His Judgment Is Come      

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As you know we have been looking at the messages of the three
angels in Revelation 14.  In this message is brought up an issue
that has always been  an important one, but particularly
relevant as we near the close of time.

Judgment is a concept loved for all the wrong reasons, and hated
for all the wrong reasons when it comes to those professing
faith in God.

Today we will take a look at judgment in the Bible in a more or
less general way.  We will get more specific at a later date.

Our text, which you should know by now is:

Rev 14:6-7  "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who
dwell on the earth; to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people; 

7 saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for
the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made
heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.""

Judgment is a theme which is throughout scripture. But it has
been ignored because there has been a lot of teaching on
judgment that is very negative.

During what was at one time known as the Dark Ages and up
through the time of the Reformation, the doctrine of judgment
was milked by the church to enrich it's coffers and establish
it's dominance.  God was the angry judge. Jesus or Mary
interceded to bring about mercy.  The church dispensed mercy for
money.  

Cathedral art supported this concept, showing the devil and the
evil angels and the righteous angels pushing the judged sinner
down into the flames of torment.  

The reformation took a turn away from this view of judgment, but
the negative aspects of judgment were burned deeply in to the
religious psyche.

After the great disappointment in 1844, the group which was to
become Seventh-day Adventists saw the judgment theme in the
Bible as giving insight into the event that was described in the
books of Daniel and Revelation.  

With that brief introduction let's look at judgment in the words
of Scripture.

The concept of Judgment in the Bible begins from the creation of
the world.  The righteous were chosen before the world began. 
Therefore in one sense, they were judged before the world was
made.

Eph 1:4  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in
love,

6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has
made us accepted in the Beloved.

7  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

Today I will forgo a discussion of predestination other than to
say, those who were to choose God were known by God from before
creation.  

The first scene of judgment in Scripture is in:

Gen 3:14-19  "So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you
have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more
than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And
you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between
your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall
bruise His heel." 

--That is judgment upon the serpent who we recognize as Satan.

16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow
and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over
you." 

--That is judgment upon the woman.

17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of
your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded
you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground
for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your
life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And
you shall eat the herb of the field. 

19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return
to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.""

--That is judgment upon the man. 

21  Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin,
and clothed them.

This was in all probability was also the first burnt offering
that pointed to the judgment that Christ was to take for the
sinner.

The next great instance of judgment was the flood.  

Matthew 24:38  "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,

39  "and did not know until the flood came and took them all
away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

The flood was a preview of the judgment to come at the end time
in two aspects.  First, a universal, total cleansing of
sinfulness on the earth was going to take place.  Secondly,
there was a way made to escape this cataclysmic event.  A way
that was a way of divine protection.  But the individual had to
choose to accept the salvation.  Follow God's way, or lose your
life eternally.

After the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, God wanted to
begin to show them a better way.  But having been slaves for so
long, they had lost much of the knowledge of God that had been
passed down through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

To accomplish this, God told Moses:

Exodus 25:8  "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell
among them. 

The sanctuary was God's way of expressing His desire to live not
only in the center of His chosen people, but in their hearts.

It was not just to be a building, however.  The actions that
went on in connection with that building were much more
important than the structure itself. 

Numbers 18:1  Then the LORD said to Aaron: "You and your sons
and your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity related
to the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the
iniquity associated with your priesthood.

The priests, types of Christ, were to symbolically bear the sins
which were taken to the sanctuary.

The priest becomes the sinner's surrogate, just as Christ became
the sinner's substitute. And the Day of Atonement was the grand
finale of all that the sanctuary was about.

Leviticus 16:29  "This shall be a statute forever for you: In
the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall
afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of
your own country or a stranger who dwells among you.

30  "For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to
cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the
LORD.

31  "It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall
afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.

32  "And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister
as priest in his father's place, shall make atonement, and put
on the linen clothes, the holy garments;

33  "then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he
shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the
altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all
the people of the assembly.

34  "This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make
atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a
year."

What was the most important part of the cleansing?

If the Sanctuary was cleansed, it would again bear the sins of
the people.

If the altar was cleansed, it would again have sin-offerings on
it.

If the priests were cleansed, they would soon be ministering
again for the sinful people.

If the people were cleansed, and remained clean (Christ in
you...) the sanctuary would no longer need cleansing.

Therefore the ideal is to clean the people so that continual
cleansing of the sanctuary is no longer necessary.

This I believe should be the focus of the end time judgment. 
And as we go on, we will look at  how God goes about trying to
accomplish this.

Before that, however, let's take a look at the book of Daniel.

Daniel 7:9  "I watched till thrones were put in place, And the
Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And
the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery
flame, Its wheels a burning fire;

10  A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A
thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten
thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books
were opened.

Daniel, in vision, is given a view of an event in heaven which
is positive for God's people and negative for the forces which
oppose and persecute God's people.  One naturally associates the
words "court" and "books" (records) with the concept of judgment.

