Night Calls: A Call To Judgment Series

Night Calls: A Call to Judgment

Matthew 24:36-44

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3

Introduction: We blindly go through life as if therer is no day of reckoning. Jesus Christ repeatedly taught the reality of judgment to come. We can deny the existence of a day of judgment but none can deny its certainty. Every one of us will receive a call to judgment. For some it will be at the midnight cry as seen in Matthew 25, for others at the end of the ages as discussed in Revelation 20. Everyone will be judged.

I. The Call to Judgment will be Universal.

A. Luke 17:34-36 "I tell you, in that night there will be two [men] in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two [women] will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two [men] will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left."

B. Day and night exist simultaneously upon the earth, and the Lord's call to judgment will be at noon to some and at midnight to others.

C. Psalm 96:13 “For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth.”

D. Acts 17:31 “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man (Jesus Christ) whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

E. There is a universality of sin. Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned”. Therefore there is universal judgment. It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

F. Matthew 24:37-39 “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

G. The illustration of Noah speaks of a universal judgment.

H. Revelation 20:11-12 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.”

II. The Call to Judgment will come Suddenly

A. Matthew 24:38-39 “For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

B. The people in Noah's day were not watchful or prepared for what could, and did, happen. They had the warnings from Noah. They could see the preparations in the building of the ark but were oblivious to what was going on around them. They had no clue as to when the judgment was coming. The waters of the flood came suddenly and that those who were not prepared drowned.

C. Matthew 24:43 “But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.”

D. Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

E. Proverbs 29:1, 24:22 “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy... for suddenly their destruction will overtake them, and who knows the ruinous judgment both the Lord and the king can bring?”

F. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 “For you, yourselves, know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.”

G. The message is basically "We don’t know the hour when judgment will come - so be prepared."

III. The Call to Judgment will Sound (It is Certain)

A. 2 Peter 3:3-4 “…scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of creation.’”

B. Here is an excerpt from a National Geographic article on the Mt. St. Helens' volcano that illustrates the futility of this kind of thinking "Old man Harry Truman (83) built a cabin by Spirit Lake on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens some 53 years ago. All those years nature remained consistent. But then the mountain started to awaken. Residents were asked to leave. Warnings were given. Park guards came to the cabin to tell him it wasn't safe. TV and newspaper folks interviewed him. He said he could not live anywhere else. He was part of the mountain and the mountain was part of him. He laughed at and cursed all his visitors. Then on May 18, 1980 the mountain exploded and Harry Truman perished under hundreds of feet of volcanic ash." This man did not heed the warnings of those who tried to save his life. The mockers do not heed the warnings of Scripture which seek to bring men to repentance. - copied