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[b]Thoughts On The Coming Judgement[/b]
[i]by brother Greg[/i]

A meditation on the coming judgement for all believers

ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE JUDGEMENT

All roads in this life lead to the judgement seat of Christ late Keith Green once said. In the choir of life it is easy to fake the words, but one day we shall all sing solo before God. All things will be brought before God one day, nothing will be hidden, everything will be exposed. A philosopher has said, "The history of the world is the judgment of the world.” Leonard Ravenhill once said: “We know we ought to be living better and that is our condemnation.” C.S. Lewis put it succinctly: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says in the end, 'Thy will be done.’”

An old hymn written by Will L. Thompson is entitled, There's A Great Day Coming. Here are some of the words:
"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 bright day coming; A bright day coming,
There's a bright day coming by and by;
But its brightness shall only come to them that love the Lord,
Are you ready for that day to come?
Are you ready? Are you ready?
Are you ready for the judgement day?


WE ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE

The judgement of God and our being accountable before Him in that “great day” is a subject spoken of in almost every biblical book. We are without excuse with such a testimony and light of this sobering day. May we take heed and spend time meditating on this vast heavenly subject of the judgement bar of God. Here are some very strong passages on this theme of judgement and accountability of the believer in light of it:

In Matthew it says: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

In Corinthians it states: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”

In Acts it says: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”

In Ecclesiastes it states: “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

In the book of Romans it says: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

In Hebrews it states: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

In Revelation it states: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: 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. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”


THE DEADLIEST PHARISAISM

Oswald Chambers speaking on the verse, ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ’ said: “Paul says that we must all, preacher and people alike, "appear before the judgment seat of Christ." If you learn to live in the white light of Christ here and now, judgment finally will cause you to delight in the work of God in you. Keep yourself steadily faced by the judgment seat of Christ; walk now in the light of the holiest you know. A wrong temper of mind about another soul will end in the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment, and the end of it is hell in you. Drag it to the light at once and say - "My God, I have been guilty there." If you don't, hardness will come all through. The penalty of sin is confirmation in sin. It is not only God who punishes for sin; sin confirms itself in the sinner and gives back full pay. No struggling nor praying will enable you to stop doing some things, and the penalty of sin is that gradually you get used to it and do not know that it is sin. No power save the incoming of the Holy Ghost can alter the inherent consequences of sin. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light." Walking in the light means for many of us walking according to our standard for another person. The deadliest Pharisaism to-day is not hypocrisy, but unconscious unreality.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” And oh how that does ring true to many Christians who walk and practice sin inwardly but act like in their speech they are separate and called apart bearing the name of the Church. This division and cutting away of sin from the heart is the message of the gospel. Christ has come to give us a new heart, a pure heart, a clean heart, a heart that desires holiness and righteousness. We must part with that wicked old heart that cherishes sin and evil, we must bring it to the Cross of Christ to deal with it, nothing else will avail.


SOBERING REALITY IN THE CHURCH

The Judgement of God is a sobering reality, it kills the self-life. Living in light of the judgement will radically change our life’s, our ambitions, goals, desires will change. You will not live a selfish, self-sufficient, satiated life full of sin. Rather you will begin to share the life of Christ in you including his sufferings. This is a time for the Church to realize how far it has fallen in light of that “great day” the time is drawing to a close will we be found wanting? Oh hear the prophetic pleading of Leonard Ravenhill to this generation to get right with God in repentance and restitution:

“‘Oh yes, many may want to get filled with the Holy Ghost and get a bank balance, but how many of you are big enough to say, ‘Lord, in this crucial hour in human history, let me fill up with the sufferings of Christ’? Can He share His sorrow with you? Are you prepared to challenge demon power and say, ‘Listen, I've moved into the place where the Apostle Paul was when he said, I glory in tribulations and necessities and reproaches'’? Watch out though, because if you're going to get mature in God, all the dwarfs around you will criticize you and sneer at you and say, ‘Trying to be holier than the rest of us, huh? So you don't have time for basketball or going to see a baseball game?’ No, maybe you don't, but that's nobody's business but yours and God's. Do you get so near to the heart of God that you share His grief over the world and over the backslidden church that we have today? One of the most famous preachers in the country recently called at nearly midnight and said, "I've come to this conclusion: God Almighty has already taken His hand off America - for the simple reason that we've had so much light and we've rejected it!" It's not only true that we live in a world of bankrupt politics, we live in a world (this is the most tragic part of all) of a bankrupt church.”


OF THE LAST JUDGEMENT

The Westminster Confession of Faith says on the subject, Of the Last Judgment: “God has appointed a day, wherein He will judge the world, in righteousness, by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father. In which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds; and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil. The end of God's appointing this day is for the manifestation of the glory of His mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect; and of His justice, in the damnation of the reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient. For then shall the righteous go into everlasting life, and receive that fulness of joy and refreshing, which shall come from the presence of the Lord; but the wicked who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin; and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity: so will He have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and may be ever prepared to say, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen.”

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon