In this sermon, William Blackburn emphasizes the message of God's love, mercy, and grace throughout the Bible. He highlights the importance of repentance and turning away from sin to receive God's forgiveness. Blackburn warns America about its moral decay, including issues such as homosexuality, abortion, pornography, and drug use. He reminds the audience that God has appointed a day of judgment, as promised in the Bible, and urges them to seek salvation through Jesus Christ.

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week, we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, and powerful sermons for modern preachers, too. This week, we have William Blackburn with his message, The Final Judgment of God. The great message of the Bible is that God is a God of love and mercy and grace. The one message that goes throughout the Bible is this. God is saying, I love you, I love you, I love you. I like what the Bible says in the book of Romans. It says, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The message of the Bible is God loves you. God loves you with all of your faults, your failures, your sins. God loves you. But hear me, teenage friend. The Bible says God is also a God of judgment and wrath. Yes, God loves you, but hear me tonight, friend. The Bible says God is holy, he hates sin, and God has dedicated himself to one day judging sin. Friends, I want to tell you something. God is a God of love, but God is also a God of judgment and wrath. Because the God that set little children on his knee in Mark 10 is the same God that sent a universal flood and destroyed the entire world in his judgment. The God that welped at the tomb of Lazarus is the same God that killed Ananias and Sapphira. The God that welped over Jerusalem and healed the sick is the same God that sent fire and brimstone down from heaven. Yes, God is a God of love, but God is also a God of judgment and wrath. Let God be balanced. You see, you take away his love, he becomes a bloodthirsty tyrant. But you take away his judgment, and he becomes a silly sentimentalist that just winks at sin. God says, one day I'm going to judge the world. God says, I command everyone in Laurel, Mississippi to repent of their sins and turn to Jesus because one day I'm going to judge the world. The apostle Paul, in these verses I've just read, he was going to the city of Athens. He was going to Mars Hill to preach a sermon. On his way to Mars Hill, he saw several statues that were tributes to pagan gods. One statue was given to the unknown God. These Athenians were so fearful that they would offend a God they didn't know about. They had a statue to an unknown God. And Paul said, let me tell you about this unknown God. Let me tell you about the one living and true God, Jesus Christ. And Paul told them this message. He said, one day God is going to judge the world. God says, repent of your sin, turn away from your foolishness, turn away from your silliness, turn away from your rebellion against God, and turn to the one living and true God. God has appointed a day. He will judge the world in righteousness by that man He has raised from the dead, Jesus Christ. He's going to judge the world. My message tonight is to America. I preach to America tonight with her 20 million homosexuals. I preach to America tonight with her one and a half million criminal abortions every year. I preach to America tonight with their prostitutes and their pornography and their wickedness and their drugs. I preach to America with their self-righteous, puffed-up religion but no Jesus. I preach to America tonight to tell you that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world, the living and the dead. You say, William, how do you know that God's going to judge the world? Because God has promised to judge the world. The Bible says God has appointed a day. Do you hear that, young friend? There's a God in heaven who has appointed a day, a definite day, a particular day. One day, God has said, on that day, I will judge the world. God promises judgment. I want to tell you, I travel across America, and I'm telling you the world is laughing about God's judgment. They are laughing at the promises of God, but I want to tell you, you can laugh about the promises of God. You can laugh about judgment of God, but you cannot laugh it away. You see, my friends, in Noah's day, the men laughed at the promises of God. When God promised to send judgment by sending a universal flood, they laughed. But I want to tell you, the flood still came and destroyed the world. In Lot's day, those homosexuals laughed at the promise of God. When God said, I will rain fire and brimstone down from heaven, but the fire and brimstone still came. They laughed in Jesus' day when He said the Roman army will come into Jerusalem and level it to the ground. But the Roman army came and leveled it to the ground. Now, you put it down straight. You put it down solid. When God promises something in His word, brother, it's going to happen. And God promises that one day He's going to judge the world. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's guarantee that one day He's going to judge the world. The Bible says He's appointed a man, a man that He has raised from the dead, Jesus Christ. Friend, listen to me. It's always amazed me on Easter Sunday how people who, they rush to church on Easter Sunday morning, and yet the rest of the year they turn their back on God. My friend, don't you understand that Easter, the day we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, is God's greatest guarantee that one day He's going to judge the world. I'm telling you, if you study all the evidence and you have an open heart and an open mind, there's absolutely no way you can avoid the truth that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, He's alive in heaven right now, and one day He's coming back. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof positive that your sin will be found out one day. God is going to judge the world. Several years ago, there were two lawyers. And these two lawyers, their name were Little and West. And these two men were atheists. They didn't believe in God. So they set out to disprove God. They set out to disprove that Paul had been converted on the Damascus Road. And they set out to prove that the resurrection was not true. These two men got their Bibles, they got all the historical documents, and they began to search and dig like lawyers trying to prove that Jesus had not been raised from the dead. But after several years of studying deep in the Bible and studying history, you know what happened? Little and West got saved. Because I'm telling you, as sure as I'm standing here tonight, Jesus Christ is living. He's in heaven. He's been raised from the dead. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's guarantee that one day He's going to judge the world. I'm telling you, friend, if there's a man here tonight that flatters himself that there'll be no judgment of God, if there's a man here tonight who thinks he can sin and he's not going to be called into account for it, if there's a man here tonight who thinks he can trample on the blood of Jesus Christ and reject God and get away with it, I'm telling you, put that thought out of your mind, friend. It is baseless. There is a judgment of God coming, and you're going to stand before God one day and give an account of your life. The judgment of God is certain, and every lost sinner will stand before God. Because the Bible says the judgment will be a judgment of the world. It says God will judge the world. Oh, listen to me, friend, it won't be a class judgment. It won't be a certain group of people. It'll be every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, every teenager who has rejected Christ. They will stand no matter who they are, no matter where they're from, no matter how much money they've got, no matter who their daddy is or who their mama is. If they have not been born again by the Holy Spirit, they will stand before a holy God and give an account of their life. There is going to be no escape from the judgment of God. And I will tell you, a lot of times men escape judgment here on planet Earth. We have a lot of men. There are burglars that have never been arrested. There are murderers who've never been caught. There are fornicators and adulterers and blasphemers and sinners who seem to get by with their sin. But, friend, I'm telling you, there's a day when Holy God is going to send His angels out. He's going to gather up the living and the dead. They're going to stand before God, I'm telling you, in deepest, darkest Africa. They're going to give up those that are buried there in the Sahara Desert. They're going to give up the dead. The sea will give up the dead. Death and hell will give up the dead to stand before God on that judgment day. I'm telling you, dear friend, a few years ago, there was a physics professor in a major university. And he wrote in his will that when he died, he wanted to be cremated and his ashes spread across the sea. When he died, they did exactly that. They cremated his body. And they spread his ashes across the ocean. But you hear me tonight, sir, there's coming a day when God's going to gather those ashes together. And He's going to stand that physics professor before His holy judgment. I'm telling you, dear friends, you cannot crawl into the grave and pull the dirt on top of you and hide from God. I'm telling you, if they cremate your body and they spread your ashes to the four corners of the earth, God's Holy Spirit's going to put those ashes together and stand you before the judgment. Because the judgment of God will be a judgment for the whole world. Every man without Jesus. Revelation 20, verse 8 says, But the fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable, the murderers, and horror-mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. You say, William, I'm not a murderer. I'm not a robber. I'm not a horror-monger. I'm not a liar. Listen to me, friend. The second one mentioned is unbeliever. You say, what does it mean to be an unbeliever? Now hear me carefully, Laurel, Mississippi. You can believe in Jesus and still be an unbeliever and go to hell. Because the Bible says the devil believes in Jesus. You may have walked down an aisle. You may have prayed some little prayer. You may have been dunked in some water. You may have your name on a church row. But my friends, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that will save you means this. You must make a decision to repent, young friend. You must turn away from the world. You must turn your life over to God. You must be born again by the Holy Spirit. And I'm telling you, men, we have lived with a generation of people that thinks God has no power. They think they can walk an aisle and really get saved and remain the same. But I'm telling you, that's not found in the Bible, sir. When you really give your heart to the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God comes in your heart. It produces a changed life. It produces a love for God. It produces a passion for God. When a man is born again by the Spirit of God, he seeks and hungers after the things of God. And men, this idea that you can come to church on Sunday and live for the world the rest of the week and still be saved, that's not found in the Bible. And teenage friend, the idea that you can be a member of a church, come to church on Sunday, or a youth activity on Wednesday, whether on Friday and Saturday night, you're out there living in sin like all the other teenagers, and you think you're saved, you are dead wrong. I want to tell you, when a man gets the Spirit of God, when he really believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, it points him to live the way God wants him to live. But the judge will be the judgment of the world. And what will be the standard of the judgment? Let's note what the Bible says. The Bible says God will judge the world in righteousness. That word righteousness means honesty, truth, perfection. That means the Word of God. This Bible I hold in my hand will one day be the standard by which God judges the world. Well, what does the Bible say about judgment, sir? What's God going to judge? When you stand before a holy God on that day, and God opens up the Bible, the Word of God, and you are judged by righteousness, what does that mean? Well, the Bible says, number one, it means you will be judged by your words. Here's what the Bible says in Matthew 12, 36. It says, but I say unto you, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou art justified, and by thy words thou art condemned. Every word you speak goes in God's record. Now, men, look at me. That would be serious enough if it just meant our serious, studied, prayerful words. But it says even our idle words are recorded by God. Every flippant thing you've said, every dirty joke you've told, every lie, every slanderous remark, every childish complaint, everything that you've said flippantly about God, by every idle word you've ever spoken, God says that one day you will stand and you will give an account for every word you've ever spoken. And, men, I want to tell you, those men who have taken the name of Jesus lightly, those men who have turned their back on God, those who have blasphemed the name of Jesus, they're going to stand before God and give an account for every word they've ever spoken in their life, good or bad. The Bible says you'll be judged in righteousness by every idle word you've ever spoken. But the Bible says you'll also be judged by your deeds. Because in Romans 2, 5 and 6 it says, But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasures up unto thyself wrath and revelation of the righteousness judgment of God, who will, listen, who will render to every man according to his deeds. Every wicked act is put under your name. Every overt act against God is recorded in God's record. Every transgression against the law of God is put to your account. Did you cheat? God wrote it down. Did you lie? God put it in the record book. Did you commit adultery? God has engraved it in stone for all eternity. I'm telling you, friends, every word you've said, every thought you've had, one day you will stand before God and give an account. There'll be no excuse. There'll be no way out. You'll stand before a holy God and your life will be revealed. I want to tell you, that man tonight who's living in drunkenness, who's giving away his life, his manhood and his family, that drunken man will stand before God one day and give an account of that rebellion against God. That woman tonight who is living a frivolous life, just partying with society and she's not living for God, that woman will one day give an account of that for God. That man who has made gold his God, that man who knows what he ought to do but he won't do it, that man who lives in sin and lust, that man will one day stand before a holy God and give an account, young teenage friend, for every laugh you've had, every joke you've made, you'll give an account to God one day. The Bible says every idle remark, every deed you've done, you'll give an account to God. But listen to this, not only your words and your deeds, but the Bible says your secret things. In Romans 2.16, listen, sir. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, those things done in the dark, those things done in secret, those things done and covered up, those things you've done that nobody but you and God know about, sir, one day those secret things will be shouted from the rooftop. Oh, I'm telling you, you're going to give an account for every secret act in your life that is in rebellion against God. Now, you may be here tonight and you say, well, wait a minute, William, I'm a good person, I'm a moral person, I come to church, but you listen to me, friend. Suppose right now that every thought you've had, every desire you've had, every imagination you've had for the last 24 hours were photographed and we projected them on a screen for everybody to see tonight. What would that do to your heart? And yet one day you're going to stand before God and every thought you've had, every deed, every secret act, not only for 24 hours, but for your entire life will be shown for the world to see what you really are, a sinner lost and condemned. The secret things, those things that we have hidden from our husband, our wife, our pastor, we have even hidden from ourselves, but friend, we have not hidden them from God. And the secret things will be judged one day, but the greatest basis of judgment, the Bible says, will be what have you done with Jesus? The Bible says he that believes on him is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. My friend, I will tell you, every sin you've ever committed will be forgiven except the one sin of unbelief. You can be forgiven for murder, robbery, rape, adultery, pornography, selling drugs to little kids, but the one sin God says he will never forgive is unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the word believe, when it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Greek word pistou. It means not just to believe it with your head. It means to commit your life to it, to surrender your will to it, to be born again by the Holy Spirit. Friends, I want to tell you, our churches today are filled up with people who have a head knowledge, but they don't have a heart knowledge. They know all the stories about Jesus, but they've never committed their life to him. They've not been born again. You know how you can tell? By how you live your life seven days a week. Men, listen to me. The Bible teaches there's no such thing as being saved and living lost. That was made up by a bunch of badness somewhere. That's not found in the Word of God. The Bible teaches you are what you live. Sir, if you live like a lost man, you're a lost man. You need to come and be born again by the Holy Spirit. And our churches are filled up with men who have walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, but they have not been born again by the Holy Spirit. And sir, there's coming a day when you're going to stand before God and give an account of your wicked, rebellious life. You're going to stand before God. You're going to give an account for every word you've ever said, every thought you've ever had, every deed you've ever done, every secret sin you've ever committed. And you're going to give an account for rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I can imagine what some of you will say when you stand before a holy God. You'll say, wait a minute, God. Wait a minute, God. I know I'm saved because I walked in an aisle and I made a profession of faith. And Jesus Christ will say, there are many who profess me with their mouth, but with their life, they deny me. There'll be some folks that say, well, wait a minute, God. I lived a good moral life, but God will hold up the Bible and say, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. You'll say, wait a minute, God. I worked hard at the church. I was a Sunday school teacher. I was a deacon. But God will simply hold up the Bible and say, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us. Some of you will say, well, I didn't know Jesus was the only way to be saved. But God will hold up the Bible and say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me. Every lie you tell, the truth will deny it. Every excuse you make, the word of God will stand against it. And you will stand before God to be exposed. And God tonight says, I call men to repent. God says, I laughed at your foolishness in the past, but today I demand all men to repent. And the reason God calls you to repentance is, God says, because I have appointed a day in which I will judge the world in righteousness by that man that I have raised from the dead. And that's my guarantee that I'm going to judge the world. The Bible says, except you repent, you'll perish. Except you repent, you'll perish. You cannot serve two gods, teenage friend. You cannot serve the God of popularity and the God of heaven. You cannot serve the God of athletics and the God of heaven. You cannot serve the God of the world and the God of heaven. The Bible says, you cannot serve two masters. You will love one and hate the other. And the Bible says, love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, then the love of the Father is not in him. And God calls you to repent. That means simply tonight you must change your mind. Change your mind about sin. Change your mind about Jesus. Change your heart. Stop loving the world. Start loving Jesus. Change your direction. Stop going the world's way and turn around and go God's way. You must repent. God commands every man to repent. Because the judgment of God is coming one day. Many years ago, Alexander the Great was leading his great army in battle. It was the night before the great battle, and they were very close to the enemy, going to do a surprise attack. And Alexander the Great told every soldier there, he said, Listen, tonight there will be no light in the camp. No fires, no candles, no light in the camp to give away our position to the enemy. That night all the camp was dark. But there was a 19-year-old boy who was concerned about being killed in battle. He wanted to write his mother a letter. He lit one candle. He was there under his tent writing that letter. When Alexander the Great himself, walking through camp, saw the candle, he confronted that young man. He said, Young man, I've told you no light in the camp under the penalty of death. And the young man tried to make an excuse. He tried to explain. He tried to rationalize. Listen, I'm just writing my mother a letter. I'm just trying to explain that if I get killed in battle, how much I loved her. But Alexander said, I gave you an order. You have disobeyed an order. No light in the camp, and you've disobeyed. And he was executed. And I'm here to tell you, sir, God has given you an order. God commands you to repent. God commands you to turn from your sin. Turn away from the world and turn to the living and true God. And I'm telling you, there's coming a day. The Bible calls it the Great White Throne Judgment. Oh, the Great White Throne Judgment. The glory, the splendor of it, I cannot describe. And on the Great White Throne will be none other than Jesus Christ himself. A rainbow around his head, a glass of sea at his feet. He will stand there, his eyes with a flame of fire to look straight into your very soul. You will stand before a holy God, naked and alone and exposed. And the Bible says the books will be opened. And every word you've spoken, every deed you've done, every secret thing in your life, every rejection against God will be revealed to stand before God. It shows you've never truly given your heart to Christ. The Bible says there's another book, one book, a single book, a solitary book. The Bible calls it the Book of Life. And the Bible says for whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Oh, my friend, tonight, are you saved? Are you saved? I'm not asking have you walked an aisle and prayed a prayer, man. In Laurel, Mississippi, everybody's done that. I'm not asking have you been baptized, sprinkled, or confirmed. I'm not asking do you believe in God. I'm not asking are you a good person, sir. I'm asking you right now can you go back to a moment you remember when the Holy Spirit of God spoke to you personally and God told you that you were a sinner, a rebel, lost, and condemned. If you had broken God's law, you had broken God's heart, you were a rebel. And because you had sinned against God personally, you were condemned to hell. And there was absolutely nothing you could do to save yourself. Do you know why you remember it? Because it was the most desperate moment of your life. It felt like the weight of the world was on your shoulders. Your heart began to beat fast. The palms of your hands began to sweat. For the first time in your life, you knew that you were lost from God, doomed and down. What were you going to do? And then somebody took a Bible and told you about Jesus. How he had died on the cross to pay your sin debt. How he had been buried in a tomb and raised from the dead. And how if you had turned from sin and gave your life to him, he'd forgive you and save you. You know what you did? You got on your face before God and you said, Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. God, I admit it, I'm a sinner, I'm a rebel. I've lived my own life, done my own thing, but I'm sorry, God. But God, I believe you love me and I believe Jesus died for me. And the best I know how, I turn away from the world and I give my life to him. And man, when you stood up after praying that little childlike prayer, something inside your heart that day, it changed. And you've never been the same. From that moment until tonight, you've had a passion for God. You've had a love for God. You've had a hunger for God. You know why? Because you were born of the spirit of God. God commands every man everywhere to repent. Because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. By that man, he is raised from the dead. Jesus Christ has his guarantee that one day he will judge the world. You've been listening to the From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons series. This week, you heard William Blackburn with his message, The Final Judgment of God. Tune in next week to hear Ray Comfort speak about Hell's Best Kept Secret on From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.