Sermon: What Is the Judgement?

Good evening friends.

Tonight we finish our sermon series on death and Dying with a sermon entitled What Is The Final Judgment? So let's turn in our Bibles together to Romans chapter 14

verses 10 through 12.

Let's pray together as we come to God's word.

Oh Lord, the unfolding of your words gives light. We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth. For every scripture is breathed out by you and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. So open our eyes, oh Lord, that we may be hold wondrous things out of your law. Speak Lord, for your servants are listening. In Christ's name we pray, amen through God's word from Romans 14, starting in verse 10,

why do you pass judgment on your brother Or You? Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written as I live says the Lord. Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God for the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of our God is forever. Praise be to God. Amen, judge, not that you not be judged.

That's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven. It's a Bible verse that you can count on many non-Christians to have memorized, although they may not realize that it comes from the Bible. Our sinful world is enamored with the idea of withholding judgment, judging not so that most people's idea of a perfect utopia is primarily one where no one judges anyone else, but there's a total lack of judgment. But is that really good news?

Is a total lack of judgment really good for the world? Another concern that many people have today is for social justice. Isn't that interesting? The world that cries out against the practice of judging also cries out for justice. Well, the Bible has a lot to say about this topic of judgment and I hope you'll see that the biblical doctrine of the final judgment in particular is very useful and if we have ears to hear it, it is very good news.

Indeed. I have two points in my sermon. Two points, the final judgment, what is it and the final judgment, what should we do about it? What is it and what should we do about it? So what's the biblical doctrine of the final judgment? Well, it's entirely likely that you have professed your personal belief in the final judgment out loud dozens of times or maybe even hundreds of times, there's a clause in both the apostle's creed

and the Nicene Creed and both of them affirm that Christ currently sits at the right hand of God, the Father in glory, but that he will return to earth to judge the living and the dead. So if you've repeated those words before you have professed, I believe this is part of what I believe is a Christian is the final judgment. So Christians believe in this. It's an, it's an ancient doctrine. It's been a part of the Christian faith for as long

as there have been Christians. But what is it? Here's my definition. At the end of time there will be a final judgment in which God will spiritually and morally evaluate every person who has ever lived and pronounce one of two outcomes. Salvation on the one hand or perdition or condemnation or damnation. On the other hand, one of two outcomes that result from God's final judgment. Those who belong to Christ, his people who are saved

by His grace from their sin will enter into blessed and eternal rest in the presence of their savior and king. And on the other hand, the rest of mankind who have not been forgiven of their sins through Christ and thus remain under God's wrath, they will receive precisely the wages of their sin and their disobedience, which is called the lake of fire, eternal destruction or hell or gehenna, the place of everlasting punishment for their unrighteousness.

Those are the two outcomes, total blessedness in life, total destruction, condemnation, the punishment for sin. That's that's the definition of the final judgment. God will evaluate us and assign to us one of those two eternal destinies. So there's two main scripture passages that we could take this from. Uh, there's Matthew 25 verses 31 to 46, where Christ is teaching himself about what will happen. He says The son of man will return

with his angels in his glory and he will sit on a throne of judgment and he will separate people into sheep and goats. Sheep on his right hand and goats on his left. There's also Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 to 15 where Christ again sits on a great white throne and opens the books and judges all the world. So those are two main scripture passages that we see this doctrine taught. There's a smattering of other texts we already read.

Romans 14, we will all appear before the judgment seat of God. There's also John five where Jesus says that God has given me authority to execute judgment because I'm the son of man. Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice. That is Jesus' voice and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Hebrews 9 27, just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment two Corinthians five 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seed of Christ so that each one may receive what is what is due

and there's more I could list off more for you. This is my way of atoning for the fact that I don't have a scripture text. By the way, I'm going to be putting verses all over this sermon. This is not an expository sermon, but it is a scriptural sermon as I hope you'll see. So we can see, and I hope to continue making the case that the final judgment is a biblical doctrine. It's all over the place. We've seen it in the apostles creed, the Ian Creed.

We could talk about the Westminster confession of faith that has an entire chapter. The last chapter in the confession is about the final judgment. So I hope you're convinced that this is a biblical thing, but let's answer some basic questions about it. We've seen what it is, but who, how and why are three questions I want to answer as we continue to to to fill out our definition of the final judgment. Who, how and why? Who, what is the

who of the final judgment? Well, the subjective judgment is God. God is the judge, the great judge. When Abraham is pleading with God to show mercy to Sodom and Gomorrah, he appeals to him as the judge. He says, will not the judge of all the earth do what is right In Hebrews three or WR Romans three, six. In Hebrews 1223, God is called the judge of the world or the judge of all. So God is the judge, but to be more precise, the Bible also reveals

