Would you please stand with me in honor of the reading of the Word of God, and open your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation, to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20, and I will read in your hearing verses 11 through 15. Revelation 20, verses 11 through 15. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every one of them. according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. This is the word of God. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we are sobered and humbled at the thought of the judgment that is to come. This is not a comfortable subject for us because of our sin. And because you are a holy and righteous God. You are a God who hates sin. and will bring all sin into judgment on the last day. Your books will be opened and all of our deeds will be made known on that day. We thank you, O God, that on that day that death itself will be thrown into the lake of fire and it will be no more. We thank you that in view of that coming day of judgment that you are a saving God, that you have given your own son to be our savior, that he has died and shed his precious blood to pay the price for our sins, and that your word promises that if we believe in him, That if we turn from our sins, if we trust in Jesus Christ alone as our Savior and as our Lord, that we will not perish, but will be granted everlasting life. I pray that that will be true of everyone that is in this room. I pray, O God, that by your grace that you will not allow any one person in this room to perish. in their sins, that you would awaken every soul to your grace, to the problem of sin and to the remedy of sin in Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you that there is nothing more glorious than the gospel. There is no greater news in all of the world than the news that Jesus has died and been buried and has risen again and is alive forevermore and is the Lord of all and is the king of the rulers of the earth. And Father, in view of the rulers of the earth, we pray this morning for President Putin. We pray that in your sovereign grace and mercy, that even this morning that you would break his heart over his sin and that you would bring him to true and saving faith in Jesus Christ. Show mercy to him and to others in the Russian government. Father, we pray that you would frustrate them in their war plans, that you would cause them to not succeed in acts of injustice, against the Ukrainian people. And we do pray for the nation of Ukraine. We pray. We know that there are many believers who are there who are suffering. We pray that you will sustain them, that you will help them to be faithful witnesses in that place at this time. And we pray for the many who do not know you, but who are in harm's way, who have the acute sense of the possibility of death at any moment that you would use these dark times to bring about a wealth of salvation in that country. We pray for your mercy in the midst of judgment. We pray for our own leaders, that you will give them the fear of God when they make decisions, that you would help them to do what is just and right. And we pray for the salvation of our own president and for the salvation of those who are in his administration. Have mercy upon them. Have mercy upon this nation. Father, we are so grateful that we can gather together this morning in freedom, in peace, in the name of Christ our Lord. We thank you that he is ours and that we are his. And I pray that as we continue to sing, that you would enable us to sing from the very depths of our heart with the fullness of joy and gladness, and that as we open your word shortly, that you would give us the ability to be attentive and to listen to your voice, to be moved by it, and for our hearts to be warm with affection and zeal and reverence and awe of you, our great God. We pray for your help. We are weak, and you are strong. And I pray that we would find our refuge in you this morning, and we pray this In the mightiest name of all, the name of Christ, amen. It is a tremendous privilege to once again open our Bibles to the Book of Romans. And so I invite you to please turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 2. We will be looking at one verse this morning, that is Romans chapter 2 and verse 16. The title of our message is The Gospel of Judgment. And as we begin, I would like to read verses 12 through 16 in your hearing. The Apostle Paul writes, for all who have sinned without the law, will also perish without the law. And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus." This is the word of God. There is a saying in our culture that has been popular for quite some time now, only God can judge me. Have you heard that saying? Only God can judge me. This saying has been printed on T-shirts. It has been turned into a song. And some people have even taken these words and tattooed them on their bodies. By the way, I would not recommend that. But there are at least two things wrong with the saying, only God can judge me. First of all, it is based upon a misinterpretation of what Jesus said in Matthew 7 in verse 1. Do not judge so that you will not be judged. Matthew 7, 1 may be the single most misinterpreted verse in the entire Bible. People wrongly think that Jesus is teaching that you cannot judge anyone for anything, for any reason. It is a blanket prohibition against making any moral judgments against any people. People say, you have no right to tell me that I am wrong. You have no right to tell me what to do. Do not judge me. Only God can judge me. Judge not, lest you be judged. But this is an unlivable standard. To prove it, simply ask this question to the objector. Do you believe that rape is wrong? The objector will say yes, and then you can reply, who are you to judge? What gives you the right to judge? It is impossible to live without making moral judgments in life. If you read Matthew 7.1 in its context, which is the way that you should always read the Bible, you will then see that Jesus is not