INTRO.- ILL.- A young Bible college student was witnessing in a suburb of Atlanta. As he approached one house, there was an elderly gentleman sitting on the porch. He said, “Are you a Christian?” The old man said, “No, I’m a Smith. The Christians live two doors down.” “You don’t understand. I mean, are you lost?” The old man said, “No, sonny, I ain’t lost. I’ve lived here for 25 years.” “But are you ready for the Judgment Day?” The old man said, “When’s it going to be?” The young man said, “Well, it could be today or it could be tomorrow.” The old man replied, “WELL, PLEASE DON’T TELL MY WIFE, BECAUSE SHE’LL WANT TO GO BOTH DAYS.”
Make no mistake about it, judgment is coming and it won’t be a fun day for some people! It won’t be a fun shopping day like the day after Thanksgiving! Many people will not want to experience that day! As it says in the book of Hebrews, "It’s a fearful thing (or dreadful thing) to fall into the hands of the living God! (Heb. 10:31) HERE COMES THE JUDGE!
ILL.- The idea of hell and judgment are nowhere to be found in Betty Eadie’s book, (1992) Embraced By The Light. At one time it was on the N.Y. Times bestseller list for more than 40 weeks, including 5 weeks as #1. In November 1973 Eadie allegedly died after undergoing a hysterectomy, and returned five hours later with the secrets of heaven revealed by Jesus. Eadie says that Jesus "never wanted to do or say anything that would offend me" while she visited heaven.
Someone commented: Indeed, Jesus seems to be relegated to the role of a happy tour guide in heaven, not the Savior of the world who died on the cross. And that book contains many fallacies from what I have read, that is, in opposition to the Word of God. Jesus is not pictured in scripture as some kind of happy tour guide or as Santa Claus. He is Savior! He is Lord! He is God in the flesh! HERE COMES THE JUDGE!
ILL.- Just before the death of actor W.C. Fields, a friend visited Fields’ hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, "I’m looking for loopholes."
There are no loopholes at the judgment but there is hope, but only in Christ as our Savior!
ILL.- Court cases are sometimes labeled: “Stevenson vs. The People” or “Jones vs. Texas." But at the Last Judgment, every case may be labeled “Such and such vs. God!”
The Lord will judge everyone! Me too? The Lord is not a respecter of persons when it comes to judgment. However, the conclusion is yet to come.
II Cor. 5:6-11 6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. 11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.
PROP.- Everyone and every thing will be judged on the judgment day but there are some specific matters that the Lord may judge more critically. Here they are:
1- God will judge ungodly acts
2- God will judge ungodly words
I. GOD WILL JUDGE UNGODLY ACTS
14Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way. What a way to say it.
ILL.- The floorwalker got tired of his job. He gave it up and joined the police force. Several months later a friend asked him how he liked being a policeman.
“Fine,” said the ex-floorwalker. “The pay is good and so are the hours, but what I like best of all is that the customer is always wrong.”
Some people are wrong and the police are going to get them! Some people escape being caught for their wrongdoing for a while. Eventually they’ll be caught, however, not by the police but by God almighty!
ILL.- A Milwaukee woman’s funeral was over, and the body was about to be cremated when suspicious officials ordered an autopsy. This revealed that death had been caused by strangulation. The medical examiner called it murder. The victim’s sixteen-year-old daughter was arrested and held without bail. Had the authorities acted a few minutes later than they did, the evidence would have been destroyed forever.
No, not forever. Whatever happens in this world (murders, rapes, abuse, violence, etc.) is carried over into the next world, meaning that God sees it and will make the right judgment about it. NO ONE GETS AWAY WITH ANYTHING. God sees everything and will judge all. And all the ungodly acts committed by ungodly people are multitudes.
ILL.- In Chicago, a man named David Johnson was on a scaffold eight stories high, when he heard a snap and saw his partner fall and felt himself sliding into space. “My whole life flashed before me,” he said. “It was very clear. I could remember when I was a kid. But it happened so fast that I can’t remember much of it now.”