that Jesus Christ is the agent of God's judgment. He's the one through whom God judges the world. Romans two 16 says that God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. In Acts 1731, Paul is preaching in Athens and he's warning the Athenians to flee to Christ for mercy and says that God the Father has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he is appointed. And then it becomes clear later that the man is the one

that who's been raised from the dead, which is Jesus. Revelation six 16 makes reference to the wrath of the lamb, the lamb of God. While again we already read, second Corinthians five 10 says, we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. So these texts teach us that Christ executes divine judgment as the God appointed mediator of the covenant. God appoints him for this task. One of his roles, one of his jobs as the mediator

of the covenant is to judge the world. He's exalted now and he's given this task and the authority to do that is bestowed on him by his father. There's one other verse I want to wanna draw out. It's a a little bit later in John, we read from John five where Jesus says there will be a judgment and later in John chapter eight he says, my judgment is true for it is not I alone who judge but I and the father who sent me. So the son and the Father are unified in their judgment.

God is the judge he brings about the act of judgment by delegating that task to his son. So we might say for instance that the county sheriff cracked down on parking violations last year, right? We could say that. And when we say that we don't mean that the sheriff personally is slapping tickets on windshields all across the county. We don't mean that. What we mean is that the sheriff's authority was exercised through the ones

that he had deputized to do that work on his behalf. The Sheriff's authority was mediated through his servants and that's how we understand Christ to act as a judge in many other ways in the Bible, God the Son sits in judgment and God the father's judgment is truly and rightly given through Christ. So that's the subject of judgment. What about the object of judgment? Who judges Jesus judges on behalf of God? Who is judged?

Who are the judged scripture's clear on this? All mankind, both the righteous and the wicked, both the living and the dead. Again second Corinthians five 10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Paul the apostle speaking to a church of Christians says, we must all appear before Christ's judgment seat. So believers are not excluded from judgment and no one else is either. There will be no partiality on judgment day.

There will be no sneaking out the back. All will stand before Christ's judgment, seat without exception. When the accounts are settled before the judgment seat of Christ, every sin will be paid for every sin, every human sin, they will either be paid by the human who committed those sins. The debtor himself or herself or those sins will be charged to the account of the great surety, Jesus Christ, the righteous, the lamb

of God who takes away the sins of the world. So every human is judged and the fallen angels are also judged. It teaches that in second Peter two and in ju uh Jude six, God has kept these fallen angels in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. So we don't know whether sinless angels will be judged or not, but apparently angels will also be there on that day appearing before Christ to give account for what they've done.

So that's the who. What about the how? The how of God's judgment we will be judged according to God's revealed will. We will be judged according to what he has shown us, what we know about what God expects from us through his law, through what he has shown to us. That is the standard that God will use to judge us. Every person is judged according to the revelation they had available to them in their lifetime. Listen to this principle, it's laid out in Luke 12.

Jesus says that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will will receive a severe beating, but the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating everyone to whom much was given of him, much will be required and from him to whom they entrusted much they will demand. The more you can see there, there there's a correlation between what you know, what you are entrusted with,

what you are responsible for and how you are judged. But does that let everyone off the hook who has never read the Bible before or heard of Jesus because they couldn't know, right? They couldn't know what God expected of them. I've already cited Romans two 16 that says that God will judge men's secrets by Jesus. But listen to the whole paragraph from Romans two. Romans chapter two says this, for all who have sinned without the law

will also perish without the law and and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. The court is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires. They are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts

while their conscience bears them witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. You see the two, the principle there. We've got the law havers, those who have the law over here who are judged according to that law. And then there are gentiles who though they do not have the law, have a conscience and they act according to that conscience showing

that God has written his law in some measure on their hearts. They will not be held accountable for what the Jews have, God's full law, the Torah, but they will be held accountable for breaking the law that God has written on their hearts, their innate awareness of God's righteousness and what he expects of us Early in Romans one or Romans chapter one, Paul asserts that God publishes certain facts about himself throughout all creation.

They're unavoidable, they're inescapable, says His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. And then he adds chillingly. So they are without excuse for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. So yes, our principle is that human beings are accountable to God for the information they have available to them. They're accountable not for what they don't have,

but for what they do have what God has shown to them. But the Bible then makes it plain that humans do have, all humans do have sufficient knowledge to know and worship and thank God, but that we don't. We know that we should and we don't. Therefore we're all without excuse, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So God judges all humans for breaking his law. He will judge each person's sins because we should have known better.

We have all sinned against light, against knowledge against the God who created us and who reveals his glory in the heavens and in the earth and who reveals his law in our consciences. So that's how God will judge us. He will judge us according to what we knew we should have done. Okay, why? Why the final judgment? This is the most visceral question for us. We talked about some more intellectual questions, some curiosities, but now we come to the why.