forbidding judging others. Instead, he is teaching that you must first judge yourself before you judge others. It's not about never judging. Rather, it is about how to judge. What Jesus condemns and forbids in this text is prideful, self-righteous, hypocritical judgments. Before you attempt to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye, first remove the log that is in your own eye. And then in the very same passage, Jesus, notice this, actually calls people names. He calls some people hypocrites. He calls other people dogs and pigs. And that, beloved, is an example of making a moral judgment against certain people. We are called to practice discernment, which involves making moral judgments. We are called to recognize false teachers by their fruits. which involves making moral judgments. We are to call evil, evil. We are to call sin, sin. We must make moral judgments. We cannot live otherwise. I think Paul Washer said it best when he said this, people tell me, judge not lest you be judged. I always tell them, twist not scripture lest you be like Satan. That is a great response. A second thing that is wrong with the popular saying only God can judge me is that when people make that statement, they somehow think that being judged by God will be better for them than to be judged by men. The fact that God is going to judge ought to be far more concerning to us. than being judged by man. When people say only God can judge me, they are endeavoring to make themselves feel better. When in reality, they ought to be overwhelmed with a sense of awe and fear and trembling, especially if they are living an ungodly, unholy life. Because if they are living that way, they are in real trouble. People who say only God can judge me are woefully ignorant of what the Bible actually says about divine judgment. People who say only God can judge me have never read Romans 2, 16. At this point in our study of Romans, we are learning about the condemnation of the Jews in chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, extending all the way to chapter 3 and verse 8. And in this larger section on the condemnation of the Jews, the apostle Paul begins with, and you'll note this in your sermon notes in our outline, Paul begins with the principles of divine judgment in chapter 2, verses 1 to 16. In this part of the chapter, Paul is showing us how God judges. So far, we have learned that God judges according to truth in verses 1 to 5, that God judges according to works in verses 6 to 11, and last time we learned that God judges according to the law in verses 12 to 15. This morning, we will learn that God judges according to the gospel in verse 16 in a very, very sobering verse. Now, as we noted last time, Romans chapter 2, verses 12 to 16, is one of the most difficult passages in all of the book of Romans to interpret. One of the many interpretive difficulties in this passage is its structure, including the relationship of verse 16 to the rest of the paragraph. In verse 12, Paul states that all people have sinned, both Gentiles and Jews. In verse 13, Paul elaborates on verse 12 by explaining how Jews have sinned by not doing the law of God. Then in verses 14 and 15, Paul again elaborates on verse 12 by explaining how Gentiles have sinned. Even though the Gentiles do not have the written law of God that God gave to the nation of Israel, God has written his moral law upon their hearts so that all people have some basic awareness of morality. We are, by nature, moral beings because God made us to be moral beings. We all have an innate sense of right and wrong that is universal among the human race. God has also given all people a conscience. which is an internal moral guide that passes judgment on our actions. The human conscience either accuses us or it defends us based upon the standard of God's moral law that is written in the heart of man. And then as Paul moves to verse 16, some see this verse as the conclusion of this long section of verses 1 to 16, and that might be how it serves this chapter. Some see it as the continuation of verse 12. In verses 13 to 15, they are like a parenthetical statement explaining verse 12. And so once Paul gets past the parenthesis, if you will, of verses 13 to 15, he continues the thought from verse 12. But others see it as a continuation of verse 15. It is a difficult interpretive decision to be sure, but I would lean toward this third view. I believe verse 16 is a continuation of the thought of verse 15. In verse 15, Paul speaks of the human conscience in legal terms. Notice the language very carefully. The Gentile is on trial. How? in the courtroom of human conscience. But in verse 16, what Paul does is state that the private court of conscience in the human heart will one day be made public on the day of judgment. And so right now in this life, all of us have this court going on in our hearts, the law of God written on the heart, conscience accusing or defending us. It is a battle of conscience in this life. It is private. But one day that private courts will be made public in the most magnificent, extraordinary, astonishing and awesome way. Now, there are some things that Paul says about the judgment of God in verse 16 that might surprise you. There is a game that is called, one of these things is not like the other. It's typically a children's game. For example, there might be a picture of an apple, a banana, an orange, and a cookie. Which one of these things is not like the other? The cookie. Hopefully you know that a cookie is not a fruit. It's not a fruit. It is not like the others. Well, in Romans 2.16, in the minds of many people, one of the things here is not like the other. There is the gospel, there is Jesus, and there is judgment. Which one does not seem to be like the other. Judgment. We don't often think of the gospel, the good news, and Jesus, and judgment as going together. But in this extraordinary verse, they are together. The gospel, the good news, Jesus, and judgment. all together in one verse. Now, we