Please remain standing for the reading of Holy Scripture, turning first in the Old Testament to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter three. Ecclesiastes three, beginning in verse 16. These are the words of the Lord. Moreover, I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. I said in my heart concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them that they may see that they themselves are like animals. For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals. One thing befalls them. As one dies, so dies the other. Surely they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are the dust, are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal which goes down to the earth? So I perceive that nothing is better, and that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? This is the word of the Lord. We'll turn now in the New Testament, a final time, to Hebrews 6, one and two, as we conclude our series on the brilliant catechism recorded in these two verses. Let us read them again together. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. Grass withers, flower fades. The word of God stands forever. Amen. You may be seated. At the end of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story, The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, Sherlock Holmes raises an important question. What is the meaning of it, Watson, said Holmes solemnly, as he laid down the paper. What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable, but what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever. At the end of that mystery, as Holmes looks at the circle of misery and violence and fear, he's struck, is there a meaning to life? Is there an end, a purpose, a goal to human history? And he's fearful that there might not be, and yet that thought is unthinkable. Now on the one hand, I have no quarrel with the great literary detective on at least one point, and that is that human reason is as far from an answer as ever. If you look at the violence, the confusion, the tragedy of an estate of sin and misery, merely from a human perspective, from the vantage point of the earth, using your own human reason, you will be as far from an answer as ever. because we don't want to sugarcoat reality. It is quite painful and full of great malice, evil, animosity. But congregation, we are not simply left with the answers or questions of reason. We have something that is not irrational, that is not against reason, but in truth is above reason, that transcends reason, and that is the revealed word of God. We have the scriptures. And the scriptures reveal that there is an end, a purpose, a telos to all of human history. We of all people know how the world ends. It ends with the condemnation of the wicked and the vindication of the righteous forever and ever. It ends with the revelation of the glory of God in justice and in mercy. The cosmos is not ruled by chance, but by the Lord. And that brings us to the final fundamental truth of what Petrus Van Maastricht called a brilliant catechism in Hebrews 6, 1 and 2. The ABCs, the zeros and ones of the Christian faith. We've considered the elementary principles of Christ. the foundation of repentance from dead works, the foundation of faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms, the doctrine of the laying on of hands, and last week, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Finally, seventh of all, the doctrine of eternal judgment. And this doctrine insists that history does have a purpose, that God is in control, that this is the way the world ends, with the revelation of the glory of God. Our approach tonight will be to take the text, unpack the doctrine, answer some objections, and then apply the uses. First of all, let's study the text. It goes without saying, as we've considered in the past, that this is the doctrine of eternal judgment. Grammatically, it's linked to the first part of verse two, where it says, of the doctrine of baptisms, and that phrase, of the doctrine, logically follows the rest of these heads of doctrine. It's the doctrine of judgment. a teaching concerning God's judicial evaluation and assessment, a verdict and its execution, a great test, a great judgment day. It doesn't speak merely of a day of judgment, but the doctrine of eternal judgment. Many of you know what it's like to take a temporal assessment. For instance, the SATs or the ACT. This is a temporal evaluation. Or even to stand before a judge and a jury and receive a temporal verdict. But this is not merely temporal judgment, but rather eternal judgment. Eternal in quality and in duration of effects. A judgment that resounds forever and ever, grammatically and theologically linked to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. We saw that last week, that it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. That immediately following the resurrection of the body comes the judgment day of the Lord, where all men must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The doctrine of eternal judgment, that's the text. And in this text, we find a doctrine that we can piece together from the rest of Holy Scripture. Tonight, I want to give you seven truths that unpack this doctrine. First, we know from the rest of the Bible that God will judge all men using the standard of his righteous law. not using DEI algorithms, not using the Charter of the United Nations, not using whatever happens to pop into the imagination of men, but rather His righteous law. Acts 17, Paul on the Areopagus, Mars Hill, proclaims this message. Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because he is appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness. By what standard? This is a great question to ask. Anytime someone questions your faith, anytime someone makes an objection to what you're saying, ask the question, by what standard are you making that judgment? Well, by what standard will God judge the world? It is in righteousness, his righteous law, a reflection of his own righteous character. Second truth, God will judge all men through Christ. God will judge all men through Christ. This is important because some people want to set forth Jesus as a sympathetic savior, but they cannot think of him as the lion of the tribe of Judah, as a king, a lawgiver, and a judge. And he is all these things. He's lion and lamb. He's majestic and meek. Acts 17 again, he is appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man, through the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. Jesus is God's judicial agent. God will judge all men through Christ. All men must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Third truth, this is an important one. Christians will appear before God as already justified. Let me say that one again. Christians will appear before God, they'll appear before his judgment seat as already justified. This is important for Christians who may have some fear and trepidation at the prospect of standing before Christ at the great white throne judgment. Realize you will do so already justified, not only already clothed, in Christ's blood and righteousness received by faith alone now, but you'll also be raised up in glory and declared righteous in the resurrection, justified in the spirit. When you are raised up at that great day, you'll be raised up in glory and then you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ as someone who's already covered by Christ's righteousness and then standing in a glorified body before the Lord. There'll be no need to fear an 11th hour condemnation, a last second trap door that appears beneath your feet. If you are in Christ now, if you're trusting in Jesus today, then you will be openly and acknowledged and acquitted then. You will appear as someone who is already justified. And that final acquittal and acknowledgement will certainly follow as surely as you are trusting in Christ today. Fourth truth, and that is that God will judge all men according to their works. God will judge all men according to their works. And there's a reason why I led with the fact that as Christians, we'll stand as those who are already justified, to preclude any possibility that our good works contribute to our justification. They cannot. They will not. And yet, it is true that we will be judged along with the rest of humanity according to works. A good work is one that is done according to the right goal, the glory of God, the right standard, the Word of God, and the right motive, love for God, love for neighbor. We read this in Revelation 20, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. This is a truth that's also found in 2 Corinthians 5. Therefore, Paul says, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. will appear as those already justified, and yet there's still an evaluation according to our works. I love how our confession ties all this biblical data together. God hath appointed a day when he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father, in which day not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil. Now you might wonder, how do these truths go together? Already justified as a believer, raised up in glory, but then appearing before the judgment seat of Christ to receive according to what you have done. How do we put these together? There's a key distinction here, congregation. We will be judged not on the basis of our good works, but according to our good works. There's a cosmic difference between being judged on the basis of our works, which we are not, and judged according to our works, which we are. Salvation remains by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, from beginning to end and all along the way. Nevertheless, there is a genuine assessment, a genuine evaluation, in which believers will be rewarded according to the good works that the Holy Spirit has produced in us. Here's one way of looking at it. At the final judgment, raised up in glory, clothed in Christ's righteousness, you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and then the Father, through the Son, looks at the fruit of the Spirit in your life. and says, that is good work. Work produced by the Spirit of God. It is the Father through the Son looking at the work of the Spirit in your life and pronouncing it good, very good. Good works that we have done that are imperfect in this life, yet sincere and cleansed by the blood of Jesus, not proportionate to what we have done. We will be rewarded, not proportionate to what we have done, but corresponding to what we have done. For example, you look at the parable of the minas in Luke's gospel where Jesus says there's someone who has gained 10 minas. And in the evaluation, the king gives him authority over 10 cities. Was that reward proportionate to what the servant had done with what the master had given him? Absolutely not. The reward was totally disproportionate to the faithful service the servant had rendered, and yet it did correspond in some way. He'd obtained 10 minas, and he received authority over 10 cities, there is a prospect for the believer of a crown of righteousness. But here's the reality, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, knowing your own imperfections, your own weaknesses, you'll realize, as Augustine said, that the judgment day, what God does is he crowns his own graces. He crowns his own graces in your life. as he rewards us according to our works, which he himself produced in us. Fifth truth. This one might surprise you. Christians will participate in the final judgment. Christians will participate in the final judgment, not simply as those who passively receive the rewards, the crown of life, the crown of righteousness, but as active participants in the final judgment. We will judge the wicked. Psalm 149 says this. It says, let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. to execute on them the written judgment, this honor, have all the saints praise the Lord. I don't know exactly what this will look like, but just as we participate in the reign of Christ, even so we participate in the judgment of Christ against the wicked. In fact, we are also told that we will judge the angels. 