DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 25, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it
is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and the
dead." Acts 10:42.
You will notice throughout this short address by Peter how very careful
he is to speak not at all upon his own authority, but wholly upon the
authority of the Most High. He commences his conversation by saying
that God had shown him that it would be right for him, as a Jew, to
commune with Gentiles. God had shown it to him–he had not, therefore,
broken through Jewish law as the result of his own judgment, but under
Divine direction. He goes on to commence his sermon by saying, "The
Word which God sent unto the children of Israel." He had come,
therefore, not with a Word of his own inventing, but with a Word of
God's sending. "That Word, I say, you know." Then he speaks of Jesus of
Nazareth Himself as anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. And
he speaks of himself and his fellow Apostles as "witnesses," bearing
testimony to what the Lord Jesus had done.
Now, this way of speaking was, perhaps, rendered the more necessary by
the mistaken reverence which Cornelius had rendered to his person, for
he fell down at the Apostle's feet and worshipped him, but it should be
the constant habit of all the ministers of Christ. It is ours to keep
within the boundaries of our commission and shield ourselves behind its
authority. What are we that we should, of ourselves, have anything to
say unto you, my Brothers and Sisters? What is our authority and by
what right can we speak of ourselves? Verily, we have no such power
over you and if we come unto you in our own name, bid us not God speed!
Every true minister must speak because he is commanded to speak. He
must speak what he is commanded to speak and he must be prepared to
fall back upon the authority of the Word of God continually. "If they
speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in
them." Only if the testimony of any man is in accordance with the Word
of God, is God with him and it would be perilous to reject his
testimony. The Apostle was not long in his address before he came to
the doctrine of the judgment of all men by Jesus Christ. He says that
he was commanded to preach it and, therefore, he did preach it. It may
not be called, "the Gospel," but it is certainly a most important
accessory Truth to the Gospel–it is one of those doctrines without
which a Gospel ministry would not be complete. I mean that if in any
testimony concerning Christ the doctrine that He shall come a second
time to judge the world were utterly neglected, such a testimony would
not be a complete Gospel.
Hence you find that Paul, when he preached to the famous congregation
of the Areopagites, took care to insist upon this Truth of God. In Acts
17:30, 31, he says, "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day in
the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He
has ordained; whereof He has given assurance unto all men, in that He
has raised Him from the dead." This was also a part of Paul's subject
when he stood before Felix–"he reasoned of righteousness, temperance
and judgment to come"–and this made Felix tremble, for there is great
force of conviction in that solemn Truth of God.
The doctrine of the judgment of the world by Christ was used by Peter
and Paul and other Apostles as a sort of preliminary Truth which they
insisted upon before they came to the essence of the Gospel which
consists in preaching Jesus Christ as a Savior. They plowed with this
doctrine before they sowed the invitations of the Gospel. They did not,
however, lay the axe to the root and then forget to proclaim the Word
of Grace–they preached the terrors of the Lord, not in a legal, but a
Gospel manner! Peter does so in this case, for he first speaks of
Christ in the judgment and then in verse 43 he adds, "To Him give all
the Prophets witness, that through His name whoever believes in Him
shall receive remission of sins."
This morning, in obedience to the same command, I shall try to speak,
first of all, upon the message. And, secondly, upon the evident
importance to be attached to it which we shall, in a great measure,
gather from the words of our text. May the Holy Spirit, who in Peter's
day fell on all those who heard his word, fall, also, upon you as you
are led to believe in the Lord Jesus!
I. First, let us consider THE MESSAGE which God commands all His
servants to declare. That message begins with the assurance that there
is a moral government. There is a Judge over the race of men–we are
not as the locusts, of whom Solomon says that they have no king. The
world is not left unobserved of God to be as a den of wild beasts, or a
pond of fish where everyone devours his fellow and none calls them to
account. Men are not permitted to do whatever is right in their own
eyes, but there is a Law and a Governor over them. God has committed
all authority unto His Son and Jesus Christ, at this moment, reigns and
rules over the whole race of men, taking account of all the actions
that are done in their bodies and making note of everything in order to
the summing up of all things by-and-by. There is a Law, there is a
rule, there is a government over the human commonwealth. The race is
not left to anarchy–Jesus Christ is Head of all.