Johnson seized wildly at a hanging cable and found himself perched on top of an air conditioner. Johnson slipped through the window unharmed. Asked about going up again, Johnson said, “That’s it for me. I’ll never go up there again. I’ve got to find a new trade. It’s hard to explain how terrified I was.”
Some people should be terrified at the thought of death and the judgment! I can even name some of those people but the Lord knows them better than anyone.
I Timothy 5:24-25 "The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden."
II Timothy 2:19 "Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."
No one gets away with anything. God will judge the ungodly acts of people. And the Lord knows those who truly belong to Him.
II. GOD WILL JUDGE UNGODLY WORDS
14Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
ILL.- Lynchburg, VA—In 1983-84 The Rev. Jerry Falwell filed a $45 million lawsuit against publisher Larry Flynt and Hustler magazine, claiming a fake advertisement damaged his reputation. The full-page ad in the issue of Hustler was entitled “Jerry Falwell Talks About His First Time.” It described what the magazine said was the television evangelist’s first encounter with Campari liquor and sex.
Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, contended in his suit filed in U.S. district court, that the ad portrayed him as immoral and an alcoholic. Larry Flynt, from his Los Angeles home, said he was “really tickled” about the lawsuit “because I want to get him in the courtroom.”
Flynt said at the bottom of the ad that it was not to be taken seriously,” he said. “I don’t really think any of it is true, do you?”
In his suit, Falwell said the ad’s “inferences and innuendos” falsely said he “commits illegal, immoral and reprehensible acts, that he is an alcoholic and that he is insincere and hypocritical in his work as a fundamentalist minister.”
Larry Flynt is still alive and still slandering others in order to get a hearing and sell his magazine.
In June 2007, he placed an ad in the Washington Post offering $1 million for documented stories involving sex with current congressional members or high-ranking government officials.
It’s one thing to speak harshly to other human beings or about them but it may be an entirely different matter to speak harshly about the Lord!
"See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."16These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
ILL.- Comedian Kathy Griffin joked at the Emmy awards (Sept.2007) and one of her jokes wasn’t very funny. She said, "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. This award is my God now!"
Later she said, "I hope I offended someone. I would hate to think I got this award for nothing."
Kathy Griffin, no doubt, thought she was being funny, but in reality she was offensive to God almighty!
ILL.- Comedian George Carlin died June 22, 2008, at the age of 71. And to many he was a very funny man. He did say some very funny stuff but he also said some very bad stuff.
Here is another bad quote of his: "When it comes to big-time, major league baloney, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest baloney story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time!"
"But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good baloney story...."
Carlin has met his match. He has met his maker and don’t you wonder what he’s saying now?
"The Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
No person dare speak badly about the Lord God Almighty. People do, but these people (no matter who they are or how rich and famous they are) are wrong.
CONCLUSION-------------------
God will judge all the ungodly of their ungodly acts and harsh, ungodly words. But where does this leave us who are in Christ?
ILL.- Baptist preacher, Harry Ironside, once told this story: One of the first gospel illustrations that ever made a real impression upon my young heart was a simple story which I heard a preacher tell when I was less than nine years old.
It was of pioneers who were making their way across one of the central states to a distant place that had been opened up for home-steading. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and progress was necessarily slow. One day they were horrified to note a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming toward them rapidly.
They had crossed a river the day before but it would be impossible to go back to that before the flames would be on them. One man only seemed to have understanding as to what could be done. He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them. Then when a space was burned over, the whole company moved back on it.
As the flames roared on toward them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, "Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied, "My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!"
Ironside said, "What a picture of the believer, who is safe in Christ!"
"On Him Almighty vengeance fell,
Which would have sunk a world to hell.
He bore it for a chosen race,
And thus becomes our Hiding Place."
The fires of God’s judgment burned themselves out on Him, and all who are in Christ are safe forever, for they are now standing where the fire has been. OUR HOPE AND SALVATION IS IN CHRIST, NOT OURSELVES.
