Living with a fresh view of judgment

Turn with me please to the gospel by Matthew. Just a few minutes left. Gospel of Matthew, first of all, chapter 27.

I'd like to carry on with what our brethren have had before us. My topic this morning is just this, living with a fresh view of judgment. Living with a fresh view of judgment.

Matthew chapter 27, verse number 45. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Revelation, please, chapter 20.

Book of the Revelation, chapter 20, verse number 11. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven 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 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.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Second Corinthians, finally, chapter 5. Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse number 10.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men that we are made manifest unto God. And I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

And Lord will bless to us the reading of his word. Was appreciating Enoch just lately and Noah, men that walked with God, and I noticed something very interesting that they both had in common. Enoch and Noah were men who lived with a view of judgment.

You come to the little book of Jude and it says that Enoch had a vision, a prophecy, that he saw the Lord coming with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on the ungodly. And we come to Noah and he walked with God. What did he have? He had a voice from God, a warning from God of things to come.

He was warned of the judgment of God that was coming. So thinking of the first two men in our Bible that walked with God, having a view of judgment, I was wondering, what about me? If I'm going to walk with God, do I need to have a view of judgment? And I'm going to say this morning, we do. We do.

We need to have a fresh appreciation of the judgment of God. We read of three different judgments today. We read of the cross.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? A judgment for sin at the cross. A fresh view of Calvary. We come to Revelation chapter 20 and we've got the judgment of the great white throne.

And I want to ask just this, have you gotten a fresh glimpse of that judgment, dear brothers and sisters? You'll never be there, as far as being judged there, but a fresh appreciation of the great white throne. And finally, just very shortly, a fresh appreciation of the judgment seat of Christ. I was thinking of the Lord Jesus.

You know, we read about him in the Gospels. And I wonder, did he ever have judgment on his mind? All the time. You think of him there.

He was constantly foretelling of his suffering. He was constantly foretelling of his death. He was weeping over Jerusalem, those that would not repent, those that would not come to him.

And so the Lord Jesus, there was judgment on his mind. When we come to the cross of Calvary, brethren, if we're going to walk with God, we can't ever leave that place. We can't ever leave the cross.

Continually there. Always there, remembering what has been accomplished in our place, in our stead at the cross, where our sin was judged. The wrath of God was meted out upon our Savior for our sin.

And if we're going to be a man or a woman that walks with God, we must have a fresh appreciation of Calvary. The busyness of life comes in. The things of time, the things of sense, the things of responsibility, and the first thing we lose sight of is the judgment of God.

You think about it. You go about your day and you've got your list of things to do today, and maybe you've had a little time with the Lord in the morning, and the busyness of life and the schedule of life comes in. We may not forget about our Savior right away, but what leaves our mind is what about the lost? And we're too busy to remember judgment.

Too busy. Too occupied. We're too important to remember the cross of Calvary, where the Lord Jesus Christ suffered a fresh appreciation of the judgment of God against our sin there.

Judgment of God against sin. I thought of the Lord Jesus every Passover. I thought of Him there as that lamb was slain.

Do you think you had a fresh appreciation of the judgment that was coming? He knew what it meant. He knew why it was instituted. He knew that He was the Lamb of God which was to take away the sin of the world.

And I marvel every time He would eat that roast lamb, what would go through His mind. No doubt He thought about the judgment of God that He was going to endure at the cross of Calvary. A fresh appreciation of Calvary.

We come to Revelation chapter 20. Have you lost your appreciation of the judgment of the Great White Throne? What can we say? We've all got loved ones that will be there. Do you have loved ones that will be there? And here we are in the busyness of life.

And as we've heard about Jacob, we need to be restored not only to the judgment of sin at Calvary. We need a fresh appreciation of the Great White Throne today. I believe that with all my heart.

Because when I am reminded afresh of loved ones that will be there. Friends that will be there. Not only am I thankful that I won't be there, but there's a love that comes to your soul, is there not? You know, we're looking at motivation of love today.

It's not about fear. We come to the cross and we see the love of God for us. We're reminded of His love.

We come to the Great White Throne, and does it not motivate us to move out to sinners? Whether we know them or whether we don't know them. To seek to have just a little wee word with them about the judgment of sin that's coming. We've lost it, brethren.

And we lost it. You and I can walk by sinners on the way to hell like they weren't even there. Why? We've lost the vision of that awful place.

The dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books are opened. And those not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life and the Book of Life are cast into the lake of fire.

Would it not touch our souls today to think what we've been delivered from? And would it not touch our souls to see where loved ones are going? A fresh view. Of that judgment. We come to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

How many times in a day do you think about the judgment seat of Christ on an average day? It's an honest question. I asked myself that question this morning. How many days last week did I actually think about the judgment seat of Christ? When we're taking up in gospel meetings.