Why will God judge? Why must he? And that's actually I mentioned the Westminster Confession chapter 33, section two of that chapter is all about the the end of God's judgment. What is the end of it? What is the purpose why that section gives two reasons. Why does God judge first the final judgment will display God's mercy in saving his people. The final judgment will display God's mercy. I've gotten a lot of comments in the last several days.

People are like, oh boy, the final judgment, you gotta preach on that it's gonna be rough. And there's, there's some sternness to this topic of course, but what the final judgment also shows us is God's mercy. He is, he is shown to be a merciful God at the judgment. So we as God's people will be vindicated on that day for our hope in him. There may have been times in your life where you've wondered, do I really believe all this

Christianity stuff? There may have been seasons where you've wrestled with doubts or considered seriously considered walking away saying, I don't want this anymore. I don't believe it on that day, on that day, all of the hope that we have placed in our savior will be vindicated. We won't need to live by faith anymore. Our eyes will see him. The one on whom we've cast our souls and seeing him will be more than enough to make up

for all the doubts we've suffered in this life. The judgment vindicates our Christian hope and the second reason for the judgment. Why does God judge is to prove that he is just to prove his justice. We will see on that day the logic and the harmony of God's will unfolded before us in a way that would be perfectly understandable and that will clear God of any accusation of injustice or unfairness. As we sang this morning in that old hymn,

God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain.

They're are oftentimes in a marriage where one partner says to the other, perhaps with just a tinge of exasperation, my dear, why did you do that? Why? I have noticed usually it is the wife who's questioning the husband and the husband will try his best to walk her through all of the thoughts, the many interesting and creative thoughts that led him to do what he did, such as storing important paperwork in the garage or building a a cardboard box for it in the basement.

The Christmas boxes just, you know, there's no one particular in mind here. These are just examples. Uh, and though the husband's thought process upon examination may indeed prove to be faulty sometimes and he wasn't thinking things through as many long suffering wives can attest. On the other hand, sometimes the patient wife will say, oh, you know what? That actually makes more sense. I had no clue why you did that. But now I see, I see what was going on behind the scenes.

Now I understand it doesn't, it still doesn't make all sense to me, but I get where you were going with that and we can apply that admittedly silly example to God, to the ever righteous and infallible God on that day of judgment. His reasons for judging the way that he does will be laid out before us, not so that we can then judge him, but so that the complete and utter righteousness of God will be displayed. That his justice will be seen to be perfect

and holy God displays his justice when he judges the world. So that's what the final judgment is, who's subject to it? Who is performing the judgment why and how, but what should we do about it? We've learned some theology that's good, but what should we do about the final judgment? I have three broad applications. What should we do? Number one, shut your mouth, Romans three 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those

who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. Once God's justice has been fully finally demonstrated, there will be no complaining, there will be no arguing, there will be no appeal. It will be totally and for some painfully obvious that God has done only in exactly what he should have done and no amount of whining or protesting will change matters. And if that is going to be true on that day,

we should begin today to shut our mouths. If you find the idea of judgment too harsh, shut your mouth. If you protest at the idea of a God who judges or if you scoff at the very notion of someone holding you accountable, shut your mouth. Shut it now while you still can. And I'm not saying don't hear me say just shut up if you disagree with me or disagree with the Bible. I'm not saying that just as though we can win arguments

by simply bullying people into silence. That's not what I'm saying. We should be able to bring honest questions to God in prayer and seek answers in the word. But here's what shut your mouth does mean. It means stop complaining as though the very idea of cosmic justice was laughable. Stop offering thinly veiled rationalizations for sin as if we were not all painfully aware in our honest moments that we aren't really good people.

After all, stop propounding half-baked criticisms of God as though we don't possess the sneaking suspicion that all the things that are wrong with the world start with us and someday God will in perfect fairness lay that accusation at our feet. Say, how will you explain this? You broke my law. So our goal is to shut our mouths now willingly in a humility rather than have them shut for us forcibly and awfully on that day job chose

to lay his hand over his mouth and he said, I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. May we have the wisdom to do the same otherwise. How humiliating would it be to have your complaints cut off abruptly at Christ's return? How shameful for your own fault, finding voice to be drowned out by the sound of an angel. Chorus singing Revelation 16, just are you holy one for you brought these judgments, it is what they deserve.

Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgements. There will be no excuse. So let us shut our mouths now while we can rather than having God shut our mouths for us on that day. First application, shut your mouth application number two, open your mouth. Why you should open your mouth to worship. Why does the judgment lead us to worship? Praise is offered to God as the just judge. As I just read from Revelation 16, the angels praise him.

Revelation 19 has a worship song after the prostitute is judged. There's a great multitude in heaven who cries out. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God for his judgments are true. And just for he has judged God's glory in his praise are manifested in judgment. When his righteousness is displayed in his mercy is displayed, why should you open your mouth to forgive?