are going to look at this one verse under three headings, the first of which is the finality of divine judgment. We see this in the opening phrase of verse 16, on the day when God will judge. There are different philosophies of history, but the Bible is clear, history is linear. There was a definite beginning to the history of the world at creation when God spoke, and there was a creation. And there will also be a definite ending to the history of the world as we know it, when in the future, on the day of judgment. So there is a day, a final day, in the history of the world as we know it, and that day is coming. It is inevitable. It is coming. Paul has already mentioned this day back in verse 5, Romans 2 verse 5. He says, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. There, Paul calls that last day the day of wrath, the day of fury, the day of indignation, very strong And now Paul, in verse 16, returns to the idea of the day of judgment. So listen very carefully, especially in our current times. The world is not going to end because of a nuclear war. The world is not going to end by man-made climate change. That is a lie. The world is not going to end because of anything that we do. We do not have the power to bring the world to an end. If anyone thinks that, they are arrogant to think that we have that kind of power to bring God's world to an end. The world as we know it will come to an end when God brings it to an end. And he will bring the world to an end on the final day of judgment. So listen very carefully to what I say. All of history, all of the affairs of men, all of the actions of kings and rulers and people, everything that transpires under the sun is moving toward that final day when God will bring it all to an end. on the day when God will judge mankind. We live in a world filled with uncertainty. And if you are like me, I have watched more of the news in the last few days than normal. And as I watch the news, see the headlines, I am reminded profoundly of the uncertainty of our world, the instability of society, the instability of rulers and culture and Human life. What will Russia do? What will happen in Ukraine? I hear news reports that there are very real threats of cyber attacks against our country from Russia or North Korea or other bad actors in the world. Will that happen? Will they turn off our electricity grid? Those are very sobering things to consider. What about inflation? What about the price of oil and gas, which continues to rise and rise and rise? There is so much uncertainty in our lives, in our world. But listen carefully. The final day of judgment is not an uncertainty. It is as certain as anything can possibly be. It is a divine appointment that no one will miss. You will not miss it, and neither will I. Here is a very sober truth. The day is coming, dear people, when every single human being who has ever lived will be summoned to stand before God Almighty and they will give an account of every detail of their life. I have been so sobered in studying this week, in knowing that the day is coming when I will not stand before you, but I will stand before God, the maker of all things. And that day is coming for you too. And you ought to be deeply sober, deeply humbled by that reality. The second heading is the scope of divine judgment. We see this in the phrase which says, God will judge the external behavior of men. Is that what it says? The outward deeds of men? No. God will judge the secrets of men. That gets real uncomfortable, real fast. In verse 6, Paul says that God will judge each person according to their deeds. But not only will God judge each person according to their deeds, he will judge the secrets of men. God will judge our works, and he will judge our hearts. God will judge what we do in public, he will judge what we do in private. God will not only judge what we do, but why we do what we do. The day is coming, dear people, when every human being who has ever lived will stand before God in judgment and God will judge their, your secrets. Jesus said, nothing is secret that will not be made known and come to light. Literally everything will be exposed. Everything. Charles Spurgeon said, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be. Have you ever been falsely accused of something, been lied about, maligned? That's painful. That's hard to deal with. But no matter what someone says about you, they don't know the reality of it, how bad you really are, the secrets, the sins of your heart. If God were to merely judge our external behavior, if our secrets were to remain hidden on the day of judgment, some people might fare pretty well on the day of judgment because we are good at hiding our sins. We are very careful about what we do before the eyes of men. We are careful with our words. We are careful with our body language, with our actions. We care a lot about what people think about us, our reputation before men. But God will not judge us merely on the basis of our external behavior, but on the basis of our hearts. And the sins of the heart, dear people, are far more frequent than the sins of our external outward behavior. Pride, lust, jealousy, envy, hatred, motives that are selfish and arrogant. A person, for example, may never commit the act of adultery. But if a person looks with lust upon a person that is not their spouse, they have committed adultery in their heart. And that is the standard by which God will judge. So listen, there is no such thing ultimately as a secret sin. There may be secrets among people that we hide from one another, but every sin that you have ever committed, you have committed before the eyes of God. Your entire life is like an open book before the eyes of God, and what you do in secret reveals who you really are. What you are like when no one is watching reveals who you really are, and God knows who you really are in secret, in your heart, in your mind, in the dark, in private. As I've said before, and I say again this morning, the power of God to judge