That being announced, we have to go on to say that there will be a
judgment. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment." As the result of there being a government over mankind, an
assize will be held where cases will be tried and justice will be
administered. This, indeed, is the sanction and support of the Law,
that it will call men to account. Its voice of power proclaims, "O you
house of Israel, I will judge you everyone after his ways." There will
be a day of final account. I need not stop to quote the numerous
passages of Scripture which assert that every one of us must give an
account of himself before God, for we are fully persuaded that "we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ."
But, my Brothers and Sisters, we think that all reasonable persons will
conclude that there must be a judgment if they will only consider the
Character of God. Being the Ruler of the world, He must do justice. We
should count any man who was made a king but a miserable counterfeit of
a monarch if he never administered justice at all. If we had a state
without laws, or laws without punishments for those who broke them, we
should be, indeed, in a wretched condition and our king would be the
mimicry of royalty! But such is not the case in the kingdom of Him who
rules over all! It is said of our Lord, "You love righteousness and
hate wickedness"–this makes us feel that He wills to do justice. And
as assuredly as He has power to punish transgression, we feel certain
that He will do so.
There will come a day in which He will judge the acts of men because
His Character is not such that He could or would trifle with evil. "Be
not deceived, God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, that shall he
also reap." "The Father who, without respect of persons, judges
according to every man's works" will not permit offenders to insult His
Laws with impunity! It is wrapped up in the very idea of God that He is
Judge of all the earth and must do right–and to do right He must hold
a final court in which He will "render to every man according to his
deeds." The character of man equally involves a judgment, for he is
evidently a responsible being and this is dear to anybody who cares to
open his eyes.
We count not the cattle of the hills or the fish of the sea
responsible–let them do what they may. No one blames the wolf that he
howls, or the lion that he devours. But when we come to think of man,
we regard him as a creature whose actions have a moral quality about
them and are either right or wrong. In fact, he is a responsible agent.
Surely, where there is responsibility there is a law and where there is
a law there must, some day or other, be rewards for well-doers and
punishments for malefactors. The constitution and nature of man
inevitably require this, or else his responsibility is given to him in
vain.
Now, the present tangled condition of the world's history requires that
there should be a day of rectification at the end of time. At this
moment we often see the wicked prosper while the righteous are abased.
At this day the mirth and the jollity are often connected with sin,
while sorrow and grief go hand in hand with godliness in many and many
an instance. Remember how the wise man argued and be persuaded by his
reasoning–"Moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that
wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was
there. I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the
wicked." Since the actions of men are evidently now left unpunished and
highhanded sin holds power, there must come a righting of the wrong and
a clearing of the just. The Judge of all the earth must do right and
how can this be but by a final adjustment in which it shall be clearly
seen that though the wicked prosper for a while, they are as bullocks
fattening for the slaughter–and though the righteous suffer for a
while, it is but as the gold suffers in the furnace–that it may come
forth purified.
Every heart that has ever groaned under the oppressor's wrong; every
soul that has ever writhed under the proud man's arrogance must feel
that there must be an end to the reign and riot of evil and a time in
which innocence shall be avenged. Every Job may lift himself up before
his false accusers and say, "I know that my Avenger lives and that He
will stand in the latter day upon the earth." Moreover, there is in the
consciences of most, if not of all men, a testimony to a coming
judgment. I will not say of all men, for I believe that some manage to
drug their self-consciousness as at last to quiet all their fears. But
the most of men believe in a judgment to come and in their more
thoughtful moods are alarmed.
There is more faith as to the judgment than we dream of in those who
are most profanely daring in their speeches against God. The reason why
they speak so exceedingly proud is because their consciences make them
cowards–and to veil their cowardice they use bombastic words. These
are the men that tremble first–the men that first cry out for mercy
when the hand of God begins to touch them! How very seldom do you find
a man die in stolid unbelief! At some time or other, reason will speak
and conscience will be heard–and then that "dread of something after
death" makes men cling, even, to the most wretched state–choosing,
rather, to bear the ills they have than fly to others! They know not of
the universal conscience, or almost universal conscience, that speaks
like a prophet within the soul and tells of a throne of judgment, a
Heaven and a Hell!
Now, whether we had or had not this argument to support us would make
not one jot of difference to those of us who believe in the Word of
God. What God says would always be enough for us, even if the nature of
things and the apparent force of reason should flatly contradict His
Word. Yes, I will even put it in that harsh way! We are always glad
when we get the subordinate help of arguments fetched from the nature
of things and so forth, but we care very little about them. We have
accepted the Bible as God's Revelation. We believe the teaching of this
Book to be Infallible and inasmuch as the Scriptures declare that there
is a judgment to come, we confidently look for it.
Now, according to the Revelation of the Gospel, this judgment will be
conducted by the Man, Christ Jesus. God will judge the world, but it
will be through His Son whom He has ordained and appointed to actually
carry out the business of that last tremendous day. He who shall sit
upon the Throne is "the Son of Man." He will be thus enthroned, I
suppose, partly because it is involved in His mediatorial office in
which the Lord has put all things in subjection under His feet. He is
at the right hand of God–"angels and authorities, and powers being
made subject unto Him." God has been pleased to put the world, not
under the direct government of personal Deity, but under the government
of the Mediator, that He might deal with us in mercy.
That Mediator is Prophet, Priest and King–and His kingship would be
robbed of its Glory if the King had not the power of life and
death–and the power of holding court and judging His subjects. Jesus
Christ, therefore, being mediatorial King and Sovereign and all power
being given unto Him in Heaven and in earth, will take unto Himself His
great power at the last and will judge the nations. This high position
is also awarded to our Lord as an honor from the Father by which shall
be wiped away every trace of the shame and dishonor through which He
passed among the sons of men. The kings of the earth stood up to judge
Him, but they shall stand before Him to be judged! The rulers took
counsel together to condemn Him, but the rulers shall stand at His bar
to be, themselves, condemned!
Pontius Pilate and the chief priests shall all be there. And Caesar and
all Caesars and Czars and emperors and kings and princes shall do
homage before Him in the lowest manner by standing before His judgment
seat as prisoners to be tried by Him. There will be no remembrance of
the scepter of reed, for He shall break His enemies with a rod of iron!
There shall be no marks of the crown of thorns, for on His head shall
be many a diadem! Men shall not, then, be able to think of Him as the
Man of tears with His visage sadly marred by grief and shame, for His
eyes shall be as flames of fire and His Countenance as the sun shining
in its strength!
O Cross, whatever of shame there was about you shall be wiped out
forever among the sons of men, for this Man shall sit upon the Throne
of Judgment! The Father designed to put this honor upon Him and He has
right well deserved it. Jesus Christ as God has a Glory which He had
with the Father before the world was. But as God-Man, He has a Glory
which His Father has given Him to be the reward of that labor of life
and death by which He has redeemed His people. "Give unto the Lord
glory and strength" is the ascription of all His saints and God, the
Everlasting Father has done this unto His Son, concerning whom He has
sworn that every knee shall bow before Him and every tongue shall
confess that He is Lord to the Glory of God the Father!!
"Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all
their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." I
want you especially to remember that in the Holy Scriptures we are
perpetually reminded, in reference to the Judgment, that it is a
judgment by the Man Christ Jesus. There must be special reason for this
honor done to the Manhood of our Lord, or it would not be so
continually insisted upon. Daniel, in his prophecy, (7:13), says–"I
saw in the night visions and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with
the clouds of Heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought
Him near before Him."
The coming One in his vision was "the Son of Man" and we all know to
whom that title belongs. Hence our Lord Himself very early in His
ministry took care to claim for Himself this power of governance and
judgment. Turn to John 5:22 where He says, "The Father judges no man,
but has committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor
the Son, even as they honor the Father." Then, in verse 27, He gives us
the reason for His being thus ordained to be the Judge–"And He has
given Him authority to execute judgment, also, because He is the Son of
Man." So that not only does Daniel see Him as the Son of Man, but Jesus
Christ, Himself, declares that the authority to judge is given to Him
because He is the Son of Man–there being in that fact a peculiar
reason why He should be Judge of all mankind.
Your memories will at once allow you to recollect that in the famous
pictures drawn by our Lord wherein He describes the Judgment, (Matt.
25:31, 32), He takes care to begin by saying, "When the Son of Man
shall come in His Glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall
He sit upon the Throne of His Glory: and before Him shall be gathered
all nations: and He shall separate them, one from another, as a
shepherd divides his sheep from the goats." He does not call Himself
the Son of God in this case, but says, "The Son of Man shall come in
His Glory." So is it, too, in Matthew 13:41–"The Son of Man shall send
forth His angels and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things
that
offend."
This it was which seems to have struck the Apostle Paul so much when he
quoted from the Psalms and applied the language to Christ, in Hebrews
2–"What is man, that You are mindful of him? Or the son of man, that
You visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned
him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of Your hands:
You have put all things in subjection under his feet." Whereon he says,
"We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor." It is as Son of God as
well as Man–having an intense sympathy both with the King and with the
subjects– having manifested His Grace even to the rebellious and being
yet filled with intense love to the Father and His Law. If we could
have the election of a judge, what being could we suppose more
impartial or so impartial as the Lord, who, though He counted it not
robbery to be equal with God, yet made Himself of no reputation, and
took upon Himself the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh?
O blessed Judge, be You at once enthroned by the choice of the whole
creation! This Person is peculiarly suitable to be Judge because He has
a perfect knowledge of the Law. Yes, Your Law is My delight, He says.
He put on righteousness as a garment. The Lord Jesus Christ, from His
youth up, was an exceedingly deep scholar of the Law of God. He grew,
as a Child, in wisdom concerning the will of God. His ears were opened
to hear as He learned, that He might know how to speak a word in season
to them that are weary. He knows the Law, for He made Himself subject
to it and kept it in all its parts. This is the first requisite of a
judge–to be thoroughly acquainted with the statute-book.
Yet further, He knows, also, the evil of law-breaking. What a Judge is
this whom God has appointed, who, strange to say, has Himself suffered
for sin though in Him was no sin, for He was holy, harmless, undefiled
and separate from sinners! Yet the sting of sin, which is death, He has
endured and the curse of sin has passed upon Him, as it is written,
"Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." With what precision, then,
can He judge who, being both God and Man and knowing well the Law, has
also an intimate acquaintance with all the heinousness and wickedness
of law-breaking! Well did the Father choose Him to be the Judge of the
quick and the dead! It puts judgment beyond a fault when He who is the
Friend of sinners is made the Judge of sinners. Thus much, then,
concerning the fact that there will be a judgment and that this
judgment will be conducted by the Man, Christ Jesus.
Now, observe, that this judgment will concern all mankind. He will
judge the quick and the dead, that is, those who will be alive at His
coming He will judge as well as those who have already died. He may
come before some of us shall die. The time of His advent we cannot
guess, but we shall certainly appear before His Judgment Seat whenever
He shall fix the assize. The summons will exempt no man–from the
utmost ends of the earth they shall come! None will be able to hide
themselves in solitary places, or to find shelter among the crowded
cities. Here and there a criminal escapes the vigilant eyes of human
law. Though it is difficult to do so, there have been cunning men who,
year after year, have managed by various disguises to escape
recognition and have continued their depredations and evaded the
police. But there shall be no such instance among all that shall be
alive and remain at the coming of the Lord!
And as for the dead who have died in past ages, they shall all rise
again. What prodigious multitudes! What crowds that baffle all
arithmetic! Yet shall they all be arraigned and tried–all the living
and all the dead of Christian lands and heathen lands–of antediluvian
ages and of ages upon which the ends of the earth have come. Kings,
princes and every bondman, rich and poor, small and great, shall all
stand in that Last Great Day in Christ's great Judgment Hall. It
concerns you, my Brothers, as it does me. It concerns you, my Sisters,
and your children as well as those who have gone before. As surely as
the Lord lives, the things that are seen shall pass away–mountains and
hills shall flee before Him and rocks shall be melted down at His
Presence–but His Word shall never pass away! And behold, He comes!
"Behold, He comes with clouds and every eye shall see Him! And they,
also, which pierced Him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of Him."
Just a few words concerning this Judgment. When He does come, that
judgment will be a very eminent one. It will be a judgment fixed by the
peremptory ordinance of God, for the text says that He has "ordained"
Jesus to sit as Judge. It is by ordinance and decree that Jesus Christ
will take the Throne. He takes not this honor upon Himself on His own
authority, but He claims the Throne as One that was ordained of God as
was Aaron. In all His offices He quotes the Divine decree and for this,
the last of all, He has the ordinance of God to be the Judge of the
quick and the dead. Everything done will be by Divine authority–there
will be the stamp and seal of the everlasting God set upon everything
that shall be transacted on that grand occasion. The whole trial will
be most solemnly conducted. I shall not, for a single moment, attempt a
description of the scene. There is room, indeed, for imagery and
poetry, but we have none of these and need them not this morning. This
will suffice–"For the Lord, Himself, shall descend from Heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and
the dead in Christ shall rise first" (1 Thess. 4:16).
There shall be shouts when He comes, as if all the angelic bands lifted
up their voices in acclamation and, above them all, one voice shall
ring out most majestically, the voice of the archangel! And yet above
all other sounds a trumpet call shall thunder forth, most dreadful to
the ears of ungodly men. Louder than ten thousand thunders shall it
peal over earth and sea and none shall be able to resist the summons.
Then, in His descent, the Judge shall pass into the region of the
clouds. He shall sit upon a Great White Throne and every eye shall see
Him–and also they which crucified Him. His coming will be with great
pomp of angelic splendor, fit for the state of such a King and for the
solemnity of such a day!
That judgment will be very searching, for the Apostle Paul tells us in
2 Corinthians 5:10 that we shall give an account for the deeds done in
the body, each one according to what he has done, whether it is good or
whether it is bad. And our Savior, in Matthew 12:36, informs us that
for every idle word that man shall speak he must give account in the
Day of Judgment–words, therefore, will be put in evidence as well as
actions. Yes, and there will be an account taken in that day of things
which never reached the publicity of words, for you know how Solomon
closed up the book of Ecclesiastes by saying that, "God will bring
every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good
or whether it is evil." Paul also says, "God will judge the secrets of
men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel."
Such things as were never known by our fellow creatures and were
forgotten by ourselves shall be revealed and judged. Imaginations,
lusts and desires of the soul, secret thoughts and passions and
murmuring shall be laid open before all men–and before God shall a
reckoning be made. That Judgment will be of a very exact kind. It will
proceed upon evidence and documentary testimony–slander and hearsay
will not be mentioned. No condemnation will come upon good men through
the whisperings of malicious tongues, but everything shall be done in
due order and according to the rules of the Court of Heaven.
Listen to this–"And I saw a Great White Throne and Him that sat on it,
from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was
found no place for them: and I saw the dead, small and great stand
before God, and the books were opened"–documentary testimony brought
into court as evidence–"and another book was opened, which is the Book
of Life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works." Don't you see that the
judgment will be done by record and solemn affidavit, in that great
Court of King's Bench? There
will be no hurry, no passing over judgment with a light hand–all will
be done in truth, equity and according to facts recorded by the
Infallible Omniscience of God.
And what severity of justice will then be seen, for things will not be
judged by their outward appearance, but put to thorough test and trial!
Hear the words of the Lord–"Every man's work shall be made manifest:
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and
the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Well may we
cry with Malachi, "But who may abide the day of His coming? And who
shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like a
fuller's soap." The sentences which will then be pronounced will be so
just as to be indisputable and even the condemned will admit the
justness. At the Last Great Day not one of the condemned shall be able
to deny his guilt nor the justice of the sentence! Though sent to Hell,
he will feel it is what he deserves.
You remember when the king came in to see the guests and found a man
that had not on a wedding garment, the intruder could make no excuse,
but stood speechless? There shall be an assent in every human mind to
the sentence of the Christ of God–it shall flash such awful conviction
into the soul of every sinner that, though he is damned, his own soul
shall say, "Amen," to the condemnation! Oh, what a Judgment Day will
that be in which everyone shall be certain, even in his own sad case,
that the verdict of the Judge is bright as the sun with righteousness
and cannot be appealed against! This, surely, will be the Hell of
Hell–that it is deserved even in its utmost pang and bitterest pain.
Oh, my Hearers, will any of you have to say, "Amen," to your own
condemnation? I pray the Lord to save you from such a fate.
That verdict will be final and irreversible. When Jesus has once
pronounced it, there will be no appeal, no suing out of a writ of
error, no reversal of the decree. He Himself has said it–"These shall
go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life
eternal." There will be no delay in execution, nor escape from the
doom! There will be no steeling of the heart to endure it and no
outliving the doom! It will last on in all its terror, the final
verdict of the Judge of all the earth, pronounced by the Christ of
Love! I know not how to speak upon such a theme as this, but must leave
it as it stands before you. May the Holy Spirit impress it upon your
minds.
