The following message was delivered
on Sunday morning, April 16, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist
Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you please to
turn in your own Bibles with me to the 17th chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles, Acts chapter 17. And in this chapter we have the
Spirit-inspired record of the activity of the Apostle Paul
and his companions on his second missionary journey. And I pick
up the reading at verse 16, which focuses upon Paul's experience
in ministering the Word of God in that great Greek city of Athens. Acts 17 and verse 16. Now while Paul waited for them
at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city
full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue
with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the marketplace
every day with them that met him. And certain also of the
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him, and some said,
what would this babbler say? Others, he seems to be a setter-forth
of strange gods, because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. And they took hold of him and
brought him unto the Areopagus, that was a council that met in
a certain place, it would be a sort of philosophical think-tank
that would monitor and enter into current philosophical schools
of thought and discussion, and so they take hold of Paul and
bring him before the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this
new teaching is which is spoken by you? For you bring certain
strange things to our ears We would know, therefore, what these
things mean. Now all the Athenians and the
strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else but
either to tell or hear some new thing. And Paul stood in the
midst of the Areopagus and said, You men of Athens, in all things
I perceive that you are very religious, for as I passed along
and observed the objects of your worship I found also an altar
with this inscription, to an unknown God. What therefore you
worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you. The God that
made the world and all things therein, He, being Lord of heaven
and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands, Neither is he
served by men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he
himself gives to all life and breath and all things. And he
made of one every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth.
having determined their appointed seasons and the bounds of their
habitation, that they should seek God, if haply they might
feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each
one of us. For in him we live and move and
have our being, as certain even of your own poets have said,
for we are also his offspring. Being then the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or
silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man. The times
of ignorance therefore God overlooked, but now he commandeth men that
they should all, everywhere, repent. inasmuch as he has appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
the man whom he has ordained, whereof he has given assurance
unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead. Now when they
heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others
said, we will hear you concerning this yet again. Thus Paul went
out from among them, but certain men clave unto him and believed,
among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named
Damaris, and others with them." Now let us again seek God's face
in prayer for his blessing upon the ministry of the Word here.
And it is wonderful to know that the God who can minister to us
here can minister across the country and around the entire
globe. And let us remember Dr. Bob, as well, who is ministering
this day out in Seattle, Washington. Let us seek God's face together. Our Father, we thank you for
your presence with us in this hour of worship, for the privilege
of lifting up our voices in praises to our unseen but very present,
risen, and exalted Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the
privilege of seeking your face We thank you that you have not
left us like masses of the earth to bow down to the work of our
own hands that we would designate as gods, but that we worship
you, the living God, creator of heaven and earth, sustainer
of our very lives. And we now pray that as we turn
to your word to contemplate its truth, You would grant the removal
of that prejudice that caused some of Paul's hearers to mock
him. Deliver us from that callous
indifference that caused others to dismiss him politely, saying,
we will hear of these things again at another time. Oh Lord,
work in us the same disposition that you worked in Damaris. the same disposition that you
worked in that man who was a leader in that philosophical think tank
at Athens, that we may cleave to our Lord Jesus and to his
truth and believe upon him. Speak, we pray, in this place. Likewise, we plead for your blessing
upon your servant who will minister the word there in Seattle that
he may, too, know the presence and power of your grace upon
him and upon his labors. And, O Lord, in every place,
in this community and throughout our country and to the ends of
the earth, O God, make this a day when the word comes to men, not
in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit, and in much
assurance, we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ, Can you imagine
with me what might happen if we were all to be carried in
several large buses into New York City or into some other
city in our country where on this, the so-called Easter Sunday
in the church calendar year, Multitudes will pile into the
streets for their various Easter parades, conducting contests
with respect to who has the most bizarre or the most aesthetically
pleasing hat to show forth on this so-called Easter Sunday. And each of us had a notebook
and were asked to conduct a little informal on the street survey
with respect to what people think about when they consider Easter
Sunday. And I would imagine were we to
be put back in our buses after we'd conducted our surveys and
gathered for some comparison of the notes that we took, that
we would no doubt find that upon asking some people, what is the
message of Easter to you, that some would say, well, it's a
wonderful reminder that spring is here, that the death and the
