Turn in your Bibles to Revelation
chapter 14. As you can see in the bulletin,
the title of this message is Truth in Judgment. That's why
I had Brother Mark read from Romans chapter 2, because that's
what that's talking about. It's talking about how we judge
one another. And somebody says, well, I don't
judge. Well, I'm going to judge you. I'm going to tell you you're
lying. Because you do judge. It's what we do by night. We
have a conscience. And the conscience is the courtroom
of our minds, you might say. We judge everything. I mean,
right now, you're judging whether or not I'm worth listening to
or not. You might judge in your mind
that I'm not, and you might be somewhere else in your dreams
or whatever. But I hope you're listening,
because I plan to preach to you the word of God. And that's the
most important thing that any of us can hear. And of course
that Romans 2 passage that Brother Mark read is basically how God
judges. God judges according to truth.
When we stand before, the Bible says it is appointed unto men
once to die and after that the judgment. And when we come before
God at judgment, there'll be no pretense. There'll be no fake. There'll be no hiding behind
some kind of a shield. Everything will be wide open
to him who knows all. And so we understand that. And basically, the passage, Mark,
I know you've studied this too and probably preached from that
passage, you know how That's talking about, listen, if you're
trying to be saved based on keeping the law, then here's your go,
you gotta keep it all. It's not the hearers of the law.
You can hear the law, you can read the law, you can memorize
the law, you can admire the law, but it's not the hearers of the
law that are justified before God, declared righteous. It's
the doers. And to do the laws to keep it
all, and I've got news for you, you're already behind. You've already missed the mark.
And so the point is, is that when God judges us according
to the gospel, he says, and we'll talk about that, the standard
is Jesus Christ according to our gospel. That's the standard
of judgment. And so understand that now. I
mean, you can go through life saying, well, I'm better than
this one, I'm better than that one, I didn't do what this one
did, I didn't do what that one did. That's not gonna help you
at the judgment. Because the standard is Jesus
Christ, the righteous one, and he did keep the law. He kept it perfectly in every
way. You say, well, I'm trying. Well,
first of all, you're not trying hard enough. Neither am I. And secondly, as hard as you
can try, you'll always fall short. You know, have you ever heard
quoted, you know, when you go into the churches and they talk
about the plan of salvation, the Roman road and all that,
one of the things they'll quote is Romans 3.23, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. What does that
mean? Well, that means we're all sinners. Well, yes, it means
that, but it means a little more than that. What is the glory
of God? Well, the Bible says the glory
of God is revealed in the face, which is the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What that verse means is this,
Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. It means no matter how hard we try, or how good we think
we are, we still don't make it. The best of the best, the worst
of the worst, and everybody in between, we don't make it. We
cannot, by our works, our efforts, our intentions, our sincerity,
our religious acts, we cannot make ourselves righteous before
God. And that's why God sent his son
into the world, to save his people from their sins. To do for his
people, his sheep, his elect, what we could not do for ourselves. That's why he died. Or, go back
further, that's why he was born of a woman, incarnate, the God-man. That's what he had to be. Emmanuel, God with. That's why
he grew up in wisdom and stature, and that's why he kept the law.
He said, I came to keep the law. Every jot and tittle, the smallest
part of the law. That's why he died justly under
the wrath of God, for the sins of his people imputed, charged,
accounted to him. And him dying, he was buried,
and that's why he arose again the third day. because he satisfied
justice and he brought forth an everlasting righteousness
of infinite value whereby God is just to save and justify and
be merciful to sinners like us. And it's that righteousness that
is found in Christ that is going to be the standard of judgment
in that day. That's what Romans 2 is talking
about. Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Look at Revelation
14 verse 6. Here's another vision, another
angel, another messenger from God coming to John on the Isle
of Patmos. He had shown him already in Revelation
14 the Lamb, the Lamb of God. That's Christ. The Lamb slain. for the sins of his people, worthy
is the Lamb, standing with his people upon Mount Zion, which
is the church, the true church, not just any church now, but
the church where the gospel is preached. Victorious Lamb. That's what his resurrection
is about, it's victory. He died but he was victorious,
his death was not a defeat. His death was not something to
cry over in the way of feeling sorry for him. Remember when
he was on his way to Mount Calvary carrying the cross and the women
were crying, he said, looked at him, he said, don't cry for
me, cry for yourselves. You're the ones to be pitied.
He was doing what he came to do. And that was established
before the world ever began, before Adam ever fell. Amazing
grace, isn't it? Paul talked about a salvation
that was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Do you
realize that if you're a believer, if you really know Christ, that
salvation was given to you in the mind and purpose of God before
this world began? Because your name was written
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world began. Now that's awesome,
isn't it? That's something to give glory
to God for. And you know what that tells
you? It tells you you didn't earn it and you didn't deserve
it. None of us have. And so here he is, the lamb,
on his throne. And then John says in verse six,
I saw another angel. Now that's maybe an angelic being.
Some commentators say that that's Christ himself who is sometimes
called the angel of the covenant or the messenger of the covenant.
He's not an angelic being in nature. He's God manifest in
the flesh. But he is a messenger and it
says in verse six, in the midst of heaven, coming in the clouds,
having the, listen to this, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on earth and to every nation and kindred
and tongue and people. It's like I mentioned before,
we got people here from all over. And I'm so thankful, it just
thrills my soul. When I saw a brother and sister
walk in and said, I'm from Manitoba, Canada. I thought, what? Did
you come down here just to hear me? That's my selfishness. From Ontario, Canada, from Lake
City, Florida. I mean, it's just mind-boggling,
isn't it? But God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. There's no barriers, there's
no social, racial, national, political barriers to this thing
called grace. God's righteousness at the expense
of Christ for his people. Amazing, and I'm glad that you
can spend a little time with us too before you get on your
way because we'll certainly be praying for you on your travels
back home. But notice what the angel's doing, notice the message.
It's the everlasting gospel. The everlasting gospel. You know
what that means? That means past, present, and
future. That's the eternal gospel. You
know the gospel is older than the world because the gospel
is the product of a covenant, an agreement, made between the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit before God ever spoke this world
into existence, and created the earth and said, let there be
light. God chose a people, that's what the Bible says. I know a
lot of people don't like to hear that, but too bad, that's what
God says. He gave them to Christ, put all
of the responsibility of their salvation on Christ before the
world began, before Adam ever fell. And it's the gospel, you
know the word gospel means good news? And it's not just good
news that someone came and died, was buried and rose again. It's
the good news of what all that means. Who came and died and
arose again? God, manifest in the flesh. God with us. That's who Jesus
Christ is. Anything, anyone lesser could
not have done what he did. If he was just God, he could
not have saved us, according to his justice, because God cannot
die. You can't kill God. But this
person who is God did die. Man cannot create and give life
to the dead, but this person who is man did. create life and
give life to the dead. He had to be who he was and who
he is. And the gospel, the everlasting
gospel, is the revelation of the righteousness of God. Read
it in Romans 1, 16 and 17. It's not the righteousness of
man. It's not what you can do for God. It's what he has done
for his people. What he has accomplished for
his people. That's what the good news is
about. Because if the gospel is about what we can do for God,
I wanna tell you, if you know the reality of sin and depravity,
that's not good news. Because we're failures. We read
it in Isaiah 40, the Lord hath accomplished double for all her
sins. That means he's done everything
necessary. The everlasting gospel is life unto life to God's chosen
people. It tells us how this person came
to earth, how he kept the law as my surety. What is a surety?
Somebody who takes my debt upon himself. Well, what is my debt? I've sinned against God. That's
a debt. There's a word in the Bible that, there's many words
for sin. Common word for sin is the word
that means coming short, missing the mark. That's all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We miss the mark, because
the mark is the perfection of righteousness that can only be
found in Christ. But another word for, I'll just
show it back in Hebrews chapter two, if you want to turn there,
go ahead, and I'll read it to you. But there's another word
for sin, and it's debt. And sometimes it's translated as behoove. You ever heard the
word behoove? We don't use that word too much
today, but it was popular in the Elizabethan English of the
King James Version. But it's Hebrews 2.17. And it's
talking about Christ coming into the world to establish righteousness
for his people, to put away our sins by his death. And it says
in verse 17, wherefore in all things it behooved him. That
word behoove is the Greek word for debt. He was indebted. Well, how could he be indebted?
He wasn't a sinner. He never became a sinner. He
was never corrupted with our sins, but our sins were laid
to his charge. just like a debt. Now, I always
tell people today that if there's any generation on earth that
ought to understand this thing about imputation, it ought to
be us. Because I'll just about guarantee
you that anybody here that's over 18 years old, you've got
a credit card. Or you've got access to one.
And what do you use a credit card for? To get things that
you don't mean to pay for at that time. So when you go into
the store and you use that credit card, that cost is charged to
your account. That's imputation, it's imputed
to you. And if you get into a position
that you can't pay it back, you're in arrears. And you know they're
not too forgiving. But what if mom and dad come
by and say, give me that credit card, I'll pay for it. Then the
debt is imputed, charged to them. And that's what this means. Christ,
it behooved him, my sin debt, which I wasn't even born, was
imputed to him. And he voluntarily, willingly,
and joyfully said, put it on my account, I'll pay it. I'm
happy to do it. Why? Because it glorified his
father and secured the salvation of his people. So wherefore in
all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. What
did it take to make reconciliation for the sins of the people? Reconciliation
between God and sinners, it took death. The wages of sin is death. So he had to die. So in order
to pay that debt, he had to become a man without sin. God, man. You understand? God, man. He
died. He paid the debt. He was buried.
He arose again the third day. What does that mean? That means
debt's paid. It means His people don't owe it. And the Bible says
it this way, Romans 8, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. If Christ
died for you, you cannot be condemned. Read the Bible. Because your debt's paid. How
do you know it was paid? He arose from the dead. God raised
him from the dead. That's what it means. It's not
about bunnies and Easter eggs. It's about God raising him from
the dead. And if he rose from the dead
for his people, they shall be raised again too. Read 1 Corinthians
15. Isn't that marvelous? That's the everlasting gospel.
The righteousness of God, the blood of Jesus Christ. There
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's name. What
does Emmanuel mean? God with us. And sinners plunge
beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. Oh, William
Cowper, who wrote that, he was given to depression. He was a
manic depressive. Clinical. One night, the story
goes, I think it's true, the story goes that one night he
was contemplating suicide. Down in the depths, just writhing
in mental anguish. And all of a sudden, these words
came into his mind, and I believe sin of God, there is a fountain
filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners
plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stain." And
he wrote that hymn. That's a marvelous thing. But
that's the everlasting gospel. Look back at Revelation 14 now. He said, to preach unto them
that dwell on the earth, that's God's people all over this earth.
out of every kindred tongue and nation. Verse seven, saying with
a loud voice, fear God. That means worship God. That
means believe God. That means respect God. That's
not a legal fear of punishment there. That's a respect and a
regard for the true and living God who delights to show mercy
to sinners in Christ and give glory to him. You can't give
glory to God without seeing the glory of God in Christ. Giving
glory to God is more than just looking up into the sky and saying,
thank you, Lord, or praise the Lord. It's believing in and resting
in Christ for all salvation. That's his glory. For the hour
of his judgment has come. This is final judgment here.
That's what this passage is talking about. Christ coming again the
second time for final judgment. And he says, and worship him
that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains and
the waters. The angel's coming to send that message. And if
that is Christ, it's Christ coming in the clouds to gather his people
unto himself and to judge the world in righteousness. And look at what he says in verse
eight. And there followed another angel,
here comes another messenger, saying Babylon is fallen, is
fallen, that great city, Because she made all nations drink of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Turn to Revelation
17. We'll be getting to this. What
is Babylon? It's a symbol. And the symbol
is false religion. That's what Babylon is. And Babylon
and false religion is described as the great harlot. dressing
herself up to look beautiful, but deadly. Now that's false
religion. Look at Revelation 17 and verse
one. There came one of the seven angels
which had the seven vows, these are seven bowls of judgment,
talked with me saying unto me, come hither, I will show unto
thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many
waters, covers the world, With whom the kings of the earth have
committed fornication, that's spiritual fornication, that's
idolatry. And the inhabitants of the earth
have been made to drink of the wine of her fornication. You
know what drinking of the wine of her fornication is? It's believing
her message. Her message, false doctrine,
false gospels. What are these false gospels?
Salvation by the works and the free will of men and women. Salvation conditioned on sinners
and not on Christ alone, the God-man. Righteousness and holiness
on a sliding scale rather than the perfection that can only
be found in Christ. Paul said, if they come preaching
any other gospel than that which we have preached, let them be
anathema. And look on, he says, verse three of Revelation 17,
so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and
I saw a woman set up on a scarlet colored beast full of names of
blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Now these are
all symbols now of false religion and the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearl, false religion. It's appealing to the eye, looks
good. What Christ say to the Pharisees,
you indeed appear righteous unto men, but inwardly you're like
an open grave. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. Says having a gold cup in
her hand full of abominations and filthiness and her fornication.
And look at verse five, and upon her forehead, this is her mind,
was a name written, Mystery Babylon, the great mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth. Go back to Revelation 14. Babylon
is fallen now. This is the end of the world.
There is no more false religion. She's fallen. It says it twice.
Babylon is fallen, is fallen. She's fallen hard. She's totally destroyed now.
Christ has come back. That great city made all nations
drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. They believed
her message thinking that was honoring to God, thinking that
it was salvation, but it wasn't. It was deception. You say, well,
preacher, how can I know the difference? Read the Bible and
pray that God will reveal himself to you, because that's it. He says in verse nine, the third
angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship
the beast and his image, this is one of the anti-Christian
beasts that follows the great whore, receive his mark in his
forehead, that's in the mind now, the mark. It's false religion
in the mind, false doctrine, false beliefs, false images,
idolatry in the mind and the heart. Or in his hand, that's
his works, man working his way to salvation, but it's iniquity. Remember what he told the false
preachers in Matthew 7? He said, depart from me you that
work iniquity. It says in verse 10, the same
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. You remember when
Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane? And he was feeling the pain and
the hurt of bearing the sins of his people. And he cried,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He was experiencing
things in his humanity that he'd never experienced before. He
wasn't trying to get out of what he came to do. He was expressing
pain and sorrow and anguish because he was about to drink the cup
of the wrath of God. And you know what? He went on
to the cross and he drank it dry for his people. Well, those
who die without Christ, who die in their sin, they'll drink of
the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture.
