Investigating the Judgment

Open 39

RR-Matthew 25:31-46

c-184

We continue today with out study on the Three Angels of
Revelation 14.  We will complete our look at the judgment
concept as seen through the eyes of these three angels.

We noted that judgment permeates the Bible, from Genesis to
Revelation.  We saw how particularly the end time judgment will
be in many ways a repeat of the events which surrounded the
flood.

We noted how the great time prophecies in the Bible were tied to
the theme of judgment.  Daniel 7-9 showed that to us, and then
swept us down through time to Daniel 12 which has those solemn
and exciting words of Judgment.



Daniel 12:1  "At that time Michael shall stand up, The great
prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there
shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a
nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be
delivered, Every one who is found written in the book.

2  And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting
contempt.

3  Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the
firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the
stars forever and ever.



We saw how that throughout the Bible, judgment is something that
is to be welcomed by God's children, and feared by his enemies.

We also noted that the judgment is His judgment,  that is the
judgment of God.  

How can God be judged?  Who can judge him?  Why does he need to
be judged?  What does that have to do with us?

Lets look at our questions.  First, how can God be judged?

Let me remind you of something that I have said before.  It's
about God.  We are living inside of an insane experiment, in
which the mad scientist has declared that there is no god but
himself, and anyone who believes otherwise should be eradicated.
 We are evidence in this struggle for the minds and bodies of
the creatures that God has made.  

If you will permit me, I would like to use a bit of deductive
reasoning for a moment.  Does God know the end from the
beginning?  Last time we noted that He knew from before the
foundations of the earth everything.  

Does God know if you will untimately be saved or lost?  

Does God need records to help him make up his mind?

If there are records outside of God's mind, what purpose might
they serve?

If I had a perfect memory I wouldn't need written records to
help me remember things.  

Now, remember we are talking about the hour of God's judgment. 
The plan of salvation greatly effects us, but it is about God!!

If we take the focus of judgment off of ourselves, and pace it
on God, we suddenly get a much larger picture of the great
controversy.  

God has declared himself to be a loving God, and draws us to
him.  The enemy declares that God is arbitrary, and is just
after slaves.  He has no compunctions about lying, cheating, and
deceiving God's creation into turning their backs on the one who
loves them.

At the cross, God was judged before the unfallen worlds.  It was
demonstrated to them that the result of sin, should it be
universal, would result in the collapse of the universe.  
Remember that even the physical world was affected when Christ
died on the cross.

This is still evidence to the Christian of Jesus' worthiness to
be our king and elder brother.  But it goes beyond that.  

Which brings us to the next question.  Why does God need to be
judged?

Anytime there is a conflict between two parties, a decision has
to be made on who is right.  When the stakes are the universe,
and what all beings will become, the need escalates
astronomically.  If the question is whether Joe is right or Erik
is right, it is not earth shattering. But when two beings each
claim the title of God of all Creation, it effects everything
and every being literally.  

When this all winds down in the end, there can be no doubt left
in any mind of what would happen under the leadership of the
enemy.  It has always led to death, decay, and destruction.  He
has never created life. He has altered it.  He has never created
a world, but he has just about ruined one.  

As awful to us as the consequences are, we just recognize that
what is happening right now is the playing out of that first
choice against God's way in the Garden of Eden.  Mankind, led by
Satan, doing what he presumes to be his own thing, is bound
straight for destruction.

So, for the sake of eternity, God's way needs to be judged to be
the right way, for every being alive, or this chaos could go on
forever.

And the judgment will happen.  Or, is happening.

Who can or will judge God?  That one's easy.  Every body.  By
the way we live, and by our faith we demonstrate to the Enemy
that God's way is fair and just.  We can worship him.  We can
live lives that reflect his goodness.  We can overcome sin
through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We can be loyal to God
when things seem to be too tough.  

Those who reject his goodness by their actions declare that they
judge God just as the Enemy does.

.  Every being in the universe who has not decided for or
against God, will do so before time is over.  

And eventually everyone declares that God is the sovereign
ruler.  

Phil 2:9  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given
him a name which is above every name:

10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.



So what do we do with passages like:



1 Peter 4:17  For the time has come for judgment to begin at the
house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the
end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

18  Now "If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the
ungodly and the sinner appear?"



Hebrews 10:30  For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I
will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His
people."

31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.



What does this have to do with us?

When every knee has bowed and every tongue confessed that God is
ruler, there will be some who will not honor God as supreme.  It
is quite one thing to declare Jesus, Jesus, and quite another to
make him the Lord of our lives.  There is a vivid example of
this in the book of Acts.

Acts 19:13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took
upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of
the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul
preacheth.

14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of
the priests, which did so.

15  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and
Paul I know; but who are ye?

16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and
overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out
of that house naked and wounded.

17  And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling
at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord
Jesus was magnified.

Matthew 25 has several telling passages about judgment.  The
first is the parable of the 10 virgins, 5 of whom were ready and
5 of whom were not.  The difference in this case was that 5 had
prepared and 5 had not.  Both groups were taken by surprise. 
Both groups had been sleeping.  But one group had gone the extra
mile, so to speak, in preparation.

The next parable is of the parable of the man who gave each of
his three servants some money, according to the abilities that
each one had.  Two of the servants used their talents to
increase the money for their master.  The third, whether out of
disloyalty for the master, or because of laziness, or whatever,
refused to work to increase what he was given.  

Matthew 25:24 "Then he who had received the one talent came and
said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have
not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

25  'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the
ground. Look, there you have what is yours.'

In his own words he admitted his disloyalty.

In the third parable of the sheep and the goats, where they are
divided (judged) we find an interesting twist.  Those who were
sure that they were doing the things that would merit them
salvation, were the ones who were rejected.

Those who did not keep track of their actions to present them as
meritorious, were the ones who Jesus accepted.

One of the fascinating things I see about these parables is
this:  in essence, each person judges himself by the way he
lives or the actions that he takes.  What the mouth says is not
the criteria.  All of the virgins were waiting for the
bridegroom.  All three of the servants were servants.  All of
the sheep and goats professed to be sheep.  We are not talking
about haters of God here.  The difference in the saved and the
lost in each case is the actions that they took and the
motivation behind those acts.  We take sides by our actions.  If
we side with Satan and he wins, we lose.  If we take sides with
Satan and he loses, we lose.  If we take sides with God and he
wins, we win.  And he has won.  It is all over but the
formalities.  

Maybe I can make it a little clearer.  Some of you have heard me
describe this.  This is the way that I understand the legal
system in ancient Israel.  It has some similarities to our
system.  

And some very important differences.

First, there was an accuser.  We today would call that a
prosecutor.  That person would present the facts as he saw them
to the judge.  Then there was the defendant.  The defendant
would try to present his side of the case.  But there was no
defense attorney.  Not as we think of it, anyway.  The judge was
to be the defender!!  Particularly in a capital case, the judge
had to find you not guilty unless there were testimony from 2
witnesses that went against the defendant.  

Let's play this out.  You are accused of committing a murder. 
In actuality, it was an accidental death.  You declare your lack
of malice and plead for mercy.  The accuser presents his side of
the case.  But no one else is able to testify as to the facts of
the case.  The judge had to find you not guilty.  The judge had
to protect you unless there were evidence from 2 witnesses.

I picture the heavenly judgment in a similar fashion.   

When our names come up before Jesus, the Accuser of the Brethren
pops up and says quickly, "He's mine.  He has sinned, stumbled
and fallen.  He must die."

And sure enough, Satan's records show every shortcoming, every
fault.  This is a capital case.  The death penalty is involved. 
So Jesus looks at his record.  He looks up at the accuser and
says, "This man says that he has no sins because he let me take
them.  Therefore, he is found not guilty, and can pass into the
kingdom."

Do you see what has happened here?  When you confess your sins,
take Christ as your substitute and example, you declare that you
agree with him that your record is blank.  Two agree to your
innosince.  No sins.  No punishment.

Now what if you have not let Jesus be your sin bearer?  When the
accuser comes before him and presents his case, and the record
books are opened, there it is.  You agree with the accuser by
your own actions.  Therefore the penalty is death.

Remember, in the sanctuary service, which is all about judgment,
it was always the lamb that was inspected.  It was the lamb that
had to be perfect.  And it was the lamb that had to bear the
sinner's sins.  Once the lamb bore the sins of the sinner, the
sinner was free!!  A sinner could only die if he bore his own
sins.

The only thing that the sinner did to be worthy of forgiveness
was to let a lamb stand in his place.



And brothers and sisters, today, and for eternity, it is the
lamb that takes the sins of the world upon himself so that he
might have a church.  A bride fit for eternity.

Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.

Have you let that lamb stand in your place?  

Do you want to let the lamb stand in your place?

Have you let the blood of that lamb turn your record spotless?

Do you want to do that today?  































































































34  "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come,
you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world:

35  'for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and
you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;

36  'I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited
Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'



37  "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did
we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?

38  'When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked
and clothe You?

39  'Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

40  "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say
to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My
brethren, you did it to Me.'

41  "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart
from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the
devil and his angels:

42  'for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and
you gave Me no drink;

43  'I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you
did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'

44  "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we
see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in
prison, and did not minister to You?'



45  "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you,
inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you
did not do it to Me.'

46  "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life."



34  "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come,
you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world:

35  'for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and
you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;

36  'I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited
Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'



37  "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did
we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?

38  'When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked
and clothe You?

39  'Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

40  "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say
to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My
brethren, you did it to Me.'

41  "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart
from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the
devil and his angels:

42  'for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and
you gave Me no drink;

43  'I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you
did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'

44  "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we
see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in
prison, and did not minister to You?'



45  "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you,
inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you
did not do it to Me.'

46  "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life."