fruitlessness of winter is past, and with the coming of spring
we see the budding forth of life on every hand, and Easter to
me is the constant reminder that ultimately life will triumph
over death. Others might say, well, Easter
Sunday means to me that at least there is still in the midst of
all of the increasing evidence of the turmoil and the disruption
and the bitterness and rancor of one segment of society against
another, there are still times when we can forget our differences
and come together and show ourselves to be decent human beings. Others
with a little more perception might say, well, Easter Sunday
means to me that the Christian faith is still a viable religion
in the earth, that there are still those who recognize that
there is a living Christ, if not literally alive at least
he is alive in the hearts and in the faith and in the affections
of his followers. But now suppose, if in the midst
of one of your survey questions, the person you were questioning
should turn to you and say, well, would you mind telling me, sir
or ma'am, what does Easter mean to you? Can you imagine the look
of incredulity and amazement shocked horror upon the face
of such a person. If you were to answer in response
to their question, this is what Easter means to me. It is the
monumental pledge that Almighty God will one day judge you and
me by Jesus Christ the Lord. Can you imagine the look of shock,
of horror, of imprudulity And they might say, well, I probably
didn't hear you correctly. Would you say that again? What
is Easter to you? And you were to respond by saying,
it is the monumental pledge of God that you, my friend and I,
will stand before Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, to
have our eternal destinies both formally declared and irreversibly
fixed. Well if they didn't faint dead
away or run away in horror thinking I'm in the presence of a religious
nut and were to follow up with the question and say well why
in the world is Easter the pledge of such a sobering thing as a
day of judgment and Christ formally declaring and eternally and irreversibly
fixing my eternal state. What in the world is the connection
between Easter and the Day of Judgment? Well, I trust you would
be able to answer from the text that will be the focus of our
study both this morning and this evening, And say, my friend,
I answer, because it is written in the word of God in Acts chapter
17 verses 30 and 31, the times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands men that
they should all everywhere repent inasmuch as he has appointed
a day. in which he will judge the world
in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained, whereof he
hath given assurance unto all men, in that he raised him from
the dead." This morning our attention will be focused upon verse 30,
which is the foundation beneath The directive, I'm sorry, verse
31, which is the foundation beneath the directive and the command
of verse 30, which will be the focus of our study, God willing,
this evening. And I want you to notice with
me in verse 31 of Acts 17, first of all, the day appointed. then secondly, the man ordained,
and thirdly, the assurance given. First of all, the day appointed. Verse 31 says, inasmuch as he,
God, has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. as the history of the world has
unfolded one day at a time from that seventh day hallowed and
sanctified by God in the creative work of God recorded in Genesis
chapters one and two from that time until now human history
has unfolded one day at a time But all of the days of all of
human history, however long that history may be, will all culminate
in a special and a final day, that day which is designated
in our text as a day in which God will judge the world. Let us ask several questions
of this day appointed. A day already set in the decree
and mind of God. A day already known by God himself,
but unknown to us. And the first question we ask
of this day appointed is, what will God do in that day? And
our text says, He will judge the world in righteousness. He will judge. That is, he will
bring men into a formal reckoning, a final and public arraignment
before himself as the creator, sustainer, and provider of his
creatures as they are described in this very passage. You remember
Paul taking his clue from this altar to an unknown God, said,
this God that you worship in ignorance, I set him before you. And he declares the true and
living God to be the creator of the world and all things therein. He declares him to be the sovereign
Lord of all that he has created. He has declared him to be spiritual
in nature, that he does not dwell in temples made with hands, for
no temple can contain him. And then he describes him as
a God who is not dependent for anything from his creatures. He needs nothing from men's hands,
since he himself gives to men the very life that they possess,
the very breath that they breathe, and all things that sustain them. And it is this God whom he says
will have in that day appointed the prerogative of judging, and
that judgment will lead to acquittal or to condemnation. In other
words, God will have his day in court. And who will be the
objects of this activity of judging? Our text says he will judge the
world, and the word world used in this passage is a word that
speaks of the inhabited earth, the entirety of humankind. It is used that way in Revelation
12 and verse 9, where it speaks of the devil who deceives the
whole earth, that is, deceives all of mankind. You see, one of the unique legacies
of your being a human being is that you are not only created
by God, and you have your life sustained by God, but you will,
of a certainty, be brought into judgment by God. All of the attempts of atheism,
rationalism, evolutionism, and liberalism, and any other kind
of ism under heaven, notwithstanding, there is a day coming in human
history when the God who made the world, the God who gave and
sustained our lives, will call us into judgment. In Acts 24,
15, Paul says, there is a day of the resurrection of both the
just and of the unjust. The day appointed. What will
God do on that day? He will judge. Who will be the
objects of that activity? All mankind. The third question
we ask of that day appointed is this, what will be the standard
by which those judged will be dealt with. Look at our text.
Inasmuch as he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness, in righteousness, in the realm or sphere of an
absolute and perfect standard of right. Unlike all human courts,
in which perfect righteousness and justice are impossible because
of the limits of what man is as a creature, and the perversity
of what man is as a sinner, God's day in court will be a day conducted
in the context of perfect righteousness. As the Almighty Creator, He has
perfect and infinite knowledge, complete awareness of all that
is, total recall, think of it, of every thought and word and
deed of every creature that has ever been found upon the face
of His earth. And as the sinless God who will
conduct His court in perfect righteousness, He is, the Scripture
says, no respecter of persons. There will be no real or suspected
manipulation of the evidence. There will be no bending of the
law by legal technicality. There will be no mistrial because
of grumpy jurors, and there will be no hung jury for God himself,
and God alone is judge and juror. The man, sorry, the day appointed
is a day of judgment in which the judgment will be conducted
in a context of absolute, perfect, unsullied, undiluted rectitude. He will judge the world in righteousness. Anyone acquitted in that day
of God's setting court will be acquitted because the standard
of righteousness demanded for acquittal has been found credited
to that person. And anyone condemned will be
condemned because that standard has been violated. As Matthew
Henry said, his knowledge of all men's characters is infallibly
true, and therefore his sentence incontestably just. There are no appellate courts
in heaven. You know what the appellate court
is? That's the court to which you make an appeal. When you
feel that you have not been judged in righteousness, And so an appeal
is made to reconsider the case. But in God's court, there is
no higher or ancillary or parallel appellate court. Once having
judged in righteousness, God's judgment is utterly final, irrevocable,
irreversible. There is such a day appointed. inasmuch as He has appointed
a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. As surely as the eternal purpose
of God that there should be a day when He created the heavens and
the earth A day when He would speak, let there be light and
there was light. A day in which He would say,
let the sea bring forth its creatures. As surely as those days of creation
became the unfolding of the secret eternal purpose of God's heart,
so likewise a day is coming. you can go to the banquet. A
day is coming, appointed by God himself, in which all of the
inhabited earth will be judged, and that by a standard of perfect
righteousness. But then our text not only sets
forth the day appointed, but notice the man ordained God has
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by literally a man whom he has ordained. This God who made the
heavens and the earth, this God who is Lord of heaven and earth,
This God who sustains all life and governs the affairs of the
nations has not only an appointed day, but he has a man ordained
to carry out that judgment. Notice the identity of the appointed
judge and then the certainty of this appointment to judge. Note the identity of the appointed
judge. He is described as a man whom
God has ordained. He does not name him here. He
simply says a man whom he has ordained. Now, obviously, from
our knowledge of other scriptures, this is a direct reference to
our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul is not here teaching
that Christ is merely a man. No, but he is emphasizing that
because Christ as the Son of Man, as the one appointed to
be God's mediator, as the one appointed to be the judge, it
will be as the God-Man that He will judge men in the last day. For this very apostle in other
places is utterly unashamed to describe Jesus Christ as our
great God and Savior. Titus chapter 2 and verse 12. He describes him as God over
all, blessed forever in Romans 9 and verse 5. And then again
and again throughout his writings and his recorded preaching, he
takes texts in the Old Testament that speak of Jehovah, and he
makes them a one for one equivalent in applying them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And furthermore, If God's judgment
is to be a judgment in righteousness by a man, it has to be no ordinary
man. For to judge in righteousness,
the judge must have perfect and complete knowledge of all the
facts, the thoughts, and the intents of the heart. Every word
spoken in the secret place, every deed done in the darkness, Every
thought, every word, every deed, and none but God, none but the
omniscient mind of God can contain all of those facts. And yet he
refers to the judge as a man whom God has appointed. And that
man is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice the certainty of his
appointment as judge. He will judge the world in righteousness
by a man whom he has ordained. And this word, ordained, is a
strong word used in Acts 2, 33, for the determinate counsel of
God. In Luke 22, 22, the Son of Man
goes as it is determined of Him. In other words, his place in
the seat of judgment is not an accident, not an afterthought,
but it is by nothing less than the sovereign appointment of
the living God himself. Now at this point, if you were
talking about these things to the person you pulled out of
the Easter parade, they might say, now look, my friend, you're
entitled to your opinion. And it's obvious that you're
quite sincere in holding your opinions that to you Easter is
the pledge that there is a day of judgment. And that on that
appointed day, an appointed man, Christ Jesus, will be the judge. But tell me, tell me, what in
the world do you have to bring forward to validate these things
that people in religious circles have talked about for years?
But what proof do we have That brings me in the third place
to the assurance given. To the assurance given, look
at the text. Inasmuch as he is appointed a
day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man
whom he hath ordained, whereof he has given assurance unto all
men, yes, even to that person in the Easter parade, in that
he raised him from the dead. And here the apostle is clearly
teaching that God has furnished a trustworthy assurance. He has given a guarantee when
our text says whereof he has given assurance unto all men. The word means to furnish trustworthy
assurance or evidence. And God has granted a trustworthy
assurance that a day of judgment is coming and that the man ordained
to judge shall sit on his throne. And to whom is this assurance
given? Look at our text. He hath given this assurance
unto all men. God has given this certain assurance
and pledge unto all men, unto the entirety of the human race. It is not an assurance that is
limited in its scope, but it has been given unto all men. And what is that assurance in
its identity? It is nothing other than the
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from among the dead. He
hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him
from the dead. And the language Paul uses is
very precise, clearly indicating that this man had entered the
realm of the dead that he truly did die but that God raised him
out from among the grip and the power of death and therefore
establishes that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is God's
chosen validation and assurance of a future day of judgment in
which you and I will be found, judged in a realm of perfect
righteousness by the man ordained of God, even the crucified and
resurrected Son of the living God. The fact of the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus is God's certain guarantee of the coming day of
judgment But now someone may ask, but what's the connection
between the resurrection of Christ and the certainty of the day
of judgment? And I want to give that answer
in two parts from the scripture. First, because his resurrection
validated his personal claims to be the judge of the world.
And secondly, because his resurrection initiated him into his rightful
position as judge of the world. Two things then. The validation
of his claims to be the judge and his initiation into his rightful
position as the judge. First of all, because his resurrection
validated his personal claims to be the judge of the world.
And here I want you to turn from Acts 17 to several passages in
the book of John. John chapter 5. Here in the days
of his flesh, before his suffering and death, in the face of some
of his bitterest enemies, those who had no sympathy towards him
whatsoever, the Lord Jesus made some momentous claims about himself. John chapter 5 in verse 22. Back
to verse 21. For as the Father raises the
dead and gives them light, even so the Son also gives life to
whom He will. For neither does the Father judge
any man, but He has given all judgment unto the Son. that all may honor the Son even
as they honor the Father. Notice these words in particular. Christ Himself speaking about
Himself in relationship to the Father. Jesus says, the Father
judges no man but has given all judgment unto the Son. Verse 26, For as the father has
life in himself, even so he gave to the son also to have life
in himself, and gave him authority to execute judgment, because
he is a son of man. Do not marvel at this. He knew what their reaction would
be. What? You? Coming out of Nazareth,
clothed in the common garb of a Nazareth peasant? gnarled hands
from a carpenter's shop, nothing about you that would cause us
to fall upon our faces, that we are in the presence of incarnate
deity. You claim that all judgment has
been given into your hands. Jesus says, don't be amazed at
this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the
tombs shall hear his voice. and shall come forth, they that
have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of judgment. He said, An hour is
coming in which all that are in the tomb shall hear the voice
of the Son of Man, and they shall come forth to judgment. A judgment
that will issue either unto life and all the glory of what is
bound up in that word, resurrection of life, or unto a resurrection
of judgment that is to be consigned to banishment and to outer darkness. Now remember, these Jews who
hated our Lord, they never forgot his words. Early in his ministry,
in John chapter 2, he had made the statement, destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up. Several years later, when
he is in the midst of his suffering and his agony, look at Matthew
27 and verse 62. Notice how they remembered his
words and they throw the words up. Matthew 27 in verse 62. Now on the morrow, which is the
day after the preparation, the chief priest and the Pharisees
were gathered together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that
that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days
I rise again. We remember that he said after
three days he would rise again in the midst of this suffering
upon the cross. They said you that destroyed
