Please continue standing as we read the Apostle’s Creed in unison.
Last week we took a look at what the Bible has to say about Christians judging and condemning or pardoning and forgiving those who are not born again followers of Jesus Christ.
This week we’ll be taking a look at the judgment that will happen when this old world comes to an end.
What about those who do not know Jesus … What then?
There’s an old hymn of the church that states
There's a great day coming, a great day coming
There's a great day coming by and by
When the saints and the sinners shall be parted right and left
Are you ready for that day to come
There's a sad day coming, a sad day coming
There's a sad day coming by and by
When the sinner shall hear his doom, “Depart I know ye not”
Are you ready for that day to come
And then, there's an old Southern Gospel song called "What Then" by Donnie Sumner that says,
Many years you’ve been toiling to gain earthly treasures
And you may be the greatest of men
Now your time here has ended, eternity’s calling,
Alone facing God, What then?
That is NOT a question the world wants to hear. That’s not a question a lot of folks who call themselves Christians want to hear!
Alone, facing God, what then???
What then??? Heaven, hell, nothingness???
The world has its own pseudo-theology, either we are an accidental freak of monumental coincidence and there is nothing after death, or, the great god of only love just overlooks all actions and sweeps everyone into heaven for a never ending life of fun filled delights.
In the movie, Heaven Is For Real, young Colton Burpo has a near-death experience in which he goes to heaven for a short time. Colton’s father is a pastor. In his father’s congregation is a woman whose son died in combat but she never had any discussion with him about faith in Christ.
This mom and Pastor Burpo have a conversation about the eternal destiny of her son and it goes like this:
"Do you think - I have to ask - do you think my son went to heaven?"
"Do you love your son?" Todd replies.
"Of course," she says.
"Do you think I love mine?" he asks.
"I know you do," she replies.
"Do you think I love my son more than you love yours?"
"No."
"Do you think God loves my son more than He loves yours?"
And that’s the end of the conversation.
The obvious conclusion to be drawn from this is,
“Since my son went to heaven and God loves your son as much as He loves my son, then your son must be in heaven as well.”
Is that really how we get to heaven?
Our memory very first memory Scripture we ever learned together as a congregation talks about God’s great love …
John 3:16-18
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Yes, God IS a God of love.
1 John 4:10-17
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
“This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
“This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.”
The day of judgment …
This, of course, is talking about God’s judgment at the end of time.
People can come under judgment of a sort in this life. We see examples in the Old Testament of Noah and the Great Flood, the plagues of Egypt, Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16), Sodom and Gomorrah. And in the New Testament we see Ananias and Sapphria and King Herod. All of these are examples of God’s judgment on people in this life, but, what we’re looking at today is the great judgment at the end of time.
Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 25:31-45
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. 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. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
“For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’
“Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
“For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help You?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Revelation 20:11-15
“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. 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. The 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 they had done.
“Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”
These Scriptures and others show that there will be a day of judgment. Many in what is called the emergent church and the (theologically) liberal church deny this truth.
We see the devil trying to convince humanity that there is no judgment for disobedience just three chapters into the Bible.
God, “You must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil or you will
die.”
Devil, “Did God really say …?”
Eve, “God did say if we eat from that tree we’ll die.”
Devil, “You will not surely die … as a matter of fact you’ll get an upgrade, you’ll
be like God!”
That was in the beginning, how about at the end?
The apostle John writes at the end of Revelation 20, “Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”
And, the devil whispers into our ears, "That’s just a literary device. Hell is not a real place. Don’t worry, God is only love, He won’t judge you …”
And Jesus says that sinners will be “thrown into hell, where ‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.”
And, the devil whispers into our ears, "You can’t really believe what is written in that old book. And, besides, there are some things that are not in that old book that you can rely on."
For instance, you can rely on this place called purgatory! You may not make it into heaven on the first attempt but you can go work on your attitude in purgatory and eventually you’ll get in. It’s like some sort of spiritual time-out chair. But there is not one word in all of the holy Scriptures of such a place.
“It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.”
Judgment, in turn, results in an eternal relocation to heaven or to hell.
Now, that is firmly in the Scriptures, what other things do we possibly believe that are not in the Scripture?
Some people believe that there will be repentance in hell. Once again we do not have even the slightest hint of that in the Bible. But, if we take a look at the account of the rich man and Lazarus in the Bible we can pick up a few hints!
Briefly recount the story from Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
What do we notice here? We have read this account of the rich man and Lazarus so many times that perhaps we seem just to skim over it …
1) In life the rich man treated Lazarus with contempt
2) In the place of torment the rich man still treated Lazarus with contempt
A) He did not apologize for the way he treated Lazarus on earth
B) He did not speak to Lazarus but to Abraham
C) He only thought of Lazarus as kind of a “water boy”; a servant
D) He only thought of Lazarus as a kind of messenger boy to send a
message to his brothers
Now, there’s a very simple reason that there is no repentance in hell.
What is it that draws us to repentance, the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit will not be in hell, why? He has been rejected by all who abide there and the time of grace and mercy is over.
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' - C. S. Lewis
The GREAT Good News is that now is the time of grace and mercy. The Holy Spirit IS here, calling sinners to repentance, salvation and growing Christians in Christ-likeness!
Donna found salvation in Jesus Christ only a week before she passed into eternity. PTL!
She took the words of Jesus in John 3:16 into her heart and her eternal destiny changed instantly from hell to heaven. You can too!!!
Invitation.