II. I desire, in the second place, to call your attention for a little
while to THE EVIDENT IMPORTANCE OF THIS MESSAGE. Its importance may be
gathered from the text because it says, "He commanded us to preach
this." Did the eternal God give a command for us to preach this Truth
of God? Then He must know, in His infinite wisdom, that there is a
great necessity for its being declared. But please notice the way in
which the command is to be executed. "He commanded us to preach." Now,
to preach means to herald, to proclaim. Lo, we this day precede the
great Judge as the trumpeters go before our judges on assize day and
this is our cry, "He comes! He comes! He comes! The Man of Nazareth,
Jesus, the Crucified, is coming, appointed Judge of the quick and the
dead!"
And we are to cry this with all the loudness of voice and earnestness
of tone and solemnity of manner which become the heralds of the King of
kings! Whether you believe it or not, He comes! Whether you trifle with
it or not. Whether you are rebels or loyal subjects, He comes and that
speedily! He comes to judge the world in righteousness and the people
in equity. Thus we make solemn proclamation in His name, declaring to
you a fact which you will do well to hear with serious hearts and
thoughtful minds.
But then it is added that we are "to testify that it is He." Having
given the proclamation, we are then to solemnly bear witness and to
speak the fact over and over again for God, adding our own belief that
it is surely true. In the Greek, this word, "testify," is very
forcible, something like the affirmation which those of us who account
it wrong to take an oath are known to make in courts of law. We give
our solemn affirmation and truthful testimony that it is so. It is the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth that we declare when
we tell you that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of Man, is coming
upon the clouds of Heaven to judge the quick and the dead. We are to
speak of this as a thing we know and are certain of–and we are to
stand before men and whether they will hear, or whether they will
forbear–testify that it is so. That which is to be both proclaimed and
testified in obedience to the Divine command is no mean matter. Listen
and take heed, I beseech you.
And this is to be done "unto the people"–not to some few, but to all
the people–to the Gentiles, to the nations. Wherever we go, this is to
be part of our proclamation as the heralds of Christ, "Behold, He comes
to judge mankind." To you, my Hearers, even to you is this word of
warning sent! Will you not regard it? Now, Brethren, there is
importance in this, not only according to the text, but from other
reasons. If you think awhile, you will see that it sheds a great light
upon the future of the ungodly. Whatever you, my Brother, choose to say
of the wrath of God which is
revealed concerning the impenitent, please think of this! It may be you
feel troubled about its dread severity and eternity–but let this ease
your perplexity that the Judge upon whom the sentence depends is Jesus
Christ, the Savior of men!
I feel perfectly safe in leaving the future of the wicked in such hands
as His! And however terrible may be His own words–and they are
terrible to the last degree–about the future of the lost, I, for one,
can never quarrel with Him. If it were Moses that spoke, if he spoke
for God, I dare not challenge him, yet there might be the temptation.
But when He speaks who is the Son of Man, let all the earth keep
silence before Him! The severity which He exercises must be inevitable
severity–you can be sure of that. If there is pain, anguish and wrath
to every soul of man that does evil, then, since it is the Christ who
will pronounce it, it will be because it must be and cannot be helped,
but must be so in the nature of things. Therefore we bow before this
dreadful doctrine of Scripture and, instead of trying to quiet men in
their sins, we know the terrors of the Lord and we beseech them, in
Christ's stead, that they be reconciled to God–
"You sinners, seek His face, Whose wrath you cannot bear! Fly to the
shelter of His Cross And find salvation there." Fly into the clefts of
that rock which otherwise will grind you to powder when it falls upon
you!
This doctrine, too, that Christ is Judge, ought never to be forgotten
because it reflects great Glory upon Him. Ah, sons of men, you may
despise Him, but He is your Master! You may say, "Let us break His
bands asunder and cast His cords from us," but Jehovah's own decree has
set Him as King upon His holy hill of Zion! You may, if you will, bite
your lips and rage and rave against the Incarnate God, Jesus our Lord
and King, but you shall stand before Him as surely as you live, to
confess the blindness and the futility of your opposition and to be
made to bow your knees in terror if you will not bend them, now, in
reverence! Yes, He is King! The world may say what it wills and there
may come darker times than these, but the lone star gleams afar with
undying brightness–the Star of the morning which ushers in the eternal
day! Jesus comes and when He comes, light breaks for all that are on
His side–and the black and murky darkness of an endless night shall
descend on all that are His foes.