Again Daniel 7:10 A fiery stream issued And came forth from
before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And
the books were opened.

Daniel 7:21  "I was watching; and the same horn was making war
against the saints, and prevailing against them,

22  "until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in
favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the
saints to possess the kingdom.

If the court scene in verses 7-10 is the same as in verses 21
and 22, then the judgment is a positive event for God's people. 
An event to be looked foreword to not feared. 

This is a concept that has been missed by many, but David, a man
after God's own heart had it right when he said in the first
psalm: 

Psa 1:5-6  "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the
judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 

6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of
the ungodly shall perish."

Psalm 37:31  The law of his God is in his heart; None of his
steps shall slide.

32  The wicked watches the righteous, And seeks to slay him.

33  The LORD will not leave him in his hand, Nor condemn him
when he is judged.

34  Wait on the LORD, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you
to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see
it.

Psalm 67:4  Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For
You shall judge the people righteously, And govern the nations
on earth.

Psalm 7:6-8 

Psalm 48:11

Well that should be enough to get the point across.  Continuing
with Daniel:

Daniel 8:14  And he said to me, "For two thousand three hundred
days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed."

17.. "Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time
of the end."

(Not the end of time)

There is nothing to separate Daniel 7 and 8, as Daniel 8 is an
explanation and elaboration of Daniel 7.  Therefore the events
should be the same in both chapters.  Therefore, the cleansing
of the sanctuary and the judgment against the little horn and
for the saints should be parallel events.

Daniel 9:24  "Seventy weeks are determined For your people and
for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end
of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in
everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And
to anoint the Most Holy.

Daniel 9:25  "Know therefore and understand, That from the going
forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until
Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two
weeks; 

Only Jesus could make an end of sins.  Only Jesus could bring 
reconciliation for iniquity.  Only Jesus can bring in righteousness.   
He was the greatest fulfillment of prophecy. 

Luke pinpoints the year that Jesus began his ministry.  

Luke 3:1  Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being
tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and
the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

2  while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God
came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

Jesus' ministry was 3 1/2 years.  From 27 AD, 3 1/2 years brings
us to AD 30, halfway through the year.

Daniel 9:26  "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut
off, but not for Himself;

27  Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But
in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and
offering. 

Daniel 9:26  "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut
off, but not for Himself; 

27  Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But
in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and
offering.

Only Jesus could confirm the covenant, for He was the covenant
maker.  Only He could bring an end to sacrifices, for all the
sacrifices pointed towards Him. He was not cut off for himself,
but for sinners.

He himself described this sacrifice as judgment.

John 12:31  "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of
this world will be cast out.

32  "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all
peoples to Myself."

33  This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

So Jesus' death on the cross was judgment.  It was the execution
of judgment for those who would accept him as Savior.  He took
their punishment. He was executed for them.  

It was the investigative judgment for Satan and his angels,
because their unrepentant wickedness was made clear before the
universe.

Let's return for a moment to our introduction.  In the early
1800's a group of people began looking for the soon return of
Jesus.  They studied their scriptures and finally decided that
Jesus would return in 1844.

They believed that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the return
of Jesus Christ to take the righteous home.

The event that they expected did not come, but much more was
happening than they realized.  The time of the end did begin at
that time.  The foundation of our world as it is now was being
set up.  Let's look at the Biblical signs, and at others which
support the time of the end scenario.

Events Demonstrating the Time of the End - 1798-1844

Signs in sun, moon, and stars.

Lisbon earthquake

Knowledge increased

French Revolution

Karl Marx - Socialism - Communism

Darwin - Origin of Species published 1840's

Rise of dispensationalism

Mormons (prophet)

Adventists (prophet)

Bible societies

Modern economic theory

Rise of higher criticism of the Bible

Daniel 8:14  And he said to me, "For two thousand three hundred
days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed."

17. "Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the
time of the end." (Not the end of time)

The 2300 days take us to the time of the cleansing of the
sanctuary.  The concept of sanctuary takes us back to the
sanctuary in the wilderness.  The cleansing of that structure
was a symbolic taking of the confessed sins of the Israelites 
and making a final disposition of them.  As mentioned in
connection with the Day of Atonement, God's greatest desire is
to keep sin out of his people rather than forgiving the sin
continually.

Unfortunately, we are out of time, so we will examine the
meaning of judgment for a modern society next time.

Let's have a quick summary.  The judgment is the judgment of
God.  
Can he be loved by humanity?  
Will people respond to His
goodness?  
Is He fair?  
Can His will be followed?  
Can a people grow to love God more than anything, anyone else?  

Those are the questions of judgment.  
How judge you these things?

I leave you with this text.

Psalm 76:8  You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; The
earth feared and was still,

9  When God arose to judgment, To deliver all the oppressed of
the earth.

Can you say with David, Lord come deliver the oppressed of the
earth?  If that is your desire, just bow your head right now and
tell Him.