the world is awesome. It is breathtaking, especially in comparison to the vast limitations of human judgment. God's knowledge is unlimited. It is infinite, whereas man's knowledge is very, very very limited and very finite. And because man's knowledge is so limited, there is a legal principle that is one of the cornerstones of our American legal system called Blackstone's formulation or Blackstone's ratio. It's called this because it was developed by the English jurist William Blackstone in the 18th century. On your notes you will see a quote from William Blackstone which reads, and here is the legal principle in view, it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. That is a very powerful thought. It's better that 10 guilty people go free than for one innocent person to be condemned. or to be punished. Now, the goal of this legal principle is not to allow the guilty to go free. That's not what it's trying to do, but rather to ensure that the innocents are not unjustly punished. And we ought all to be very thankful for that. When a person is accused of a crime in our country, it is a legal right to be presumed what? Innocent. We have the presumption of innocence. If the justice system is going to err, it must err on the side of innocence. In order for someone to be punished then by our justice system, a person must be proven guilty beyond any shadow or reasonable doubt. This means in our justice system that some who are guilty go free. when doubt is cast on their case. But the tradeoff is that the innocent, the innocent are protected. And that is a wise tradeoff. The early American statesman, And second president of this country, John Adams, said it this way, it is of more importance to the community that innocence should be protected than it is that guilt should be punished. For guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that all of them cannot be punished. That is a wise statement. As far as human justice goes, it is better to err on the side of letting the guilty go free than punishing the innocent. As hard as it is to accept, our justice system at best is human. It is limited. It is very limited. It is impossible for men to right every wrong in this world. Ultimate justice cannot and will not ever be found in this life. There will always be injustice in a fallen world that goes unpunished. And as painful as it is, that's just how it is. But the Bible teaches that ultimately no sin, no evil, and no act of injustice will go unpunished. Ultimately, God himself will execute justice, perfect justice, final justice at the appointed time, at the final day of judgment when he will judge the secrets of men. It will be the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. God's judgment of all people will be perfectly just, perfectly righteous. Now I want you to think with me about what God must be able to do if he is going to judge billions and billions and billions of people with perfect justice without fail. What must God be able to do to do that? First of all, God must know all the facts. God knows everything about everything. God knows everything about everyone. God knows all the facts. God knows all the evidence. God knows everything that you do in public, everything that you do in private. God knows all your secrets. God knows your every thought. God knows your every motive. God knows why you do what you do. God knows why you do what you do, even when you don't know why you do what you do. Listen, God knows you better than you know yourself. God knows you with a perfect omniscient knowledge. God knows every word that you speak. God has a record of every conversation that you have ever had, every text that you have ever written, every email that you have ever sent, every form of communication. God has a standing record of it. Nothing, absolutely nothing escapes the knowledge of God. He knows it all. Therefore, when God judges men, His judgment will be based upon knowing all the facts, including the secrets of my life and my heart. You can fool people, but you cannot fool God. You can deceive people. Children can deceive their parents. Parents can deceive their children. An employee can deceive his employer. You can even deceive yourself. But you cannot deceive God. God knows it all. When I was in seminary, one of the classes that I took, took a field trip. Very interesting day. A field trip to the University of Southern California Medical Center. which is really the county hospital of Los Angeles, the most populated county in the entire country. Last time I checked, about 10 million people live in Los Angeles County. Our professor was a chaplain at the medical center, so he gave us a tour of the hospital. And there are two things that really remain memorable to me from that day. One of the things is that he took us to like a small chapel room where they do funerals. And there was a casket at the front of the room. And as our little class was standing there talking and mingling, the casket opened up and our professor jumped out of it. Somehow he had slipped off and climbed into the casket and apparently he did this to every class that he gave this tour of. And so we were all a little bit startled when the door of the casket began to open. Well, the other thing that has remained with me to this day after many, many years is that there was a room that we were shown where there were the remains of people that were being kept there. These people had never been identified. No one knew who they were. No one knew what happened to them. It was a reminder. of the vast limitations of man's knowledge. But God knows it all. God knows every one of those people by name. God knows everything about every one of those people that they ever did. God has a perfect knowledge of them all. And because God knows all the facts, on the final day of judgment, no one will be wrongly convicted of sins that they did not commit And no one will escape, no one will evade justice who deserves to be punished. But there's something else God must be