"A Day of Reckoning" Sermon Transcript for April 8, 2001By Reverend Mike Beck
Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:31-46
I’m sure I have alluded to it in numerous sermons, but I can never recall preaching an entire message on the judgment of God. That’s probably due to the fact that most all of us would rather spend our time reflecting on God’s wonderful love and grace. But the Christian Believer study of basic church doctrines, that we’ve been following over the last eight months, would be very much in error not to have included a chapter on this topic. For from Genesis 2 to Revelation 22, the Bible lets us know that judgment is, will be, and ought to be a part of the nature of God. That brings to mind several questions:
If God is a forgiving God, then why does God judge us?
When will the judgment be, and how will it be carried out?
By what standard will we be judged?
If we all will face the judgment, how do we get ready or how do we prepare?
As with most of the doctrines that we have considered, there is no one single passage of scripture to which we can turn to give us a full perspective. Rather, we look at the teaching of the Bible as a whole for the central themes that run throughout. Because of that fact and with the limitation of time, I need to paint this morning in very broad strokes. I want to simply share with you eight principles that I believe the Bible teaches us about this matter of the judgment of God.
1. Teachings on God’s judgment run throughout the Old and New Testaments. Sometimes we are lulled into thinking that the Old Testament reveals to us a God of judgment and holiness and the New Testament reveals to us a God of love and grace. And there is a small kernel of truth in that statement. But Jesus himself over and over again talked about a coming day of judgment. In fact, He taught that His very coming was in itself a judgment. All of the scripture points to what Revelation 20 talks about where John wrote, "And then 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. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were open. Another book was opened, which was the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, the dead and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. And then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire was the second death. And if any one’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Hey, I want my name in that book!
2. God must judge in order to be just and holy. If you have ever had the "joy", and I put the word joy in parentheses, of raising a strong-willed child, you have heard them repeat this phrase over and over again, "It’s just not fair!". Strong-willed children have an extraordinary sense of fairness. Very few things in life disturb us like an offense to justice. Sin and evil and the injustices of life are all contrary to God’s nature. Follow me--they cannot be ignored. Injustice at some point must be made right. And if God is indeed just and holy, then divine judgment is absolutely necessary for those qualities to remain intact.
3. God’s judgment will be consistent with His nature. The Bible repeatedly teaches that judgment is not ours, judgment belongs to God. We’ve already said that God must deal with sin in order to remain holy and just. But God is also kind and merciful and forgiving. So on questions such as these, "Will persons of other faiths be in Heaven? Are persons lost who have never heard of the gospel?" I’m thankful that I don’t have to give the final answer on those questions. I’m not the judge, God is. And this third principle says that we can rest assured that God’s final judgment will be consistent with His nature.
4. There is a very real sense in which we bring judgment upon ourselves. There are several well-known cliches that speak to this fact. "What goes around, comes around." "We reap what we sow". If you remember back to my sermon series on the Ten Commandments, I shared with you E. Stanley Jones’ wonderful quote when he said, "We really don’t break the commandments. We break ourselves on them." And most of us within our circle of acquaintances can find ample evidence of how persons on a daily basis bring judgment on themselves by their own decisions and actions.
5. Scripture clearly teaches that not everyone is going to make it to heaven. We looked at a passage of scripture last week where it pointed out that it is God’s strong desire that all persons come to know His salvation. But God has granted to each of us the freedom of will. And countless persons, past and present, use that freedom to reject the salvation God wants to give to them. Consider this fact, if everyone was going to make it to Heaven, then why in the world would Jesus’ final command have been, "Go in to all of the world proclaiming the gospel"? Now the images of persons being lost and of eternal separation of God in what the Bible calls "Hell" run throughout Jesus’ teachings. And in terms of the Biblical teaching about Hell, I really like these words from the author of the Christian Believer. Let me share them with you. He writes, "Might the references to fire, flames and outer darkness be symbolic or figurative? Possibly. But this does not by any means diminish the severity being described. For figures of speech are often used to make real something that a person could not otherwise conceive of. We ought to be cautious of anyone who thinks, talks, or preaches constantly about hell. We ought also to be cautious of those for whom hell never enters their mind."
6. In some fashion, our "works" are a factor in the final day of judgment. Now this is an area where our understanding from Scripture is quite vague. And we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that salvation and my name being written in that book is by grace and grace alone. But having strongly said that, there are several places where the Bible makes reference to God’s final judgment, that we note that in some sense our "works" are taken into account. Jesus’ teaching about the sheep and the goats allude to that. These words from I Corinthians Chapter 3, starting with Verse 10. Hear these words of Paul. He says, "By the grace God has given me I laid a foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that is already been laid which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold and silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is. Because the day of judgment will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burnt up, he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved but only as one escaping through the fires." This particular teaching about our works is somewhat vague but yet it’s there and we must recognize that as we think about judgment.
7. On Judgment Day, Christ is both our judge and our "advocate". We’ve got two or three attorneys in our church here. And the Bible clearly tells us that on judgment day Jesus will be the one who is on the throne presiding. The Scripture says that on that day, "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord". But in a strange irony, Jesus the final judge is also our advocate and our defense attorney! I John, 2:1 says, "If anyone sins, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the righteous One." And I thought about how I would illustrate this and remembered the little story that Reverend Dan shared three weeks ago with Confirmation Class. Some of you may have heard it. He told the story of the king who because of a serious problem with alcohol in his kingdom had decreed there would be no drinking of alcohol. And anyone who was caught with alcohol would be subject to 30 lashes. Two days later, brought up before the king was his elderly grandmother. And the king knew that if she were subjected to 30 lashes, she would probably die. But yet the king had decreed; he had to be just. So what did the king do? He took off his robe as judge and king and stepped down and said, "I will take the 30 lashes for my grandmother." Justice was served. But there is an irony in which the one who is our judge for those who are in Christ Jesus, he’s also our advocate.
8. We ought then to live and place our faith in a way that we do not fear divine judgment. The Bible teaches that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". And I think we ought to take that principle more seriously than we do. God as our "best buddy" really doesn’t do justice to the awesome nature of God! Today’s sermon ought to cause us to pause and reflect on your relationship with God, and on the way we live. But it is not intended to cause us to live in fear and terror. Reverend Dan’s remark to me a few weeks ago is a good analogy of what our attitude toward God ought to be. Dan said to me, he said, "Mike, you have done so much for me and my family that as I go about my work I don’t ever want to do anything that would disappoint you." Now, Dan doesn’t work under me in fear and trembling, but he loves me so much that as he goes about his work he doesn’t ever want to do anything that would disappoint me. In fact, note the wording of this final principle as we bring today’s message to a close.
Live in such a way, place your faith in such a way, that...yeah, we know judgment’s coming, but we do not fear it for we know the One who is our savior, our advocate, and our Lord. Amen.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn