact that on the Day of Judgment they'll all see what
I've done. They'll all see what I've done. Let me tell you, they'll
all be too busy looking at what they've done to be looking at what you've
done. And it's not that kind of thing
God's saying, see, see what you did? I didn't miss any of it.
It's not that at all. What we will be then will be
the product of what we have been being. We've lost something by our laziness,
by our ineptitude, you know what I mean? By our foolishness, by
our rebellion. We've lost something. And we've
gained a lot by our obedience, our love. And the great French
theologian Godet said, God is a man, I'm sorry, man is a vessel
created by God, destined to be filled. And as it is filled,
so it is enlarged, or increased, and as it expands, so it is filled. So if you are on the stretch,
as Paul says, I press towards the mark for the prize for the
high calling of God in Christ. If you're on the stretch, you
grow, you develop, you mature, you're enriched, right? Your
vessel gets larger and larger. You can have more and more of
God. But every vessel would be filled
up in heaven, there's no doubt about that, in eternity. But
some of them could have been a lot bigger than they are, and
had a greater capacity than they are. When I was a prisoner of
war, I was on the back of the bed for a long time, and I resolved
to read four hours a day, to think four hours a day, and to
write four hours a day, which I did. And now I've got the fruits
of that. I can write. People say, how
do you turn out all those books? Well, I remember when I started
to learn how to write, that a friend of mine who was being trained
by a very famous publicist, he was told, the only way to write
is to write. You see that? So the only way to grow is to
grow. The only way to mature is to mature. And if we just
drop how out of our vocabulary and get on with it, Can you see
that? So, look back there again, see? And the dead were judged by what
was written in the books, by what... That's whether you're
saved or whether you're not saved. Is that clear? And you needn't
worry about shame and pain and anguish of the day, in that sense. You're not going to be put through
that. But I bet a million will wish they had taken, you know,
redeemed the time, had taken up the opportunity, had not received
the grace of God in an empty way. I'm not talking about the
lost, I'm talking about the saved. And don't get, don't get worried
if you've messed up a lot of your life. He says, I'll restore
the years which the latest have eaten. He can give you in five
minutes more than you could have done in 50 years. If that's your
mind and your heart. True? Moses had to go to the backside
of the desert for 40 years. He was all the better man for
it. But if he hadn't been an idiot and killed the Egyptians
and done a few other stupid things in Patras, he wouldn't have had
the 40 years. Right? And the dead were judged
by what was written in the books, by what they'd done. And the
sea gave up the dead in it, death and Hades gave up the dead in
them, and they were all judged by what they'd done. Then death
and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second
death in the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not written, found written
in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The only
thing that will save us from eternal judgment, eternal punishment,
will be that our names, before the foundation of the world,
were written in the book of life. We're saved by grace, not by works. Can you see that now? There'll
be nothing to fear of that judgment. But if every day we think, I'd
like to be richer, fuller, maturer, more useful, I'd like to fill
out the life God has given me, the capacities God has given
me, the time God has given me, Well, go to it. That's what it's
all about. There'll be nothing that's untied,
left untied, at the end of time. Isn't that something? And you
say, oh gosh, well, I've really messed around, I've played around,
I've been an idiot, I've wasted... Well, that's not the point. Now
is the accepted time. You see? I beseech you therefore
brethren, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. Let's
get on with it from now on then. I'll look back, I'll restore
the years for the likes of me. Every man a penny. Those that
came late. You don't earn rewards. OBE, you know the OBE, the Army,
not very polite, not the word I'm using, other beggars efforts. You don't earn OBEs or MBEs or
anything like that, you just are real, and then somebody recognises
that along the way you get a little bonus. It doesn't have to be
a bonus of contention either, does it? So what about it? Therefore
knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. The love of
Christ, constrains us. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for the lovely and rich and helpful lessons we learned from
this great prophecy of John. We know, Father, it's in conformity
with the whole of your scripture, but somehow or another, in it,
things are revealed which are just not as explicit in other
places. We thank you this morning that
we have seen that the Bride is holy, And the war is a holy war,
not an unholy war from our point of view, however unholy it may
be, in the hands of unholy powers. Think ye, Father, that your eye
is there for all humanity, and your holiness demands the ultimate
judgment, but pours out the present judgments as grace and mercy
to the penitent, and as deeper judgment to the impenitent. And
thank you, Father, that one day we will hear, even against our
own conviction, well done, that good and faithful servant enter
into the joy of your Lord. Come, beloved of my Father, enter
into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world. Help us, Father, to live in this expectation and this
way of life, in Jesus' name.
14. The Final Judgment
Series Revelation Themes (1986)
A series of 16 studies covering various themes from the Book of the Revelation.
| Sermon ID | 9201245205 |
| Duration | 44:47 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | Revelation |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.