1 Corinthians 6.3, Paul says, do you not know we shall judge angels, how much more things that pertain to this life. Remarkably, we who were created a little lower than the angels through Christ will be exalted above the angels as Jesus has advanced our humanity and one day we will participate in God's judgment not merely over the wicked but even of angels. of cherubim, seraphim, ophanim, living creatures full of eyes, ox, lion, eagle, and man. Fearsome creatures with fiery swords, six wings, with two they cover their face, and with two they cover their feet, and with two they fly, chanting day and night, holy, holy, holy. Creatures before whom John falls down and is tempted to worship them, so majestic are they, and yet Paul tells us we will judge such beings. This is a privilege of the new covenants. We will participate in the final judgment. How that is, what that looks like, I know not, but that it is true, most certainly. Sixth truth, God will be glorified in the final judgment. And this is really what the end is all about. It's about the revelation of the glory of God in justice and in mercy. I'm gonna quote our confession at this point. It says the end, the purpose, the goal, the telos of God's appointing this day is for the manifestation of the glory of His mercy and the eternal salvation of the elect and of His justice in the damnation of the reprobate who are wicked and disobedient. For then shall the righteous go into everlasting life and receive that fullness of joy and refreshing which shall come from the presence of the Lord, but the wicked who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be cast into eternal torments and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. The end of the final judgment is the revelation of the glory of God. I've said this so many times, but the most important question you can ask is not how can I be saved, however important that question is, but rather how can God be glorified? Herman Boving said that was the key difference between Lutherans and Reformed. The Lutheran begins with the question, what must I do to be saved? The Reformed begins with the question, how is God to be glorified? And we realize from the pages of the Bible that God is going to be glorified not merely in the salvation of His people, but in the damnation of the wicked. that the glory of his mercy and the glory of his justice will both be shown forth, and we will cry glory, hallelujah. Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive honor, glory, power, and riches, both in creation and in redemption, both in salvation and in judgment. Praise the name of the Lord. Seventh and final truth of this doctrine is that the day of judgment is certain, but unknown to all but God. The day of judgment is certain but unknown to all but God. And that's clear from the lips of Christ himself. When you hear TV preachers and radio personalities claim that they've nailed the day that Christ is gonna return, turn off the radio, unsubscribe to the podcasts. Turn off the YouTube stream because Jesus himself said this, but of that day and hour, no one knows. Not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. And I would say, nor the Son according to his humanity. but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch, therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all. Watch. It's clear from Jesus' own words. This day of judgment, however certain, is unknowable to finite creatures. You cannot know it, though you can know it is certain. Now why is that? Why would God reveal the fact that there is a day, but not tell us when that day is? Not give us the coordinates, the day of the month, the year, Well, I love how our confession explains the reason why God would do this. It says, 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, so will he have that day unknown to men. 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 be ever prepared to say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. There is a practical reason this day is unknown. Not only is this day to deter us from sin and encourage the godly in their afflictions, but the fact that it is unknown means that you must shake off all carnal security, all trust in the flesh, and be watchful, be eager, be ready, be waiting like watchmen upon the walls, waiting for the morning, waiting for the arrival of the cavalry, waiting for Jesus to come back. Ever ready to say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. This has an effect, an imprint on our piety. The way we think about the future, the way we look for Christ, the fact that this day is unknown has great practical significance for us. Hence the doctrine of eternal judgment. Let's answer a few objections to this doctrine, and I could multiply them, but I want to focus just on the bare denial that Christ is coming again in judgment. There are scoffers spoken of in 2 Peter chapter three. Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. And we still find this today. As it was 2,000 years ago, even so now, there are skeptics, scoffers, inside and outside the so-called visible church who try to cast doubt on this doctrine of eternal judgment and of Christ coming again. I wanna give you four rebuttals to that skepticism. First, the human desire for justice. the human desire for justice. When you look, for instance, at cases where the criminal got away and where someone was wronged or the innocent person was hanged, there is something in us that just tears our soul to pieces because there is a built-in There is a baked in, hardwired human desire for justice. We want to see the good rewarded. We want to see the evil punished. That's why in the great stories of Western literature, that's exactly what we find. We find at the end of the story, Things put to rights. And that's why Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box is so distressed when he looks at this particular crime and it's the tragedy of it all. It pains him and his soul because we long for justice. But let me encourage you. Each of you knows what it's like to feel physical hunger. And what has God given you to answer that need? He's given you food. Each of you knows what it's like to feel physical thirst. And what has God given you to answer that need? He's given you water. He's given you drink. He's given you wine that makes glad the heart of man. Well, God has also placed in you a signal of transcendence. He has put in you a signpost of eternity. He has given you a deep, primal urge and desire to see justice done. And even as He's given us marriage that answers to our desire for pleasure, and He's given us food that answers our desire for hunger, and He's given us water that answers our desire for thirst, and He's given us wine that answers our desire for joy, even so God has given you a desire for justice, and it is answered by a doctrine of eternal judgments. It answers our human need at its most basic level. rebuttal, and that is that there are many historical precedents. We're not going out on a limb. We're not leaping into the dark when we talk about this final day of judgment. We have seen many days of judgments, miniature days of judgment over and over again in history, many days of the Lord that point forward to a final day of the Lord. God has given us precedents. For instance, when man's heart was wicked and deceitful and did all manner of evil things, when the sons of God intermarried with the daughters of men and there was violence and corruption on the face of the earth, what did God do? At the ending point of the days, at the cutting off of the days, he brought a great deluge, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the deep were burst, and water covered the face of the earth. It rained 40 days and 40 nights, and a great flood came and destroyed the civilization that was. The world that then was perished, so that the world that now is might be preserved. In the days when God told his people to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and to spread out over the face of the earth, man said no, and he came to a centralized location. And it still happens today, whether it's the European Union or the Great Reset or the Davos Conference, there's a desire for man to say one race, the human race, let's build ourselves a tower of Babel that reaches to the tops of the heavens, and they built that tower, and what did God do? God looked down. He looked down on that puny, pathetic human convention and invention, and he brought down judgment. He gave multiple tongues, and he confused their languages, and he physically dispersed them to the four corners of the earth. And then there was that haughty, tyrant pharaoh who tried to kill all the infant boys in Israel, tried to slay the seed of the woman, gave them work to do, and made them gather their own straw, and for 400 years they suffered under the tyranny of Pharaoh, and the house of bondage, and the iron furnace, and God looked down, and God heard the cries of His people. He heard their groanings, and God knew, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He brought plague after a plague, after a plague. Signs and wonders. He brought hail from fire. Hail and fire from heaven. He killed the firstborn. Darkness engulfed the land of Egypt. It was a day of judgment. And then we learn that the Amorites and the Jebusites and the Hittites and all the peoples in the land of Canaan were wicked and idolatrous. And the wickedness of the Amorites was not yet full. But when the hourglass of God's judgment was full, he sent forth Joshua with the edge of the sword to wipe out all those wicked people, to wipe out the giant races that had come and taken dominion over that land. The conquest of Canaan was a day of judgment. And then after they came, God's people, who had all the privileges in the world, exchanged their privileges for idols. They exchanged Jehovah for Molech, and the Asherah, and they broke God's Sabbath days, and they were merciless towards the poor, and they brought injustice to the weak, and God brought judgment upon them. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC was a day of judgment, a day of the Lord. And lest you think that it's only God's people that received this, when we think about the prophecy of Daniel, and of his dream of Nebuchadnezzar, and the metal man statue, and the head of gold, and the silver shoulders, and the belly of bronze, and the legs of iron, what happened to each of those successive pagan empires? We have the fall of the Babylonian Empire, the judgment of God. The fall of the Medo-Persian Empire, the judgment of God. The fall of the Greek Empire, the judgment of God. the fall of the Roman Empire, the judgment of God. And then when God's people had received the Messiah, the one they'd been waiting for, the one they'd been praying for, the one they'd been told of again and again in the scriptures, all the statutes and the promises and the prophecies, when he came unto his own, his own received him not. And Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said, how oft would I have gathered you, even as a hen gathers her chicks, but she would not. He sent his face like flint to Jerusalem, and he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And they said, his blood be upon us and upon our children. They rejected their Messiah. And Jesus said, within one generation, all these things will take