able to do to judge billions and billions of people with perfect justice. He must have the ability to never forget. God not only knows all the facts, he never forgets the facts. I don't know about you, I can't even remember all the things that I forget. The older I get, the more I forget. And I can't even remember all that I forget. And I'm having to write things down more and more. I have a little thing on my phone, Evernote, and I make all kinds of notes. And if I don't write the note down, then it may be gone forever. But God never forgets the facts. His memory of events, including every detail, never fades. There is no statute of limitations with God because his memory never grows dim. It never grows foggy. God knows all the facts and his knowledge is perfectly retained in his infinite genius mind. A third thing that God must be able to do to judge all people with perfect justice is God must show no partiality. God's judgment is never influenced by men. Never. God cannot be bribed. God is never impressed by what family you are a part of, by what you have accomplished in your life, by your level of education, by your social standing in the world, by how much influence you have in your community, by how much money you have. God is not impressed with your appearance, your clothes, how beautiful or attractive you might be. God's judgment is completely and only and totally impartial. It is perfectly righteous. God cannot be influenced or intimidated like human judges, so that when God judges, he will render to each person according to their deeds without partiality. Well, that brings us to our third heading. the agents of divine judgment. We see this in the last phrase of verse 16, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. That is an amazing statement. God has appointed a final day of judgment. That's the finality of divine judgments. On that day, God will judge the secrets of men. That's the scope of divine judgments. And he will do it through Christ Jesus. That is the agent of divine judgments. So when you ask the very critical question, who is Jesus Christ? Your answer must be, in part, Jesus is the judge. He is the supreme judge. He is the king of all kings. He is the Lord of all lords. And he is the judge of all judges. We teach our children the song Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so and that is a wonderful truth not just for children but for adults. But we ought to also sing and say Jesus will judge me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Jesus is the judge. When every human being who has ever lived is summoned to appear before God on the final day of judgment and the secrets will be made known, they will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ for he is the judge. There are some people who want nothing to do with Jesus Christ. They reject him, they hate him, they despise him, they ignore him, they get angry if you bring him up in a conversation, but listen, they cannot escape him. Because the day is coming when they will stand before him on the last day of judgment. This statement about Jesus being the judge is really a statement about his deity, isn't it? One of the lines of biblical evidence for the deity of Jesus is that he performs the works of God. For example, Jesus created the world, Jesus sustains the world, Jesus rules the world, and he will judge the world. So we know that Jesus is God because he does the works that only God can do. He is the creator of the world. He is the sustainer of the world. He is the ruler of the world. And he is the judge of the world. What a powerful truth. Now notice how Paul says the truth of Jesus being the judge is according to my gospel. Maybe you haven't thought about it quite like that. The gospel that Paul preached included judgment. The good news of Jesus Christ includes the message of divine judgment. Let me give you an example of this in the book of Acts, Acts 17. Paul, very famously in the city of Athens on Mars Hill, speaking before that group of philosophers. This is really the center of the intellectual ancient world, the city of Athens. Paul is preaching in that city, and I want you to see something that he says to them. Acts 17, verses 30 and 31. Here is Paul preaching the gospel. He says in verse 30, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. The gospel message as preached by Paul included judgment. that Jesus Christ is the judge. He will judge all men. He is the man who has been raised from the dead. You cannot talk about the gospel Without talking about the holiness and righteousness of God, you cannot talk about the gospel without talking about the sinfulness of man and the fact that sinners, all sinners alike, are under the wrath of God. The day is coming, dear people, when all men will stand before God, who will judge all of men's secrets through Jesus Christ, and Paul says, this truth is according to my gospel. So the message of the gospel includes the message of divine judgment, thus it is the gospel of judgment, as I have titled this message. So where I think Paul is going with this is in this way. The gospel is only good news. when you understand the bad news. The gospel is only good news when you understand that the day of judgment is coming and that you are a sinner under the wrath of Almighty God. The future day of judgment is what makes the gospel necessary. If there is no judgment against sin, then there is no need for a savior. It's quite simple. According to the gospel, Jesus died to save his people not from low self-esteem, not from poverty, not from suffering, but from their sin. Why? So that they could be rescued from the wrath that is to come on the day of wrath. I love what Charles Spurgeon says when he says, you may think you can live fine without Christ, but you cannot afford to die without him. If you die without Jesus, you perish forever. If you die without Jesus, then what Paul describes in Romans 2, 5, will happen to you. The unbeliever, every day that he continues in his unbelief and