the temple and in three days raise it up. Come down from the
cross and save yourself. They remember his words. How
can you imagine how much fuel they would have had for their
mockery and their jeering for the scripture says that while
he hung upon the cross they did mock him and they did jeer him
can you imagine remembering his words marvel not at this the
father has given all judgment to the son I am in the appointed
judge of the entire human race and now he himself is the victim
of a puppet court of horrible lying accusations and manipulations
of the mob and the spineless man who knows he is innocent
and wants to turn him loose caves into the pressure of the mob
and turns Barabbas loose and gives Christ over to their hands
to be crucified can you imagine what they might have been saying
in the midst of their jeering as he staggers under the weight
of his cross, going out to Golgotha. They want to get on with the
job, and so they compel this passerby, Simon of Cyrene, to
bear the cross after him. And they watch him as his hands
are impaled upon the crossbar, and he is hoisted up, and there
he hangs as a common felon, the most cruel, ignominious death
which the Romans reserved for slaves and for the worst of criminals. Can you imagine the prompting,
hey, judge of the world, how does it feel to be judged yourself? Hey, judge of the world, whose
voice is going to cause the tombs to open up? You who can destroy
the temple in three days and build it again, come down from
the cross, surely, If you're judge of the world, you can take
yourself out from under the judgment of your fellow preachers. If
ever his claims to be judge of the world seemed to be shrouded
in the most horrible thick clouds of doubt, it was when he himself
was the object of man's judgment, not in righteousness, but in
the most accumulated, horrible expressions of unrighteousness,
lying witnesses, unprincipled leaders, heartless cruelty. He sure doesn't look like the
judge of the world. Hanging helpless, immolated,
his blood mingling with the spit upon his face, Judge of the world, now look
at our text. God has given assurance unto
all in that he raised him from the dead. And it should not surprise
us then that when we see the Lord Jesus in the vision of Revelation
chapter 1, standing with John, and through the eyes of John
behold the exalted risen Lord seen in vision on the Isle of
Patmos. When John turns to hear this
thunderous voice that speaks to him, we read in verse 17 of
Revelation 1, And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one
dead. And he laid his right hand upon
me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living
one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And then he takes out a key-chain,
and he rattles it before the eye of Camden and says, I have
the keys of death and of Hades. I, as the Resurrected One, will
release men from their graves as to their bodies, and I will
release their spirits from Hades, and I will bring them before
me as the living Sovereign Lord of the universe to accomplish
my role as Judge. God has given assurance unto
all in that he raised him from the dead. When we ask in what
way does the resurrection constitute the assurance that there will
be a day in which God will judge the world in righteousness by
the man whom he has ordained, Jesus' resurrection validates
his personal claim to be the judge of the world. And you who
are tempted to treat this lightly, remember, he said some things
while he was alive that even his disciples couldn't swallow.
He said, I must go to Jerusalem, and there I must be rejected
by the chief priest of the elders. and I must be handed over to
the Gentiles, and I must be killed, but the third day I will rise
again." Though they could not understand the words nor receive
them, every one of them came to pass in literal fulfillment.
And it's the same Jesus who said, when as the one to whom the Father
has given all judgment, my voice will break open the graves of
the earth and release the spirits of men from the prison in which
they are held. My voice will bring the spirits
of just men made perfect from my presence to join their resurrected
bodies, and all mankind shall stand before me. Before you play
loose with that reality, you better be willing to go back
and prove all of the eyewitnesses wrong, who in the midst of their
doubts... You see, it wasn't like there
was a bunch of people all hyped up, ready to believe something,
who saw something that could be construed as a resurrected
Christ. They didn't believe that He would
die, but He died! They didn't believe he'd be raised
from the dead. Reading yesterday in my own devotions,
I didn't know whether to weep or laugh. When those two are
walking on the road to Emmaus, their chins hanging on the ground
full of sadness, the resurrected Christ draws alongside to talk
with them. And he said, what's your problem?
They said, you're the only one in Jerusalem these days and you
don't know what's going on? Well, he was the center of everything
that went on. I wonder how the Lord just kept
him going. I don't know how the Lord kept
a straight face to talk about self-control. You're the only
one in Jerusalem and don't know what's going on in these days.
