The following sermon was delivered
on Sunday morning, January 20, 2008, at Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. Set your mind upon the things
that are above. These words of the Apostle Paul
to the saints and faithful brethren at Colossae, as they are called
in verse 1 of this letter, these words set your mind upon are
the basis for the language of a brief series of sermons that
I'm bringing to you at the beginning of this new calendar year. Having
already stated in this letter the fact that the believers at
Colossae have died with Christ, chapter 2, verse 13, have been
raised together with Christ Paul now commands them in the virtue
of that vital union with Christ in his death, in his resurrection,
on that basis he now commands them to do something with their
noggins. Because in union with Christ
you have died to the dominion of sin, died to the condemnation
of sin, you have risen to newness of life, life that is to be lived
in Christ and unto Christ. He now commands them in the virtue
and the dynamics of that union to do something deliberately,
consciously, continuously, and that is something to do with
their noggins. They are to set their minds upon
And then he begins to identify some of the objects upon which
they are to set their minds. But I have taken that principle
out of the text. that as believers in Christ,
if we are truly those who belong to Christ, we have both the duty
and the ability to fix our minds upon those objects which God
says ought to be the focus of our mental fixations. We are not to live allowing our
minds to be drawn to objects by external attraction or to
cut channels according to natural internal instincts. Rather, as
an essential element in living the Christian life, we are to
consciously and deliberately direct our minds to those realities
which will result in shaping our lives in such a way as to
glorify God and to give to our Savior the reward of His sufferings. Now, based upon that principle,
I've chosen to bring this brief series of messages entitled,
Council for the New Year, in which each major heading, and
there will be three of them, is this. at the beginning of
and throughout the new year, set your mind upon." I will have
three words of counsel, each beginning with those words, at
the beginning of and throughout this new year, set your mind
upon. The first and foundational word
of counsel was this. at the beginning of and throughout
this new year, set your mind directly upon Jesus Himself. And then I traced out that counsel
along three lines in living the Christian life, in facing the
changes of leadership in this assembly, and in confronting
the unfolding of the events in our nation and in the world throughout
the coming years. This morning I set before you
my second category of counsel, and it is this. At the beginning
of and throughout this new year, set your mind resolutely upon
the certainties of the future. Now and throughout the coming
years, set your mind directly upon Jesus himself, but also
set your mind resolutely, that is, with conscious determination,
upon the certainties of the future. Now, some of you may already
be thinking, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. How can you speak of
fixing our minds on the certainties of the future when the Bible
says Boast not yourself of tomorrow, for you do not know what shall
be on the morrow." Proverbs 27.1. Or James chapter 4. Come now,
you that say, tomorrow, today, the next day, we'll do this and
this, where James says, you do not know what shall be on the
morrow. Yes, it is true. The Bible states
it in our experience, illustrates and confirms it, that with respect
to the many variables that may become factors in our future,
we do not know what our tomorrows will bring or that we will have
singular A tomorrow. Some of us may be dead before
midnight tonight. And yet I am saying to you that
it is right for us as the people of God to have a resolute determination
to fix our mind upon the certainties of the future. Yes, with regard
to the many particulars that will make up our lives should
God spare us and give us life for one tomorrow or many tomorrows,
we do not know. There are no certainties, but,
and this is the all-important but, there are aspects of our
future as the children of God, as God's justified, adopted,
blood-bought, spirit-indwelled, true disciples of Christ that
are as much a certainty in our future as though they were already
a part of our past. You can't go back and undo or
alter the past. It's fixed forever. And I am
saying, the Bible reveals that for the child of God, there are
certainties of the future that are just as certain as though
they were a part of our past. And furthermore, as we shall
see from the Scripture, The Bible reveals that the true children
of God only live as they ought to live in the present when their
lives in the present are shaped by the certainties of the future. Now let that sink in. It is one
of the most profoundly simple and yet so difficult to grasp
and maintain principles of the Christian life. The true children
of God only live as they ought to live in the present when their
lives are shaped, not occasionally touched by, occasionally influenced
by a beam from, but their lives are shaped, they feel the constant
molding pressure of the certainties of the future. And to the extent
that you grasp by faith and live by principle under the constant
pressure of the certainties of the future you will live as you
ought to live in the present. And therefore, my counsel to
you, as it is to my own heart at the beginning of this new
year, is that you and I set our minds resolutely upon the certainties
of the future, not as a means of escape from the present, but
that we may live in the present as we ought to live. For if your
life this morning is not being shaped in your values, in your
goals, in your ambitions, in your joys, in your disappointments
by the certainties of the future, it's because you're either not
a Christian or you are a horribly stunted Christian as to true,
vital growth in grace. Now, in opening up and applying
this word of counsel, I hope to address this morning three
specific elements of the future certainties that ought to mold
and shape our lives in the present. Each one of the three clusters
around the certainty of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory
and in power. So, three strands of counsel
growing out of this exhortation. Now, in this month of January,
seeking by the turn of the calendar to come afresh to the awareness
of the swift passing of time, that you and I as God's people
set our minds resolutely upon these certainties of the future. Strand number one, it is certain
that at God's appointed time, Jesus will return in glory and
power to complete His work of salvation in me and in all of
His people. Set your mind resolutely upon
that certainty of the future, which is this, at an appointed
time. Jesus will return in glory and
power to complete His work of salvation in me. I want you to
say that as a child of God and in all of His people. The return of Jesus, what we
call His second coming, is an absolute certainty of the future. Whatever may occur in us individually,
in the world around us, in the tumult of the nations, a moment
is coming in the course of human history that the words of the
angels to the gawking disciples there in Galilee will be fulfilled. You remember in Acts chapter
1, we are told that after telling the disciples that the Spirit
of God would come upon them and they would be His witnesses to
the ends of the earth, He begins to elevate in their very sight. And as He is taken up from them
into heaven and they stand gazing, two men stand by them in white
apparel and say, You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus. who is taken up from you into
heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go
into heaven. His ascension into heaven was
bodily. It was visible. It was not an
internal, subjective, religious experience. It was an objective,
crassly, physical, manifest act of God of receiving His Son back
into the third heavens. And the moment is coming. It
is a certainty of our futurity when that word of these two bright
ones, angels, they are not called angels, men in white apparel. We assume they were angels. This
Jesus shall come. The words of Revelation 1-7 will
be fulfilled at a moment in human history. Behold, He comes, and
every eye shall see Him. Every eye shall see Him. Whatever
joys, whatever sorrows, whatever delights, whatever disappointments,
whatever surprises will yet unfold in our individual and corporate
and world history, a moment is coming, marked out in the mind
and will of God, when the voice of the archangel shall be heard. when the trump of God in its
mighty blast will thunder through the entire universe, and upon
clouds of glory, the exalted risen Christ will return to earth. And among the many things He
will do at His coming, none is more precious than the completion
of His salvation in the experience of each and every one of His
own. He comes to complete the salvation
that He has begun in us. The Scripture tells us what we
now have of His salvation is glorious Justification, a declaration
of the court of heaven that Almighty God is the universal and righteous
judge has no complaint against me. In my surety and substitute,
the law has been perfectly kept as to the demands of its precepts. All of the thunders of God's
righteousness and holiness and justice against my breaches of
the law have been swallowed up in the death of Christ. And I
am justified. My sins are pardoned. I'm accepted
as righteous. I'm adopted as His Son. I'm reconciled. I have access to His heart and
to His throne, the gift of the Holy Spirit. You know what God
says of all that we already have? He says it's just a down payment.
It's just the earnest. It's just the first fruit. In
the vast field of what God's prepared for you and me, He's
just got an armful. That's all you've got right now.
First fruits. But He's going to complete it
when He returns. And what will the completion
look like for you, for me, for all of His people? Well, the
best answer is given to us in two texts of Scripture familiar
to many of you. Romans 8 and verse 29. whom he
did foreknow, that is, those upon whom he had set his distinguishing
love and saving purpose, whom he foreknew, he also foreordained
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, Jesus, might
be the firstborn, the chief among many brethren. Whom he foreordained,
then he also called. That's the beginning. Whom he
called, he justified. Part of the beginning. Whom he
justified, then he also glorified. That's the completion. And when
he returns, he comes, among other things, to complete that salvation
in all of his own. And what will it look like? Paul
tells us here in Romans It will look like the glorified Jesus. He will be first born among His
many brethren. And then the familiar passage
of 1 John 3, 1-3, Beloved now are we the sons of God, but it
does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him. for we shall see him as
he is. And what will that mean in the
concrete? It will mean nothing less than we will have spirits,
if we are alive it is coming, that are immediately totally
made perfectly holy and we will be given glorified bodies if
our bodies are in the grave, resurrected glorified bodies
so that when his work of salvation is complete we will be those
with perfectly holy spirits or souls inhabiting utterly, perfectly
deathless bodies. That's glorification. And when He does that work in
us individually and in all of His saints together and corporately,
then Jesus has His wedding day. For Ephesians 5 says he loved
the church and gave himself for the church that he might eventually
do what? Present the church to himself
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That's a certainty
of the future. As surely as you sit here this
morning, appearing in the clothes that you put on in your bedroom
or bathroom, with the facial hair or the clean-shaven face,
with whatever makeup, whatever you are sitting here now, as
surely as the composite that is there in the pew, visible
to all, a moment is coming in human history, God's history,
your history and mine, when Christ will come and He will complete
the work of His saving grace and power in us and in all of
His people. But you said, Pastor, your whole
thesis is that it's the certainties of the future that are to mold
and shape the way we live in the present. What's the connection? Well, let me tease out just a
few of them. If you're a true Christian this
morning, whatever else is true of you, I can tell you this,
your greatest burden is that though you are a forgiven sinner,
you still sin. That's your greatest burden in
life. You still sin, and you still commit the same sins in
the same area, time after time, And you don't find it difficult,
periodically, to enter into the cry of the apostle-wretched man
that I am. Will I ever learn? Here's a certainty of the future.
A moment is coming when I will never, never, never again have
to blush in the presence of my God, saying, Oh God, I thought
that vile thought again. I experienced that wretched rising
of a spirit of pride again. O Lord, I shot out that nasty,
cutting word again. I allowed my eyes to be the inlet
of vile lust again. I shot back that snotty word
to my husband again. I indulged that insensitive act
to my wife again. Are you with me? You feel that? Child of God, lift up your hand.
It ain't going to be that way forever. He's coming, and He's
coming to complete His work of salvation in you. He's antsy
for His wedding day, and He's going to have it, and He's going
to have a bride without spot, without wrinkle, or any such
thing. In your struggle with sin, fix
your mind upon this certainty of the future. Jesus will come
in power and glory to complete His work of salvation in me and
in all His people. Are you weary with bodily infirmities? Paul said, We that are in this
tabernacle do groan. Though some of you may be in
the flush of your youth and occasionally there's a broken bone or a decaying
tooth, you don't know the burden of your body. Your body right
now in great measure is a bounding mass of bone and muscle and sinew
and tissue to carry out the enthusiasm and the vibrancy of your youthful
spirit, but a time's coming when piece by piece the seeds that
will eventually take you to the worms, they sprout. They sprout
and they sprout and they sprout and they sprout until there's
not a morning when your first waking consciousness, for some
of it's, thank you, Lord, for my hearing aids. Literally. And you put your ears in. And then you reach and put your
eyes on. For some of you, you reach to
the chopper hopper and put your teeth in. And then you go to the breakfast
table and you take out this medicine that you need to take for this,
and that for that, and that for the other. And a damp day comes
and you feel the creaking in your joints. Need I go on? I'm
not going to be that way forever. Why? Because of this certainty
of the future, Jesus will come, and at His coming, He's going
to give to all of His saints at one and the same time, the
living saints and those whom He raises from the dead. He's
going to give them what Paul calls in Philippians, bodies
fashioned after the body of His glory, with capacities that go
far beyond our wildest imaginations. No wonder Peter says in the first
imperative of 1 Peter, set your hope perfectly on the what? On
the grace that is to be brought to you at the coming of our Lord
Jesus. He's coming to bring grace to
me in dimensions that He has not given me here and now. His grace has given me fully
reversible justification, an inviolable status as an adopted
son or daughter, the gift of the indwelling Spirit, exceeding
great in precious promises. We are wealthy now, yes, but
there is abundance of grace that will be given at the coming of
the Lord Jesus. no more struggles with sin, no
more struggles with bodily infirmities, no more grief, crushing, crippling,
numbing grief. As you hold a loved one who breathes
her last, as you stand by the open hole in the ground, as you
try to suck some measure a stability in your soul from the embraces
and the tender words of your brothers and sisters. And though
Paul says, I write that you sorrow not as those who have no hope,
he doesn't say that you sorrow not. What is it that is to be
the stuff of our comforting one another? He says these words.
What words? This I say to you by the word
of the Lord. that we who are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or go before those
that sleep. For, he says, this is the word
of God, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever
be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. You see, my present ability to
deal with the stinging, paralyzing, horrible, pale death is the certainty
of the future. That's the certainty. Christ
will come and complete His salvation in me and in all of His people. One has said, if we could see
one another now, as we shall be the moment after Christ returns,
we'd find it hard to resist the temptation to fall down and worship
one another as God. We will always be but creatures,
but creatures perfected inwardly and outwardly, not deified, but
coming into levels of humanity that we've never experienced. You see, you live with that reality
of the future as a mental fixation through all the changes and vicissitudes
of life from getting up in the morning and having to put in
your ears, to pillowing your head at night and having to confess
sin and feeling the sting and the grief and the pain of your
sin. And you say, Lord, it will not
always be this way. You're coming again. And you're
going to complete the salvation that you so graciously began
in me. But then I want to tease out a second strand. And it is
this, it is certain that at God's appointed time, Jesus shall return
and perform his work as the appointed judge of all mankind, including
me. It is certain that at God's appointed
time, Jesus shall return and perform his work as the appointed
judge of all mankind, including me. On the eve of his greatest work
on earth, his crucifixion, subsequent resurrection, in connection with
his first coming, Jesus could in his priestly prayer, as it's
called in John 17, pray these words, John 17 and verse 4. I have glorified you on the earth,
having accomplished the work which you have given me to do."
Anticipating that he will die, that he will rise from the dead
all on earth, he can say, I've glorified you, Father. I've accomplished
all of the work that I was to accomplish while on earth. There's
another great work that was assigned to Jesus that He did not perform
in His days on earth. And that work is the work of
universal judgment, a work that is reserved for His second coming. And Jesus is conscious that that's
a work that's been assigned to Him in John chapter 5. He says,
John 5, 22 and 23, neither does the Father judge any man. He
has given all judgment unto the Son, that all may honor the Son
even as they honor the Father. And then he goes on to say, the
hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear His
voice and come forth. They will come forth. As He executes
judgment, verse 27, He gave Him authority to execute judgment. Some will come forth to a resurrection
of life, a judgment that will issue in life. and others a judgment
that will issue in damnation. He has a work yet to do, and
this was a dominant note in the apostolic preaching. Paul could
say, and Peter, in Acts chapter 10, preaching in the household
of Cornelius, and in verse 42, and he, God, charged us to preach unto the
people and testify that this is He who is ordained of God
to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him bear all the
prophets witness. He says we've been charged by
God to preach to the world. Jesus still has a mighty work
yet to accomplish. All the work he was to accomplish
while on earth, he fully accomplished, and he was conscious of that.
But there is yet another great work. The Apostle Paul preached
that into the teeth of skeptical philosophers at the Areopagus.
He said, God has appointed a day, Act 1730, in which he will judge
the world by that man whom he hath ordained. and has given
assurance unto all in that He raised Him from the dead. And
I am saying as we think of the things of the certain futurities
that we are to fix our minds upon, I am urging you to fix
your mind upon this certainty that Jesus shall return and perform
His work as the appointed Judge including me. Matthew 25, 31,
and 32, Jesus' own words, conscious that this is a work he will yet
accomplish. But when the Son of Man shall
come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He
sit on the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered
all the nations, and He shall separate them one from another,
as the shepherds separate sheep from the goats. And the issue
of this is found in verse 46, These shall go away into eternal
punishment, all whom he infallibly designates as goats, but the
righteous into eternal life. This is why the Apostle Paul
could state in 2 Corinthians 5.10, we must all, believers
as well as unbelievers, we must all be made manifested before
the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive the things
done in the body, whether good or bad. Now hear me carefully.
I painstakingly sought to expound the doctrine of justification
by faith apart from the works of the law, week after week,
text after text. I am not taking back one word,
but hear me carefully. As clearly as the Bible teaches
that our justification is by faith alone without the works
of the law, the Bible teaches with equal clarity our judgment
before Christ will be based upon our works. And if we don't hold
those two truths with equal tenacity, we end up not just with theological
and theoretical error or heresy, we end up with personal disaster. If you seek to find acceptance
with God and on any other basis than the perfect righteousness
of Christ, That robe that is woven upon the loom of his life
of obedience and his death under the curse of God, you are engaged
in an exercise of damning futility. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works. We must insist with every fiber
of our being, Thy works, not mine, O Christ, are the ground
of my acceptance. With equal clarity and conviction,
when I stand before the exalted Christ, when He returns and sits
on the throne of His glory, I will be publicly judged, not for my
profession, but by my works. By my works. Why? Because my works will be the
validation of who I really am. And because everyone whom he
justifies, he regenerates and sanctifies, my works will either
vindicate and validate the reality of my union with Christ in life-transforming
power, or they'll expose me for being nothing but a mere empty
professor if I profess anything of attachment to Christ at all. And so, The certainty of the
future is to exert its immediate, constant pressure upon my present,
and I will only live as I ought in the present if I am deeply
persuaded and shape every detail of my life by this fact. Jesus
shall return not only to complete His work of salvation in me,
but to judge me according to my works." Now, once again, the Word of
God makes it plain that this certain assured fact is to exert
a powerful influence upon me. How? Well, let me trace out several
answers to that question. Number one, when our minds are
fixed on the certainty of our future judgment, It will produce
a healthy sobriety and a godly seriousness to our entire lifestyle. And now I'm going to take you
to a text that proves that incontrovertibly. I'm saying that the Christian
who lives each day and throughout the day in the conviction that
a moment is coming when my Lord will return, not only to complete
His work of salvation in me, but that I shall stand before
Him and be judged according to my works. It will have a profound
effect, not the least of which in producing in me a healthy
sobriety and a godly seriousness in my whole lifestyle. Turn to
1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1. Those of you who were here when
I gave a detailed exposition of this letter will remember
that after the general greeting, Peter gets no commands, no exhortations,
no rebukes. Verses 3 to 12 are all pure honey. He is blessing God for everything
the humblest believer possesses in Christ. Then he says, verse
13, Wherefore, in the light of all you have in Christ, girding
up the loins of your mind, you see what he's saying? Your mind
is like the flowing garb of a Middle Easterner. It's got lots of foals
that if you tried to run, you could stumble over them, so they
would gather them together and tie them with their sash. He
says your mind is like that flowing Middle Eastern garb. It's got
foals that want to go here and there and hide this and that.
Gather them all together with conscious mental energy girding
up the loins of your mind. Be sober. Be in touch with reality. and set your hope perfectly on
the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. That was my first point. There
is a certain futurity. Christ will come. He will be
revealed from heaven, and grace will be brought to you. But what
is to be joined to that as children of obedience? not fashioning
yourselves according to your formal lust in the time of your
ignorance, but like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves
holy in all manner of living, in your entire lifestyle. from the moment you wake to what
you put on, to how you appear, to how you carry yourself, how
you speak, how you relate to husband, wife, to children, to
work associates, classmates, how you drive, how you respond
to this and that and the other. In all manner of living, you
are to have a conscious mental concentration and to be a child
of obedience fashioning myself not by the pressures of the world
around me or my past habits or my past perspectives. No, they
are not to shape my life. God in His holiness is my pattern. I am to be holy as He is holy. Now verse 17, And if you call
on Him as Father, assuming that all of these redeemed ones do
pray, they do call on God as Father, whom without respect
of persons judges, I'm sorry, who without respect of persons
judges according to each man's work. The father upon whom you
call as father is also the judge who will administer his judgment
through his son, and he won't respect persons, and he won't
be impressed with religious blabber. What is that to produce in you
and in me? Look at the text. Look at it. What does it say? He says that
we are to pass the time of our sojourning in fear. Fear that I'll be sent to hell?
No. Look at the next verse. Knowing
that you were redeemed with precious blood. This fear is not in any
way an enemy of assurance, of forgiveness, confidence of acceptance,
expectation of grace to be brought to me at the coming of Jesus. It's just another vital dimension
of being a real Christian. And so I say, if we wake up in
the morning with this certain futurity casting its tentacles
back upon us, wrapping around us what I say, what I do, how
I dress. how I speak, what I listen to
on my CD in the car, what I watch with my eyeballs, what I punch
out on my text messaging, the time I spend in front of my computer,
the dribble that I will spill out and I will receive, my friends,
all manner of living. Past the time of your sojourning
in fear, that is, have a healthy sobriety and godly seriousness
about the whole of life. I'm going to bear my heart. You
know what one of the most grievous things to me among so many young
men I see in our day? They don't want to grow up. They
still want to play games into their twenties. They want to
have fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. I thank God. He thrust upon me
manly duties and responsibilities as a teenager. I don't feel cheated. I feel honored. Why is it, quote,
one of my hobbies? It's because of what I see and
what I hear and what I observe. I hear some of the younger people
say, well, I don't read too much Bible. I'd like to face anyone
who said that and sit down and say, quote the 66 books of the
Bible to me without a mistake. What's the plot line from Genesis
to Revelation? What's the sum and substance
of the book of Judges? What is the theme of the book
of James? What is the outline? When you
can answer all those things like that, then you say, well, I really
know my Bible well enough. You think you're going to make
it in this degenerate age just with little drips and drabs of
your Bible and shallow, frothy, religious fun? You're not going
to make it. And when you stand before your
judge, what will you say? When he brings the evidence,
not that you were pursuing universal holiness, passing the time of
your sojourning in fear, but living like a worldling for the
immediate, for the present, whatever that may mean in the sphere of
your interest. You see how practical this is
when I say the healthy Christian is the one who lives in the present
with his mind fixed upon the certainties of the future. Let me give you another avenue
in which this is demonstrated. When our minds are set on the
certainty of a future judgment, it will produce an earnest and
persevering commitment to a life of universal holiness. It's interesting
that in the book of Romans, where Paul, along with the book of
Galatians, gives the clearest statements of justification by
faith apart from works, When he's dealing with judgment, he's
always careful to underscore that judgment is according to
works. Who's going to heaven? Well, according to Romans, only
those who are justified by faith. But then we could say, with equal
conviction, only those who persevere in a serious pursuit of universal
holiness. Look at Romans chapter 2. He's not teaching the ground
of our acceptance, but he's describing the accepted ones. Romans 2,
after speaking of the wrath of God upon the impenitent, verse
6, this God who will render to every man according to his works,
now listen, to them who by patience or steadfastness or perseverance
in well-doing Seek for glory and honor and in corruption eternal
life. Who will have eternal life? Those
who are justified by faith is the answer of Romans 4 and 5
and 8. Here the answer is those who
by steadfastness or perseverance in doing well are seeking for
glory and honor in corruption. They will have eternal life.
And you see the day of judgment is God's public vindication that
you were the real thing. That's why in Matthew 25 people
get hung up when he says, look, you sheep, you visited me, you
fed me, you clothed me. Then he shall say to them, Come,
you blessed, enter the kingdom prepared for you. Is Jesus saying
they enter the kingdom because they visited people in prison? Because they clothed the needy
and fed the hungry? No. He's bringing forth the works
that validate they weren't living unto themselves. that they were
evangelical law keepers seeking practically to love their neighbors
as themselves. It's in that way that we, the
people of God, will be judged according to our works. The sheep will manifest the disposition
of sheep in this life, so in the day of judgment, Jesus can
set it forth before the entire moral universe. And then further,
when our minds are set on the certainty of our future judgment,
it will not only produce a healthy sobriety and godly seriousness,
it will not only give us an earnest passion for universal holiness,
but thirdly, this conviction will liberate us from a crippling
concern concerning men's judgment of us. It will deliver us from
a crippling concern of men's judgment of us. Turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4. The Corinthians were experts
in evaluating which preacher was at the top of the list and
lining up behind them, and Paul is dealing with that carnal folly. And in the midst of that, notice
what he says in verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 4. But with me it is a very small
thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I judge, that is, I do not
pass final sentence on myself. For I know nothing against myself. In other words, Paul is saying
at this moment when I write, I have a good conscience. that
I am not in any way knowingly, willfully violating the will
of my God. I know nothing against myself
yet. Am I not hereby justified? I am not hereby eventually to
be vindicated. He that judges me is the Lord. Wherefore, judge nothing before
the time until the Lord come, who will both bring to light
the hidden things of darkness make manifest the counsels of
the hearts, and now notice this last part, it's amazing, then
shall each man have his praise from God. I believe Paul's reference
is very focused and limited. He's not saying that in every
case of everyone standing in the judgment, when God makes
plain the dark things, the hidden things of darkness and the counsels
of the heart, because according to Romans 2.16, that's going
to be a death knell for some people whose greatest sins were
the sins of their thoughts. And Paul says, in the day when
God shall judge the secrets of the heart, or thoughts, according
to my gospel. In the context, Paul is saying,
you think you know what I am as a servant of God. You don't.
You do not know the inner yearnings I have for you in godly Christ-infused
love. You do not know the longings
and the yearnings of my heart towards you in Christ. There
are secret yearnings and longings that you know nothing about.
You think you can judge me by a few little external elements
that you see. You don't really know me. But
a day is coming when God will take every one of His true servants,
and He will bring out, according to His perfect knowledge, even
the hidden things of the yearnings of their hearts that validate
they were faithful servants, then shall each man have his
praise from God. Who is each man, each true man,
each true servant of Christ, each true, upright, godly servant
of the Lord Jesus, no matter how he may be perceived by others? And so Paul can say in the light
of this, I know God's day of hanging out the wash is coming,
and I don't fear it. It will be the day of my praise
from God. It's a very little thing with
me. If you praise me or curse me, I don't answer to you. You see how practical is this
fixation of the mind upon the certainty of the future? It was very, very plain to the
apostle in his own ministry, and then when he charges his
dear spiritual son How does he charge him? What are his last
words to this younger servant of Christ? What are the words
Paul wants this young man to remember? 2 Timothy 4 verse 1. I charge you, Timothy, in the
sight of God and of Christ Jesus. And it's as though Timothy says,
As you charge me, and I'm ready to receive your final charge,
in what capacity should I think of my Savior, the Lord Jesus?
As you charge me, in what reference point should I see that charge
placed? Listen to what the Apostle writes.
I charge you in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who
loved you and died for you? No. I charge you in the sight
of God and of Christ Jesus who is empowering. No. I charge you
in the sight of God and Christ Jesus who shall judge the living
and the dead. And by His appearing and His
kingdom, preach the word. Timothy, preach with that certainty
etching its shadow over your pulpit every time you stand. There is no passage that I more
frequently pray over and pray in, Lord's Day morning after
Lord's Day morning, more frequently than this passage. The shadow
of that day is on this pulpit. The stewardship of being faithful
to your souls now faithful to your souls as much as lies in
me with regard to the future of this assembly, my fears for
the influences of this present world system upon you who are
part of the rising generation. These things are not a whip with
which I try to scourge you, but a loving expression of desire
that by the grace of God you will stand in having done all
to stand. How are we going to maintain
a godly disposition if the present cynicism and marginalizing of
true Christians becomes open persecution? Here again, it's
the certainty of the coming day that is the means to keep us
stable. That's why Paul could say in
Romans 12, 19, Avenge not yourself. Give place to the wrath of God. Vengeance is mine. I will repay,
saith the Lord. Or what he says to the Thessalonians
in 2 Thessalonians 1, knowing that they were birthed in suffering
and they continue to suffer. Notice what he says. in 2 Thessalonians
1.7, and to you that are afflicted, rest with us at the revelation
of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His power,
inflaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God and
obey not the gospel, who shall be punished with eternal destruction. What does he say? He's saying
you're living in the present, you Thessalonians, and you're
afflicted and pressured and opposed by unbelieving sinners. Let that certain futurity fill
your mind. The moment is coming. when your
Lord is going to break through the clouds, not only to complete
His work of salvation in you, to judge you and vindicate before
the whole assembled moral universe that you were to real deal by
my grace and reward you for the very things my grace worked in
you. But in that day, all of your
enemies and mine, I will take vengeance upon them. Take comfort. Take comfort. Payday is coming. and God will render to His enemies
and yours their just dessert. And then one last way, this conviction,
this certain persuasion of this futurity that you and I will
stand before Him in judgment, it will keep us from simply judging
one another. Remember how Paul emphasized
that with regard to matters of liberty Not matters of essential
morality, but true liberty. Shall I keep a holy day or not? Shall I eat kosher food or not? It had nothing to do with shall
I watch salacious movies and shall I listen to unclean music
with lyrics that are suggestive. That's not liberty, folks. That
is license. You're not at liberty to sin
with your eyes, with your ears. I'm weary of Christian liberty
being stretched to justify immorality. That which is against the law
of God is immorality. But don't judge on matters that
are true liberty. Why? Who are you to judge another
man's servant? To his own master he shall stand
or fall. And then when James writes to
those who were guilty of this, he says, judge not. Why? The
judge stands at the door. He's going to come and do his
work. Don't try to do it for him. You see, when I look upon
my brothers as those whom Christ will judge, and remember, a moment
is coming when he shall return and we shall all be made manifest
before the judgmency of Christ. then it's a check upon me not
to usurp his place and to pass judgment. Now that does not mean
I will not, if I discern a brother overcome in a fault, a sin, Galatians
1, I will seek to restore him. Or it doesn't mean I will not
exhort, if I see dangerous tendencies, exhort one another while it's
called a day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. All of those texts have their
proper place, but when I take the place where I have inconclusive
or insufficient facts to make a judgment, and I'm quick to
make that judgment and then enter in and judge motives, I'm usurping
his place. And when I live in the consciousness
that he will return, he will judge his servants, it's a reminder
to me to leave to him his proper work. Well, I don't have time
to trace out the third strand, and it is this. I'll only mention
it. It is certain that at God's appointed time, Jesus shall return
and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. 2 Peter 3,
Romans 8, Revelation 19 and 20. And when that reality grips me,
then you see, I'm not ready to run off and hide in a cave. in
the light of the horrible, tumultuous mess this world is in. With any
sensitivity to what is going on around us in our own nation
and in the world internationally, you want to run, you want to
hide, you want to despair. But when I have this deep, present
fixation of mind on the fact, Jesus shall return. And with
that return will not only complete His work of salvation in me and
not only take His rightful place as judge of the world, including
me, but He will usher in the new heavens and the new earth
wherein dwells nothing but righteousness. I can pick up my head and look
to God for grace to be light and salt and to be a faithful
witness and servant of God in my own generation. Well, that's
two-thirds of my second counsel to you as we come into this new
year. I plead with you, my brothers
and sisters, fix your mind directly upon Jesus as you live the Christian
life, as together we work through the transitions in our life together
in the coming year. Fix your eyes upon Him in all
of these things. And secondly, set your mind upon
the future, the certain return of the Lord Jesus and all that
that will mean to us and to this world in which we live. Let's
pray. Our Father, We confess that it
is so easy to become earthbound, sight and sense bound, and we
long to be able to say with the Apostle that we do not walk by
sight but by faith, and with the Apostle to say we do not
look upon the things that are seen but on the things that are
not seen. For the things that are seen
are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. We pray that you would make us
as a people, those who by your grace are enabled to fix our
minds upon those things that will enable us to live in the
present as we ought, and in that final day to stand before you
and to hear the words Well done, good and faithful servant, O
Lord. Make it so, for Your glory we
pray, Amen.