unrepentance, is taking another deposit and placing it in the bank of the wrath of God, and he is storing up wrath against himself so that on that day it will come plunging upon him, crushing him under the weight of his sins and guilt and judgment. If you die without Christ, you will stand alone on the day of judgment before Jesus the judge who will condemn you forever. And so I ask you, are you prepared? Are you prepared for the final day of judgment? What must you do to be ready for the day of judgment? That question is far more consequential than what you will do in your retirement, what you will do for a job, where you will live, who you will marry. The question of all questions. is what must you do to be ready for the day of judgment? Here is the answer. You must run to the judge. Run to the judge. Don't run away from the judge. Run to the judge, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the judge is also the savior. Think of it this way. Jesus, who is the judge of all judges, when he in his earthly life was placed upon the tree, when he was nailed to the cross, he was judged. by God in heaven, by the Father in heaven, who took all of our sins, laid them upon his son, and rained down his wrath upon his son, and judged him as if he had committed your secret, shameful sins. I would never believe it were it not written in the word of God. The worst things that you have ever done, the most shameful, embarrassing things that you have ever done, things that you would never want another human being to ever know about. Those things were laid upon Jesus, and he was judged as if he had committed those sins. That is extraordinary. Jesus died to pay the price for our sins, to rescue us so that we would not be condemned for our sins on the final day of judgment. So here's some wonderful news. As followers of Jesus, as Christians, our judge is also our savior. I can't believe it. I don't know what else to say. That is astonishing. John Calvin says, it is no inconsiderable security that we shall stand before no other tribunal than that of our Redeemer. And as those who have placed their faith in Jesus, we will not be condemned on that day because our judge was judged for us. John Newton, the famous hymn writer, author of Amazing Grace, The man who had been a slave trader, an infidel, a man who tried to destroy the gospel, who was saved by the amazing grace of God and became a preacher of the gospel, he says this, so extraordinary, see the judge, our nature wearing, clothed in majesty divine. You who long for his appearing then shall say, this God is mine, gracious Savior, own me in that day as thine. By grace, we will not be condemned on that day. We will be owned in love, in mercy, in grace, Extraordinary grace. And so as Christians, the final day of judgment will not be a day of condemnation, but a day of reward. On that day, when you think about the secrets of our hearts, we often think about that only in terms of its negative aspect, but there is also a positive aspect to it on the day of judgment. Listen carefully. God will vindicate the suffering of his people. God will reward all that we have done to serve him. in this life and to love others, God will reward the things that we've done for him in secret, things that perhaps no one else knows. When we give, we are to give in secret because our Father in heaven sees in secret. God will reward all of those acts of love and obedience for his glory. And so the first thing that you must do to prepare for the final day of judgment is to repent of your sin, turn away, flee from a life of rebellion against God, and run to the judge, run to the Savior, Jesus Christ, and cast yourself upon him as the only one who can save you from your sins and from the wrath of Almighty God, and then pursue a life of holiness. and godliness and righteousness and obedience to Jesus Christ for the glory of God and weigh every decision, weigh every thought in your mind in light of that last day. I've said it before, everything that you do in this life matters because everything that you do will be judged. It all carries eternal weight to it. I conclude with mentioning Jonathan Edwards, the great preacher of the first Great Awakening. When he was a young man, he wrote 70 resolutions. Many of you are familiar with them. If not, I highly recommend that you read them. Here are two of them on your notes. Number seven, resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. That is a profound resolution. Number 17, resolved that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die. And so here's my last question to you. If you knew that the final day of judgment was tomorrow, how would you live differently today? I exhort you, live the entirety of your life in light of the coming day of judgment. Our Father in heaven, I feel so unable to speak your truth. These things are so beyond me. We are so humbled and sobered by this reality. We know that it is appointed for man to die and then to face judgment. This may make us uncomfortable, but it is truth. It is reality. And Father, as we think about that great day, that day that we cannot avoid, we thank you that there is a Savior who will also be our judge, who will save us from the condemnation that we deserve because of our sins. We thank you that by your grace in Jesus, We will not perish. We will not suffer hell. We will not be cast into the lake of fire. Father, as your people, I pray that we will be serious-minded as we live our life, as we think about that coming day, and that we will live in such a way that will bring about reward and praise from our judge. Father, again, I pray for your mercy upon anyone who may be here who is not in Christ, that today would be the day of salvation for them. Father, thank you that you are more than able to conquer the hardest heart, and we appeal to you on the basis of your saving power to exercise saving grace where that is needed. We love you, we give ourselves to you afresh, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.