Word of Salvation – Vol.13 No.03 – January 1967

 

After This Comes Judgment

 

Sermon by Rev. G. de Ruiter on Hebrews 9:27,28

Scripture Reading: Revelation 20 & 21:22-27

Psalter Hymnal: 141, 121, 370, 388, 445

 

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Our text today deals with the great judgment to come, with Judgment Day.  Some modern enlightened people, still calling themselves Christians, don’t like this topic of judgment to come – the idea of a judgment day.  “You shouldn’t make people uneasy and anxious, frightened and scared,” they say.

But their dislike, as the Bible calls it, is the cruelty of unbelief.  When you see some people in danger, a danger they themselves don’t notice, don’t you think it is cruel not to warn them?  Of course it is.  You cannot let people perish or drown, just like that, without doing a thing.

But that is exactly why we cannot keep silent about that what is between this world and the next, as the Bible pictures and symbolises it, namely a courtroom, and a judgment seat and King Jesus as Judge with you and me being judged.

The Bible shows us these pictures very clearly.  If the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that God is going to judge man.

Time after time Jesus warned of judgment: “It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you!”  The Son of man shall send forth His angels and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend and who do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire” (Mat.3:41).

His disciples promoted the same teaching throughout the New Testament – that there would come a time of judgment.  Our text: “it is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment” is a theme which we read about in nearly all the New Testament books.

And once again, I know that some people, maybe even some of you, don’t like this subject.  They don’t want to talk about death and judgment, and that’s why they are always tempted to turn away at this point.  But that means to turn away from God and one of His most severe warnings.  If you took all the references of judgment out of the Bible, you would have a much smaller Bible.

There are many who say that judgment is not consistent with mercy and especially not with love.  But this is because they do not understand the nature of God.

Judgment is certainly consistent with mercy.  If mercy is to be extended judgment must be a part of the divine order.  To be merciful without being just is a contradiction.

Judgment is also consistent with love.  A God of love must be a God of justice.  It is because God loves that He is just.  It is all part of God’s Holy Being.  God’s standard is perfection.  God is perfect in holiness, in love, in justice, in righteousness, in everything.  And therefore God cannot possibly adjudge righteous, or just, those who are not righteous, even though their fault in human eyes would be small.

With God we only pass when we have 100%.

But here the fullness of the Gospel comes in.

God could not consistently love men if He did not provide for the judgment of evildoers.  His punishment of the evildoer and His separation of the righteous is a manifestation of God’s great love.  We must always look at the cross against the dark background of judgment.  It was because God’s love for man was so intense that He gave His Son so that man would not have to face the great final judgment as a matter of eternal disaster.

In maintaining His justice God proclaimed His love in a most glorious way, namely in His Son dying on a cross!  So, do you want a more convincing proof that as far as God is concerned judgment and love do go together?

But here it also becomes clear what the decisive point is in the final judgment, in the courthouse between the old world and the new earth.  The decisive question will be: “What have you done with Jesus Christ?”  We will be judged by “what is written in the books” by what we have done, as Revelation 20 reads.

But this “what we have done”, boils down to the question: “What have you done with Jesus?”

From the cross God looked into the world and He said to the entire world: “I love you.”  When however this love is deliberately rejected, the only alternative is judgment.

So once again the decisive question will be: “What have you done with Jesus?”  Not: “of which church were you a member?” or “what were you used to doing on Sundays?” but “what did you do with Jesus and His two great commandments of love; was your life a matter of faith, hope and love?”

What is your answer now?

You have to answer this question one day, in future, so you better find out now already whether your answer will satisfy the Judge.  So what do you do with Jesus and His teaching about love?

Do you call Him your Saviour – or otherwise call Him a dreamer or an idealist.  There is nothing in between, you know.  What is the meaning of His cross for you – or is it just a religious symbol, good for people who are interested in it?

What does our Lord’s resurrection mean to you?  Does it convince you of His victory over satan and therefore of eternal life for you, or is it more or less a religious fairy tale?

What does Jesus Christ mean to you?  Everything or nothing?  Life, hope, future, salvation, forgiveness, pardon, eternal happiness – all this and much more – or nothing of this at all?  You must give the answer now!

Some people never can give a definite answer.  Some are always pretty vague: “Well, you see, I hope everything will be alright,” they say, “I hope, you know, but I am not sure; I really envy people who are sure; I don’t know how they can be sure, anyhow I can’t.”  I don’t understand why you cannot be sure of your relation with the Lord Jesus.  His invitation is so clear as crystal: “Come to me with the burden of your sins and I will take it away from you.”  Isn’t it simple?  A child can understand it.

