Judged
John Milton wrote:
The aged earth aghast
With terror of that blast
Shall from the surface to the centre shake
When, at the worlds last session
The mighty judge in middle air shall spread
Hi throne
As if on a massive cinema screen the most incredible event that man has ever witnessed will unfold across the earth as Christ appears for all to see. 24 hour news channels will show nothing else, commentators will be silenced, whole nations will fall on their knees realising that the few, the faithful few were right.
John’s revalation(1:7) describes the scene:
Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him,
Even those who pierced Him,
And all the people on the earth will mourn because of him.
So shall it be!
That the Lord is coming to claim his own and bring judgement on all mankind is the great promise of all history. ‘This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way that you have seen him go into heaven’ said two men dressed in white to the dumb struck apostles as Jesus ascended into heaven before their very eyes. Peter told his audience in Solomons collonade: He must reign in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything (Acts 3:21) And that time is coming and no, we nor anyone else can say when but it is coming and when it does there is no dispute from what we read throughout scripture – the Lord God whom we worship here, will appear for all to see.
I’d like to start by thanking Andy for the work he put into this months magazine – I know he doesn’t want thanks – but this subject has perhaps become the most complex there is in Scripture, given the range of ideas and interpretations particularly around the book of Revelation. It took 20 minutes to read the monthly magazine – give God 20 minutes this month and have a look because we can deal with only a fraction of the subject from up here.
One of the major reasons for the diversity of interpretation concerning Christs coming and the subsequent judgment of mankind is that much of the revelation given to John, and the language used to describe it is apocalyptic – figurative language describing events that are not of this world – the common mistake in interpretation is that scholars pick and choose which verses or sections are literal and which are symbolic. Its this switching between a straightforward reading of the text and acknowledging that John is using apocalyptic language that leads to huge leaps of reasoning and ultimately speculative teaching in relation to Christs coming. But this isn’t the time or place for a bible study on what was revealed to John in that incredible book - it requires closer study.
So lets start outside of that book – lets have a look at what we find clearly in scripture about when Jesus returns. Our reading from 2 Cor explains that if our earthly bodies are destroyed then we inherit something much better from God – a building, a vessel that is it says in the text ‘guaranteed’. But that assurance is followed by a fact, a statement that is made over and over again in scripture; ‘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.’
The day of judgment is a future reality for all men
Heb. 9:27 …it is appointed for me to die once, but after this, the judgment….
Acts17:31 “…He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
And our second reading Matt 25: 31-32
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Both ‘the day of the Lord’ and ‘that Day’ are used throughout prophecy with reference to judgment, which even then God was bringing against the nations. Yet in the Gospels and Epistles those phrases focus on the final Day of Judgment – the same day on which the Lord will appear, the dead will be raised, and the whole Universe will be utterly destroyed.
So before even getting to John’s vision we read of, the day of the Lord, which will ‘come, like a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2) and it’s the same day of Christ on which Paul hoped to boast that he did not ‘run or labour for nothing’ in Phil 2. It is the same day of God that prompts us to ‘live holy and godly lives as we look forward to it and speed its coming (2 Peter 3) It is the day of Gods wrath when his righteous judgement will be revealed and God will give to each person as he has done’ (Romans 2) It is the same day of judgment where 2 Peter says the heaven and the earth will be consumed by fire and ungodly men destroyed. It is simply the day when ‘God will judge mens secrets through Jesus Christ (Rom 2:16) and the day about which Paul wrote to Timothy with utter confidence saying I know who I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for, that day… and the day of which Martha said of her brother Lazarus ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus was abundantly clear about there being a day to end all days – the day that he refers to five times as ‘that day’ Listen to his words recorded by Luke in chp 21: 31"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."
And stand before Him we will…the living and the dead. That day will come and with it the supreme court of the universe! All the lost will be judged, and after the verdict is read, it is final…there will be no appeals. The sentence is a life/death sentence - with no end for all eternity. This is not easy or popular and some simply won’t believe it…but their argument will be with God, not with me. Rev describes for us The Courtroom, The Judge, The Accused, The Evidence, The Defense, The Verdict, and The Sentence. It pictures for us an incredible prophetic scene where the lost, the doubters, the unconvinced, the self interested and self centred, the people who were just too busy, the scoffers the perpetual liars, our ordinary unchurched neighbors - rubbing shoulders with rapists and murderers. People will maybe recognize familiar faces, the famously ungodly or irreverent, those who campaigned against Christian teaching in or schools or passed laws that permitted sinful behaviour to become normal and accepted and in our society, politicians, film stars, our work mates even members of our own families. There will be the elderly, the middle-aged, teenagers, and they will all be speechless as they stand before the great white throne…standing before this throne everyone will be overcome with emotion, witnessing Gods incredible power, standing there in awe, and fear. Some talk flippantly about what they’re gonna tell God when they see Him face to face…oh no they won’t! John wrote of his reaction when confronted by the living god – the alpha and omega – he says he fell at his feet as though dead, then God placed his hand upon him and said -;don’t be afraid..’
The person who never believed or who never committed to a Christian life will not be able to do anything but weep and tremble. Their mind may go back to each time they took His Name in vain, but they won’t be able to use it in vain on that day. They may think of jokes they told about hell or about Peter at the pearly gates, but there will be no joking on that day. They may remember what they had heard as a child in Sunday school or recall a conversation from camp or a discussion with someone who cared about their eternal destiny and they will undoubtedly think – why was I so stupid, so stubborn, why didn’t YOU CONVINCE me?! ‘Why didn’t you try harder!?’ they will remember how they used to think about judgement – how it was all portrayed flippantly as supernatural fiction in films and in books, but the reality of it all will now sink in.