place. Within one generation, within 40 years, the hammer, the sledgehammer, the axe of God's judgment, the sword of God's judgment will fall. In 8070, God destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. It was a day of judgment. So when people say, it's been 2,000 years, Where is the promise of his coming? Realize that God has come again and again and again and again in judgment, in the flood, at Babel, the plagues on Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, the destruction of Jerusalem, the fall of Babylon, the fall of Medo-Persia, the fall of Greece, the fall of Rome, the fall of the temple in AD 70. Each of these is a miniature day of the Lord, a mini day of judgment that prefigures a final day of judgment. an eternal day of judgment. There is historical precedent. Third answer to this objection, and that is all the divine prophecies and promises. God is faithful. God is a perfect track record. Has God said it and it hasn't come to pass? God's Word never fails. His Word never returns void. We've already seen that in all those historical precedents. And that means all of those prophecies and promises that have not yet been fulfilled, rest assured, they will most surely come to pass. Fourth and final answer, and that is historical confirmation. historical confirmation. I can think of at least two events that should authenticate to you the certainty of the coming day of judgment, and that is the resurrection of Jesus and the destruction of the temple. Jesus said in three days, I will raise this temple up again. I'll raise up the temple of my body after it's been destroyed. And as a true prophet, it came true. He also said that within this one generation, this temple will fall. And in AD 70, that's exactly what happened. Because of the resurrection of Jesus in history, because of the destruction of the temple in history, we know that he will come again on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead. We are all witnesses. Well, we've looked at the text, we've considered the sevenfold doctrine and answered this objection from the scoffer, but I want us to conclude with some practical application to our lives. Practical application using four key words, four key words, fearful, hopeful, watchful, and meaningful. So this is not merely something we affirm because we're Orthodox Presbyterian Christians, but this is a vital truth for the Christian life, how you live. First, this doctrine is fearful. It's fearful. If you're living in sin, this doctrine should scream to you to flee from the wrath to come. There is a day of wrath coming. Flee from it, run to Christ, repent of sin today. Trust in Christ today. Make things right today. Today is the day of salvation. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Because there's coming a time when he will not be found. There is coming a time when he will not be near. There's coming a time where, as it was in the days of Noah, the door of the ark will be shut and it will be too late. But that is not that day. Today is the day of salvation. And so, fearfully, turn from your sins, trust in Christ. Second application. This doctrine is hopeful. This doctrine is hopeful. Our confession speaks of the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity. I wanna encourage you, I don't know what everyone's going through, but every wrong will be set right. Every wrong, every atrocity, every injustice will be set right. If you don't believe in the eternal judgment, then you're left with a universe of chaos, chance, and confusion where people really are let off the hook. But we know that no wrong will ever go unpunished, and no good deed will ever go unrewarded. And there should be a great hopefulness to us, especially when we're suffering persecution, or we're suffering from the pangs of this life. It should fill us with hope. Third, this doctrine should encourage us to be watchful. Watchful. Again, our confession says, that they may shake off all carnal security and be always watchful, eager, prepared, ready. As Peter says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Notice how Peter connects this doctrine with practical Christian living. The fact that this is a certain but unknown day of the Lord means you should be watchful, you should be holy in your conduct, marked by godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of Lord, praying, for the advance of the kingdom of grace, praying for the destruction of the kingdom of Satan, and praying for the hastening of the kingdom of glory, looking for new heavens and new earth, watching, not just for vague events, watching, not merely for revival in our times, though we long for that, but above all, looking for a person, looking for Jesus, watching for our Savior. the final key word of application, and that is this doctrine is meaningful. It is meaningful. When you go about your work and you wonder, what is it all for? Why am I doing what I'm doing? Especially when you feel like your work is futile, or it's repetitive, and you do something and it's undone by someone else, and you have to do it over again, or something that you made is broken and it has to be repaired, and you wonder, why? Why this? Why this life? Well, this doctrine is meaningful because when you think about a doctrine of eternal judgment, you realize that you live under the aspect of eternity. that you begin with the end in mind. You believe that history has a purpose. Your life has a purpose. This is the way the world ends, with the revelation of the glory of God in Christ. The scripture reveals the end, the purpose, the telos of history. the revelation of God's glory in His justice and in His mercy. The cosmos is not ruled by chance, but by the King of kings, the Lord of lords, your savior, your lawgiver, your judge, your king. And may we ever be ready to say, even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, amen.