If God will bring perfect justice to the world and he will, we can forgive in this life and we can rest in that judgment. It frees us because we know that God will avenge every wrong ever committed, including the ones committed against us. Romans 1219 says, beloved never aven yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God or it is written, vengeance is mine and I will repay says the Lord. So Christians know that judgment is God's job

and so we are free to be the most forgiving people. Why should we open our mouths to pray for judgment? You've all done it tonight. When we read Psalm 96, the Psalms are full of believers testifying to their desire, not for God to stop being a judge, but to be more of a judge for him to visit the earth and sit over it in judgment. Psalm 96, as we read Psalm seven, Psalm 35, Psalm 82, they're all over the salter. Christians are people who want God to judge. We long for it.

We wait for his judgments and when we say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, what we mean is come quickly and judge not just to fix our personal problems, but to set a broken universe straight again to fix what has been put out of joint. We mentioned at the beginning that the world is crying out for justice to come on earth to appear. Well, our God can bring justice and he will and we should pray for him to do so. I love Andrew Peterson's song from his Easter album.

It's called Rise Up and the second verse says this, if a thief had come to plunder when the children were alone, if he ravaged every daughter and murdered every son

would not their father see this

would not his anger burn? Would he not repay the tyrant

on the day of his return? Await the day his return. He will rise up in the end. Open your mouth. Thank God for mercy.

The I Packer says, the certainty of final judgment forms the frame. The frame within the New Testament message of saving grace is set. The judgment is the frame for God's grace. The good news of Christ can be appreciated as the good news that it is only if the bad news of judgment is first in place. The gospel makes no sense without judgment. What did Jesus die for? If not to save us from the wrath to come. But if he did die for us, we of all people

should be most thankful. Open your mouth to thank God for mercy. Open your mouth. Saints the tell of the savior Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. The Bible correlates the coming judgment with the imperative to preach the gospel. I've mentioned it several times already. Second Corinthians five 10 says that we will appear before the judgment seat of Christ and then it goes immediately on in verse 11. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.

Verse 20, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Those who trust in Christ and who eagerly await his reappearing will be eager to urge others to be prepared as well. Open your mouth to tell the gospel to others. And lastly, open your mouth to ask for mercy. If you are an unbeliever, this is the day of salvation and every day that precedes that final day

is the day of salvation. Until Christ returns, there is still time left. The judgment has not yet fallen. Do not be complacent. Don't assume that because you're a church member or because you prayed to prayer once upon a time that you will have nothing to fear on the day of judgment. It comes down to this. Have you done business with the Lord for your soul and for your sin? Have you fled to Christ for refuge from his final judgment?

There is no name but his by which we can be saved. And I hope you accept the gift of grace that he offers. Open your mouth to ask for mercy. Our last application, we we've shut our mouths and now we've opened our mouths and now we wait in hope. We wait in hope in the church. There are many who labor without any recognition or thanks. There are those in loveless marriages. Perhaps they're married to unbelievers. There are those who suffer from chronic debilitating pain

with no prognosis of any improvement in this life. There are those who feel crushed under the weight of discouragement or futility or fruitlessness. There are some who felt the unexpected tragedy of a loss that just seems so unnecessary.

How can we persevere? How can we remain faithful to Christ in the face of these enemies of our souls? We've remembered this. Remember this as a faithful saint. If you have known much weeping in this life

on the final day, we will hear Jesus say, I saw you.

I knew everything you suffered

and everything you did the honor of my name. No one else noticed. No one else cared, but I the all knowing and all powerful judge of all I saw you. Your giving was in secret.

Your praying was in secret, your fasting, and you're waiting we in secret. But I, the judge who sees in secret saw you.

I have been with, you've strengthened you for the path you walked, and now you have finished the race. Well done,

well done. Good and faithful servant

that should cause us to persevere. That is hope that will carry us through every dark day. And it will be wonderful to be commended on that day as a faithful servant. Of course it will. But that is not the end, the best pronouncement we will hear on that last day. The most wonderful benediction will be this. Christ will say you who are clothed in the white garments that I have bought for you, enter into my presence with joy.

I mentioned Matthew 25 at the beginning, one of these passages that lays out so clearly the last judgment. And in that chapter, Christ's judgment is depicted as a separation of mankind into the sheep and the goats. The goats are dismissed to condemnation, but the sheep are gathered to their Lord on that day. As Jesus flock with white and unstained robes with great celebration and rejoicing together, we will sing the words of Psalm 100.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are is. We are His people. And the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name. For the Lord is good, his steadfast love and endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.

Pray.

Lord, give us grace that we may stand before you on that day with no nothing to fear, because we know that Jesus paid it all for us. May not a single one of us be lost. Lord, may all of us know your goodness toward us. May we open our mouths every day, never to complain. Never to argue against your justice, but to praise you. Oh, to sing of your goodness to anyone who will listen. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.