So tell us again John, what did you see? ‘I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.’ (Rev 20)
There really is no ambiguity about what will happen on that day – there is theory after theory about the exact configuration of events, with denominations split over the interpretation of Revalation – the 144,000 souls, rapture, tribulation, Armageddon – all fascinating stuff and worthy of a good study BUT there is no equivocation about the judgement – the dividing of the world into the sheep and goats. Paul writing to the Thessalonians, offering them hope in their suffering, their martyrdom, persecution he tells them in 2 Thess 1 that they will be vindicatied at the end of time – ‘All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 1on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.’
Its clear – when Christ comes every person who has ever lived will be judged. It isn’t easy thinking about your own death. Its completely understandable that we fear it – but we know that its something we will all face. We’ve seen it often enough – loved ones who we imagined would always be with us are gone from this earth. We see death all around us – the news is dripping in death through famine, disaster, the evil of others…but we also know that tomorrow we will get up and the world will continue on. My friend Jim buried his father on friday – he was teaching a class for me on Saturday and I went in to give him some support. Over lunch he said something we all say or at least think – the day after…the seeming inappropriateness of life just going on… So when we look out at a sunset over Belfast Lough or walk along the shore on the North coast we tend to imagine that the world will go on, with or without us. It doesn’t stop spinning when we die and the sun continues to rise and fall – but the stars, so clear in the night sky over Tollymore forest away from the lights of the city will one day, go out – the sun will cease to shine and all that we know of this world, its beauty and its familiarity will disappear. Scripture tells us what will happen..and it will happen on that very same day as Christ comes, the same day that we face the judgement seat, the same day that the dead will rise from their graves – a busy day, an incredible day and a catastrophic day too. It was prophesied in Isaiah 51: Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail. And Peter leaves us in no doubt about that prophecy, let me read it from 2 Peter 3 starting at v3
‘Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.[a]
11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
14 And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
NLT
Pauls audience knew plenty of scoffers, so do I, but so did Noah, so did the prostitutes and orgy goers of Sodom, they all scoffed at God and those faithful servants who carried his message – they weren’t scoffing or mocking when the water and fire came… Peter in one simple sentence describes the indescribable ‘The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.’ What – no build up like in a classic disaster movie, no fanfare or clues or signs that everything is about to unravel, that the world will be destroyed? No, sudden and unexpected – that’s how that day will arrive.
The thing we need to understand about judgment is that God takes no pleasure in it – in fact he has shown incredible restraint – he has, and is, giving mankind time, time to choose, time to listen and time to adopt a repentant heart. The preceding verse to the passage I just read from 2 Peter 3 says ‘The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.. ‘ in Ez. 18:21-23 God says: "… if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offences he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
He doesn’t want to condemn man – he is gracious, merciful, Ps 103 says; “He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. – and that can be true for everybody… except that people, so many people reject that gift of Gods grace, they don’t think they need it, even those close to us, family, friends… and he needs us to take that message to them – to let them know that God is willing, willing to be merciful to the worst of sinners.
But that offer has an expiry date…that day, by that day it will be too late. So what about those books we read about in Rev 20? ‘And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.…’ We can’t be sure about the exact contents – maybe innumerable volumes in which all the deeds of mankind, good and bad are meticulously recorded. The Egyptians believed that we would face a pair of scales in the afterlife – with our good deeds on one side and our bad deeds on the other. The balance of the scales determined your eternal destiny. Not so with God. His mercy tips the scales in our favor. John did say that the dead would be judged by their deeds as recorded in the books. But they could be the inspired books of scripture by which we will be judged – the teachings of Christ the word of God given to mankind – set out like the law books of a courtroom.. even Moses speaks of names being blotted out as if from a book. The Lord said to him in Ex32:32 "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin." David wrote of wanting his enemys blotted out of the book of life.
But importantly – metaphor or not, our names will be written in the book of life, God will have us on his list if you like, he will immediately identify those who loved him and separate them from the rest.
What we need to leave here with this morning is the certainty of that day, never mind when, even if you die before he comes it will seem like only a moment, like waking from a nice sleep when the trumpet calls you to his throne – but that day will come. Secondly we will be judged but we will also experience Gods mercy and his grace first hand. There’s another way to think of those many books and that one book – the book of life. If in fact those books contain the record of my life and yours, we’re condemned before we even reach the throne aren’t we? But just at the time we are shown our sins in black & white before everyone else, we hear the great judge call our name from the book of life – can you imagine it? Faced with deserved condemnation, certain that we are unworthy before God on that day – we hear him call our name – wait, Jack Shanks, his name is here, its in the book, Mavis Stephenson, you’re listed, come over and get your crown of righteousness. Praise God for keeping two sets of books – especially the one with all the things he has crossed out, where the word forgiven is written in the margin over and over again.
Others will experience something different. Paul wrote in I Cor. 6: “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were! But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Dorothy Sayers wrote - "If men will not understand the meaning of judgment, they will never come to understand the meaning of grace." IF you don’t realize what you could have faced at the judgment - what your sins really deserved - you’ll never appreciate the grace & mercy you’ve received. But if you do realize what you might have faced in judgment, you’ll live & think differently than just about everyone else.
LaGard Smith in his book Afterlife writes ‘For the saved in Christ its not our names he has blotted from the book – its our sins. What words can possibly tell the story of our redemption on that day? We’re in the book, we’re in the book! By the grace of God we’re in the book.
Brethren - God’s judgment is coming… it’s just not coming for you. So we need do all we can to get the message through to those we love, because the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and with it, a final reckoning when it will be too late for us to convince anyone of their need for Christ. May God bless you and guide you in your efforts to share the gift of salvatation God has promised you.