We're thinking about people. We're thinking about souls that want salvation. And we're thinking about what to preach on tonight.

And we're thinking about who's going to be there. And I couldn't remember one day last week that I thought of the judgment seat of Christ. I'm just being honest.

How about you? Can you think of a day in the last month? We must all appear. We must all appear. And we don't even think about it.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That everyone may receive the things in his body according to what he has done. Whether it be good or bad.

My motivation here is not fear. I'm not going down that line today. What I want to talk about is the motivation of love.

We're going to be there. Can we not do something out of love for him today? Not living a life where I wonder if that's going to stand the test of the fire. I'm not interested in thinking that way just this morning.

I wonder if I did it with the right motive. Or I wonder if I did it good enough. Or I just... No.

Just very simply and very devotedly this morning. Is there something that I can do for him? Out of love. A fresh appreciation of the judgment of the Bema.

The judgment seat of Christ. To look back at Calvary. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So that you and I could be at the Bema.

He was forsaken for our sin. And because we're in him. And because we're saved this morning.

We're going to be there. We'll never be at the gray white throne. But we'll be at the judgment seat of Christ.

And I'm appealing to your heart this morning. As I appeal to my own. Is there something out of love today you can do for him? With a fresh appreciation of Christ.

A fresh appreciation of all that was accomplished there. A fresh appreciation of who He is. The list goes on and on.

Who He really is. The Son of God. The only begotten of the Father.

Full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. A fresh appreciation of Him.

It's all about Him. It's all about Him. Just a little something fresh in our souls.

You see Enoch. He walked with God. He had a vision of a judgment that was coming.

The Lord coming with 10,000 of His saints. To judge the ungodly. Isn't that something? Affecting the way he walked.

Does the gray white throne affect how we walk? I'm jumping back and forth here. I'm sorry. That's what happens when you get ahead of yourself.

Does it affect how you walk? See people are looking on. My wife and I were having this conversation the other day. Why we do what we do.

Is it so people will see us and acknowledge things that we've done? Or is it an example for others to follow? There's a difference. And here's Enoch and he's walking with God. Why? He's an example.

He's not doing it for his own glory. He's not doing it for his own recognition. But he's an example to those in his day.

Here's a man that walked with God. Why does he live that way? He's a fear of judgment. He knows what sin requires.

You see when we have a fresh appreciation of judgment, we're tender towards sin. I don't mean that we favor it. But we're sensitive to it.

We're sensitive. When you come to the cross of Calvary and you look at the Lord Jesus and you remember His suffering, doesn't that make you soft, sensitive towards sin? When you come to the judgment of the great white throne, certainly if there isn't a place second to Calvary, it would be that. Where we see the real penalty for sin.

Where it really affects us. Really what sin has coming. Enoch walked with God.

He was sensitive to sin. Our society is so desensitized to sin. Believers, if we say it hasn't affected us, we're deceiving ourselves.

When we consider the holiness of God, and we consider really how we live, and really how we think, and really how sin has caused us to laugh. Sin makes us laugh. Terrible thing.

And they're all colored jokes that make us laugh. We've all laughed at stuff like that. Every last one of us.

But when we have a fresh view of judgment, we become sensitive to sin. Oh, shouldn't have done that. Sin is real to us.

I'm going to make a suggestion today that our lack of sensitivity towards sin is our biggest spiritual downfall. How can we walk with God when we walk in sin? How can we please God when we don't even realize what sin is and what it's doing? We're oblivious to what sin has done to us. And we enjoy being saved, and we enjoy the forgiveness of it.

But as a Christian, as a believer, we're oblivious to what sin does to us. What it robs us of. What it takes from us.

The effect that it has on others. Other Christians. The unsaved.

It's terrible. And Enoch walked with God because he had a real revelation of the judgment of God towards sin. What about Noah? 120 years he built the ark.

Every day of his life. And I can't say this. Every day of his life, as he built away, he was reminded of judgment that was coming.

Every day. He walked with God. He walked with God.

My brethren, are we going to forget all about it? Are you and I so busy? This is real. This is 2015. We know it's real.

Are we too busy to remember Calvary? My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Why He was forsaken. Are we too busy? Are there more important things? Nothing more important than Calvary. Are we too busy? So taken up with business or whatever it might be that we lose sight of the judgment of the great white throne.

I'm learning something from Murray. And I can embarrass him. He's embarrassed me.

No, you can't embarrass him. It's impossible. He's memorized hundreds of people's names from Ontario.

He asks me who they are. Who's that person? Who's that? And I tell him. And the next time he prays for them by name, he knows who they are.

Why? Because their soul is on the way to hell. And we've lost sight of the judgment of the great white throne. Brethren, we've lost sight of the judgment seat of Christ.

May we go from this conference with a fresh appreciation, a fresh view of the judgment of God.