I close by noticing that the importance of this doctrine is very great
if we remember its beneficial effect upon our everyday life. I
constantly hear silly people, wicked persons, say, "Tell the people
about something that has to do with today–about cleanliness and
honesty and all that!" As if we did not do that and as if we were not
the first to exhort men to fulfill all manner of social duties, do we
not bid them think on whatever things are pure, honest, temperate and
of good repute? And if I want men to live righteously, soberly and
honestly, I know of no motive that can have greater weight with them
than this of a judgment to come! Take that away from us and what have
we to urge upon the sons of men at all? If they are to die like brutes,
they will live like brutes! If there is no hereafter, they do well to
say, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
This, though it looks like a future thing, is one of the present-day
questions of every hour. You are stewards–you will have to give your
account. Your Lord will come and question you as to your use of His
goods. Will anybody in his senses tell me that this is unpractical?
Surely every reasonable man will admit that for the promotion of right,
truth and holiness, this is one of the most practical considerations
that can possibly be found. If God will judge men at the last, it
behooves men to see how they live today. Another special benefit of
this Truth of God is its convincing and awakening power. Men tremble
when they hear of judgment to come and they are led to cry, "What must
we do to be saved?" Men begin to confess their sins when they are told
that the Law by which they will be judged is spiritual and reaches even
to the thoughts and intents of the heart. "Then," they say, "who can
stand before His Presence when once He is angry? If even to think an
evil thought, or to lust an evil desire brings condemnation, who among
us can stand when the heart-searching God shall sift the sons of men?"
This is the reason why it ought to be preached, for only penitents
convinced of sin are likely to accept the remission of sins. This is
the plow which makes furrows for the good Seed! This is the surgeon's
knife which prepares for the reception of the healing balm. And O, my
Brothers and Sisters, you all know how quickening this doctrine is to
Christians! We do not fear the Day of Judgment–we do not dread the
thought of standing before our Lord Jesus because we have a plea which
we know will answer every purpose! Our plea is this–we have been
tried, condemned and punished already! Judge of all, You know when we
were tried, judged and condemned! Look! In Your hands are the nail
prints which are the witnesses that You bore our sins in Your own body
on the tree! Look! On Your side You wear the ruby gem which tells how
Your own heart made expiation for the guilt of all that trust in You!
We are not afraid, for there is no judgment for him who is judged
already! There is no punishment for him who is punished already in a
Substitute whom God has accepted! Yet this expectation of judgment
quickens us to holy duty– we feel that since the Master comes, we
would be as men that look for their Lord and stand with our loins
girded, doing service, expecting to hear His footstep at any moment–
"O watch and pray! The Judge is at the door!
Before His flaming bar you soon must stand.
O watch! And keep your garments spotless pure,
And then shall you be found at His right hand." I shall be glad if any
word that I have spoken upon this Truth of God shall strike and stick
and abide in your hearts– and make those think who have been most
thoughtless concerning the world to come. Years ago a gentlewoman had
been spending an afternoon at cards and the evening at a ball and
such-like amusements. She came home very late and found that her maid,
who was sitting up waiting for her, was reading a book. "Ah," she said,
"are you still poring over your dull books? They make you moping and
melancholy."
The lady retired to her chamber but she couldn't sleep. In the night
she was troubled and fell a-weeping. Sleep forsook her. She tossed to
and fro and at length she called her maid, who asked, "Madam, what ails
you? I thought I left you very merry and well." "Oh," she said, "but I
looked over your book and I only saw one word and that word stings me.
I cannot sleep. I cannot bear it!" "What word was it, Madam?" "It was
that word, 'ETERNITY.' Oh, Maid," she said, "it is very well for me to
sport and play and waste my time as I have done, but oh, eternity,
eternity, eternity! How can I face eternity?"
And so that night was turned to weeping and to prayer. I could wish the
same might happen, now, to many of you. The Judge is at the door! Jesus
comes to judge you–will you have Him, now, to be your Savior? If not,
His coming will cause you to weep and wail–and that throughout
eternity! Remember that word, ETERNITY. God bless you all. Amen.
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Jesus Admired In Them That Believe