On earth here, experiences of the wrath of God upon the wicked
are mixed. Some days are good, some days
are not. Some days are diamonds, some
days are rocks. But then it'll be without mixture.
Just pure wrath, justice. Coming down. That's what it is.
It's not God being mean. It's not God throwing a temper
tantrum. It's God exercising justice where sin is imputed. That's why we go with David,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. to
whom imputes righteousness, mixture into the cup of his indignation,
look at verse 10, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.
Christ exercising judgment. And this just condemnation of
all who appear before God without Christ. My soul, this is the
thing about judgment. And when you think about the
resurrection, think about this. The worst thing that could ever
happen to me or you is to appear before God in judgment on our
own without Christ. Without being washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness. What a thing. And look at verse
11. The smoke of their torment ascendeth
up forever and ever. And they have no rest day or
night who worship the beast and his image. False religion again.
and whoever receiveth the mark of his name, his false doctrine,
his false message. But now look at verse 12 and
13. This is where we'll conclude this message. Here is the patience
of the saints. What does patience mean? It's
endurance. Living our lives by the grace
of God, looking to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith, resting in him, pleading his blood, his righteousness
imputed to us, living by the spirit upon his word. That's
the patience of the saints, the endurance. What is a saint? A
sinner saved by grace. If you're a believer, if you're
a sinner saved by grace, you're a saint. You've been sanctified,
set apart by God. And it says, here are they that
keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. What
does that mean? Does that mean we keep the Ten
Commandments? Well, if it does, none of us are saints. What did Christ command his people
to do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of your sins,
and follow me. Love the brethren. Identify yourself
with the people of God, not the beast or the great harlot, false
religion, but with the true people of God, where the everlasting
gospel is preached, because that's the standard of judgment. And he says in verse 13, and
I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, now listen to this, right
blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.
Yea, sayeth the spirit that they may rest from their labors and
their works do follow them. There's only two ways to die.
You die in the Lord, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
or you die in your sins and perish. Blessed are those who die in
the Lord. And notice it says their works follow them, they
rest from their labors. You know, this life is laborious,
even when you retire. Oh, I can't wait till I get to
retirement. I figured if and when I'd like
to preach, I'd drop. I'd just preach my last message
and just go back like that. Y'all carry me out. Maybe you'll
bury me somewhere. But life is a labor. And even
for a believer, we're in a battle, aren't we? The warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. But then, when we appear before
God at judgment, we'll rest from those labors. There'll be no
more labors. Remember he told Adam, you'll earn your living
by the sweat of your brow. You'll have to fight the thorns
and the brushes. Because they're always there. Well, the works follow them.
The works of believers, are not their ticket into heaven. The
works do not go before them. They follow them. What are they?
They're the fruit, the result, that evidence their union with
Christ. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, that's all grace, Unto, not because of, but unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. That's Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. I want to leave
you with one verse in light of this passage, in light of what
Brother Mark read, and it's Acts chapter 17. When you think about
these things, when you think about the resurrection of Christ,
Acts chapter 17, and this will close the message. When you think
about the resurrection of Christ, think about the standard by which
God will judge all people. Here's Paul preaching in Athens,
Greece. Randy, you all were there last
week, weren't you? On a place called Mars Hill.
There were all kinds of philosophers and religionists there. Paul
said, he looked around and saw all the idols. He said, I'm going
to tell you about the unknown God, the God you don't know.
I feel like we could do that pretty much in Albany, Georgia
and most places. The unknown God. And he talked about the God of
creation. God of salvation. And he comes
down to verse 30, he talks about how the Gentiles didn't hear
the gospel for so many years under the old covenant, but they
have now. And he says, God now commands all men everywhere to
repent. Look at verse 31 of Acts 17. Here it is. Because God hath
appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness. That's God judging by Jesus Christ
according to my gospel. he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained. This is a man that God has appointed,
the God-man, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men,
look at it, in that he hath raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is
the assurance that God is going to judge all people by the righteousness
that Christ himself wrought out on his obedience unto death.
Do we measure up not by our works, not by our intentions? How can
we measure up? Well, it's the love of God which
sent his son to die for my sins and give me his righteousness
accounted to me. He paid my debt. and I'm righteous
in Christ. Thank God for His grace, because
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. May the Lord bless His word to
our heart.