And the Lord said, what are you talking about? Well, there was
one among us mighty in word and deed. And we had hope. Not we
hope. We had hoped that it was He who
would redeem Israel. We thought our Messiah had come! But now this is the third day
since they killed Him! Oh yes, some of our crowd said
that they went to the tomb and didn't find Him there, but we
don't believe them. You see, the whole idea that you have
these overly enthusiastic people who are just ready to believe
anything about their Guru, that's nonsense. You had a bunch of
fearful, unbelieving disciples. The Lord had to say to these
two, O foolish and slow of heart, to believe in all that the prophets
have said. And you remember Thomas. After
the witnesses began to multiply and they said, Thomas, we were
behind closed doors, our Lord in risen glory and power appeared
amongst us. Thomas, there's no way you're
going to get me to believe that stuff. until I can take my fist and
plunge it into the hole made in his side and pull out his
hands and feel the place where the spikes went in. Not me! You see, this notion that you
had people all ready to believe in their enthusiasm something
that wasn't reality, that doesn't wash. These eyewitnesses for
reluctant people who didn't believe he was raised from the dead until
his repeated, undeniable appearances washed away their unbelief, and
so convinced them he was alive, they were willing to die for
love and service of their Savior. And my friend, what you have
and I have in my Bible, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and in
the preaching of Acts and in the epistles, is the record of
the facts that came from eyewitnesses of the risen Christ. Relatively
easy for hotshot people with PhDs in so-called theological
studies to speculate 2,000 years after the facts But the resurrection
never really happened. They saw a mirage, or their devotion
to Christ was so deep that they had apparitions. That's all well
and good for such rotten, foul, unbelieving minds to write their
books. But isn't it strange nobody came
forward with such nonsense while the living witnesses who saw
him were speaking in his name? They concocted a little story
that I tell you, you talk about having faith to believe lies.
We'll give you some money, and you just say that the disciples
came and stole away his body. Yeah, now those people go on
out and they're willing to die and be put in prison to cover
a lie? In the thing that doesn't get them any money? Doesn't advance
any worldly cause? My friend, you've got to turn
your mind into the mind of an idiot to believe anything other
than what the scripture artfully, simply affirms again and again. God raised him from the dead. And that's why Paul could say,
God is appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by a man whom he has ordained and has given assurance unto
all men in that he raised him from the dead. Oh, my listeners,
hear me. The claims of Jesus to be the
appointed judge of the world, to be your judge and mine, are
not idle, fanciful claims. He who made them is risen from
the dead, and that resurrection is the certain guarantee that
as surely as you sit in that pew you will stand before the
risen Christ in the day of God's appointment. But the resurrection
not only constitutes the assurance of these things in that the resurrection
validated his personal claims to be the judge of the world,
but secondly because his resurrection initiated him into his rightful
position as the Judge of the world. While amongst men he spoke
of the Judge as the Son of Man, Not only alive, but in passages
like Matthew 25 31 sitting upon the throne of his glory. He says, Hereafter you shall
see the Son of Man coming in clouds. And in Matthew 25 31
he shall sit upon the throne of his glory. He said that the
position from which he would judge would be the position of
exalted glory. Now the Word of God makes it
clear that the resurrection of Christ was the first of a series
of events that we call the exaltation of the Son of God. Just as that
moment when in the mystery of incarnation the Spirit of God
brooded over the womb of Mary, And in a way that we can only
bow before the white light of that mystery, there in Mary's
womb, eternal, undiminished deity takes to itself real humanity at the first level
of conception. And as the cells multiply, formed
the human bones and blood and flesh and mind and fingernails
and eyelashes of the one who would be brought forth in Bethlehem's
manger. That constituted the beginning
of his humiliation. And from that point, it was down,
down, down, down to the depths of the abandonment and the perilous
sin and the vicariously born hell of the cross. Those were
the steps of humiliation. From Mary's womb to a life of
poverty, to a ministry rejected by the masses, to lies and false
witnesses. to buffeting, to bruising, to
scourging, and in the language of Philippians 2, humbling himself,
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. What's the next word? Wherefore,
God hath what? Highly exalted him. And what was the first step in
the exaltation? It was the resurrection. When
he came forth out of Joseph's borrowed tomb, alive, never to
die again, that was the first step in his exaltation. The next step was his reception
back into heaven. The next step was his being seated
at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And there the scripture
says he sits as the reigning sovereign and he must reign till
he hath put all enemies beneath his feet. And the last act of
his mediatorial reign will be his activity in the day of judgment. That's why the apostle could
say he has given assurance unto all men in that he raised him
from the dead. The resurrection initiated him
into his rightful position as the judge of the world. And there he sits today. I sat
in my chair yesterday meditating upon this and looked up into
a cloudless blue sky. I said, Oh God, I know not where,
but somewhere out there in that vast area unknown to me is the
body of my glorified, exalted, risen, sovereign King! If I could be taken there, I
could touch Him. If I could be taken there, I
could see Him. And I had to say, Lord Jesus,
is it wrong? I want to know the shape of Your
face. I want to see the look of Your
eyes. I want to behold Your countenance. I want to see the Prince in Your
hands. Not to validate my faith. but
simply to be able to clasp the pierced hands and say, thank
you, blessed Jesus, for being pierced for me. He's there, my
friend. He's there. And the assurance
that you will be there in the day of judgment is that He was
raised to the position from which alone He can judge. And that
is the position of supreme exaltation at the right hand of the Father
described in Ephesians 1, exalted far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this age, but in the age to come. Now you say, preacher, Here I
took pains to get up earlier than I usually do on a Sunday.
I walked by my Sunday paper, had my coffee, got myself ready
and come out to church thinking I'd hear a nice little Easter
homily, make me feel good. And you confronted me with something
so doleful and heavy and morose as a day of judgment. My friend
was If you sat here with a cancer that the doctors in their combined
wisdom said was going to take your life in 30 days, thinking
all the positive thoughts you want wouldn't kill the cancer. And all the lovely sweet little
things people will say about it's going to be all right, just
cheer up, wouldn't kill the cancer cells. And all the nice little
platitudes about Easter reminding us of the breaking forth of death
over life, a life over death, and the breaking forth of good
over evil. My friend, it won't cancel what
Paul preached to these philosophers there. In the gathering of the
think tank of the philosophical minds of the day, he says, listen
you men, you know what you need to understand? You love to sit
around and play ping pong with each other's thoughts about reality
and about truth. But I want to tell you something.
There's a day coming when the only reality that will matter
is this. How do you stand before the judge
who was dead and God raised him? That's the issue. That's the
issue. And my friend, that's the issue
with you, man, woman, boy or girl. On this Easter Sunday,
there's an appointed day. And there's an appointed man,
and there is an assurance given, and that God raised him from
the dead. If that day were today, how would
you stand in a court where God will deal in perfect righteousness?
judge you by the standard of His holy law, where every thought
and word and motive will be brought to light, and anyone that does
not meet the absolute standard of perfect love to God in man
will bring you into the court of the condemned. You're not
so foolish as to think you can stand there and plead your own
case, do you? Or are you? My friend, There is one who perfectly
kept that law in life, who died under the curse of that broken
law, and who was raised from the dead. And he has a righteousness
that he's prepared to give to all who, forsaking their own,
will cast themselves upon him. We'll consider in greater detail,
God willing, tonight how that's taught in verse 30 and in the
subsequent closing paragraph of this chapter that may I plead
with you, not knowing that I will be back in this pulpit tonight.
I have every expectation of being so, but I have no revelation
from heaven, but that this may be the last time I'll ever speak
in the name of my Savior. And in his name, I plead with
you. If you're not clothed in the
righteousness of the judge himself, then go to Christ. abandoning
every other ground of hope, because in that day it's only those who
are clothed in the righteousness of the Judge who will have the
acquittal of the Judge and be welcomed into the place prepared
by the Judge and His Father for all who trust in Him. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
your holy word. We thank you for the truth that
you have given assurance unto all men that a day of judgment
is coming in that you raised your son from the dead. And we
pray that your Holy Spirit will so work by the word that those
who are unprepared for that day would give themselves no rest
until they know they are in Christ with a righteousness not their
own. And for those of us who by grace
have fled to him, how we thank you that we can face the day
of judgment without dread. We can say with the hymn writer,
Bold shall I stand in that great day, for who ought to my charge
shall lay, fully absolved from these I am, from sin and fear
and death and shame. O Lord Jesus, we thank you for
being willing to be humiliated for us. The humiliation of Mary's
womb, the humiliation of poverty and rejection, the humiliation
of mock trial and scourging and beating and bruising and crucifixion
and the pangs of hell itself. Lord Jesus, we thank you. You
are highly exalted and we worship you. We praise you and thank
you for the day coming when you will be vindicated before the
entire onlooking universe. and all who are in you and clothed
by your righteousness will be glorified with you. Seal then
your word to our hearts, we pray, in your own blessed name. Amen.