So why don’t you go to Him?  Why don’t you go now?

You cannot wait till you are in that final courtroom; for then all your sins will be in the book of your life, testifying against you; for then and there the blood of Jesus your Saviour cannot help you anymore.  Jesus your Judge will tear in pieces the invitation of Jesus your Saviour, and He will open the book of your life to judge you on the ground of the things you have done wrong, written down in the book of your life.  And there will be no hope left to escape judgment and condemnation.

So come, come now, with the book of your life, go to Jesus your Saviour before He will become Jesus your Judge.

Come with that book, for Jesus will make to disappear everything what is written in it against you – as we read in Hebrews: “…and He will remember your sins and your misdeeds no more.”

When the blood of Jesus your Saviour has cleansed you from all your sins, Jesus your Judge is not going to drag them up again.  Then He has written your name in that other book, His Father’s Book of Life, and that means cleanness, holiness, eternal happiness.  So the point is: is your name already in that book of life?  No, your name is not in it because your name is in the books of the Reformed Church.  Your name is not in it because your father’s or your mother’s name is in it.

Your name will only be written in that book, that great, all important, all decisive book through a very personal faith in Jesus Christ your Saviour.

You can be sure of it, and you should be, you have to be, so bow down before Jesus Christ, confess your sins, commit to Him the dirtiness of your life, and fight against your sins.

Yes, that last element is part of it, an essential part, that fight..!  Once a man came to me and confessed: “Dominee, I am a rotten fellow!”  That sounded great.  The trouble however is that he still is that same rotten fellow and that he doesn’t seem to do a thing about it.  That doesn’t help.  That doesn’t make Jesus wipe out the dirtiness out of the book of your life and write your name in the great Book of Life.

Your confession must be sincere, and the sincerity of this confession has to be proved in your daily behaviour, in your daily attitude of life.  Don’t think you can fool Jesus with an outward show of piousness, of religious habits and customs without a really pious heart.

People of that kind will not be allowed to enjoy the glories and joys of heaven.  They belong to those who finally said “No!” to Jesus Christ and to a daily life of faith and love.

There is only one way to heaven, and that way is Jesus: so come to the Lord as sinner, believe in Him as your Saviour, and follow Him faithfully as your Lord: and He is “your way to heaven!”

Hear the Gospel: Jesus Christ, the Son of God came down to be your Saviour, to die for you, to pay for your sin, to earn eternal life for you.  Now put all your trust in Him and He will go with you through the door of death and into the hall of judgment.  If you are not interested in Him, if you don’t want Him as your Saviour, you will have to go alone.

And you know what that means, don’t you?

To go alone, to die alone without faith in the Lord Jesus, to stand alone in the presence of God, in the courtroom on the border of the old and new world; to stand there alone it means: to be condemned for ever!  You don’t want that do you?

Therefore turn to Jesus, ask Him to be your advocate, your helper, your lawyer.  On the basis of what He has done He is able to put you in the clear, that you might receive acquittal, that you might celebrate the eternal festival of victory in the new world.  Then you can sing a song of victory here and now already.

Listen to Paul: “O death, where is your sting?  Grave where is your victory?  The sting of the death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, Who has given me the victory through our Lord Jesus.”

And so our age is still an age of grace.

God’s offer of forgiveness still stands.

For all of you.

However, some day our earthly house will fall, on that day the door will be closed.  Some day it will be too late.  Therefore hear God’s challenging warning voice: “Now, today is the acceptable time; let this day, this hour be the hour of your salvation.”  When the flood came, Noah was safe and secure in the ark.  He had been foolish enough to trust God and to take Him at His word.  When the world goes up in flames, you can be safe and secure by believing and accepting the foolishness of God revealed in the cross on which Jesus died.  When you will be in the final courtroom where the decision will fall about our eternal destination, you will be safe and secure when Jesus your Saviour will be there as your counsellor, your defender, and when His finger will point at your name, written in God’s book of eternal life, written in red, written with our Lord’s own blood.

So therefore again this question: is your name in this Book of Life, is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?

If not: do bow down before the Lord, today, and pray Him to write your name down quickly!

If yes, if you know through your faith in the Lord Jesus, that your name is in that great book of God, why don’t you look more happy, and why is your life not more a matter of thankful service and devotion?

Amen.