Well, this first Gentile gathering,
the gathering of this Gentile church, they magnified God. And part of what they did in
magnifying God is that they magnified the Lord Jesus Christ as judge,
because he was proclaimed to them as judge. He is. he does have, as an appointment
from his father, he was ordained of God. So this judgment, this
role of the Lord Jesus Christ being the judge, is a role that
was ordained of him of God in verse 42. In fact, in John chapter
5, he spoke again to these people who who complained bitterly that
he had healed a man on the Sabbath at that pool of Bethesda. And the accusation in John 5.18,
he says, they say of him that he makes himself equal with God. It's the wonder of the Gospel,
wonder of the Incarnation, isn't it? That a man cannot be made
to be like God, but God can be made to be like a man. The wonder
of the Incarnation is the wonder of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Incarnation is both the revelation of God and the
Incarnation is the means by which our Holy God can be one with
His Bride. But he goes on to say, that He is the one who quickens
whom He will, He gives life to whom He will. In verse 22 He
says, for the Father, because the Father judges no man, but
has committed all judgment unto the Son. And the reason for that
in verse 23 is that all men should honour the Son as they honour
the Father. If you're going to honour the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to honour Him as a judge. We
won't be shy about talking about Him as a judge. he that honoureth
not the Son, honoureth not the Father which has sent him. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, that he that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath, as a possession, you actually
have, by an act of God-given faith, as a result of hearing
his word, you actually have in your possession everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in
Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself,
and He has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because
He is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his
voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the
resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto the resurrection
of damnation. I can of my own self do nothing,
as I hear I judge, judge I, and my judgment is just, because
I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father. who sent
me. His judgment is just. As the
son of man, he knows what's in a man. He sees to the very hearts
of men. He sees beyond the surface. The best we can see with these
eyes, these carnal eyes, is what is superficial. But in Acts chapter
17, Paul in that speech to the the people at the Areopagus,
he says, God's winked at the times of ignorance, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent, Acts 17.30, because he has appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. When the Lord Jesus Christ judges,
He judges with perfect righteousness because He sees with perfect
clarity absolutely everything. It's going to be a righteous
judgment by that man whom He has ordained, whereof He has
given assurance unto all men in that He has raised him from
the dead. He's raised him from the dead.
He's risen to be a judge. There is in the hearts of all
men, there is in the hearts of all men a knowledge that there
is a day of judgment. There is stamped on the hearts
of all men a knowledge that there is a day when you will meet God. All men know All men know, until
they have so hardened their hearts and calloused their minds and
their consciences, all men know, instinctively, they know intuitively,
that God is the great judge. They know that he'll reward the
righteous. They know that he will punish
the wicked. There is a day of judgment coming,
and the Lord Jesus Christ is the judge. But it's remarkable,
isn't it? This word, this gospelising word,
to go back to passage in Acts chapter 10, this gospelising
word is a preaching peace by Jesus Christ. The purpose of
the gospel, the purpose of the reception of the gospel is not
that God's people will live in fear and terror of the judgment,
but they will have on that day, they will have peace with God. They'll have peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. To have peace with God is to
do, as verse 43 says, by the gift of God's grace. To him give
all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive, not earn, but shall receive remission of
sins. To have remission of sins is
to have them remitted such that they are gone forever, gone forever. God's children, God's spirit-taught
children acknowledge the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has
the right to be the judge, that that judgment will be righteous
and just. There is that great day coming
when God When all of humanity will stand before God, they will
stand there and God will know everything, everything about
them. He will have it so clearly laid
out before all humanity. that there will be absolutely
no doubt, the Day of Judgment will be a day of the exaltation
of the character of God. It will be a revelation that
God is holy, a revelation that God is just. If you are going
to be saved by our God, you're going to be saved on account
of His holiness and on account of His justice. God's children
are saved by the work of God, but that work of God in salvation
is a work of revelation of himself in his true character. And this
modern religious world so trivialises the character of God, it trivialises
his holiness, his sovereignty, his justice, his grace, and it
does it again and again and again by all sorts of machinations,
doesn't it? The modern term that I've heard
several times lately is that the gospel is a nuanced gospel,
that God loves everyone, but it's a nuanced love. He loves
in four or five different ways. He has a special love for his
people, but he has a special love another sort of special
love for his obedient people and he has another sort of love
for all the world and so on and so forth. They say it's nuanced,
they say that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is nuanced,
that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is in some particular
nuanced way, that if you can get a priest to explain it to
you, that his death is sufficient for all the world, if all the
world happened to believe. And God the Holy Spirit is trying
to save everyone. Again and again, in conversations
with people who are involved in religion, the one overriding
thing I keep coming across is that everyone wants to make the
road broad. Everyone wants to make the road
so wide, in fact the gate is so wide now that you can barely
distinguish the gate post on that side and barely distinguish
the gate post on that side. It's so wide. that just about
everyone gets in and all you have to do is have some sort
of religious activity and some sort of religious belief. And
you can get in. You can get in. The Lord Jesus
Christ described the way. Described the way in Matthew
7, verse 13. He says, Enter ye in at the straight
gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction. and many there be which go in
thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Thank
God for the few. Thank God for the few and thank
God for the seeking one. God seeks those who worship him
in spirit and truth. He'll find all the few. That
word straight means narrow. It means constrained. It means standing, being close
about. The narrow way is to As you can imagine when you go
to a big sort of football match, people are sort of constrained
to go through the turnstiles. It's that sort of constraining.
The pictures in the scripture are that it's narrow and there
are obstacles standing. The straight way means that there
are obstacles to get in. Not obstacles in the way of God,
but there are obstacles in the way of men. The way is straight. The way is straight. Straight
is the gate and narrow is the way. The narrow way is a way
of trouble, it means. It's a way of suffering tribulation. It's not this easy, broad road
that this religious world is portraying before people. And
it's not this wimpish, pathetic God that's displayed before people. Isn't it extraordinary? They
want to call God sovereign. And yet, this God can be overwhelmed
in his designs and his purposes by two simple words from mighty,
powerful man. All man has to do is say, no,
thank you. That's all he has to say. Our God is a sovereign God. Satan's words to us in the garden
were that you shall be his gods. that you will stand in judgment.
You will be the one that assesses things. The judgment of God is
trivialized. You can get in any way you like.
You can get in and bring your works. You can get in not only
bringing your works, but you can get in and get extra rewards
and crowns because you bring your works to God. All of this trivialisation of
the character of God is offensive to the children of God. Our God
is eternal, He is unchangeable, and the wonder of the Gospel
is His union with all believers, with our Lord and Saviour. There
is a day when He will reveal Himself. In the extraordinary
wonder of the Gospel, He will reveal Himself to His people. In that day, says the Lord Jesus
Christ, when the Comforter will come, in John 14, the Comforter
will come. In that day when he comes, you
shall know, there are things that God's children will know,
that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. The wonder of the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ is that He came with a purpose, a gracious
purpose from eternity, because He was one with His bride in
eternity, and He came for her. In 1 John 4, verse 13, it says,
Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us. because he hath given us of his
Spirit. We dwell in him, we dwell with
him. because of His Spirit. The Spirit's work is to reveal
the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, to reveal Him in His
union, to reveal Him in His glory, to reveal Him in His holiness,
the wonder of His holiness, to reveal Him as one who will not
wink at sin, to reveal Him as one who the saints delight in
the fact that He is holy, He's so holy that sin must be punished. He's so holy that he won't have
his son trivialised in this world. There are, speaking of the judgment
of God, there are so many shocking verses in the scriptures that
remind us of the seriousness of our God when it comes to people
dealing with Him. I pray that it's our portion
that we have an increasing and growing reverential awe of our
God. And the more we grow in that,
the more we'll actually grow in the confidence of who He is. These things are not put there
to trouble the children of God, but to show the children of God
yet again that our God is going to be true to His character.
One of the most shocking ones to me, I don't know why, I suppose
because of the application that the Lord God provides to it.
But you can imagine the situation of Nadab and Abihu, they were
the children of Levi, they were the nephews of Moses. Now Moses
and Aaron at this stage are well into their 80s, so these aren't
young men. These young men had seen the
judgments of God on Egypt to destroy a superpower by the hand
of God. They had seen God open up the
Red Sea. They had seen all of those people
of Israel stand still and see the deliverance of God. They
had seen the miracles. They had seen the witness of
God. at Mount Sinai, come to that mountain that was smoking
and trembling, and Moses himself was trembling with the earthquake.
They'd seen these men. They had seen the extraordinary
justice of God poured out on that people. When Moses said,
and he came down to that mountain, he made that bold statement.
He said, who is on the Lord's side? Who is on the Lord's side? If you're on the Lord's side
here, you take up your spear or your sword and you go through
this camp and you kill your brothers and sisters who are committing
this idolatrous activity. Thousands died and they were
there witnessing it, these children of Levi. They had gone through
the extraordinary business of having the tabernacle set up
before them and the priesthood outlined before them. They had
all of these remarkable privileges, and just at this time, they'd
seen the fire of God come down and consume the sacrifice on
the altar. They had seen their father do
these things. And in Leviticus 10, it says,
and Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them
his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered
strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them. And they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This
is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh me. And before all the people, I
will be glorified. You come near to God, you're
going to come near to someone who will cause you to see His
holiness. He will be sanctified. He will
be set apart. He will be seen as holy. He's fulfilling what he had promised. The priests that come near to
the Lord, they are to sanctify themselves lest the Lord break
out before them, Exodus 19 and 29. And he says, In Exodus 20, he says, on those
places where I record my name, he'll reveal himself in particular
places where he records his name. He will come to people, but when
he comes to people, he'll come to them as a sovereign God, and
he says to those Israelites, after the very giving of the
law, he says, don't you dare think about coming to me on anything
that you've done yourself. Here is the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments weren't a way into heaven. The Ten Commandments
were given to show people something of the holiness of God and to
expose the depth of our need of a saviour, the depth of our
need for someone to stand in that place and perform that law
for us. Don't you dare build an altar
of steps. Don't you dare come up to me
on steps. You don't go up to God on steps.
You come to God on the basis of one man alone. The reality of this life, for
all of us, is that we must meet a holy God. We will meet a God
who is holy. We will meet a God who is just. we'll meet a holy God, and you'll
meet him in two places. You'll meet him here as a mercy
beggar. You'll meet him here as the gospel
is declared. You'll meet him here as someone
needing mercy, someone needing grace, someone needing to stand
in your place between you and God, or you'll meet him there
in judgment. We might think that these men
had special privileges and betrayed those special privileges. Peter,
speaking of the church, says that like those sons of Aaron,
we are a holy priesthood. You also, as lively stones, 1
Peter 2.5, are built up into a spiritual house and holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, precious. That's a great description
of our Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's elect and precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. Even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient. To stumble at the word is to
deny the character of God and to deny his gospel. To stumble
at the word is to have the word laid out before you and instead
of bowing to it, instead of delighting into it, you fall over. And it's
not by accident. 1 Peter 2.8 says, I stumble at
the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. They were appointed. None of
this happens outside of God's appointing. that ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. It doesn't mean that we are peculiar
in our manners or our habits, but we are to the world a peculiar
people. The world doesn't understand
us. That's the promise of God. It doesn't understand us because
it never understood Him. no matter how much evidence is
laid out before them. The Lord Jesus Christ laid out
as much evidence as could ever be wished to be laid out before
a group of religious people to show that he really was the Messiah,
to show that man was really a sinner in need of a saviour, to show
the depth of the wonder of the love and the graciousness of
God to his people. And yet, They saw him like they saw his
people, as peculiar. Salvation is a salvation from
the judgment of God. Brothers and sisters, we need
to be saved. We need a mediator between us
and the holy character of our God. holy and just. So the salvation
is the salvation of our eternal soul. The blessed Holy Spirit
takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveals them
to us. He takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms
of him causing this world, this world of his believers, his children. He convicts, confronts this world. with sin, he reproves, he convinces
the world, the world of his elect, of sin. What's the nature of
sin? When he's come, this comforter. It's a comforting thing, according
to the word of God, to have your sins exposed. It's a comforting
thing, according to the word of God, for you to be revealed
as you really are. It's the judgment of God to give
you over, to let you delude yourself. It's a comforting thing, isn't
it? Of sin, of sin. John 16, 9, I've sinned because
they believe not in me. The great sin that you have committed,
the great sin that I have committed, the great sin that our Adam flesh
is committing all of the time is the sin of unbelief. Only
God's children are reproved of it. Only God's children know
themselves to be unbelievers. Only God's children cry out,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Only God's children
know that they don't have a repertoire of believing activities that
they can bring before God. Only God's children look to the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. of sin. He convicts, reproves the world
of sin and of righteousness. Of righteousness because I go
to my Father. There's real righteousness, isn't
it? The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that righteousness
which is the righteousness of the saints, that righteousness
that has withstood all the fiery wrath of God's holy law, that
righteousness that has borne all the sins of his people in
his own body on the tree and he's raised to newness of life.
God declaring that he's righteous now, sin has been put away. reproves
the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. Of judgment because
the prince of this world is judged. He's already been judged by the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's been judged. He has been
exposed. He has been made exposed before
the children of God. He spoiled principalities and
powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them
in it." He's come to defeat the works of the devil. He's come
as a sovereign lord to take his possession that was in the hands
of the devil and say, they're mine. He battered down that fortress
of Satan, and he's stolen all of his goods from Satan's grasp. Remission of sins, deliverance,
as Acts 10 says. He's defeated him. Judgment is accomplished. There are those verses that should
cause us to look in awe and wonder, and I trust will cause us to
look again in delight at the Lord Jesus Christ. There is that
judgment, isn't it, that's coming. Revelation 20, it speaks of that
great white throne, great because of the awesomeness of it. That
great white throne, white because of the holiness of it. John says,
I saw a throne and sat upon them, And I saw thrones, and they sat
upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls
of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for
the word of God, which had not worshipped the beast, neither
his image, nor neither had received his mark upon their foreheads
or in their hands. They lived and reigned. with
Christ a thousand years. He goes on to say in John 2011,
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." The next verses go on to talk about how,
then I saw the new heaven and the new earth. There will be
a day of judgment. There will be, as Isaiah 28 says,
there will be that overwhelming flood, that overwhelming scourge. There will be, as the Lord Jesus
promised in Matthew chapter 24, there will be those who are on
his left and those who are on his right. there will be the
sheep and the goats. It's a good thing to contemplate,
isn't it? It's a good thing to contemplate
how much we are in need of a saviour. how much we are in need of a
mediator, how much we are in need of someone to take our place,
how much we are in need of a righteousness which we cannot earn ourselves. I'm just looking for that passage
in Matthew about the Lord with the sheep and the goats. And
as much as I have looked at it, I can't find it. 25, I know it's
25, Simon, but I can't see it on the page. My brain is tired
and this new Bible is being naughty. 25 when the Son of Man shall come
in his glory and all the holy angels with him then he shall
sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered
all nations and he shall separate them one from another as the
shepherd divided his sheep from the goats and he shall set the
sheep on his right hand and the goats but the goats on his left
Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come
ye blessed of my father. What a great word. Come. He says
come unto me. Come ye blessed of my father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Then he goes on to talk about
the activities of these men in verse 37. Then the righteous
Answer him, saying, Lord, when did we do any of these things?
When did we do them? When did we see you hungry and
fed you, thirsty and gave you a drink? When did we see you
as a stranger and took you in, or naked and clothed you? When
did we see you sick or a prisoner? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done
it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto
me." The saints on that day are not aware of any of their good
works. They are only outlined by the Lord Himself. And He says
to the others, He says to the others, Then, verse 41, shall
he say unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Then he outlines these activities. I was hungry and you gave me
no meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
no drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and
you didn't clothe me. Sick and in prison. And then
they shall answer him, Then they shall answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee a hungred, or a thirst, or a stranger, or
naked, or sick, and did not minister to you? We did all those things.
We've been doing them since our childhood. We've done them all. We've done them all. You turn
up on the day of judgment with your works in your hands. The
Lord will say, He'll answer them saying, verily
I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least
of these, you did it not to me, and these shall go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. It's so very easy, isn't it?
We become familiar with holy things. We become familiar with
serious things. And in our familiarity, we lose
the extraordinary wonder of what that day will be like when our
Lord Jesus Christ is revealed as a judge. He will judge the
world in righteousness. There is a day appointed, according
to Hebrews 9.27, it's appointed once to die. For all men, they
will die, and after that, the judgment. Matthew 7.22 and the
following says that there are many think, many will come on
that day, and they'll have their works laid out before them, and
the Lord Jesus Christ will not deny any of their works. and
he'll say something horrifying, which will echo in their souls
for all eternity. He never knew you. He never knew
them. And there is, on that day of
judgment, there is a judgment which is more severe for some
than for others." As horrifying as the judgment that fell on
Sodom and Gomorrah. As horrifying the wickedness
of Sodom and Gomorrah. Imagine what the people of Sodom
and Gomorrah, they wanted to have homosexual relations with
angels. And yet, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, it is worse for Capernaum. It is worse for those people
who have heard the gospel and seen the gospel and turned from
the gospel. It is worse for them on the Day
of Judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a day appointed. There is a just judge. And this is laid out before the
Gentiles in those sermons in Acts, and this is the foundation
of Gentile preaching. It's so different, isn't it,
from the tracts and things that we have laid out before us now,
don't they? They say that God is the sovereign ruler of all
the world and he loves you. He loves you. And if you do these
particular things, you can be right with Him. You can do things
to earn your way into Heaven. My command of God is to send
the Lord's people home comforted. My command of God is to lay out
the character of God according to the word of God as clearly
as I possibly can before you. And for you who are the Lord's
children, for you to go home skipping like calves let loose
from the stalls, rejoicing in God. Rejoicing in the fact that
the Holy Spirit has made you to be a sinner, has poured out
His Spirit upon you, that Spirit of God has fallen upon you. When
something falls upon you, the weight of it just captivates
you. and the delight of what's happened as that gospel of peace
is proclaimed to you. Did you have peace? I'd like
you to turn with me to 1 John 4, verse 17. I mentioned a verse
from here earlier, it talks about one of the things we know. It's
good to get a concordance out and go and do some study of the
things that we know. God's people know that all things
work together for good. There are a whole lot of things
that God's people know. It is the purpose of God in the
gospel that God's children would be comforted, that they would
have peace. Hereby we know that we dwell
in him and he in us, 1 John 4, 13, because he has given us of
his spirit. If the spirit has come, If the
Spirit of God has fallen upon you, you know something. There
are a whole lot of you-knows in 1 John. If you go and have
some time to study them, you'll find them delightful when you
go home. This is one that you know. The Spirit of God will
cause you to know that He is in us. We dwell in Him. What an extraordinarily satisfying
place that is, to dwell in Him. To dwell in Him. And he goes
on to say, And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent
his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in
God. And we have known and believe
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect. Herein is our love made perfect. This love that is just mentioned,
that God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God, and God in him. This is the love. This is that
love perfected. Not in some wishy-washy thing.
This is love perfected. That we may have boldness in
the day of judgment. That word, boldness, is the word
for cheerful courage. Put it another
way. It is fearlessness. It is frankness. We might have confidence, is
another word. The day of judgment. We may have
boldness in the day of judgment, and there is a reason, isn't
there? Because there is no because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love. This
is not a slavish fear. There is a reverential fear and
awe of God. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him. We love him. God's children love
him. We love him because he first
loved us. We have a cheerful confidence
on the day of judgment, a cheerful courage on that day. We have boldness. See, this is
the privilege of every believer. On that day that we read about
in Revelation 20, on that day that we read about in Matthew
25, it is the privilege of every believer. It's not something
that comes with an arrogance and a pride and it looks down
on those and delights in the thoughts of others being judged.
There's nothing of that in the genuine child of God. We seek
the peace, we seek peace with all men and we seek the opportunity
to proclaim the gospel to all men. We seek the good of this
world. It's a wicked thing to wish for
the judgment of God to fall upon other people. Those who wish
for it don't know what it is. And it's not something that comes
with pride in people. But it is a boldness. It's a boldness clothed with
humility, isn't it? We are humbled before the throne
of God. And this boldness has nothing
to do with us. This boldness that we have is
purely on the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not pride
about what we've done. It's pride and confidence in
who he is, that we're in him. On that day of judgment, we stand
with him, having been judged, completely and perfectly judged. Every single one of all the sins
of God's people suffered the infinite, eternal wrath of God
on Calvary's tree. To say that somehow we have to
stand there and be embarrassed as God shows a slideshow of our
lives with all the wickedness and sin in it is an affront to
the dignity and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's put
them away forever. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. He bore them. He really did bear
them and he bore them away. He bore them away. He is our peace. He is our peace
with God. He is our saviour from the wrath
of God. He is our mediator that stands
between God and His holiness and us. The wrath of God was
poured out on all of God's people to the complete and perfect satisfaction
of God. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, it is finished, God the Father said, I've seen the travail
of his soul. I've seen the travail of his
soul, and I am satisfied. And that's why the Lord Jesus
Christ, after those three necessary days in that tomb, in that garden,
must be raised from the dead. He must be raised from the dead,
because there is absolutely no reason for the justice of God
to allow him to stay dead. And when he rose, he rose perfectly
and completely with all of his church together. Judgment for
God's people is finished. The day of judgment in the scriptures
is a day which will be an awesome day and a fearsome day, but it's
not a day that God's people anywhere in the scriptures are fearful
of. It's a day of the vindication of our great God when all things
will be revealed, both the perfect righteousness of his people and
the perfect justice in God sending people to hell because of their
own wicked acts and nothing more. He will be seen to be just. We have boldness on that day,
we have confidence on that day. When we don't come on that day,
We don't come on that day with anything other than confidence
in Him. That's the boldness, isn't it?
That's that cheerful courage, because He's done it all. We
don't come there thinking that I must see something in my life
that gives me some evidence. Well, these sins are stopped.
I heard a person say to my horror some years ago, there are times
in my life now where I have no sin. That's not a declaration
of a child of God who has been made to see you sin. We have
people that we have met who told us that they've actually just
got one sin left they're dealing with. They've dealt with all
the others. There is one sin left. One little tiny sin, brothers
and sisters, demands the punishment of God forever in hell. Other
people have so purified their lives by their works of self-sanctification
that they talk about the fact that they just have the odds
slip up. So most of the time, most of the time, they are living
a life of holiness. They are living a good life.
And it's extraordinary when anyone's measuring anything like that
when it comes to moral obedience. Every single person you've ever
met is above average. They're so thankful that Hitler
was so naughty because they're above average. Everyone is above
average. I'm not like those other people over there. I'm not like
those publicans and those harlots. You're going to be saved by God's
grace. You're going to be saved in exactly the way a murderer
and a harlot is saved, or you won't be saved at all. You're
not going to be saved on the basis of anything you've ever
done. Some people think that their salvation is in the things
that they know, that I've come to this knowledge. Now, I was
one of those dirty, filthy, ignorant Armenians, and now I'm a Calvinist,
and I've got myself right. I'm reformed. Don't you dare bring your knowledge
to God on the day of judgment, my friends. Some people think
that they are progressively becoming more holy. Matthew 7, as we read
earlier, speaks of those who bring their goodness to them.
What is this confidence? What is the confidence that God's
people have? It's got nothing to do with me
and my personal obedience. It's got nothing to do with me.
If you go back and just in your memories go back to Acts chapter
10, what was it that these people in that household of Cornelius,
these first Gentile believers, what did they have to bring before
God? Did they have good works? Did
they have anything? Did they have any religious zeal?
What were they told? They were told quite simply,
believe. Whosoever believeth in the name
of the Lord will be saved. They weren't pictures of particularly
righteous and obedient Gentiles that somehow had ripened themselves
to be picked by God. They were pictures of all Gentile
believers, all Gentile children of God. people have their assurance
on the basis of things that they do. If your assurance is on the
basis of something that you have done, and something that other
people think about you, I pray that God would strip it from
you, and strip it from you continually, because it'll raise its ugly
little head, and every time you're put into a position where there's
some strain on you, you'll think, well now, hold on a second, I
can do something now. How often do we fall into that
trap, that now I can do something, now I must do something, Believing,
brothers and sisters, just believe. Look to Him. Look to Him. It's all about Him. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. This word boldness is used many,
many times in the scriptures. I was surprised how many times
it was used, but it's actually It has various meanings and some
of them are helpful in light of what happens to the Lord's
people on the Day of Judgement. In Acts 2.29 there is, men and
brethren, let me freely speak to you. This boldness is a boldness
about the Scriptures. Let me freely speak to you about
the Scriptures. Let me have my confidence in
what the scriptures say, that the Lord Jesus Christ is all
of the scriptures and all of what the scriptures say. Let
me freely, on that day of judgment, there's a freedom in Acts chapter
4 verse 15. I've got the wrong verse. Now they, in verse 13, sorry.
You remember the story, Peter and John are arrested and they're
brought before those religious leaders at Sanhedrin. And now,
verse 13, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, there
they were, these men who just weeks before were cowering and
hiding behind locked doors for fear of their lives and with
good reason. And here they are standing up
before the enemies of God's people. with boldness. That same word,
that confidence, isn't it? Confidence in the fact that God
is with them. That's what these people, they
perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. They marvelled
and took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. If
you've been with Jesus, you'll have this boldness, this confidence. God's servants have a confidence
about the Word of God. They have a confidence about
the presence of God in their lives. God's witnesses are ambassadors. We are just ambassadors. The
message is not mine. I've got no right to change it.
The King has sent the message. He's very happy with the message.
He's very, very happy with the message. He's very happy with
the messenger. He's very happy with the messenger of the message. And we don't have to change it
one little tiny bit. We don't have to be embarrassed
about the message in any way at all. The response to the message
is not my responsibility. God has taken responsibility
for it. Our job is just to deliver it. This is who God is. This
is who you will meet on that day. This is the gospel. All we care about is Him. That's
all they cared about. You can take me and kill me,
says Peter and John, but I'll stand here and declare who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, there
is another reference to this boldness, this confidence that
we have on the Day of Judgment. There is. 2 Corinthians 3 outlines the differences
in life between those who go back to the law and those who
just have a resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 12, he
says, seeing then we have such hope. We have hope. We have such hope. We have hope
in this glory, the glory of this Gospel. We use great plainness
of speech. We have boldness on the Day of
Judgement. We use plainness of speech. All the law does, according to
2 Corinthians 3, is condemn. ministration of condemnation,
verse nine. And now we have a ministration
of righteousness and we use plainness of speech. On that day, we can
use plainness of speech. We can have boldness because
the Lord Jesus is with us. We can speak freely. On that
day, it's all about him and his righteousness. On that day of
judgment, God's children will stand there with boldness. Ephesians
3, 12. mentions the same thing. According
to the eternal purpose, verse 11, which he purposed in Christ
Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence
by faith in him. It's not faith in me or faith
in anything I do, it's faith in him. We have boldness. We have boldness. We have boldness,
we have confidence, we hold fast to that confidence. In Hebrews
4 is that verse, that lovely verse that I love quoting to
you, it talks about It talks about our high priest.
Seeing them we have a great high priest that is passed into the
heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession,
for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities. He is touched, brothers and sisters.
You have never had an infirmity which he is not touched by. but
was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." Because
we have this high priest, this high priest in the heavens, let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Come with
confidence. Come with assurance. Come with
courage. Come boldly unto the throne of
grace. What a glorious thing that now
laid out before God's people is a throne of grace. not a throne
of law, not a throne of works, a throne of grace. From His fullness
we have received grace. We are the recipients of grace
upon grace upon grace. If our eyes could be opened to
see a little tiny bit of it, we would be overwhelmed by the
depths of the grace of God. We may find grace. We may obtain
mercy and find grace in time of need. To go back to 1 John
4, verse 17, here is our love made
perfect. Not just John's love, but the
love of all of God's people. This is love made perfect, that
we have that confidence, we have boldness. and the Day of Judgement,
because as He is, so are we in this world. As He is, how is
He now? How is our Saviour now? As He is, how is He? He's without sin, brothers and
sisters. As He is, so are we in this world. Is He accepted? Is he accepted
by the Father? As he is, so are we in this world. Is he seen by God the Father
as perfectly holy and perfectly righteous? As he is, so are we
in this world. Is he seen to be perfectly faithful? As he is, so are we in this world. Is he the father's delight? Right now, does a father look
upon his son with the most amazing delight and wonder? As he is,
so are we in this world. No wonder, no wonder When these
people believed in Acts chapter 10, no wonder when these people
believed, Peter declares, when they magnified God, can any man
forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received
the Holy Ghost as well as these? And he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord. He commands them to be baptised.
What's baptism? They're two glorious ordinances
in the church, aren't they? They aren't sacraments, as others
call them, that bestow grace. They're ordinances which reveal
the grace of God and they reveal the gospel. They are just pictures,
aren't they? They are pictures of the one
wonderful, extraordinary union between the Lord Jesus Christ
and his people. We are buried with Him in baptism. We are disappeared, our fleshy
life is buried, it's died with Christ and we've been raised
again. Hereby, no wonder baptism is
such a beautiful picture of union, isn't it? We read it earlier
in 1 John 4, and hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in
us because he's given us of his spirit. Baptism is a glorious
picture of the gospel. And when we partake of that which
represents his blood shed and his body broken, it becomes one
with us. It disappears from sight, it's
not seen to the world, but it's seen by God's people through
the eyes of faith. That his life is our life, and
his death has won our life with him forever. and because judgment
has been poured out on him, we no longer have any condemnation. There is now, right now, right
now, where you sit, believing child of God, no condemnation,
no judgment for those who are in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank
you. We thank you for the wonder of your word of promise, Heavenly
Father, and that word that became flesh and dwelt among us. And
Heavenly Father, we pray that you cause us to behold his glory.
the one and only, the glory of the one and only. We would behold
his glory in eternity in his union with his people. We would
behold his glory as the one who made those promises from all
eternity. We would behold his glory, Heavenly
Father, when he came to this earth. We might behold his glory
as he lived before men in perfect holiness and righteousness before
you, fulfilling the law. that we might behold His glory
as He died on Calvary's tree, bearing our sins in His own body. We might behold His glory as
His blood was shed on this earth, that we might go free. Oh, Heavenly
Father, what a Redeemer, what a Saviour Your precious Son is. Father, cause us to know Him,
Cause us to know him to the saving of our souls. Cause us to know
him so that when we take these elements, we might remember him,
our father. For we pray in his name that
you might take your words, our father, and by your spirit's
work, apply them. in faith to the children, your
children. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.